Thankfully, what damage could be seen from the plane’s windows, appeared to be mostly to the right wing. Inside damage was limited to a few six-inch holes where several of the pipes that were to be used for a well had broken loose and crashed forward through the nose of the aircraft and that is where the crew left them. The bay floor was buckled and split, but mostly the aircraft seemed to be intact.
The strangest thing was no one survivor had gotten cold...and now at dawn, they were sweating.
Jim and a few others peeked through the small windows as many of the miners on board began griping about being cooped up for so long. He turned to the miners and explained about the roars and told his passengers about reports of panthers being seen this high up in the mountains. There were laughs from some of the Brazilian miners, they knew better.
However the laughing soon stopped as the fog slowly lifted enough so everyone inside could see the left wing tip that was sticking out into the air. There where it had hit the huge boulders during the crash... was what appeared to be a row of teeth marks a good ten feet wide!
Someone muttered something in Spanish and then said it louder in English.
“The pass of the devil!” one miner muttered as everyone slowly turned to see the oldest miner slowly backing away from the windows.
The mining crew’s foreman walked over to the driller. “What did you say Jesus?” Jesus Christian was a man of years and his face showed his years of mine drilling. He drilled the holes for the explosives and then set them off. This man was no coward, yet now fear controlled his face as he religiously crossed himself. “I thought it was an old legend my father used to tell me.”
Jim walked over and patted Jesus on the shoulder.
“Relax my friend there is no devil out there. We crashed in a creek of some kind, this whole area looks like some sort of a rock strewn, flood plain. All the mountains we saw coming in... Add in the storm there was probably a flood and some passing tree most likely...”
There was a loud, blood-curdling roar, that froze everyone in their places, then another! A tearing metal sound ensued as the whole aircraft shook. People fell to the floor and grasped the seat supports as the plane vibrated. Bill, who was closest to a window, crawled over a seat and to the window closest to him...and looked out. Bill’s head slowly turned. All that he could utter in a low voice was... “FUUUUCK MEeee...” he turned to the others and as the color drained from his face, added, “...Guys...uhh...would you believe T-rex is ...is trying to eat the fucking wing tip off?”
Jim motioned for everyone to stay where they were and put a finger to his lips to quiet anyone that had the urge to make a sound.
“If Bill’s right, they are attracted to sound and movement...” Jim moved to the row of seats behind where Bill was peeking out the window and slowly raised his head. There was a soft gasp and without moving his head away from the window, Jim simply muttered, “Damned if Bill wasn’t right... It’s a T-rex.... and it is, trying to eat the wing...or chew on it...or...”
The shuddering stopped, there was a loud roar, and two rather huge sighs as the two men turned and sat in the slightly tilted seats. Jim nervously grinned at the people laying on the floor.
“Guess it didn’t like the wing, it’s leaving.”
No sooner had Jim finished and the cabin was flooded by brilliant sunlight. The Captain turned and squinted out the window as he began a quiet narration.
“I can see old Rex walking into some of the tallest trees I’ve ever seen...They look to be about a mile away...Christ look at that bastard run... He’s gone.” Jim began to breathe a bit easier. “Looks like the plane is braced in this position by a bunch of huge boulders. Slightly beyond that is a creek that isn’t very deep... I can see the bottom and the entire area is covered with rocks of all sizes for about the length of a football field wide.... Then sand, dirt and grass and brush up to the jungle’s fringe.
Beyond that is dense jungle with trees like which I have never seen...and tall. Christ they’re taller than red woods, at least some of them are. The outcropping that’s holding us steady is jammed in between the two engine pods. It looks like a tall mountain range in the distance...as far as I can see. This valley we’re in looks like it could be fifty....sixty square miles just what I can see from this side of the plane.
Jesus leaned against one of the seats on the aisle.
