Some of the gunmen had given up negotiating the steep, rocky terrain and had instead taken up firing positions among some large boulders dotting the creek bed. The gunfire provided the extra motivation the pilot needed to really get things going. He quickly pulled up on the collective to gain altitude as he pushed forward on the cyclic, tilting the rotor to get the helicopter moving.
As they accelerated, Lewis spotted Pierre amongst the main bolder pile near the base of the cliff. The two locked eyes as Pierre raised his gun and fired ten quick, wild rounds in Lewis’s direction. Most of the bullets simply sailed into the canyon, but a pair struck the nose of the aircraft. The final round did the most damage, flying through the fuselage before hitting the pilot square in the head, killing him instantly.
The dead pilot slumped forward, pinning the cyclic to the side and sending the helicopter crabbing sideways directly towards the cliff. Lewis tossed the revolver back to Samantha then pushed the pilot off the controls, assuming command from the copilot’s seat. He fought with the cyclic, trying to steer the chopper away from the wall of rock that now took up his entire forward view. Unable to stop in time, he yanked up on the collective and twisted the throttle to its limit, hoping to get higher than the cliff before running into it.
The rotors came within inches of shattering on the rocks, the helicopter lurching upward just enough to clear the top of the cliff. The left skid, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky. It was bent and nearly torn off against the top edge of the wall, tilting the helicopter sideways and knocking a large boulder loose. The tilt of the chopper was just enough for Lewis to see the loosened 5-ton rock tumble, slowly spinning almost a full rotation before crashing down directly on top of the fleeing Pierre. “That’s why they call him ‘Easy Squeezy Cheese,’” Lewis said, both smiling and wincing at the same time.
“Thank God you know how to fly a helicopter!” Gonzalez shouted over the cabin noise.
Lewis returned his full focus to the controls before replying, “I wish that were true. This is actually my first lesson.” Lewis had ridden in a number of helicopters and tended to ask a lot of questions, but had never actually touched the controls until now. Gonzalez and Samantha shared a worried glance before each swallowed hard, slowly sitting back in their seats and tightening their seat belts.
Chapter 12 — THE CHASE
Lewis looked like he was fighting a massive swarm of flies, his arms zipping around the cabin between the controls as he struggled to regain some sort of equilibrium in the helicopter. He finally got the throttle and collective adjusted to the point that they weren’t shooting skyward, even managing to slowly descend towards the ground. Lewis figured, if nothing else, it would be better to crash from a lower altitude.
It did nothing to increase the confidence level in the back of the cabin when Lewis yelled back, “Do either of you see any sort of instruction manual back there?”
Gonzalez looked around then replied, “Here’s a maintenance manual for a Bell 206.” She leaned forward to show the manual to Lewis. “Is this a Bell 206?”
“Maybe… Bell does make helicopters.” Lewis glanced at the picture on the cover of the manual; it did look similar to the craft they were sitting in. “But I think that is a manual for how to change the oil and stuff like that. Does it happen to have a section titled, ‘How to land without crashing’?”
Gonzalez was terrified and didn’t appreciate the joke one bit. Thumbing through the greasy pages, she confirmed there was nothing about actual operation of the aircraft anywhere in the book. However, it did appear as if the Bell was current on its inspections. “Do you have any sort of plan?” she asked.
The situation wasn’t looking good but Lewis did his best to remain calm. Practically yelling to be heard, he filled the girls in on their flight status. “I was hoping to just fly back to the Lewiston Airport where somebody could talk us through a landing.” Both of his passengers seemed to relax a little at this idea. “Unfortunately,” Lewis continued, “we have acquired a couple of problems that are going to necessitate a new plan. First, we must be leaking fuel because we are almost out. Second, it looks like Pierre’s friends want their nice helicopter back.” Driving home this last issue, Lewis pointed over Samantha’s head, indicating a black apparition quickly advancing towards them.
Gonzalez gulped loudly at the sight of the approaching chopper. The other pilot was on a perfect intercept course, aimed almost directly at the open door of Lewis’s lumbering craft. Gonzalez tried to do a quick count and believed all seven of their armed pursuers, along with their pilot, had somehow packed themselves into the five-passenger aircraft. “Can you shoot them?” she asked Lewis, pointing to the .38 still in Samantha’s hands.
Lewis shook his head but didn’t otherwise answer at first. His full concentration was required to fly the chopper. Lewis was nearly overwhelmed as he used the foot pedals to pivot away from the other helicopter, adjusting the other controls to keep the aircraft as level and stable as possible. Once they were generally pointed away from the approaching helicopter, he pushed the cyclic forward, causing the helicopter to tilt and gain speed. The forward tilt also caused the helicopter to lose lift since some of the force was now being used to go forward rather than up. This had to be balanced by adjusting the collective again to increase lift.
After gaining some semblance of control, Lewis finally elaborated on their predicament. “There are only two bullets in the revolver. We might get lucky and hit the pilot, but we would have to wait until they were far too close before we could shoot accurately. Their gunmen would turn us to Swiss cheese with their rifles before we even had a chance to fire back.” Lewis continued with the bad news, saying, “It looks like we have about five gallons of fuel left, and it’s dropping fast. Their pilot is obviously more experienced, but I am hoping their overloading will affect the performance enough to give us a chance. We need to try to stay ahead of them and find a place to land before we run out of fuel.”
Samantha was already too panicked to respond. Gonzalez took in the information then quietly steeled herself before responding, “Okay, what can I do to help?”
“To be honest: I don’t know.” It was taking everything Lewis had just to control their helicopter. He was trying to go forward as fast as he could while easing down towards the ground, sweat pouring off his face from the exertion. “Can you look back and see how far away they are?”
Gonzalez leaned her head out the door, checking for the other chopper. It was gone. She unbuckled to check the other side, finding it now a few hundred yards back and off to the left. Gonzalez shouted out position information to Samantha, who had regained her composure enough to relay it on to Lewis. Each update had their pursuers approaching, but staying out to the side.
Suddenly, Gonzalez screamed, “Look out!” as she rolled back into the cabin.
It sounded like they were inside an old-fashioned popcorn popper on top of a hot stove as bullets struck the helicopter, punching holes but luckily not hitting anybody, or taking out any vital components. At least they made a tough target, the helicopter naturally flying in a zigzag pattern while Lewis fought to maintain his heading. Lewis awkwardly banked to the right, trying to get the shooters behind him so they would have a tougher time getting a good shot.