Chapter XII

Flight of the Raiders

Inside the packed chopper Charlie goes over to examine Jimmy’s wound, the bullet had ripped through his shoulder and exited the other side, it was quite frankly a miracle that his arm was still attached, but with the limited supplies that she had on the chopper she didn’t know what ese to do, other than what she had already done, which was to bandage it up to stop him from bleeding out.

“Not good. The bullets hit a blood vessel by the looks of it.” Charlie said, it was the only thing that she could think off that explained the wounds continuing bleeding. Codsworth was also up, looking down at Jimmy’s pale face. So much for a clean mission, before he turned his attention to Martin.

“How’s Martin?” Codsworth asked looking at the stick figure of Martin who was still unconscious, he was not quite at the point where his bones were showing, but he wasn’t far off either, his pale skin was stretched over his body to the point that Codsworth thought that he had probably only weighed about forty-five kilo’s wet if they were to put him on a set of scales.

“Even worse. He’s been heavily drugged and starved. We need to get all three back to the mountain.” Charlie explained before gulping slightly at what she was about to say next. “As the crow flies. Otherwise, none of them will make it, certainly in the case of Martin here.” Charlie finished looking gravely at Codsworth who nods. The pilot however, a north-men called Stefan Myre, who had volunteered to fly this mission had an altogether more rational response.

“That’s suicide. We can’t go directly over the mountains.” Stefan said looking shocked, he had been crazy to even volunteer for this mission, or so he had thought but, he wasn’t crazy enough to go over the mountains, especially not in winter.

Charlie looks at the machine connected up to both Martin and Jimmy, both in the danger zones. Codsworth also looked at the numbers, he wasn’t a medic but knew that the kids blood pressure and heart rate were way to low as were Jimmy’s.

“Keep them stable.” Codsworth said to Charlie before turning back to the pilot. “We head the most direct route understand. These two won’t make it if we take the long way.” The commander finished addressing the pilot, who gulped and nodded.

“Fine. It’s your funeral though.” Stefan said and he applied the collective control, and the helicopter began to ascend as Codsworth got on the radio.

“Doraghek come in.” Codsworth said, there was a brief pause before the dwarf’s voice came over the channel.

“Aye lad. What is it?” Doraghek said, he sounded grim and Codsworth guessed that like his comrade he wasn’t happy being up in the air again.

“Let’s level this place.” Codsworth said, a small grim coming over his face for the first time since leaving the mountain. There was a pause, then Doraghek responded.

“Aye, sir.” Doraghek said his tone changing in relief. There was a brief pause, before an explosion rocks the mountain side, rubble starts to fall onto the camp before a second explosion causes the camp to fall in on itself, crumpling into the mountain itself, as the snow from the peaks began to descend.

“Gods. It’s gone.” Olly said, looking out of the window. He and Martin had been there for almost eight months by his count, and he had never thought that he would see the outside again. The helicopter continues to ascend as Doraghek voice comes back over the com system.

“We notice you’re going straight up. Is there a problem with your machine?” Doraghek asked, his previous tone returned.

“No. We need to take a more direct route home is all. We’ll meet you there.” Codsworth said, his face going slightly green at the prospect, wondering if any of them would survive this journey.

“Well in that case. Good luck to you sir.” Doraghek said and clicked the radio off. The two other choppers begin to head west back the way the raiding party had come, whilst the medical chopper continued its ascent.

“Aye. We’ll need that luck.” Stefan said grimly, before gesturing to Codsworth with an even grimmer look on his face. “Codsworth. Get up here I need a co-pilot.” Stefan continued as the aircraft began to jitter about, the aged commander got up and sat in the seat next to the pilot, looking even more grim.

“Why am I up here. I’m not a pilot.” Codsworth said although he strapped himself into the co-pilots seat.

“I hope your lying their pal. Cause if I faint, you’ll be the one flying this beast.” Stefan said shaking his head before turning back to the occupants in the compartment behind him. “Air’s going to get real thin in a minute, so you better sit down.” Stefan finished as the chopper got passed the twenty-five thousand feet mark.

