Chapter 14

As Ed described it to me later, he put on full emergency power and headed for the pterodactyl. The creature had not yet reached the stricken plane as Ed fired. His shot was true and the pterodactyl missed the plane. He couldn’t tell what the other pilot had seen, so he assumed that the other pilot had not seen his plane.

Ed followed the plane to the highway and pulled up close behind it. That was when Ed called me. “Bill, I am right close to the other plane. There is a godawful section of the left wing torn away and the jet engine on that side is missing. I am amazed that the wing is still hanging on to the rest of the plane. This is a tricycle landing gear, and a ramp is being lowered from the tail.

“Dammit, I’ve got to get to the plane to tell them all to stay inside until help arrives. All we need is for a flock of velociraptors to get loose among the passengers on the ground and inside the plane. Please get the bus out here to pick up passengers as soon as possible. We are about 20 miles from Miami.”

Dammit, I am going to send P1 and the bus. Hopefully, that is enough transportation for everybody. “Karen, we need you to fly P1 right away. Don’t even stop to change clothes. The problem is about 20 miles south of here on the highway. Ed is already there and will be trying to get everybody to stay on board the plane. There is some damage, so you may have to load injured people.”

“Okay, Bill, I’m on my way.”

“Hank, drop what ever you are doing and drive the bus to a spot of trouble about 20 miles south of here on the highway. Move as fast as you can. Watch out for P1. Karen is flying it there in case there are injured people. This is a real emergency!”

“Okay, Bill, I’m leaving now.”

Ed managed to reach the ramp at the tail of the plane before anybody had gotten off. He ran up the stairs and shouted for everybody to freeze in place. His commanding voice must have had the desired effect because nobody argued with him. All he could see on the plane were women, and most of them were young—late teens at the youngest.

“Who is in charge here?”

“I am. Who are you?”

“I’m the pilot that killed that creature that was attacking you. Please keep everybody on the plane until help arrives. It is on the way, and the first help should be here in about 15 or 20 minutes. Are there any injuries?”

“Yes, one of the women has lost her arm. I got a tourniquet on it. It looks like it was bitten off. What was that thing that attacked us. It looked like a dragon.”

“You can call it that. All of your questions will be answered very soon. I must talk to your pilot. Keep every one aboard the plane. There are some very dangerous animals around here, and they will eat you if they get a chance. They may eat most of you before they kill you, so raise that ramp back where it was and just wait quietly until help arrives.”

Ed headed for the cockpit. He found the pilot slumped in his seat with a copious amount of blood all over his head, but none of it was flowing. Next to him was a very scared looking First Officer. Ed said, “Take it easy, Son. You did a damned good job in landing this plane. There are a lot of people who owe you their lives. Just sit where you are for now. Help is on the way. I expect it to get here in 10-15 minutes. Now, I have to go back to see if I can help with the passengers.”

Back in the passenger compartment, he looked up the stewardess. “Ma’am, how many passengers are aboard the plane?”

“There are 23 passengers and three crew members. We have three serious injuries, and everybody else has bumps and bruises. There were no deaths.”

“What are the injuries?”

“There is the woman who lost her arm. Another woman has a broken pelvis, and a third woman broke her left arm in two places.”

“Okay, we can heal those wounds, though it will probably take the woman with the missing arm about six months to grow the new one back and to have full control of it.”

“What do you mean ‘grow her arm back?’ That’s impossible!”

“No, it’s not for our doctor. You can tell the woman that she will regrow that arm if you want to. Though I suppose she won’t believe it.”

“I won’t say anything of the kind to her. It would be sadistic to get her hopes up like that!”

“Suit yourself, but it will happen. You’ll believe it when that old scar on your face goes away.”

The stewardess still had not closed the ramp, so Ed had to do it. Fortunately, the plane still had the power and the circuits to make that possible. Dammit, he could see velociraptors strolling around on the pavement. Fortunately, they couldn’t fly, they just looked like they had wings. The hole in the fuselage was out of their reach, but the hole needed to be plugged before something else came along.

He started pulling any sort of flotsam lying in the cabin to pile in front of the hole. Hopefully, nothing that could reach the hole would realize that it was an easy way to reach food. That was when he noticed P1 parked on the highway. There was Karen holding her L-gun ready to pop off another predator that happened to show itself.

Luckily, she was on the left side of the plane near a door in the side at the rear. Ed opened that door and said, “Ah, the damsel to the rescue. Are you ready to take on passengers?”

Karen answered, “Yeah, how many injuries do you have?”

“Either three or four, I am not sure about the pilot. Do you have anybody with you to help?”

“No, I am all by myself. Maybe some of the passengers can help.”

Ed waved and pulled his head back inside. “We can take up to 11 people on that plane. A bus will be along shortly to take everybody else. Help me get the injured woman into the other plane.”

“No, we can’t move her until a doctor looks at her.”

“Get out of my way, dammit, or I will shoot you, you stupid bitch!” Ed pulled his pistol out of his holster part way, and the interfering stewardess just melted out of the way. “SOME OF YOU WHO ARE NOT BADLY INJURED, PLEASE HELP ME! WE HAVE TO MOVE THESE PEOPLE TO THE OTHER PLANE SO THAT THEY CAN GET MEDICAL HELP!”

That was enough to get several women to volunteer to help. Ed opened the tail ramp and then led the way down the ramp with the woman who had lost part of her arm. At least the tourniquet was still holding fast, so that was not a problem. They got her into a seat and fastened the seatbelt before going back for the next person.

Next was the woman with the broken pelvis. They used a blanket for a stretcher to move her to the P1. They decided that a seatbelt would do more harm than good, so that was skipped.

Just as they were headed back into the first plane for the woman with the broken arm, Hank showed up with the bus. “Hank, thank God you are here. There’s one more passenger to move. You handle her while I check on the pilot. He may be injured or dead. I couldn’t tell when I last looked. If he’s dead, I’ll be back to help you; otherwise, I’ll probably need your help with him.”

Ed went back to the cockpit and found the first officer still sitting where he had been when Ed first saw him. He was crying, but that was no great surprise. Ed leaned over and checked for a pulse on the captain. Nothing. He tried again for a pulse in a different place. Still nothing.

Finally, the First Officer said something. “Capt. Olsen is dead. How are the passengers?”

“Most of them are okay. You can be proud of yourself, Son. Now shut the plane down and join me in helping the passengers get rescued.”

The first officer immediately started going through check list as he was supposed to do. Ed figured that he would be okay now that he had a specific job to do. Ed went back into the passenger cabin and saw that the passengers were all off the plane and either seated in P1 or seated in the bus. “Hank, you’ll have to wait on the First Officer. He is shutting the plane down so that it can’t catch fire. That’s probably a good idea because there are things that we can salvage.

“The pilot is dead. I guess that we can’t just leave him here for the predators to find. Let’s find a blanket we can roll him up in and stow his body in the back of the bus.”

They hunted until they found a suitable blanket and laid it out on the floor. When that was done, they went back to the cockpit. The First Officer had finished the checklist and was just sitting there. Hank said, “That kid is a hero, but he is in shock now that the worst is over. Let’s get the captain moved to the bus; I think that the two of us can do it.”