//------------------------------// // Burnout // Story: Cold Steel // by sierra_seven_ //------------------------------// Cold Steel Gulf Air Jet 1-2-Lima By sierra_seven_ Burnout Alexis woke to the sound of screams. Cries of fear and pain echoed in his ears, sending chills down his spine. He groggily attempted to open his eyes, but to no avail. He touched his face in disbelief. His eyes were open, but he was blind. The pilot thrashed in his chair, trying to free himself. Panic overcame him as he struggled against his harness, trying to release himself. All around him sirens shrieked and sparking electronics burned his bare skin. He tried in vain to get free of his restraints, attempting to use the broken console to rip through the fabric. As he leaned forward, the chair shifted suddenly, dropping him several feet onto a cold metal wall. Wall? He tried to move, but was pinned by the bulk of the heavy chair. He was surrounded by darkness and completely immobilised. Blind fear caused him to thrash in the chair, desperately hoping something would yield. "Alexis, stop struggling! I'll get you down!" shouted Ella over the blaring sirens. The sounds of damaged circuits and metallic groans reached him, making him fully realise the predicament he was in. "Ella, I can't fucking see! Get me down!" he shouted in despair, reaching out toward her voice. He heard her unsteady footsteps as she made her way through the cockpit. "Grab onto something! The plane's rolled, you're gonna fall out onto your side!" she shouted, striving to be heard over the alarms. He reached out in front of him, attempting to find a purchase on his joystick. The pilot felt Ella's hands reach around him, shakily undoing his harness. Surprisingly she spoke calmly, reassuring him. "I don't think you're blind. You've got a huge cut on your head, and your face is covered in blood. Wipe it off, it's everywhere!" He raised an arm, hurriedly wiping his face with his ripped shirt. After several seconds of painful rubbing, vision returned, albeit with a strong tinge of red. The cockpit was in a bad way. The front windshield was smashed and sand was beginning to blow into the enclosed space. Most of the instruments were smashed, resulting in the dangerous and toxic chemicals that filled them dripping onto the floor. Loose cables sparked and swayed in the wind, presenting a challenge to escape. "We need to get out of here! Where the hell is Henry?" he yelled, awkwardly twisting himself to get free of the chair as he looked around wildly, searching for his friend. The screams persisted, adding another layer of fear to the hellish scene. "He's out rallying the survivors. We have a lot of dead and wounded and fuel is leaking through the starboard wing. We need to get away from the plane before it turns into an inferno!" she shouted, clambering out of the narrow cockpit door. He followed, slowly taking in the horrific scene that was the cabin. The rear of the aircraft had completely broken off, leaving a wide open hole halfway through the plane. Dead and unconscious bodies littered the area, some being hurriedly dragged out by the remnants of the cabin crew. Many appeared to be in a state of shock, acting automatically. Even more were crying and shaking as they went about the depressing yet vital task. "Captain, we need to get out of here now!" Ella commanded, dragging him towards the emergency escape. He, however, was speechless; stunned by the horrific scene. They eventually reached the emergency escape, the narrow portal leading into the burning heat of the desert. "Jump!" shouted the Flight Technician, shoving him toward the inflatable slide. Alexis slid down, wincing as the bright light, hot rubber and smell of fuel assaulted his senses. He stepped onto the burning sand, moving to allow Ella to follow him. He stumbled towards the rest of the survivors, the knot of them that had gathered on a small dune overlooking the crash site. "Henry!" he shouted, scanning the crowd for his friend and co-pilot. The survivors were in a bad way, many were bleeding or otherwise wounded. There were children too, some wandering aimlessly or crying. More than a few were suffering from shock. Thankfully he saw the distinct white and gold markings that signalled the presence of a member of the flight crew. "Henry, what's going on? Anything that we need to do? Like, right now? I heard we have a fuel leak, that true?" Alexis rattled off the series of questions before Henry had even turned around. His co-pilot was pretty shaken up, with several cuts that had been hastily bandaged. His co-pilots uniform was ripped and shredded, showing many small cuts and grazes. The survivors had gathered around him anxiously, desperately looking for some form of guidance. The scene was chaotic, many passengers just sat on the bluff speechlessly, trying to accept what had just happened. Young children wandered the area in shock, desperately crying out for their parents or family. "Lexus, damn good to see you're ok! We've got a nurse here, he'll take a look at that cut in a minute." The co-pilot spoke shakily, looking around at the assembled group. A man in a blue suit looked up briefly from a nearby body, nodding respectfully. "We've got a pretty big fuel leak coming out of the starboard wing, and we've still got power. You and Ella need to go and shut the fuse box down before one goddamn spark blows us sky-high. I'd go, but someone needs to keep the passengers together. If it goes badly, shout. We'll evacuate any staff out of the plane. But we want to get as many unconscious and wounded out as possible." Henry spoke hurriedly, often