THE ARK

Most of the other teams had similar reports, no human sightings. There had been some insects and one group had seen some birds.

Amy Travers was circling above Delta team when there was sudden radio traffic. The team had found something or someone. After several minutes it was clear, there were human footprints in the village. The prints were in some fine sand that had blown in from the desert. The team was sure that the tracks could not be more than a day or two old.

Amy could hear the excitement growing on the ground. For the next two hours, they had searched but come up with nothing. Now it was time for all the ground teams to return to the Mountain. Darkness was closing in and RJ had clearly given orders for all ground teams to be in by dark.

The aircraft now had a little time to themselves since they would not be needed to cover the ground forces. They too had to be back by dark but with the speed they traveled, they could afford to spend some time searching the area before turning back.

As Amy flew, she used the thermal imaging scanners to try to locate a heat source on the ground that could indicate there were people in the area. If she could locate anything, it would provide a good starting point for tomorrow’s search efforts.

Amy had been watching a large storm on radar and knew it was coming. Suddenly there was lots of lightning in the area, and the wind had increased dramatically. Controlling the aircraft was becoming much more challenging. Like it or not Amy knew it was time to head back, she increased altitude and speed and started back.

As she flew on something on the instrument panel caught her eye. On the ground below her, there was a thermal image. It was definitely much hotter than the surrounding area. As she looked, it almost seemed as if there were two hot objects and they were in motion. Her first thought was that it was two of the Humvees, but she quickly dropped that idea. She was at least twenty miles from the closest Humvee and the ground units should be heading in the opposite direction.

Amy was holding her own against the storm, and decided to take a quick look. She rapidly dropped altitude and was quickly within visual range of the objects. It took her a moment to figure what was going on. There were two motorcycles running in circles around a group of people. The bikers were striking at the people with pipes or clubs, who seemed to be huddled together trying to protect each other.

Up until this point, the noise of the bikes and the wind of the storm and rain had prevented anyone on the ground from hearing the helicopter’s approach. Now Amy dropped low to the ground and was rapidly approaching the group. One of the bikers suddenly noticed the rapidly approaching helicopter and signaled his partner and the two bikes speed off to the west.

Amy dropped the HU-60 to about twenty-five feet off the ground. She kept the nose of the aircraft pointed towards the two bikers, who had stopped about fifty yards away and were now watching her movements. Four ropes dropped from the helicopter, and in seconds, eight men were fast-roping to the ground. As soon as they reached the wet ground, six of the men spread out and formed a perimeter around the three strangers. They dropped to the ground in a prone position with automatic weapons pointed outward and fingers on the triggers. The other two men went to the three in the middle of the circle and began assessing their injuries.

As this was transpiring on the ground, the two figures on the motorcycles looked on with expressions of amazement.

Having seen the two viciously attacking the unarmed people, Amy almost wanted them to draw a gun and start shooting. If so she would be justified in pressing the trigger button that her finger now rested on, that would release a pair of high explosive rockets that would easily obliterate both the men and the machines that they were sitting on.

Suddenly the two bikes accelerated and turned away moving out into the desert quickly. “Ground 1, targets are gone. Report your status.”

“We are getting these three ready for transport. We’ll be ready in three.”

“Acknowledging three minutes, I’ll sweep the area once to make sure that there are no more of them. Be quick, the weather is getting worse.”

The helicopter flew a quick circle several hundred meters out from the people on the ground. When Amy was comfortable that there were no additional threats, she landed the aircraft and the men came aboard with the three patients. All three were on portable stretchers and were quickly secured inside the aircraft. Less than a minute after touching down, they were back in the air.

As the aircraft rose, Amy could feel the forces of the storm pushing them down and toward a mountainous wall of rock. She fought the machine and kept it under control as she gained speed and altitude. As they moved faster and higher, the threat from the storm diminished, and Amy was able to get the airspeed up to close to the 160mph maximum cruising speed. Soon Amy could look back and see the men working on the injured.

“Give me a report on their condition and I’ll get them ready at the mountain,” Amy instructed over her headset.

The team leader quickly reported the information back to the pilot.

“Mountain Base this is Air Two” She called into the radio.

“Air Two this Mountain Base go ahead.”

“Inbound with three civilian casualties, ETA 20 minutes. We will need priority clearance on the landing pad. Stand by to copy patient’s conditions for medical.”

“Go ahead when ready Air Two,” came Nick’s voice

“Patient one is approximately a thirty-year-old female, who was being attacked with clubs when we found her. She’s unresponsive with a head injury multiple arm fractures. She’s intubated and we are ventilating her, we have an IV in place. Patient two is also female and about the same age, also beaten with clubs. She has right sided chest wall deformity and is having significant trouble breathing. Abdomen is rigid and they suspect internal hemorrhage. They’re working on IVs and will sedate her, then place a chest tube. They’ll paralyze her and intubate if needed. Patient three is a twelve-year-old male, conscious and alert with an arm fracture. So far no other injuries found.”

“Information received Air Two. Air One is landing now, and we’ll have it towed out of the way immediately. Medical teams will meet you on the pad.”

As Amy approached the mountain, she could see the three hospital stretchers and the people lined up at the entrance to the tunnel. As soon as the wheels touched the ground, her team was unloading the injured.

Amy was committed to the shutdown of the aircraft and was, therefore, the last one off. By the time she got out of the UH-60 the tow vehicle was already hooking to the front of the aircraft to pull it into the tunnel and out of harm’s way as the fierce storm got closer.

Amy hurried to the Health Center and into the triage area. There was a nurse and a medic working on the young boy, while RJ tried to ask him some questions. Amy found out that the other two were already being prepared for surgery.

Seeing that there was little more that she could do she headed for the mess hall. Having spent all afternoon in the cockpit of the Black Hawk had made her quite hungry.

She got a good helping of spaghetti with Italian sausage, a Caesar salad, and ice tea and took a seat in the back of the room. It was just a couple minutes before RJ entered and took a seat across from her.

“What happened out there? How did you find them? Who beat them?” RJ asked. She seemed flustered.

“If you stop asking questions for a minute I’ll tell you the whole story, RJ.”

RJ stopped and after a slight pause gave Amy a smile, “OK, tell me the story.”

When Amy finished, RJ nodded her head in appreciation. “Sounds like you did a great job.”

“Did you learn anything from the kid?”

“Not yet, he’s kinda a mess right now. He’s in pain; he’s been given morphine which makes things worse for getting good information from him. He’s never seen an aircraft, let alone ridden in one, and he’s terrified that the other two will die, one of whom very well may. He’s not up to much of a conversation.

“Only thing we know for sure is that one of them is his mother. One of the med techs in there is primarily a child psychologist. She’ll be staying with him for now. As soon as his arm is fixed she’ll give him a short tour of the facility. Hopefully, that will loosen him up a bit.”