by Bobby Akart
He tried to determine what direction the tail section came from. It had plowed through the snow and broken-down pine saplings as it went. Levi was concerned about getting disoriented in the dark. It wouldn’t take but one wrong turn and within minutes, he could be lost in these conditions. Also, he was keenly aware of how difficult it was to survive in a snowstorm without adequate shelter. As soon as he found the others, that would have to be their first priority.
The wind intensified and Levi was beginning to feel the chill in his bones. Up ahead, he saw a faint, flashing red light. Part of the wing, he surmised. Excited, he picked up the pace and trudged through the snow and the murky ground beneath it. The forest floor was the worst of both worlds. Muddy and cold from the snow.
“Hey! Can you hear me?” he shouted again as he got closer to the shining beacon.
“Over here!”
“Karl?”
“Yeah! Levi, this way. Eddie’s hurt and the pilot’s missing.” His voice drifted off.
Invigorated at the prospect of reuniting with his friends, Levi tried to jog-slog through the snow. This turned out to be a mistake as his sneaker stuck in the muck and came off his foot. He turned to retrieve it, soaking his sock and foot in the snow in the process. He dropped to his knees in the dark and crawled on his hands and knees, plunging his arm into the eighteen-inch holes left by his steps.
“Got it!” he exclaimed as he wrenched the shoe out of the cold sludge. He replaced the shoe but now, he was soaking wet. By the time he reached the nose section and the first row of seats, he was beginning to shiver from the damp cold.
However, it was the gruesome discovery that sent chills up and down his spine.
Chapter 4
Northwest Ontario
Canada
Levi had seen death, but only after hunting animals. This was the first time he’d seen a human being dead. When his grandpa died, he was only a child and Sarah shielded him from the open-casket funeral that Grandpa Chapman had requested in his will. Even then, after the mortician had worked his magic, his grandfather appeared to be in a restful sleep. This kind of death was far different.
The French-Canadian pilot was mangled and pummeled by the forest. As the aircraft crashed through the trees, limbs and trunks battered the man’s body beyond recognition. His horribly twisted body hung in his seat harness, but his head was ripped open by a tree branch that still protruded from his neck.
Levi stopped and immediately dropped to his knees, retching. His stomach convulsed as it emptied into the snow. Every attempt he made to control it was overridden by the sight of the pilot’s mutilated corpse that would forever be embedded in Levi’s mind.
“Levi! You all right?”
Karl Tate’s shouts came from deeper into the wreckage, but only thirty feet away. The blowing snow prevented the two friends from seeing one another.
Levi continued to cough, but his stomach had been emptied. He scooped up two handfuls of snow and frantically shoved it into his mouth hoping the wet substance would clean out the vomit. He swished the water around in his cheeks before spitting it out. Levi would give anything for a bottle of Scope mouthwash at the moment.
“Yeah. The pilot’s dead,” he replied matter-of-factly.
“Shit! Are you sure?” asked Karl.
Levi didn’t bother to look again. The man’s corpse left little doubt. Without answering, he moved through the blizzard toward Karl’s voice.
The entire row of seats behind the cockpit had been ripped from the airplane’s floor and thrown clear of the fuselage. The fact that all three of the guys survived was a miracle. Levi slowly approached Karl and patted him on the back.
“Are you in one piece?”
“By the grace of God,” he replied. “Eddie’s kinda banged up. I think he’s got a broken arm and he’s lost a few teeth.”
Levi walked around Karl and knelt in front of Eddie Cramer who was doubled over in pain clutching his left arm. “Did you clip a wing?”
Eddie chuckled, spitting out bloody sputum as he did. “Very funny, asshole. When the wing clipped the tree, the tree clipped me. I’m pretty sure it’s broken.”
Levi looked over at Karl. He always used humor to diffuse a tense situation, even though sometimes it was more snarky than others.
“I don’t know, Karl. He ain’t cryin’. If it was broken, he’d be squallin’ like a baby, don’t you think?”
“Yeah, you’re right,” said Karl with a chuckle. He played along. “Maybe you should give it a squeeze to make sure?”
Eddie immediately protested and pulled away from his friends. “Screw the both of ya’! Nobody’s squeezin’ my dang arm!”
Blood trickled down Eddie’s forehead and over the bridge of his nose. More blood trickled out of the side of his mouth where he’s been smacked hard enough to lose his two front teeth.
Levi struggled to see his friend in the dark, but he had to find a way to assess his head wounds. The broken arm could wait. He turned to Karl for assistance.
“We gotta find our gear.”
“I know, but the shit could be anywhere. I can’t see ten feet in front of me.”
“You gotta try, Karl. Listen. Don’t wander far. Go straight out, and straight back. Use your footprints to guide you back. Seriously, if you get lost, we’re screwed.”
“Got it. What about Eddie?”
“I’m gonna try to check him out and I need to get him warm. The loss of blood could lead to shock, especially in this dang snowstorm. Man, you gotta hurry.”
“I’m on it,” said Karl as he walked off into the darkness. Levi turned his attention to Eddie.
“Okay, buddy. We’re gonna get you fixed up. The first thing I need to do is keep you warm. I told you the weather could change up here.”
“Yeah, I know,” said Eddie apologetically. “Levi, you’re always right about this stuff. I should’ve listened.”
Levi stood to remove his jacket and immediately felt the chill. It didn’t matter, he wasn’t bleeding profusely like his friend.
