Everybody Dies; It's Just a Matter of When and Where

I sat on the plane as it prepared to take off, my face hidden behind a magazine. We all had to make sure that he didn’t see us; he couldn’t know that this flight would be his last. The fear of airplanes had soon disappeared as I started working for the spy agency. You learned that there are worse things to fear out there other than airplanes. The only words that ran through my head as the plane took off were the same words that Danielle told me two years ago when we had met on the same exact airplane company.

We all sat in the economy class, as far apart away from each other. That was our safety net; If Derek would see one of us he would not get suspicious. His seat was in First Class, which was how all spies traveled; they accommodated us well for risking our lives all the time. We, on the other hand, we had all set up in economy for a good reason. We had a connection to the company that ran the airline. We had done so many hits for them, that when we came to them for a favor they obliged without a question.

The plane took off and soon David was standing by my side, his sunglasses covering his eyes and a fedora on his head. It masked his identity, which allowed him to have great mobility. If Mark saw him he would never recognize him in a million years.

“Okay so here’s how it’s going to go. All of the passengers in first class have been informed that they will move and it will start happening in… “ David picked his arm up to his face and looked at the wrist watch that hung loosely on his wrist. “Fifteen minutes and we will all begin to slowly move in and replace them.” I nodded my head and moved my feet so that he can sit in the seat next to me, which happened to be vacant.

“How the hell is he not going to notice different people coming into the cabin? And then with that how is he not going to notice that it’s us.” David smirked and I knew that even though I couldn’t see his eyes, they held an evil glint to them.

“He won’t. I have known him for too long and when he’s on flights he puts his music in and usually doses off before the plane even takes off. It helps him with the stress of flying. Remember I’m the tech guy Zack, I was supposed to know everything about everyone.” David told me and I could sense the proud tone in his voice. He rarely ever went out onto the field and more than that, he barely ever did any missions. Sure he was good at it, but he was more of an indoor guy. But when it came down to Danielle, she was like his sister and he couldn’t sit back on avenging her death.

I had seen as the stewardess stood at the entrance of the economy class and tap her nose three times. That was the symbol that people were about to start moving and shortly after, a man in his mid fifties appeared in a brown suit, he was heavy set and we knew that it was time to move in. Everything was set up in first class, all we had to do was to get in there and get rid of all of the civilians. I watched as Brian got up from his seat on the other side of plane and headed towards the stewardess and continued on, to take the seat in which the man just came from.

What Mark didn’t understand when he had killed Danielle was that he killed my last connection to sanity. She was my guiding light in a world that confused me, in a world that scared me more than anything else was ever able to. My dream, once I had entered the field, was to somehow get home. If not permanently at least for a vacation, to just be able to let my family know that I was okay. She was my only connection to that and when he killed her he had taken my last dream and the last person that I had around me that I had a smidgen of respect for.

“Are you ready for this Zack?” A smirk tugged onto my lips as I crossed my arms over my chest.

“As ready as I’ll ever be. I want to see him in blood, he deserves to die a slow and painful death for what he has done.” David chuckled as he got ready. Along with Brian, Johnny, Jimmy and Jason had already also gone to the front and David was to follow Jason. I was the last to enter that part of the plane. Once I went in everyone knew all hell would break lose.

“Zack, you have gone a bit insane after Danielle passed away.” I shrugged my shoulders as David got up and slowly started to make his way out of the seat aisle.

“David I can’t believe you haven’t learned this yet, but you will soon enough. To be in this field of work you have to accept that sanity disappears and we become blind because of it. I am personally blinded by anger and revenge. We are all blinded by something; we just have to make sure we figure out by what exactly.” I told David and he didn’t say a word as he headed to the front. He knew I was right, but as an assassin there were things that were hard to accept. In my short two years in the field I had accepted stuff that some assassins couldn’t even accept after years of working and even the lucky ones that retired couldn’t always accept it. It was something we liked to be blind about, oh what irony was held in that word.

I saw as an elderly couple walked into the economy class and at that moment me and Matt exchanged glances. This was our cue, this was when we had to head to the front. Sure we didn’t need seven men to kill Mark, but it sure felt good to have everyone. Everyone wanted to avenge her death. She was the one that held the most life out of us, she was the one that lived and more than that she wanted to live because she saw the good in everything; that was something that was hard to do in our business.

Matt and I headed to the front, passing the business class and finally arriving at the entrance of the first class cabin. It was closed, the stewardess standing by the doors. They were waiting for us all to get there before they would lock it down.

“Are you sure about this Zack?” Matt asked me as he placed his hand on my shoulder to stop me from going in just yet.

