Hell Released (Hell Happened Book 3) (35 page)

She taxied to the end of the runway where there were trucks with flashing lights and shut off the plane. Men and women were running up to where she parked, including Chuck and Yvonne.

With the motor off and her door open she heard something she’d never heard before, a crowd of people cheering for her. She heard it the entire time Chuck and Yvonne were hugging on her and telling her what a great job she’d done.

No one had ever done this before and she wasn’t sure how to take it...but she like it nonetheless.

Garrick was already helping the sick to the waiting vans which had been outfitted as ambulances. Another man she didn’t recognize was helping the pregnant woman.

Hours later, after telling her story first to the Council then to the dozens of people who were still hanging around the area where they had barbecues still going, Danielle retired with Chuck and Yvonne to their shelter.

It was a night of energetic passion for all three and they slept like they hadn’t in a very long time.

Chuck was awakened by a banging on the outside door of the shelter he shared with Yvonne and Danielle. He had to roll naked legs off him and he threw on his jeans and a tee shirt before climbing down to the first level.  He was still rubbing sleep from his eyes when he opened the door.

It was his younger brother Garrick and his gal pal Marissa. “Hey dude. We thought you might be getting up a little later than usual, so we brought you some breakfast.” Marissa held out a basket and Chuck smelled bacon.

He ushered them into the house and hollered up stairs for the two women. If Danielle was going to fly two trips today, she was going to have to get flying soon and even then it would be a 15-hour day in the air for the young woman. She thought she’d be up to it and Chuck wasn’t going to try to talk her out of it until he saw how she felt after the first flight.

The women came down stairs wearing shorts and tee-shirts, looking like one would expect from two women who had been busy with their man the previous night. Both were smiling sheepishly and Danielle blushed as she put coffee on for everyone. Garrick punched his brother lightly in the arm and gave him a knowing smile and Chuck gave him a scowl.

“By the way, all five people she flew in last night are resting comfortably in sickbay,” Garrick told him, referring to the berthing areas he’d turned into a make-shift hospital.

Another knock at the door came. Garrick said that’d be the Professor to brief Danielle on some areas in the mountain he wants looked at when she’s flying over them.

“Christ on crutch,” Chuck said quietly, using his current favorite phrase that wouldn’t get Yvonne pissed at him. “Doesn’t the White Girl,” his pet name for Danielle, “have enough things to do while flying?” Garrick and Marissa gave him an indication they agreed with him, but the Professor was on the Council too and he did have seemingly good reasons for wanting to know how stable the mountains were. Yvonne let the former teacher in.

“Morning everyone,” he said and got a few replies and nods. “Sun up is in about 45 minutes. CJ and a couple guys went ahead to pull the plane out of the hanger, fuel it up and load it for you.

“Don’t need the extra fuel cans this time,” Danielle told him between slurping up the milk in her cereal. She wasn’t the most cultured eater. “And I’m bringing back at least 10 people today, so there’ll only be three or four people left there tonight so don’t pack so much food and water.”

“I’ve already figured that into consideration, my dear girl,” the Professor said, earning him a furrowed brow from both Chuck and Yvonne. He didn’t notice.

Instead he was opening up a laptop and setting it on the table in front of the pilot. “I found this GPS program with a map and want to show you what I’d like you to look for.” There were harrumphs around the table and Danielle smiled.

“There are two major reservoirs and four lakes in this area around Lake Tahoe,” he said pointing to an area on the map. “If you get the chance, can you fly in this area and tell us if there is a crevasse which is draining the water from any of them?”

Danielle looked at the map he had on the screen and squinted. “Yea, I flew over there yesterday. The place was just like every other place. Dead.”

“Well, the reason I ask is if those lakes and reservoirs are draining into the side of the mountain, a slice of the mountain could slide down east of here.” The compound had experienced a series of smaller tremors since the big quake and the Professor was trying to determine if the tectonic plate were settling or getting ready for another big move.

The implications of what the professor was saying sunk in. They’d all heard Garrick’s descriptions of what it was like watch land fall into the ocean. The compound was more than 75 miles from the base of the mountains but it was close enough for everyone to be concerned.

They talked a little longer and finished up breakfast before heading out as a group to the airport.

As good as his word, CJ and a crew of six had the plane ready. His crew also cleared the runway to make sure there was no debris left over from the 100-plus vehicles that were used to light the landing strip the previous night.

There were fewer people this morning at the airport and Danielle went right to the plane with Chuck and Yvonne. The lieutenant had set up a makeshift “tower” for communications in the least-damaged hanger and a white Econoline van. He was already set up and cleared the little plane for takeoff.

Chuck, Yvonne, Garrick, Marissa and the Professor watched as she ran through her preflight, wrote a few notes in the log book, and ran the plane’s motor up to speed. When she was satisfied, she began her taxi and took off. It was rather anti-climatic compared with yesterday’s takeoff.

“Well, it’s Sunday and no one is going to be working at the compound, so why don’t we do a little looking around here while we wait for her to come back?” CJ suggested from one of the collapsed hangers. “Maybe we can find something useful.”

There was not one building that wasn’t extensively damaged on the airport property. They realized how lucky they were to even find a plane, let alone one young Danielle could fly. After four hours of searching, they found some tools and equipment they could use at the compound and one of the salvage teams showed up to haul the booty back.

The lieutenant reported that Danielle had landed and taken off from West Wendover with five more passengers, leaving eight yet to be rescued. The group waiting for her had some meals delivered and they began searching across the highway at a self-storage facility. Most of the buildings were wrecked and not yet worth the effort of searching through, but they were able to find two usable travel trailers that would be homes for the rescued people from West Wendover.

