Author's Note: Sorry for posting this a day late...the power went out at my house which meant I couldn't turn on my desktop or access the internet.
Snow Moon
The bloody Pineapple Express had set up again, and the base was getting dumped on every three to five days. The warm moist air that fueled the storms came from the region around Hawaii, which meant the snow was significantly heavier than usual. This type of snow would create a heightened flooding risk come spring, but at the moment, it was creating an immediate logistical problem...it was a pain to keep the runway clear.
Out of the team, Cabbie seemed to be the only one to not be particularly bothered by the situation because, for some reason that Blade didn't understand, the aircraft actually liked winter. The avalanche abatement plane was continually monitoring the weather, and when the worst of the storms hit, he would wake up multiple times in the night to make sure it didn't get too deep on the tarmac. Clearing the taxi and runways usually took hours, and it was not uncommon for enough snow to have fallen in the meantime to require the C-119 to start the entire process again.
Cabbie never asked for help when these types of storms hit, but he always seemed to get it. Sometimes road crew vehicles would manage to make their way up the base's access road and then would bend their blade to keeping the tarmac clear. Sometimes it was Blade and Maru who would feel guilty watching Cabbie shoveling away at the Sisyphean-like task, and they would head out into the bitter cold to help for a couple of hours. Sadly, neither Blade nor Maru had the cold weather build to stay at the task for long, and Cabbie would soon be powering through the task alone once again.
There was an unspoken rule for days like these. That Blade and Maru would take on as many of Cabbie's base chores and tasks as possible to free the plane's time up for dealing with snow. And this included the task that Blade and Maru hated most...cooking. Because Blade was capable of burning even water, he was relegated to assembling things like sandwiches while Maru manned the cooking pot. The act of preparing a meal usually took an hour or two longer than it would under Cabbie's watchful eye, but as the storm outside howled, no one was in a hurry to get things done fast.
"Soups' up!" Maru shouted through the thickly falling snow, and when that failed to get Cabbie's attention, he paged him over the radio. Cabbie muttered some sounds in reply, but a few minutes later, Blade could start making out the shape of planes wings, making its way towards them through the blowing snow.
"There is no point in you fighting the storm right now." Blade stated between sips of coffee. "The moment you push the snow off the runway, the wind blows the whole pile back on. The wind is supposed to die down in a couple of hours, why don't you rest until then."
For a few long moment's Blade suspected that Cabbie would protest, but the old plane just closed his eyes and sagged heavily on his tires. This storm was pushing him towards his limits because he didn't even bother hiding the exhaustion from his voice. "Wake me when either the windbreaks or if the snow starts to get too deep."
With that, Cabbie drained his soup and settled himself in front of the fire. Blade suspected that the old bird was probably asleep before his tires had come to a complete stop. He left the helicopter and the tug to sit and listen to the storm pounding against the hanger.
"So, you up for a game of Uno?" Maru asked, filling the silence.
"Only if you are ready to be beaten again." Blade scoffed as he pulled out the cards.
The two of them played long into the night, knowing that it was their job to listen for the wind to finally die down. When that happened, Blade and Maru would wake Cabbie back up, and let him know that it was time to repeat the process of clearing the tarmac once again.