“Doesn’t go to Japan.” He shook his head and sprinted to the next plane.

  We found “United” on what was left of the fuselage. The tires were gone. The plane lay on its side, one wing in the air, the other broken in pieces. The open exit door was blocked by parts from the broken wing.

  “United flies to Japan.” Takumi’s eyes sparkled with excitement.

  Chapter Six

  I stared up at the blocked exit. “See a way in?”

  Takumi shook his head. “We might be able to squeeze in through the door, but the metal edges of the wing look sharp. There has to be another way.” He peered beneath the plane and inspected where the wing had broken off. “Maybe I can climb up there and break in.”

  I sprinted to the nose of the plane, directly beneath the cockpit. Jagged edges of glass still clung to the broken cockpit windows. We could make it through, but it would be risky. With no medical help available, a deep cut could mean death.

  Then, I spied a small hatch directly beneath the cockpit. “Takumi! Come look! There’s a possible opening. Here!” It was too far off the ground for me to reach, and I glanced around for something to stand on.

  Takumi found a giant airplane tire and rolled it over to me. I stepped out of the way as he let it fall on its side.

  “Let me try.” He handed me his backpack, stood on the tire, and adjusted a small latch. The hatch popped open with a whoosh and almost hit him in the head.

  “Jeez. Be careful!” I cried.

  But Takumi was already halfway inside the crushed cockpit of the plane.

  I climbed on the tire and tried to pull myself up. Finally, Takumi’s face appeared. “You don’t want to come in here. I’ll open the emergency exit on the high side. Go around, but stand back.”

  “Just pull me up,” I yelled, but he was gone.

  I stayed near the nose of the plane and paced back and forth. What had been in the cockpit?

  He pounded on the exit door in front of the wing. The door was stuck. There was a loud click, and an evacuation slide shot out from the side of the fuselage. It filled with air and floated down to hang just in front of the wing.

  I ran to the slide. It didn’t reach the ground. Takumi stood above me, at the opening, and motioned for me to hurry.

  I tried to scamper up the ramp. That didn’t work. I’d get half way up, and then slip back down. Takumi suggested that I grab onto the inflated edge of the ramp and shimmy up. Use the side of the ramp like a rope. It took me three tries, but I made it to the top. Takumi pulled me in.

  “Your way in would have been easier.” I caught my breath and then covered my face. A horrid smell engulfed me. I glanced around the plane. Mildew and mold grew on the seats, carpet, and even the window shades. The overhead compartments were open. Suitcases were thrown around, their contents scattered everywhere. They smelled wet and musty too.

  “What was in the cabin that was so bad?” My hand muffled my voice.

  “There was a dead body. A very, very, dead body.” Takumi scrunched his nose. “One of the pilots died in his seat. But looks like everyone else escaped.”

  “Did you figure out where the plane came from?” I stared at a bikini top that dangled off the armrest of one of the seats.

  Takumi shook his head. “No. Everything in the cockpit had been soaked and tossed around when the tsunami hit.” He stared at the dumped suitcases from the overhead compartment. “I’ll see if there’s anything useful in all this mess.”

  I headed to the galley to check for food. The stainless-steel cabinets were wide open. The service carts were out and on their side. Whatever food might have been on the plane was long gone.

  I was just about to help Takumi look through the dumped bags, when I noticed a hook on the wall with a clipboard on it. I flipped over the first water stained page. The top of the second page was blotchy. I could just make out the flight number, and then the words, Maui, Hawaii.

  “Takumi, it’s from Hawaii.”

  Takumi and I stared at one another. Zoë’s parents had been in Hawaii.

  I held up the clipboard. “I don’t know what Zoë’s parents’ first names are, but her last name is Chambers.”

  I flipped the page. The names of the passengers and their seat assignments were water-stained too. Some were almost impossible to read, but I didn’t find anything that looked like the name, Chambers.

