Storm and Fire 18

Sorry this took a while! I should have chapter 19 soon, I've already written most of it and I only need to type it. There are only going to be 4 or 5 more chapters. Anyway, here it is.

Paul stared at his co-pilot. “I’ve only flown once! If anything, I should be the co-pilot, not have one.”
“I know that! I’m mostly here to make sure you don’t steal it. It’s happened in the past!”
“Nice to know they don’t trust me…” Paul muttered.
“What?” she asked.
“Nothing,” replied Paul, “I’ll start up the ship. How will the ground crew know when to let the ship go?
“Talk to them with this!” she pointed to a small tube going into the dashboard. “Press that button next to it to turn it one. See? I am helpful!”
The button was only a few centimeters from the hole he spoke into, so Paul found that speaking into it forced him to have his cheek against his hand that was pressing the button. This made it both hard to talk and press the button.
“Untie da wope,” he attempted to say, his mouth not being able to work right with his hand right next to it. The ground crew looked confused. “Untie da wopes!” Paul shouted.
The ground crew still didn’t get what he was saying. Paul kicked out a window and screamed at them, “Untie the ropes, you fools!”
They finally got it. The airship was soon floating up, rising quickly with the thundering of the propellers. Yakima soon looked like just a grey splotch in the middle of the green farms. It seemed so much larger when he was on the ground. Now it looked just a few centimeters wide.
The built-in compass pointed north. That was the way he had to go. Back over Ellensburg and up the Columbia River. It probably would be easier and quicker than his first trip, which was intentionally hard. He even had a co-pilot. They would soon be in Wenatchee, and Paul would be able to tell Silvia why he was gone and what had happened. He hoped she wasn’t worried.
The co-pilot got up and started carrying things from the upper cargo rooms into the main room Paul was in. She seemed to be gathering cameras, food, and guns to the main room and throwing the food and guns in a crate Paul hadn’t noticed before. Paul wondered, what is she doing? Is she just trying to get my attention? No matter, I was hired to fly, not ask questions. I won’t bother.
Eventually, though, his curiosity got the better of him. “What are you doing?” he asked her.
“Didn’t you hear we’re delivering supplies to the army?”
“I did. Why don’t you leave them in the cargo hold?”
“We need to get them to Ellensburg.”
“Aren’t we just going to Wenatchee?”
“Right!” she said, grinning, “We’re airdropping them!”
“You sure I shouldn’t be worried about people trying to blow us to pieces?” Paul said sarcastically.
“Oh, no. We wouldn’t fly over the enemy army! That would surely happen if we were stupid enough to do that.”
Somehow Paul didn’t find that very comforting. Paul thought this ‘war’ this was an exaggeration. It was only bandits. At war? Bandits weren’t warriors.
That was what he thought before he saw Ellensburg. When it came into view, Paul was shocked. The city was in flames. Vast armies marched across the plains. Paul could hear explosions and gunfire from the kilometers-distant city.
“This happened in the few days I was in Yakima?” Paul shouted, “What’s going on?!”
“There seem to be Federalist troops coming as reinforcements. I’m surprised they haven’t tried coming from the east yet!” She smiled.
“What’s so funny about that?! If Washington and Oregon hadn’t tried succeeding from the Union, the Federalists and Chinese wouldn’t have been fighting here!”
“Now you’re talking about ancient history, old man! I’m smiling because we have a plan. We just won’t let them ford the Columbia River.”
“Yeah, well ‘ancient history’ matters quite a bit to us old people. Don’t mock the Federalists, there was a time when they had the largest army in the world. I’ve heard these bandits are former members of that army.”
“Don’t pretend that you know all the current events. I heard you lived in that radioactive no-man’s land to the west until a few months ago.”
“Don’t say that! It used to be much more this eastern desert.”
“Another ancient history lesson?” she said.
Paul sighed. “You youngsters sure can be annoying.”
“Well, I have to load a second crate. Fly over to that army there, but don’t get near those,” she said, pointing out various locations.
“It’s not as easy as it looks…” Paul muttered, but she was already gone. Soon enough, the crates were full and the co-pilot opened the hatch under them. They floated down safely, parachutes keeping their decent slow. He could see the army quickly open it. They must be low on supplies.
The rest of the flight was uneventful. Paul easily landed the airship. He started walking back to Wenatchee with the co-pilot and a few other employees. They were chatting amongst themselves about various things, mostly rumors about other employees. Do they really have nothing better to talk about? Paul wondered. I hope Silvia isn’t worried. I hope she’s not off training…
Reaching the hotel a few hours late, Paul entered the room. “Silvia?” There was no answer. It didn’t look like anyone had been there for days. Her bag was gone. “She must have gone to training,” he told himself.
Still, he was worried. Wasn’t her job in Wenatchee? With the craziness in Ellensburg, he hoped she wasn’t there. It would be reasonable to send new recruits there if the army was low on numbers. He decided to go to the military building and find if they knew.
“Silvia?” the person asked. “There are several Silvias in the guards. Do you have a last name?”
“No, I don’t. She’s a new recruit, though, if that helps.”
“All of them are training near Ellensburg.”
“Oh…” Paul said. He didn’t know what to do. There wasn’t much he could do but hope she was safe. He went back to his hotel room. Maybe he could think of something in the morning.