Commonwealth: A Novel of Utopia, part 1, chapter 11
Author’s Note: This is an excerpt from my novel Commonwealth. The rest of today’s installment is free, but only on my Patreon site. If you want to read the next part today, it’s already up on Patreon as well. You can sign up for as little as $1/month, or $2 for exclusive author’s notes and behind-the-scenes material. There’s also a table of contents for all published chapters.
The fuel gauge was hovering above zero. There was nothing she could do. This was the end.
But I can be brave. I will be brave. I’m going to greet my end like a human being, not a frightened animal. I can at least do that.
Rae closed her eyes.
She listened to her breathing, rapid and shallow, and made herself take slow, deep breaths. Her pulse was racing, and she focused on it and made an effort of will to control it, until her heart beat slowly and powerfully. She embraced her fear and turmoil and let them go on an exhaled breath. Her mind stilled and grew calm.
For a moment, she was at peace.
“Okay, time to face it,” she said out loud, trying to steel herself. “Let’s see where I die.”
The plane burst out of the storm’s wall like a bullet, trailing shreds of cloud.
The veils of mist in the windshield cleared away.
Rae opened her eyes.
There was a city.