No. 43 Cut
Thunderbirds are Go
He'd been working on freeing them for over an hour. Trying to cut away the twisted metal of the seats and the structure that was pinning them to the floor of the train car. He kept working in spite of the cold. In spite of the ache in his side, that was progressingly getting worse. He glanced down at it for a moment but refocused his mind and his energy on the task at hand.
Save the people.
Get them to safety, get them back home to their familiy. He'd at least saved the engineer. And was about to leave the danger zone when John picked up two life signs. Stowaways. A teen mother and a baby. If only she could have known the danger in which she'd put herself and her son. Didn't matter. They needed saving. That was his calling. His purpose. International Rescue’s mandate. Never mattered who you were or what you'd done. Everyone deserved to be rescued.
And then,the train car had become unstable.
Of course it had.
Just as he'd managed to reach and grab hold of the infant and pry him from his mother's arms. Of course, the situation would worsen, just like it had all those years ago in the cabin; crushed and covered by the thick, heavy snow. And just like that fateful day, he ached so much he was beginning to see stars. He'd lived this situation before, and he wished it hadn't returned as it had, sometimes, in his dreams. It was tough being on this mountainside today. With every step, every line he secured, every maneuver about the train's twisted metal, it wasn't just the pain that was surging through his body, but the vivid images of that day sixteen years ago that came rushing back from the depths of his core memories to the front of his mind.
And he faltered.
Stumbled as the blood seeped out of his body.
Struggled - mostly with his mind.
Struggled to think; to see; to respond to John who could no longer see but only hear him.
"Thunderbird One, do you read me? Come in, Scott ... Scott?"
"I'm - I'm h-here John," he replied, his voice trembling.
"What's happening?"
"W-wha?"
"I picked up seismic activity where you are ... is everything okay?"
" Negative ...Th-Thunderbird Five. I've retrieved the baby but..his mother's ... she's...she's..."
"Scott?.... come on bro, talk to me,"
John' voice was laden with concern. There was something very wrong with his eldest brother and Virgil, Gordon and Alan only just finished their mission on the other side of the hemisphere and wouldn't arrive for at least another hour. As John’s mind raced to figure out a way to get Scott some help, it was his brother's next comment that had him setting the space station's coordinates to position over Scott's location in the Swiss Alps.
"Th-the mm-Mom's d- dead, John, but I've ...I've got Alan ...I'm gonna dig my way out,"
Did he say Alan? John thought. And dig? What was he saying? There wasn't any reason to dig... Shit! No. Not now.
"Scott. Scott, listen to me. Don't move. I'm coming,"
'H-how, Spacecase? You're miles away,"
"I'm in the space elevator as we speak. I'm coming to you,"
"But...you can't... mustn't...the grav... re-entry too fast..."
John tried to sound as reassuring as he could in spite of the fear bashing about his own mind. His brother was having an episode of PTSD, an infant in his arms, while the train car they were in was dangling and about to topple from the side of a mountain.
"Scott, I'm being careful and safe. Don't worry about me. Are you tethered to the train?"
"I've got the baby ..."
"That's good but Scott, I need you to listen to me and do exactly as I say,"
There was no response, only ragged breathing. John needed to know more from Scott and needed him conscious so that he could save them both.
"Scott! ... Come on, Scooter, fucking answer me!"
There was a pause over the comms for what seemed like an hour, then static, a crackle and a breath and a chuckle,
"Language, Johnny,"
John sighed in relief and struggled to stay conscious himself upon hearing Scott's voice, a combination of fear and relief overcoming his body just as he entered earth's atmosphere.
"Yeah," he chuckled, "my bad. Scott, just, listen to me now ... just focus on my voice, okay?"
"K, urgh,"
"You hurt?"
"Umm ...y-yeah ... s-side's kinda s-sore", he responded, almost inaudibly. "There's blood,"
John desperately wanted to know more, but time was of the essence and he needed to make sure Scott and the baby weren't going to plummet from the mountain trapped in the train.
"Ah, shit...okay, okay. Scott, is the baby secured onto you?"
"Al's asleep ... we're so cold...so...tired,"
Damnit, John thought, he's hypothermic. Well, that at least might slow the bleeding. He had to get Scott's attention, and he had to act fast. Although he strapped on his exo-pod faster than he ever had, it seemed like an eternitynbrore he was able to make his way to Five's mooring cable where he attached it to his exo-pod and descended closer to the train.
"Scott! Is the bay ... is ...Alan secured to you?"
"C-course ... he's s-safe. But ... M-mom's ... John ... I ... I th- think she's ..."
"Scott, don't worry about her ... Dad's gonna get Mom,"
"He...he is? But...Dad's..."
"Stay focused, Thunderbird One!" John screamed desperately as the train car groaned.
"Copy, Th-Thunderbird Five," Scott replied, blinking rapidly as he tried to hang onnto his brother's voice.
"Can you get a hold of your grapple gun and detach your tether to the train?"
"....f-firmative..." he managed to reply, shuddering from the cold of the wind blowing through the car and tearing into his body, right to his bones.
"Good. I see you. I'm right above you. Raise your arm straight up and shoot it ... it'll attach to my pod."
"Wh- what if I miss?"
