Lost Valley Box Set, page 17
part #1 of Lost Valley Series
He turned and looked at the pilot. “How’s the navigation system working?“
“It’s fine. Why?”
Victor frowned. “Keep your eyes on the readouts. If anything looks funny, turn around and head back immediately.”
“What do you expect might happen?”
“I’m not sure.”
“It’s been fine so far. In fact, we’re almost over the location you gave me.”
Victor watched the cloud cover increase as they continued flying north. After several minutes he saw the pilot pull back on the stick and felt himself pushed down into the seat as the helicopter slowed to a hover.
“We’re there,” the pilot said.
Victor examined the navigation system’s display. As far as he could tell, everything was working normally, but then again there were multiple color displays scattered across the helicopter’s console, none of which he was familiar with.
“Everything look okay to you?” he asked the pilot again.
The pilot once again checked the instruments. “Everything’s good.”
“Take us down slowly. Try and get below these damn clouds.”
The pilot hesitated. “I’d rather not take us down unless we can see the ground.”
Victor gave him a menacing look. “You have instruments, use them.”
The pilot looked at a display that appeared to show a ground map. “According to the ground proximity indicator, there’s nothing over 2,500 feet under us. I guess I can take us down a little.”
The pilot focused his eyes on the ground proximity indicator and began descending. Victor watched the altimeter reading begin to drop. He glanced at the GPS display then back at the altimeter. When they reached 3,000 feet, Victor saw something flash out of the corner of his eye and then heard an alarm go off. “Stop,” he shouted.
The pilot abruptly pulled back on the collective and stopped the descent. “Whoa! That’s not good.” On one of the screens was a flashing message that read:
Acquiring GPS Satellites...
Warning - WAAS Signal Lost
“That’s strange, we lost both Nav signals and they’re from different satellite systems. Without our GPS functioning properly, the ground proximity indicator is worthless. We can’t go any lower,” the pilot said.
“Take us back up,” Victor said angrily.
The pilot pulled back on the collective and they started climbing. Victor continued to watch the displays as they regained their lost altitude. Several minutes later, the warning messages disappeared and the location on the GPS display updated.
It finally made sense to Victor. He felt confident he knew why the other helicopter had stopped transmitting location data. It was the damn ore causing interference, which was a blessing and a curse.
This was going to put yet another dent in his plans. Without the GPS they couldn’t safely navigate under such poor visibility conditions.
The realization began to make him feel a little bit better. Now he knew that, even if he had thought to record their position on Serena’s GPS, he probably wouldn’t have been able to.
“Take us back to where we can see the ground. We’re going to have to set down for the night,” Victor said.
“We’re not going back to the airport?”
“No. Mark our position. Tomorrow morning, first thing, we’re going to fly in under the clouds and try to get as close to this location as possible before the navigation system fails.”
“Whatever it takes to find the helicopter,” the pilot said.
Victor looked at him absentmindedly. “Yeah.” He realized his chances of finding the helicopter were decreasing by the minute. His frustration began to climb even higher.
Chapter 9
Luc pulled into his grandfather’s driveway and parked Kate’s pickup. He turned off the engine and laid his forehead against the steering wheel. On the way from the airport he had wracked his brain trying to think of some way they could locate the helicopter. Nothing had come to mind.
Earlier in the day, his grandfather had contacted the village elders and told them about the situation. The mayor had said that he would make an official request to the authorities to send a search plane. He hoped his grandfather had some good news.
They climbed out of the truck and Kate and Chuck followed Luc into Matooska’s small house. They found him sitting at the dining room table talking on the phone. He didn’t look happy.
“Then they can all just go to hell, the cowards,” he yelled into the phone and hung up.
“That didn’t sound good,” Luc said fearing what he would hear next.
“They’re not planning on sending a search-and-rescue plane. They said another storm is building, and it would be too dangerous.” Slowly rising from the chair, he threw the phone down on the table and walked into the kitchen shaking his head.
The weather had been one of Luc’s major concerns. It could turn on a dime in this part of the country. He now knew that the hope of outside help was gone. He began pacing back and forth across the living room floor.
The helplessness he felt on the drive from the airport had taken root and was now in full bloom. Every rescue option seemed to be closing.
His mind began to be filled with self-recriminations. Who was he to think he could just ride in there like some knight-in-shining-armor hero and find them? Walking to the couch, he laid down and stared up at the ceiling. He laid there for ten minutes, wondering what he could do to counteract the mistakes he had made. The rest of the world seemed to retreat as his mind went round and round in circles.
Chuck walked over to the couch and looked down at him. “I’m not real good at figuring things like this out, but I can tell you one thing, this is no time to give up.”
Luc looked up at him and found it hard to look Chuck in the eye. His grandfather knew what he had done, but his friends were in the dark and the guilt was building. He decided to tell them.