  Takumi shook his head. “This was a mistake. This plane must have crash-landed and then it was tossed around by the tsunami. Salt water filled it, soaked everything, then ran out. Scavengers arrived and took anything useful. We should have checked out the boats in the marina instead.”

  “Keep looking. Maybe there’ll be hotel soaps or shampoos. Or clothing we can use.”

  “Like swim suits?” Takumi held up a pair of paddleboard shorts.

  “Yeah. Why not? It would be nice to have something decent to swim in. My Speedo is falling apart.” I grinned.

  Takumi shook his head. “We need food and fresh water. This is a waste of time.”

  I grabbed the bikini top and the board shorts. “Check the baggage compartment. I’m sure the crew didn’t waste time unloading baggage. People bring back pineapple and macadamia nuts from Hawaii.”

  Takumi’s eyes brightened. We checked out the flight attendants station and hunted for a way down to baggage.

  The door was heavy and the hydraulic lift that was supposed to help wasn’t working, but Takumi managed to pry it open. He peered down and shook his head. I moved beside him. The bags in the hold were floating in about four feet of slimy green water.

  “Okay. Let’s try the next plane,” I grabbed a couple of moldy old lady swimsuits and shoved them into my pack and checked my watch. We had two hours before Dylan would start to worry about us.

  The next two planes we came to were small domestic planes. They were badly damaged. One had a huge container truck on top of it. The other had burned and crashed into a bus.

  A fourth plane had landed upside down on the parking lot. The wings and tail were snapped off, but surprisingly the cockpit glass was intact. An exit door was open, but the slide was gone. We couldn’t read the name of the airline, but it started with a J.

  “It could be JAL,” Takumi suggested as he gave me a hoist up and into the upside-down exit door. I dropped down onto what had been the ceiling of the plane. Takumi tossed our backpacks through the opening, and joined me.

  We lay for a few moments and stared up at the rows of upside down seats. It felt like we were floating on a ceiling.

  The overhead compartments below us were open. Most of the suitcases were gone. The few that had been left were dumped out on the floor. When I got to my feet, I noticed magazines were scattered all around.

  I’d been lying on one and picked it up. “Takumi, this is a JAL plane. See!” I yelled and held up an airline magazine. Dozens of the same airline magazine had all fallen from the inverted seat pockets. I grabbed a number of issues, and shoved them into my backpack.

  Takumi flipped through one. “These are mostly written in Japanese. You don’t need so many.”

  I patted my pack. “Toilet paper and fire starting. Our National Geographic stockpiles are almost gone. And I’d like to save them if we can.” I paused. “Can you read Japanese?”

  Takumi was gathering up a number of magazines too. “A little. I speak Japanese better than I can read it.”

  I inspected to the attendant’s station. Drawers were pulled out and bare. Even the service carts were empty. There was not one little tiny bag of junk food. And there was no passenger list.

  It felt so strange walking on what had been the roof of the cabin. I studied the seats that were now bolted to the ceiling. “Takumi! What about the emergency lifejackets that are under the seats. It wouldn’t hurt to have a few extra life jackets on the boat.”

  He reached up and pulled four off the bottom of the seats closest to him, tossed them out the exit door for us to pick up later, then he continued on to the cockpit.

  I sorted through what clothing the scavengers had left, but nothing looked useful. After a few minutes, I gave up and followed Takumi.

  “Wow, this is cool!” I stood behind him in the door of the upside-down cockpit. “I’ve never been in a cockpit before.”

  Takumi was opening and closing a closet door near the pilot’s seats. “We need the passenger list.”

  I moved over to examine one of the seats. Wedged in tight, along the side of one of the chairs, was a black zippered case. I had to twist it back and forth to free it.

  “Find anything?” Takumi asked.

  “Give me a sec?” The case held several manuals. I scanned through the top one. “This is a DC10. I have all the specs and instrument instructions. Hey! We could fly this thing.”

  “Except it doesn’t have wings or a tail.”

  I grinned. “That’s a problem.”

  “Find the passenger list?”

