"I'm sorry momma, but I got too much tied up in this" she said, hoping to head off any protest.  Sylvia just smiled
"It's all right hon, just make sure its out of the way for when the guests arrive..in fact, if you could set it up, we could watch the storm on the weather site, give them something to do-" 

"Besides have sex?" she giggled, ducking when Sylvia threw a pillow at her  "not much chance of that this time...that honeymoon couple hasn't been out of their cabin since they got here, the Coyote is nice but that puma...I think I'd enter a nunnery first." 

Bethany said with mock seriousness "Mom, the Evil Aliens from Planet X have turned Janet  into a pod person... it's the only way she wouldn't be interested in yiffing someone." 

Janet growled as she set her computer down but Bethany had already put her load down and had scampered out the door again giggling.  Kari and Sylvia tried not to laugh...which worked for about five seconds.  Janet finally gave in and chuckled herself . "OK, maybe I got a reputation.. but still...something about him just seems so...." She shrugged at a loss for words. 

Sylvia nodded "Luke told me about his asking where the whores are.   I don't particularly care for his attitude either, he may be a paying guest, but if he gives you any problems let me know and I'll call the Constable to have him removed." 

Janet nodded, usually they let the guests pretty much do what ever they wished, and the kids were free to do what they liked with whomever, but there have been occasions once or twice where some mainland twink didn't believe no meant no.   Money was one thing, but protecting her family was another, and Sylvia would  gladly go broke before subjecting them to those sorts of people.     She sighed and reached over, pulling on a shirt and a pair of shorts "Tell Bethany when you get back to the house..to make sure she's wearing something when she comes to the bunker...lets not give him any ideas all right?" 

Janet nodded "Was going to do that anyway momma..every time he looks at me it feels like he's doing me with his eyes." She shivered and padded out into the rain, the wind beginning to pick up a bit. 

Kari got dressed as well , hugging Sylvia softly. 

"How bad do you think we'll be hit?" 

"Not too bad" replied Sylvia.  "we might lose a couple of the cabins..the roof on the main house is new and reinforced , all the windows are covered by those metal roll down storm shutters, Janet's just being paranoid bringing her computer here.   Luke is checking the Generator now in case we lose power, says we have enough fuel oil for at least 3 weeks of constant use." 

Kari nodded "they say the storm surge is gong to be about 20 feet, but the cavern where we put the plane is oh, I'd say about 25, 30 feet above the water...so it should be all right.. its amazing though that was here all these years and we never knew about it." 

"There's a lot of things that the navy left after the war, like this bunker.  Mom said they built it for a nuclear test that never happened, they exploded the bombs in the desert instead, luckily for us Grandpa never sold his land to the Navy back then."   Sylvia smiled slyly "So now that you have a hangar here, you shouldn't have to overnight in Fairport anymore.." 

Kari said nothing, looking out the thick leaded glass windows , watching the trees sway to the winds. She kept an apartment in Fairport, her usual routine was to deliver her passengers then make the short hop to the city, where she refueled and spent the night.  Sylvia had helped her greatly in the last few years, and at times Kari felt she was taking advantage of her friend, despite the fact she had been trying to talk Kari into moving permanently to Freedom's Run.   Sylvia had a point though she had to admit, one of the main reasons she stayed there was because she had rented hangar space in Fairport, however is was no where as well protected as the cavern.  Deciding to put off thinking about that for now, she turned to Sylvia  "Here comes that puma, he doesn't look too happy about the situation." 

"Cant say I blame him, I'm not particularly thrilled by it either.  still there's not a whole hell of a lot we can do. "She hmmed, looking at the wind gauge suddenly gust to almost 60kph.  "Lets get everyone in here, it looks like we're about to get hit."
 

In a short time  Sylvia's prediction had come true.   They had been hunkered down in the bunker for the last few hours , the newlyweds had went into one of the back rooms, Janet Lucas and Bethany joining them.   Ralph wanted to follow but was forced to sit at the table by his partner, both laptops connected as they continued to work , the puma fuming silently as his fingers hammered across the keyboard.   He was still pissed at Ken that the coyote had gotten laid and he didn't, after all, he was the award wining screenwriter, Ken was JUST his assistant.   he growled to himself, glancing over at the sandy brown vixen sitting at the table, playing some stupid game with the bratty kid, what was his name, Rale or something like that. 