"When do you ever miss? "
"I don't "
"Precisely,"
"First ...time... for everything,"
"Not today. Today you're Scott Tracy and Scott Tracy doesn't miss. Don't you want to save Alan?"
Hearing John's question, Scott raised his arm, pulled the trigger, and hit the front of John's exo-pod with such force, it threw him backward, winding him. Struggling to catch his breath, John grunted and groaned until he was in control of his body and the pod and guided himself towards the train car where a now limp Scott was slumped over the very still infant.
"Ah, shit, what now?" he said aloud, as he stopped short, not able to get closer.
The train car groaned eerily.
"EOS, why aren't I moving?"
"EOS?"John called to her frantically. Checking his wrist comm, he swore - loudly. "Offline?" he exclaimed in disbelief. "We came into the atmosphere too... we descended too quickly, damnit! ..."
As the darkness threatened to swallow him whole, his next option was to see where the hell his three other brothers were. He called to them repeatedly, but with the ringing in his ears, he couldn't hear them respond.
"Thunder....Two...Virge...come"
He was in trouble, which made things worse for Scott and the baby. John felt sick. As his lunch threatened to leave his body, his vision blurred, and the image of his unconscious brother swam before him. He had decended too quickly. Too quickly for Five's systems and for his body. And why was there blood dripping from his hand? How did he get cut? They were going to die on the mountain - just like all those years ago when their mother and their grandfather...."
"Thunderbird Two to Thunderbird Five, we have eyes on you and Scott. Hang tight. We're coming to get you,"
"Really? Hang tight?"
"I know, it just came out. Just cut the other cars loose will ya, Gordon?"
"Cutting,"
"Alan, how's it down there?"
"Well, I'm happy I trained on the Jetpack. Both Scott and John are out cold. Keep the car as steady as you can. Bringing the baby up to two now,"
Alan worked to free and transport both his brothers to Two's medbay, trying not to be alarmed by the blood that stained their suits.
Gordon cut the other cars from the one that held the infant's deceased mother, he, Alan and Virgil, shuddering a little as they plummeted into the rocky valley below. Freeing her body from the train car, he took her into the medbay and gently covered her with a blanket, he and Alan staring at her still form for a moment. With everyone safe on board, Virgil released the ill-fated car into the valley and made his way to the medbay stomping in his tracks as a briefly conscious Scott reached for their youngest brother's face and said,
"Al, you m-made it. Y-you're oh...o-kay?"
Alan clued in immediately.
"Yeah, you got me out, Scooter. I'm okay,thanks to you,"
Scott's face turned ashen, and his eyes rolled backward into his head that lolled on the pillow , ausing Virgil to spring into medic mode.
"Alan, fly us to the nearest hospital FAST, and set One to remote pilot back to base. Brains will handle repairing and getting Thunderbird Five online and all emergencies have been routed to the GDF.," he said, sounding calmer than he was.
"Gordon, monitor John's vitals, keep him warm and compress that chest wound to control the bleeding. Don't remove his helmet unless you absolutely have to and keep adjusting the pressure in his suit."
"FAB," Gordon mumbled. " How is he?"he asked, motioning to Scott.
They almost lost him then, not physically, but mostly mentally and emotionally. And when John picked up the two life sthe mission doomed their brother to his mind. That moment in his ten-year-old life was what made him spend so much time doing all he could to try to free the baby's mother only to lose her on site. That day the avalanche took their Mom and Grandpa shot back into Scott’s mind and haunted and terrified him...making him believe that he was burried in a cold tomb, once more, with them and their infant brother.
"He's critical. Now that he's warming up, he's losing blood faster through this gash on his side faster than I can give it to him. This is beyond me. We can't get to the hospital fast enough. Pressure and heart rate dropping....shit he's coding! Alan! ETA?!
###
Three days after the train accident, the baby Scott pulled from the wreckage was released to his deceased mother's parents - instant grandparents who were saddened that their daughter had run away with a secret that was to them, a blessing. John Tracy was also given a clean bill of health and discharged from the hospital, only to take his seat at Scott's bedside in rotation with his brothers , Kayo and grandmother.
It was now the eighth day since the incident and there was little change in Scott’s status.
A large piece of metal had cut into and lodged itself into his side, damaging his kidney and spleen.
Virgil, inconsolably played the scene in the medbay over and over in his mind from the moment his brother lost consciousness to when he coded, to when he compressed his brothers chest, feeling his sternum crack beneath his hands.
Along with his others, he watched, waited, held his hand, and talked softly to him, praying for and willing Scott to open his eyes and return to them.
John ran his fingers over the now sealed cut on his own chest where the grapple had hit his exo-pod so hard, the dented metal pierced into his skin. His blood and Scott's blood, spilling out of them on that mountain that threatened to end them just as the other mountain ended their mother’s and grandfather's lives. Ten-year-old Scott was injured back then, too, the incident breaking his femur and leaving him concussed.
And now, Scott was engulfed in darkness, body weakening, and mind possibly trapped deep in past trauma. Slowly slipping away from them as he lay still on stark white sheets amidst the hisses, clicks, and beeps of machines that pushed life into his body yet not freeing his spirit. He seemed like someone else at times, just a body, lying before them, the effects of a deep cut threatening to cut him off from the ones who loved him most forever.
