Claimed by the Biker Giant (Maxine and Tank) novel Chapter 203

Fixer POV

The group followed my instructions, but I don’t know how or why I became the leader or organiser. I just started to give orders, and it just flowed from me, as I thought of the information they had given me. It was like I had Grandpa’s voice in my head, advising me, just as I had when I was a kid. We used to play search-and-rescue, emergencies in place, to get Grandma to safety and other older neighbours close to home to safe places from storms. We are known to have some doozies in winter, but we are not in winter, and the sudden flash storm would have caught even the weatherman off guard. It came up out of nowhere.

Dale and Bruiser met us at the hangar, both dressed in warm gear and fully loaded for the rescue. Bruiser had done this many times; I had seen him in the past working after a bad storm, a hard worker, plus most of the kids on the camping trip would know Bruiser, they were all around ten, and Bruiser, unknown to most, assists the coach in football training; he does love working with children. These kids are old enough to know how to make a shelter and stay safe till help arrives. If they had a chance, with it moving in so fast, they might not have seen it coming; however, they were in an area exposed to the elements, so they might have seen it coming and sought shelter. So many variables could come into play here, and from what I heard, the teacher with an emergency satellite phone out there didn’t respond to their calls.

We threw into the chopper hold what we thought we would need, including us. I put on the headphones so I could talk to Savage; he had approval and good luck from ground control. We stood looking out the door, moving fast, staying low.

“That rock, over there, that looked like it’s going to topple over, is the Bluff,” I called out to Savage, and he started slow circles when we got closer.to it. We each had our eyes on the ground. It had been an hour, our circle getting larger, before Savage turned and went back to the bluff. We zig-zagged back and forth, covering the area we had been given, as Savage started to turn, to head back to the bluff, and start again, I see it, a light, like someone had a mirror and reflecting the sun, back at us, there wasn’t really much sun, breaks in the sky, that barely lasted a few seconds, and that might be why it took a while for them to be able to signal us.

“There, four o’clock,” I shouted to Savage, hoping I wasn’t seeing things.

“What did you see?” Bruiser asked, looking towards where I called.

A bright light flashed again.

“I see it, good eyes there, Fixer. What’s the plan?” Savage said, hovering over the place we had seen a flash of light, it was dense brush and trees, nowhere to land close by.

“Winch down, Dale, Bruiser, and Jenny. Once down, will lower some gear and wait for confirmation on what else they need before sending more gear down. Jenny, call your boss and inform him of what we are doing. No confirmation yet, but hopeful.” I said, “Dale pulled the rescue winch over and had Bruiser step inside the harness He looked worried, but it could have been because it was his first time or because of the children below.

“Savage, Bruiser set to be lowered,” I called out.

“Go, I will try and stay steady.” It was still raining, but not heavily, and the wind wasn’t as strong, but still enough to make holding the chopper steady a little struggle. Bruiser had never done this before, and it showed as he tried to stay still and not turn in circles, attempting to follow the instructions Dale had given him. He disappeared into the only small clearing we could see, and that was only because a tree had fallen, and he was landing at its base.

While Dale lowered Bruiser, I called the coordinator at the bluff, Don, and informed him that we had seen a light and hoped that one of the children was sending a signal. Lowering the people down to investigate gave him the coordinates. He, too, was hopeful and would send some of the team in that direction. But on foot, might take a while, depending on who was closest.

Bruiser was out, and the rescue winch was on the way back up. We sent Jenny down next; she had training to do this, and you could tell she was ready for what to expect as she left the hold. Dale was last. He harnessed up, gave me a thumbs-up, and I lowered him down. It was the first time had done this, and Dale had been giving me instructions when he lowered Jenny. We had no tin for further instructions or to worry about whether I had made a mistake; most of this was made easier by Savage keeping the chopper as still as possible, which made a huge difference. Next, I sent three bags of gear, pulled the rescue winch back up, and set it up so the cage would be ready when we find them and need to get one or more to the hospital.

“You did well, Fixer, couldn’t have done better myself, you are a natural leader,” Savage said, when the crew disappeared in to the trees, Savage started to do small circles around the area, we had seen the light, but the trees were too thick to see much, and areas where trees had fallen, there was nothing to see, it was hard to see through it all.

But I didn’t give up, I had binoculars, and scoured the ground, trees, anything to find something, anything.

Then I saw a kid, waving his arms at the chopper.

“Savage kid at nine o’clock, he circled the chopper back to where I had seen the lad, and he was still there waving frantically. Savage lowered the chopper closer to the ground, the wind from the rotors sending debris everywhere, but little we could do about that. When it was low enough, Savage said, ‘Now, and I dropped a bag towards him. He ran and picked it up, and half-dragged it into the trees.

“Don, confirmation, one boy, seen, waving, has dropped provisions for him. Map reference number, forty-three.” The guys would have heard my information, given to Don, and hopefully they would head that way.

We rose a little into the air to reduce the effect of the chopper’s wind. Another lad came out of the trees a little later; still no sign of Jenny and the guys. He signaled to me that he needed medical help. I dropped a bag at his feet, and he raced towards it, disappearing into the trees.

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