‘What’s that supposed to mean?’ Neanna said, unfastening her seatbelt.
‘I don’t think they’ve ever been called to deal with a werewolf and a vampire on a flight before. Drunken football fans, yes. But not a werewolf and a vampire!’ Zach said, crouching and following the emergency lighting up the aisle.
Leaping from his seat, William sauntered up the aisle behind Zach, his large white fluffy tail swaying from side to side like a stick of candy-floss. Bending almost in half, her back hunched as if she were concealing something under her coat, Neanna followed. Passing the ends of the aisle, they were spotted by some of the other passengers.
‘There’s a giant dog on the plane!’ a man said.
‘Where? Where?’ a female shouted.
‘Oh my god! He’s right! There’s a wolf on the flight!’ somebody else shrieked.
Then other passengers began to release their seat belts and stand so they too could get a look.
‘What’s she hiding under her coat?’ a young man said, pointing at Neanna who was crawling on her hands and knees up the aisle.
‘It’s a bomb!’ a female screamed so loud that Zach thought his ears were going to bleed.
‘A bomb?’ one of the cabin crew yelled.
‘There’s a bomb!’ another crew member cried, running to the nearest toilet cubicle and locking himself inside.
Seeing this, other passengers began to scream and climb over their seats to the back of the plane to be as far away from Neanna as possible. Within a matter of moments, the plane erupted into sheer chaos and panic.
The pilot barked a series of orders at the air traffic controllers via his radio. The plane continued to taxi up the runaway as the air traffic controllers closed all of the gates, and ordered the pilot to steer the plane away from the south terminal and to the end of the runway.
Reaching one of the exit doors, Zach peered through the little oval window out into the darkness. In the distance he could see the red and blue flashing lights of police and fire engines as they raced towards them.
Turning, he slumped against the door and slid to the floor. Looking at William and Neanna, he said, ‘I don’t know how we’re gonna get out of this one!’
‘Pull yourself together Zach Black!’ Neanna shouted, ‘that door can be opened!’
Looking up, Zach could see a list of instructions stuck to the inside of the door, which started:
In case of emergency…
With the help of Neanna, Zach followed the instructions and with a whoosh of air they forced the door open. The plane was still moving and, almost losing his balance, Zach teetered on the lip of the doorway as the runway speed past below. Grabbing hold of his jumper, Neanna pulled him back into the cabin.
‘What now?’ Zach roared over the sound of the engines. ‘We’re way too high to jump!’
Beneath the sound of the screaming engines and the roar of the wind that howled past outside, Zach could just about hear the sound of tearing. Looking at Neanna, Zach could see her coat begin to rip apart up the back. As the fabric began to fall away in strips, William and Zach stared in wonder as a pair of black wings unfolded from beneath Neanna’s coat.
‘Whoa!’ Zach said, ‘How I didn’t see that one coming!’
Each wing seemed to have a long bony shoulder and arm that was about six feet in length. Beneath this arm hung the wing, which was a see-through and stretchy looking membrane.
Shaking from head to foot, Neanna unraveled her wings. She looked from side-to-side and up at them.
‘I have wings!’ she said. ‘I have wings!’
Throwing his head back, William howled in approval.
Neanna turned to face the passengers that had now pressed themselves together at the back of the plane.
‘See I don’t have a bomb. I have wings!’ she scolded them. Scooping Zach and William up into her arms, Neanna swept out of the doorway and into the night.
The stewardess in her mustard uniform stared in disbelief as Neanna’s big black wings fluttered through the doorway. That was the last thing the stewardess saw before her legs buckled beneath her and she fainted in the aisle.
Swooping over the runway, Neanna beat her wings up and down. But she began to lose height and spiral out of control towards the ground.
‘You’re too heavy!’ she shouted at Zach and William, holding them tight against her. ‘I’m gonna have to land!’
Fanning her wings out like two giant sails, Neanna headed for the runway. Hitting the ground running, she released Zach and William from her arms. Tumbling onto the runway, Zach and William rolled over and over. William yelped as the pads on his paws skidded over the tarmac. Staggering to his feet, Zach looked at the police vehicles that were fast approaching. Their emergency lights sending shadows across the airfield in flashes of blue and red.
‘Run!’ he roared, heading towards the lights of the terminal.
Bounding after him, William’s claws ‘clacked’ against the surface of the runway. Soaring a few feet above them, Neanna pounded her wings up and down like a bird of prey.
