Chapter Ten: Dusty in Trouble
"Propwash Junction to Dusty. Come in Dusty!"
Dusty jolted a bit, accidentally backing into a shelf and knocking a box onto his head. Crow and I snickered at him.
"Hey Skip! What's up?" Dusty asked jerking the box off his canopy.
"Isn't it six o clock over there?" I asked only to get elbowed by Crow.
"Did the gearbox come in?" Dusty asked excitedly.
There was some static before Skipper came on. "Well, we…we…."
"What is it?" Dusty asked.
"So…..Dust…." Sparky said.
"Sparky, I'll….I'll tell them." Chug's voice lacked all joy, something very unusual for the fuel truck. "It was the wrong one. The crate…it was mislabelled. We've called every parts supplier, repair shop, and junkyard in the country. Nobody has your gearbox."
He'd never get to race ever again.
"Dusty?" Skipper asked, the Propwash residents having received no answer from the pair.
"I'm here."
"I'm sorry." Skipper said.
Dusty took in a ragged breath. "I've gotta go."
Dusty released the talk pedal, ending the call.
The alarm went off.
"Hey guys!" Maru called as he popped up in the doorway. "Get this: Cad's fancy jet VIPs flew in too low over the burn area last night. Blew embers in all directions."
"You are kidding me." I groaned.
"Not kidding!" Blade called as he hovered briefly in front of the doors. "Let's load and go!"
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"Fire broke containment and split in two." Blade explained as he, Dusty, Windlifter and Dipper flew towards the blazes. "Windlifter, you and Dipper take the Coil Springs fire. Me, the SEAT and rookie will take Whitewall Rapids."
"Windlifter copies." Windlifter said and he and Dipper broke off.
"Blade, aren't these hills near the lodge?" Crow said into the radio.
Blade looked ahead, picking up speed. Once he and Dusty made it over the crest of the ridge, he saw Crow was right: the lodge was just down the hill. Oh great. "Maru, come in."
"Yeah, Blade?" Maru asked.
"It's worse than we thought." Blade reported. "Get on the horn down to the lodge. That fire is about four hours from their front door. They're gonna have to evacuate."
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"Absolutely not!" Cad snapped.
Should've known this wouldn't be easy. Maru glared. "Blade insists! To be safe, you've gotta get everyone out."
"I've been working on this lodge for five years." Cad protested. "I'm not gonna evacuate now just to be 'safe!'"
"You got less than four hours!" Maru snapped.
"Why am I talking to you?" Cad demanded. "Where's Blade?"
"Oh he's out back, sipping a motorjito." Maru said sarcastically before he started shouting. "Where do ya think he is? He's out fighting the fire!"
"Well if he knows how to do his job, it shouldn't be a problem!" Cad hung up, leaving Maru fuming.
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Blade knew deep down there's no way Cad would evacuate them all in time. He could only hold onto a small hope that Maru's warning would buy them some time. "If we're gonna save the lodge, we've gotta keep this fire from cresting the ridge." Blade told us before turning most of his attention to the latter. "I'll drop, then you tag on and extend. And make it a split load. That way we can double up and widen it downwind of the ridge for structure protection. There's not much time so we need to move fast. Copy that?" Dusty didn't respond. "Hey! You copy that?"
"Yes. Yes! Copy that." Dusty replied.
Come on, Dusty. Focus. I thought although my mind was wandering to thoughts of my curse mark. Blade dropped his share of retardant on the fire before moving and allowing Dusty to drop his load. But, to Blade's irritation and our horror, Dusty dropped his entire tank's worth of retardant.
"You gotta be kidding me." Blade growled.
He flew up alongside Dusty and glared at the plane.
"Was that your whole tank?" Blade demanded.
"Yeah." Dusty confirmed.
"You just wasted all of it!" Blade yelled.
"I was just following your orders!" Dusty protested.
"I said 'split load.'" Blade corrected. "We were going to make a secondary line to protect that lodge."
Dusty mentally kicked himself, unable to believe how stupid he had just been. But he glared in determination. "It'll be fine. I can reload at the lake."
