Home » The Archives » Chapter 7 » Trouble Under the Hood
| Re: Trouble Under the Hood [message #1895 is a reply to message #1894] |
Sat, 28 July 2012 18:46   |
Lillehafrue
Messages: 478
Registered: July 2012
Location: Northeastern USA
Karma:
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TB Pilot
Evil Genius |
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From: Tikatu Sent: 5/17/2006 5:44 AM
Friday, July 13, 2068, 8:45 a.m., local time, Black Mountain, NH
Dianne reached a hand out to take the piece of metal from Elise's grasp. "May I?" she asked, letting her professionalism control her drawl. Elise didn't even look up as she held out her hand, robot-like. Dianne slowly took the piece without taking her eyes off Elise. Trying to control her own rising emotions, she looked at the small piece of wreckage. It was definitely the Tracy helijet. She closed her eyes briefly, and then spoke softly. "Scott, here. Take this."
Scott looked up at his stepmother and then took the piece from her. Scott's reaction was much the same as Dianne's. Neither one of them had expected to be looking at a piece of the wreckage of that awful night. Scott fingered the metal, feeling the familiar coolness and texture of the special material that Brains had come up with. He took in a deep breath and let it out shakily.
Dianne put a hand on Elise's shoulder. "Elise, what are you feeling right now? What are you remembering?"
Elise couldn't answer right away. She tried to process Dianne's questions, but it was as if her voice was fading far into the distance. The cold was creeping in, bitter cold and it was snowing again. She shivered. "Cold, so cold. The rain won't stop. The storm..." The memories flooded in then and Elise was thrust back into the nightmare which she'd tried so hard to escape from...
"Storm Straight ahead is the front of a severe ice storm... I'm afraid we maybe in for a rough ride Mr. Tracy. Wind speed is outrageous, I've never seen anything like this before." The controls started to fight her command. The chopper reared violently and started losing altitude. The rain/ice pounded the aircraft as it fought to remain airborne...
Elise started to shake her head and repeat, "No, no," over and over, caught up in the memories that were now so very real again.
"Elise? Talk to me Elise." Scott tried to bring her back to the present but one look at the girl's face told him she was caught up in the nightmare. (Flashback)
"Elise? Elise talk to me." Jeff Tracy's voice could barely be heard above the howling rage of the storm. Then the warning lights went off, growing louder and louder.
She fought to regain control but to no avail. "The instruments? they can't be right...something's not right!" ...
"Elise I'm coming up there to help."
"NO! Mr. Tracy! Stay where you are... stay where you are..."
Elise raised her eyes to Scott. "I tried to get him to sit down with his seat belt on, he wouldn't listen." she sobbed. "He just wouldn't listen." Tears started to roll down her face and Scott gently started to rub her shoulder, hoping she'd feel the comfort he offered.
"He's a stubborn one all right," Scott said softly. He rubbed her shoulder some more. It seemed to calm her a little.
Dianne took advantage of this to redirect Elise's focus. "What then, Elise?" she asked, her voice soft but insistent.
"We rolled." It was a blunt statement, said to no one in particular. Scott closed his eyes knowing full well what Elise meant. A roll under full control of the pilot was one thing, but a roll out of control meant certain disaster. "We dropped like a bird and then there was this sound....this crunching thud and that was all...it was over. We were down."
Dianne didn't like the way Elise was suddenly so very calm and blunt. It meant she was removing herself from the memories, and that wasn't good.
"Mom? What's wrong with her?" Scott started to sound worried. He'd picked up on the change in Elise, too.
Dianne rubbed her chin, and blew an audible breath from her nose. "She's withdrawing," she murmured. "We have to bring this out." Glancing at Scott, she said, "Tell her what happened from our end of things."
Scott looked startled, but nodded. He took a moment to think back, then said, "I remember we were getting worried. Dad hadn't called in and no one seemed to know where he was. We heard that he'd taken his personal helijet out, and we had Alan - who was in Thunderbird Five at the time - track his watch. We were really surprised to find out he was in New Hampshire." He looked into Elise's face as he spoke. "I tried to call him on his watch, but there was nothing. He wasn't answering. I began to use the International Rescue call signs. Then, suddenly, there was a noise, and you started talking."
Elise's lip started to tremble as she held Scott's eyes and mumbled, "We weren't in New Hampshire, Scott, we were in hell, a living hell. No radio, no instruments, no one knew we'd gone down. There was no sound. I thought your dad was... he wasn't moving, and I couldn't get to him. I couldn't help him." She started crying again, more intensely this time and Scott moved closer to wrap both his arms around her as the horror unfurled once again...
There was pain, lots of pain and cold. She woke up confused and hurting on her right side. The cabin of the helijet came into focus and it was a mess. Realizing they had crashed, she started to clamber across the wreckage calling out for Jeff. There was no answer. Making her way to the seat he was supposed to have been strapped in, she found instead a crumpled mass of fuselage and pinned underneath was Jeff.
"Oh God, he can't be.... no. He can't..." Scrambling to find the first aid kit, she managed to tuck some thermal blankets around him, his face, ashen and grey, remained motionless and she pleaded with him to wake up. "Mr. Tracy? Can you hear me? Wake up!"
He never moved.
Somehow making her way back to the radio, she tried to call for help. "Mayday! Mayday! Tracy Chopper One down, need immediate assistance."
There was no answer, not even static.
She suddenly felt very alone and helpless. Making her way back to Jeff again, she started pleading with him not to die, and then heard beeping. Knowing it wasn't the radio, she fumbled about until she realized it was his watch. Trying to find an alarm button she pressed something and then heard it. The voice of Scott Tracy.
"Tracy Island to Jeff Tracy! Come in Dad!" Relief overwhelmed her and her frozen fingers tried to find the contact button to talk to him.
Cradled in Scott's arms, Elise spoke again. "I couldn't believe I heard your voice, and then you said 'International Headquarters to Jeff Tracy. Come in Jeff Tracy.' I remember how confused I was at that, I thought I was losing it due to the cold."
Dianne watched Elise's reactions carefully, trying hard to push back her own visions of what had happened, her own memories of what she had seen and heard and done. I've dealt with it, and I'll continue to deal with it. But not now. Now it's time for Elise to deal with it, and go on from there. She waited a few moments for Elise to calm once more, then she asked, "How did you feel about what happened? You said you were confused when you heard Scott's voice; what happened after that?"
Elise was quiet for a minute of two, putting her thoughts and the memories into some order. "I remember talking to Scott, telling him we were down and we were critical."
"Scott! Thank God! It's Elise, we're down and we're critical. Storm... couldn't make it through... wind shear..." Breathing was becoming more difficult as the cold seeped into her veins. She wanted to close her eyes and go back to sleep. "Your dad, Scott... not good... gotta help him, Scott. You've got to help him! So cold in here..."
"It was then that I heard John's voice, promising me that Scott was coming, coming to get us. International Rescue were on their way. I don't remember much after that, I remember seeing you, Dianne, and you said you were his wife. I didn't get that at the time. God, I thought we were dead for sure." She started to cry more again, "I didn't want to die alone!" Scott felt her hands gripping his arms tighter. "I didn't want to die like they had, like my parents had."
It was then that she broke down completely and sobbed her heart out. Scott didn't know what to say, so he just held her and comforted her.
flashbacks by FrankieCTB2 and Tikatu
98% pure evil...and loving every minute of it.
 
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