Chapter 2

Vanessa glanced at the long road ahead. Her brown hair was in a pigtail that was getting in the way of her eyes. The sun was just rising and was very dim causing it extremely hard to see. They were on a freeway and there were quite a few cars on the road considering the time.‘

Who are we flying with?’ asked McGig, who had bought a pack of doughnuts while Hoges stopped to grab a paper and was now casually getting rid of them. He was leaning forward so he wouldn’t miss the answer.

‘We’re flying with British Airways in Business class,’ answered Vanessa.

‘Isn’t that a bit dangerous?’ asked Hoges in concern.

‘Not if we don’t say our job.’

‘Oh.’

After an uncomfortable silence, they arrived at the airport with thirty-five minutes to spare. But by the time they got through the line up to put their luggage in, got their tickets and got through security, they had no time. They rushed to the gate.

‘Good morning, please give me your tickets,’ said the airhostess, while filing her nails.They gave her the tickets and ran through the passage. But once they got closer to the plane they slowed down to a casual walk.

‘What’s the point of running when they’re waiting?’ asked McGig chuckling. But when the people at the front of the plane heard him he found out.

.‘We are forced to wait for insignificant people like you to waddle onto the plane laughing at us!’ yelled an elderly lady.

‘B…but…’

‘No buts young man’

‘Ohhhhhhh’

Vanessa and Hoges looked at each other, laughed, and took their seats. McGig followed quickly. It seemed as soon as McGig sat down they started going through procedures and everything. This made Hoges and Vanessa laugh at him even more as well as a couple of other people. McGig blushed.The plane finally started to slowly proceed upwards although it didn’t fly anywhere quick because of a sudden engine failure. As soon as the failure was announced McGig wouldn’t go off the subject that it didn’t matter that they were late and it was meant to happen to prove to everyone that he was right. However as soon as the hostess came around with tea, coffee, magazines, soft drinks, headphones and of course, doughnuts, he stopped.

After a delay of about an hour, also due to rain, they were up in the sky. The area was very foggy because of the rain, which was still falling a tad but not heavy enough to keep a plane out of the sky.Surrounding the plane was a dense shield of clouds causing massive turbulence. McGig, being airsick and hating planes threw up several times and was now on his sixth pack of gum. Hoges was listening to music, reading a magazine and eating mints. McGig just stared at him in awe.

‘You lucky bugger,’ he said to Hoges. Hoges just snickered and took a sip of tea.

‘For those who wish, the TV screens in front of you have been turned on and have dozens of movies and games for your enjoyment,’ said a hostess over the loudspeaker. Hoges immediately turned on a movie and lay peacefully.

‘Double lucky bugger,’ said McGig. He stared at the soundless movie. ‘I wonder what’s happening,’ he said to himself. McGig knew that if he watched it the motions would make him sick again. He looked over to where Vanessa was sitting and what she was doing. She seemed absorbed in a book; Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens. McGig leant over ever so slightly more and fell out of his chair and once again his hat left his head. Unfortunately for him, a lady was also sitting in Vanessa’s row of seats and whacked him rather hard. He got up slowly, throbbing in pain and holding his back. He went up to Vanessa whose interests had left her book and she stared at McGig quaintly.

‘Good book?’ McGig asked in pain.

‘Fine.’

Then one of the hostess’ came and forced him back to his seat.

‘How much longer?’ whined McGig to Hoges who had finished his watching and was now reading a magazine that a hostess gave him.

‘Ask Vanessa,’ said Hoges, ignoring what he said and turning the page. McGig was beginning to get on his nerves-he is incapable of sitting in one spot to long.

‘But I’m afraid of that lady next to her. She’s scary,’ McGig said seriously. But when he saw the look on Hoges face he laughed, to prove to Hoges he wasn’t scared when he actually was.

Hoges stared at him sternly. ‘I seriously don’t get you.’

McGig found out the time from a nearby person and decided to go to the toilet. Hoges had ignored all McGig warning of things that could happen on a plane, which he would soon regret.McGig squeezed down the aisle with much difficulty, his sides hitting the chairs. He soon arrived at the end, exhausted by being hit so much, closed the door of the toilet, gasping for breath.Meanwhile, Hoges and Vanessa were eating dinner along with a handful of other passengers.

Then, a normal looking man who was wearing a black suit went to the back of the plane and put a balaclava on his head. He stuck his fingers in his pocket and felt something.

‘Stupid security,’ he said to himself and pulled out a gun. Everyone, unaware, was eating and chatting and listening to music minding their own business when…‘

Stop don’t move,’ yelled the man with the balaclava. ‘This is a hold-up!’

‘Der,’ said some smart-ass kid.He was waving his gun around like a chicken trying to fly. Obviously someone was telling him to do the hold-up. He was definitely a first timer.A couple of people screamed and fainted. A couple just fainted. Vanessa leaned back to Hoges.

‘Hoges, I stupidly left my gun in my briefcase which is in the luggage department,’ she whispered, ‘I could use Karate but it’s risky. Do you have a gun?’

‘Yes, they let me bring it when I showed them the badge. I’ll just scare him though.’ Hoges indicated at his handgun, ‘I insist.’

‘Well, okay’.

Hoges stood up with his gun and pointed it at the man. But he crouched again quickly. ’I wonder if this guy has anything to do with our mission’ said Hoges a tad nervously.

‘But he looks so inexperienced. There’s no way he could be.’

‘It might be just an act. Then he’ll just blow the plane first chance he has.’

‘How do you know? He might just be some guy with a balaclava on.’

‘I’m sure. Okay, I’m going back up.’

‘Be careful.’

Hoges stood back up and took out his gun. The balaclava bandit was terrorizing people and scaring the hell out of them.

‘Stop in the name of the law,’ demanded Hoges, pointing his gun at the bandit. ‘I’m going to count to three’

‘So am I,’ exclaimed the bandit. Hoges thought for a while then slowly counted.

‘One…’

‘Two three!’ said the bandit quickly, pulling the trigger. It hit Hoges left arm. People screamed but Hoges hardly flinched though his pain was obvious to Vanessa.

‘Stop in the name of the law,’ yelled McGig, his pants down to his ankles revealing Garfield boxer shorts. He shot. Not seriously like someone trying to kill, but on his hand to make him drop the gun and shocked. And sure enough, he dropped the gun and was shocked.In the very, very, back of the room, Vanessa, Hoges and McGig interviewed the bandit. He now had handcuffs, and he had a bandaged hand and Hoges had a bandage around his arm. Hoges asked most of the questions, Vanessa writing them down and McGig saying things here and there while eating doughnuts.

‘Who are you working for?’ asked Hoges thinking how much that sounded like those big cop movies.

‘I’ll never tell,’ the bandit said, squirming for freedom. Hoges smuggled smirks while thinking about the bandit’s answer and how much more it sounded like a cop movie.

‘Yes you will. Tell or die,’ said Hoges, knowing he wasn’t going to kill the man but grabbing out his gun and pointing it toward the hijacker.

‘Okay, okay. It’s…’Suddenly he drooped. Hoges looked at his back and saw a stab wound. McGig gasped, dropping his doughnuts then gasping again. Vanessa kept writing and looking up casually. But when she noticed she also gasped. They all exchanged looks. They knew none of them did it. They didn’t even hear anything. But someone…

‘They’re after us,’ said Vanessa, jumping up and looking around in alarm. ‘Come, to the cockpit.’