    Suddenly the lights flickered and died, throwing the room into darkness, broken only by flashes of lightning from the armorglas windows.   There was a cursing and banging from the other room, as Luke extricated himself from the pile and padded nude into the main room. Kari had gotten a flashlight from the counter and swung it around, hilighting the collie
"Woo!" she said with a giggle "looks like you been having fun, what do you need light for anyway?" 

"I NEED IT! " snarled Ralph.  "I thought this fucking dump had a generator." 

"It does " replied Luke, "it should have kicked in automatically when we lost the power from Fairport."   the others slowly emerged from the bedroom, blinking in Kari's flashlight beam.   She and Sylvia had decided to stay out front with the coyote and the Puma, though they were debating on saying the heck with it and grabbing Ken when the power died.. Janet went over to check on her computer, the UPS adsorbed any voltage spike and protected it, still operating on the UPS's battery. "whew, she's okay" she said nervously. 

"should I go see what happened to  the generator momma? " asked Lucas near the entrance to the bunker, wind howling mournfully outside the door.. 

Ralph snarled "Damn well better kid, I got a deadline to meet, and I'm not gonna miss it because some piss ant little island has no power!" 

"didn't care before about the deadline, why should it matter now?" muttered Ken under his breath, drawing a dirty look from his partner. 

Luke sighed and opened the inner door "be right back, is only a few meters to the generator. Have it up in a min. or two." 

"WAIT! "Shouted Sylvia, but she couldn't be heard over the roar of the wind, Kari glanced at the windspeed gauge, it was gusting to almost    90 kph.   Suddenly there was a ear splitting roar, and a bright light filled the window at a very close lightning strike, followed by a booming crash.   Sylvia, rushed out the door, followed by Kari and Rock.  The large oak that had stood near the top of the ridge, and next to the generator was down, smoke rising from the shattered stump where the lightning hit..and no sign of the collie. 

"LUKE!!!" Screamed Sylvia, her words ripped away by the wind, rain hitting her body like buckshot, falling almost horizontally in the winds. She looked about frantically, finally spying a hand sticking out from under the branches.    She pulled on the hand, but he was stuck fast.  Kari spun and yelled to the others who had followed them out and were standing in shock in the doorway. "GET the Chainsaw!!" 

Rock turned and ran back inside, re emerging into the wind a few seconds later, already pulling the cord on the saw, firing it to life in a few short strokes.  Sylvia knelt in the mud and wind, holding on to Luke's hand as Rock went to work, carefully cutting the upper branches away.   By this time Everyone except Ralph was outside,  Ken pulling away the branches as soon as Rock cut through them, Janet keeping Rale and Bethany back in the entranceway to the bunker out of the way.  Rale had tried to go out to the tree, but was blown off his feet as soon as he cleared the door. , having to crawl back to the shelter in the mud.  Kari leaned into the wind, having to keep one hand on the trunk of the fallen tree to keep her balance, throwing branches with Ken.  Rick Brooks had actually left his bride , and as soon as Rock finished sawing through the main branch above and below where Luke was, joined Ken in slowly lifting it up off of the boy.   He looked closer then motioned Rock over "Cut this one here" he said, pointing to a branch hanging down from  the trunk, the end of which had impaled itself in the collie's stomach.  Rock carefully cut the branch a few inches from his brother, Kari and Sylvia pulling him clear as the coyote and wolf strained to raise the trunk high enough to clear, letting it drop with a thud when he was out.    Lucas was unconscious thankfully, with no other damage than what looked like a broken leg, as they struggled to carry him back in the shelter, Kari getting knocked off her feet twice as the wind gusted higher.    once inside, they laid him down on the bed, Sylvia reaching for the branch.. 

"Leave it there" said Ken quietly "it plugs the hole, pulling it out could cause him to bleed to death in ten min." Turing to the first aid kit Shannon Brooks was holding, he began to secure the branch so it would not move as best as he could. "We need to get him to a hospital, I can stabilize him some, I was a medic in the Army when I was in...but this is out of my league."   Sylvia nodded and turned to Janet, who was just putting the radio handset down, sobbing quietly. 

"we can run him over when the eye passes over, is usually a half hour trip, but if we take the fast boat, can probably make it in about 20 min., should me more than enough time...Janet, what did they say?"
 

