The light of the full moon was shining down upon the large plane that sat alone on the runway. Next to it, two men conversed, although unbeknownst to either of them, a third individual listened in. Hiding behind an apron bus was a teenage girl dressed in a large brown coat, with black hair tied into short twintails. Her face was covered with scars and untreated wounds, acquired through many years of solitary survival on the streets. She only had a single belonging, that being a small knife she occasionally had to use to protect herself. For about a week, she had been living within the airport itself, but when the security started to get suspicious of someone hiding in the stores, she took notice and fled to the nearest exit, which happened to take her here. She gazed at the two men, trying to observe them as best she could. They looked like soldiers of some sort, with dark green uniforms and bulky helmets on their heads. There was a stack of large cardboard boxes near them, each one seeming big enough to fit two of her, if she curled up. It was almost totally quiet, so she was able to hear what they were saying.
"Y'know, given how important this stuff is, you'd think they'd send some higher-ranking guys to take care of it."
"I guess they're all busy with the other parts. What I'm wondering is why they sent us to get this so early. Don't we still have two days until we actually gotta fly back?"
"I ain't complaining. We basically get a couple days off, right?"
"Yeah... But I think we should load this into the plane now, so we don't have to think about it later."
"Good idea."
The two of them began picking up each box and carrying them into the plane, commenting on the weight of the packages as they did so. Eventually, they got to one box that was a bit different from the others.
"Hey, this one's way lighter."
"Yeah, there weren't enough bits to fill all of them, so this one's half-empty."
A few gears began to turn in the girl's head, and she moved to the other side of the bus, watching from another angle that allowed her to see the two men actually put the box into the plane. She took note of where they placed it, and watched as they went to get the next box.
'If they're just gonna leave those boxes for a few days,' she thought to herself, 'then I can sleep in that one for a night and nobody will know, right?'
She watched as they approached the next box and tried to pick it up, with this one seeming even heavier than the others. Taking advantage of the extra time they took to lift this box, she dashed out from behind the bus and towards the plane, climbing into the same compartment where the boxes were being placed and using her knife to carefully cut a little bit of the tape holding the lightest box shut, so that she could peel it off and back on. She opened it up and got in, curling up among the various metal shapes and parts that filled half of the box. It was uncomfortable, but not the worst place she had ever slept in. After entering, she tried her best to close the box while inside it, with the tape mostly holding it shut. She heard a box being placed next to her, followed by footsteps, and then, through the small gap left behind in the top of the box she was in, she saw another one being pushed on top. This served to perfectly conceal her, but it also meant she couldn't leave without toppling at least one box over.
'I guess I'll deal with that tomorrow,' she thought, as she closed her eyes and tried to sleep.
Meanwhile, the two men had finished loading all the boxes into the plane, and after they closed the compartment they were stored in, a third man walked out of the plane, looking over at the duo.
"Alright, I've finished all the necessary checks and you've loaded all the parts. We should be ready to go, then."
"What's with the rush? We've got a couple days until we actually have to head back."
"What? No, the skinny freak said we need to get this stuff back Tuesday night."
"Tuesday? Not Thursday? You sure?"
"Do you really wanna wait around and find out?"
"Good point. Alright, let's go."
With that, the three of them got back in the plane, oblivious to the sleeping addition to their cargo, and a couple of minutes later, they took off, soaring through the night sky to a location unknown to most, and unforgettable to those who know of it.