Four Past Midnight - Stephen King [40]
'I hope so, honey,' she said. 'I hope so, but I really don't know.'
8
'What's on your radar, Brian?' Nick asked. 'Anything unusual? Anything at all?'
'No,' Brian said. 'It says the world is down there, and that's all it says. We're -'
'Wait,' Nick said. His voice had a tight, strangled sound, as if his throat had closed down to a bare pinhole. 'Climb back up. Let's think this over. Wait for the clouds to break -'
'Not enough time and not enough fuel.' Brian's eyes were locked on his instruments. The plane began to bounce again. He made the corrections automatically. 'Hang on. We're going in.'
He pushed the wheel forward. The altimeter needle began to move more swiftly beneath its glass circle. And Flight 29 slid into the clouds. For a moment its tail protruded, cutting through the fluffy surface like the fin of a shark. A moment later that was also gone and the sky was empty ... as if no plane had ever been there at all.
CHAPTER 4
In the Clouds. Welcome to Bangor. A
Round of Applause. The Slide and the Conveyor
Belt. The Sound of No Phones Ringing.
Craig Toomy Makes a Side-Trip.
The Little Blind Girl's Warning.
1
The main cabin went from bright sunlight to the gloom of late twilight and the plane began to buck harder. After one particularly hard washboard bump, Albert felt a pressure against his right shoulder. He looked around and saw Bethany's head lying there, as heavy as a ripe October pumpkin. The girl had fainted.
The plane leaped again and there was a heavy thud in first class. This time it was Dinah who shrieked, and Gaffney let out a yell: 'What was that? For God's sake what was that?'
'The drinks trolley,' Bob Jenkins said in a low, dry voice. He tried to speak louder so they would all hear him and found himself unable. 'The drinks trolley was left out, remember? I think it must have rolled across -'
The plane took a dizzying rollercoaster leap, came down with a jarring smack, and the drinks trolley fell over with a bang. Glass shattered. Dinah screamed again.
'It's all right,' Laurel said frantically. 'Don't hold me so tight, Dinah, honey, it's okay -'
'Please, I don't want to die! I just don't want to die!'
'Normal turbulence, folks.' Brian's voice, coming through the speakers, sounded calm ... but Bob Jenkins thought he heard barely controlled terror in that voice. 'Just be -'
Another rocketing, twisting bump. Another crash as more glasses and mini-bottles fell out of the overturned drinks trolley.
'-calm,' Brian finished.
From across the aisle on Don Gaffney's left: rii-ip.
Gaffney turned in that direction. 'Quit it right now, motherfucker, or I'll stuff what's left of that magazine right down your throat.'
Craig looked at him blandly. 'Try it, you old jackass.'
The plane bumped up and down again. Albert leaned over Bethany toward the window. Her breasts pressed softly against his arm as he did, and for the first time in the last five years that sensation did not
immediately drive everything else out of his mind. He stared out the window, desperately looking for a break in the clouds, trying to will a break in the clouds.
There was nothing but shades of dark gray.
2
'How low is the ceiling, mate?' Nick asked. Now that they were actually in the clouds, he seemed calmer.
'I don't know,' Brian said. 'Lower than I'd hoped, I can tell you that.'
'What happens if you run out of room?'
'If my instruments are off even a little, we'll go into the drink,' he said flatly. 'I doubt if they are, though. If I get down to five hundred feet and there's still no joy, I'll take us up again and fly down to Portland.' 'Maybe you ought to just head that way now.'
Brian shook his head. 'The weather there is almost always worse than the weather here.'
'What about Presque Isle? Isn't there a long-range SAC base there?'
Brian had just a moment to think that this guy really did know much more than he should.