He stood up and walked to the middle of the living room. “I’m the one who ignored the warnings and got them involved in this whole mess. It’s my fault! I should’ve never told anyone about the objects.”
Kate looked at him, confused. “What are you talking about, Luc?”
“The village medicine lady warned me not to show the rocks or the animal tooth to anyone, my grandfather agreed with her. She told me to take them back to where they came from and bury them. I didn’t do it. I was going to do something great for the village. I thought I knew best.” His misery felt unbearable.
Kate approached him and put her arm around his waist. “Luc, you were only doing what you thought would help the village. No one could have known how things would turn out.”
“Someone seemed to know. I remember her warnings about the objects. Take them with you at your own peril. It will change everything. You could lose the things you value the most.”
She stared at him for a moment. “Okay, so you were warned. You have to move on. We’ve got to think of something to do. Did she say anything else?”
“She said I was taking the hard path. I remember that!” He looked down at the floor for a moment. “She said something else, but I don’t remember what it was.”
“Try and think back, Luc. It could be important. After all, she did help you find the boys.”
What was it, he thought and the memory of that morning slowly began to return. “She said, ‘When all is lost and you’re beyond hope, look me up.’”
“You mean like, visit her?”
“I think that’s what she meant.”
“Well maybe we should then,” Kate said, raising her eyebrows.
Matooska got up from his chair and walked into the living room. “It’s a little tricky to find Ishki’s cabin. You should call Yudi. He would probably drive you out there, as long as you don’t ask him to go in with you.”
Luc pulled out his cell phone and dialed Yudi’s number. He listened to it ring several times before he answered.
“Hello.”
“This is Luc.”
“I’ve got two quads waiting for you. Will that be enough?”
“That’s perfect Yudi, but we’ve run into problems. We were unable to locate any trace of the helicopter. The cloud cover was so thick, it was just impossible.”
“What do you want to do?”
“I think I need to see the medicine lady. Can you take me out to her place?”
“She’s just a crazy old woman, Luc; she can’t help you.”
“She was just crazy enough to have drawn me a picture of where the boys were located. She also warned me not to take the rock samples to Seattle for analysis. If I had listened to her, we wouldn’t be in this situation right now. I have to talk to her, as soon as possible.”
Luc listened for Yudi’s response. He began to wonder if his cell phone had dropped the call. “Yudi, are you there?”
“Yeah, I’m here. I can pick you up and drive you out to her place. I’ll be there in about twenty minutes,” he said and hung up.
Luc stuck his cell phone back in his pocket and turned to Kate and Chuck. “He said he would drive us out to see the medicine lady.”
Luc saw the look of doubt in Chuck’s eyes. “I know what you’re thinking, Chuck, but I can’t think of anything else to do.”
“I’m not saying anything,” Chuck said with a smile as he shook his head back and forth and walked into the dining room.
“I think it’s our best bet,” Kate said. “I’m going to make some hot cocoa. Does anyone else want some?”
Both Luc and Chuck nodded and Kate went into the kitchen. Luc sat in his grandfather’s rocking chair and silently rocked until she returned with the three cups of hot cocoa.
The hot cup felt comforting in his hands. He sipped the cocoa slowly and continued staring at the floor and rocking. Kate and Chuck sat on the couch and drank theirs. No one had much to say as they waited for Yudi to arrive.
* * *
Before Luc had finished his hot chocolate he heard a pickup pulling into the driveway. A horn blew several times.
“Could you stay here with Luc’s grandfather and keep him company while we try and see the medicine lady?” Kate asked Chuck.
“I wasn’t lookin’ forward to seeing that lady anyway,” Chuck said sitting down in a recliner. “I’ll see you guys when you get back.”
Kate got in the pickup first and sat in the middle. The two men got in and closed the doors, squeezing her in on either side.
Yudi pulled away from Luc’s house and drove through the village. At the south end he turned onto Old Bear Road. It led away from the village to a hilly region several miles to the south.
He drove slowly along the road because it had rained the night before, and it was still muddy. Three quarters of the way to Ishki’s cabin they began climbing into the hills, and he had to put the pickup in four-wheel drive. Trees began to speckle the hills, and then became more abundant as they continued driving.
Luc was surprised at the number of turns Yudi had to make on his way to her cabin. There were no road signs that gave any clues of where they were heading.
“We’re almost there,” Yudi said.
The road ended at the foot of a small hill that was covered with pine trees. He pulled the truck into a gravelly area and shut off the engine.
“You guys go talk to the old woman. Take as long as you want. You couldn’t pay me enough to go in her cabin,” Yudi said stubbornly.
Luc began to wonder if he had made a mistake coming to see Ishki. If Yudi was that concerned, there must be more to the story than he was letting on.
Chapter 10
Christie watched Marcus kick the side of the helicopter in anger. He had been trying all day to find something that would burn well enough to dry out his pile of wood.
It had turned out to be harder than he thought to get fuel out of the helicopter’s well-protected tanks. Even the fuel lines were impossible to get at without tools.
