Page 40 of Escaping my Dragon

Joslyn screamed. “Velma! No!”

Moving quickly, I angled the helicopter for a better look at the hole, hovering close enough I could see Velma’s motionless body lying at the bottom of it.

Dead? No way of knowing from up here.

“I’m going to land.” I fully planned to, but Vernon, who’d put on his headset, replied, “Are you fucking dumb? If the ground couldn’t bear her weight, what makes you think it will hold a chopper?”

A valid point, but I wasn’t feeling all that rational. I needed to focus. To remember my training.

If this were a regular rescue mission, what would I be doing?

“Okay here’s what we’re going to do. There should be a harness back there. One of you needs to clip into it and attach it to the winch. Once ready, I’ll lower you down, and you can secure Velma to you.”

“I found the harness,” Vernon stated. “But I’m not seeing a winch.”

Only in that moment did I recall it had been removed a week prior for repair. “Fuck.” A word getting way too much use in the past few minutes.

“Anything else we can do?” Joslyn’s voice quavered on the query.

“Nothing.” The truth being we couldn’t perform an aerial rescue with what we had, nor could I risk landing. “We have to return to the station where I can grab another chopper with a winch intact.”

“We can’t just leave her there,” Joslyn exclaimed.

“We don’t have a choice!” I barked, then added less gruffly, “I don’t like it either, but if we’re going to rescue her and not die in the process, then we need proper equipment.”

It killed me to angle away from that hole. To leave Velma alone. Defenseless.

Somehow this woman had managed to worm her way into my affection. Crazy, especially since I’d been so determined to dislike her. But then I met her and got a taste of her attitude. Discovered her sharp mind and wit. Lusted after her curvy body. Found myself enjoying how she, without thought, pushed her glasses up on her nose when she got passionate about a subject. Her fierce curiosity and need to understand things intrigued. Her kisses and touch made me feel alive. Was it love? Too early to tell, but I did know I wasn’t ready to lose what burgeoned between us.

The twenty minutes back to the station felt like hours and, as we neared, I couldn’t help but gape.

“Holy shit, the volcanoes blew.” Joslyn stated almost reverently.

Indeed, threads of orange could be seen snaking through the forming mist. Streams of lava, not only from Erebus, but from the other three cones, as well.

Nearing McMurdo Station, I no longer had the capacity for shock despite the fact the quake had proven devastating. Buildings listed drunkenly. Smoke rose, not from chimneys but actual fires. People raced in the direction of the runway because the transports were packed.

The moment I landed, Corporal Johnson was there, his voice ripe with panic.

“Captain, the volcanoes are erupting. An evacuation order has been issued.”

“No shit. How’s the runway for the plane?”

“Cracked, but there’s people working on filling in those gaps before it lands, which should be in the next hour.”

“How many do they figure they can take?” The station currently held nine hundred and fifty or so people.

“Six hundred, more if we cram them in standing.”

I whistled. “That won’t be a comfortable flight. And that only covers part of the personnel. What about the rest?”

“They’re being transported by all other available means, snowmobile, chopper, snowcats, to other outposts further from the danger zone to await evacuation. Planes are on the way.”

“All the heli’s are gone?” I asked, feeling my heart sink.

“Yeah. Now that you’re here, we can refuel and load this one up.”

“What?” Joslyn cried. “No! The captain has to go back for Velma.”