Thanks to Diena, Swasthi, Christine, Teresa, WindyDay, Hwi-Noree, K.
Presson, Kas, Ahn-Li Stefraini, Frankie2, Moonbeam's Predilections,
Treachery89, Karen, and anyone else who read and reviewed the previous
chapter.
Please see previous chapters for all-purpose disclaimers.
Chapter 6.
Lucas felt the sting of the branches whipping against him as he crashed though the treetop. After what seemed like an age, Lucas felt a sharp tug as the parachute snagged and tangled in the branches above him.
He took a deep breath.
"Ok, try to stay calm." He told himself. Somehow hearing a voice, even if it was only his own, was comforting. "You're alive, that's a good start."
Lucas carefully flexed his joints. "Nothing's broken. I'm Ok, I'm fine." He paused for a moment. "And I'm stuck in a tree." The ground was about 30 ft below him.
"Can anyone hear me?" Lucas shouted. He waited for a reassuring reply from one of the crew. No one answered.
Lucas sighed, and looked at the tree around him. There was a branch about eight feet away. After on considering for a few seconds, Lucas dropped the bag he'd kept such a tight hold on down onto the forest floor where it landed intact with a quiet thud. First gently and then with growing momentum he tried to swing towards the branch.
Lucas tried to ignore the quiet, but some how all-pervading sound of tearing parachute, and he made one final lunge at the branch.
He missed.
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Tim lay on the rocks not far from the edge of the river and tried to remember how to breathe. It was not something he had ever had cause to really consider before, but it seemed to be a lot more difficult than it should be.
He was also quite sure that his back shouldn't be burning like it was. From his left shoulder to his right hip there seemed to be a line of flesh that was on fire and every time he tried to move the blaze intensified.
Tim could remember jumping out of the plane, and he could remember asking forgiveness for his sins as he raced through the air. And then there was a blur of river below him, and a frantic effort to manoeuvre the parachute in any direction that was away from the freezing waters.
After that there was a rather undignified landing, on the rocks, and this pain in his back, the one that was making breathing so difficult. Tim wondered if the others were faring any better than he was, hopefully they were, because he was now quite sure he wasn't going to be able to rush and help them any time soon.
***** ***** *****
Spanish was a good language to curse in, and Miguel was making good use of that fact. His left arm hung painfully and uselessly at his side - meaning that his progress in search of the others was somewhat slower than he would have liked.
Miguel cursed parachutes, and trees, and tree roots that deliberately tried to trip him up. He cursed conferences and the UEO. He cursed his shoulder that wouldn't stop throbbing. And finally he cursed him self, because he had no idea if he was travelling in the right direction.
***** ***** *****
Lucas sat up and said one word that summed up everything he was feeling. "Typical." It was said in the exact same tone Miguel was favouring at the moment.
"That was very clever Lucas, true genius at it's best. You manage to jump out of a plane, no problem, and then you fall out of a stupid tree."
He looked at his right arm. But even before he looked, Lucas had known it was broken. In the last decade, he had become quite good at self-diagnosis.
Keeping his right arm curled protectively against his chest Lucas crawled over to his bag, he fumbled at the catch with his left hand, but finally managed to open it.
It wasn't a bad fracture, not as bad as some that he'd had. Slowly and methodically Lucas removed a magazine from one of the pockets of the bag, and after a more careful search, Lucas found three the plastic ties, the kind that he usually used to attach labels to the electrical wires around seaQuest, in his pocket. He laid them next to the magazine and then refastened the catches on the bag. He double-checked each catch to make sure everything inside was still safe.
Lucas took off his sweatshirt, biting his lip to stop himself from crying out when he brought the material over his left arm. Then, using the magazine as a make shift splint, he secured it around his injured arm with the plastic ties. After checking the splint was as correct as it was possible to get it with only one left hand, the teen tied the sweatshirt into a good approximation of a sling with practiced ease.
Hoisting his bag onto his left shoulder, carefully, so as not to disturb the sling. Lucas set off to find the others; every so often he stopped to call out their names. But still no one answered.
