AN: This story was inspired by the Thunderbirds movie and my own story Longest Day. For those of you who didn't read it, Longest Day took you through the events of the movie from Virgil's POV. If you want to read it let me know, and I'll give you the link to where its posted. Living Nightmare is the movie through Scott's POV. I hope you enjoy it.
Disclaimer: not mine. Just borrowing
As I woke up, I became aware of my aching body. Why was I so sore? As my mind woke up more, I remembered why. Yesterday had been anything but normal. After the ordeal up in the station and running around in London, it was no surprise that I was sore. Still, as bad as it had been for me John had been through worse.
John!
I wondered if Dad had gotten home with him or not. Ignoring my aching muscles, I went to get up, almost falling off the couch in the process. I forgot I had fallen asleep downstairs. On the other couch, Gordon still slept. I didn't see Virgil anywhere. Evidently he had made his way to his own room before falling asleep.
The sun was starting to come up, and I walked across the room in the grey light of the early morning. I walked stiffly up the steps and down the hall to John's room. Having a masseuse around would have been nice right about now.
The door to John's room was open. Looking inside, I saw that John was indeed in the bed. Sitting in the desk chair next to the bed sat my father. He was in sweat pants and a T-shirt and had obviously showered. I saw him yawning as I came inside. He probably hadn't been asleep yet.
"Dad, how is he?"
My father looked up.
"I thought you were sleeping?"
"I was," I replied. "How is he?"
Dad sighed. "Concussion. Third degree burns to his right hand. The right shoulder has damage to both the ligaments and the muscles but he shouldn't need surgery," he told me, easily repeating what he had been told. "Dammit Scott, I could have lost him. I knew how bad he was hurt up on the station but I forgot all about it in London."
"We all did, Dad," I said, knowing how guilty his felt. It was the same guilt I felt. We'd gotten so wrapped up in the events that we had forgotten about John being hurt. If Virgil hadn't . . .
My father reached up and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
"Dad, go get some sleep. I'll stay here with John," I told him.
"Sleep sounds good," he admitted. "Mark doesn't want him asleep for more than two hours. If you have to, wake him up. Make sure he knows who he is and where he is. It hasn't been a problem yet, he's been drifting in and out all night," he looked at the clock on the desk. "He was awake about an hour ago."
"Okay," I told replied as he stood up. I could see him hesitating. It didn't surprise me none. John had a special relationship with our father. I knew Dad talked to John about things he never talked to any of the rest of us about. Often asked his advice. A relationship that I often envied. "I'll take care of him, Dad." I told him resting a hand on his arm.
He looked over at me and nodded. "I know you will, Scott." he told me, clasping my shoulder. A few moments later, he left the room. Alone with my sleeping brother, I sat down in the chair my Dad had vacated. Yesterday had been such a nightmare . . .
I was sitting at the table with my lap top watching The Last Samurai. Gordon was sitting at the counter chatting with Onaha. I had tuned them out awhile ago. Things were quiet right now and I was enjoying it. Now that Alan was home for the summer there were no guarantees that we would have many quiet times on the island.
Suddenly, the alert sounded. Reflexively, I put the computer on the table and sprang to my feet sprinting toward the steps leading upstairs. Gordon wasn't far ahead of me and as we reached the steps Dad was only about halfway up them.
The three of us hurried to my Dad's office. As we reached it, Virgil hurried from the other direction.
"How bad Brains?" Dad asked walking into the office that had already been changed into IR's Command and Control.
"Thunderbird 5. Major damage sustained. Possible mm-mm-mm– Possible stike by a mm–"
"Meteor."
"Yep," Brains replied as my brother's and I headed toward the lifts.
My thoughts were instantly on my brother John. Two years younger than me, John was by far the quietest and most level-headed of the five of us. John had always looked up to me, though looking back now I often wondered why. Growing up, I had probably gotten him into more trouble than he had bailed me out of and there were times that I resented him tagging along when I was with my friends. Despite that though, I had always tried to protect him from things. This was one of those times when I hadn't been able to. I said a prayer, hoping he was still alive.
"Thunderbirds are go," my father said as he stepped into the lift beside me.
It wasn't long before we were boarding Thunderbird 3. Gordon instinctively headed toward the pilot's seat, Thunderbird 3 being his primary craft. Still ahead of me, Virgil headed for the co-pilot seat. Though part of me wanted to argue the point, I knew now wasn't the time. John needed us and Virgil was just as capable of flying Thunderbird 3 as I was. As Dad took the middle seat, I took the passenger seat in the back closest to the hatch.
Hurrying through pre-flight procedures, Thunderbird 3 was soon headed upwards to Thunderbird 5. Brains had said there was major damage. What part of the station had been damaged though? What systems were still online? How bad was John hurt? Other than the Mayday, no transmission had been received from the station. Would we be in time? Was it already to late?
"Hold on John," I whispered softly under my breath.
John and I were like night and day. I had hated school and John had brought home A's without batting an eye. I was outgoing and John had always been shy. When we were young, painfully so. As a result, the kids at school had picked him as an easy target, though they soon found they had me to deal with too. Where as John thought things through, I was full speed ahead. John had an infinite amount of patience and I had very little. It was probably why he could sit for hours with a fishing pole in hand, waiting for a bit while I was screaming at the fish to bit already. I had loved flying since as far back as I could remember. John on the other hand had once been afraid of flying. Dad's passion for International Rescue and John's desire to be a part of it had forced him to face that fear.
