Alan and Virgil were currently in transit to a hurricane disaster taking place in the state of New Jersey. The governor had called a state of emergency and Scott had Gordon with him in Thunderbird 1 to begin the rescue efforts immediately upon landing. Both brothers were exhausted, they'd just come from a massive flood in Guyana and they were covered from head to toe in mud. Alan struggled to keep his eyes open as he helped Virgil pilot the giant green mammoth to the next danger zone.
"I'm so tired." Alan muttered from behind his hand as he stifled a colossal yawn. "In the last 96 hours I think I've gotten maybe four hours of sleep total."
"You're not the only one little brother." Virgil shook his head, before running a grubby hand across his face. Mud streaks were left over his eyes giving him the appearance of a raccoon.
"Hopefully after we are done, all four of us can go into hibernation for a couple days." Alan looked at the calendar to check the date. Today was all hallows eve – or more commonly known as Halloween.
"Not likely…just in the last four days we've been called out on three or more rescues. All the rescues unfortunately occurred just when we've all crawled into bed after a nice shower." Virgil groaned as Alan grabbed the thermos of coffee that they'd been given by the Red Cross when helping with the flood relief efforts in Guyana. "Can you pour me some?"
"I was already pouring it for you. I've got tea from the locals; I'm good for the time being." Alan held up his own thermos of strong black tea he'd been given when he'd pointed out he doesn't normally drink coffee.
"You are so weird. I don't know how you can manage with just tea to stay awake." Virgil accepted the strong black coffee from his brother sighing in relief at the bitter taste giving him a jolt to awaken his foggy mind.
"I attended junior high and high school at boarding schools, they didn't serve coffee to their students. So those of us that had trouble waking up had to make do with what we could find…I found mine with tea. It's simple yet effective." Alan took a sip from the hot liquid, not caring for once if he burned his tongue or not.
"Scott, John, Gordy and me so would not have survived attending your previous school. We all inherited dad's extreme love of coffee." Virgil glanced over at his youngest brother, before smiling bemusedly.
"Yeah, you all began drinking it as soon as you all turned thirteen. That is so unhealthy. I'm surprised you all grew as tall as you did." Alan slurped on his tea.
"Hey, like you're one to talk. I think that tea has some freakishly abnormal growth hormone in it. I mean you're what five foot eleven?" Virgil rolled his eyes exasperatedly at his little brother.
"Officially? I am six foot two." Alan grinned at Virgil when the elder gaped in shock at his younger…not exactly little brother.
"Holy…I could have sworn that you were still only an inch shorter than Scott? Now you're over two inches taller than him? That ain't natural bro!" Virgil groaned in disbelief at his baby brother's height. "Dad was never six foot two or taller…he stopped growing at six foot like Scott. What happened?"
"Maybe I inherited Grandpa Oliver's genes…mom had a tall father didn't she?" Alan inquired timidly, mentioning their mother usually didn't bode well with the Tracy sons or patriarch…primarily because the youngest always blamed himself for the loss. His mother died in childbirth with him from placental abruption…the placenta tore away from the uterine wall and his mother bled out minutes after delivering her youngest child.
"Not possible. Mom was adopted…weren't you ever told?" Virgil glanced warily at his younger brother; the nineteen year old blonde hung his head before shaking it slowly.
"You know I don't like asking dad about mom. It makes him depressed to talk about her." Alan refused to look at the medic. He hated himself for even bringing it up.
"You could have come to me or the other guys to ask if you were curious. We wouldn't mind telling you a little about mom." Virgil knew that Alan blamed himself for the death of their mother, he'd found out when Alan had gone through an angst phase and wrote dark poetry about wanting to self-mutilate back when he was fifteen. "Get rid of that hang dog look Al, you didn't kill mom."
"I know I did Virge, maybe not intentionally, but I still played a hand in mom's death. If she had listened to the doctor and aborted the pregnancy she might have still lived." Alan would always blame himself for their mother's death. He had been a surprise pregnancy after all. His mother hadn't known she was pregnant until she was almost ten weeks along.
According to the journals he'd found hidden in a hope chest in the attic, his mother had been advised by the doctor to abort the pregnancy and she'd adamantly refused to do so. His mother had written that his father Jeff had supported her decision to maintain the pregnancy as long as it was possible. They'd hidden the pregnancy from Alan's brothers until Lucy's stomach began to fill out and become a tiny little bump. At which time it was not physically possible to abort the baby and the chances of having a miscarriage were unlikely.
