Post by Lorpius Prime on Feb 28, 2007 2:51:13 GMT -5
It had probably started on the port side. Jay could see the smoldering tops of trees through the skeletal frame of the envelope. But now it was spreading towards them. Flames from the front of the gondola were licking at trees only a few yards away, soon they would catch.
“But, the hydrogen…” Jay couldn’t understand it.
“That’s not from gas,” Jack spat, “that’ll be kerosene from the engine. Fuel’s alight.”
“Oh…” Jay started walking towards the fire; a door at one of the entrances to the gondola was hanging open.
“What are you doing?” Jack called. “We have to shove off, now.”
“But,” Jay reached for the door, “those people—“
“If they’re not already out, we can’t help them!” Underscoring his point, flames started crawling up the side of a pine tree, turning green needles black. Sparks and popping bits of tar were thrown dangerously near. “Now come on! I can’t carry all this and her myself.”
Reluctantly, Jay turned back around; biting his lip against the thought there might still be people inside the inferno. They still hadn’t seen or heard anyone but themselves.
Jay lifted his heavy suitcase once more, and accepted the small leather bag Jack had been carrying around his shoulder as well. The Australian knelt down to gather Mary up into his arms. Then they moved away from the burning remains of the Welsh Rover.
They walked briskly, and rather than moving directly away from the fire, Jack led a path at a slight angle to the perpendicular. Jay didn’t ask why, he was more worried that he didn’t have the strength to keep up the pace for very long hauling as much weight as was.
Thankfully, Jack seemed to think it was okay for them to pause on the top of the third hill they crossed. Jay dropped the suitcase with a gasp, and breathed in short, huffing pants. Jack looked at him critically but didn’t say anything as he set Mary down again, carefully. Jay didn’t care, he was a journalist not a porter, hiking in the mountains with heavy loads was well away from the ordinary for his life.
Then he remembered something, and his hands flew to his head, “Oh, damn it all!”
Both his companions looked at him, worriedly.
“I forgot my hat.” He turned to gaze at the pillar of black smoke they’d left behind.
“Corblimey, mate! Well you can’t ruddy well be thinking of getting it back now. I think a man can be pardoned for losing his hat to a conflagration like that.”
Which was easy enough for the Australian to say, he’d snatched up his own large hat the moment he’d got out of bed. Jay scowled and stamped his foot with a curse.
Jack dismissed it with a wave, “Open up that pack of yours, going to have to improvise some sort of splint for the lady here. Don’t know when we’ll see a doctor next now.”
“Uh… all right. But I haven’t got anything stiff in here, just clothing.”
“That’s all right. We’ve got plenty of wood.” And at that, Jack drew out a giant knife that was strapped to his right boot. Jay wondered how he’d failed to notice it before; the blade was almost as long as his forearm.
As Jack set about hacking at branches, Jay undid the straps on his suitcase. The first thing he saw inside was his grandfather’s prayer book, and he was very glad he’d not left the bag behind. He tucked the old book inside his coat for safekeeping; he had a feeling his father would murder him if Jay lost it. The envelope with Mills’ documents he decided he could leave in the case, and he began rummaging about for something to wrap a splint.
He settled on a pair of white undershirts, they were the thinnest and plainest garments he had, and their loss wouldn’t trouble him much. He brought them to Jack as the other man was coming back with the pine branches he’d sliced up.
Jack set the sticks by Mary and took the shirts, “Get some socks, too.” Then he started sawing the shirts into a useable shape. Jay shrugged, and went to retrieve a couple pairs of his white socks as well.
When they’d gathered up all their materials, Jack knelt down to talk to the stewardess, “Mary, I’m not sure how far we are from any towns with a doctor to look at your leg; it might be a while before we can get you to one. I’d like to do as much as I can for you now, so you’re not in so much pain as we’re moving; I know it’s been hell on you so far, but you’re a tough woman.” Jay could see her tiny laugh at this, but heard nothing. Jack went on, “But I’m going to have to take a look at your leg to be able to help you, is that all right? I’ll make this whelp turn around for you.” He jerked a thumb at Jay.
“No, it’s okay.” And she rolled up her blue skirt, unashamed. There was a massive purple bruise above her right knee. Jack put his hands around her thigh, and frowned.
He glanced at Jay, then turned back to look directly in the stewardess’s eyes, “I think we may have to set the bone.”
Jay swallowed nervously, but Mary only closed her eyes and nodded.