John had grown up far faster than he should have. Following our mother's death, I had turned my back on everything, falling in with a bad group of kids. I had gotten into trouble with the law, failed classes and got myself kicked off the baseball team. All the while, John had been trying to hold things together at home. Tried to take care of our three little brothers as Dad had gotten wrapped up with work trying to forget his grief. As the oldest, that should have been my responsibility. I should have looked out for Alan, Gordon and Virgil as well as John. Instead, John had taken on the burden making personal sacrifices. On top of that, he had tried keeping me from getting into major trouble and I hadn't made it easy on him.
Once I had gotten my head on straight, I vowed that I'd make it up to him. To this day, I hadn't felt as though I did. I'd give my life for any of my brothers in a heartbeat, but I still felt a special bond with John.
A voice over the radio brought me out of my thoughts."I'm losing all power. Repeat– I'm losing all power."
It was John! He was alive. I could hear the fear and pain in his voice though. I knew we had to get to him quickly.
"Hold on, John! We're coming in!" Dad told him. "Gordon prepare for immediate docking."
I found myself tapping my foot as my brothers went through the steps to dock Thunderbird3 with Thunderbird5. I hated sitting here, feeling helpless. I wanted to already be on that station.
"We're locked on," Gordon announced, already undoing his harness. I had mine off as well and was standing at the hatch, checking to make sure everything was as it should be.
"Nice work."
"Docking sequence complete."
"Tunnel hatch secure!," I announced glancing at my father momentarily. As soon as the words were out I turned to grab one of the emergency packs.
"Emergency packs, boys! Let's move!" Dad said even as he grabbed his own pack and headed through the now opened hatchway. I followed him through the tunnel and onto Thunderbird 5.
The station was a mess. Debris lay everywhere. Several fires had broken out and electricity sparked from damaged wires and computers. Damn! John is lucky to be alive, I thought to myself even as I caught site of my brother. He didn't look like he was in much better shape than his bird, though he was trying to sit up.
"John!" Dad exclaimed in front of me heading toward him. "Scott, tackle that fire," Dad commanded pointing at the largest of the fires.
As much as I wanted to go to John's side, I knew I couldn't. I had a job to do. I was going to have to leave John in the care of my family members.
Grabbing the nearest fire extinguisher I headed toward the fire my Dad had indicated. I was vaguely aware of the others around me as they did there jobs. I saw Virgil with John. Part of me wanted to switch places with him even though I knew I was doing as much to help him as Virgil was. Getting the fires out meant that the environmental systems would have an easier time clearing out the smoke.
With my Dad's help we soon had the fires out, thought every now and then electricity sparked from damaged wires. Fixing them was going to take much longer and weren't our first priority. First, we needed to find out exactly how bad the damage was. As Dad went to John's side again, I joined Gordon at the control system as he was trying to get a complete damage assessment.
As I approached one of the panels, I notice a light blinking. "We got a constant warning light on our E.PS. System!" I announced to my Dad.
"Attempt manual override!"
I hurried over to the main panel, getting to it before Gordon could. "No! That's negative!" I told him as nothing happened. I could hear the panic it my own voice. Get a grip, I told myself. I knew my brothers took their cues from me. If I started panicking, then so would they.
Dad was soon standing beside me, checking things out for himself. I could see the concern on his face. See that he was thinking the same thing I was. Someone from the island was trying to send us a warning. This hadn't been a simple meteor strike. It had been a deliberate attack.
"Back to Thunderbird 3 now," Dad ordered turning away from the panel. "John, got to move," I heard him tell my brother as he knelt down to help, John to his feet. I followed Gordon to the airlock. As he reached the airlock though, nothing happened.
"The locking mechanism jammed," he announced turning around.
This wasn't good. Right now we were trapped on the station and we had no clue what was going on down at the island. I turned to look at my father, once in my life glad that I wasn't in charge.
Suddenly the view screen came to life. A bald guy in red appeared on it.
"Attention, Thunderbird 5. As you can see, I have taken over your facilities. You no longer control your operational systems.
I started forward. Dad left John's side and walked toward the view screen himself, as the temperature on board the station started to rise. I had many of times felt as if I was trapped on Thunderbird 5 during my rotation. Cut of from everyone else. This time we really were trapped on the station and I wasn't alone.
As the Hood laid out his plans, I could feel anger rising. Who the hell did he think he was? How dare he think he could just get away with that? Use what my dad created for good to carry out his evil plans.
"You'll never get away with it!" I told him.
"Why the Thunderbird?" my dad asked, seeming much more calm then I felt. How could he be so calm?
"An eye for an eye, Mr. Tracy.
"An eye for an eye.?"
"Perhaps you've forgotten me, but surely you remember saving the life of my brother, Kyrano." Soon, Kyrano was in the view of our screen.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Tracy. I thought he was dead."
We heard the Hood laugh. "Take them away," he commanded. In the background, a 'yes sir' could be heard. "You left me to die that day," he continued. "You may have broken my body but you've no idea how powerful my mind has become. Now you will suffer, as I suffered . . . waiting for a rescue that will never come."
Suddenly the screen went black. "Wait!" my Dad said even as the picture of his office disappeared. Around us, the few systems that were working started shutting down. "Scott status report."
Without hesitation I turned and looked at the control panel. "CO2 levels are rising," I told him.
"All right. Wire the oxygen scrubber to the emergency batteries. Clean the air."
I nodded and went to get the tools I was going to need.
"How long will that give us?" I heard Virgil asked.
I tuned out the reply. I didn't want to know. I already felt like we had a death sentence. Knowing how long that death sentence was didn't really appeal to me.
"Want some help?" Gordon asked me.
I looked over at him. I could tell he wanted something to do. Something to keep him from thinking about the inevitable.
"Yeah, I could use some help," I told him, knowing that was the answer he wanted hear. Besides it might end up being the last thing I ever did with him.