  “Not yet.” I kept searching. “There’s a book of maps. This must be like what your friend said he carried. I thumbed through them quickly. The maps showed almost every airport in the world and the overall topography of every country.

  There was only a vague outline of the coastlines. I found Mexico, and narrowed in on the Baja Peninsula. It wasn’t a very detailed map and the tiny labels were both in both Japanese and English. But it was something. I shoved the map booklet in my backpack.

  I was about to put the zipper case back when I glanced down at the bottom of the seat pocket. Something colorful and shiny was down there. I stuck my hand in and pulled out a large sealed bag of gummy bears.

  “Bingo!” I cried.

  Takumi hurried over. “You found the passenger list?”

  “No, but I found…” I held up the bag, “…gummy bears!”

  Takumi frowned and went back to searching the cockpit. “The kids will like that.”

  I stashed the candy in my pocket. Kids? What was he talking about? Gummy bears were Cole’s and my favorite candies. I would have eaten some right then, but the bag was sealed and I didn’t want to break the seal until we were back on Whistler.

  I was feeling good when I decided to check the bathrooms. Real toilet paper would be nice. But when I opened the door, I immediately slammed it shut. The worst smell ever wafted out of that tiny room. I ran to the crew’s station and threw up in the sink.

  “You okay?” Takumi asked.

  “No! I need some… air.” I wiped my mouth. “Do not open the bathroom doors.”

  Takumi held onto the arm of a seat above him, and waited for my stomach to settle. “I shouldn’t have brought you here.”

  “What are you talking about. We have paper and gummy bears. And we haven’t even checked the luggage compartment yet.” I protested although I was starting to get a bad headache. I guess my body could only take so many evil smells. I gagged again.

  “Shush! I think I heard something.” Takumi peeked out the exit to check for movement.

  I didn’t know why he was so worried about people surprising us. No sane person would hang around this smelly, toxic, awful place.

  “Let’s check the baggage and then head back. You okay with that?” Takumi asked.

  There were many planes we hadn’t checked out. We hadn’t even made it to what was left of the terminal. But it was getting late, and I didn’t feel well.

  “Fine, but after we find my parents, we are coming back. Maybe we can get some gas masks from the military at the border.” I stared up at the baggage hatch cover that was right above the attendant’s station. It was already open.

  Takumi stood on one of the service carts and peered in. “At least it’s dry. Lots of dumped suitcases. I’m going in.”

  I stared up at the black hole, pulled out my cell and waited. When I was in the hold, I flipped on the flashlight. My battery was low. Takumi was already checking luggage tags with his.

  “This bag originated in China. This one started out in Tokyo.” He shined the light at me.

  I covered my eyes and he lowered the light.

  “The baggage hold wasn’t emptied after an earlier flight. I’d guess that would have been low priority with the tsunami coming.” He held up a red Tokyo tag. “Look for these. Last name is Watanabe.”

  I scurried around, checking tags, knowing my cell light would die any minute. I grabbed a couple of hairbrushes and stowed them. When I dumped a large suitcase, a pile of girls’ clothing fell out. Pink leggings, jeans, underwear, and Hello Kitty pajamas. I didn’t bother to check the sizes. I scooped up the pile and shoved them into my bulging backpack. What didn’t fit, I stuffed into my pockets.

  I needed something else to carry stuff in, and had just found a duffel bag I thought would be light and easy to carry, when my flashlight died. I couldn’t see anything except Takumi and his cell-light.

  Then his cell went dark too.

  Daylight seeped in from the hatch opening below, but it wasn’t enough to see very well. When my eyes adjusted to the dark I found Takumi sitting on the floor amongst all the overturned suitcases and their contents.

  His shoulders were shaking.

  I crawled to him and put my arm around his shoulders. “It’ll be okay. We’ll check out the rest of the planes. I promise.” I gave him a few more minutes. “We can pull off these tags and read them when we get into the light.”

  He sniffed. “It’s no use. This was a waste of time. I’ll never find out what happened to my parents.”