Jack folded up one of the socks and handed it to her, “Here, bite down on this.” Then he looked back at Jay, “Mr. Blake, if you would hold her hand and give her support if she needs it.” Turning back, “I meant it when I said you’re a tough woman, but setting a bone’s no fun, for anyone.”
Mary didn’t speak, but she bit on the sock and shut her eyes tightly. Jay stepped over and took her little hand in his. His palms were sweaty, hers were not, and Jay was slightly taken aback that she seemed less afraid of this than him.
Jack waited for moment, and looked to Jay with his eyes to make sure he was ready. Then he shifted for a secure footing and gripped the stewardess’s knees firmly with both hands. He pulled.
Several minutes later, Mary was wiping the last of her tears away with her hand while Jack finished the last knots of cloth holding her splints in place. Jay was still rubbing the gashes left on the back of his hand by her fingernails.
Ultimately, they hadn’t used the socks, and instead Jack had demanded that one of Jay’s silk shirts be sacrificed to the knife. The Australian had said silk was particularly strong, and so would be good for the binding, but now Jay was mourning the loss of his hat and one of his nicer shirts.
“There we are.” Jack had apparently finished up. Mary was readjusting her skirt over her bandaged leg.
Jack gestured at Jay’s suitcase, “Bring that here.”
Jay handed it to him, and Jack set it up behind Mary so she could lean against it while sitting upright.
“Right,” Jack stood up and looked at the smoke. “Seems the wind’s still blowing away from us, so we should be good a few minutes more at least. Now, does anybody know where we are?”
Mary spoke up, “We couldn’t be too far from Munich. There wasn’t more than an hour left of flight when we went down.”
“Well you’d be surprised how much farther things get on the ground, in this kind of terrain especially. I don’t suppose either of you have a map of these parts.” He looked at Jay, who’d salvaged the most personal belongings.
“Not that would do us any good getting out of here, just a rail map.”
“And my compass is probably melting with my big bags,” he looked towards the sun, but it was too close to noon to get any kind of bearing.
Jack sighed and shrugged, “Looks like we just pick a direction, then. Walk until we find water to follow.”
Jay looked between the two of them before speaking, unsure, “Mightn’t we be best to stay here? There’s bound to be rescuers on their way when they see that,” he nodded towards the fire.
Mary looked like she might agree, but she deferred to Jack with her eyes.
“You’re probably right about the rescuers,” he said, and nodded at the stewardess. “But that’s a big forest fire brewing back there. If the wind changes it could be on us rather quick. I’d feel safest putting as much distance between it and us as possible. We’re also at a good distance already, and we don’t know which direction people might be coming from. They might never see us.”
“Don’t you find it odd that we haven’t seen anyone but us?” It was bothering Jay the more he thought about it.
Jack frowned and didn’t speak for a moment, as if the thought disturbed him too.
“Harold was with me in the hallway. Harold’s our engineer,” Mary offered. “He was telling me to hold on and was trying to work his way around that hole in the center while we fell. I couldn’t see him any more after the trees broke through. Before that, I’d just come from the diner where Clarice was serving breakfast to a lot of the guests. So they must have all gotten out one of the other doors before we came down.”
The two men exchanged a doubtful look. Jay was going to ask her about the hole she’d mentioned, but Jack spoke first.
“Look, we can’t worry about the rest right now. Our first job has to be to get to safety ourselves. The others that got out are probably a lot better off with the rest of the crew anyway.”
Mary nodded at this, satisfied. Jay didn’t press the point.
“All right then. Barring other suggestions, I say we keep heading the way we were until we see something.”
There were no other suggestions. Jack picked up Mary again, who seemed in significantly less pain with the splint on. Jay, now somewhat rested, took a deep breath and set to carrying the luggage in their wake.
While they walked, Jack kept them entertained with stories of his exploits as a brash young rogue.
“What did you do then?” Mary was enthralled.
“Well, MacEvoy was the worst kind of scum, and without him the rest of the gang was a headless chicken. They did manage to set me up for the colonial troopers, though, and I had to skip off to Africa for a while. Mr. Blake’s already heard me tell about that, but I daresay it’s not a story fit for a lady.”
The stewardess harrumphed and hit him on the shoulder, but Jack only laughed.
They stopped to rest again after another hour of walking, on top of another hill. The cloud of smoke didn’t seem to have shrunk any. Mary started dozing off against Jay’s suitcase when they set her down; the trip was exhausting her even though she wasn’t walking herself.
Jack walked Jay a few yards away down the hill, out of earshot.
