Chapter 2

No one spoke as they realized that they were the initial brain trust for the plane.

After a long moment. Fred St. James said, "You think we may never get back home from wherever here is and you want some help in figuring out what to do. Am I right?"

Ted said, "I've always considered myself to be a pessimistic optimist. I hope for the best but prepare for the worst. I consider the worst right now to be that we will never return to Chicago and, therefore, believe we should prepare accordingly. It's not a pleasant prospect. What I need are suggestions for how to check out where we are and what might be involved in doing something and what that something may be."

John Baker said, "Let's assume, for the sake of argument, that we are at the location of O'Hare and proceed from that point. We should be able to get some idea if that is close from your measurements. Then, we need to decide if we are in our future or in an alternate universe. We know that, from the lack of GPS satellites and radio response, we aren't in our time if we are in our place. Short of something again fantastically unlikely happening, that means we are stuck here.

"Ted, the optimist in you should hope for another miracle while the pessimist says that we should prepare to live here for the rest of our lives. It also means that anyone who leaves the plane may be stranded here if we get another miracle and return to our time and place."

Dr. Miller said, "That certainly covers a lot of territory, Mr. Baker. What do you suggest?"

"First off, Doc, call me John." He smiled at her.

She said, "Okay, John. Then, I'm Nancy."

Baker said, "As far as suggestions, I think we are in the afternoon and can time the sunset from the plane. We should all stay in here tonight. We can hope to improve our idea of where we are and think a little further about what we might be searching for when we do go out.

"Let's assume that we are in a future or alternate Chicago. If it's an alternate, Chicago may never have existed nor any other city. If it's future, we should be able to locate some sign that Chicago used to exist. I would suggest that's our first checkpoint. Can we find something of Chicago when we search?"

Frank said, "You're thinking future or alternate and finding something here should make that difficult to controvert."

Matt grinned and said, "That's big word for a Marine but well said. If we assume that we're in Chicago and find nothing, which would eliminate the future and suggest an alternate universe. That poses some threats. However, thinking on the bear I saw suggests that we have some preparations to make before going out regardless of where or when we are."

"That raises a question. Do we have any arms on board?"

Jeffries said, "To my knowledge, we had no air marshal. I have an automatic pistol in my bag in the luggage compartment. We can reach that without leaving the plane."

John Baker said, "That's good. I had been hunting and have a rifle with ammunition in my bags. I had the proper licensing to have them checked."

"Wow, that gives me some optimism." Frank said.

Fred said, "Ted, can you tell one of us where to find your pistol and its ammunition? I think John can find his rifle. I guess it's doubtful that anyone else on board has any weapons."

"Yes, I can and will. I knew that there was a licensed rifle on board. Unless someone is hiding something, that's it for this flight. We are supposed to be informed."

John Baker said, "Let's talk about the people to be in the first search party. We're looking for signs of anything but particularly signs that this is or was Chicago. Is that correct?" Everyone nodded at him. "That being the case, we need a rifle team, a pistol team, and a search team or two. Ted, you and Matt saw a large animal. If there's one, there could be more. We don't know what else might be around and I wouldn't want to be surprised. I was on a search mission when proper precautions weren't taken. Only two of us made it back alive."

"Well, young man, it's good that Fred and I are here. We are archeologists. If there is something out there, we will have an idea about what it may look like and can make an educated guess as to age. Our field clothes are in our luggage. We can each lead a team. Three on a team would be best. We will need four young men to help us."

There was silence as everyone considered what had been said. Before the discussion could pick up, Simone came running into first class. "Manous," she shouted but in a low voice. "Manous, two of the passengers are opening the rear door. They are going to leave."

Baker was up and moving. He grabbed Manous and said, "Take me there quickly." They left at a run. They went through business class but then were stopped by people crowding in the aisles.

Manous was trying to be courteous but Baker grabbed two women and said, "Sit down." He shoved them into seats. He raised his voice to a parade ground roar shouting, "Sit down! Get out of the way!" People moved out of the way. He and Manous moved to the rear. The door was open and another flight attendant, Maureen, was rising from the floor.

Manous looked at her and said, "What happened?"

"Two men wanted to get out and forced me away. They opened the door and jumped out into a tree. Four more followed." Baker was lying on the floor looking outside carefully. Manous stood beside him and was pulled down prone.

"Stay down. If there's trouble, we don't want to be targets."

Manous said, "All of you, back away from the door. There could be problems." At that moment, there was a piercing, agonized scream from below. Baker's head cautiously looked further over so he could gaze down. He was trying to find the source of the scream. There were two men on the ground below the door along with something else. It was furry and moved quickly. Manous pulled his head back quickly upon seeing the blood down there. Neither of the men could have survived based upon the amount of blood on the ground. In the distance, more screams could be heard. Manous thought that this was not a promising development. After a while, it was quiet. Baker watched as the two men below him were dismembered and their body parts loaded into what looked like a sack or pouch at the front of the creature. It scurried off making little noise and the wood was quiet.