His second attempt was to pull one of the seats out and try and burn its upholstery and foam stuffing. None of it would burn long enough to even warm the wood. He had told her it was probably because some type of fire retardant had been applied to them. Later, he had wasted half a box of their precious matches trying to get some damp pine needles to ignite.
As a last resort, he had built a raised rack out of several longer branches and laid the small ones across the top so they could get more airflow and dry as soon as possible.
Christie looked at her watch. She guessed the branches had been drying about four hours on Marcus’s rack. She walked over and felt them. “I think they’re getting drier,” she said to Marcus.
He walked over and scraped a piece of bark off of one of the smaller branches. “It’s only dry on the outside. The inside is still too damp to burn. It might dry out by tomorrow afternoon, but by that time it could be too late.”
“Once it does get dry enough to burn, we should store it inside the helicopter,” she said.
“That’s for sure. How are you holding up?” he asked her.
“I’m okay. The kids are doing fine. They don’t understand just how bad the situation really is.”
“It’s probably better that way,” he said and began pacing in front of the drying branches.
She watched him pacing back and forth for several minutes seemingly in deep thought. He finally stopped and came back over to her.
“I have an idea,” he said. “I’m going to do some more extensive scouting around to see if I can locate a source of dry wood. I think it would be best if you waited here with your kids until I get back.”
She suddenly felt afraid to be alone with just the kids. “Can’t we come along?”
“I’m going to be moving pretty fast and you’d only slow me down. There’s a pistol in your backpack. Do you know how to use it?”
“Yes, I used to do a little target practice with my ex-husband.” The words ex-husband caused her to feel a sudden emptiness in her chest.
“You guys will be fine. Just stay inside the helicopter and keep the hatch locked. I think it’s important that we get another signal fire burning as soon as possible.”
It didn’t appear she was going to be able to change his mind and maybe he was right anyway, she thought. “Can you do me a favor before you leave?”
“Of course.”
“Could you pull Lackland’s body out of the helicopter? I know it’s covered up, but it’s freaking me out. And it’s starting to smell.”
“No problem.”
He quickly walked across the clearing and climbed up into the helicopter. A moment later, he pulled Lackland’s body out the hatch door, and she saw it fall to the ground. She held the urge to cry back. She needed to be strong, if not for herself, for the children.
She watched him struggle as he pulled the body across the clearing and into the trees. He ran back into the helicopter and hopped back out with the blanket. He disappeared back into the trees. A short time later, he came walked out from between the trees and over to her.
“I rolled him up in the blanket. Hopefully, that will keep any curious animals away.”
“Thanks for taking care that, Marcus,” she said, relieved to have the body out of the helicopter.
“I know what you mean about creeping you out, it was kind of creeping me out, too.”
By the way, if you’re going to hang around outside of the helicopter, keep your eyes open and stay alert,” he said.
“I think we’ll probably stay inside,” she said. “I don’t want the children wandering off.”
He went back inside helicopter and reappeared several seconds later with his backpack.
“I’m taking one of the pistols, a couple of protein bars, and a water. I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He looked up the hillside and took off.
She watched him hike up the path the helicopter had slid down the day before. In a few minutes, he was at the top looking down at her. She waved up at him. He gave her a thumbs up and continued on.
She saw him disappear behind several trees and felt her anxiety suddenly climb. She glanced around the clearing and saw that Kelly and Stuart had left the helicopter and were at the far end of the clearing beginning to venture into the trees. She wondered how they could have gotten out without her noticing it.
She didn’t like the idea of them being outside but guessed they were tired of being cooped up. She called out to them, “Come on over here near me. Let’s check out the helicopter.”
They quickly returned and stayed close as she walked around the helicopter and examined the damage. The main rotors were gone. She figured they must have broken off as the helicopter had slid between the two large trees.
“Will it ever fly again?” Stuart asked.
“No. This helicopter’s not going anywhere, but it’s going to be okay. I’m sure people are looking for us right now.”
As they stood looking up at where the main rotor had been, she noticed the branches begin to shake at the nose of the helicopter. A loud bellow came out of the stand of trees.
Her heart jumped up in her throat and she grabbed Stuart and Kelly’s hands. She ran with them back to the open hatch and helped them up into the helicopter. Climbing in after them, she pulled the hatch door closed and pushed the latch down.
She pulled the children close and led them to the back of the helicopter. Once again she heard the bellowing sound from the front of the cabin. Stuart pulled away from her and moved slowly up to the cockpit and gazed through the branches.
“Stuart, come back here now!”
The bellowing sound came again, and she instantly regretted raising her voice. She could see the tree branches shaking at the front.
Something struck the outside of the helicopter, and she screamed. A huge bellowing sound vibrated the entire inside of the cabin, and she felt the whole craft shake. Whatever was out there, it must’ve heard her. She forced herself to be quiet.