"Al, you can't always be beating yourself up. You did not intentionally set out to kill mom, it was a freak happening. If that robber hadn't broken in the house and caused mom to fall down the stairs, she wouldn't have gone into premature labor with you. If you want to blame someone blame him. But don't blame yourself for something that was out of your control." Virgil blew out an exasperated sigh, before glancing down at the compass. It was spinning madly out of control.
"What the h…" The lights going out briefly before turning back on cut Virgil off. Alan and Virgil shared a spooked look, before Alan called in to base.
"Thunderbird 2 to base, how do you read?" Alan tapped his finger on the navigation equipment when he'd noticed the compass needle spinning. "Are you picking up my transmission? Base do you read?"
"Try changing frequencies, call John on Five." Virgil suggested, before glancing out the window. Alan nodded in agreement before changing frequencies.
"Thunderbird 2 to Thunderbird 5…do you copy over?" Silence was Alan's only reply. "Thunderbird 5, John can you hear me? This is Alan…how do you read?"
"This can't be happening. Try Scott through your comm. watch." Virgil's eyebrows wrinkled when visibility became zero. "Tell him we are in the soup, I am going to need to fly lower."
"Okay." Alan's reply was a little shaky when he'd noticed the fog that had rolled in. Thunderbird 2 was practically flying blind. "Scott, do you copy? Over?"
"What is it Sprout?" Scott's voice rang out loud and clear.
"We're caught in some fog and visibility is at an all-time low. We need to fly lower. Our ETA is going to need at the very least ten extra minutes tacked onto the original estimated incoming time of arrival." Alan replied as calmly as he could.
"Sprout? Did you say something?" Scott's voice was clear, but he'd apparently not heard what Alan said. "Alan, quit playing games…we need you to focus!"
"Can you hear me?" Alan shot Virgil a worried gaze when he'd inquired of Scott.
"Alan, you need to speak up. I can't hear anything you're saying." Scott sounded irritated.
"Scott, it's me Virgil! Can you hear us?" Virgil called from the main pilot's seat. "We are going to fly lower we can't see."
"Alan, quit playing games and help Virgil pilot Thunderbird 2, call me if ya'll run into trouble. Scott out." Scott disconnected the call and Alan and Virgil both had their jaws hanging open. Hadn't Scott heard anything they'd just said?
"I'll try Gordo. Maybe it was just a bad connection." Virgil dialed in his watch to Gordon's frequency.
"Yo Virge, what's up?" Virgil gave a relieved sigh to hear his little brother's voice sounding somewhat carefree.
"Gordo, do you read me?" Virgil crossed his fingers in hopes of Gordon hearing him.
"Virge? Did Alan get ahold of your watch? Scott's pretty raving mad over Alan playing with his watch while we're on a rescue." Gordon sounded totally confused and Virgil did one of his best fish impressions. His mouth opened and closed soundlessly, before he got ahold of himself and managed to speak again.
"Gordo can you hear me?" Virgil paused…waiting for reply from Gordon that he'd heard him.
"A little word of advice Alan…quit playing with the watches. Dad will be furious when he finds out you were playing around instead of helping Virgil fly the green bug." Gordon spoke in an admonishing tone to his younger brother.
"But we're not playing with the watches! Can't you hear us?!" Alan cried from the co-pilots seat.
"Virgil, what is your ETA? We're waiting and dad is getting worried, you guys are late!" Gordon inquired, his voice breaking up slightly from static.
"We are going to be a few minutes late! We are flying in the soup!" Virgil growled back into his watch. How come neither of his brothers was hearing him and Alan and why did base and Thunderbird Five not reply to their calls? "Holy Shit…"
The lights went out completely in Thunderbird Two and the flight controls completely stopped working. Alan flipped on the mayday signal that would notify Thunderbird Five of their problem and worked to help Virgil find a place to land, the only problem was…they were over the open ocean…not exactly many places to choose from to land something as big as the green mammoth.
"We're going to need to ditch, I have no control!" Virgil cried out, while pulling down on the yoke.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" Alan, like Virgil pulled down on the yoke while flipping all the emergency engine reboot switches. Nothing was working.
"Brace for impact!" Virgil reached across the console and grabbed Alan's hand and both brothers got into the crash position.
"No!" Alan screamed out, before everything went dark and he felt himself being thrown around. His grip on Virgil's hand only tightened as the thought of 'we're going to die' crossed Alan's mind. The only sound that was heard for several minutes was a loud metallic scream as the metal of Thunderbird Two contorted under the weight of its massive bulk. When everything quieted down, Alan was the first to speak. "Virgil, are you okay?"
