Chapter 19: Helicopter

I stole the floor before James could and I pointed at him as I yelled. "I saw him making out with Vanessa!" Molly's shock became a serious surprise and James quickly defended himself. "That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard! Molly, we need to kick him off of our team! His insanity is getting out of hand!" I rolled my eyes. I remember back to when he apologized for calling me that. I knew he was full of shit. Who knows how long this affair had been going on, and this whole time he really was the scumbag boyfriend starter pack. I couldn't wait to watch Molly take him down now that she had found out the truth.

But to my surprise, she kept looking at me and never turned to James. "What is... Wrong with you?" She asked with hurt in her voice. I blinked. "Pardon?" She shook her head a little. "I can't believe that you are so desperate that you lied to try and get us to break up." I was speechless again, yet I should've known that she wouldn't have believed me. It still caught me off guard and I tried to pull my words together to form a sentence. "Wait, I didn't lie. I'm serious! I saw James cheating on you!" Her face was riddled with distaste the more I spoke. "Why should I believe you? You've only been obsessed with me ever since the day we met and made it clear that you would do anything to ruin my relationship. And I'm supposed to just take your word for it?"

I couldn't find anything else to say and she started to walk away from me. "After this mission, I'm speaking with Hank about having you moved to a different team." I couldn't believe what was happening. In an instant, Molly hated me and James had won. He smirked at me before turning to follow Molly and I glared fiercely after him. I had to find a way to make her believe what I was saying was true, but I had no idea how. I didn't know what I was going to do, but I had to figure out something fast. 

Soon everything for the flight test was ready, and the pilot started the engine. A small crowd had formed to see whether it would be able to get off the ground, and everyone watched intently. Molly was standing next to James with her arms crossed and watched with the rest of the team. Right now I couldn't care less if the helicopter worked. I just wanted her not to hate me.

The spinning of the helicopter blades brought up every piece of cloth that wasn't tied down from the wind it created. After the blades became fast enough, the helicopter slowly lifted over the helipad. Everyone applauded in celebration, and after a few minutes of testing, the pilot landed the craft back where it started. The blades slowly came to a stop and the loudness of it all died down. The pilot then hopped out of the side door and the crowd thinned after being told to get back to work by the army men.

Just me and the team were left to speak with the pilot. From looking at the guy, I could tell that he thought of himself as macho. He had a thick black mustache on his middle-aged face and wore dark green coveralls. I couldn't see the rest of his face from the helmet he wore that included shades over his eyes, but I already knew that this guy would be unintentionally funny.

I then walked over to stand with the team so I could be a part of the conversation, but I kept my distance from Molly as I did. The pilot spoke with the utmost confidence as he rested his hands on his hips. "Alright. Here's how things are going to work. This is an MD 500E helicopter that is clearly unstable. There's only a matter of time before it realizes that it has the wrong juice so this has to be a quick mission. We only have ten gallons of gas. That roughly gives us half an hour of flight time if we're lucky. That means fifteen minutes to get there, and fifteen minutes to get back. No exceptions. So if one of you falls out mid-flight, congratulations, we aren't coming back for you. Not until we're able to get more fuel, that is."

I smiled. I knew this guy would be hilarious. The pilot then gestured for us to follow him to the helicopter. "Unfortunately, there are only 4 open seats if you squish real hard, so one of you has to stay behind." Sarah then volunteered. "You guys go ahead. I'm not built for small spaces." Yeah, she was built for tyrannosaurus. I wasn't sure how I felt about being so close to these people after we just had a fallout. If I wasn't their only guaranteed protection I would've volunteered to stay behind myself. I took the safe route and called shotgun for the passenger seat.

This helicopter didn't have any doors or seatbelts, which made me doubt whether this was a good idea or not. Jay and Molly took the door seats in the back while James took the middle. I glanced back at Molly who was sitting behind me and thankfully she didn't notice. I tried to think of a way to get her to forgive me and tuned out the helicopter noise as we shakily lifted into the air. "hold on!" The pilot said as we took off.

It was a bumpy ride and it felt like we would crash into the water when we passed over the canal, but after a few more minutes we landed on the dock at the edge of the island. The pilot turned off the engine and spoke over the sound of the blades slowing down. "Okay, people. Get going. It would be best for the aircraft if you grab what you can carry and get back here, pronto. Go, go, go!" Everyone quickly hustled out of the helicopter, and James didn't need to tell us to split up this time. We all went in different directions to scavenge and I chose not to follow Molly again. I still stayed close to where everyone else searched, just in case they needed me, but I kept my distance. 

I walked down the rocky beach with my eyes on the ground, putting as little effort into finding supplies as morally possible. I heard a few growls of the zombies on the island, but after a few gunshots the sounds died down and I knew that I wasn't needed. My eyes skimmed the trash on the rocks in front of me and once I reached an old soda can I kicked it as hard as I could toward the water. It flew so far that I didn't get to see it land and I just stared at the wide body of water. "This sucks. All I can think to do is apologize. But I know that won't do shit. The whole reason I'm helping these stupid survivors is because of Molly. And I don't even know why I like her. If I'm no longer able to spend time with her I might as well just go home."