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Chapter 4: The Third Day--The Realization
On Monday morning in a small town of Gunnison, Colorado, an elite group of highly trained personnel was gathered around a table in the command center of the High Mountain Rescue Team headquarters. A highly qualified group of small plane, helicopter pilots and snow mobile and ski experts had been briefed and were ready to begin a grid by grid search of the mountainous regions that they responsible for overseeing. The last radar contact of the downed plane had been on the edge of the radar screen, just outside Grand Junction, Colorado. The plane had been missing for almost 40 hours, a deadly amount of time in the high mountains ranges. They had begun searching at mid-day the day before, and only stopped at dusk to return to base operation to restock, exchange information and regroup for the search to begin again.
Walker and Diana Hanson were sitting in the lobby of the command center having arrived in the early pre-dawn hours Sunday morning. They, along with the family members of the other missing passengers could only wait and pray. The commander of the rescue team was trying to keep them informed, but there was simply no information to give them. They had left the children with Diana’s parents, giving only Jessica a very simplistic and hopeful explanation. They had decided that the younger children would be spared any worry, and they were told it was just a vacation with Grandma.
The aggressive press had camped outside the lobby in the hallway. Somehow, someone had tipped them off not only about the crash but the fact that Hanson had been aboard. The High Mountain Rangers had forbidden their entry into the lobby, but that didn’t stop them from trying to dog the heels of anyone coming in or leaving the building with snapshots and endless questions.
To the press it was just another story. To the family members it was their loved ones in peril. Two altogether conflicting worlds colliding. The Rangers weren’t trying to build false hopes. The fact that the plane had gone down in mountainous terrain made the possibility of survival slim. Each hour, they searched without results dimmed the possibility even more. Temperatures on average were 10 to 15 below zero, storm driven they could dive to 30 o 40 degress below freezing.
* * * *
Dawn broke and the daylight began to get brighter and lighter. Through the small window in the door the sun was shining. To bad it wasn’t hot enough the warm the galley. It was so cold! Taylor looked over to Ike and he was awake, but neither felt any urgent need to pull themselves out of the warmth of the blankets. So they just stayed where they were, safe in the confines of their pallet until Katie began to cry softly. Ike got up and took the little girl outside to use the bathroom, and resolved that they were going to have to come up with a better idea for her to use the potty because it was simply to cold for her outside. This kind of parent duty didn’t bother him, being the oldest in a large family, he was used to it. He repeated the trip outside with Antonio and when he returned he helped Tay rub the kids down to warm them back up and stuffed them back under the covers.
They fed themselves again with Lorna Doone cookies and juice and then Ike decided to wake Zac up again. It took several times of yelling in his face but finally Zac opened his eyes groggily.
They fed him cookies and juice and when he wanted to get up made him pee in a bottle again.
"Listen, Zac," Ike implored his brother. "I’m going to wake you up every couple of hours. Like clockwork. Its important for you to wake up. And, its important that you drink as much as possible, understand?"
"Yeah," Zac whispered. "My head hurts real bad."
"I know," Ike commiserated. "But, I don’t dare give you anything yet. Maybe tomorrow."
"Okay," Zac nodded slightly and drifted back off to sleep.
"Is he going to be okay?" Taylor ask.
"He’s looking better. That’s all I know." Ike said. "How’s your headache?"
"Better, but I feel grungy." Taylor exclaimed. "Can we spare the water to wash up some? I’ve got a toothbrush and toothpaste somewhere in my backpack."
"Our backpacks!" Ike exclaimed excited. "Stay here," he commanded and opened the door to the fuselage and disappeared. He reappeared a few minutes later with all three backpacks.
"The necessities of travel," Ike exclaimed digging through his own pack. He pulled out a novel and his own toothbrush, toothpaste and a small box with soap in it. Then he opened Zacs pack and dumped part of the contents on the floor. Candy, cookies and individual bags of chips scattered and he picked them up and put them up on the counter.
"Where’d all that stuff come from?" Taylor ask.
