Falling Cities

F-o-s-t-e-r

I've never seen stars.
I've seen them in lessons, pictures, videos, paintings.
But these where real, mountain-sky stars.
This might be a peaceful moment if it weren't for the chopper blades slicing the sky to ribbons, right above my head.
Veris sits across from me, playing with a short strand of blonde hair.
She's been staring at me, when I glance over she flicks her eyes away.
Lucinda is sitting next to me, looking out in the night sky. She gave me a cold pack of.. something - for my nose. She gave Veris a little tiny pill because she threw up on Emmet after we rose above the mountains.
She seems alright now.
Lucinda had quite a few things in that box of hers, she quietly listened them as she waded through the contents of the medical kit.
"I used to be a surgeon Foster.. saved a few people." She leans back and brushes away some black hair.
"I liked it. Blood and gore.." she smiles.
"But then I quit, because I heard of a school for inventors, and I made TIB. She took me twenty years to perfect, and a team of nine-hundred people. But she was mine." She grabs my hand.
Veris is staring at me agian.
"Lucinda? Do you think..."
"You like her?" An obvious amusement hits her eyes.
"No! I just-"
"Here."
Lucinda unrolls her white sleeve. Under it are four bracelets, beaded intricately.
"I didn't think we would get this far. But these are charms, good luck. Got em' from some natives in Norway when I traveled there to meet with a professor. Anyway, the red one is good health, the gold one is good sense, the blue one is good direction.. and the green one is for clear thought."
She pulls two off her wrist,
"I think that girl-" she flicks her thumb at Veris. "Could use some sense."
She hands me the gold one and the red one. "For your nose."
I sneer playfully at her.
I slide the red beads unto my wrist and hand her the gold one, she pushes it away.
"Shhh! No. You give it too her."
I shake my head and rise from my seat.
"Veris?" She doesn't her me.
"Veris!"
She flicks her head around.
"I have something for you."
She smiles, and I take my place next to her.
I hand her the bracelet.
"It helps with good-"
But before I can finish my sentence, the chopper lurches sharply to the right.
My heart flutters. If it weren't for the seatbelts, me and Veris would've gone tumbling out the open side of the chopper.
"Lucinda!"
"What's going on Emmet!?"
"We gotta land!
"There's no place!"
For a second, nobody responds.
Then I hear Emmet swear as he clammers between the seats and rams his shoulder into a panel on the opposite window.
"Parachutes?"
"No."
"Then what?"
"Paper, for our wills."
I jump as a heavy backpack lands in my lap.
"One arm in each loop, pull the string when your ready." He instructed.
I slipped on the pack.
Veris did the same.
"Emmet? What about the dog?" Rudy, who had been dozing off in the back was now barking.
"We can't carry him!" Lucinda protests.
"But we can't leave him-"
"He's a dog Em!"
"I'll do it!" I yell over the increasing noise.
"No." Lucinda says.
The copter lurches agian, this time more violently.
"Give me the damn dog!"
I've realized, when you assert yourself, you are listened too.
"Fine." Emmet says.
Rudy wasn't a large dog, he was a husky, but he was still young, if this charm bracelet worked, I could carry Rudy in one arm, pull the string with the other and land peacefully.
"Maybe we won't have too."
He points below. A lake? A small mountain lake far below.
"Can you get low enough for us to jump safely?"
Emmet is already back at the controls.
"I think so."
Lucinda held tight to a handle near the roof as Emmet angled the beast of a machine toward the lake.
"How cold is the water?!" Veris asks.
"It'll be fine." Lucinda assures.
There was one thing I forgot to say in the chaos of the situation.
Me and Veris couldn't swim.
I'd never even been in water, besides a shower.
"Now!" I saw a shower of sparks trickle down from the cabin as we prepared to jump. Lucinda took hold of Veris and Emmet locked arms with me and we dove into the air. We where in free-fall for about five seconds before we hit the water.
With the force of the impact, my arm untangled with Emmet's and I couldn't bring myself to rise.
I kicked my legs and thrashed my arms but nothing worked, I was sinking deeper and deeper and my lungs where begging for air.
Was Veris in a similar situation?