“Senor, then this is the ‘Pass of the Devil’ my father told us about. He said the Indians told of Conquistadores finding a valley in the mountains where terrible giant lizards lived. They were hunting for ‘Eldorado’, sometimes it was called ‘the seven cities of gold’, but they all found death. It was passed down through the centuries by my people. Others have hunted for this valley including some scientist back in my grandfathers day. Only one man came back and he was raging with fever. My father said he was told that man later wrote a book about it, but no one believed him and he died trying to get enough money to return.”
The mining foreman Willis Jefferies walked over and sat next to Jim.
“Well Captain, what’s our next move? We obviously can’t stay here forever.”
“Sadly you’re right Willis. Lightning knocked out our radio and transponder. Probably a lot more electronics as well...popped every circuit breaker we had, even melted a few. Hell guys, I’ve never seen anything like it.
In these mountains, assuming the locator beacon might still be working, any search party will not find us unless they are directly over head...” he looked at the crowd, “...and the storm pushed us hundreds of miles off course. I even doubt they will look this far south. I fear we could well be on our own.”
Marcy sat on the arm of one of the seats and smiled.
“Jim and I will use the top hatch to climb up top and walk along the top of the aircraft. We can look at the damage and survey the area.”
Jim held up his hand to stop her. “Uh-uh, you’re staying here Marcy. You and the rest of the crew know the aircraft and its systems. You all will be imperative for survival if something happens to me.” Jim looked around, “I need one or two volunteers to go with me...and keep in mind what we just saw. We keep low and if that fucking thing comes back...we run back inside. This aircraft isn’t a tank, but for now it’s the best protection we have.
While we’re out some of the rest of you climb down inside of the cargo bay and see what we can use for weapons...or make something to hold off...” Jim had a look on his face like even he didn’t believe what he was about to say, “... dinosaurs.”
Willis stepped forward, then Bill. Bill chuckled, “Hey boss, you don’t need anyone to watch the planes system gauges and you know I’m as strong as an ox.”
Willis smiled, “Hell Captain, I wasn’t doing much at the moment... Oh and by the way, call me Will.” A couple of others began to step forward, but Jim waved them back. Telling Marcy to show the rest to the cargo bay to clear things up a bit and try to improvise something to use as weapons.
Marcy headed toward the rear of the huge still mostly intact, modified long bodied, 777. Jim led his team to the cockpit and the maintenance hatch in the ceiling. A quick check out the windows and Jim popped the roof hatch and told his team to jump back down inside if attacked.
“That T-Rex I saw was huge, but with this plane propped up like it is, we should be safe in here. These new airframes are really, very strong guys! This whole aircraft is unlike any other in the world.”
Will laughed, “You trying to convince us or yourself.”
With a grin, Jim stepped on the engineer’s console table and pulled himself up into the sunlight. With a quick look in all directions Jim waved the other two up and as they arrived on the roof of the shiny aircraft and squinted in the glaring sun.
“Well, look at that!” Will muttered as the others looked upward. The sun seems to shine directly through all that mist or steam....whatever that crap is.”
“Probably why this valley has never been seen from the air.” Jim replied, “If I’m guessing
right about where we are... this part of the Andes has always been cloud covered. This area as well as many others. Hidden peaks, dense clouds and frequent storms; there are no air routes over here, at least not low enough to do us any good.”
Bill began to roll up his sleeves. “And it’s hot for being...what Jim, five, six thousand feet?”
“More like near ten or eleven guys. It should be harder to breath up at this height.” he glanced around, “Has to be all the steam...vaporizing water. Must be some volcanic activity around here somewhere.”
Will nodded in agreement. “Explains all the steam and that weird vapor that looks like clouds. Has to be some sort of minerals in atomized form. When we get back ask Marti, she’s the mining engineer and geologist.”
“Hey guys.” Jim and Will turned to see what Bill was calling them to look at and saw him pointing toward the vast rock wall that towered about the valley to the right of the crash. Barely three-quarters of a mile from the wreck, the cliff towered a good thousand feet vertically and it slowly tapered away from them as it vanished into the clouds high above. But it was just slightly above their eye level to where he was pointing.
