continues from part eight
Part 9: The Last Flight
“Are you serious?!” Gromet yelled, glancing behind him, only to pick up speed as he saw the bandages enveloping the street behind them. Already the tower itself had been wrapped up, and within a few minutes, so would the entire city around it. If they weren’t fast enough, their group would join it as well. Vikki and Gromet ran, feet pounding the sidewalk as they fought to outrun the bandages giving chase. Yet, no matter how fast they went, the bandages were faster, and they closed the gap with each footstep, getting dangerously close to Quinn and the others. “Over there!” Vikki shouted, running toward an abandoned jeep. Gromet changed course and followed. Reaching the jeep, Vikki leapt into the driver’s seat, dumping Quinn in the back. “Hey!” Quinn shouted as she was banged about on the seat and support beams. “Sorry,” Vikki said, searching for the keys. Finding a spare set, she rammed them into the ignition and turned, causing the engine to turn over. Slamming the accelerator to the floor, Vikki sent the jeep tearing down the street, Gromet just barely managing to hold on. “Where are we going?!” he shouted. “Anywhere but here!” Vikki shouted, swerving to avoid several abandoned cars in the road before them. “You got any ideas?” “The airport!” Quinn said, struggling to wiggle herself off the floor. “We can go faster in the air than we can here!” Vikki spun the wheel, sending them towards the freeway. “Works for me.” The jeep shot up the onramp and onto the freeway, managing to gain some speed. Behind them all, the city was completely wrapped up as the bandages spread further, spreading out into the countryside, and even into the sea. But nobody was looking back; all eyes were focused on the road ahead, and the airport in the distance. “You have a plane?” Vikki asked. “No,” Quinn admitted. “Then what the heck are you going to do?” Gromet asked. “Hijack a jetliner?” “It’s worth a shot.” “But if we fail, we’ll be mummified like everything else!” “We have to try!” Quinn said. “We don’t have a choice!” Above, the sky rumbled, and through the thunder, Quinn thought she could hear the universe itself. It was a dreadful sound of tearing and gears being torn apart. “Keep going!” she yelled at Vikki. Shifting gears, Vikki went even faster. “And can someone get me out of this damn thing?!” Quinn said, both anger and fear giving her the strength to fight against her sleepsack. Behind them, the bandages surged down the freeway like a tidal wave, eager to overtake and engulf them all. But by some miracle, Vikki managed to maneuver the jeep past the stalled and abandoned vehicles in their path. Once, she glanced the side of a truck, nearly overturning them, but she managed to spin them around, and regain control, speeding away as the truck was enveloped and wrapped up. They reached the offramp and shot down, crashing through the three fences blocking the public from the runways, and shot across. There were numerous planes on the runways, ranging from small, one-person planes, to massive 747s. “Which one?” Vikki shouted. “That one!” Quinn said, pointing her head towards a corporate jet. It was medium sized, the personal luxury transport for a CEO long since mummified, and stood on the tarmac, just waiting for someone to take command. And by sheer luck, the doors leading inside were open. Vikki shot towards the jet, then slammed on the brakes as they got close, bringing them to a stop just outside the ramp. Not bothering to turn off the engine, she leapt out and grabbed Quinn, then ran to the jet, Gromet in tow. Behind them, the bandages reached the offramp, and started towards the terminal. Once Gromet had gotten into the jet, he slammed a button, bringing up the boarding ramp. “Please tell me one of you knows how to fly a jet!” he said. “No,” Vikki said, putting a still sacked Quinn into one of the luxurious seats, before running to the cockpit. “Still, cant be too difficult, right? Just start the engines, go really fast, and take off.” Plopping down in the pilot’s seat, she started flicking switches, hoping that one of them would get them going. Already, the terminal was starting to be wrapped, and though it’s larger mass would take the bandages longer to envelop, it wouldn’t be long before the runways and planes would start being claimed too. Vikki didn’t know if the plane would protect them from being wrapped, but she had no desire to find out. “Hurry!” Gromet said, flicking switches of his own. “I’m trying!” Slamming her fist on one of the buttons, the engines roared to life, and the jet jerked as it started to move across the runway. “Got it!” Vikki said, pulling the seat’s harness across herself. “Go strap Quinn in!” As Vikki steered the jet towards the longest runway, Gromet reached Quinn’s seat, and grabbed the seat belts, buckling her down so that she couldn’t move. In any other situation, being in bondage while on an airplane would have been an erotic thrill, but here, it only reinforced Quinn’s helplessness. All she could do was stare out the window, and pray that the others could get the jet up in time. “All right, hang on!” Vikki shouted as she spun the steering wheel. “Here we go!” Grabbing the accelerator, she pushed it to maximum speed. With a thunderous roar, the engines shoved the plane down the runway, the speedometer steadily increasing as they gained speed. Yet, the bandages that now swarmed across the planes and runways seemed to sense that the plane was taking off, for they increased speed as well, aiming to catch the jet. “Go faster!” Quinn shouted, peering out the window. “Faster, faster, faster!” Vikki kept a firm hand on the steering wheel, trying to get them to flying speed. “Come on!” Gromet said, struggling into the copilot’s seat. “Get us up!” “We’re not going fast enough!” Gromet grabbed the wheel. “The fuck we are!” With a yank, he sent the jet into the air. As Vikki had feared, their speed wasn’t enough. But somehow, they managed to stay airborne. The engines struggled, but their speed continued to increase, until they finally managed to speed away from the airport, leaving it behind to be mummified, along with the buildings, the city, and the nearby forests. For a moment, all was still inside the cockpit. The adrenaline surging through everyone’s systems kept them on edge, too tense to relax at their escape. It was Quinn who broke the silence. “Well, now that we’re all airborne and safe,” she said. “Can someone finally get me out of this?!” Glad for the distraction, Vikki managed to switch on the autopilot, went into the back, and undid the straps and zippers on the sleepsack, finally releasing Quinn, who quickly undid the seatbelts, and emerged from the neoprene, tossing the thing towards the back of the jet in disgust. “Finally!” She said. “If I never see one of those things again, it’ll be too soon.” “We’ve got problems!” Gromet called from the cockpit. Quinn went up, Vikki behind her. “What?” Gromet pointed out the windows. They all looked out to the ground far below. They had risen fast enough to get a vantage point that allowed them to see for hundreds of miles, and right before their eyes, the ground was being covered in white, as mile after mile was covered over and sealed within the wrappings Targonamey had unleashed. No matter the terrain, the bandages continued on, mummifying everything in it’s path: buildings, trees, animals, roads, and even rivers. At it’s speed, it would be a matter of minutes before everything below them was covered up. “So what do we do now?” Gromet said. Quinn went to Vikki, pulled out the sealed scroll Xesex had given her. “This thing… do any of you recognize it?” Vikki and Gromet looked it over, shook their heads.
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