“I didn’t want to say this so she could here, didn’t want to worry her. But that leg really worries me, I don’t think that simple splint I rigged up is enough for her. If we can’t get her to a doctor soon, she may lose the leg,” he glanced up at the hilltop, “or worse.”
Jay blinked, “Well, why are we waiting, then? Let’s keep going!” He’d been glad of the break, his arms were painfully sore. But if it meant someone could die, he definitely didn’t want to be holding them up.
The Australian nodded, “We’ll leave again in a minute. I wanted to ask you what you thought of this, though, of the crash.”
“What do you mean?” Jay raised an eyebrow. “It was an airship crash, they do happen.”
“On a clear day like this?” He made a sweeping gesture at the sky, “No storms, not even much wind.”
“A malfunction, do you think? Engine fire?”
“I don’t know. Our stewardess there was talking about a hole, sounded like we hit something, felt like we hit something, as I recall.”
“Yeah…” Jay’s mind traveled back to the scene outside the window from a few hours ago.
Jack cocked his head, “Know something?”
“No. I mean, not really…” Jay told him about what he’d heard and seen just before the disaster. Jack’s face became rather grim.
“Well I don’t think we crashed.”
“No? That means something to you?”
“I think we were shot down.”
Jay leaned in a little to try to determine if he was serious, “What?”
“What you described, it sounds like someone was shooting at us. With a cannon. Some kind of large-caliber anti-aircraft gun.”
“But that’s nuts!”
Jack was walking quickly back up the hill now, “Yeah, sometimes the world is.”
Jay’s shoe slipped on the slope as he hurried after Jack, but he recovered quickly from the stumble. They hastened back to where Mary was lying down, and she looked over at them sleepily.
“Something wrong?”
Jay opened his mouth, but Jack overrode him, “No. But we’re moving again. Ready?”
He picked her up again while Jay fumbled with the suitcase and bag. Mary looked a question at Jay over Jack’s shoulder. Jay worked his jaw a couple times, but ultimately just shrugged.
The stewardess rolled her eyes, and they were on their way again.
Book One, Chapter:
-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-20-21-
-22-23-24-25-26-27-28-29-30-31-32-33-34-35-36-37-38-39-40-41-42-
-43-44-45-46-47-48-49-50-51-52-53-54-55-56-57-58-59-60-61-62-
Appendix: -A-B-C-
“But, the hydrogen…” Jay couldn’t understand it.
“That’s not from gas,” Jack spat, “that’ll be kerosene from the engine. Fuel’s alight.”
“Oh…” Jay started walking towards the fire; a door at one of the entrances to the gondola was hanging open.
“What are you doing?” Jack called. “We have to shove off, now.”
“But,” Jay reached for the door, “those people—“
“If they’re not already out, we can’t help them!” Underscoring his point, flames started crawling up the side of a pine tree, turning green needles black. Sparks and popping bits of tar were thrown dangerously near. “Now come on! I can’t carry all this and her myself.”
Reluctantly, Jay turned back around; biting his lip against the thought there might still be people inside the inferno. They still hadn’t seen or heard anyone but themselves.
Jay lifted his heavy suitcase once more, and accepted the small leather bag Jack had been carrying around his shoulder as well. The Australian knelt down to gather Mary up into his arms. Then they moved away from the burning remains of the Welsh Rover.
They walked briskly, and rather than moving directly away from the fire, Jack led a path at a slight angle to the perpendicular. Jay didn’t ask why, he was more worried that he didn’t have the strength to keep up the pace for very long hauling as much weight as was.
Thankfully, Jack seemed to think it was okay for them to pause on the top of the third hill they crossed. Jay dropped the suitcase with a gasp, and breathed in short, huffing pants. Jack looked at him critically but didn’t say anything as he set Mary down again, carefully. Jay didn’t care, he was a journalist not a porter, hiking in the mountains with heavy loads was well away from the ordinary for his life.
Then he remembered something, and his hands flew to his head, “Oh, damn it all!”
Both his companions looked at him, worriedly.
“I forgot my hat.” He turned to gaze at the pillar of black smoke they’d left behind.
“Corblimey, mate! Well you can’t ruddy well be thinking of getting it back now. I think a man can be pardoned for losing his hat to a conflagration like that.”
Which was easy enough for the Australian to say, he’d snatched up his own large hat the moment he’d got out of bed. Jay scowled and stamped his foot with a curse.