Placing his free hand against his forehead, Alan became aware of blood oozing from a laceration within his hairline. He felt dizzy and his whole body ached. His left hand was still tightly being held by Virgil who thankfully groaned in pain, letting Alan know he hadn't been killed. Alan lifted his head from his hand and opened his eyes, he couldn't see anything…and he couldn't tell if he'd gone blind or if it was because the cockpit was so dark.
"Al-an? Virgil groaned out. He sounded like he was out of breath, probably from the safety harness squeezing all the air from his lungs during impact.
"Virgil? Are you okay?" Alan turned his head, trying to find a light source. There was a flashlight in the emergency kit in the cockpit; the only problem was Alan couldn't remember where it had been prior to their crash landing.
"I think so. My chest hurts though." Virgil grunted, before giving a pained wheeze. "I think I dislocated a couple ribs…how about you? Are you hurt?"
"I have a cut on my forehead…where is the emergency kit? I need to find a flashlight." Alan looked around in search of the kit, but it was so black…he couldn't tell where anything was.
"You can't see?" Virgil sounded…concerned for lack of a better word.
"No. It's pitch black in here." Alan continued on speaking. He heard Virgil gasp slightly before the medic groaned in pain. "Virgil, what's going on? Are you okay?"
"Hold still for a minute. I want to take a look at your head. You said you got a cut on your forehead?" Virgil could be heard fumbling with his safety harness before another groan sounded. Within moments, Alan felt Virgil place his hand on his knee. Virgil was leaning close enough into Alan's face that the younger brother could smell the spearmint gum that the medic liked to chew.
"How bad is the cut Virge?" Alan lifted a shaky hand up to his forehead and Virgil grasped the shaking limb in his own.
"It's quite shallow…" Virgil started rustling around in his jumpsuit, before a quiet 'click' of a flashlight was heard. "Okay Al. I want you to follow my finger."
Alan furrowed his eyebrows. How could he follow Virgil's finger if he couldn't see it? Huffing with an exasperated tone, Alan crossed his arms. He was waiting patiently for Virgil to turn on a flashlight or some other light source so that he could see his brother and the finger he wanted him to follow. Virgil gently shook Alan's shoulder, before Alan swatted at the hand on his shoulder.
"Sprout, I said follow my finger." Virgil repeated what he wanted Alan to do.
"I can't. It is still as dark as night in here and I can't see you. If it wasn't for the spearmint gum you're chewing, I wouldn't even know that you are leaning into my face." Alan sounded irritated. Virgil gasped slightly.
"But the lights are on. It's lit up like normal in here." Alan felt the heat from the flashlight bulb on his face, but couldn't see anything.
"I think you've got a screw loose Virgie. It is pitch black in here." Alan repeated.
"I don't think so Al. That cut on your forehead starts at your hair line and extends down towards your left cheek. Alan…I think you've gone blind." Virgil sounded worried, but neither brother could focus on that because another sharp jarring of the giant green mammoth caused both brothers to lose consciousness after being thrown around the cockpit.
XXXXXXX
"Scott, what's the status on the ETA of Thunderbird Two?" Jeff inquired from his place at Command and Control in the lounge.
"TB2 is late sir. The guys called in fifteen minutes ago, but I think it was Alan playing with his watch. Nobody spoke up when I answered." Scott replied from mobile command.
"Have you tried calling Virgil or Alan back?" Jeff was tapping a pen rhythmically on his desk. "It's not like Alan to play around during a rescue."
"I know that dad, but if he's trying to stay awake or he's bored…he'd probably play around." Scott sounded mildly concerned. "I'll contact John on five to see if he can pinpoint their location."
As if John was reading Scott's mind, he connected to base and mobile command to update his family. Jeff looked over at the frame which held John's portrait to see his second son looking beyond puzzled. He was muttering to himself and shaking his head deep in thought.
"John, what seems to be the problem?" Jeff inquired, breaking John out of his musings.
"Sir, it would seem that a storm front has moved in front of TB2 and they've been grounded." John worried his bottom lip as he informed his dad and big brother of what was going on.
"That's most unusual. Usually storms don't affect TB2 in her travels." Jeff mused to John. "Have you tried to get in contact with them to find out if the storm has affected any other locations?"
