by Diana Winchester 2nd November 2020, 10:15 pm
-Forgotten Deserts, three hours later-
Diana had been walking a circular patrol route around the crashed cargo plane for what seemed like the hundredth time while waiting on the rescue chopper to get here. It had actually been around the sixtieth or seventieth, but the way time seemed to slow down in the featureless desert made her think otherwise. It had been roughly three hours since the huntress had last contacted Mister Burke and he had claimed that the ETA for the chopper was two hours. According to the captain, it had been three hours since the last contact with Mister Burke. Diana and the crew were hoping that disaster had not befallen the rescue chopper like it had them, but Mister Burke had been silent ever since his last transmission... without word from the man himself everyone had to hope that no news was good news.
The sun was threatening to set when Diana started to make her seventy-first loop around the wreck when she heard Mister Burke speak to her. After hearing the silence of the desert, the relentless crunching of sand under boots, and the occasional howl of the wind for hours on end the sound of his voice was unusually loud. It was so loud that he might as well have shouted into her right ear.
"Hello? Miss Winchester, can you hear me?" Mister Burke asked. Diana stopped where she was and paid attention to what he was saying.
"Yes, Mister Burke. I can hear you." Diana replied.
"Splendid. The rescue chopper is roughly ten minutes from your position. It took longer than I had anticipated for them to get there, but they should be there shortly." He gave her some long-awaited good news. Diana was so glad to hear that that she almost smiled.
"Go tell the captain to get everyone ready for transport as quickly as they can." Mister Burke ordered her.
"Right away." Diana said to him before abandoning the seventy-first circuit before it could begin and entering the cargo plane to tell the captain the good news.
-Inside the cargo plane-
Diana entered the plane and immediately turned left, walking to the cockpit and finding the captain and co-pilot standing inside drinking from plastic bottles of water. Diana faced the captain and addressed him.
"Captain, I have received word from Mister Burke that the rescue chopper is roughly ten minutes away. He would like for everyone to be ready for transport as soon as possible." Diana told the captain the good news. He smiled and clapped his hands together.
"I've been waiting to hear that all day! Me and Gary will go get everyone ready for transport. It might take a bit because we have two crewmen with broken legs, but we'll have them ready on time." He assured Diana. Diana stepped to the right of the doorway and let the captain and co-pilot pass, then left the cockpit and followed behind them. She would help in any way she could to get the crew ready for transport.
-Fifteen minutes later, outside the cargo plane-
True to their word, the captain and co-pilot had gotten everyone out of the cargo plane and ready to be picked up by the rescue chopper. It had taken a little longer than ten minutes, which was just as well because the olive green chopper arrived over the horizon a little later than Mister Burke had predicted. The captain pointed it out just as Ami called in.
"Uh, Diana? Is that olive green helicopter supposed to be here?" Ami asked Diana.
"Hold on one moment, please." Diana requested of Ami. She then immediately spoke to Mister Burke.
"Mister Burke, is the rescue chopper you sent colored olive green?" Diana asked him as the chopper continued to approach. The sound of its rotors threatened to drown out the conversation and Diana had to walk away from it to hear Mister Burke.
"Yes Miss Winchester, the chopper is olive green." She heard him answer in the affirmative, but just barely. The chopper was beginning to land about fifty meters from the crash site, so if it was hostile it would have been far too late to do anything about it. Thankfully it turned out to be friendly.
"Thank you, Mister Burke." Diana thanked him before turning to answer Ami.
"Ami, if you can hear me, the rescue chopper IS olive green. Do not fire on it!" Diana informed Ami before ordering her to stand down in case she had already targeted the helicopter with her weapon.
"OK, no problem. I see you and I'm circling around to land!" Ami confirmed that she was standing down now that she had been told the chopper was not hostile. Diana watched Ami loop around four meters above, then do a wide loop to lose speed, and descend until she finally landed about a meter to Diana's right, kicking up a cloud of dust as she did so.
"Whew, I'm glad that's over! I can't wait to get out of this desert!" Ami said to Diana, who nodded in response. The captain waved towards them, urging them to hurry up and board the transport. The huntress began to jog towards the chopper and Ami followed close behind. Soon she would be back in Shirotsume to hear whether Mister Burke had another plane crew she needed to rescue or if this rescue was the last one... for now.
-Shirotsume, four hours later-
It was nightfall when Diana arrived back in Shirotsume. Diana had taken the chopper back while Ami flew beside them in the off chance that someone hostile to Mister Burke's company was sending trouble his way, but Diana did not see any other helicopters the entire trip. The crew all made it to safety and were all at Shirotsume General Hospital for medical evaluations and medical treatment. The pair were on their way to Mister Burke's house to report their success and give him the black box from the crash in the Forgotten Deserts.
"I'm glad that's over!" Ami said to Diana.
"As am I." Diana replied. She was tired from running around and rescuing people from zombies and the desert. Maybe she would have a chance to spend the night in Mister Burke's guest room before having to make the trip back home.
"I wonder if Mister Burke's still awake?" Ami asked Diana.
"I believe that he is. His company losing two planes in the same day is bound to give him a headache." Diana surmised. Ami looked at Diana like she wanted to say something but kept quiet and faced forward. Diana and Ami continued to walk to Mister Burke's house to complete their mission and see if there was any more work that needed to be done before they could finally call it a day.
[Post Word Count: 1,136]
[Total Word Count: 11,556/11,000]