Jack dismissed it with a wave, “Open up that pack of yours, going to have to improvise some sort of splint for the lady here. Don’t know when we’ll see a doctor next now.”
“Uh… all right. But I haven’t got anything stiff in here, just clothing.”
“That’s all right. We’ve got plenty of wood.” And at that, Jack drew out a giant knife that was strapped to his right boot. Jay wondered how he’d failed to notice it before; the blade was almost as long as his forearm.
As Jack set about hacking at branches, Jay undid the straps on his suitcase. The first thing he saw inside was his grandfather’s prayer book, and he was very glad he’d not left the bag behind. He tucked the old book inside his coat for safekeeping; he had a feeling his father would murder him if Jay lost it. The envelope with Mills’ documents he decided he could leave in the case, and he began rummaging about for something to wrap a splint.
He settled on a pair of white undershirts, they were the thinnest and plainest garments he had, and their loss wouldn’t trouble him much. He brought them to Jack as the other man was coming back with the pine branches he’d sliced up.
Jack set the sticks by Mary and took the shirts, “Get some socks, too.” Then he started sawing the shirts into a useable shape. Jay shrugged, and went to retrieve a couple pairs of his white socks as well.
When they’d gathered up all their materials, Jack knelt down to talk to the stewardess, “Mary, I’m not sure how far we are from any towns with a doctor to look at your leg; it might be a while before we can get you to one. I’d like to do as much as I can for you now, so you’re not in so much pain as we’re moving; I know it’s been hell on you so far, but you’re a tough woman.” Jay could see her tiny laugh at this, but heard nothing. Jack went on, “But I’m going to have to take a look at your leg to be able to help you, is that all right? I’ll make this whelp turn around for you.” He jerked a thumb at Jay.
“No, it’s okay.” And she rolled up her blue skirt, unashamed. There was a massive purple bruise above her right knee. Jack put his hands around her thigh, and frowned.
He glanced at Jay, then turned back to look directly in the stewardess’s eyes, “I think we may have to set the bone.”
Jay swallowed nervously, but Mary only closed her eyes and nodded.
Jack folded up one of the socks and handed it to her, “Here, bite down on this.” Then he looked back at Jay, “Mr. Blake, if you would hold her hand and give her support if she needs it.” Turning back, “I meant it when I said you’re a tough woman, but setting a bone’s no fun, for anyone.”
Mary didn’t speak, but she bit on the sock and shut her eyes tightly. Jay stepped over and took her little hand in his. His palms were sweaty, hers were not, and Jay was slightly taken aback that she seemed less afraid of this than him.
Jack waited for moment, and looked to Jay with his eyes to make sure he was ready. Then he shifted for a secure footing and gripped the stewardess’s knees firmly with both hands. He pulled.
* * *
Several minutes later, Mary was wiping the last of her tears away with her hand while Jack finished the last knots of cloth holding her splints in place. Jay was still rubbing the gashes left on the back of his hand by her fingernails.
Ultimately, they hadn’t used the socks, and instead Jack had demanded that one of Jay’s silk shirts be sacrificed to the knife. The Australian had said silk was particularly strong, and so would be good for the binding, but now Jay was mourning the loss of his hat and one of his nicer shirts.
“There we are.” Jack had apparently finished up. Mary was readjusting her skirt over her bandaged leg.
Jack gestured at Jay’s suitcase, “Bring that here.”
Jay handed it to him, and Jack set it up behind Mary so she could lean against it while sitting upright.
“Right,” Jack stood up and looked at the smoke. “Seems the wind’s still blowing away from us, so we should be good a few minutes more at least. Now, does anybody know where we are?”
Mary spoke up, “We couldn’t be too far from Munich. There wasn’t more than an hour left of flight when we went down.”
“Well you’d be surprised how much farther things get on the ground, in this kind of terrain especially. I don’t suppose either of you have a map of these parts.” He looked at Jay, who’d salvaged the most personal belongings.
“Not that would do us any good getting out of here, just a rail map.”
“And my compass is probably melting with my big bags,” he looked towards the sun, but it was too close to noon to get any kind of bearing.
Jack sighed and shrugged, “Looks like we just pick a direction, then. Walk until we find water to follow.”
Jay looked between the two of them before speaking, unsure, “Mightn’t we be best to stay here? There’s bound to be rescuers on their way when they see that,” he nodded towards the fire.
Mary looked like she might agree, but she deferred to Jack with her eyes.
