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Poltergeist: The Legacy fan fiction by Nicol Leoraine
2.Chapter
"If you´re going through hell, keep going." - Quoted by Sir Winston Churchill
Meanwhile, in the San Francisco House
Alex just returned from the city. First she stopped by Dr. Woodrow and picked up the package Derek wanted. Looking at her watch she realized that the boys should be still in the air for the next three hours, at least.
"Plenty of time," she thought. Once in the city she don´t wanted to return so soon, there wasn´t much to work on anyway. The shopping seemed quite inviting. But when Alex started shopping, she often lost track of the time, so it was past four, when she returned to the castle. On her way she stopped by Rachel, but she was called to the hospital. They traded few words and Alex finally headed home.
The castle was quiet, which couldn´t be said about Dominick, their buttler. The man was nervous, and Alex knew that he wasn´t shaken easily.
"What happened, Dominick?" she asked, feeling the fear creeping in the pit of her stomach.
"Dr. Rayne and Master Boyle are lost."
"Lost?" Alex thought she heard wrong. How can someone get lost in San Diego?
"They didn´t call. The friend of Mr. Sloan called three hours ago to inform us, that they didn´t pick him up. He was very upset. Right after I ended the call, someone called from the flight-control. By the flight schedule, they should´ve contacted them hours before, but they didn´t. They can´t get hold of them by the radio. They also started the search."
Alex blinked, hard. It was impossible to fight off the images of a falling machine, the explosion, the corp- No, don´t go there! shouted Alex in her mind, stopping the flow of the images at once.
"Search? So... they think they crashed?"
"They´re not sure. It´s possible that Dr. Rayne and Master Boyle had to force-land, but..."
"Yeah, but," muttered Alex and tried to think.
"Dominick, if I remember correctly, our chopper has a tracking system..."
"Yes, Madam. They know about it, but they didn´t find any signal. It could be that the system failed."
This wasn´t the thing Alex wanted to hear. The second possibility, that the chopper was destructed, was even worse.
"I had to call Sloan and Rachel. We have to find them." So Alex started the hard work, trying to find her two best friends in the perimeter of few hundred miles. It wasn´t an easy quest, but she sweared to herself, that she´ll accomplish it the best she could.
Back in the woods Dry wood was hard to find, because the day before was raining, but Derek managed to find some logs, branches - even dry leaf under a small rock formation. Packed full, he headed back to Nick, who was impatiently waiting at him. Like Derek anticipated, he was on the other side of the small clearing, trying to attach a special plastic sheet between two trees, but it was hard with only one hand and he cursed as it fell down. Derek put everything on the ground and picked up the offensive thing. Nick only now registered his presence.
"Can I help you?"
"Mhm. I need a hand there. I´ll hold this end, while you can fasten the second around the trunk." Derek did it and helped Nick fasten the sheet on his side. Nick then managed to nail the other edges to the ground and now it looked as some half-tent.
"Great - what is it?"
"A shelter from the wind, and when we make a fire, it will hold a little heat. You found something?"
Derek pointed at the pile.
"I didn´t find more. Will it do?"
"I hope so."
"What are the branches for?"
"We gonna sleep on them. The ground will be too cold. We could use more wood, though,"
"I will see," sighed Derek. You tried the cell phone?" Nick nodded.
"No signal. We can try it out tomorrow on some uphill. I turned it off to save batteries."
Derek once again walked away and Nick stayed alone. It wasn´t as if he was never alone before, but he don´t liked it now. Everything hurt - his head, hand even the ribs troubled him. He wanted to lie down and sleep, but this wasn´t the right moment. He walked to the pile of wood Derek brought and moved it to their new "shelter", then removed the branches and made their "beds". He then turned to the pile and prepared it for the fireplace. Derek soon returned with another pile of wood and conifer leaf. He placed it on the ground and sit down next to Nick, sighing.
"You need something else?"
"No, that´s all. I´ll start a fire in few hours."
"Why not now? What if they´ll search for us? They should see the fire." Nick shook his head.
"Look above us. It´s a dense forest - the only fire they would spot there is a big one - and I´m not ready to burn the whole forest. Tomorrow - we can find some big clearing or a hill or something and try it there."
Derek was getting hungry.
"Don´t you want to eat, Nick?"
"I´m not really hungry, Derek, but you can eat. The food is in the pack." Derek reached for it and started to shuffle through its contest, finally finding some food.
"Well see, what we have... some canned beans, conserves, dried meat and chocolate. Well I hope you brought some can-opener too,"
"Should be next the food."
"Yeah, I found it," Derek opened the beans and started to eat. Nick was sitting on the branches and leafs, leaning at the tree with closed eyes. He was tired and hurting, and wanted only to sleep.
"Nick? You awake?" asked Derek in hushed voice.
