When the last of TB1s engines faded beyond earshot, John got himself
together and climbed towards Virgil. He couldn't get a good look at him
right away, he was too far and it was too dark. All he could see was his
head and right arm.
As he clamored over the debris and broken pieces of equipment, he called, "Virgil? Hey, Virg, can you hear me?" He felt like he was trying to run in knee high molasses, with all the speed he could muster trying to get to his brother. He stumbled a couple of times, but was able to catch himself.
As he reached the Mole he felt his stomach twist. Virgil was pinned under the chassis of that great machine. Because he was pinned against the bottom of the pod but TB2 was at such a great angle, more on her side; Virgil's arm and head just hung limply in the direction of gravity. The sleeve of his uniform was gone. His arm didn't look too bad other than cut up. But his face. It was already swelling and the bruising was starting to show. He had a few minor gashes about his face and head, and they had stopped or almost stopped bleeding. But John thought that because of the color and swelling that maybe his left cheekbone was fractured. He couldn't reach him from where he was. To get to the other side of the mole, he would have to either climb all the way up the side of the mole, around the auger and back down the other side or he would have to go down the other way and go under the mole. He decided on the latter. He needed to reach Virgil's on the other side to determine how badly he was hurt. He carefully moved some of the debris away from the immediate area but wanted to be very careful. Virgil is right next to the mountain of equipment just looking for an excuse to avalanche down on top of them.
After sliding under the Mole, John started working on removing the debris that looked most likely to fall on Virgil. As he cleared it away from the chassis, he could see that Virgil was severely pinned. He held his fingers under Virgil's neck to feel for a pulse. Thank God, he had one. It wasn't the strongest, but it was clear and regular. John laid as flat as he could against the pod floor to reach under the monster that had Virgil and started to check out parts of Virgil's body that were within reach. In the position John was in, he was lying on his broken arm, but he could not get his good arm into that small crevice otherwise. He just clenched his jaw tight to the pain and felt for Virgil's left shoulder, arm, ribs, pelvis and leg bones. He could definitely tell the ribs were broken as they have pierced his skin. But he was wedged in too tightly to tell if anything else was broken. The space between the pod floor and the chassis was very small and he feared that Virgil had sustained a lot of damage, soft tissue damage in particular. He remembered in his first aid course that in situations like this, a crushing injury, the patient would be alive until the weight was lifted. Then they would bleed to death internally as soon as the weight was lifted. The pressure suit was invented just for that reason. It acted like a body tourniquet. But he didn't think TB2 had one of those suits on board. Even if there was, if he tried to lift the Mole off of Virgil, drag him out then try to wrestle him into a body suit, all using just one arm, Virgil would still probably bleed to death internally. So releasing Virgil from his vise was not part of John's plan right now. But John was trying to think of something to alleviate some of the pressure however. Just a little bit. He wanted to try to find something else to bear most of the weight of the Mole.
He was agonizing over whether to try to wake Virgil up or not. He didn't want Virgil to be awake in terrific pain, but at the same time, he needed him awake. He had to know that Virgil could wake up. He had to know that Virgil would be ok. He just needed him to wake up and tell him he's ok. John once again looked at that small pocket of space that Virgil's body has been forced into and decided not to.
Now that John had checked Virgil as much as he could from this side, John scooted down and under the Mole back to the other side. This time on his back, so that his good arm could squeeze into the airspace, he reached in to try to feel any part of Virgil's body. But his arm wasn't long enough; Virgil was too far away from this edge of the chassis. As John withdrew his arm, he saw blood on his sleeve. He looked at it, tried to see if he cut himself on something while probing under the debris, or if it was a cut he didn't realize he had that just started to bleed. But from the bloodstain, he could tell that it came from the outside of his shirt, not the inside. Just then a small trickle of blood flowed from under the chassis past him. It wasn't much, but it still told him that Virgil was bleeding somewhere. He decided then that he needed to relieve some of the weight on Virgil now.
