Follow up to day 4's "Fallen"
The ducks had backtracked far enough that they were able to walk two-by-two. Dewey was up front with Webby, who had lead them most of the way back so far. Huey and Louie were behind them, the latter on the inside of the path, still holding tightly to his brother's hand. Scrooge now made up the rear, calling out instructions and questions to Webby up front.
"What do you see now, lass?" he asked.
"Not a whole lot. The path keeps going, there are a few rocks...oh! I think we're almost at the part where the path widens again!"
"Good. Keep going. And be careful!"
The ducks continued on until the path widened, giving them a little more space.
"All ride, kids. Let's stop a minute and regroup," Scrooge said.
"Can't we just keep going?" Louie asked. "Before something else bad almost happens?"
"We just need to plan a little. I'll take up the front. According to the map, we should be about two-thirds of the way back to the plane. We should-" A sudden rumbling cut him off. As the ground began to shake, Scrooge yelled, "Take cover!" and pushed the kids towards the side of the mountain, covering them with his own body. Almost immediately, rocks began falling around them.
"Rockslide!" Huey yelped.
"Shield your heads and look down!" Scrooge commanded. The five ducks stayed that way until the rocks finally stopped falling.
"Is everyone alright?" Scrooge asked. He was answered by a chorus of yeses.
"Um, Uncle Scrooge?" Dewey said. "We're blocked in."
"Blow me bagpipes!" Scrooge said, looking at the pile of rocks that blocked them from the rest of the path. "This is a problem."
"What are we going to do?" asked Louie.
"We could climb over it," Webby suggested.
"No! That's much too risky!" Scrooge said. "One false move and the whole pile could come crashing down."
"Then how are we gonna get back?" Louie asked, a touch of fear creeping into his voice.
Scrooge pulled his satellite phone out of his pocket. "Not to worry! I'll just call Launchpad and-" He looked at the phone and put his face in his hand. "And somebody neglected to charge the thing on our way over." Scrooge sighed and put the phone back in his pocket. "I swear, if we ever get back, firing Launchpad is the first thing I'm going to do."
"What now?" Huey asked.
Scrooge walked over to the edge of the cliff. "D'you think it'd be a problem if we threw the rocks off the side of the mountain?"
Dewey shrugged, Huey started to say, "Actually…", and Louie said, "Nope!" and started grabbing rocks from the pile blocking their way and throwing them over the cliff.
"I don't think-" Webby began as Scrooge joined his nephew in clearing the path. "But what if-"
Dewey joined in, too.
Webby and Huey looked at each other and shrugged.
"Forget it," Huey said and joined his family. Webby did the same. Besides, they were in the middle of a remote desert. The chances of there being anybody at the bottom of the mountain were...relatively small. Probably.
Unfortunately, the pile of rocks was so big that, after two hours' worth of work, they had only made a small dent.
"Maybe we should try climbing it," Webby puffed. "If one of us can get past, we can go get help."
Scrooge shook his head. "We don't know what the rockslide did to the rest of the mountain. It could be treacherous."
"We're gonna die out here!" Louie wailed.
"We're not gonna die," Huey said. "Eventually, someone will come looking for us. And I'm sure the Junior Woodchucks Guidebook has some stuff about how to survive until then, and maybe it even has directions on how to make a flair gun or a radio so people can find us."
"A flair gun?" Webby said, reaching into her backpack. "You mean like this?"
The four other ducks stared at her in disbelief.
"You had a flair gun the whole time?" Louie shouted. He grabbed it from her and pointed it up in the air.
"Whoa, lad," Scrooge said, taking the gun from him. "Shield your eyes," he said. He pointed it up in the air and fired. The bright flair sailed up near the clouds before fizzling out.
"There. Now let's just hope that that idiot of a pilot know to come get us," Scrooge said.
The five ducks waited anxiously, hoping that Launchpad had received (and understood) their signal. Soon, they heard the roaring of a jet engine, and shortly the plane they'd arrived in was hovering in the air next above them. A rope ladder dropped down and they gratefully climbed up it.
"Good thing I brought the Harrier, hey, Mr. McD?" said Launchpad from the cockpit. "Did you find those ruins?"
"Just get us out of here, Launchpad," Scrooge said. "It's time we head home."