Janet sniffed " just talked to the Constable...there was a mudslide in Fairport, took out most of the hospital...."   She broke down, sobbing , Bethany stood there torn whether to be by her twin or comfort her sister, Janet was conscious, so she stayed with the tiger mix.  Sylvia's ears went back at the news, whimpering softly "how long do you think we have?" 

The coyote sighed "I don't know, could be 3, four hours, maybe longer...have no idea what the branch hit when it went in...." 

The room fell silent at that...Rale hugged his momma tightly "is Luke gonna die?" 

"No." said Kari. "Janet, while you still got power, I need a satellite image of the storm, how long till the eye hits and how big it is, also. I need a weather report for Snug Harbour, and get me the Aviation Ministry web site, the one for on-line flight plans." Janet bent to her computer, fingers flying unquestioningly over the keyboards  "We cant wait, as soon as we hit the eye I'll fly him to Snug Harbour." 

"FLYING though a Hurricane?  Are you insane? its too dangerous, you'll both be killed!" 

"no we wont Sylvia...I wouldn't do it if it couldn't be done." said Kari with much more conviction than she actually felt, trying to squash her rising terror at the idea.  "Besides, what choice do we have?"
 

There were none Sylvia agreed, as they watched the computer slowly print out the satellite image of the storm. The trailing edge was just passing over Snug Harbour, the eye was still almost an hour away, with the winds picking up, now gusting at over 150 kph.  Ken administered morphine to the injured collie, and they tied him down to the stretcher they had thrown together. By the time Luke was ready to be moved, the wind was dying down a bit, as the edge of the eyewall crossed over the island, the howl of the winds suddenly replaced by silence.  Kari led the way from the bunker up the hill, and down the along the cliff.  it was only 500 meters or so, but they had to go slowly, causing Kari to keep looking up towards the sky, stars shined down through the hole in the storm.   They didn't have much time before the storm returned she thought to herself as she hit the bottom and shone the light across the platform.  The water was only a few feet below the edge, waves occasionally breaking over  the edge.   Kari went ahead and turned on the lights of the PBY with the external switch in the landing gear well, the floodlights illuminating the cavern as she sped about tearing off covers , tossing them aside and undoing tiedown straps, as Sylvia and Rock loaded Luke into the passenger compartment, securing him down across two seats.   Ken followed, he was going along with her being he had the most medical experience.. She turned to Sylvia as she climbed down unwillingly, not wanting to send her son off alone, but not wanting to leave the others either.
Kari hugged Sylvia tightly "he'll be allright, I'll radio you when we get to Snug Harbour..   Sylvia nodded, tears in her eyes ":you be careful love."
"I will " replied the Fennec , as she and rock Boarded the aircraft.  Rock was going along due to the fact that the Manatee did not have power assisted controls, and once they got in the storm she would need all the help she could get..  Sylvia stood back as Kari ran through the sequence, both engines soon roaring to life, props reflecting the light from the floodlamps as she slowly began to ramp the engines up.   Sylvia retreated up the stairs with the others, watching from above as Kari taxied out onto the platform and down the short distance into the surf, PBY rocking as the waves attempted to drive it back to shore.  She smoothly ran both engines to full power, retracting the landing gear as she pulled away from the shore, going straight into her takeoff run, the lightning from the oncoming eyewall visible a few miles away and closing. Kari and the others were bounced around by the rough conditions, skypig taking seemingly forever to gain speed,  the black wall of the other side of the eye clearly visible as they sped towards it.... 

"come on, come on..." she murmured , as the airspeed slowly crept higher, finally after almost two miles of running reaching high enough velocity for take off ,the manatee slowly rising from the water, and beginning to climb in a tight turn,   Sylvia watched the strobe lights on the wingtips blinking as they climbed higher, finally following Janet back down the hill to the bunker, whispering a silent prayer as she clutched her remaining children to her tightly. 

On board Rock settled into the co pilots seat, strapping himself down tightly following Kari's example.
"why are we circling? " he asked. "Cant we fly over this?" 