John left Virgil, scooted under the Mole again and headed towards the back of the pod. He had his flashlight with him, and he started to scan the area that has a locker that used to hold hand tools. It was a metal locker that was attached to the back of the pod. Hopefully it was still intact and not so damaged that he couldn't get it opened. He found it. There was debris in front of it, but other than lots of little dings, seemed ok. He waded through the broken pieces and debris around his feet and finally reached the cabinet. He gave the handle a pull, but it didn't open on the first tug. He could see that the locker was slightly askewed, which means the door was probably just a little stuck. He looked down and by his feet was plenty of debris, including a handle-less screwdriver. How lucky, that was just what he needed to pry open the door. He placed the flat head of the screwdriver between the door and wall of the locker and gave it a pop with his hand. The door swung open and out fell, amongst other items, the large 5-foot prybar that he needed. He grabbed the prybar and turn around to leave but on a second look he noticed the solid wood wheel chocks on the locker floor. They would be perfect for supporting some of the chassis weight. So he grabbed the rope that held two chocks, flung it over his shoulder and grabbed the prybar. He stumbled his way back to Virgil. He climbed just above him and dropped the chocks next to the chassis about the area where Virgil's midsection is. He placed a chock next to where the ribs would be and the second one near the pelvic area. There was just enough rope between the chocks to allow this. He set the prybar under the chassis and on top of one of the chocks using it for leverage. He leaned down on the prybar with all his might and the chassis lifted up just enough for him to slide the other chock under the chassis with his foot. He released the prybar. The next step was going to be harder because he didn't have another piece of leverage. He placed the prybar under the chassis next to the chock he had just used as a leverage tool. But this time he pulled up on the prybar. He couldn't get enough lift, so he relaxed. He then bent his knees and brought his shoulder under the prybar so that he could get his back and legs into the lift. He let out a moan, straightened out his legs and was able to get the chassis just high enough to force the second chock under it. He relaxed and let loose of the prybar and the chassis settled on the two pieces of wood. Well at least that was a little bit of weight taken off of Virgil. He sat down and took a deep breath. That bit of work exhausted him.
The work kept John busy enough for a while, but now that he was sitting down, resting, he found he was just barely holding his panic at bay. Here he was, broken arm, feverish, hurting, alone, trying to save his brother's life, and feeling abandoned. He could feel the anxiety rising in him. He laid down against the pod floor on his back, and put his head down. He just wanted to do this for a moment. His feet had enough traction with the rubber soles that he didn't slide down the pod floor. He closed his eyes and tried to recompose himself. "Relax", he told himself. "You aren't going to be of any good if you start screaming like a lunatic that the sky is falling". He tried to convince himself that he just took a lot of weight off his brother. He was taking this rescue one step at a time. He was working his way to getting both he and his brother out alive. He was still working on trying to clear his head and think of a way out when he heard, "John?" John sat up with a start. He looked over at Virgil. He had his right eye open, but the left one was swollen shut. "Virgil!" But before John could say anything more to him, Virgil croaked, "How is Thunderbird 2?" Not surprised by the first question out of his mouth, John answered, "Not as bad as her pilot." Virgil grunted an acknowledgement and fell back into unconscienceness.
He didn't know if he felt elated that he heard from Virgil or worried because it only lasted seconds. But the exchange was enough to spark him into action.
"OK", he said and he started to ask himself questions and then answering them.
"What is your goal? To get Virgil and yourself out of TB2 alive." "What steps do you need to take to do that?" "Remove Virgil from underneath the Mole, contact someone on the outside for help, secure the area from any more debris falling, dress Virgil's wounds, look for a way out of TB2, assess what pieces of equipment still works and would help in securing an escape from their green tomb."