“Is that a shadow, or is that a ledge?”
“Damned if that isn’t a ledge of some kind Bill, and by the shadow size along the cliff face, I’d say it’s a respectable sized one.” Jim paused, “Maybe we can set up a camp if it goes back far enough. Then there is that taller shadow, maybe it’s a crack in the face we can store things in.”
Bill grinned, “It sure as hell is out of reach of old Rex... I vote we go have a look.”
Jim nodded, “Agreed! But only after we get this plane secured. If Rex comes back or any other...”
Both men shot nervous looks at Jim and simultaneously replied, “Other?”
“Look fellas, I’m thinking if there is one, there probably is two or three. Old Rex didn’t just pop out of thin air. Something had to lay his egg. If there’s a few Rex’s, they have to eat something...they are meat eaters after all... So it stands to reason there has to be some things big enough for it to fill it up.”
Bill gave Jim a nervous grin and proceeded toward the rear of the 777, Jim and Will followed. Surveying the damage, they found other than wing damage on the left, the missing right wing, and some of the undercarriage; there was little damage to the fuselage. Jim slid down the body to the left wing and pounded on the window as Marcy opened the escape hatch and the three climbed in.
“We’ll leave this hatch open, it’s already getting hot out there, and soon the temps in here will start to rise. Pop the other wing hatch too... Hell open all the hatches, there seems to be a slight breeze from the gap we flew through. Even with the plane tilted, it should be high enough off the ground so your average sized critters can’t get in.”
“And the un-average sized ones?” Jesus asked.
Jim grinned, “Well what’s left of the right wing should keep the beasts far enough away from the fuselage to do any serious damage to us...once we get the cargo bay hatch open, that is if we get it open.”
Jim looked around and the others noticed the concern, so he added, “Just to be sure let’s stay away from the walls. This airframe is beefy, but I doubt if the engineers that designed it, had figured on it being torn into by dinosaurs.”
The next few hours teams of survivors spent their time doing various chores. Even the thought of trying to get back to civilization was pushed aside for fear of Rex returning.
Finally Marti the mining engineer, designed a make shift flame thrower using a fifteen foot length of pipe, compressed air, and some of the barrels of fuel they had in the cargo bay.
Her golden blonde, below the shoulder length hair, pulled back in a ponytail to keep it out of her face, she smiled at the rest.
“I doubt if it will hurt that big lizard, but the fiery blast and sound might scare it away. We won’t be able to move it, but if we stick one through a window in the rear on both sides and one through each window in the front area, we should be able to get by using only one air tank and one drum per pair... I’ll rig up some manifolds for each set of flamethrowers.”
Jim looked at the make shift gun and nodded. “K’, let’s give it a try.”
They shoved the twenty-foot pipe out the door and braced it the best they could. Marti turned on the valves she had installed out of the plumbing parts they carried, pressed the ignite she had fashioned from some of the mining electronics and a battery...
“BOOMMM!!!” The sound echoed through the huge valley as a twenty-foot fireball shot forward and expanded. The jungle beyond the creek area became quiet. Ten... Twenty... Thirty seconds passed before the jungle sounds returned.
Jim looked astonished and turned to Marti. “Holy shit! ...Now that was impressive. Can you make three more of those?”
Marti winked at the Captain. “Plenty of extra parts Captain. Give me and my team an hour or so and you’ll have four cannons.”
Sam grinned and added, “We can use their hoist to raise the drums of fuel, and air tanks up through the floor panels.” He looked at the miners, “Most of the floor panels are removable so we can fly taller equipment than other planes...including 747’s.” he chuckled proudly.
“Great!” Jim smiled at the pretty, average sized female engineer. “By that time we’ll have the four windows punched out.” She turned and walked toward the rear to the aircraft, the three other miners walked in front of her as she brought up the rear.
“Stop drooling Jim.” Marcy teased, “I see the way you’re looking at her fanny...in those tight jeans. And I saw how you were gawking at that cleavage she was flashing.” She playfully elbowed him in the ribs and pointed to the rest of the men. Both she and the female engineer were just as hot as the guys.