glancing back to the wrecked plane. Alexis turned around, looking for Ella. However, he saw something much more important. From the small rise, he could see the entirety of the disaster. An ugly scar cut across the terrain, littered with scrap metal. The passenger plane had landed roughly, rolling and tearing the port wing completely off. Alexis tried to make out the tail of the aircraft amongst the wreckage. The tail was the wreckage. It had almost completely broken apart during the crash, spraying shredded metal over several miles of desert. The surviving part of the aircraft lay at an angle in the carved trench, mostly intact. The cabin crew were desperately trying to save the unconscious passengers, rolling them down the inflatable slide to waiting crew members and able-bodied passengers. "Come on Alexis, what's the plan?" panted Ella, having jogged up the small bluff after him. The extreme heat was obviously sapping her energy, turning her face bright red and causing her to pant heavily. "We need to go and disable the fuses before the entire plane goes up. Come on!" he shouted, skidding down the dune. He sprinted toward the aircraft, noticing the gradually increasing smell of aviation fuel. The duo clambered up the slide while avoiding the unconscious bodies being rolled down. When they reached the cockpit they paused for a few seconds to catch their breaths. "Right, where's that fuse panel? You know the aircraft better than I do." Alexis said hurriedly, in full awareness he was standing on a literal time bomb. Ella didn't reply, instead lifting up a panel of the floor. She crawled into an enclosed space, disappearing from view. He crouched anxiously for a few seconds in the collapsed cockpit. "You ok in there?" he shouted, craning his head and shoulders around to get a better idea of what she was doing. The cockpit lighting, alarms and instruments shut down for the second time that day. Several seconds later she crawled out, holding a fistful of large fuses. "Bingo!" she grinned, pocketing them. Hopefully that would stop the plane becoming a blazing inferno. He'd be pissed if he had survived the crash only to be blown apart. If he'd wanted to die in a fiery explosion, he would have opened his own illegal distillery and died happy. Alexis jumped out of the aircraft again, and inspected the underside of the remaining wing. Behind him the turbine was still spinning slowly, which he warily avoided. Fuel was steadily pouring from a ruptured fuel line. "Shit, this fuel's draining pretty damn fast. The moment the bodies are off the plane, I want everyone away from here. We'll let all the fuel drain off before we do anything else. You go and let the cabin crew know, I'll see if I can do anything here." No sooner had he finished than Ella ran back to the emergency ramp. He gingerly examined the wing, noting that a large gash had been created in the wing during the crash. He tenderly reached out towards the emergency cut-off but quickly withdrew his hand after brushing the scorching metal. The wing groaned suddenly, sending the pilot scrambling backwards. There was a metallic snap, and the end of the wing slammed into the desert floor. Fuel began spraying from the damaged aircraft, gushing onto the desert floor. "Ella, we need to get out of here! Get the crew off the plane and up the hill, now! The fuel leak's been doubled!" he yelled, sprinting away from the jet. The small group jogged back to the top of the slope, moving swiftly through the distraught groups of passengers. "Henry, we sorted out the fuel problem. Mostly. It's draining off into the sand, so it should be safe in a few hours." The smell of aviation fuel wafted up, making them cough. "Alright, what the hell did you do?" Henry demanded, looking back down at the wrecked aircraft. "I only had a look at the fuel leak. It wasn't my fault the damn wing fell off!" retorted Alexis angrily. The pair stared at each other for a few seconds before relenting. Alexis looked up at the burning sun. "We need to get some kind of shelter up. The children are gonna suffer in this heat, and we're gonna need as much water as possible." "Right. Once the fuel's run off we can put some of the children in there. Get the cabin crew to take inventory of our supplies when they're done. I want to know how much water we have. We also need to take a register. I don't know what happened to the flight log." The two pilots looked around to Ella, expecting her input. She was nearby, however, consoling a group of children. "Leave her be. The children need all the help they can get at the moment. See if any of the other women want to give her a hand. If not, order them to. I don't want any of them going near the aircraft while the fuel's draining. Make sure they're all under supervision while we move the... bodies." His voice cracked, revealing the emotion beneath. "They could do without seeing that." The children added a whole new layer to the scenario. If any of them disappeared into the aircraft... "Right, let's get organised. We can't rely on the settlement to get help here quickly." Henry nodded grimly. *** "Right. So all the bodies are buried then?" Alexis whispered to Maysun, who nodded sadly. The fifty-three surviving passengers stood solemnly, listening to the Ella and a Muslim passenger giving Christian and Islamic services respectfully. The Arab was the son of a Saudi businessman, and had been the first to suggest they bury the bodies. He had quickly introduced himself as Aarif, throwing himself into the work like a possessed soul. He had been one of the most useful survivors so far, helping to register and