Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to Disney. All OCs belong to me.
Chapter 7
Using her thermal imaging camera, Sarah scanned the area south of Anchor Lake and Augerin Canyon. Blade hovered nearby, observing her closely. He rather liked her methodical way of searching. She remained calm, and only showed frustration whenever she thought she'd found the missing child, only to find that it wasn't.
"I wish we could do this at night," Sara said, sighing with frustration. "I'd make the task so much easier if there was nobody else out on the roads!"
"You know the rules, Sara," Blade told her evenly. "No flying at night. Your crash landing is why we don't."
"You had to bring that up, didn't you?" Sara snapped.
"The truth hurts sometimes."
Scowling, Sara turned around, focusing her thermal imaging camera on a new search area. Blade glanced around. It was starting to get dark.
"Windlifter?" he said over the radio.
"Receiving you, over."
"End the search in your area within the next half hour, then fly back to base."
"Windlifter copies. Out."
Blade flew closer to Sara. "We need to start about thinking about heading back too."
"No! We have to find this child before anything happens to him. It'll be cold tonight, and if he spends the night out here all alone, his chances of survival will be dramatically reduced."
Blade was incensed. "Lieutenant Sara Chopper! I gave you an order!"
"I don't take orders from a civilian… What did you just call me?"
Both helicopters froze, staring at each other in disbelief. Sara could feel her engine beginning to compress with panic and fear, while the fuel in her tank swirled around, making her nerves race.
Blade felt sick too. How could he have been so stupid? He rarely lost his temper, and to do so while screwing up so badly just wasn't him. Plus, he'd made a promise to Commander Grayson to keep Sara there until he arrived. Now he was worried that she'd take off.
"H-how did you find out?" Sara finally asked.
Blade quickly thought of an excuse. "Cabbie. He was in the military, and he recognised your insignia."
"Oh."
Blade breathed a silent sigh of relief. She'd bought it.
Meanwhile, Sara was racking her memory to see if she'd ever told Blade her surname. She concluded that she must have while she was recovering from her crash. Otherwise, how else could he have known?
"Let's go back," Blade said softly. Seeing Sara hesitate, he added, "You must be getting low on fuel by now."
Sara quickly checked her panel. "Yeah. I am."
They flew back to the Air Attack base side-by-side. Blade was relieved to see that Windlifter, Lil' Dipper and Dusty had already arrived back safely. Maru was helping them refuel, while the smokejumpers passed out warm cans of oil. Dynamite placed a can of oil in front of Sara, but she was too distracted to drink it. All she could think about was the poor lost boy.
"Let's get to bed early tonight," Blade suggested. "That way, we can resume the search again at first light."
Everyone agreed with Blade's suggestion. Once they'd had their dinner, everyone bid each other goodnight, before going to their respective hangers. Sara reluctantly went inside Maru's hanger. Everything inside her was screaming for her to resume searching for the lost boy, but she knew just how furious Blade would be if she defied him. She'd been trained to obey orders without question, and whether she liked it or not, that's what she had to do.
From the doorway of his office, Maru watched Sara fall unhappily to sleep. He knew that the search had tired her far more easily than it should have, indicating that she still hadn't fully recovered from his crash. Maru decided that if she didn't wake up easily in the morning, he'd tell Blade that she wouldn't be able to join in the search with them tomorrow, because she needed more rest.
…
Squinting into the fading sunlight that had settled over the ocean, fifteen-year-old Sara frowned when she saw the flames dotting the horizon. Just minutes earlier, she'd witnessed the explosion from the oil rig that sat about three miles out to sea. Only one thought crossed her mind. John. Her older brother had landed there only minutes before the explosion. It was his job to transport the oil rig workers to and from the rig. It was the job their father did, and it was what Sara was in training to do once she was old enough. But now, Sara was sitting on the shore watching the horrific scene unfolding before her very eyes.
Without thinking, Sara started up her engines and she took off into the air. Flying as fast as she possibly could, she raced towards to burning oil rig.
"John!" Sara shouted as she approached. Using her torch, she scanned the rig, looking for any signs of her brother. She was shocked to see so many dead cars and forklifts on the deck of the rig. Many had simply been burned alive. Quite a few of the workers had been blown off the rig by the force of the explosion, and their bodies were now floating in the water. Sara usually didn't show her emotions, but she couldn't help shivering when she saw the carnage below her. "John!" she screamed desperately. There was no answer.
Flying to the other side of the rig, Sara continued her search. In the distance, she could hear the familiar sounds of approaching engines coming from the Coast Guard patrol. She knew they were on their way to help, and that as a civilian, she'd soon be ordered out of the airspace. But she knew she wouldn't be able to leave until she'd found out where her brother was.
"John!" Sara screamed again. All of a sudden, she heard a rumble coming from the rig. Before she even had a chance to react, the entire rig was engulfed in a second and much more powerful explosion, ending any hopes of finding anyone who might still be alive.
The force of the explosion suffocated Sara's engines, and she felt her entire right-hand side burn with a heat so fierce that it felt like ice. The next thing she knew, she felt herself falling towards the sea. She was unconscious long before she hit the water…
When Sara finally woke up, she found herself in hospital. Her parents told her that she'd been kept in a coma for three months, so the doctors could repair her burned side. She was lucky, they said. Nobody else survived.
"J-John?" Sara asked weakly, hoping that he'd somehow managed to escape the flames too. But her parents' faces told her the truth long before they even spoke.
"I'm sorry, Sara," her mother told her gently. "They never found any trace of him. He was burned into ashes instantly."
Sara's only response had been an anguished, piercing scream that lasted until long after a nurse had given her a sedative.
…
Sara jolted awake. She was panting heavily and shivering. She felt feverish too. The nightmare of her memories had obviously woken her up. She just hoped that she hadn't screamed in her sleep. She didn't want to have Maru fussing over her like her had the last time she'd suffered a nightmare. However, she needn't have worried. The sound of heavy rain on the tin roof would've been enough to drown out any scream. Thunder rumbled in the distance, followed a few seconds later by a flash of lightning. Sara immediately thought about the lost boy.
Poor fellow. He must be cold, hungry and terrified. Reflecting on her nightmare, Sara knew what she had to do. It was the reason why she'd become a search and rescue helicopter in the first place. She had to honour the memory of her brother by saving as many people as possible. No matter what Blade said, she couldn't leave the boy out there one minute longer than necessary.
Reversing out of the hanger, Sara rolled to the edge of the runway. Even with the storm, she was sure someone might hear her take off. Throwing caution to the wind, Sara started up her engines. The roar they produced was indeed louder than the storm, but that was only because she was so close to them. Turning on her lights and her thermal imaging camera, Sara took off into the dark night and pelting rain.
A/N: I'm sorry it's taken me a while to update this story. I suffered a bit of writer's block on it, and I've been focusing on my other FanFic, Lightning and the V8 Supercars. I will try to update this one a bit more often. Thanks to everyone for their reviews. I really appreciate the feedback I receive.