"He bought it at the airport just before we left. Luckily, he didn’t listen to me, cause I told him not to buy it." Ike explained.
"I wish he’d put a hamburger in there." Taylor said wistfully.
"I’m going to rip this place apart today and take inventory of what we have." Ike promised.
Taylor looked up at his brother concerned. "Ike, how long do you think its going to be before someone finds us?"
"I don’t know. We haven’t even heard one plane yet. We don’t even know if they’re looking in the right direction. But, I know we’re going to survive this. You can trust me on that." Ike promised.
Taylor was busy digging through his backpack and pulled out a tee-shirt that was Mackie’s size. "Can we use some of the water to wash up?" he ask.
"I think it would be better if we melted snow," Ike suggested. "Lets save the bottled water for drinking because there really isn’t that much of it, then we’ll be drinking snow water ourselves. I found a couple of aluminum serving pans in that cabinet. They might hold up to fire. I’ll drag something out of the back to burn. We need to set up a pile of stuff to burn anyway for a signal fire, just in case."
"Sounds good, I’ll help." Taylor offered.
"No." Ike said slowly, deliberately, "I don’t want you or the other kids to go back there."
"I can help," his brother protested.
"No, Tay." Ike said firmly. "I don’t want anyone but me going back there. No one should have to see that."
Ike was so serious, his eyes so dull with pain that Taylor didn’t argue. He would let him have his way, because it was important to Ike to protect his younger brothers. It has always been that way, so Tay wasn’t surprised at the leadership role that he was assuming.
"Okay," Taylor agreed. "Just tell me what I can do to help?"
So Ike carried out part of a plane seat, and they ripped it apart as best they could, with only a paring knife to cut at the material, and they dug a hole in the snow and made a small pile of the debris and set it on fire. They set the pan directly into the flames and filled it with snow to melt. When the pan was full of warm water they carried it inside and tore the small tee-shirt into pieces to use as washcloths. They washed down Katie and Antonio first and shoved them back under the covers because it was so cold. Then Ike washed Zac’s face and hands and followed suit as did Taylor. It wasn’t the most comprehensive bath they had ever taken but it felt good even though they also had to duck under the blankets for a few minutes because the air was so cold on their wet skin.
Then Ike carried out several more parts of seats and piled them outside of the plane. Then he carried in two suitcases and began the process of sorting through them. He pushed one across the floor to Taylor.
"Go through every item, every pocket. If you think we can use it, put it this pile. If it’s useless to us put it in that pile." he gestured as he began to pile up items of clothing. He was sorting through a woman’s suitcase, and he threw several pair of high heeled shoes in the discard pile. Evening clothes were discarded, while shirts and pants were put in the usable pile.
Taylor found a bag full of toiletries. He discarded cologne and hairspray but kept shampoo and soap, and toothpaste. They sorted through five suitcases, compiling seemingly equal piles of usable and unusable items. The floor became crowded, so they carried the unusable items outside to be used for fuel for the fire. Ike made another trip into the back and returned with three more cases.
As Taylor opened one he smiled. "This one belongs to Katie, its clothes that will fit her. We can probably keep all of this."
"See if you can find a luggage name tag." Ike suggested.
"No tag," his brother reported.
"Great, this one belonged to a very large man." Ike said sorting through the clothing. He found a leather case in a side pocket and opened it to find a gun. "Look at this?"
"Wow, have you ever held a real gun?" Taylor ask.
Ike shook his head, "No, just arcade stuff like you, I fired a real rifle once. There doesn’t seem to be any ammunition for it."
"Maybe its in another case?" Tay suggested as Ike pulled out another leather case. "Another gun?" he squeaked?
Ike opened the case to find two large hunting knives, trimmed in silver and tortoise in leather sheaths.
"Wow, didn’t these people have to go through security?" Taylor wondered outloud. "How can you get stuff like that onboard a plane?"
"Maybe he had a permit or something?" Ike suggested. "Keep looking for bullets for the gun I’m going back to see what else is left."
Taylor kept digging into the pockets of the suitcase but he didn’t come up with anything but loose change and a datebook.