"Yes, I have tried contacting them. But the troubling news is…I can't get through. Neither Alan nor Virgil is answering the radio nor are they answering their watches." John sounded perplexed as he revealed the news.
"Hmm, keep trying. I will try to lock onto their location myself and see if I can get through." Jeff started to send in the signal to Virgil's watch. "Scott, you and Gordon do the best that you can with the resources available. Contact me if you get word from Alan and Virgil."
'Yes sir. If at all possible, please keep Gordon and myself in the loop on their whereabouts." Scott moved to disconnect the call.
XXXXXXX
"Hey, you girls get away from there! You don't know what that is!" Virgil began to stir at the sounds of a young woman shouting orders. There was a bunch of girlish giggling, before a gasp brought him into awareness.
"Ooh, two cute boys." A second female voice sounded off. She sounded very energetic.
"Alecia, stay away from them! They could be ax murderers!" The same voice that had been shouting orders earlier made Virgil open his eyes slightly before he closed them with a groan. His head was pounding.
"They are too cute to be ax murderers Stacy. Judging on their weird clothing, I'll bet they are aliens that crash landed here." The second voice, apparently a girl named Alecia spoke up. "Aw, the cute blonde boy is injured. Perhaps we should take him and his colleague to Rachel, she could fix them up."
"Mom and Dad would kill us Alecia; just because you're boy crazy doesn't mean that our parents will approve of two strange guys that showed up in the jungle be brought into our house." A third voice was heard. It wasn't nearly as loud or haughty as the first or as energetic as the second voices. It was more laid-back and calm.
"Aw, but Jane. Rachel will want to make sure they are okay. I mean look, the cute brunette looks like he received quite the goose egg and the blonde is bleeding. Do you think mom and dad would approve of us leaving these two guys out here to die of their injuries?" Alecia was heard again and she sounded really whiney.
"I'd have to agree with what Ally is saying. I know I wouldn't be able to live with myself if anything happened to these two. I mean, come on…how often do we get to see two cute boys on our island anyway?" A fourth voice sounded like a mix between the second and third voices. Calm and thoughtful, yet kind of energetic.
"We don't Virginia. Dad likes to scare any and all boys away from us." A fifth voice sounded a bit closer and totally different than all the other voices. This fifth voice sounded very mellow and quiet…quite the opposite of all the other voices. Virgil finally managed to drag his heavy eyes open, and when he looked up he was surrounded by a bunch of girls.
"Ooh, the cute brunette is finally awake." Virgil gazed up at the girl that spoke and found she was a pretty redhead girl with unique hazel eyes.
"What? Where am I" Virgil groaned, his eyes sliding shut at the pain in his head. A cool hand patting his cheek roused him though.
A girl with golden blonde hair had leaned down to pat Virgil's face. She resembled Virgil and Alan's mother…and to be quite honest it scared him. She appeared to only be in her teens still, virtually harmless. Gazing around, his eyes met with a brunette girl with brown eyes. She was staring him dead in the eyes, almost as if they'd met before. Another girl seemed to be an older version of the brunette only she had blue eyes. As blue as sapphires.
"Who are you?" Virgil managed to sit up, before looking around to find Alan lying flat on his back unconscious. "Alan? Oh my God, are you okay?"
Virgil scrambled over to his baby brother and lifted his head to lie in his lap. Virgil used the sleeve of his jumpsuit to dab at the still actively bleeding laceration on Alan's forehead. He'd received two black eyes and he was still covered in mud from the rescue they'd just left in Guyana. Looking around, Virgil realized they were back on their island, in the jungle and Thunderbird Two was wrecked beyond repair.
"Come on little brother. Speak to me? Come on, open those baby blues for me!" Virgil rubbed his knuckles against Alan's sternum and received no response. "Damn it, I'm your big brother! Listen to me when I'm talking to you!"
"Alan? That's this guy's name?" Virgil turned to look at who spoke to see the young blonde creeping slowly over towards him and his little brother.
"Yeah." Virgil cradled Alan's head in his lap, praying that he'd wake up and open his eyes to gaze back at him.
"He's your brother?" Virgil kept an eye on the blonde girl that gradually crept closer to him.
"My baby brother." Virgil leant down and placed his forehead down against Alan's still bleeding forehead. "You can't take him mom. Not yet."
"Hey." Virgil lifted his head, and found the brunette with brown eyes had come to kneel beside the teenage blonde girl.
"What?" Tears well in Virgil's eyes, he was afraid to lose his little brother.
