To The End
Chapter 9
When we exited the cabin with our dirty buckets for the last time, we saw Ray and Gerard sitting in the sand with water bottles, and Frank and Charlotte's bonfire was now a towering inferno. Bob and Mikey had attached one of the cargo nets to the door of the upper level as a ladder. Bob, Mikey, Frank and Charlotte now each had an empty suitcase on wheels, using it to fill the bottom level with sand. Victoria and Amanda were near the tree line, surrounded by piles, and going through still more bags. Zara and I emptied the buckets, and grabbed some dish soap, heading for the ocean, and began to scrub the buckets clean. Once we were finished, we grabbed bottles of water ourselves, and sank down into the sand beside Gerard and Ray.
"It's clean," Zara said as she sat.
"No," I said. "It's REALLY clean."
"We've been fiddling with the seats," Gerard said. "They recline all the way just like they did when they were attached, and if we place a suitcase under the head and under the feet, they should be stable."
"Nice," said Zara appreciatively.
"I was thinking too. Each of those overhead compartments have a divider in the middle, I think for like support or something. But anyway, I say we each get one half to store our stuff, and we use the extra one to store the medical supplies. Not only that, but the doorways that went to the cockpit and to the coach cabin are still there, we could cut off a section of the chutes, and just cover those doorways," I said.
"Good idea," said Ray. "Mikey and Bob tried to figure out how we'd get up onto the top of the plane to attach it, and they just couldn't figure anything out. They did manage to make a ladder though, and it's strong enough to hold both of them together, so we should be good."
"Sweet!" I said. "And then we can pull it up at night, and close the door, and nothing can get in. Plus, I think Bob was coping a feel every time he lifted me up! But anyway, we can use the lower level to store anything we don't need, but want to save, in suitcases."
"Brilliant!" Gerard said, and I felt myself blushing a little.
"I take it Phil's decided not to join us?" Zara asked.I looked off down the beach, the old bonfire had gone out, and there was no sign of Phil.
"Apparently," Gerard replied. I laughed.
"We don't need him anyway," I said. "Come on, let's go see what the girls have found!" The six of us got up, and headed towards Amanda and Tori.
"Hi!" Amanda said cheerfully as we approached.
"Wait till you see all the cool stuff we found!" Tori said. Eight airline blankets were spread out on the sand, on one was a huge pile of women's clothing, on another, a pile of menswear. One held a pile of women's toiletry items, and on another, a pile of men's. One blanket held electronics, hair dryers, curling irons, and electric razors, and one was covered in books and magazines. Another blanket held bottles of aspirin and other pain killers, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and anything that could be considered remotely medical, hard liquor, and even cartons of cigarettes and cigarette lighters. On the last blanket, sat a variety of bizarre things. Thirteen or fourteen full sized pillows, a five or six sets of sheets, still in their store packaging, an old style alarm clock, a frying pan, coffee, candy, several bottles of wine, multiple sewing kits, a transistor radio, batteries, flashlights, oven mitts, and a set of Lego's. "People travel with the strangest things! Who even uses transistor radios anymore?"
"Beats me," Gerard said. "But maybe we can get a station on it."
"Hey," Ray said suddenly. "Let's see if we can break out some of those windows. They all have those pull down shades, so we can close them if we need too, but it's gonna get frigging hot in there! Then we can start setting up. We can each have a real pillow, and we can use those sheets and make up some dividers, so we can have some privacy."
"There's ten of us, so can you please leave out ten pillows, and pack up the rest," Gerard said to Victoria. "Then maybe pack up all the electronics together? We won't need those. We will need twenty suitcases to hold up the beds, do we have that many?"
"We've counted thirty-nine so far, and we still have a few to go through," Amanda said.
"I'll help," Zara said. Ray moved towards the pile of supplies, and picked up the hammer.
"Let's break some glass," he said happily.
"You mean some Plexiglas," Gerard corrected, and followed by Bob and Mikey, they ran off towards the plane. I exchanged glances with Amanda, Tori, and Zara, and sighed. I picked up one of the brooms and the dust pan, and followed at a walk behind them.
