by J. T. Cross
She watched him studying the map as his expression slowly became even more somber. He threw the pen down, slowly closed his eyes, and shook his head.
“They could’ve gone down anywhere along that line.” He sighed and took a contemplative breath. Biting his lip, he studied the map a little more. He picked up the pen again.
“It’s hard to be sure, but I think I found the boy somewhere in this region. That had to be where they were headed.” He drew a red circle around a mountainous area. The red line extended up into the circle, intersecting it.
“It’s a good bet they were flying in from the south and heading toward a location somewhere within this circle,” he said.
“That would make sense,” she said, looking at the map.
“I wonder how big of an area we’re dealing with.” Luc picked up a small ruler lying on the table and measured the diameter of the circle. Laying the ruler against the map legend, he determined the length of the circle in miles. He performed a few quick calculations on the pad of paper. He dropped his head and was silent.
Kate looked at the pad of paper and read the number. “Okay... It’s about 300 square miles and that’s a lot of territory, but we could cover it in my plane.”
He looked at her. “You’d be willing to risk flying over those mountains?”
“I would. I’ll fly you in a search pattern over the area. I don’t know how many passes we can make before we run low on fuel, but we can give it our best shot.”
“I can’t tell you how grateful I am.”
“I can’t stand the thought of them in that valley alone,” she said.
He put his arms around her and held her. “Kate, thank you so much. I don’t deserve it, but Kelly and Stuart do.”
“We’ll find them,” she said softly.
He kissed her and then slowly pulled away. “But first, we need to come up with a plan.”
Chapter 3
Christie gradually opened her eyes and lifted her head. She struggled to focus on the helicopter’s jumbled interior. The cabin seemed to be spinning, and everything she looked at seemed to move just out of her sight. She looked around but didn’t recognize the surroundings. Her attention was drawn to her head, which was hurting terribly.
Confused, she reached up and brushed her fingers across her forehead. It was wet. She brought her hand back down and saw it was covered in blood. She noticed her ears were ringing and slowly became aware of a voice calling out Mom over and over again.
She struggled to clear her mind and began remembering bits and pieces. They had been flying in the helicopter, and there had been an explosion. The pilot had lost control, and they had crashed...
The aching in her head intruded on her thoughts again, and she closed her eyes and held her head. At least she was still alive and able to notice the pain, she thought.
She opened her eyes again. The interior of the cabin was no longer spinning. She glanced to the front. Things didn’t look right. There were branches coming into the cockpit where the windshield should have been. She didn’t see the pilot nor Philip.
The smell of smoke was heavy in the air. In addition to that, there was an oily pungent odor, which she couldn’t place. Her mind began to clear as she started wondering if the helicopter was going to burst into flames. Wasn’t that what usually happened when aircraft crashed?
“Mom... Mom...” She heard the voice again.
With a gasp, she came fully to her senses and recognized the voice. It was Stuart calling out to her, over and over again. My God, what had she been thinking? She had to try to help him. She looked around the cabin and saw his sneakers sticking out from the edge of a seat.
She tried to stand but was abruptly pulled back by the seatbelt. She frantically clawed at the latch and finally got it to release. She worked her way around the conference table and forward between the seats until she reached the kids. She saw Stuart hunkered down over Kelly, holding a pillow over her head. He was still trying to protect her, she thought.
Now that she was closer she could hear Kelly calling out in a muffled voice. “Stuart, take the pillow off me. I can’t breathe. Take it away.”
Christie grabbed the pillow and tried to lift it up, but Stuart’s grip was strong. “It’s okay, baby. We can take the pillow off her now. It’s okay.”
Stuart looked up at her with glazed eyes and slowly let go. As Christie removed the pillow, Kelly sat up, apparently uninjured.
“He wouldn’t take the pillow off me, Mommy,” she said indignantly. Kelly looked around the helicopter and her eyes went wide. “What happened, Mommy?”
Stuart unbuckled his seatbelt and stood up between the seats. He looked around the helicopter cabin with a confused expression.
Christie worked to get Kelly’s seatbelt unbuckled. “We were in an accident, sweetie. Can you stand up? Do you hurt anywhere?”
“Nothing hurts, but I don’t like it here. Can Daddy come get us?” Somehow, Christie found her naïveté reassuring.
“Yes. I think Daddy will come and get us soon. I called him just before we crashed.”
Stuart looked up at Christie with concern. “Mom, we’re fine, but you have blood on your face.”
That was right, she remembered. It was probably frightening them. “It’s not that bad. It’s just a little cut. I’ll be fine.” She wondered for a moment if that was the truth.
“What happened. Mom? Where are we?” Stuart asked.
“The helicopter crashed, but we’re going to be okay. I need you guys to be brave. Okay?”
“Okay,” Stuart said.
Christie stood and moved to the front of the helicopter where she saw Lackland lying crumpled near the hatch. His head was bent at a strange angle. It didn’t look good, she thought. She squatted down beside him. “Jim, are you okay?”
He didn’t respond or move so she nudged his shoulder.
