Chapter 3

In the morning, they woke up and prepared to go outside. Jeffries had an emergency ladder that they could use to go up and down. Baker privately hoped that they would have time to climb back up.

Baker went down first followed by Doctor Miller. He moved out about ten feet and began to look around carefully and hoping he wouldn't see anything or, if he did, would see it in time. She joined him and they stood back to back waiting. Her back and butt felt good against him. After a moment, he made a motion and the first search party made their way down. Fred was quickly followed by Rich and Tom. They began to head out away from the plane. Mille quickly joined the folk on the ground with Nate and George. Mary Jones came down with the pistol followed by Tony. They took a position following Fred's group. John and Nancy tried to watch both searching groups but were closer to Millie's group.

Everyone was trying to be quiet. The two search groups were in font of and to the right and left of the plane at roughly forty-five degree angles. The guess was that they would be able to see something of a terminal if it were ever there.

Baker heard a sound. He said, "Nancy, watch Millie's group." He looked over at Fred's group to see Rich go down with a scream. He heard the pistol fire quickly twice. He continued to watch and saw Fred running hard for the plane. "Nancy, call Millie back, now!" He raised his rifle looking for a target. He heard another scream. He didn't see Tom who had been behind Fred. He heard two more pistol shots.

Nancy said, "They're on the way back and moving fast."

"Good. Get them up the ladder when they get here. Don't let them stop. You go up after them. Tell Jeffries to lower a rope. There's one there that I found." Baker began to trot toward the other groups. He heard the pistol pop two more shots. He thought that there were only two more in the clip. He could hear the crashing of footsteps behind him and gave a quick glance. He saw Millie's group at the ladder and Millie was starting up. Fred went by running as fast as he could. He saw Mary and Tony running his way, too. Behind Tony, he saw something black and shaggy. Baker stopped, took aim, and fired. The black furry animal went limp falling head over heels. The two kept running close together. Mary tripped. She never got a chance to do more than start to rise before another of the beasts was on her. Her scream was higher pitched until it was cut off abruptly. Baker fired again and killed the beast over her body. Tony had stopped and went back. Baker realized he was after the pistol. He bent and picked it up and then began running to the plane. There were three more black furry bodies and they were gaining on him.

Baker hollered, "Run more right!" He took aim on the closest and shot it. It was wounded but not running anymore. He took aim at the second one and his bullet hit it as it swiped at Tony's legs. Tony fell and the third beast leapt upon him. He screamed as Baker shot that beast and killed it. Baker moved up and saw that Tony was bleeding badly. Looking further up, he saw Mary's body. There was too much blood on the ground and bones were visible. She was dead. But he watched her anyway for any sign of life. Tony was limping slowly back toward the plane. Baker backed up as he watched the back trail. No more of the animals appeared. Suddenly, Nancy was there and helping Tony cover the final distance. She tied him to the rope and it started to pull him up as she climbed the ladder. Baker continued to back toward the rope again hanging from the open door of the plane.

Nancy called down, "Faster, John! There's another group of them coming! Run!" Baker put the rifle on his back and ran for the ladder. It was being lifted as he caught it. When he was just over fifteen feet off the ground, he saw two beasts jump at him without success. He was climbing the ladder as it moved up and was quickly in the plane. They pulled the door shut. He looked around to see Nancy working over Tony. Baker could see deep gashes in his right leg and she was making every effort to stop the bleeding with the things at hand.

She seemed to be winning the battle when he stiffened and went limp. She felt for a pulse, and then slowly rose shaking her head. She looked around and said, "That wasn't from blood loss. The bite was poison or he had heart trouble."

Baker went over to Fred and said, "What happened?"

Fred looked at him and steadied his emotions. He said, "Rich screamed. He and Tom were to my left about twenty feet examining a hump. I was looking at another spot. Tom yelled to run and I did. I heard him scream soon after that. Mary was shooting them as they came but the pistol didn't seem to affect them much or she missed. I ran."

"What did these things look like?"

"They were about five feet high and ran on four feet. They had big mouths with lots of teeth and paws with sharp claws. That's really all I saw. I don't know where they came from. They were fast. John, the way those things looked and acted reminded me of big, big wolverines."

John said, "That's what I saw, too. The rifle seems to stop them. My habit is head shots and that has a tendency to put quit to things." He looked at Fred and Millie saying, "Did we learn anything?"

Millie said, " My group found ruins of very old buildings at the edge of our exploration."

Fred said, "We found lumps that had to be unnatural."

Jeffries came up and said, "My calculations all seem to suggest that we are in Chicago or close. I know that doesn't answer all our questions. My real concern is figuring out how we will live. We can't stay on this plane forever and, unless someone has a solution, I don't figure we will be taking off or going back, if that's the right word."

Nancy came up then and said, "I'm pretty sure Tony died from poison from the bite or claw marks. I don't know if there was something on the claws or if the problem is in the beasts. We will have to plan that it's the beasts and can come through either the claws or bites for now."

Jeffries said, "Let's look at our ammo situation. Do we still have the pistol?"

Baker said, "Both came back. This pistol has a box of bullets but you can only load ten into the clip plus one in the spout. The rifle has three clips and there will be two boxes of bullets left after this reloading. Somehow, we need more weapons and some kind of armor to handle those beasts.

"My real concern is that we will have to leave the plane at some point and figure out how to survive out there. No matter how well equipped we are with guns and ammo; the ammo will eventually run out. Then what do we do?"

It was very quiet as they pondered that point.

After a long minute, Jeffries said, "We need to tell everything we know and what we surmise to the passengers. We may have some problems but hiding information is not a good way to operate." Everyone nodded. I will lead off, then Fred or Millie can describe what they found and what they surmise. After that Doctor Miller will tell what she found from Tony's injuries. John, you will finish up with the gun situation. I will take over again then. There will be plenty of questions and there aren't answers to much any of them." Everyone nodded. Jeffries had the flight attendants open all curtains so the person speaking could be seen easily.

He started, "Ladies and Gentlemen, my name is Ted Jeffries and I was captain for this flight. I, along with a few others, want to tell you what we know along with a few guesses. Anyone who has looked outside a window knows that we aren't at O'Hare Airport. Our GPS instruments do not pick up satellite signals and we can get no response from our radios though both the GPS and the radio seem to work properly. There are no cell phone signals either. I have taken sightings of the sun and stars making such measurements that I can without good instruments. It appears that we are at the proper latitude and longitude for Chicago. Our instruments indicate that we landed at O'Hare. Everyone on the flight deck was unconscious so we don't know what happened." He held up his hands. "We don't know why. When I finish along with the others, you will know everything we know. I suggest you digest the statements but save your questions. I have many myself. So far, there are no answers beyond what I am telling you. We don't know how the plane landed. We just don't know. According to the stars and the sun, we are in the Chicago area but it doesn't look like Chicago to me."