"Mhm. What?" Nick looked at Derek, who handed him the half eaten beans.
"Eat."
"Derek I´m not hungry."
"But you should eat, you need some energy for tomorrow. I won´t carry you to San Francisco. Here, eat."
Nick grabbed the can, while Derek shot him one of his looks. Before the first spoon though Nick commented:
"I hate this."
"What, beans?" asked Derek surprised.
"No, that commanding look of yours. It´s like everyone should obey you." Derek thought about it for a moment then with a smile replied:
"But it´s working, no?"
Nick nodded, mouthful.
"So there´s no reason to change it," grinned Derek and Nick laughed, grabbing at his ribs in pain.
"Don´t you have something for the pain?" asked Derek, immediatelly concerned. Nick only shook his head.
"Nah, it´s allright."
"Nick, we should be safe there..."
"I don´t need it, Derek. I had worse. Anyway, the pain isn´t the worst thing on the world. They told us so in the training." Derek looked doubtful, so Nick elaborated.
"While you´re feeling the pain, you´re alive."
"Yeah, but that also means that there´s bigger chance for you to die," added Derek.
"I doubt they thought about that."
Both men stayed silent while Nick finished up the beans and put the empty can back to his bag, taking out the map.
"What are you planning?"
"Don´t know. Maybe we should rather stay here."
"Why?"
Nick frowned but it only reminded him of his pounding head.
"We should think about every possibility thenchoose one of them."
"So, what´s the first option?"
"We can stay here and wait. It seems pretty safe. The river is not so far away, so we shouldn´t have a problem with water or food - I have fish hooks. They should find us - sooner or later. True, the wreck isn´t visible, but they had our flight-plan. We sheered a little in the fall though, but... it shouldn´t be a problem."
"A little much ´should´, don´t you think? Anyway, Nick - you said that they couldn´t see us. How do you plan to let them know where we are?"
"We have the signal rockets and we can explore the surroundings and try to find some hill or clearing where we could set a signal fire."
"And how long do you think it can take for them to find us this way?"
"Few days, maybe week."
"What´s the second option?"
"We can find our way alone." Nick pointed at the map. "We´re here." Moving his finger to the south, he indicated another point. "There are some cabins for tourists. It´s about fifty miles away."
"Fifty? How long could it take, Nick?"
"In this terrain, I think we could made ten or fifteen miles, so perhaps three or five days max, if nothing happens."
"And the third option?"
"That one of us will stay here while the other will go find help - but it´s the last chance."
"Not a good idea," conquered Derek.
"I know - I don´t like it either. Splitting up is one of the worst possibilities - it´s pretty dangerous."
"Okay - scratch off number three. So we have two options left. What do you suggest?"
"I suggest that we stay here two days. Tomorrow we will go to the river and try to find some hill. We can try to signal from there, or try my cell phone. If nobody appears tomorrow, the day after we should hit the road at day-break."
"It´s a plan." Nick packed up the map, returning it to the bag. It was starting to get dark and the cold was biting. He was trying to start a fire, but it was a little difficult with a broken arm and ribs.
"Need some help?"
"Thanks," mumbled Nick as Derek stroke the matches and set the dry leafs into fire. Nick then pushed the blazing leafs and paper into the middle of the pyramid he made from the wood and rods. He then blowed into the flames, till the wood started to burn and the fire was strong enough to last a while without much help. The movement didn´t very help his broken ribs though, and Nick had to take a minute just to control his hissing breath.
"We should take shifts," said Nick and went to an explanation, seeing Derek´s look.
"We need to take guard, because of the animals and the helicopters. If they´ll look for us in the morning or... they shouldn´t be long, maximum four hours."
"It´s seven," stated Derek looking at his watch. "Okay, what about you go to sleep now and when I´ll be tired, I´ll wake you up."
Nick thought about it. He was tired, but not really sleepy. He knew that once he falls asleep, the nightmares will come. But he couldn´t be awake for the whole night. So why not? He can sleep now, and once he awakens, he wouldn´t sleep more. He´ll simply let Derek sleep.
"All right, but I´m not sleepy right now." Derek nodded and realized he´s thirsty. Neither him nor Nick had anything to drink from the breakfast and it was important not to get dehydrated. He opened one bottle of water, drank from it then handed it to Nick, who also took few long swigs.
"I´m wondering what is Alex doing," spoke Nick suddenly. Derek unconsciously smiled at the thought of Alex.
"I think she´s pretty mad."
"And I think she´s making hell of a day for those who´re supposed to search for us," laughed Nick and Derek joined him. Neither of them was far from the truth.
