Chapter One
Vin and JD laughed as they entered the airport heading for the private jet that would take them and the others to Utah for their vacation. They had just got done with a big case and was in need of a vacation. Chris and Buck were waiting outside the plane and Josiah, Nathan and Ezra were just climbing out of the plane after stowing their bags on board the plane.
"About time you guys got here?" Buck yelled at the two youngest. "What took you so long?"
JD looked at Vin and they both busted out laughing once more. "Vin got held up by a young lady."
"Hey, her friend was trying to get to you," Vin said shoving JD away from him.
"Enough fooling around," Chris said. "Stow your stuff and get settled in the plane. We need to go."
As they got onboard, four men watched from the hangar.
"Did you sabotage the planes engines?" a voice said from behind them.
"Yes sir, Mr. Ventura," one of them said turning around. "They won't get away with putting Mr. Tajos in prison. As soon as the plane leaves, we'll follow them in the helicopter and as soon as the plane crashes, we land and get rid of the survivors."
"Quite right," the leader said.
Amos Ventura was Victor Tajos lead man and was out for revenge on the Mag 7 for putting Tajos in prison after a successful bust of their leaders mansion. They watched as the plane took off and they hurried over and got in the waiting helicopter and followed them, but not close enough for them to detect them. Soon they were flying over the Rockies. Chris looked up as the co-pilot came in through the pilot's compartment and stopped in front of them.
"We're having some problems with the engines," he said to them. "We've contacted a small airport about an half hour from here and we're going to see if we can make it there before the engines give out."
Chris nodded and the co-pilot disappeared back into the cockpit. The others heard the words spoken to Chris and immediately they put their seatbelts back on. Not long after that, the plane started to buck around. In the cockpit, the pilots were trying to keep the engines on line but nothing was working.
"We're going to have to land this plane," the pilot said. "See if you can find somewhat of a clear space to land."
The co-pilot started looking out the window searching for a place to land but it was no use. The Rockies didn't appear to have any.
"Passengers, we're going to try and do a emergency landing," the pilot said over the comm.. "Please fasten your seatbelts and hang on. It might be a rough landing."
Near the back of the plane, Vin and JD exchanged worried glances after the announcement. Ezra, Nathan and Josiah were sitting two rows above them and two rows behind Chris and Buck and they all glanced at each other in worry. They couldn't believe this was happening.
"Mayday, mayday! This is ATF jet 247-8B. We are going down somewhere over the Rocky Mountains. All engines are down. Our heading is . . ."
The last thing they remember is a tall tree coming out of nowhere and hitting the side of the plane with a lot of force, clipping one wing completely off, sending them spiraling into the rough terrain below them and everything went black.
ooOOoo
In Denver, Travis was sitting in his office going over some paperwork when the phone rang and he picked it up.
"AD Travis," he said to the caller. "What? . . . What do you mean you lost contact with the plane! Where at? All right, I'll be on the next flight."
He hung up and then hastily called Mary's number to say that he had to cancel their dinner date.
"I'm going with you," Mary said after she heard what had happened.
"You don't need to," Travis said to her. "We'll find them."
"I'm not going to stay here, not being able to do anything," Mary said. "I'm going. Pick me up in an half hour."
Travis knew it was no use to argue with Mary so he said he would pick her up and hung the phone up. He couldn't believe this was happening to his best ATF team.
ooOOoo
Buck was the first to come around in the plane. It seems like everything hurt. He felt something wet on his face and he reached up to wipe it off and pain flew through his fingers on his right hand. Opening his eyes, he slowly looked around his surroundings. Looking at his fingers, he saw that three of them were swollen and bruised, probably broken. He reached up with his left hand and wiped the wetness away and when he looked at his hand, he saw blood. Reaching back up, he felt a cut over his left eye. He was able to unbuckle his seatbelt and got gingerly to his feet.
"Why does this always happen when we go on vacation?" he asked as he brushed the dirt off of his jeans with his left hand.
He looked to his left where Chris had been and found that Chris' seatbelt had broke and he was on the floor near the wall, unconscious.
"Chris," Buck said hurrying over to his friend.
He felt for a pulse and found one and it was beating strong. He patted Chris on the shoulder and went to find the others. As he straightened up he looked toward the back and saw that most of the tail section was missing. Looking into the cockpit, he saw that the two pilots were slumped in their seats. Finding no pulse on either man, he turned to find the others.
He heard a groan not far from him and he found Ezra trying to get to his feet, shaking his head. He saw that Ezra had a nasty looking cut near his temple and a knot forming underneath that.
"You okay Ez?" Buck asked helping the conman to his feet.
"Dandy, Mr. Wilmington," Ezra said. He took out his handkerchief and wiped the blood off his face, grimacing as it hit the knot and cut. "Find any of the others?"
"Chris is unconscious up front. Pilots are dead," Buck said. "Check on Nathan and Josiah. I'm going to try and find JD and Vin."