“Jim,” she said louder. Still there was no response. She grabbed his shoulders and struggled to pull him over on his back. His head canted sideways at a strange angle as she rolled him over.
He couldn’t be dead, could he? Then she realized he was indeed dead. He must have hit the bulkhead when they had struck the ground and broken his neck. She put her ear down to his nose and listened. There was no breathing; there was nothing.
She realized Stuart was standing behind her. “He’s dead; isn’t he, Mom?”
“Yeah, I think he is.”
“Where’s Philip?” Stuart asked.
She stood up and looked around. “I’m not sure, I don’t see him. Go back to your seat. I’ll look for him.”
She moved forward into the cockpit and looked through the right side of the windshield that was still intact. She cringed and her breath was taken away when she realized what she was seeing. Philip had somehow been thrown through the broken left half of the window and had become impaled on a broken branch.
“Philip... Oh my God,” she whispered.
“Where is he?” Kelly asked.
She turned around to the children, trying to keep from crying. “Philip’s dead.”
“I’m sorry, Mom,” Stuart said.
She nodded and turned away.
“Help,” said a muffled voice.
Christie immediately turned to her left and looked down to where she thought the voice had come from. It was then that she discovered the pilot buried under a mass of thickly leaved branches. She began trying to pull them away but discovered there was a particularly thick one pushing the pilot down into his seat.
She grabbed the largest branch and pulled with all her strength. It wouldn’t budge. Pulling the smaller branches out of the way, she uncovered most of his face. She moved the last small branch away from his eyes and saw them darting back and forth. For a moment he didn’t say anything. He just looked at her.
“I can’t breathe, got to get the big branch off me. Can you pull it off?” he asked with labored breathing.
“No, I tried. It’s jammed tight.”
The pilot was silent for
a moment then spoke, “Go to the back of the cabin. There’s a locker labeled emergency supplies. There should be some survival equipment in it. See if there’s something you can use to cut through these branches.”
“Okay.”
She hurried to the back of the helicopter and located the locker. Opening the doors exposed a multitude of supplies. She sorted through two backpacks, dried food, what looked to be a small tent, a collapsible shovel, an ax, and a machete. She pulled out the machete. One side of it was deeply serrated and looked like it could cut branches. It would have to do, she thought.
She returned to the cockpit and began sawing through the thickest branch. It was a surprisingly sharp blade and cut quickly into the sappy wood.
She worked on the branch for several minutes. As she cut through the last part, it snapped down to the floor narrowly missing her foot. She jumped back in response to the loud pop of the branch and heard the pilot take a deep breath.
“That’s better, I can breathe again.”
She saw him pushing the branches away from himself and climbing out from under them. She helped as much as she could to pull them away.
He stood up, took several deep breaths, and straightened his clothes. “That branch almost did me in. Thanks for your help.”
“Are you okay?”
“I think I’m all right, but how about you and the others?”
She worked to get the words out. “Philip and Jim are… dead.” She closed her eyes and tears began to run down her face. “The kids are not hurt, just real scared.”
“I’m sorry about the others... I’m Marcus, by the way.”
“Christie,” she said wiping her face on the back of her hand.
He walked back to Stuart and Kelly who were sitting together and kneeled down at their side. Are either of you hurting anywhere?” he asked.
“We’re okay, but we want to go home,” Stuart said.
“I want my daddy,” Kelly said and started crying.
He put his hands on their shoulders and looked into their eyes. “Don’t worry. We’ll be going home soon,” he said gently.
* * *
Marcus moved back to the front of the cabin where the hatch was located. He pulled up on the latch and tried to open the door, but something was blocking it. Putting his shoulder against it, he pushed harder but without success.
“It’s hitting against something outside.” He stepped back and kicked the door hard but it wouldn’t give. He put his face up against the glass window and looked down. “Oh... It’s hitting against a tree branch. Where’s that saw?”
Christie picked it up off the floor and handed it to him.
“I’m going to try and climb out the front window and see if I can free up the door.”
He climbed onto the pilot’s seat and tried to push his way through the dense tangle of branches. His body was too large, and they wouldn’t give.
Christie climbed onto the copilot’s seat and put both feet against the largest branch and pushed. Struggling to straighten her legs, she managed to move the branch just enough for the Marcus to slide between it and the edge of the broken windshield. Once outside, he sat on the helicopter’s nose, holding onto a branch with one hand and the machete with the other while he looked around.
She relaxed her legs as Marcus slid down the side of the nose and disappeared.
Almost immediately, she heard his muffled voice outside the door.
“It’s jammed against a broken tree trunk. I think we snapped it off when we hit it. It’s small. It shouldn’t take long to cut through it.”
She climbed down from the seat and hurried over to the hatch. She stared out the window. Outside, Marcus went to work on the tree with the serrated blade. After several minutes, what was left of the small tree trunk lay on the ground.
The door opened, and he climbed back into the helicopter. He glanced down at Lackland’s body. “We need to do something about him.”