organise different groups. The temperature had dropped to a cool night's air, and a few fires had been started away from the aircraft to conserve warmth. The warm glow and crackling flames enhanced the somber atmosphere. It was a miracle that this many had survived, and they knew it. The ramshackle graveyard had been constructed between the two sections of aircraft, which had been re-purposed into a sheltered area for the survivors. As the service came to an end, Alexis addressed the despondent crowd. "Hello everyone. I'd just like to take a minute to explain our situation in greater detail. As you know, some form of electro-magnetic discharge affected us on approach to Riyadh. Due to technical difficulties with our GPS we inadvertently strayed over a Saudi-Arabian military installation. Some form of antenna was responsible for the blue flash of light that affected us." Murmurs of concern spread through the group as Maysun translated his words into Arabic. "If this is true, why didn't the Saudi Air Force redirect us? They must have picked us up on radar miles before we reached them!" shouted a member of the crowd angrily. Alexis addressed the man uneasily. "They dispatched a fighter jet to guide us away, but the jet never gave us a course or deviated from his. We believe he was suffering from the same jamming effect as us. However, the jet must have left after we suffered the effects of.... umm... 'The Flash'. Either that or the jet crashed." he finished, looking around the group. The survivors were scared, exhausted and wounded. "We need to work together. I don't know what happened, but we need to keep calm and work together. I understand that many of you just want to sleep now, but we need to organize some form of watch. We have almost no idea where we are and we cannot risk missing any form of rescue. Until we have a permanent method of signalling, we will need some volunteers to watch for aircraft or other men. Around twenty kilometers south is a small settlement, and if we have no contact from them by midnight, we'll organise a group to go and meet them. They will undoubtedly know the terrain better than us, so we'll give them a chance to make their way here first." Alexis spoke authoritatively, even though he was in the same boat as the survivors. The only difference was he had some semblance of authority and was responsible for them. "Why don't we just go and find them now? There's no point sitting around waiting if rescue is only twenty kilometers away!" said another woman, staring him in the eye. A few others murmured their assent, eagerly awaiting his reply. Thankfully Henry emerged from the shadows and addressed the woman. "Look, most of us have some form of injury. If we all decide to head off, we carry a strong chance of losing a few along the way. Here we have shelter, supplies and a transponder. Chances are that rescue is already on its way and we'll be out of here in a few hours. If we don't hear from any rescue parties then we'll have to take matters into our own hands." *** The sentry leaned against the metal hulk they now called home. The sand blew idly around her feet, blown by the cool night breeze. During the meeting they had agreed on a watch schedule, among other things. She would watch the east side of the plane for two hours, then hand over to another survivor. She scuffed her foot against the metal air-frame, the sound reminding her that she was, in fact, still alive. In her left hand was a length of steel, salvaged from the detritus littering the expanse of desert. Weapons weren't thought to be necessary but she felt safer with a means of defense. Ten minutes until her handover. She shifted silently, moving into a more comfortable position. The dying fires still cast flickering light across the landscape, creating false shadows and shifting images. She thought she heard a rumbling, but it could only be some part of the aircraft shifting. 'Relax!' she thought to herself. She had traveled to Saudi Arabia in hope of escaping her lustful ex-boyfriend. Well, this was certainly an escape. A loud snort roused her from her thoughts. "Who's there?" she called, scanning the shifting terrain. Silence. 'Don't worry, probably just... someone snoring. Yup, that's it.' she thought uneasily. Another snort. 'Fuck this'. The young woman crept out, away from the aircraft. She hefted the bar of steel, brandishing it aggressively. One look at the creature in front of her removed any aggressive thoughts. *** A loud scream roused Alexis from his uneasy slumber, causing him to roll off the two seats he had converted into a makeshift bed. He scrambled through the crowded cabin, dodging between sleepy, anxious survivors. The scream had come from one of the sentries outside. "What's the situation?" Henry asked quickly as he joined the pilot. "No idea, let's go find out" Alexis replied hurriedly, ducking through the escape hatch. He slid down the inflatable ramp and jogged around the front of the plane. From the outside he could see that the cockpit had smashed into a huge dune, almost flattening the front of the plane. Henry was the first up the large slope, scrambling through the soft sand. "Everything ok up there?" called Alexis, scanning the opposite direction. He'd be damned if anything crept up on them. "Captain, we've got company..." replied Henry calmly as two huge shadows appeared in the corner of Alexis' eye. Note from the author: Thanks for reading! Trust me, this ain't gonna be a regular ol' HiE. Huge thanks to my team, MyLittlePwny, Cry Havoc (The editors), LeafLock (For the title art) and LightPony (For the advice and support!)