When I reached them, Gerard and Mikey were spreading one of the rubber chutes out over the sand at what we had determined was the front of the cabin, and Ray with the hammer and Bob with the wrench were climbing up the makeshift ladder. I climbed up behind them, and entered the stewardess' closet, to keep out of the way of flying glass.
"Ready!" I heard Gerard shout. Moments later, I heard the sound of breaking glass.
"Are you done?" I called, when the noise finished.
"Yeah," Bob replied. I stepped out of the closet, and began sweeping the glass up off the carpet.It took a while to get all the embedded fragments out, but eventually, they were gone, and I felt it safe to walk across the carpet barefoot. I swept them out onto the rubber mat, and when I was finished, Gerard, Bob, Mikey, and Ray picked up the corners, carrying out to the woods to shake out the mass of glass. I half expected the window shades to no longer work, and it was to my great relief that they did.
"Hey Angel," I heard Gerard call, and went to the door.
"Sup?" I replied.
"Come down, we're gonna have a meeting." I nodded, and made my way down the ladder, which was hooked to two bolts in the wall on either side of the door, and headed over to the rest of the group, now grouped around Victoria and Amanda and their massive pile of stuff, sinking down into the sand between Gerard and Charlotte. "Ok," Gerard said. "So Ray and I were talking, and we came up with a plan. Speak up if you disagree, ok? So we were thinking, if we're gonna use these sheets to divide up the cabin for privacy, the best we're gonna be able to do is two to a section, with one section empty, and one free chair. I was thinking we can use that free section for like a medical room/library, and use that overhead compartment for books, and the beverage cart for medical supplies. Then we can use the stewardess' closet for the cleaning supplies and and the hammer and that stuff, and the stewardess' station for the food and cooking supplies. We'll cut off a section of the chute to cover the doors at the ends, and use the rest of that section to kind of rope off an area we can use as a bathroom, out behind us in the woods, and use the other one on the ground in front of the cabin to sit on and stuff. Does everyone agree?" We all nodded. "Cool.Ray and I are gonna start taking the arms off all of the chairs but the spare one, and Bob, you and Mikey wanna start closing off the ends of the cabin?"
"Cool, duct tape time!" Bob cried.
"Make sure we can leave them open if we want, to get some air flow," Gerard said, as they ran off towards the cabin.Frank stood up.
"I'll go help them," he said, before turning and running towards Bob and Mikey.
"Once we get the seats in place, we'll use that electrical wire and hang up those sheets," Ray said, "and then we can start moving in. Can you girls lug twenty of those suitcases over, and pass them up to us?"
"No problem," I said.
"I'll just keep packing up the stuff we don't need," Victoria said cheerfully, as Zara, Amanda, Charlotte, and I began picking up the empty suitcases. Before long, we had them all up in the cabin for Gerard and Ray, and we returned to Victoria in time to find her zipping up the last suitcase of unusable stuff.
"What do we do now?" she asked, as we sank into the sand.
"I had an idea," I said. "Who can sew? Zara, I know you can."
"I can," said Charlotte immediately. "I work on costumes at the theater all the time."
"I can sew too," Tori added. "Not very well, but well enough, why?"
"I thought if we took those airline blankets, and stitched two together, they would make one blanket long enough to cover a person. It's annoying as hell the way they only cover from your chest to your knees, and it wouldn't take long. I've got enough blankets to give everyone two, so if we each sewed four..." I said.
"You ARE brilliant!" Zara said happily, immediately moving over to the pile of stuff, and extracting five sewing kits, handing one to each of us. "Here, Amanda, I'll show you how," she said, sitting beside Amanda. The rest of us got to work on our own. It was quick work, whip stitching the edges tightly together, and by the time the guys joined us, we were finishing the last little bits.
"What are you doing?" Bob asked.
"Making people-sized blankets!" Charlotte replied cheerfully. "It was Angel's idea." I shrugged, and finished knotting the thread at the end of my last one.
"We each get two blankets instead of four, but at least they'll actually cover us," I said.
"Wow. Great idea! Thanks," Mikey said.
"No problem," said Zara, helping Amanda finish her last blanket. "Took no time at all."
"We've got the cabin all ready," Frank said. "I guess we can move in now."