Meanwhile at Angel Island
Alex paced the Control room like a tiger in the cage. She did everything possible, now she could only wait for some news. Rachel came hour after Alex was informed that Derek and Nick are missing. She called her straight to the hospital, but she couldn´t catch her there, so Rachel was informed only later. Alex immediatelly called Sloan who had a call from his friend in Lokern, stating that the chopper didn´t land. When Sloan appeared on the monitor, he looked equally concerned, even if Alex didn´t know if it was beause of their colleagues or the missing chopper. She had to give him some credit though, it was probably more for her friends.
"Miss Moreau," started Sloan, "It seems that you get the news about our missing members."
"Yes. Why is it so hard to find them? That locator should be working."
"It seems, that the locator is broken or destroyed." Sloan and Alex were silent for a moment, both contemplating the second possibility. The locator should´ve been working, the technic that monted it stated that only an explosion can destruct it and that it can´t be damaged in a regular fall. This of course left only one possibility - one Alex wasn´t prepared to think about.
"There have to be more options how to find them."
"Sure. They´re starting the search, tracking their path, looking for the wreck. But if you look at the map with their flight route, you´ll see that they were flying above forests and mountains. We have almost 200 hundred miles wide circle where they could be. And those forests are really thick. The wreck doesn´t have to be visible and in that case, we won´t find them. There´s also a second chance - that they´re dead."
"You can pretty well scratch it out, Sloan. I´m sure they´re alive," stated Alex angrilly.
"Believe me, I don´t want it either. The search started and they will not stop without my order."
"If you have any news, inform me, please,"
"Of course, I anticipate the same." Alex nodded and Sloan cut the connection. Not so soon after came Rachel and Alex informed her, so now there were two nervous women pacing the room instead of one.
Back in the forest - location unknown
Nick finally decided to take a shut eye so he lie down on the improvised bed from branches and needles. It took a time to get comfortable enough to at least don´t feel the pain in his arm, after which Nick fell asleep. Derek let out a relieved sigh. It took him two hours to convince Nick, that he will indeed wake him up for his guard or in a case of need, in which time they talked about a few funnier cases they experienced, and Nick also narrated one or two tales they talked about in SEAL, when they couldn´t fall asleep. They were chilling, but Derek was still glad Nick was talking to him about the SEALs. It wasn´t often the younger man mentioned his past without pushing him to, so Derek listened without complain.
Now that Nick was asleep, Derek didn´t have to hide his concern anymore. He watched his younger colleague, knowing, that he should be in hospital, or at least in real bed, and not on the ground, trying to find the way back home. Derek don´t liked the situation, but he was thankful for the fact that he was there with Nick. This way they had a chance to get out of it alive. Though Derek promised himself he won´t let anything happen to Nick. After what Derek learned about Jonathan Boyle, he felt more protective towards the ex-seal. Maybe it was guilt for not realising, what happened, or perhaps his longing for a family, a son of his own blood. Or simply the fact that he saw Nick reading that letter Jonathan sent him. He was just walking to the library but stopped, hearing a quiet sobbing. He peeked inside, then after a moment of hesitation, turned and walked away. There was still things that Nick will have to conquer alone.
Now he guarded, while Nick slept. But it wasn´t a quiet, healing sleep Nick needed. After an hour, Nick started to dream. And it wasn´t a pleasant dream.
He was in the forest and someone chased him. He didn´t recognize his surroundings, though he knew it´s just a dream. He didn´t really know why he´s running, only a feeling that someone is after him. His senses were working overtime, but it was useless. He couldn´t see or hear anyone besides himself. The beating of a heart, the fear straining him in its claws like a ragged doll. He didn´t turn, he couldn´t. Feets brought him forward. For a second he looked at his hand and almost stopped, realising, that it´s not his watch on his wrist.
Suddenly the sounds changed. A crunch of broken branch, noisy breathing which wasn´t his, because he couldn´t breath. Turning his head to look who it is, he was surprised see no one. He run faster. The sound was drawing close on him, but he had a feeling that he´s not moving. The branches scratched his face and hands, but he ignored it. He was running till there was no ground under his feet. He stumbled about an exerted stem and was flying through the air, landing at his knee. Face down, Nick tried to get up, when his instincts screamed. He desperately wanted to kick out like he would, but he realised, that the body isn´t his. It belonged to a man who didn´t know what to do, only felt that the death is coming. And when Nick wanted to scream at the man, shout at him to move or do something, he felt a sharp pain in his back. Reaching behind, he felt the knife penetrating his back. With a silent thump he fell back to the ground.
I know, this one was short. I´m working on The Road Not Taken and another two fanfic´s from ER and DM, so I´m quite busy. As this one was written long ago, I can´t bring myself to work on it as hard as on the others. Translating is hell! Much harder than writing. Not to mention, that this one fic was written as first, so it limps on the quiality.
I hope you´ll like it anyway, though.
Mail me and review - don´t forget to look at my other stories. Promise they get