***** ***** *****
Ben sat on the floor next to fallen tree and shivered. He tried to stand, but all the blood rushed, in one wave of giddiness, to his head. He felt dizzy and queasy, and couldn't quite believe that he'd managed to land in one piece. He'd jumped out of an aeroplane, and he was still in one piece. The worst had happened and he was still alive.
He should feel wonderful, but he didn't, he felt terrible. Somehow it didn't seem fair that he'd jumped out of a plane, done everything right, which was obvious to Ben when he considered how hard he would have landed if he had done something wrong, and he still felt rotten.
As soon as he stopped feeling giddy Ben decided he was going to find someone and he was going to complain.
***** ***** *****
"Commander? Ben? Can anyone hear me?" Lucas paused to see if anyone could hear him, but, like every other time, no one answered his calls.
He walked a little further on. On the edge of his hearing, Lucas thought he heard something. He stopped again to listen, but was about put the voice down to wishful thinking, but when it came again, there was do doubt.
Lucas raced towards the voice scanning the trees ahead of him for any sign of a parachute. Finally he saw one, and not far away from it, Katie was lying still on the floor.
***** ***** *****
Commander Jonathan Ford, youngest Commander in the UEO, and the XO of seaQuest giggled. He didn't know why, but he giggled, and as soon as he started he found it very difficult to stop.
His head ached, and it felt wet and sticky when he tried to rub the pain away. He giggled again and distractedly wiped the blood off his hand onto his uniform.
Ford couldn't remember drinking, but it was starting to creep over him that he felt drunk. He could be court marshalled for drinking on duty. Straightening up and putting on his best 'I'm from the UEO - not mess with me' face he set off to find out why he was drunk in the middle of a forest.
He was still giggling.
***** ***** *****
"Katie, are you Ok?" Lucas called, rushing over to where she lay.
"I'm fine, what about you? What happened to your arm?" Lucas looked confused for a moment, and then remembered his arm. He was so used to working with one arm, he had soon slipped back into his old habits of coping - which was to simply pretend that nothing was wrong.
"What happened to your leg?" He countered.
"My leg is fine. It's nothing you need to worry about-"
"Believe it or not, I'm no longer a child. And anyway - I'm the only one hear at the moment, so you'll have to let me help you." Lucas snapped wearily, disappointed that she didn't trust him enough to help her.
Katie only hesitated for a moment. "I caught it on a branch on the way down. I think it might be broken."
Lucas looked form one leg to the other and back again. He didn't think it was broken, he knew it was broken. Katie's right leg was slightly shorter than her left and it was lying at an awkward angle to the rest of her body.
Lucas thought for a moment, and then began to collect what he thought he would need to make another, this time more complicated splint.
"What are you doing?" Katie asked as Lucas moved towards her parachute.
"I need to immobilise your leg." Lucas said simply.
"I didn't know you had first aid training." Katie said, as she watched him gather a small pile of what seemed to her to be miscellaneous odds-and- ends.
"Only very unofficial training." Lucas hedged.
"Who taught you?" Katie asked more because she wanted something to take her mind off her leg, than for any other reason.
"I suppose you could say my father taught me everything I know about first aid." Lucas said with something in between a reassuring smile and a remembering grimace.
Katie was going to ask more, but they heard someone singing. Who ever it was, they were singing very loudly and very off key.
"Ben?" Lucas queried, casting a glance at Katie.
"Miguel?" Katie wondered.
As they wondered a figure swayed towards them from between the trees.
They both stared at the figure with their jaws hanging open. Then they both said, with uncanny synchronisation.
"Commander Ford?"
***** ***** *****
Miguel was now quite convinced that he was lost. After wondering around for what felt like hours, he still hadn't found anyone. He'd tried shouting - in Spanish and English for whatever good that would do, but he was getting more and more sure he'd headed off in the wrong direction in the first place.
He was hungry and thirsty and cold. He wasn't sure he could do anything about the first or the last, but he headed towards the sounds of running water to try to quench his thirst.
He knelt at the side of the fast flowing water and tried to cup a mouthful of water in his good hand.
He recognised the tinny smell of blood, before he saw the strands of red leaching into the water...
***** ***** *****
To Be Continued...