"Let's start with the shared stuff, then we can pair off and move our own things in," suggested Ray, and I noticed him nudging Gerard lightly in the ribs with his elbow, and Gerard start to blush. I got to my feet, ignoring it, and began collecting all the medical supplies I could find, together with Zara, and lugging them to the cabin. We pushed them up onto the floor, before climbing up ourselves.
"It's clean," Zara said as she sat.
"No," I said. "It's REALLY clean."
"We've been fiddling with the seats," Gerard said. "They recline all the way just like they did when they were attached, and if we place a suitcase under the head and under the feet, they should be stable."
"Nice," said Zara appreciatively.
"I was thinking too. Each of those overhead compartments have a divider in the middle, I think for like support or something. But anyway, I say we each get one half to store our stuff, and we use the extra one to store the medical supplies. Not only that, but the doorways that went to the cockpit and to the coach cabin are still there, we could cut off a section of the chutes, and just cover those doorways," I said.
"Good idea," said Ray. "Mikey and Bob tried to figure out how we'd get up onto the top of the plane to attach it, and they just couldn't figure anything out. They did manage to make a ladder though, and it's strong enough to hold both of them together, so we should be good."
"Sweet!" I said. "And then we can pull it up at night, and close the door, and nothing can get in. Plus, I think Bob was coping a feel every time he lifted me up! But anyway, we can use the lower level to store anything we don't need, but want to save, in suitcases."
"Brilliant!" Gerard said, and I felt myself blushing a little.
"I take it Phil's decided not to join us?" Zara asked.I looked off down the beach, the old bonfire had gone out, and there was no sign of Phil.
"Apparently," Gerard replied. I laughed.
"We don't need him anyway," I said. "Come on, let's go see what the girls have found!" The six of us got up, and headed towards Amanda and Tori.
"Hi!" Amanda said cheerfully as we approached.
"Wait till you see all the cool stuff we found!" Tori said. Eight airline blankets were spread out on the sand, on one was a huge pile of women's clothing, on another, a pile of menswear. One held a pile of women's toiletry items, and on another, a pile of men's. One blanket held electronics, hair dryers, curling irons, and electric razors, and one was covered in books and magazines. Another blanket held bottles of aspirin and other pain killers, toothpaste, toothbrushes, and anything that could be considered remotely medical, hard liquor, and even cartons of cigarettes and cigarette lighters. On the last blanket, sat a variety of bizarre things. Thirteen or fourteen full sized pillows, a five or six sets of sheets, still in their store packaging, an old style alarm clock, a frying pan, coffee, candy, several bottles of wine, multiple sewing kits, a transistor radio, batteries, flashlights, oven mitts, and a set of Lego's. "People travel with the strangest things! Who even uses transistor radios anymore?"
"Beats me," Gerard said. "But maybe we can get a station on it."
"Hey," Ray said suddenly. "Let's see if we can break out some of those windows. They all have those pull down shades, so we can close them if we need too, but it's gonna get frigging hot in there! Then we can start setting up. We can each have a real pillow, and we can use those sheets and make up some dividers, so we can have some privacy."
"There's ten of us, so can you please leave out ten pillows, and pack up the rest," Gerard said to Victoria. "Then maybe pack up all the electronics together? We won't need those. We will need twenty suitcases to hold up the beds, do we have that many?"
"We've counted thirty-nine so far, and we still have a few to go through," Amanda said.
"I'll help," Zara said. Ray moved towards the pile of supplies, and picked up the hammer.
"Let's break some glass," he said happily.
"You mean some Plexiglas," Gerard corrected, and followed by Bob and Mikey, they ran off towards the plane. I exchanged glances with Amanda, Tori, and Zara, and sighed. I picked up one of the brooms and the dust pan, and followed at a walk behind them.
When I reached them, Gerard and Mikey were spreading one of the rubber chutes out over the sand at what we had determined was the front of the cabin, and Ray with the hammer and Bob with the wrench were climbing up the makeshift ladder. I climbed up behind them, and entered the stewardess' closet, to keep out of the way of flying glass.
"Ready!" I heard Gerard shout. Moments later, I heard the sound of breaking glass.
"Are you done?" I called, when the noise finished.
