It had been a few days, and Drake was beyond worried. He didn't want to bother Andrew with any bad news if there were some. He waited days on end for Khalon to radio him. Not one call. He wasn't even sure where Khalon could be out there. He didn't have a tracking device. His radio was also on the fritz every time he tried to contact him. He couldn't sit on the issue any longer though and went to fly out, hoping he would soon be able to get in through to him on his radio.
"Hey, Ryan, keep by the radio for a bit." Drake called in to Ryan. "Khalon is not contacting me that he made it to Alabama and I'm worried. I'm heading out there now."
"You're kidding? I'll be on standby. Hopefully the guy's alright." Ryan radioed back.
Drake continued through the air, continuously trying to radio Khalon. All he got in return was static and that scared him so much. He kept trying to tell himself he was okay but had a difficult time. He soon began to fly over Oklahoma, and continued to try radioing Khalon. But this time he had silence in return. No static or anything. This almost made him faint. He sped up and went lower trying to search anywhere and everywhere below if he could spot him at all. No such luck.
"Khalon, where are you?" Drake nearly screamed into his radio again. He was frantic.
"Agh, geez, kid you don't gotta yell!" a response came in.
Drake almost lost it. "Khalon, what happened to you? Where are you right now?"
"Shit, was my radio out? Sorry, bud, they musta been repairing it."
"'Repairing it'?" Drake asked.
"Ah, long story. I crash landed here in uh, Mississippi? I'm bein' fixed now as we speak. I'm in this park."
"What park? I was so worried about you I started to follow your tracks!"
"Roosevelt Park or somethin'? I dunno this Jeep fella rescued me."
"Okay, I'm almost there now. When you didn't radio me I thought something horrible happened!"
"Hey, Drake. I'm not in Alabama yet. I'm callin' to let ya know I'm somewhere in Mississippi."
If Drake had been there with Khalon, his glare alone would have set him on fire. "Thanks for the info bud."
It hadn't taken long for Drake to land in the park Khalon was at. He quickly hurried in search for the red tail.
"There you are!" Drake breathed as he came up to the garage Khalon was in. At this point, his wings were being fixed and he only have one crumpled wing attached. "Oh my god.."
"Hey, buddy." Khalon said with half a smile.
"What happened? Please tell me."
"Uh, I was okay, but then my engine caught fire or somethin', I dunno. This jeep, Kyle I think? Came to my rescue after I crashed. Here I am."
"Where is this Kyle? I want to talk to him."
"Last I seen him he was in the hangar to the far right." One of the techs said, taking a small break on digging through Khalon's engine.
"Thanks." Drake looked outside and headed there. He passed by a few park aircrafts who had similar paint schemes associated with the park. They had themselves parked outside of hangars as they watched him go by with a small nod and smile. Kyle was in the last hangar, and he was accompanied by a younger red Jeep.
"Hey, are you Kyle?" Drake asked, coming up to him.
"Yeah, I am." Kyle said, rolling up to him. "What'd you need?"
"I'm a friend of Khalon's, the, plane who crashed?"
"Yeah, the red tail! I never seen one up close." He smiled. "He should be fixed in no time."
"That's what I wanted to ask you. Are your tech's able to fix his engine?"
"What's wrong with it? Khalon told me the same thing that it wasn't functioning properly."
"He's been having, life issues with it. His normal mechanic couldn't find anything wrong. I was hoping your guys could find something."
"Well, they haven't complained to me yet." He nodded. "First, let me properly introduce myself here. I'm Kyle, I'm the rescue ranger of this park, and this here is my daughter, Dixie." He motioned a tire to a smaller, darker red Jeep next to him. She gave a small tire wave.
"Hey." She smiled.
"I'm Drake. Khalon was heading to Alabama to meet up with his dad until his engine was sorted out but, he obviously didn't make it."
"Explain to me a bit more about this engine. I'll inform the techs about it." Kyle said, coming forwards.
Drake explained everything to that point, from when Khalon first noticed the pain to the point of now where he was getting fixed. "Ryan said he thought there may be a leak, cause he saw his engine was covered in fuel, but when he started it up, he couldn't find a leak."
"That might be why he crashed, but I don't know what happened at the start, I had just gotten word the location of the crash site. His cowling was smokin' pretty badly, enough to throw water down in fear of spreading fire."
"Yeah, the only thing I can think of is a leak right now." Drake shook his nose. "Everyone who knows him is so worried about him."
"I understand. Let me go inform the techs about what you've said. You're welcome to stay here as long as you need or until Khalon's better." He drove out form the garage, leaving Dixie alone with him.
"Hey, since you may be stayin' a while," She started, heading out towards the exit. "let me show you around the place and introduce you to what we do."
Drake smiled and agreed, following her out of the garage.