***** ***** *****
Hope people are still enjoying the story. Please review if you have any comments to make... actually you can review even if you don't have anything special to say, I just like getting reviews :o) Chapter 7 should be posted next Saturday.
Please see previous chapters for all-purpose disclaimers.
Chapter 6.
Lucas felt the sting of the branches whipping against him as he crashed though the treetop. After what seemed like an age, Lucas felt a sharp tug as the parachute snagged and tangled in the branches above him.
He took a deep breath.
"Ok, try to stay calm." He told himself. Somehow hearing a voice, even if it was only his own, was comforting. "You're alive, that's a good start."
Lucas carefully flexed his joints. "Nothing's broken. I'm Ok, I'm fine." He paused for a moment. "And I'm stuck in a tree." The ground was about 30 ft below him.
"Can anyone hear me?" Lucas shouted. He waited for a reassuring reply from one of the crew. No one answered.
Lucas sighed, and looked at the tree around him. There was a branch about eight feet away. After on considering for a few seconds, Lucas dropped the bag he'd kept such a tight hold on down onto the forest floor where it landed intact with a quiet thud. First gently and then with growing momentum he tried to swing towards the branch.
Lucas tried to ignore the quiet, but some how all-pervading sound of tearing parachute, and he made one final lunge at the branch.
He missed.
***** ***** *****
Tim lay on the rocks not far from the edge of the river and tried to remember how to breathe. It was not something he had ever had cause to really consider before, but it seemed to be a lot more difficult than it should be.
He was also quite sure that his back shouldn't be burning like it was. From his left shoulder to his right hip there seemed to be a line of flesh that was on fire and every time he tried to move the blaze intensified.
Tim could remember jumping out of the plane, and he could remember asking forgiveness for his sins as he raced through the air. And then there was a blur of river below him, and a frantic effort to manoeuvre the parachute in any direction that was away from the freezing waters.
After that there was a rather undignified landing, on the rocks, and this pain in his back, the one that was making breathing so difficult. Tim wondered if the others were faring any better than he was, hopefully they were, because he was now quite sure he wasn't going to be able to rush and help them any time soon.
***** ***** *****
Spanish was a good language to curse in, and Miguel was making good use of that fact. His left arm hung painfully and uselessly at his side - meaning that his progress in search of the others was somewhat slower than he would have liked.
Miguel cursed parachutes, and trees, and tree roots that deliberately tried to trip him up. He cursed conferences and the UEO. He cursed his shoulder that wouldn't stop throbbing. And finally he cursed him self, because he had no idea if he was travelling in the right direction.
***** ***** *****
Lucas sat up and said one word that summed up everything he was feeling. "Typical." It was said in the exact same tone Miguel was favouring at the moment.
"That was very clever Lucas, true genius at it's best. You manage to jump out of a plane, no problem, and then you fall out of a stupid tree."
He looked at his right arm. But even before he looked, Lucas had known it was broken. In the last decade, he had become quite good at self-diagnosis.
Keeping his right arm curled protectively against his chest Lucas crawled over to his bag, he fumbled at the catch with his left hand, but finally managed to open it.
It wasn't a bad fracture, not as bad as some that he'd had. Slowly and methodically Lucas removed a magazine from one of the pockets of the bag, and after a more careful search, Lucas found three the plastic ties, the kind that he usually used to attach labels to the electrical wires around seaQuest, in his pocket. He laid them next to the magazine and then refastened the catches on the bag. He double-checked each catch to make sure everything inside was still safe.
Lucas took off his sweatshirt, biting his lip to stop himself from crying out when he brought the material over his left arm. Then, using the magazine as a make shift splint, he secured it around his injured arm with the plastic ties. After checking the splint was as correct as it was possible to get it with only one left hand, the teen tied the sweatshirt into a good approximation of a sling with practiced ease.
Hoisting his bag onto his left shoulder, carefully, so as not to disturb the sling. Lucas set off to find the others; every so often he stopped to call out their names. But still no one answered.
***** ***** *****
Ben sat on the floor next to fallen tree and shivered. He tried to stand, but all the blood rushed, in one wave of giddiness, to his head. He felt dizzy and queasy, and couldn't quite believe that he'd managed to land in one piece. He'd jumped out of an aeroplane, and he was still in one piece. The worst had happened and he was still alive.