"Yeah," Bob replied. I stepped out of the closet, and began sweeping the glass up off the carpet.It took a while to get all the embedded fragments out, but eventually, they were gone, and I felt it safe to walk across the carpet barefoot. I swept them out onto the rubber mat, and when I was finished, Gerard, Bob, Mikey, and Ray picked up the corners, carrying out to the woods to shake out the mass of glass. I half expected the window shades to no longer work, and it was to my great relief that they did.
"Hey Angel," I heard Gerard call, and went to the door.
"Sup?" I replied.
"Come down, we're gonna have a meeting." I nodded, and made my way down the ladder, which was hooked to two bolts in the wall on either side of the door, and headed over to the rest of the group, now grouped around Victoria and Amanda and their massive pile of stuff, sinking down into the sand between Gerard and Charlotte. "Ok," Gerard said. "So Ray and I were talking, and we came up with a plan. Speak up if you disagree, ok? So we were thinking, if we're gonna use these sheets to divide up the cabin for privacy, the best we're gonna be able to do is two to a section, with one section empty, and one free chair. I was thinking we can use that free section for like a medical room/library, and use that overhead compartment for books, and the beverage cart for medical supplies. Then we can use the stewardess' closet for the cleaning supplies and and the hammer and that stuff, and the stewardess' station for the food and cooking supplies. We'll cut off a section of the chute to cover the doors at the ends, and use the rest of that section to kind of rope off an area we can use as a bathroom, out behind us in the woods, and use the other one on the ground in front of the cabin to sit on and stuff. Does everyone agree?" We all nodded. "Cool.Ray and I are gonna start taking the arms off all of the chairs but the spare one, and Bob, you and Mikey wanna start closing off the ends of the cabin?"
"Cool, duct tape time!" Bob cried.
"Make sure we can leave them open if we want, to get some air flow," Gerard said, as they ran off towards the cabin.Frank stood up.
"I'll go help them," he said, before turning and running towards Bob and Mikey.
"Once we get the seats in place, we'll use that electrical wire and hang up those sheets," Ray said, "and then we can start moving in. Can you girls lug twenty of those suitcases over, and pass them up to us?"
"No problem," I said.
"I'll just keep packing up the stuff we don't need," Victoria said cheerfully, as Zara, Amanda, Charlotte, and I began picking up the empty suitcases. Before long, we had them all up in the cabin for Gerard and Ray, and we returned to Victoria in time to find her zipping up the last suitcase of unusable stuff.
"What do we do now?" she asked, as we sank into the sand.
"I had an idea," I said. "Who can sew? Zara, I know you can."
"I can," said Charlotte immediately. "I work on costumes at the theater all the time."
"I can sew too," Tori added. "Not very well, but well enough, why?"
"I thought if we took those airline blankets, and stitched two together, they would make one blanket long enough to cover a person. It's annoying as hell the way they only cover from your chest to your knees, and it wouldn't take long. I've got enough blankets to give everyone two, so if we each sewed four..." I said.
"You ARE brilliant!" Zara said happily, immediately moving over to the pile of stuff, and extracting five sewing kits, handing one to each of us. "Here, Amanda, I'll show you how," she said, sitting beside Amanda. The rest of us got to work on our own. It was quick work, whip stitching the edges tightly together, and by the time the guys joined us, we were finishing the last little bits.
"What are you doing?" Bob asked.
"Making people-sized blankets!" Charlotte replied cheerfully. "It was Angel's idea." I shrugged, and finished knotting the thread at the end of my last one.
"We each get two blankets instead of four, but at least they'll actually cover us," I said.
"Wow. Great idea! Thanks," Mikey said.
"No problem," said Zara, helping Amanda finish her last blanket. "Took no time at all."
"We've got the cabin all ready," Frank said. "I guess we can move in now."
"Let's start with the shared stuff, then we can pair off and move our own things in," suggested Ray, and I noticed him nudging Gerard lightly in the ribs with his elbow, and Gerard start to blush. I got to my feet, ignoring it, and began collecting all the medical supplies I could find, together with Zara, and lugging them to the cabin. We pushed them up onto the floor, before climbing up ourselves.
10/13/13