He thought about all the things he needed to do, but obviously he had to work in a certain order. Removing Virgil would be the second to last step, and dressing his wounds the last step. He would worry about internal bleeding when the time came. But what should he do first? He removed enough debris to make it safe for the moment. So that leaves outside contact and equipment assessment. He looked around, looking at the carnage inside trying to see if anything was still in one piece. He looked up at the gaping hole that he came through to get Virgil. He didn't think he could climb back up that. The door exciting the pod was badly damaged and blocked by a heavy piece of equipment. So he figured that going to the sick bay was out. He also deducted that it was probably not how he was going to leave TB2. Ok, so if he can't get out via normal means, he would have to make a way out. "I wonder where the laser torch is?" he thought. He might be able to cut a hole in the pod's side. Or maybe in this case, the floor. He tried to remember where Virgil kept the laser torch. "Hmmm, let's see, he took it out of pod 1 for this particular rescue,..now where did he put it?" Slowly he looked straight up and there dangling by one hook, probably 100 feet up, was the box marked laser torch. Darn. He had a bit of good luck with the prybar, but now he has a piece of bad luck with this. He now was trying to figure out if he wanted to try to get that laser box to fall, or think of something else. He looked at the box. It doesn't look like it would take much to come down. He checked the location above him and looked about to see where it would fall if he could get it to come down. It was not good; it would come straight down onto the Mole. And he didn't want to risk anything touching the Mole incase it would cause a chain reaction, which would cause the whole thing to collapse around Virgil. Shaking his head, he nixed the idea.
Suddenly, it occurred to him that Virgil's watch communicator might still be functional. It would be on his left wrist, and John could reach that from the other side. So John got up, scooted under the Mole again and crawled the few steps up to Virgil. He laid flat (again on his bad arm) and followed the line from Virgil's shoulder along his arm, down to his wrist. At first he was going to try to just remove the watch, but he couldn't get it undone with one hand in that tight of space. So he next tried to move Virgil's arm out. John grabbed the cloth of Virgil's sleeve at the elbow and slowed worked his own arm out trying not to hit the chocks. It was slow and tedious, but Virgil's arm became free from under the chassis.
John positioned himself so that he could talk directly into the watch com without straining any part of Virgil's arm. "Base from Thunderbird 2, Base from Thunderbird 2, come in Dad".
No answer.
"Base from John, Dad come in please!"
No answer.
John's heart began to sink; the watch although looking fine, was broken. He should have known it was too good to be true.
Maybe he can get hold of Thunderbird 5.
"Thunderbird 5 from Thunderbird 2, Thunderbird 5 from Thunderbird 2, come in, Alan. Please come in, Alan".
No answer.
He let out such a sigh of despair.
As he clamored over the debris and broken pieces of equipment, he called, "Virgil? Hey, Virg, can you hear me?" He felt like he was trying to run in knee high molasses, with all the speed he could muster trying to get to his brother. He stumbled a couple of times, but was able to catch himself.
As he reached the Mole he felt his stomach twist. Virgil was pinned under the chassis of that great machine. Because he was pinned against the bottom of the pod but TB2 was at such a great angle, more on her side; Virgil's arm and head just hung limply in the direction of gravity. The sleeve of his uniform was gone. His arm didn't look too bad other than cut up. But his face. It was already swelling and the bruising was starting to show. He had a few minor gashes about his face and head, and they had stopped or almost stopped bleeding. But John thought that because of the color and swelling that maybe his left cheekbone was fractured. He couldn't reach him from where he was. To get to the other side of the mole, he would have to either climb all the way up the side of the mole, around the auger and back down the other side or he would have to go down the other way and go under the mole. He decided on the latter. He needed to reach Virgil's on the other side to determine how badly he was hurt. He carefully moved some of the debris away from the immediate area but wanted to be very careful. Virgil is right next to the mountain of equipment just looking for an excuse to avalanche down on top of them.
After sliding under the Mole, John started working on removing the debris that looked most likely to fall on Virgil. As he cleared it away from the chassis, he could see that Virgil was severely pinned. He held his fingers under Virgil's neck to feel for a pulse. Thank God, he had one. It wasn't the strongest, but it was clear and regular. John laid as flat as he could against the pod floor to reach under the monster that had Virgil and started to check out parts of Virgil's body that were within reach. In the position John was in, he was lying on his broken arm, but he could not get his good arm into that small crevice otherwise. He just clenched his jaw tight to the pain and felt for Virgil's left shoulder, arm, ribs, pelvis and leg bones. He could definitely tell the ribs were broken as they have pierced his skin. But he was wedged in too tightly to tell if anything else was broken. The space between the pod floor and the chassis was very small and he feared that Virgil had sustained a lot of damage, soft tissue damage in particular. He remembered in his first aid course that in situations like this, a crushing injury, the patient would be alive until the weight was lifted. Then they would bleed to death internally as soon as the weight was lifted. The pressure suit was invented just for that reason. It acted like a body tourniquet. But he didn't think TB2 had one of those suits on board. Even if there was, if he tried to lift the Mole off of Virgil, drag him out then try to wrestle him into a body suit, all using just one arm, Virgil would still probably bleed to death internally. So releasing Virgil from his vise was not part of John's plan right now. But John was trying to think of something to alleviate some of the pressure however. Just a little bit. He wanted to try to find something else to bear most of the weight of the Mole.
