ZION Chapter Nine

MARY ANNE

 

They arrived at the hatch. “Get off,” Alexei ordered and he helped Zipporah climb down.

Opening the pack, he pulled out a harness and put it on Zipporah, and then attached the harness (and Zipporah) to himself. The pack was a jet pack with wings. Zipporah was in front of him and they both opened the hatch, dove out and activated the wings.

 

An alarm beeped in the Captain’s Cabin. Ivanka checked on the screen where the alarm was coming from.

“What is it?” Benedict asked.

“Someone’s just opened the docking hatch,” Ivanka answered.

“WHA-!?!?”

“Switching to cameras and – whoa!” She did a double-take. “TWO people just jumped out of the plane. Some man I don’t know and…the girl!” Ivanka gasped.

“Initiate defenses,” Benedict ordered, while muttering under his breath, “someone’s going to pay heavy for this!” Ivanka nodded and, lifting the plastic cover, slammed her fist on a red button.

 

OUTSIDE THE MARY ANNE

 

Hearing a whistling noise, Alexei and Zipporah looked behind them and saw several things shoot out from the plane. They looked like…

“Air mines!” Zipporah gasped. Alexei began praying as he dodged an air mine, praying none would lock onto his infra-red signature. “Alexei! There’s one heading right for us! Eight o’clock!”

Alexei groaned. They had locked onto the signature. He flew upwards sharply and the incoming mine collided with another mine, and they exploded beneath Alexei and Zipporah.

“Alexei, what’s happening?” David called in.

“Air mines.”

“I’ll send some assistance right away,” David offered straight away.

“No. It’s too risky. The air mines could lock onto their signature and we’ll be back at square one,” Alexei pointed out.

“Well, you better come up with something fast. ELOHIM be with you two,” and David shut off. Alexei’s comms beeped an alarm. It showed he had only half of his fuel left.

“YAH, I need you,” he prayed.

“Amen,” Zipporah agreed.

“Alexei, how’s things?” Bob asked.

“Just peachy, Bob. We’re in danger of being blown to bits or dropping from the sky from lack of fuel. How are you?”

“I can pick some off, if it helps,” Bob suggested.

“That would be lovely,” Zipporah said.

“Please,” Alexei accepted.

“Copy.” Bob looked at John, Fergus and Veronica. “Who wants to play with the new toy?”

“Me,” John raised his hand as he accepted, stood up and went over to a seat not far from where he originally was sitting. As soon as he sat down, holographic sights came up infront of him as well as holo-controls. He put on a headset that would allow him to see everything outside of the aircraft. Spotting a target, he swiveled the Defense Module around and aligned the sights before firing. The mine exploded.

“Thanks, guys,” Alexei thanked.

“Alexei,” Zipporah said thoughtfully, “couldn’t we just zoom into Z4 and leave quickly?”

“No, unfortunately. Because they’re locked onto us, they’d just follow us in, or follow and blow,” Alexei explained.

 

Z4

 

John was focused on one mine and did not see the other one coming from the other side. Suddenly, Z4 jerked and vibrated and threw everyone on the floor. An alarm blared. “Warning: Left wing compromised. Warning: Left wing compromised,” a computerised monotonous voice announced.

“We’ve been hit!” Bob cursed. Red lights flashed and the alarm kept blaring as Z4 fell out of the sky in a spiral fashion. The other intact engine completely shut down. “Mayday! Mayday! This is Z4 to Zion. We’re going down! I repeat, Z4 is going down!”

“Bob!” Alexei cried out as they narrowly avoided another mine.

Bob went through everything he had been taught to do in his training for just such an occasion – but they all failed. “YEHOVAH, please help us,” he quietly prayed. The ground was coming at breaking-neck speed. “Come on, come on!” and with a yell, he slammed his fist on the console. The engine spluttered back into life and started up. He pulled the joystick up and they regained flight – before they could slam into the ground, which they were about to do. “This is Z4. We regained flight. Switching on the back-up systems,” Bob reported in. “Thank You, YEHOVAH,” he added to ELOHIM.

“Hallelujah,” Veronica voiced her gratefulness.

“THANK YOU YAH!!!” Fergus and John added.

“Coming back to help you guys,” Bob said to Alexei and Zipporah over the comms.

“No, Bob! You can barely hold level flight now. What would happen if you came again with a busted aircraft and were hit again? You have a better chance at getting back to Zion alive,” Alexei said.

“We are not just going to leave you two. You guys could fall from the sky at any time now,” Bob contradicted.

“It’s better two than eight. Go home,” Alexei grunted.

“Alex-”

“That’s an order,” Alexei said in his authoritative, no-argument tone. He looked at his fuel gauge. Three quarters empty. Abba YAH, I hope I am making the right choice, he thought.

 

Z4

 

Bob was piloting Z4 home, but was feeling really bad. “What have I done? I-they’re gonna’ die out there!” This isn’t right, he thought guiltily. “Father, what should I do?” he prayed.

 

IN THE SKY

 

“Alexei,” Zipporah asked, “how are we getting back home?” Alexei was silent. Zipporah thought hard. Z4 had been sent home, ordered to leave them. How were they getting back? Then she realised. Oh.

Oh.

They were not going back. Suddenly, Alexei grunted and swerved sharply right. Two mines exploded right behind them, throwing them into an uncontrollable spin. Then there was a beeping and Alexei and Zipporah realised they had run out of fuel.

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