“Christ all you men are pigs! Look at the way you all are staring at her... My God, you all should be ashamed!”
Jim chuckled and pulled Marcy aside.
“Marcy, I guess I should tell you that both of you gals are sweating as much as we guys are.”
“So?”
“Look down.” Jim grinned.
Marcy looked down and through her uniforms sweat soaked white blouse, her nicely shaped breasts could be seen straining at the lacy, nearly transparent, bra that held them.
“Well I hope all you guys enjoy the show.” she playfully snorted noting that Marti had, had the same problem before she’d left. Then she nodded to all the guys. “Most of you all have really nice builds and every one of you are sweating.” she winked at Jim, “Nice Pecs Captain.”
Jim looked down and in the heat he too had removed his uniform coat and his white shirt was soaked completely through, revealing his bulging chest muscles.
“Well I hope you’re enjoying the show yourself.” he chuckled as he flexed playfully. “But it isn’t like you haven’t seen them before; Ms Co-pilot, I’ll hold your shirt while you kick the shit out of this drunken bully.”
“Oh I am, and I saw how Marti has been eyeing you guys too. We’re really enjoying ourselves, watching those rippling bodies through those sweat soaked shirts and...”
About that time Armondo walked up the aisle toward the pair of pilots. Most of his three hundred pounds sticking to his sweat soaked shirt. Marcy glanced over at Jim and giggled, “Well, maybe not enjoying everyone... But then one never knows about Marti.” she laughed again and walked away toward the cockpit.
“Senor!” Armondo shouted. “Senor, Willis told us about the ledge you saw. How high up the mountain is it?”
“Oh maybe one hundred feet or so...hard to tell from here. Why?”
“Senor Jim, we have a portable crane and two smaller manual ones. If we can move what I need, I can show you how to put it together. I can lift the bigger crane up there on the ledge in pieces with the smaller ones. Once you climb to the ledge and if it’s wide enough to make a camp on, we can assemble the big one and pull us all up.”
Jim grinned, “I get you now Armondo, we can use the big crane to pull up what
ever we need.”
“Si, senor, the portable winches can be attached to boulders, trees, just about anything and we can move anything heavy along the ground using pieces of the plane’s wings as sleds.”
Jim patted Armondo on the back and told him to gather what he needed. He got two others to help him and for the first time since the crash, Jim was actually thinking things might turn out ok. Then he remembered that huge T-rex. “What if it caught them out in the open?” he thought. Granted the 777 would shield them from distant eyes, but it was a way to the cliff face.
He tried to remember the many truck-sized boulders that scattered the landscape between them and the cliff, but he doubted they could hide from the T-rex or any other beast that decided to check out this new object that had crashed in their jungle.
A soft hand touched his shoulder. “Problems Jim?”
He looked back to see the raven haired Marcy standing there.
“I was just thinking, about that cliff...”
Marcy smiled and nodded, “It is a long way between here and there. If that dinosaur comes...”
“Excuse me for eaves dropping, but if you can figure out a way to open the cargo bay door... the big one. Well, we have a small bulldozer, one big one and one battery operated skip loader. The skip is designed for rough terrain and...” The grinning miner’s foreman winked and had to say no more
Jim grasped Will’s arms and grinned. “Say no more, we’ll get those machines out if I have to use a blow torch and cut the damned wall out.”
Strangely enough the problem wasn’t as bad as they thought. The crash had flattened most of the undercarriage. With a bit of work the cargo bay door was opened and a three-foot high ramp was built out of scattered materials the 777 had stowed on board. The tilt the aircraft was at made the cargo bay nearly level to the mound of dirt and rock the plane had piled up during the crash. With the small ramp, they could easily drive out of the bay. Sadly even with the roll bars and protective coverings, not one of the machines would be able to with stand a dino-attack.
Valley of Lost Time. Page 2
