SENTINEL 555: WAR ✔

21 MANLY

Another scream left Oni which he considered unmanly. He couldn't see behind him. He told himself that was why he panicked with every drop. There was no way of knowing how long they'd fall. Once they recovered and the orb ascended again, his panic spiked, because what went up....

Which was where he looked and beheld something far beyond him. Nothing. No dome, no shielding, no...Outerlimits.

At Dev's back, building after building shrunk away. The green that took its place meant no protections. Oni tried to focus on her and not the open, empty sky spreading in all directions. One branch broke against the orb, then a second.

The open sky fell away, consumed by green in all directions.

Tingles spread across Oni's goosebumped skin. For every tree that zip past, he gripped the crisscross seat-belt across his chest even stronger.

He must have made a sound, something, because the orb slowed.

Whenever Dev leaned forward in her chair, the orb would speed up. But now, she leaned back.

It slowed until it finally came to a stop. Silver tracks stretched out above, on the right, and on the left as well. Other orbs continued to zip past.

One orb, however, traveled on their track, and wasn't slowing. If not for his confidence in his vision, he would have doubted what he saw.

Pleasant sat at the helm, the calm frame of Sen sitting in the same direction as Oni—a passenger. The wild panic in her eyes faded with Sen's chair zipping around to take the place of hers. He gave the top lever one tug and the orb shot overhead. It landed on the other side of Oni and Dev's orb without trouble, raddling the tracks. Then it stopped then rolled back.

Sen's chair swiveled yet again, no one facing forward or back. The new positioning afforded both Sen and Pleasant a clear view of Dev. Oni had to look back over his chair.

No one moved. Not Sen or Pleasant, and certainly not Dev. Oni wondered what all of them were waiting for. He assumed Sen meant to force Oni out of that orb with Dev and put Pleasant in. As unappealing as the thought, Oni knew this was the right thing to do. He wasn't built of steady stuff.

But the prospect of traveling all the way back under Sen's cold disapproval wasn't something Oni relished. That concerned him even more so than being forced out into the open and dirty air to make that switch.

Dev was fair-minded, so when her chair zipped around, forcing Oni to face forward where she once was, her back to her cousin and crewmen, all the hairs along the back of Oni's neck stood in alarm.

She was snubbing them.

Sen, still sitting with his arms folded, stared them down then shifted his body weight. Pleasant returned to the helm. Sen's cold, disapproving gaze started moving away, slowly at first then gained speed.

Once it was too far to see, Dev shifted her weight again and the plate holding their chairs spun around to allow her the helm. A vibration below them intensified. Oni couldn't find the cause until something shot overhead then landed on the opposite side of them. Sen and Pleasant. And they were headed back.

Dev met eyes with Oni finally. He waited for her to suggest the same. Surely this was Sen's way of signaling that they should as well.

"You feeling sick?" Dev asked.

Oni was, but he'd die before admitting it.

"My father said his biggest regret was being too frightened to watch the world unfold on his first run. He said it frightened him to be without the dome. The trees looked like they had faces and that the sky looked ready to swallow him up. Do...you feel something similar?"