He went to the back of the helicopter and rummaged through the emergency supplies until he found the blankets. He unfolded one, went back to the front of the cabin, and laid it over Lackland’s body.
“I’m going to check the outside of the helicopter,” he said and went back out the hatch door.
Christie followed him out and looked around the crash site. She then walked to the front of the helicopter and looked up at Philip, impaled on the branch. Marcus walked over and joined her. He put his arm around her shoulders. “I’m so sorry.”
“Me, too. Can we get his body down?”
“I don’t think we’ll be able to do it by ourselves,” he said. “We’re going to need some help for that.”
“I understand,” she said turning away.
“We should go back in and pack up the rest of the supplies and get them out of the helicopter,” he said. “It could catch on fire if there’s any jet fuel around. We should stay clear of it until I get a chance to check things out.”
She followed him back into the helicopter and to the emergency locker in the back. He quickly packed some of the dried food provisions into two medium-sized backpacks that were stored with the other supplies.
He reached to the back of the locker and pulled out a black plastic case that had a combination lock built into the front. She watched him dial the combination into the lock and open the top, exposing two semi-automatic pistols and a box of .45 caliber shells.
“Do you know how to use a pistol?” he asked.
“Yes. I went shooting a few times with my ex-husband.”
“Good.”
He loaded the clips and put one pistol in her backpack and the other in his own.
He looked at Christie. “Whenever I fly into remote locations like this, I bring these. It’s not company policy but...” He handed one backpack to her and looped the other one over his shoulder.
“At least we have something to protect ourselves with until help comes,” she said.
“My thoughts exactly.” He smiled reassuringly. “Let’s all go outside for a while. I need to inspect the helicopter for fuel leaks and any electrical shorts that could cause a fire.”
She took Stuart and Kelly by the hand and helped them out into the clearing. They stood about 20 feet back from the helicopter while Marcus walked around it inspecting the fuel tanks, engines, and exposed wiring. Stuart and Kelly began exploring around the clearing.
“Stay close,” she called out to them.
Marcus came back to her after a few minutes. “I don’t see any leaks or smoking wires. I don’t think there’s much danger of fire. Sikorsky claims their fuel tank technology is the safest. I guess they’re one company that doesn’t exaggerate.”
“What should we do now?” Christie asked.
“We need to set off the emergency beacon.”
Stuart and Kelly came back and stood next to her. They watched Marcus disappear into the helicopter.
She looked around the clearing. It was strange, she thought, how quiet it was. No planes, no TV, no traffic, just the silence of the valley.
Marcus jumped back out of the helicopter, clearly agitated. “Son of a bitch,” he yelled out.
“What’s wrong?” she asked, almost afraid to know.
“The emergency beacon’s missing. It’s standard issue. Somebody must have purposely removed it.”
The panicked feeling in her chest that had just begun to wane suddenly roared back to life. “Who would do that?”
“I don’t know.”
He looked up at the sky, shaking his head. “That cloud cover is thick and low. Without that beacon...”
“It’s pretty bad, isn’t it?” Christie asked.
“We’ll figure something out,” he said running his hands through his hair. “It looks like we’re going to have to spend at least one night here. We should probably lay out some blankets inside the helicopter to sleep on. Once it gets dark, we’ll have to use the flashlights. I’d like to save the batteries as much as we can.”
“Come on, kids,” Chri
stie called out. “Let’s go figure out where we’re going to sleep.” She guided them back into the helicopter, and began trying to straighten up the jumbled interior.
Chapter 4
Luc sat at his dining room table, staring intently down at the map stretched across its surface. For the last hour he had been going through the steps of a plan he had conceived to rescue Christie and the children. A loud knock on the door brought a welcome break.
Kate, who had been sitting in the living room, rushed to the door and opened it. He glanced through the living room and saw Chuck standing on the front porch.
“Come on in.” He stood and walked over to greet Chuck, feeling glad to see him. Kate said he had offered to help, and he had come through.
Chuck carried his backpack in and gave Kate a hug.
Luc stretched out his hand. “I really appreciate your help. I won’t forget this, Chuck.”
“Don’t go gettin’ all emotional on me now,” Chuck said, shaking his head and grinning.
“Would you guys join me at the table?” Luc asked and walked back into the dining room. They followed him in and gathered around the map.
“I have a plan,” he said, “but it depends on help from people in Manatuk. I’m hoping Yudi and one of the other elders will loan us a couple of ATVs. We’ll also need someone to haul our stuff out to the Manatuk hunter’s campground. After that, it will be up to us to go in, find them, and bring them back out.”
Chuck looked down at the map and put his finger in the middle of the red circle. “Is that where you think they are?”
“I think it’s likely they crashed somewhere in that region.”
“It’s a big area. How in the world are we going to know where to look?” Chuck asked, looking somewhat distressed.
“That’s the other part of the plan. Before we go in with the ATVs, were going to use Kate’s plane to do an aerial search. We’ll start at the location where the helicopter’s GPS froze. From there we’ll search out to where I think I found the boy. If we don’t find the helicopter by then, we’ll keep going to the far edge of the search area.”