Chapter

Six

Told to leave a Brother

Virgil felt the wind on his face from the open window as he came to, for a minute he had to think of were he was and then he remembered. He brought his hand up to his head and once again bumped into his headset. Though this time it felt wet and sticky, his head must still be bleeding.

"Hello, is there anyone still out there?" Virgil asked through his headset.

"Virgil, good your awake, how are you feeling?" Peter asked as he looked over to the Tracy one to see that Virgil was slowly sitting up.

"I'm alright, I still feel sick, but not as bad," Virgil said as he rubbed his head.

"How's your head feeling, are you still dizzy?" Peter asked.

"Again not as bad as it was." Virgil said as he reached out blindly to check on his brother.

"How are your eyes?" Peter asked with worry.

"There the same," Virgil said as he tried to find his brother's neck again.

"How about Scott, how's he doing?" Peter asked he knew that they were on barrowed time but he had to make sure that they both doing okay.

Virgil didn't answer him right away, as he was trying to find Scott's neck, he finally did, and to his relief he felt the small fluttering against his fingers, he moved towards his brother's mouth and felt his warm breath.

"His still doing okay, no movement though," Virgil said.

"Okay Virgil, listen to me, we need to turn the plan around and head it back towards base, think you can do that for me?" Peter asked crossing his fingers.

"I can try, what do I need to do?" Virgil asked his hands going to the throttle.

…………………………………………

"Commander Parker, any word?" Jeff Tracy asked as he entered the air force main building and walked straight up to the man he knew as the commander.

"Hey Jeff, I haven't heard anything since he told me to contact you, but it sounds like both of your boys are in bad shape, Scott hasn't come to yet and last check in Virgil was out too," the commander said looking from Jeff to the boys and then back to Jeff.

"Can my assistant and I get a plane, we want to go help talk Virgil through it if he comes to," Jeff said rapidly.

"Of course, would you like one of my men to go with you too," the commander asked.

"No thank you, just point us in the right direction," Jeff said.

"Of course, this way," the Commander said leading the way.

Jeff turned back to his three grounded sons and said, "I need the three of you to stay here, John's in charge until I get back, is that understood?"

"Yes sir," Gordon and Alan said together.

As Jeff turned to go, John spoke up, "Dad?"

Jeff turned once more, "Yes John?"

"If you talk to Virgil, tell him that we're down here waiting for them, we know he can do it," John said as he put one arm around Alan and the other around Gordon.

"I will, don't worry we are going to bring them home." Jeff said as he turned to follow Brains and the commander.

………………………………………..

"Okay Virgil, do you remember how to turn off the auto pilot?" Peter asked as he looked at his watch, they were running out of time.

"I'm not sure, I know it's the box, but do I just turn it the other way?" Virgil asked not sure of what to do.

Peter thought for a moment, he could not remember how to turn off the auto pilot, for some reason he was thinking it was a different way, but he couldn't remember, "Okay go ahead and try that Virgil turn it the opposite way slowly, and see what happens."

Virgil gulped and slowly started to turn the knob, he hadn't turned it even a quarter of the way when the handle broke off in his hand, "It broke! Now what do I do?"

Peter could only think of one solution now, but he didn't know how to tell this to Virgil. He took a deep breath and said, "Virgil listen to me, there might be another way to turn the auto pilot off but I don't know what it is, I'm sorry to ask you to do this Virgil, but since you can't get it off auto pilot you can't turn the plane around, and you are losing fuel fast, I know Scott is still unconscious, but unless someone can tell us how to turn off that auto pilot you are going to have to eject, if that happens I promise we will do all we can to help your brother."

Virgil couldn't answer what he had just heard, had he really hear someone just ask him to jump out this plane and leave his older brother behind?

TBC