At a power tool store, they found more generators for the compound which would help wean the it from the submarine. Just as the equipment was being hauled away on Jo’s flatbed, they received a call from the lieutenant telling them Danielle was coming over the mountain and would be on final in about 20 minutes.

When she landed she was smiling, but Chuck could tell she was tired and insisted she take an hour’s nap before going up again. When she started to argue, Yvonne backed Chuck up.

CJ brought her food and Jo pulled one of the travel trailers to the runway for her to sleep in. She slept for almost two hours and was a little upset that no one had awakened her, but she was still able to get in the air and to West Wendover to pick up five more people. She got back to Sacramento while there was enough light to land without using 100 vehicles. She was tired, but still did her post flight checks. There would be one more flight the next day and she wanted a good night’s sleep this time.

The next morning, later than the previous day, she, Chuck, Yvonne and the Professor went to the airport together. Something had been added to the plane overnight by Joshua’s team of electronic specialists. Four remote cameras were attached with duct tape to the landing gear.  The modifications, Danielle said, wouldn’t change the flight characteristics of the plane because they were small. And the wiring was well taped. The controls for the cameras were expertly routed through to a small box on the dashboard. All she would have to do is push the toggle “up” to turn on the cameras and “down” to shut them off. The professor was unhappy with her previous day’s report about the lakes in the mountains and wanted photos. He’d offered to ride with her, but she refused. Not only did she not like the old man very much...he talked too much for her liking...she said she had to concentrate on flying and would not risk having him along, telling her where or how to fly.

CJ and Chloe showed up beforehand to make sure the airplane was fueled and prepared for the last flight to West Wendover. CJ was no expert, but he did know a little about planes and Danielle would make sure everything was prepared correctly. She was well-rested and the take off was smooth. The group was watching her fly by the airport, waving up at her. Joshua came out of his communications mobile home to report everything looked good for her and she was following her flight plan would not forget to take the pictures.

Joshua finished talking and looking up at the retreating plane when a bullet punctured him through the neck and blood spurted out of the holes, front and back. The former air force lieutenant fell to his knees even as it was registering on the others that they’d heard a gunshot. The lieutenant was trying to stop the spurting blood, but it was flowing through his fingers, and pumping out the back of his neck with every beat of his heart.

Garrick was moving first to the fallen lieutenant while the others crouched down, looking for where the shot had come from and looking for cover. The echoing effect from the buildings made it impossible to determine.

Garrick was pulling off his shirt and was hit in the shoulder from the second shot and knocked to the ground. Chuck picked him off pavement and pushed him toward the hanger and the group retreated to where the plane had been stored. Even though the building was partially collapsed, there was still room to hide inside.

A third shot hit the pavement and Marissa screamed as the concrete shrapnel tore into her right leg. Yvonne grabbed for her as she stumbled and was rewarded with a through-and-through shot in her left ass cheek. Chuck, who was walking backward with his .500 Smith & Wesson in hand, a gift from Yvonne, looking for the shooter, heard Yvonne yelp and turned to grab both women and haul them bodily into the hanger.

Three more shots were fired in rapid succession, but all three ricocheted off the concrete and into the building, but by then the group was undercover deep inside. The Professor, unarmed, was calling on his walkie-talkie for reinforcements, but he wasn’t getting an answer. Four more shots were fired into the building and a machine gun peppered the wall between the group and the runway. Everyone was hiding behind a heavy-duty Sroka airplane tug that had a flat tire and was probably in this shop for maintenance when the end came. They could hear shots hitting the other side and both Chuck and Chloe had gone prone and were aiming around either end of the machine. Garrick, even with his shoulder bleeding, went first to pull down Yvonne’s jeans and underwear to stop the bleeding on the woman. He used his tee-shirt as a bandage. CJ was working on Marissa’s leg and assuring her she would be okay. She was crying at the pain and, like Garrick, CJ was taking instructions from him and used his Polo shirt to stop the bleeding. The fragments could be taken out later.

The Professor was hollering progressively louder into the walkie-talkie.

“Shut the hell up, old man!” Chuck ordered him through clenched teeth. “You’re just letting whoever is shooting at us know where we’re hiding in here. You’ll never get anyone because of the steel roof Professor.” Chuck said it stressing the “Professor” part because the science teacher should have realized why he wasn’t reaching anyone.

He looked over his shoulder at Yvonne who was naked from the waist down and lying on her belly, still aiming her handgun under the tug and grimacing at the pain in her ass. “How you doing, babydoll?” He asked quietly.

“Some mutha just shot me in the ass and you’re asking how I’m doing? Ask me again and I’ll shoot you in the ass and then we can discuss it,” she replied just as quietly.

“That’s my baby.

“Professor, why don’t you put that damn thing down and wrap up my brother’s shoulder before he bleeds all over my babydoll.” The science teacher moved over to work on Garrick.

“We gotta do something. We can’t leave Joshua out there. We need help here. We gotta get some of the people from the...”

“I said shut the hell up, old man. One more word out of you and I might shoot you.

“Easy there, Chuck,” Yvonne told him. “Save your anger for the mothers who are shooting at us. The man is just scared.”

“Yea, I know. We all are. But his running off at the mouth is pissing me off because I can’t think,” Chuck replied, not taking his eyes off the door. “Joshua is dead. He was dead the minute that bullet nearly cut his neck in half. I don’t wanna go like that and I need to think.”

Another round of machine gun fire put two dozen more holes in the front of the building. Chloe and Chuck ducked back behind the tug when the first started hitting, but went back to covering the door.

“Whoever they are, there’s more than one,” CJ said just above a whisper. He had a Berretta in his hand and was lying next to Yvonne, aiming at the door under the tug. There was only about three inches of ground clearance, but he and Yvonne still had a good view of the door. “There’s at least one with a rifle, probably someone with a semi-automatic and someone else with a machine gun.”