-The Full Moon Retreat-
Episode: The First Search and Rescue Mission
Chapter 7:
And...Which asylum did you say that you escaped from?
To the reader:
My apologies for missing my goal of publishing on a weekly basis. In chapter 6, I used a few words from a line in the poem "High Flight" and placed the accreditation at the end of the story. In crediting the author, I had included the entire poem just below the accreditation. Although the poem is in the public domain, it turns out that posting more than one-half of a stanza of a poem, not my own, runs contrary to Literotica's rules. For some reason, I had missed the Literotica webpage detailing that rule. As I had used only part of a single line from the poem, in the story, I thought to include the entire work as a tribute to the author. At any rate, the rejection and resubmission of the chapter managed to consume almost a full week. Regarding the poem; I find "High Flight", a beautiful and poignant work. It can be found all over the internet and I suggest that it will be worth the reader's time to look it up.
However, having the extra time; I put it to use. You will find that the character flags have been removed from this chapter. They did not seem to be popular. I hope that the reader does not, now, find the dialog to be confusing. I will be watching to find out if removing them was a good idea.
On to chapter 7. Ok, so the appetizer and the salad have been served. It's time to serve the main course. I would that you find this entertaining. Enjoy, please.
Special Thanks to my wife, Diane for proofreading for me.
[12:37, Wednesday, the crash site]
George works his way through the forest toward the downed aircraft. He is close enough, now to be able to clearly see and identify the plane. He radios back to base camp.
"41' to base camp, I'm close enough to see the aircraft, now. It is a white, twin-engine, light aircraft. It is sitting upright and appears to be intact with some minor fire and structural damage. It seems to be sitting in a shallow lake or maybe, just the stream backed up. I don't see anyone outside the plane at the moment, but, I'm not quite close enough, yet, to be able to see into the cockpit."
"I'm going to hail them; maybe they are out of the plane and in the woods."
"Hello, the aircraft!"
No reply...
"Hello, the aircraft!"
George hears a faint "HELP" from the woods on the far side of the aircraft...
"41' to base. I heard a faint cry for help. I'm headed that way."
[12:45, Wednesday, the crash site]
George sloshes across the small lake, which proves to be only knee deep. In the woods opposite, he can see a very small campfire. He rushes toward it and finds two adults and two children. The adult female is shivering and crying, the man is either asleep or unconscious, his pants legs, below the knees are blood soaked. Two children lie beside the man covered with a crocheted sweater. A very, young, girl's legs protrude from under the sweater. It is plain that the girl has severe burns on her legs. A young boy lies beside her, his dirty; tear streaked face slack in sleep. George knows that all three are alive; he can hear their heartbeats, but they are slow and weak.
George, crouching in front of the woman, who sits on the ground weeping: "Ma'am, are you all right? I would like to ask you some questions, so, that I can radio information back to our base camp. I know that this is very hard, but, please, help me help your family. Now, I know that you have been out here around day and a half, so, first I know that you will all be cold and hungry, but are you hurt?"
The woman, through tears: "N...No. Just banged up."
"What is your name, ma'am?"
"Ann... Anna Dawson."
"Well, Anna, how badly is your husband hurt?"
"I think that both of his legs are broken. His seat collapsed under the instrument panel."
"I can see that his pants legs are bloody, but has he lost more blood that I can see, soaked into the cloth of his pants?"
Anna shakes her head in the negative...
"That's good Anna. Now, your little girl, how badly is she burned? Are all of her burns like what I can see on her legs and how much of her body is burned?"
Anna, bursts out crying, but she speaks through the tears: "She's burned all over her body up to under her arms and one arm is burned, it all looks as bad as her legs do."
George, is pretty sure that would be a fatal injury, but, it isn't yet: "Anna, is your son hurt?"
"I don't think that anything is broken, but he says that he hurts. I'm afraid that he may be injured, inside."