“Okay, I’ve gotta wrap this around you but I don’t wanna move your arm. It’s gonna hurt enough just jostling you around.”
“I can deal with the pain, but I gotta tell you my neck really hurts, too. I got whipped around pretty bad, you know?”
Levi gently pulled Eddie forward in his seat and slipped his hunting jacket behind him. Eddie let out a groan as Levi wrapped him in the coat.
“Where’s the pilot?” he asked Levi.
“Deader than dead. But we’re not and I intend to keep it that way.”
More blood poured down his forehead prompting Levi to focus his intention on Eddie’s scalp.
“Dude, I’m really sleepy. How ‘bout a rest my eyes for a bit until they rescue us.”
Eddie’s words were slurred and his eyes began to flutter open and closed. Levi knew that he had to keep him awake, so he came up with a solution that might draw Eddie’s ire, but it would be effective.
He created a pancake of snow that worked as an icy cold washcloth. Without warning, he wiped the blood off Eddie’s forehead. The act immediately snapped the injured man out of his stupor.
“What the hell, Levi? A little warning would’ve been nice!”
“Oh, sorry about that. I missed that class in nursing school.”
“You mean torture school. You’re really sick, dude.”
“Yeah, I know. Hold still for a minute.”
Levi began to examine Eddie’s scalp. A small strip of metal was embedded near the crown of his head, slicing into the scalp. Steady gushes of blood were coming out of the wound.
Levi sat back on his heels and considered his options. He needed to remove the sliver of metal but he also needed to have something to put pressure on the wound to control the bleeding. He also needed to be honest with his friend.
“Okay, here’s the deal. You’ve got a piece of the airplane stuck in your head and you’re losing a lot of blood.”
Eddie reached up to fe
el for the wound as if to confirm the diagnosis for himself. Levi quickly, but gently, pulled his good arm back down.
“Don’t do that,” he ordered. “I think I can easily remove the metal, but I’ve gotta find something sterile to stop the bleeding until we can find our bags, or a first aid kit, or something.”
Eddie was slipping out of consciousness again. “What are you gonna do?”
Levi took a deep breath and exhaled. He was about to become the second Boone to drop his drawers out in the open in the last week.
He quickly kicked off his sneakers and unbuckled the leather belt holding up his jeans.
“No, dude! No way!” protested Eddie who was suddenly fully aware of what was happening.
“Just relax, Eddie. They were clean when I put ‘em on this morning.”
“Dude, did you shit yourself when we crashed?”
“No, idiot.”
“Are you sure? Did you check yourself?”
“Yes. Will you calm down? Your gonna make your head bleed more.”
Levi undressed, quickly pulling down his Fruit-of-the-Loom white cotton briefs and mooning his friend in the process.
“Get that out of my face!”
“Would you rather I turn around?”
“Dude, I hate you right now,” Eddie lamented.
Levi was as anxious to get his pants back on as Eddie was. A man’s parts don’t fare well when being exposed to a blizzard.
He folded his underwear to allow for a large section of white cotton to be used as a compress. Now, he had to remove the metal and keep Eddie from squirming.
“Ready?” Levi asked.
“For what?”
“I’m gonna remove the metal and then cover your wound with this compress. Don’t jerk around or it’ll make it worse.”
“Jeez. Shouldn’t we wait until we get to a hospital or somethin’?”
“Eddie, I think we’re miles off course. Plus, it’s been at least an hour and I haven’t heard any type of aircraft in this mess. They’re not looking for us. Heck, they may not even know we’re missing.”
Eddie sighed and hugged his broken arm a little tighter. “All right, make it quick.”
Levi stood over his friend and found his scalp in the dark. He gently traced his fingers through Eddie’s hair to make sure this was the only wound. Other than a knot that was growing near the crown of his scalp, the protruding metal was the only point of bleeding.
“Eddie, are you ready?”
“Yeah.”
“On three, okay?”
“Do it,” he replied, his body tensing for the pain that was likely to come with the extraction.
Levi found the best place to grip the metal and the proper angle to pull it out without creating further damage. Then, he began the countdown, stretching the words out for effect.
“One. Two.”
He quickly pulled the metal out and immediately pressed his cotton underwear over the wound. Changing the countdown to two was the oldest trick in the book, but effective.
Eddie grumbled, but he didn’t shout out in pain. “Asshole. I knew you were illiterate.”
Levi smiled. His friend would survive the injuries if they could stop the bleeding and keep him from going into shock.
He heard the sound of feet shuffling through the snow and he inwardly hoped that Karl had found their gear.
That’s when the wolves began to howl.
THANK YOU FOR READING THIS EXCERPT FROM GEOSTORM: THE PULSE, book two in the Geostorm series.
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VISIT Amazon.com/BobbyAkart for more information on the Geostorm series, the Asteroid series, the Doomsday series, the Yellowstone series, the Lone Star series, the Pandemic series, the Blackout series, the Boston Brahmin series and the Prepping for Tomorrow series, totaling nearly forty novels including over forty Amazon #1 Bestsellers in forty-plus fiction and nonfiction genres. Visit Bobby Akart’s website for informative blog entries on preparedness, writing, and a behind-the-scenes look into his novels.
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Copyright Information
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Table of Contents
Dedications
Acknowledgements
About the Author, Bobby Akart
Author’s Introduction to the Geostorm Series
Real-World News Excerpts
Epigraph
PART ONE — August
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Excerpt from GEOSTORM: THE PULSE
Copyright Information