  “I can’t imagine not knowing.” I pulled him close to me.

  He took a deep breath and wiped his eyes. “Just give me a minute, okay.”

  I kissed his cheek and sat on a pile of bags.

  I was just about to pull off a tag when a young voice called out from below.

  “We know you’re up in there. Throw down your food or … or we’re going to lock you in the hold. Forever.”

  Chapter Seven

  I stumbled around in the dark, tripping over suitcases and bumping into boxes. “What should we do?” I whispered as I squinted at the light coming in from the open hatch in the floor, expecting a face to appear. The voice sounded young, but that didn’t mean anything. Young, old, men, women … all were desperate.

  Takumi grasped my shoulder. “Talk to him. Keep him busy. Try to find out how many are with him. I’ll find us another way out. The cargo loading hatch should be somewhere on the side.”

  I nodded, but Takumi was already gone. I crawled closer to the hatch opening, and shouted down, “We don’t have any food. Haven’t you been through these planes already?”

  A younger, higher-pitched voice whined. “They don’t have any food?”

  “Shut up, brat,” the first voice I’d heard said, then bellowed up at us. “I told you to throw down your food. Give us something, or we’ll lock you in.”

  I checked on Takumi’s progress. It was so dark, I had no clue where he could be, but I prayed he was having better luck. “Don’t lock us in. We’re… we’re still looking for food. Give us some time. We’ll find something. I’m sure.”

  There was silence. Then the first voice said, “You have five minutes. Then we are locking the hatch.”

  “Stall, stall,” I kept telling myself. We wasted our cell batteries. That was stupid. If we got locked in here, no one would ever find us.

  I didn’t want to bargain with the gummy bears yet. I decided to try the friendly approach, which was hard. My head was throbbing. “Hey, guys. Do you have a flashlight? Our cell just died. We’d find food faster if we had a light of some kind.”

  The voices began arguing. Clearly, they had flashlights. The squeaky one wanted to give us a flashlight. The first voice did not.

  Then I heard a third voice. It was a girl’s. “Give them one,” she ordered.

  I took my pack off and trembled as I got closer to the opening. Who were these people? Did they have guns? I peered down into the upside-down cabin. Two young boys were loading suitcases on top of a service cart. A girl, no older than twelve, was guarding them. She held a long stick with a gleaming knife duct taped to the end of it.

  One boy was maybe ten, the other, not more than six. They each held boat hooks that had the rubber tips removed and the ends sharpened to a point.

  They were all terribly skinny, with open sores on their faces and arms. Their hair and clothing was filthy.

  I felt bad for them. I was about to just hand them the gummy bears, when the girl stared up at me.

  Our eyes met and a shiver raced down my spine. Her eyes were cold. She would kill without a second thought for a bag of candy.

  I gasped and scooted back from the opening.

  “Do you want the flashlight or not?” the first voice asked.

  I took a deep breath and peered over the rim of the hatch.

  The older of the two boys stood on the cart with a flashlight held high in his hand.

  I grabbed the flashlight from him and searched for the girl.

  “Four minutes!” she snarled. “Or we lock you in.”

  I didn’t doubt she would.

  Takumi was making a scratching noise somewhere up against the fuselage compartment door. I shined the light his way. He looked back at me and shook his head. He gestured for me to come help. I glanced down at our packs and the hatch. If I left, even for a second, the kids would climb up, take our stuff, and lock us in.

  I shook my head no, and motioned for him to come to me.

  He moved faster now that we had light. “There are two loading doors, one on each side. But they open from the outside. Maybe with the light I can find another hatch.”

  “These kids mean business, Takumi,” I said as softly as I could.

  “Don’t give them anything until we’re off this plane.”

  “Agreed.”

  “Keep stalling. You’re doing great.” He took off with the flashlight.

  I called to the kids, “There are lots of clean clothes up here. Want me to throw some down?”

  “We don’t need clothes,” the girl yelled. “Three minutes.”