He was agonizing over whether to try to wake Virgil up or not. He didn't want Virgil to be awake in terrific pain, but at the same time, he needed him awake. He had to know that Virgil could wake up. He had to know that Virgil would be ok. He just needed him to wake up and tell him he's ok. John once again looked at that small pocket of space that Virgil's body has been forced into and decided not to.
Now that John had checked Virgil as much as he could from this side, John scooted down and under the Mole back to the other side. This time on his back, so that his good arm could squeeze into the airspace, he reached in to try to feel any part of Virgil's body. But his arm wasn't long enough; Virgil was too far away from this edge of the chassis. As John withdrew his arm, he saw blood on his sleeve. He looked at it, tried to see if he cut himself on something while probing under the debris, or if it was a cut he didn't realize he had that just started to bleed. But from the bloodstain, he could tell that it came from the outside of his shirt, not the inside. Just then a small trickle of blood flowed from under the chassis past him. It wasn't much, but it still told him that Virgil was bleeding somewhere. He decided then that he needed to relieve some of the weight on Virgil now.
John left Virgil, scooted under the Mole again and headed towards the back of the pod. He had his flashlight with him, and he started to scan the area that has a locker that used to hold hand tools. It was a metal locker that was attached to the back of the pod. Hopefully it was still intact and not so damaged that he couldn't get it opened. He found it. There was debris in front of it, but other than lots of little dings, seemed ok. He waded through the broken pieces and debris around his feet and finally reached the cabinet. He gave the handle a pull, but it didn't open on the first tug. He could see that the locker was slightly askewed, which means the door was probably just a little stuck. He looked down and by his feet was plenty of debris, including a handle-less screwdriver. How lucky, that was just what he needed to pry open the door. He placed the flat head of the screwdriver between the door and wall of the locker and gave it a pop with his hand. The door swung open and out fell, amongst other items, the large 5-foot prybar that he needed. He grabbed the prybar and turn around to leave but on a second look he noticed the solid wood wheel chocks on the locker floor. They would be perfect for supporting some of the chassis weight. So he grabbed the rope that held two chocks, flung it over his shoulder and grabbed the prybar. He stumbled his way back to Virgil. He climbed just above him and dropped the chocks next to the chassis about the area where Virgil's midsection is. He placed a chock next to where the ribs would be and the second one near the pelvic area. There was just enough rope between the chocks to allow this. He set the prybar under the chassis and on top of one of the chocks using it for leverage. He leaned down on the prybar with all his might and the chassis lifted up just enough for him to slide the other chock under the chassis with his foot. He released the prybar. The next step was going to be harder because he didn't have another piece of leverage. He placed the prybar under the chassis next to the chock he had just used as a leverage tool. But this time he pulled up on the prybar. He couldn't get enough lift, so he relaxed. He then bent his knees and brought his shoulder under the prybar so that he could get his back and legs into the lift. He let out a moan, straightened out his legs and was able to get the chassis just high enough to force the second chock under it. He relaxed and let loose of the prybar and the chassis settled on the two pieces of wood. Well at least that was a little bit of weight taken off of Virgil. He sat down and took a deep breath. That bit of work exhausted him.