"Can you walk?" The brunette spoke softly, trying to calm the panicking older brother.
"I think so. Why, where are you taking me?" Virgil looked around. He recognized the jungle, but not the girls.
"Up to our infirmary for our family medic to take a look at you and your brother." The brunette stood up, before offering her hand to Virgil.
Virgil looked at the girl's hand and eased Alan's head from his lap laying him flat on the ground, before accepting the girl's hand to pull himself up to his feet. Upon standing up to his full height, he discovered he was a good foot taller than most of the girls. The tallest appeared to be the brunette with blue eyes, and she seemed to be a couple inches shorter than Virgil. As embarrassed as he was to show emotion in front of the girls, he didn't bother to hide the tears shining in his eyes over his injured and unconscious little brother.
"So, you lead and I'll follow with my brother?" Virgil knelt beside Alan and lifted him with the blonde and brunette girl's help onto his back into a piggy back.
"Yep, Stacy, you want to lead the way?" The teenage blonde spoke up from her place beside Virgil. She and the brunette each had a hand supporting Alan's back. The blonde girl kept looking at the blonde boy and admired how cute he was, regardless of the bloody cut on his face.
"Fine Alecia, but you are explaining this to mom and dad when they get back from their anniversary in Greece." Stacy the older brunette balked.
"Alright Stacy, I will." Alecia the teenage blonde turned to Virgil before smiling calmly at him. "So, if your little brother's name is Alan…might I ask what your name is?"
Virgil nodded, before closing his eyes to ward off the spinning. His head was killing him, and he was sure he had a concussion. Opening his eyes, he was met with five sets of worried eyes gazing with concern at him. Clearing his throat, Virgil began.
"My name is Virgil Tracy."
"Hmm, what a coincidence…our last name is Tracy also." Alecia the blonde teen gestured to all the girls that walked before them.
"You know, dad would get so mad at you for talking to total strangers." Stacy replied pointedly from the front of the pack.
"He'd get over it. Just consider these guys guests until we can figure out where they came from." Alecia rolled her eyes at the elder brunette.
"Might I ask what you're names are?" Virgil hoped he wasn't out of line by asking who his and Alan's rescuers were.
The group stopped and everybody turned to look at Virgil. At seeing the entire group of girl's keen stares at him, Virgil couldn't help but to blush. He'd had girlfriends before, but he'd never been comfortable with being ogled by the opposite sex. He was quite shy until one got to know him, and he was a bit of a recluse…at least that is what Alan and Gordon called him when they poked fun at him and his need to be alone while drawing or painting.
"Sure, we'll go in order of age. I'll start first." The older brunette spoke. "I am Stacy." She held her hand out to Virgil, dismissing the fact that Virgil was currently carrying someone on his back. Virgil leaned forward slightly, to support Alan on his back better while he stuck out a hand to shake Stacy's hand.
"It's nice to meet you Stacy." Virgil grunted out, Alan was made of pure muscle…so he was quite heavy.
"I'm next, I am Janine Tracy. But you can call me Jane." The young woman leaned forward, her bleach blonde hair slipping free from behind her ear to create a bit of a curtain. She gripped Virgil's hand firmly, before stepping away.
"It's nice to meet you Jane." Virgil smiled slightly despite wanting to groan at the dead weight of his little brother.
"Then it comes to me. I am Virginia Tracy. It's a pleasure to meet you Virgil." She didn't shake Virgil's hand as she could see he was struggling to hold up his little brother. She anxiously tucked her chestnut brown hair behind her ear as she marveled at Virgil's strength.
"Put 'er there! I am Ginny Tracy." The redhead smiled cheekily at Virgil, before stepping away. Virgil blushed when he realized the girl was wearing nothing but a bikini and sarong for clothing. As a matter of fact, all the girls were wearing only swim suits. Ginny seemed really bubbly and quite okay with her half-dressed state though.
"Then that leaves me, the best and the last! I am Alecia Tracy. Try saying that one three times fast." Alecia did a mock salute to Virgil. Her maize colored blonde hair was draped over her shoulder in an elegant braid. "Now let's get you and your brother up to the infirmary."
Virgil could only manage to nod. How was this possible? All the girls looked eerily like his late mother to a point, but none more so than Alecia. She was almost the spitting image of his late mother. The only difference was that Alecia had a natural mole by her left eye and his late mother never had a mole near her eye. His mother had a natural beauty mark where most girls got that Marilyn Monroe piercing done in the past.
