Read In the Lone and Level Sands for Free Online Page B

the array of blinking lights and switches before him.
Oliver thought he could fall asleep, then wondered if perhaps the
pilot already had. It was impossible to tell behind the man’s
aviator sunglasses.
    A slow, steady beep brought Oliver out of
his daydream. He looked for the source, and found that the plane
had been slowly losing altitude, and was starting to approach
landing levels.
    “Hey, man,” he said to the pilot, “you gonna
get that?”
    The pilot made no attempt to respond.
    “Hello?” Oliver said. He snapped his fingers
before the pilot’s face. No answer. Oliver sighed and pulled up on
his control stick. The plane didn’t respond, and he realized that
the pilot’s controls were overriding his own. Oliver leaned over
the pilot, feeling awkward as he had his face near the guy’s lap.
He searched for the override switch.
    “Uhhhh,” the pilot said.
    “I don’t like it any more than you do, but
since you’re so tired—”
    The pilot leaned forward and bit into the
back of Oliver’s neck. Oliver screamed, and he could feel blood
streaming down his neck. Then, he felt his skin tear as the pilot
sat up.
    Oliver scrambled away from the pilot. “What
the hell?” He pressed a hand against the back of his neck, but this
only caused a sharp pain to shoot through his body. He thought he
felt bone.
    The pilot struggled to stand up, but was
strapped into his chair. It was like he didn’t know how to work a
seatbelt. He looked at Oliver as though he’d just noticed him, and
lurched toward him. Oliver punched the pilot so hard the skin
between his knuckles split, but the pilot merely recoiled and then
returned to his attempt to unshackle himself. Oliver punched him
again, and the pilot’s glasses snapped and flew from his face.
    The pilot looked at Oliver, but he seemed
distant, like his mind was somewhere else, leaving the body to do
as it pleased.
    Oliver got up and headed for the cabin door,
but the pilot grabbed him as he was passing. Oliver struggled, but
the pilot was stronger, and he took Oliver’s arm in both hands
before sinking his teeth into it. Oliver screamed again. He reached
for his headset to radio the ground, but he couldn’t reach it. He
began pounding on the pilot’s head and face as hard as he could.
The pilot went on biting as though nothing was happening.
    The pilot ripped another scrap of flesh from
him. Oliver was freed, and he fell to the ground. He stood up, but
fell back down, feeling dizzy and very faint, like his mind was
leaving him, like sleep was creeping in. He crawled to the door and
reached for the handle. He could grasp it, but he couldn’t open it,
and even if he could have, he wouldn’t have been able to walk out.
Oliver felt himself fading, and he wasn’t sure why. He was
bleeding, but the whole matter had taken only a minute or two, so
he didn’t think he was losing enough blood to die. What was going
on?
    Unsure of what to do, Oliver thought of
everyone else on board. He reached just below the door handle and
locked the cabin door, then let his arm fall to the floor. He
almost immediately realized that he had probably done more harm
than good, as now no one could get into the cabin to put the plane
back in the air. It was the last rational thought he would ever
have.
    The pilot thrashed in his seat, unable to
undo his belts. He began frantically pounding the board before him,
and then there was a loud chugging sound.
     
    ****
     
    Layne was still holding Alex’s hand when he
heard the noise. It was like a loud, sporadic whirring, and then,
after a moment, the whirring ceased. Layne looked out through the
window and saw nothing but black. He looked ahead and saw a bag of
peanuts that had been on his tray slide toward him, almost
floating, and then he heard the screams, felt himself lift out of
his seat. If he could talk, he would’ve asked Alex if this too was
normal, knowing perfectly well that it wasn’t.
    The plane was falling.
     
    10
    At the