Ezra looked toward the tail section of the plane and was shocked to see nothing but a hole where their two youngest members was sitting when they left.
"Oh my God!" Ezra said and then snapped out of it as Buck snapped his fingers. "I'll find those two. Check on Nathan and Josiah, then help Chris."
Ezra nodded and moved toward Josiah who was closest. Vin slowly came to and it felt like his head was splitting in two. He felt something pinning his right leg to the ground and when he went to sit up, a sharp pain flew up his leg and he nearly collapsed once again. As his eyes adjusted, he saw a tree branch on top of his leg. The branch was thick and he knew he wouldn't be able to get it off by himself. As he looked for a way to get it off, he saw JD laying not far from him. Both legs were pinned underneath the same branch and he could see that some jagged parts were sticking in his legs. He couldn't tell how deep but he could tell that they were probably deep and that JD had lost a good amount of blood.
"Vin! JD!" Buck's voice was news to his ears.
"Over here Buck," Vin tried to yell, but his head hurt too much to yell too loud.
Buck hurried over and bent down beside him.
"How are you doing?" he asked surveying the damage.
"Just peachy," Vin said sarcastically. "Think you can help get my leg out from under this tree branch."
"Not with these broken fingers," Buck said. "We'll wait to see how injured the others are before we try. Seen JD?"
Vin nodded his head over in JD's direction and Buck paled at the sight of his young friend.
"Hang tight," he said to Vin and hurriedly walked over to where JD laid. Laying his hand on JD's neck, he found a pulse but it was weak.
Back at the plane, Ezra had found Nathan and Josiah okay, with no major injuries just some minor ones. Nathan made his way to where Chris was to find him coming around.
"Steady there Chris," Nathan said steadying Chris as he tried to sit up.
He helped him sit up and Chris gasped in pain and clutched his ribs. Nathan reached over and carefully prodded his ribs and Chris gasped in pain once more.
"Looks like you busted few ribs there Chris," Nathan said and took the first-aid it and his medical bag from Josiah. "Let's tape 'em up for ya."
Taking a broad pad from his bag, he placed it over Chris' ribs and then wound tape around the pad making sure it wasn't real tight.
"Let's get you out of this plane," Nathan said to him.
Ezra and Josiah helped Chris out of the plane and sat him down on the ground, propped against a tree. While Ezra stayed with him, the others went to find where Buck had went to. Buck looked up from where he kneeled beside JD as the others approached.
"You okay Buck?" Nathan asked kneeling beside JD's prone form.
"I think I broke a couple of fingers on my right hand," Buck said. "But don't worry about me, JD and Vin are trapped under this branch."
Nathan wanted to dress JD's injuries before they tried to move the branch off of him.
"Josiah, find me some branches to use for splints," Nathan said to the big man. "Looks like JD's got a broken forearm."
Five minutes later, Josiah returned with about six good branches. Taking JD's right arm, he placed it gently across his chest. Using gauze to pad the branches, he placed them on either side of JD's arms. He used two handkerchiefs to tie the splints.
"We need to try and lift this branch straight off his legs. The wounds are probably gonna bleed more and we need to be ready to try and stop the flow of the bleeding," Nathan said to them. "Buck, go stay with Chris and send Ezra over here. You can't do anything with those broken fingers."
Buck nodded and headed back to where Chris and Ezra was. Soon Ezra joined them and they got ready to move the branch off of JD's legs.
"Do you think you'll be able to get your leg out from underneath the branch once we get it off?" Nathan asked Vin, who nodded. "As soon as we have the branch off, I'll slide JD away."
They counted to three and Josiah and Ezra were able to lift the branch far enough so that Nathan could slide JD away and Vin was able to get his leg out of the way also.
"Vin, I'll be there in just a minute as soon as I dress JD's injuries," Nathan said to the sharpshooter who nodded. "We need to move him over near Chris so I can work better. After moving him, come back and help Vin."
JD didn't move at all as they carefully maneuvered him over near where Chris and Buck was sitting. Josiah left to go back and help Vin while Nathan took care of JD.
"Buck, see if you can find anything to elevate his legs," Nathan said to the ladies' man.
Buck returned not long after with two pillows and some blankets. They put the pillows underneath JD's legs. Using a knife, Nathan cut JD's pants legs to uncover the puncture wounds.
"Doesn't look like the wounds are too deep," Nathan said as he examined the wounds.
Using compresses he applied firm pressure directly on the wounds which weren't too far apart from each other and soon the bleeding slowed. He then applied pressure dressings on each one. After checking the splint on his forearm, he turned to Vin to access his injuries.
"Okay, we need to stabilize this leg," Nathan said. "It's going to hurt."
"Just do it," Vin said.
They were able to get his shoe off his foot. Taking a firm hold of Vin's foot he pulled slowly and straighten the leg. The pain from that was too much for Vin and he passed out. Using the last two branches they placed it on both sides of his leg and used bandannas to tie it off. Nobody even paid attention to the sound of a helicopter as it passed overhead.