In the Air

Emma Morrison's POV

Emma Morrison screamed as Webb's hand grabbed her ankle, trying to pull her back inside the helicopter.

"You're not going anywhere, little girl!" Webb snarled.

Emma kicked hard, her gymnastics training making her legs strong. Her foot connected with Webb's nose, and he let go with a howl of pain.

But Emma wasn't on the ground anymore. She was a thousand feet in the air, holding to the helicopter's landing skid while wind tore at her clothes and hair.

"Maya!" Emma shouted. "Help!"

That's when Emma saw something that made her heart stop.

Maya Chen wasn't on the ground. She was hanging from the other side of the chopper, her hands wrapped around the opposite landing skid, her legs dangling in empty space.

Maya had jumped onto the chopper just as it took off.

"Emma, hold on!" Maya screamed over the roar of the helicopter blades.

Webb appeared in the doorway, his face twisted with rage. Blood dripped from his broken nose.

"Both of you are going to fall," he said with an evil smile. "It's just a question of who goes first."

He reached down toward Maya's fingers.

"No!" Emma swung herself forward using the skid like a gymnastics bar. Her years of practice kicked in automatically—swing, release, grab.

She launched herself across the gap between the skids and crashed into Webb's legs, knocking him backward into the helicopter.

Webb fell hard, his head hitting the metal floor.

Emma rushed inside and grabbed the gun that had fallen from Webb's belt. Her hands were shaking so badly she could barely hold it.

"Don't move," she said, trying to sound brave.

Webb laughed, wiping blood from his face. "You won't shoot me. You're just a kid."

He was right. Emma had never held a gun before. The weight of it felt wrong in her hands.

But then she thought about her father, Thomas Morrison, who had just died saving people from the police station blast. She thought about her uncle Dale, who'd been too scared to stand up to Webb. She thought about all the innocent people Webb had hurt.

"Maybe I am just a kid," Emma said. "But my dad taught me to be brave."

Webb's smile faded.

"Maya, climb up!" Emma called, keeping the gun pointed at Webb.

Maya was pulling herself up the skid, inch by painful inch. Her arms were shaking from tiredness, and her injured shoulder was bleeding.

"Almost there," Maya gasped.

That's when the helicopter started spinning.

Emma looked up and saw that nobody was at the controls. When she'd knocked Webb down, she must have hit something important.

The helicopter tilted sideways, throwing Emma across the cabin. The gun flew from her hands and slid toward the open door.

Webb rushed for the weapon.

Emma dove after it, her gymnast reactions faster than Webb's. She grabbed the gun just before it fell out the door, but the motion carried her forward.

She started slipping toward the open door, her fingers scratching uselessly at the smooth metal floor.

"Emma!" Maya reached through the opening and caught Emma's wrist.

For a moment, they hung there together—Maya clinging to the skid with one hand while holding Emma with the other, Emma holding the gun but unable to aim it at Webb.

Webb stood up slowly, his face dark with anger. The helicopter was still spinning wildly, but he grabbed onto the pilot's seat to settle himself.

"You should have taken my offer to land peacefully," Webb said. He reached for the emergency release lever that would remove the landing skids.

If he pulled that button, both Maya and Emma would fall to their deaths.

"Wait!" Emma shouted. "If we fall, the gun falls with us! You'll have no weapon when you land!"

Webb stopped, thinking.

Emma used that moment to swing the gun up and pull the trigger.

The shot went wild, missing Webb but hitting the helicopter's control panel. Sparks flew everywhere, and alarms started screaming.

"You stupid girl!" Webb roared. "You've killed us all!"

The helicopter's engine made a horrible grinding sound. Black smoke poured from under the control panel.

"The engine's dying!" Maya shouted. "We're going to crash!"

Webb forgot about Emma and Maya. He threw himself into the pilot's seat, desperately trying to stop the falling helicopter.

"Climb!" Emma yelled to Maya. "Climb inside!"

Maya pulled with everything she had, and Emma grabbed her other arm. Together, they got Maya through the door and into the cabin.

They fell on the floor, gasping for breath.

The helicopter was falling fast now, the ground rushing up to meet them.

"We need to jump before we hit!" Maya said.

"Jump where?" Emma looked out and saw they were over the forest outside town. Trees everywhere, no safe landing spot.

The helicopter spun faster, the engine screaming its death song.

Webb was swearing and pulling levers, but nothing was working. The plane was going down.

"There!" Maya pointed to a small lake barely visible through the trees. "If we can get over the water—"

"We won't make it!" Emma said. The lake was too far away.

But Maya grabbed Emma's hand. "We have to try. On three, we jump. One... two..."

"Wait!" Webb abandoned the controls and lunged at them. "If I'm dying, you're dying with me!"

His hands wrapped around Maya's neck.

Emma picked up the gun and pointed it at Webb's head. Her hands weren't shaking anymore.

"Let her go," Emma said quietly.

Webb looked at her and must have seen something new in her eyes. Not a scared little girl anymore. Someone who would do what had to be done.

He let go of Maya.

"Three!" Maya shouted, and she and Emma jumped out of the falling helicopter, dropping toward the trees below.

Webb's scream followed them down as the helicopter burst behind them in a ball of flame.

Emma held Maya's hand as they fell through empty air. She wasn't scared anymore. Her father had taught her to be brave, and she was being brave.

They crashed through tree branches that tore at their clothes and skin. Emma hit a thick tree that knocked the wind from her lungs. She lost her grip on Maya's hand.

"Maya!" Emma screamed.

But Maya was gone, somewhere below in the darkness.

Emma's fall slowed as she caught branch after branch, each contact jarring her bones but slowing her descent.

Finally, she hit the ground hard and rolled down a hill, coming to rest in a pile of wet leaves.

Everything hurt, but Emma was alive.

She tried to stand but her ankle gave out. Probably sprained or broken.

"Maya!" Emma called into the darkness. "Where are you?"

No answer.

Emma crawled forward through the trees, ignoring the pain, looking desperately for her friend.

That's when she saw the body lying lifeless at the bottom of a ravine.

Maya Chen wasn't moving.

And standing over Maya's body, holding a piece of broken metal like a weapon, was Marcus Webb.

Somehow, impossible, he had survived the crash too.

Webb looked up at Emma and smiled, his face covered in blood and burns.

"Just you and me now, little girl," he said. "And this time, there's nobody left to save you."