“More sure then I have been of anything else in my entire life.” I told him and with that we walked in. Matt took a seat in a chair that was not far from Mark, while I just stood back. I was not going to wait around till he saw us. I was going to make my presence known, make sure he died in cold bold.

I heard the doors lock and that was it, there was nowhere for any of us to go. The only way out was to kill him. The rest of the team put a lot of faith in me, they knew that I was good by this point and could take on Mark. In the year since Danielle died, I had worked on my skills and became one of the better assassins. It was true that you needed to lack morals in this field and I had learned how to make mine disappear.

Pulling the gun that I had stashed in the back of my jeans, I walked over to Mark; A smirk on my face. The headphones in his ears made him unaware of the world and unaware of what my intentions truly were. The seat directly behind him was empty and I stood there, the gun cocked at his head. This was too soon to kill him, he had to know why he was dying; Mark didn’t deserve an easy death. Pushing the gun to his head, Mark’s body quickly reacted as he jerked forward and ripped the headphones off of his ears.

“What the fuck?” He yelled but then he saw me as the culprit behind it, fear set onto his face and I instantly knew why. He was unarmed and couldn’t protect himself and at this thought I couldn’t help it, as my smirk got even wider.

“Payback’s a bitch isn’t it?” He got up from the chair as he began to walk towards the cockpit. “Tell me one thing Mark, was killing her worth the millions that you got? Was killing her really worth your life?” The fear in his eyes got deeper and he knew that the only way he was going to get out was in a body bag.

“Now, now Zack; how can we call this a fair fight? You got that gun of yours and you have all of your men here. I’m by myself and unarmed, shouldn’t you make it a bit of a challenge to kill me?” I scoffed at his words as I rolled my eyes. He was going to say anything just to be able to live.

“Oh, you mean like the fair fight you gave me and Danielle? I think it’s only suiting to kill you in the same manner.” He backed away further, till there was nowhere else to go. His back hit the wall and I knew that I had him pinned, I had him trapped like the rat that he was.

“Zack, you’ve gone insane. You have to understand that she was a hit just like one of the one’s that you get. A job is a job and in this world it does not matter about the connections you have and don’t have.” I got closer to him, the gun placed firmly against his temple as I glared at him.

“That’s horse shit and you know it. You wanted the money and that was the only reason that you killed her. Now I’m going to do the same thing to you, but I’m going to gut you like the pig that you are.” He opened his mouth and yelled, but no one was able to hear him. The walls were sound proof; it was clear that we were planning his death for a while now.

“Scream all that you want, no-one can hear you.” I couldn’t wait any longer. I just wanted him gone, away from my sight. “Just know, when I kill you I’m not doing it for money. I’m doing it for the purpose of revenge; a way of saving my own mind from the vile world that you made larger for me.” Without a second thought, I pulled the trigger and the bullet pierced his temple, his brain splattered on the plane walls and I watched as the life drained out of his eyes.

In a moment Johnny and Jimmy got up and dragged the body over to the drop hatch that we had for the purpose of getting rid of his body and Jason started to clean the wall where Mark’s blood painted it.

I couldn’t help as my hands began to shake and I sat in the closest chair that I could find. My life for the past year revolved around killing him, around seeing him in the same blood that he had left Danielle in. Now that I had killed him, I had nothing more to live for.

“I can’t do this anymore. I can’t live like this, it’s killing me.” The words came out of my mouth in a barely audible whisper but Brian heard me as his head snapped in my direction.

“Zack, what the hell are you talking about?” He asked me as his eyebrows furrowed in confusion.

“What I’m saying is that I can’t take this anymore. I’m not cut out for this world anymore. I’ve been living the past year on anger, on revenge. I didn’t care about anything and I forgot my morals, something that I highly treasured. Everything that had made me the person that I was is gone. I’m just a shell of who I used to be… Brian I can’t do this anymore.” I told him and I had noticed fear flash in his eyes, he knew where all of this was going and he feared it.

“Zack calm down, let’s talk about it.” I shook my head as my knee bounced up and down and the hand that held the gun shook violently.

“Brian there is nothing to talk about. I need to be saved from this vile world and there’s only one thing that could do it for me. Only one. I’ve lost everything, I lost who I was. Brian if you hear me, you have to understand where I’m coming from.” I told him and instead of saying anything to me, Brian just started to walk closer to me. Holding one hand up to tell him to stop, I brought the other hand that held the gun to my temple.

“I’m sorry, I’ve got to do this. Remember in this world, we all die young.” Without another word I pulled the trigger as Brian jerked forward to try to stop me. My finger was quicker though and in the end I was someone that could only be saved through death. Instead of one body leaving the plane that day, there were two. Marks and mine.