We can't afford any mistakes from him. Blade thought, not knowing I could hear it this time as I activated my cure mark and read his mind.
"Negative!" Blade snapped. "Return to base."
"What? No, there's no time. Let's just get this fire out!" Dusty suddenly dived down towards the lake.
"Hey, hey!" Blade called. "You need to listen to me!"
"I'll be fine!" Dusty shouted back, still diving.
Blade dived down after Dusty. "These crosswinds are too strong. Return to base!"
"This is what you trained me to do!" Dusty protested, speaking into the radio.
"Not under these conditions!" Blade countered.
"Dusty, pull up before you hurt yourself!" I called tightening my grip on his wing like Crow did.
"If we're gonna get this fire out, I've gotta reload." Dusty was getting closer to the surface of the lake.
"Pull up!" Blade shouted. "That's an order!"
"No! I can do this!" Dusty hit the surface of the lake, only for his hard landing and the crosswinds to jerk him off balance. He shouted in surprise, ending up taking a nosedive before his pontoons forced him up again. Luckily, the buoyancy of the pontoons kept him afloat.
Crow and I held on to his wings as he floated down the lake.
"I've taken in too much water. My engine stalled." Dusty reported.
"Stalled?" Blade groaned.
Crow and I held Dusty's wings tightly as he went into the rapids.
"Keep your pontoons downstream." Blade instructed as he flew over Dusty. "I'll keep ahead of you."
"I'll get out on my own." Dusty said.
"Really?" Blade scoffed. "How you plannin' on doing that?"
"I'll restart my engine." Dusty reasoned.
"Just hang on." Blade called. "I'm gonna pull you to shore but if I miss you girls try and grab the hoist."
Dusty furiously revved his engine, and his propellers began spinning again. "Got it!"
Blade narrowed his eyes, hovering down closer. He threw the hoist, but Dusty hit a rock and his nose dipped below the water. His engine stalled again, and Blade's hoist didn't wrap around his tail enough to hook on. Dusty was swept away again, down a small drop as the current carried him along. The orange and white plane shouted a bit in surprise, starting to get a little freaked out over the lack of control he had in the water. Luckily us girl managed to catch the hoist and Blade pulled us into his hatch.
"Are you all right?" Blade called, noting the number of fallen trees hanging over the water.
"I'm okay!" Dusty confirmed.
"There's too much coverage. Don't worry! I'll get you at the next clearing." Blade called, flying ahead to find a clear spot downriver.
"Right!" Dusty coughed a bit as water splashed into his mouth.
Us girls tensed up, staring worriedly at Dusty as he bobbed along the rapids. "Hang on, Dusty!"
Finally, Blade managed to find a clear area and readied the hoist again. Taking aim, he threw the hook and cable. Dusty's pontoon hooked onto a log in the river, forcing his front half below the water and causing the hook to bounce off him. Blade tried to move, but the cable tightened as the hook caught onto a log part of a small dam in the river.
"The hoist! It's caught!" Blade struggled to pull the hoist free, finding himself anchored to the ground. "You girls stay in the hatch"
Dusty stared up at Blade with fear in his eyes.
"Blade!" Dusty called, fear in his tone as the current pushed him along. "Blade!"
"Oh, come on." Blade gave another tug, but the hoist was caught tight. "You need to start your engine. You got clear water, you can take off before the falls."
Dusty spun around and saw with horror that a significant-sized waterfall dropped off only a couple hundred yards away.
"It's your only chance!" Blade shouted.
"Right, right!" Dusty hurriedly started up his engine, his propellers spinning. "Got it! I'm good!"
"Now redline it!" Blade ordered. "Push your engine!"
Dusty pushed, as hard and as fast as he could to get his speed up. The edge of the falls grew closer.
"Redline it!" Blade shouted. "You need more lift, redline it! Redline it!"
Dusty's alarm began blaring, and Dottie's warning about him crashing rang in his head.
"Why are you holding back?"
He only had a hundred feet left, not nearly enough time to increase power.
"Redline it!"
"Dusty!"
He was going to crash. Either way, he was going to crash.