She shook her head "We're not pressurized, the storm can go to up to 12, 15,.000 meters., where the air is awfully cold and too thin to breathe without oxygen.  We gotta go through it, but we'll go through at about 4500, 5000 meters or so...its gonnna be rough no matter how you slice it" she said quietly, looking over her shoulder at Ken, strapping himself in next to Lucas.   Leveling off at 5000 m, she turned towards the NE, pointing the nose of the PBY towards the roiling black clouds ahead..   She gulped, fighting down her fear, though it was obvious to Rock how she felt about this...the light from the landing lights seemed to be swallowed by the clouds as they got nearer, finally disappearing  into the cloud  "Here we go..." she said, as what seemed like the hand of God slammed into the PBY, tossing it around like a child's toy.   Suddenly they got caught in a down draft, losing over a thousand meters in only a few seconds, then thrown back upwards almost as fast...:Kari cursed as she fought to keep the plane under control, Rock lending her his strength, holding the controls steady but letting her do the actual controlling.   Time seemed to stop, punctuated by lightning flashes, the pounding of the rain and hail on the fuselage, and the roar of the engines and the haunting howl of the winds.    Ken's voice came over the intercom "he's beginning to bleed a bit , how much longer?" 

Kari blinked as she looked at the clock on the instrument panel, panting softly , dripping with sweat, it had been almost an hour and a half since they took off   "Shouldn't be too much longer, we got one hell of a tailwind , easily picked up another 100 knots of groundspeed."   She checked the Radar, still an angry smear of red all across her scope showing the violence of the storm, yet the spaces between the worst areas were getting bigger.  "I Think we're about out of the worst..GPS says were around 100km to Snug Harbour.." 

She squeezed the transmit button on her control yoke "Snug Harbour approach, this is FL74H, am inbound from the Happenstance islands , 107 km out, with a medical emergency, over"    She listened for a reply, hearing only static in her earphones. 

On the ground in the control tower, incoming aircraft were about the last things on their mind..the storm had knocked out power for the whole region, leaving the entire city dark.  Due to the fact there was no way anyone would be stupid enough to fly in this weather, the powerloss didn't mean that much, until a controller picked up a transmission on a handheld batterypowerd receiver.  The Otter blinked , looking at a chart with a flashlight...from the Happenstance islands , hell, she had to have flown right through the middle of the damn hurricane..either a damn good pilot or a damn stupid one..  Picking up his radio he cursed as he bumped his way through the darkened tower to the lead controller's office "Ma'am you're not going to believe this.." 

"You've GOT to be kidding "  replied the skunk "Someone out here in this shit?"  she listened to the faint transmission from the radio ":Must be a serious medical emergency to get her out in this weather...get the facilities manager, find out if we can get the ILS and runway lights back up somehow, even if we have to rig a generator, and get that debris off the runway. I'll get with Harbor Medical center, have someone waiting when they get here..IF they get here...the last weather reading we had before the power went was extreme thunderstorms and heavy wind shear" 

The otter nodded and headed downstairs to get things moving, hoping whoever it was would make it in one piece...and that they could get the power back..landing on a dark runway in a storm at night, with no  Instrument Landing System., hell the whole idea is so ludicrous that they don't even practice such things in the simulator. 

On board the Manatee, Kari had her own doubts about their safe arrival.   Seconds after her transmission they were struck by lightning, blue white sparks arching across the radio panel, filling the cockpit with the stench of burning insulation.    The lights were still up, as well as basic instruments, airspeed, pressure altitude, and her artificial horizon, but all the fancy thing she had grown to depend on , GPS, radar, ILS , were toasted.  Worse  from her last known position they should have been able to see light from the city even with the storm yet outside the windshield was a inky expanse of black, punctuated only by the occasional lightning bolt and the faint glow from her running lights. 

"We're in trouble aren't we?" asked Rock as he put the now empty fire extinguisher away. 

"It isn't a picnic, but not too bad, still have enough instruments to keep us in the air, and the compass wasn't affected...its only about 40 miles to go, piece of cake" replied the vixen with more assurance than she felt. 

in the cabin, Luke stirred softly, morphine beginning to wear off.  Ken was at the back of the cabin, having been sent there by Kari to open the vents to get rid of the last of the smoke.  The wounded collie opened his eyes a bit , feeling someone next to him..in the dark of the cabin all he could see was  dim outline, vulpine female, about Kari's height, but ears not quite as big, a scent of jasmine filling his nostrils...<I know her> he thought, delirious.   <"yes, you know me, but you got to hang on, its not your time yet">  came a gentle whisper inside his head <I'm not going anywhere, I just want to sleep..so tired...>   The girl frowned at that, then looked aft, where  Ken was coming  from the rear of the cabin.  Luke glanced at the coyote then back at the girl, who had seemingly vanished "w   wwh  where did she go?" he croaked 

"Where did who go?" said the coyote as he checked his patient. the branch had slipped a bit in the rough air, fresh blood staining the gauze.  Cursing Ken wrapped more around the wound gently, then headed up front towards the cockpit. 

