Darkness and Trees

We can see them from the plane
This long line of headlights coming through the darkness
Off of the airplane
Ladies and gentlemen, you can take only your carry-on items
Any checked luggage will remain in the hold
Into the airport
The captain and flight attendants tell everyone
To take the blankets and pillows off the plane
Out of the windows
We grab bottles of water too
No one has any idea where they're taking us
Darkness and trees

As we enter the airport, all those car lights are still aimed at us
We're scared, they're probably scared too
The people here don't know what to expect off of these planes
The airport looks like something left over from the Cold War
Kevin is like
Oh my god, we've gone back in time
The whole procedure,the soldiers and all the formality
It just makes me really nervous

There's a giant map on the wall of the airport and
Someone has written in red marker, "You are here."
Excuse me. I need to find a phone. I need to call my son
I'm sorry, the payphones are out of order
They're all lined up at the airport payphones
So eventually we put an "Out of Order" sign on them
Just so we can get people on the buses
11: 48 pm. Buses and driver are not taking passengers to shelters, not just in Gander
But also to Gambo, Appleton, and farther communities of Lewisporte
Norris Arm, and Glenwood

Our bus sits there forever
While all the others leave
Finally, this other passenger gets on
This guy from the Middle East
Someone says he got questioned
Some says he got searched
And now, he's on our bus
I try to interview the Red Cross, the Salvation Army
But they've got more important things to do than talk to me
That's when I see them, the Plane People, through the bus windows
The terror on their faces
They have no idea where they're going
They take me and my crew in a separate van and I'm looking out the window
Trying to see where we are, but it's pitch dark
I've flown over this area hundreds and hundreds of times
And it's just darkness, hardly and lights anywhere
And now here I am, oh my god, this is just so remote

Into the darkness
Stars and the moonlight
But all around us
Nothing but darkness
Out of the windows
Into the darkness
Darkness and trees

Every school bus we got is goin' back and forth all night
Out to the Salvation Army Camp, we've delivered passengers from
Germany, England, and France
And around three in the morning, my bus is designed to take all these African people out there

Into the darkness
My family and I try to see out the bus windows
No one tells us where we are going
Onto a gravel road
Silence comes on the bus
We get outside of Gander and you could hear a pin drop
My wife and daughter are scared
They ask me what is happening and I do not know
Behind me, this big man comes up to me and he says in this low voice

What's that, now?