He should feel wonderful, but he didn't, he felt terrible. Somehow it didn't seem fair that he'd jumped out of a plane, done everything right, which was obvious to Ben when he considered how hard he would have landed if he had done something wrong, and he still felt rotten.
As soon as he stopped feeling giddy Ben decided he was going to find someone and he was going to complain.
***** ***** *****
"Commander? Ben? Can anyone hear me?" Lucas paused to see if anyone could hear him, but, like every other time, no one answered his calls.
He walked a little further on. On the edge of his hearing, Lucas thought he heard something. He stopped again to listen, but was about put the voice down to wishful thinking, but when it came again, there was do doubt.
Lucas raced towards the voice scanning the trees ahead of him for any sign of a parachute. Finally he saw one, and not far away from it, Katie was lying still on the floor.
***** ***** *****
Commander Jonathan Ford, youngest Commander in the UEO, and the XO of seaQuest giggled. He didn't know why, but he giggled, and as soon as he started he found it very difficult to stop.
His head ached, and it felt wet and sticky when he tried to rub the pain away. He giggled again and distractedly wiped the blood off his hand onto his uniform.
Ford couldn't remember drinking, but it was starting to creep over him that he felt drunk. He could be court marshalled for drinking on duty. Straightening up and putting on his best 'I'm from the UEO - not mess with me' face he set off to find out why he was drunk in the middle of a forest.
He was still giggling.
***** ***** *****
"Katie, are you Ok?" Lucas called, rushing over to where she lay.
"I'm fine, what about you? What happened to your arm?" Lucas looked confused for a moment, and then remembered his arm. He was so used to working with one arm, he had soon slipped back into his old habits of coping - which was to simply pretend that nothing was wrong.
"What happened to your leg?" He countered.
"My leg is fine. It's nothing you need to worry about-"
"Believe it or not, I'm no longer a child. And anyway - I'm the only one hear at the moment, so you'll have to let me help you." Lucas snapped wearily, disappointed that she didn't trust him enough to help her.
Katie only hesitated for a moment. "I caught it on a branch on the way down. I think it might be broken."
Lucas looked form one leg to the other and back again. He didn't think it was broken, he knew it was broken. Katie's right leg was slightly shorter than her left and it was lying at an awkward angle to the rest of her body.
Lucas thought for a moment, and then began to collect what he thought he would need to make another, this time more complicated splint.
"What are you doing?" Katie asked as Lucas moved towards her parachute.
"I need to immobilise your leg." Lucas said simply.
"I didn't know you had first aid training." Katie said, as she watched him gather a small pile of what seemed to her to be miscellaneous odds-and- ends.
"Only very unofficial training." Lucas hedged.
"Who taught you?" Katie asked more because she wanted something to take her mind off her leg, than for any other reason.
"I suppose you could say my father taught me everything I know about first aid." Lucas said with something in between a reassuring smile and a remembering grimace.
Katie was going to ask more, but they heard someone singing. Who ever it was, they were singing very loudly and very off key.
"Ben?" Lucas queried, casting a glance at Katie.
"Miguel?" Katie wondered.
As they wondered a figure swayed towards them from between the trees.
They both stared at the figure with their jaws hanging open. Then they both said, with uncanny synchronisation.
"Commander Ford?"
***** ***** *****
Miguel was now quite convinced that he was lost. After wondering around for what felt like hours, he still hadn't found anyone. He'd tried shouting - in Spanish and English for whatever good that would do, but he was getting more and more sure he'd headed off in the wrong direction in the first place.
He was hungry and thirsty and cold. He wasn't sure he could do anything about the first or the last, but he headed towards the sounds of running water to try to quench his thirst.
He knelt at the side of the fast flowing water and tried to cup a mouthful of water in his good hand.
He recognised the tinny smell of blood, before he saw the strands of red leaching into the water...
***** ***** *****
To Be Continued...
***** ***** *****
Hope people are still enjoying the story. Please review if you have any comments to make... actually you can review even if you don't have anything special to say, I just like getting reviews :o) Chapter 7 should be posted next Saturday.