Kari sat there with the approach chart in her lap as she flew...she was good at navigation, even without the GPS and other systems...working from the last position she had before power died, she figured out where they were approximately-crossing the coast at 3000 meters, Snug Harbour only 20 miles ahead.    the weather was still rough , but no where as bad as it had been ,as they were in the tail of the storm. 

<"he's fading  faster">  came a voice in Kari's head, that the Fennec knew wasn't from the radio, or anyone else in the plane 

"we're running out of time"  Said Ken as he poked his head into the cockpit.  "how much longer?"
 

"I'm WORKING ON IT!" she snapped, near panic, then suddenly calming as she felt a light touch on her shoulder.    She turned to look ,  seeing nothing but a hole in the clouds temporarily illuminated by lighting.   Normally such were to be avoided like the plague, but with her current fuel state, and Luke's condition, she turned and dove for the hole, altimeter slowly winding down.   in a few minuets they had emerged from the overcast , only to find to her dismay that they were over the city.. which was completely blacked out, lit by only a few fires , lights from emergency vehicles and lightning as Snug Harbour tried to put itself together after the storm.   She almost wept in frustration, so damn close and no where to land... 

<He's Going momma, you got to get him down now!"> 

"WHERE??!" she screamed, only to blink as  a soft whir emerged from the instrument panel ,   the ILS gyros spinning up.   Not bothering to wonder, she turned towards the indicated heading, watching the indicator as it aligned with her course, showing her on the proper heading and glideslope  "What the hell, hang on!" she said as she dropped the landing gear, pulling back on the throttles, keeping the bars centered...suddenly out of the darkness ahead the strobe light fixtures at the end of the runway were illuminated by her landing lights, flashing by as the seaplane crossed the threshold.  In the Tower the controllers looked on in amazement as the seaplane set down on the blacked out runway, lit only by the landing lights of  the old seaplane.   Rock blinked as he watched Kari slow as they rolled along the runway.. "how did you know?" 

"Don't ask me, I haven't the foggiest idea...yoinks!" she said as the landinglights illuminated debris across the runway, the Manatee still rolling over 80 kph as she recognized it as a fuel truck that must have been blown across the runway by the high winds...she kicked the rudder pedals over , closing her eyes when she saw they were not going to make it,   a sickening thump  rocking the aircraft as the left wing ripped into the truck, the plane spinning around  as the outer 1/3  of the wing sheared off, a fireball rising behind them as they slid off into the soft soaked grass of the infield, coming to a shaking halt.    Staggering to her feet, she slipped past Rock and ken, the coyote bleeding from a head cut as she kicked at the door, trying to get it open as they carried Luke down the cabin, smell of smoke getting stronger.  Kari could hear the sirens getting closer, suddenly the door fell open as she shoved, the vixen falling head first into the  soggy mud.  Scrambling to her feet, she saw with relief that the fire was almost a hundred meters behind them, just the smoke blowing in their direction from the tanker truck.   The rescue crews scrambled out of their vehicles , quickly loading both Luke and Ken, the coyote having a possible concussion.  The head of the fire rescue team, a female Boar walked over to where Kari and Rock were leaning against the fuselage side, watching the ambulance pull away taking the two canines to the hospital.  "You're both all right?" she asked.  Kari and Rock both nodded wearily "yeah, damn lucky though , if we hadn't picked up the ILS beacon, we'd have never found the airport, and would have  had to land off shore and taxi in and find someone, would have taken too much time." 

"ILS beacon?" asked the boar "But all the radio and nav equipment is gone, the same tornado that threw the tanker on the runway demolished the instrument shack.. 

Now it was Kari's turn to gawk "cant be, we followed the beacon all the way to the end of the runway!" 

The fire chief walked over to her truck , pulling out a large twisted piece of metal...still legible on it were the words ILS approach facility, Danger, high powered equipment inside "this is all we could find ..."
 

Kari looked at the sign in disbelief, then , faintly, caught a scent of jasmine on the early morning air, she turned looking into the darkness, hearing soft giggle, she smiled tiredly "I must be going now "she said as she collapsed in exhaustion...