Following the group of girls through the jungle, Virgil began to pick out different landmarks that Gordon or Alan had shown him. Alan was the primary explorer of the family, and he was notorious for marking the trail with little cairns to mark the trails he'd taken to get to a certain spot. It was no wonder that he never got lost, he was too careful when it came to marking his trail.
"So Virgil…where were you and your brother headed when you crash landed on our island?" Jane inquired near the front of the group.
"Oh…um…I'm…uh…afraid I can't say." Stacy who led the group stopped and turned to glare at Virgil. Cocking her hip to one side, she settled her fists on her hips.
"If you want medical treatment for you and your brother, you are going to need to be up front with us. Why were you flying that giant green monstrosity?" Stacy smirked when Virgil's mouth hung open at the insult to his bird. "I'm waiting."
"Fine, since you ladies removed our helmets and now know our identities…you can't really lynch us for being who we are." Virgil felt Alan slipping down his back and he shifted forward to bump Alan up higher on his back. Holding Alan's legs firmly in the crooks of his elbows, Virgil grunted when the quick movement made him sway slightly on his feet. "My brother and I are part of International Rescue."
The group of girls stared at Virgil like he was crazy. They looked him up and down, before shrugging. Stacy, Jane and Ginny continued walking ahead of the group, Alecia and Virginia remained by Alan and Virgil. Ginny turned her head to glance at Virgil in disbelief. Narrowing her hazel eyed gaze a little, she decided to speak.
"So what is this International Rescue that you speak of? I've never heard of it." Virgil gazed around at all the girls to see them nodding in agreement.
"How have none of you heard of International Rescue? It's a top secret organization that exclusively goes to the aid of those in precarious life or death situations, such as natural disasters or cave ins." Alecia and Virginia who were closest to Virgil raised an eye brow at his explanation of what International Rescue was.
"We've never heard of it because it doesn't exist. I don't know what you've been smoking, but you should know not to drive while buzzed." Stacy replied from the head of the group. "Who is your leader?"
"My father, Jeff Tracy." Again the group stopped and turned to look at Virgil, looks of disbelief on their faces. Jane spoke this time.
"Are you and Alan brothers of ours that we were never told about? What is your mother's name?" Jane mimicked Stacy's earlier action of placing her hands on her hips and cocking one hip to the side before tapping her pink flip-flops on the jungle floor.
"My mother's name is Lucille Tracy, why do you ask?" Virgil paused before Jane's first statement registered in his muddled mind. "I don't have any sisters that I know of. I am one of five boys, this lummox on my back being the youngest of all of us."
"Weird. Where are your parents and why would they allow you to fly such a large air craft?" Ginny spoke up, crossing her arms over her chest.
"My dad is the lead guy of International Rescue, it's a family business and we started it in honor of our mother who died giving birth to…" Virgil motioned with his head towards the unconscious young man lying on his back.
"Aw, you mean he never got to…know his mom?" Alecia pouted at the revelation.
"Nope, and he blames himself for it every day." Virgil turned his head to look at his baby brother. The bleeding was starting to clot, so that was good.
"You say you are one of five. Are you the oldest?" Virginia inquired as she kept a steady hand on Alan's back.
"No, I'm the middle child. From oldest to youngest there is Scott Tracy, John Tracy, me: Virgil Tracy, Gordon Tracy and the spider monkey on my back is Alan Tracy." Virgil bumped Alan up again when he started to slide down Virgil's back again. "Is the infirmary close by? My brother may look skinny, but he is quite the heavy weight."
"Sure it's this way. Follow us; it's not too much further." Ginny piped up from the front of the group. Virgil quickly swiped his mud encrusted wrist across his forehead and winced when he found the goose egg he'd received from the crash.
"So if you don't mind my asking, how much younger is Alan than you? He still looks like a teenager to me." Alecia inquired, ignoring the glare from Jane.
"He still looks like a teenager, because he is still one. He's nineteen. I am twenty-five." Virgil grinned at his baby brother as he relayed their age. For a nineteen year old young man, he still retained the babyish features that made girls swoon over him.
"Hey, that means the two of us are the same age, the same as you and Virginia!" Alecia giggled in amusement at the new admission.
"Yeah, I guess…"Virgil moved to shift Alan again on his back when a pop in his ribs caused him to see grey. Stumbling slightly, he felt his eyes close and nearly identical screams of 'Virgil' sounded off before the world went dark for Virgil. He never felt the ground, nor did he feel the added weight of his baby brother fall on top of him.