“You’re probably right about the rescuers,” he said, and nodded at the stewardess. “But that’s a big forest fire brewing back there. If the wind changes it could be on us rather quick. I’d feel safest putting as much distance between it and us as possible. We’re also at a good distance already, and we don’t know which direction people might be coming from. They might never see us.”
“Don’t you find it odd that we haven’t seen anyone but us?” It was bothering Jay the more he thought about it.
Jack frowned and didn’t speak for a moment, as if the thought disturbed him too.
“Harold was with me in the hallway. Harold’s our engineer,” Mary offered. “He was telling me to hold on and was trying to work his way around that hole in the center while we fell. I couldn’t see him any more after the trees broke through. Before that, I’d just come from the diner where Clarice was serving breakfast to a lot of the guests. So they must have all gotten out one of the other doors before we came down.”
The two men exchanged a doubtful look. Jay was going to ask her about the hole she’d mentioned, but Jack spoke first.
“Look, we can’t worry about the rest right now. Our first job has to be to get to safety ourselves. The others that got out are probably a lot better off with the rest of the crew anyway.”
Mary nodded at this, satisfied. Jay didn’t press the point.
“All right then. Barring other suggestions, I say we keep heading the way we were until we see something.”
There were no other suggestions. Jack picked up Mary again, who seemed in significantly less pain with the splint on. Jay, now somewhat rested, took a deep breath and set to carrying the luggage in their wake.
* * *
While they walked, Jack kept them entertained with stories of his exploits as a brash young rogue.
“What did you do then?” Mary was enthralled.
“Well, MacEvoy was the worst kind of scum, and without him the rest of the gang was a headless chicken. They did manage to set me up for the colonial troopers, though, and I had to skip off to Africa for a while. Mr. Blake’s already heard me tell about that, but I daresay it’s not a story fit for a lady.”
The stewardess harrumphed and hit him on the shoulder, but Jack only laughed.
They stopped to rest again after another hour of walking, on top of another hill. The cloud of smoke didn’t seem to have shrunk any. Mary started dozing off against Jay’s suitcase when they set her down; the trip was exhausting her even though she wasn’t walking herself.
Jack walked Jay a few yards away down the hill, out of earshot.
“I didn’t want to say this so she could here, didn’t want to worry her. But that leg really worries me, I don’t think that simple splint I rigged up is enough for her. If we can’t get her to a doctor soon, she may lose the leg,” he glanced up at the hilltop, “or worse.”
Jay blinked, “Well, why are we waiting, then? Let’s keep going!” He’d been glad of the break, his arms were painfully sore. But if it meant someone could die, he definitely didn’t want to be holding them up.
The Australian nodded, “We’ll leave again in a minute. I wanted to ask you what you thought of this, though, of the crash.”
“What do you mean?” Jay raised an eyebrow. “It was an airship crash, they do happen.”
“On a clear day like this?” He made a sweeping gesture at the sky, “No storms, not even much wind.”
“A malfunction, do you think? Engine fire?”
“I don’t know. Our stewardess there was talking about a hole, sounded like we hit something, felt like we hit something, as I recall.”
“Yeah…” Jay’s mind traveled back to the scene outside the window from a few hours ago.
Jack cocked his head, “Know something?”
“No. I mean, not really…” Jay told him about what he’d heard and seen just before the disaster. Jack’s face became rather grim.
“Well I don’t think we crashed.”
“No? That means something to you?”
“I think we were shot down.”
Jay leaned in a little to try to determine if he was serious, “What?”
“What you described, it sounds like someone was shooting at us. With a cannon. Some kind of large-caliber anti-aircraft gun.”
“But that’s nuts!”
Jack was walking quickly back up the hill now, “Yeah, sometimes the world is.”
Jay’s shoe slipped on the slope as he hurried after Jack, but he recovered quickly from the stumble. They hastened back to where Mary was lying down, and she looked over at them sleepily.
“Something wrong?”
Jay opened his mouth, but Jack overrode him, “No. But we’re moving again. Ready?”
He picked her up again while Jay fumbled with the suitcase and bag. Mary looked a question at Jay over Jack’s shoulder. Jay worked his jaw a couple times, but ultimately just shrugged.
The stewardess rolled her eyes, and they were on their way again.
Book One, Chapter:
-1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15-16-17-18-19-20-21-
-22-23-24-25-26-27-28-29-30-31-32-33-34-35-36-37-38-39-40-41-42-
-43-44-45-46-47-48-49-50-51-52-53-54-55-56-57-58-59-60-61-62-
Appendix: -A-B-C-