The work kept John busy enough for a while, but now that he was sitting down, resting, he found he was just barely holding his panic at bay. Here he was, broken arm, feverish, hurting, alone, trying to save his brother's life, and feeling abandoned. He could feel the anxiety rising in him. He laid down against the pod floor on his back, and put his head down. He just wanted to do this for a moment. His feet had enough traction with the rubber soles that he didn't slide down the pod floor. He closed his eyes and tried to recompose himself. "Relax", he told himself. "You aren't going to be of any good if you start screaming like a lunatic that the sky is falling". He tried to convince himself that he just took a lot of weight off his brother. He was taking this rescue one step at a time. He was working his way to getting both he and his brother out alive. He was still working on trying to clear his head and think of a way out when he heard, "John?" John sat up with a start. He looked over at Virgil. He had his right eye open, but the left one was swollen shut. "Virgil!" But before John could say anything more to him, Virgil croaked, "How is Thunderbird 2?" Not surprised by the first question out of his mouth, John answered, "Not as bad as her pilot." Virgil grunted an acknowledgement and fell back into unconscienceness.
He didn't know if he felt elated that he heard from Virgil or worried because it only lasted seconds. But the exchange was enough to spark him into action.
"OK", he said and he started to ask himself questions and then answering them.
"What is your goal? To get Virgil and yourself out of TB2 alive." "What steps do you need to take to do that?" "Remove Virgil from underneath the Mole, contact someone on the outside for help, secure the area from any more debris falling, dress Virgil's wounds, look for a way out of TB2, assess what pieces of equipment still works and would help in securing an escape from their green tomb."
He thought about all the things he needed to do, but obviously he had to work in a certain order. Removing Virgil would be the second to last step, and dressing his wounds the last step. He would worry about internal bleeding when the time came. But what should he do first? He removed enough debris to make it safe for the moment. So that leaves outside contact and equipment assessment. He looked around, looking at the carnage inside trying to see if anything was still in one piece. He looked up at the gaping hole that he came through to get Virgil. He didn't think he could climb back up that. The door exciting the pod was badly damaged and blocked by a heavy piece of equipment. So he figured that going to the sick bay was out. He also deducted that it was probably not how he was going to leave TB2. Ok, so if he can't get out via normal means, he would have to make a way out. "I wonder where the laser torch is?" he thought. He might be able to cut a hole in the pod's side. Or maybe in this case, the floor. He tried to remember where Virgil kept the laser torch. "Hmmm, let's see, he took it out of pod 1 for this particular rescue,..now where did he put it?" Slowly he looked straight up and there dangling by one hook, probably 100 feet up, was the box marked laser torch. Darn. He had a bit of good luck with the prybar, but now he has a piece of bad luck with this. He now was trying to figure out if he wanted to try to get that laser box to fall, or think of something else. He looked at the box. It doesn't look like it would take much to come down. He checked the location above him and looked about to see where it would fall if he could get it to come down. It was not good; it would come straight down onto the Mole. And he didn't want to risk anything touching the Mole incase it would cause a chain reaction, which would cause the whole thing to collapse around Virgil. Shaking his head, he nixed the idea.
Suddenly, it occurred to him that Virgil's watch communicator might still be functional. It would be on his left wrist, and John could reach that from the other side. So John got up, scooted under the Mole again and crawled the few steps up to Virgil. He laid flat (again on his bad arm) and followed the line from Virgil's shoulder along his arm, down to his wrist. At first he was going to try to just remove the watch, but he couldn't get it undone with one hand in that tight of space. So he next tried to move Virgil's arm out. John grabbed the cloth of Virgil's sleeve at the elbow and slowed worked his own arm out trying not to hit the chocks. It was slow and tedious, but Virgil's arm became free from under the chassis.
John positioned himself so that he could talk directly into the watch com without straining any part of Virgil's arm. "Base from Thunderbird 2, Base from Thunderbird 2, come in Dad".
No answer.
"Base from John, Dad come in please!"
No answer.
John's heart began to sink; the watch although looking fine, was broken. He should have known it was too good to be true.
Maybe he can get hold of Thunderbird 5.
"Thunderbird 5 from Thunderbird 2, Thunderbird 5 from Thunderbird 2, come in, Alan. Please come in, Alan".
No answer.
He let out such a sigh of despair.