The police vehicles veered off the runway and chased them across the grass, their sirens wailing and lights throbbing.
‘Did you see that?’ one of the police marksmen asked the driver of the armored vehicle.
The driver shook his head as if shaking away cobwebs and said, ‘I saw something fly from that plane but I’m not sure what it was!’
‘It looked like some kinda giant bat,’ the police marksman shouted over the din of the squealing sirens.
‘Look there they go,’ the driver yelled, speeding after them.
‘It looks like that lad is being chased by a wolf and that bat-thing,’ the marksman roared, releasing the safety on his gun.
The three of them raced towards a stationary plane, diving under its giant wings. Zach glanced back over his shoulder as a synthesized sounding voice came from the pursing police cars.
‘STOP!’ the voice ordered. ‘ARMED POLICE! STOP OR WE WILL SHOOT!’
‘They can’t shoot,’ William howled, ‘they’re peacekeepers. We’ve done nothing wrong!’
‘I keep trying to tell you, they’re not peacekeepers – they’re cops!’ Zach panted, running towards a hanger that had trailers full of luggage being driven into it.
‘But we’re the good guys!’ William barked.
‘Somehow I don’t think they will see it like that!’ Zach shouted as the synthesized voice came again.
‘THIS IS YOUR FINAL WARNING! STOP OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE!’
Neanna soared towards the entrance of the hanger and Zach and William raced along beneath her.
Clack! Clack! Clack!
The air exploded with the sound of gunfire as the pursing cops opened fire.
‘You weren’t kidding,’ William howled, a stream of bullets whizzing above his head.
‘About what?’ Zach gasped in fright.
‘They’re nothing like peacekeepers. They’re a rotten shot!’ William barked, bounding into the hanger.
Screeching to a halt, streams of smoke billowed up from beneath the tires of the police vehicles.
‘Alpha-Echo control! Alpha-Echo control from Whisky-Four-Five,’ one of the cops roared into his headset.
‘Go ahead,’ a voice from the control room crackled in his ear.
‘Subjects have decamped into the luggage store. I repeat the subjects have decamped into the luggage store.’
‘Alpha-Echo control to Whiskey-Four-Five, seal the area, seal the area. We will contact the on-call negotiator.’
Looking at his colleague in disbelief, the police marksman said into his mouth piece, ‘Whiskey-Four-Five to control…that’s a negative. I repeat that’s a negative. I don’t think a negotiator is going to be able to help. Perhaps you should call the nearest zoo.’
There was a pause from the operator in the control room. Then the voice crackled in his ear, ‘Alpha-Echo control to Four-Five, repeat your last message.’
Sighing, the marksman said into the mouth piece, ‘the hostiles appear to be a wolf of some sort and a giant bat!’
The operator in the control room didn’t respond for some considerable time.
Chapter 19
‘Hey! You’re not allowed in here!’ a bearded man in overall’s shouted at Zach as he came charging into the hanger. ‘This is a restricted…’ then he saw Neanna and the giant wolf and his mouth clamped shut.
Snarling at the baggage handler, William’s lips quivered around his powerful jaws.
‘This way!’ Zach shouted, spying a conveyer belt that led up into the dark. The belt was ferrying hundreds of suitcases, prams and rucksacks out of the hanger and up into the terminal.
Diving on to it, Zach lay on his stomach as he was whisked upwards. Shrugging her shoulders as she walked towards the conveyer belt, Neanna’s wings folded away beneath what was left of her coat. Climbing on, she was joined by William. His sharp claws screamed against the metal surface like nails being scraped across ice.
They were carried upwards through a maze of conveyer belts that stretched high above them like crisscrossing motorways. Ahead, Zach could see a curtain of black rubber slats that brushed aside as the luggage passed through them.
At first there were ‘oohh’s’ and ‘aarrhh’s’ from the passengers at the sight of Zach appearing on the conveyer belt as they waited for their luggage. Then the sounds of curiosity were soon replaced by screams as William and Neanna appeared from out of the darkness.
Brandishing his huge teeth, William snarled and Neanna shrugged her shoulders again as she unfolded her wings. Passengers fled backwards as William bounded from the belt and Neanna swept up into the air.
Outside on the runway the police officers radios began to crackle and fuzz as frantic and garbled messages began to be transmitted.
‘They now seem to be in the baggage area!’ said one hysterical controller.
‘What terminal?’ said the voice of a police officer.
‘We believe it’s the north terminal,’ came another radio operator.