On The Mountain

CHAPTER 3

Lane jumped up quickly and hurried through the debris to the pilot"s side. He placed his fingers on her neck and felt for a pulse. It was there, and it was strong.

Looking her over carefully he could see a few cuts and bruises on her face and arms but nothing looked serious. Her jacket and blouse were ripped up badly, covering very little.

Then he unlocked the swivel seat and tried to turn her so she would be facing him but something was holding her. Carefully dragging snow and debris out from under the seat he found that her left leg was pinned back by a tree limb that had come through, under the instrument panel.

Looking closely he could see that her leg was broken. Great, he thought, as if things were not going to be bad enough.

He sat on the floor with his back against the co-pilot seat placing his feet against the limb and pushing with all his strength. He felt the limb snap with a loud c***k as it moved free from her leg. Not completely free, but enough to relieve the pressure on her leg and foot. Then he took hold of her foot and gently pushed it back far enough to allow him to turn her ankle and gently lift it away from the limb. Then he was able to gently lift her leg and swiveled the seat around to face him.

During all this, she had only moaned a couple of times from the pain. Then she was out again if she had ever come to at all to start with. Either way, he knew it had to hurt like hell. He looked up and told her he was sorry and said no more.

Leaving her shoulder straps on so she wouldn"t fall out of her seat, he went back to the storage department where their gear was stored, he grabbed ropes and a knife. Then as he walked back he grabbed a magazine which he placed around her leg and tied it firmly.

After this was done, he unsnapped her, and as gently as possible he picked her up and carried her to the recliner which he had been in. He placed her in it and reclined it back as far as possible trying to make her as comfortable as he possibly could. Then he went back for the rest of his gear and everyone else"s. He gathered up every first aid kit he could find and placed them within reach. He was trying desperately to get the leg taken care of before she came to.

He removed her boots, then the magazine, before her pants.

There wasn"t much left of them anyway, and what was left was soaking wet. He could see the break, which was about six inches below the knee. The shinbone was set to one side at least an inch out of alignment.

Taking the rope he tied her ankle to the recliner. Then he took hold of her leg above the knee and gradually pulled. At first, nothing moved so he had to pull harder until the broken ends finally separated enough that he could move them back into alignment.

When they looked right, he gradually eased up on the pressure and watched carefully. The bones started to come back together then stopped.

Looking at her leg everything looked straight. Comparing it with the other leg he thought it looked the same. He sure wasn"t a doctor that he knew but didn"t have a choice. He placed his left hand around her leg above the break, and his right, just above her ankle with her foot in his chest, and gradually pulled the break together.

For a second nothing moved. Then the leg made a c***k as the bone snapped into place. The girl screamed out in pain and then passed back out. Thank God he thought to himself.

Lane wrapped the leg with Gauze then made a crude splint out of a wooden folding chair and taped everything firmly together. Then he wrapped the whole thing with rope so when he was done it was as much like a cast as he could make it.

The lights in the plane were getting dim so he grabbed up lanterns, hanging one in the center of the plane"s cabin.

After that, he went back and dug out every blanket and sleeping bag he could find. He covered the pile with blankets and then unzipped a sleeping bag before placing it over her as well.

He drags the bodies of his friends and copilot to the back of the plane and lay them to one side. He then took their billfolds and what belongings they had and placed them in a duffel bag so they could be found later. At the time he didn"t know what else he could do for them.

He spent the rest of the night plugging the holes and broken windows on the plane. He took another sleeping bag and covered the young lady making sure she was warm after he had bathed her face, cleaned, and put iodine on all the cuts he could find on her.

There was a small heater in his camping gear so he left it and left a small opening in a couple of the windows for ventilation. The last thing he did before he went to sleep himself was to tie a rope around her waist and the recliner so she couldn"t get up easily. He put a note where she could see it that simply read, your leg is broken, lay still.

Then he went to sleep for a couple of hours. He didn"t want her to wake up scared and try to jump up and damaged her leg worse than it already was.

When he awoke she hadn"t moved. The storm was howling outside but at least there was light coming through the windows that weren"t broken. Looking out the windows he could only see trees and rocks. He really wanted to get out and see what their situation was but with the storm like it was, and the fact that the lady hadn"t come yet, he decided it was best to wait for a while. There wasn"t a lot he could do outside anyway.

Realizing he was hungry, he unpacked his cook stove and heated up some canned soup. While he ate he noticed the girl had come to and was staring at him. He stared back for a second before asking if she was hungry. She didn"t bother to answer so he just went on eating. When he finished he got up, poured the rest of the soup into a cup, and sat it down beside her.

When Lane reached down to straighten the recliner up into a sitting position she began to scream hysterically at him.

"What"s your problem?"

"Don"t touch me she screamed."

I"m not going to he said calmly, and with that, he reached down and bent the chair up into a sitting position.

She just sat there with a hateful stare on her face.

"You can untie your own rope now that you know that your legs broke and eat your soup if you feel like it."

With that, he pulled his warmer hunting clothes on, a slicker, waterproof hat, and gloves, picked up his rifle, and went out the door.

As he stepped out she asked him to wait.

He stopped and looked back around at her.

"What happened?"

"We crashed", and with that, he stepped through the door.

As he studied their situation, he was amazed that there was anything left of the plane at all. They had been at ground level as they came into the clearing and the bottom of the plane had made contact with snow and ice which was deep enough that it started stopping all momentum immediately. The jet engines had packed with snow and shut down. The rest was just a sleigh ride across the