D. Thomas - Backlash

It did nothing to increase the confidence level in the back of the cabin when Lewis yelled back, “Do either of you see any sort of instruction manual back there?”

Gonzalez looked around then replied, “Here’s a maintenance manual for a Bell 206.” She leaned forward to show the manual to Lewis. “Is this a Bell 206?”

“Maybe… Bell does make helicopters.” Lewis glanced at the picture on the cover of the manual; it did look similar to the craft they were sitting in. “But I think that is a manual for how to change the oil and stuff like that. Does it happen to have a section titled, ‘How to land without crashing’?”

Gonzalez was terrified and didn’t appreciate the joke one bit. Thumbing through the greasy pages, she confirmed there was nothing about actual operation of the aircraft anywhere in the book. However, it did appear as if the Bell was current on its inspections. “Do you have any sort of plan?” she asked.

The situation wasn’t looking good but Lewis did his best to remain calm. Practically yelling to be heard, he filled the girls in on their flight status. “I was hoping to just fly back to the Lewiston Airport where somebody could talk us through a landing.” Both of his passengers seemed to relax a little at this idea. “Unfortunately,” Lewis continued, “we have acquired a couple of problems that are going to necessitate a new plan. First, we must be leaking fuel because we are almost out. Second, it looks like Pierre’s friends want their nice helicopter back.” Driving home this last issue, Lewis pointed over Samantha’s head, indicating a black apparition quickly advancing towards them.

Gonzalez gulped loudly at the sight of the approaching chopper. The other pilot was on a perfect intercept course, aimed almost directly at the open door of Lewis’s lumbering craft. Gonzalez tried to do a quick count and believed all seven of their armed pursuers, along with their pilot, had somehow packed themselves into the five-passenger aircraft. “Can you shoot them?” she asked Lewis, pointing to the .38 still in Samantha’s hands.

Lewis shook his head but didn’t otherwise answer at first. His full concentration was required to fly the chopper. Lewis was nearly overwhelmed as he used the foot pedals to pivot away from the other helicopter, adjusting the other controls to keep the aircraft as level and stable as possible. Once they were generally pointed away from the approaching helicopter, he pushed the cyclic forward, causing the helicopter to tilt and gain speed. The forward tilt also caused the helicopter to lose lift since some of the force was now being used to go forward rather than up. This had to be balanced by adjusting the collective again to increase lift.

After gaining some semblance of control, Lewis finally elaborated on their predicament. “There are only two bullets in the revolver. We might get lucky and hit the pilot, but we would have to wait until they were far too close before we could shoot accurately. Their gunmen would turn us to Swiss cheese with their rifles before we even had a chance to fire back.” Lewis continued with the bad news, saying, “It looks like we have about five gallons of fuel left, and it’s dropping fast. Their pilot is obviously more experienced, but I am hoping their overloading will affect the performance enough to give us a chance. We need to try to stay ahead of them and find a place to land before we run out of fuel.”

Samantha was already too panicked to respond. Gonzalez took in the information then quietly steeled herself before responding, “Okay, what can I do to help?”

“To be honest: I don’t know.” It was taking everything Lewis had just to control their helicopter. He was trying to go forward as fast as he could while easing down towards the ground, sweat pouring off his face from the exertion. “Can you look back and see how far away they are?”

Gonzalez leaned her head out the door, checking for the other chopper. It was gone. She unbuckled to check the other side, finding it now a few hundred yards back and off to the left. Gonzalez shouted out position information to Samantha, who had regained her composure enough to relay it on to Lewis. Each update had their pursuers approaching, but staying out to the side.

Suddenly, Gonzalez screamed, “Look out!” as she rolled back into the cabin.

It sounded like they were inside an old-fashioned popcorn popper on top of a hot stove as bullets struck the helicopter, punching holes but luckily not hitting anybody, or taking out any vital components. At least they made a tough target, the helicopter naturally flying in a zigzag pattern while Lewis fought to maintain his heading. Lewis awkwardly banked to the right, trying to get the shooters behind him so they would have a tougher time getting a good shot.

The steady slalom that resulted from Lewis’s attempts at flying straight was becoming too predictable for the shooters. He was starting to develop a better feel for the controls but needed to work at being a tougher target. Lewis jerked the stick from side to side while stomping on the pedals to steer. This “drunken hummingbird” approach to flying actually seemed to work fairly well for evading bullets, but it did little for keeping the passengers calm.

Gonzalez was nearly thrown from the cabin multiple times as she bounced around, struggling to return to her seat next to Samantha. She finally managed to get a firm grip on a handle next to the seat, holding herself down long enough to fasten the lap belt. “I feel like this is a race to see who can kill us first!” she yelled up to Lewis.

Newly-minted Captain Lewis was still swinging the helicopter around somewhat randomly, his primary focus was on getting closer to the ground. They had actually doubled back and were about to cross over the Snake River Canyon once again. Hoping that a watery crash was more survivable than a rocky one, Lewis dropped into the canyon, working to get as close to the river as possible.

He managed to get down to within 20 feet of the water, and had gotten the helicopter turned so that he was able to follow the river’s course as it flowed downstream. Sweat poured down his face as he concentrated on the controls, the helicopter still swerving back and forth as he tried to stay away from the canyon walls and above the water. At least the bullets had stopped. Maybe their pursuers were happy to just sit back and watch Lewis crash. “Any sign of our guests?” Lewis asked through gritted teeth as he jockeyed the cyclic from side to side.

“We’re looking,” Samantha responded as she and Gonzalez leaned towards their doors to look for the other helicopter, neither wanting to unbuckle their seatbelt ever again. “I see them! They’re right behind us!”

He hadn’t really expected to lose the other helicopter, but it was still a little disconcerting for Lewis to hear that the opposition seemed to be having such an easy time of keeping up, all while he was struggling just to survive. The canyon was fairly narrow, at least making it difficult for the other pilot to pull alongside to give his gunmen easy shots. Lewis began to think that maybe his ploy to dive into the canyon was a good move.

As they rounded the next bend, Lewis looked ahead to a terrifying sight: the canyon ahead narrowed to perhaps 40 feet, with soaring cliffs lining each side. He knew the gap was wide enough for the helicopter itself, but the added swerving was going to make it a tight fit. They were too close and moving too fast for Lewis to do anything but fly straight into the chasm ahead, the light quickly fading as the walls blocked out the sun.

Lewis threw the helicopter from one side to the other as he tried to stay away from the walls. He knew that a smoother approach would be much better than constantly overcorrecting back and forth, but the adrenaline had completely taken over and there was no stopping it now. It was a miracle that the rotors had not hit the walls already. Squinting ahead, he tried to make out the turns in the dim light of the gorge.