"Hey Ike," Taylor said reading the datebook and aiming his words at his brother who was coming back into the galley. "This says his name is Ricardo Estaveg and this business card says he’s the proprietor of the Outdoor Sportman/Hunting Shop."
"That explains the gun and knives. These are the last two cases." he said putting down small duffle bag and a long slim leather case with a small lock on it. The duffle bag was Antonio luggage, his luggage tag listed his last name as Estavay.
Ike ask the boy in halting Spanish who had been on the plane with him and he said his uncle and began to cry. Ike tried to comfort him as much as he could, by holding him and promising him that they would take care of him. He didn’t know how much Antonio understood of what he was saying. Taylor joined him and they both tryed to make the little boy understand that that would stick by him.
A little while later they went back to finish the job. Ike picked up the last piece of luggage.
"That looks like a piano-practice board case," Taylor suggested hopefully, looking at the four by one foot case.
Ike took one of the big hunting knives and tried to pry the lock open, but finally had to hit it with the butt end of the knife handle to break the small lock. He opened it to find a bow and arrow set neatly encased in a velvet covered leather casing.
"Wow, thats a fancy one." Taylor exclaimed. "One of those high-powered jobs you see in the magazines. Look at the different tips on the arrows."
"Be careful with that thing, you don’t want to puncture yourself."
"But, we will probably be able to use them, if we have to stay here very long." Taylor suggested.
"Lets, hope we don’t have to be here that long." Ike said closing the case. "Bag up the good stuff into those empty duffle bags, and I’ll carry the rest of this outside. There are two small closets back there that I have to get into. Maybe I’ll find, an ax or a flashlight or something else that might be useful."
They carried out their chores and Ike went back again inside the plane. He had made so many trips, he seemed numb to tragedy he was witnessing and was only concentrated on the task before him. Taylor heard a jubilant yell from the back and then Ike yelled for him not to come back and he appeared at the door with several cases of individual bottles of juice.
"I just hit a bonanza." Ike crowed and turned and returned with two more cases, and then several boxes. In all he found partial cases of V-8 juice, and orange juice, and a six-pack of Cokes. He found another small unopened box of Lorna Dune cookies, in individual packs, and box of individual packs of roasted peanuts. Another trip, recovered a half dozen cans of soup, and several cans of tuna spread and ham spread. With the small galley crowded with several larage duffle bags full of clothing, and the small counter space packed with eatable food Ike was satisfied. They wouldn’t starve, they wouldn’t freeze. Now if they could just get some air support for rescue!
Ike crushed a aspirin for Katie and mixed it with orange juice in the bottle cap and had her drink it. They woke Zac up, fed him and let him drift off to sleep again after a few sentences. Then after feeding the kids and themselves, they slid back into the covers for warmth and rest. Even though they had only moved around a few hours, they were exhausted. Ike pulled a history textbook out of his book bag.
"One of us should stay awake just in case a plane goes over," he suggested to Taylor. "I’ll take the first shift. You sleep, then when you wake up, I’ll rest."
Taylor agreed, but looked at Ike’s reading material with a look of disbelief. They were plane crashed on a mountain and his brother was going to study. Go figure.
Ike woke them up several hours later, had them drink some juice and then he drifted off to sleep as Taylor was reading aloud to the kids from Ikes history book. It didn’t matter what he read as long as he kept their attention and they stayed away for a few hours.
Then at dusk, as they had done the night before Ike and Taylor worked as a team to fix a small dinner, this night consisting of a several bites of tuna for each of them and some peanut butter crackers and more juice. Even though they had found a good quanity of food they decided to ration it sparingly. They were hopeful of imminent rescue, but were realistic in thoughts and actions. Neither of them voiced their fears. They made the bathroom runs and tucked everyone in for the evening. As Ike made the last trip outside, he came in with the news. "Its snowing."
So as they slid into pallet again, the two oldest worried about the temperatures for a third night. Would additional snow bring lower temperatures or would it remain the same. A more fervent prayer went up to God, because both boys knew it was the third day and still no rescue planes.