“How much further?” Codsworth said, the air even in the cockpit was starting to get thin, even he could tell, a brief thought came in this mind, whilst they would be able to survive, the wounded were also being supplied air, he wondered what the air situation was for them. He was about to ask when Stefan answered his previous question.

“Five thousand more feet, I’m diverting all available air to the engines otherwise they’ll stall.” Stefan said, Codsworth looked at him, and hoped that he hadn’t diverted any of the oxygen from the medical gear. Four thousand feet. Three thousand feet. Codsworth could hear the pilot verbally urging the helicopter onwards and upwards. Behind them the others were begun to feel lightheaded as the oxygen began continued to thin. After a few tense moments where the chopper was starting to sputter, they break through the clouds.

“Fuck me you did it.” Codsworth said looking at the pilot, who was panting deeply, not the greatest suggestion at their current altitude.

“Let’s get this lot back.” Stefan said sweating slightly. As the chopper begins the fly north for a few miles before the pilot decides that it is safe to begin the descent to more a more suitable altitude. As Codsworth begins to exit the cockpit the pilot turns to him. “Codsworth. I’m never doing that again.” Stefan continues in all seriousness, and the commander believed him one hundred percent, as the pilot turns back to face the rest of the passengers. “You lot can all get up now, but I’d leave it for a few minutes, let the air return to the compartment.” Stefan finished before turning to look straight ahead again as the helicopter descends back through the clouds.

“I feel weird.” Russel said holding his head, he had never been that high up before in his life, having spent the majority of his life in the low-lying terrain of Riveruster, he was completely unaware of altitude sickness was.

“Sorry about that, I had to divert all the available air to the engines, otherwise we’d have stalled halfway up the ascent.” The Stefan said, and noticing the looks on both Charlie and Codsworth faces as they get up to check the wounded Stefan continues realising what he had just said. “Don’t worry though. I didn’t divert any of your injured oxygen. They’ll be alright.” Stefan finished, hoping that that last part of the statement was true. His emergency diversion shouldn’t have diverted any oxygen away from the medical supplies, as they were designed to take precedent in a situation like this. Although he knew that the engine was also designed to take precedent as well. It seemed both Codsworth and Charlie were on the same lines as they rushed over to check on the wounded, Erilatir seemed to be fine although the bag next to him was full of sick.

“How they doing?” Codsworth asked looking down at the wounded, both Martin and Jimmy were unconscious however, the dwarf was as rowdy as ever, babbling on about how nothing should be up this high of the ground.

“Still not good, but none of them have gotten any worse, which is a plus.” Charlie said as she looked at the monitors which had just turned themselves back on, they did eventually stabilise at their original levels before the power had been diverted, but the numbers they were showing were still too low for her liking. “How long till we’re back pilot?” Charlie asked looking up at the cockpit area.

“We’ll arrive in an hour, Doc. You better get on the line with the mountain tell them to have a medical crew ready, as we’re coming in hot.” Stefan said in all seriousness, that was the truth as he was now pushing the chopper forward as hard as possible.

“Did you have enough time to get the antidote ready?” Codsworth asked, that was something that he had failed to ask, which now concerned him, as what was the point of all of this, if they couldn’t get Martin of the drug to begin with.

“Not much but it will most likely not work on Martin here. He’s had been hit with something much, much stronger.” Charlie said, as Dave looked up at this news horrified at what he was hearing, as was Codsworth although it was Dave that spoke first.

“Can you save him?” Dave asked, it was the first time he’d spoken since opening the first of the cell doors in the underground section of the camp and his mouth was dry because of it.

“With any luck, yes. It won’t be easy mind you, but he should be alright.” Charlie said, the dwarven medics were good, she just hoped that they were up to this particular task.

“What about Jimmy?” Codsworth asked looking at the young male scientist, his skin was almost as pale as Martin’s was, although his pulse was slightly stronger.

“He’ll live so long as we can get him back to the mountain and more importantly a surgeon in time.” Charlie said. “Erilatir here also is going to need medical attention but his wounds will be the easiest to heal.” Charlie finished looking at the dwarf. Who grunted at this before speaking.

“I’ll be fine once I’m on the ground again.” Erilatir said grumbling slightly. However, his mood had been calmed slightly by the sight of the mountain ahead of them getting bigger by the second.