Even though she’d escaped and now had decent control over the chopper, Treen worried about what Lance might do to her family and what he might’ve already done to Russell. If she could locate the lab before he returned, there’d be a much better chance of finding everyone alive.
Soaring above the wilderness, Treen noticed a construction site — an unfinished road that curved out of the trees, towards a mountain that stood about a mile away. When the chopper buzzed overhead, the two steamrollers below kept moving, but the orange clad workers looked up and waved — probably oblivious to the fact that Mr. Blue and Lance had missed this particular flight.
Treen continued to follow the stretch of road that had been left unpaved. However, she’d soon have to clear the mountain, change direction, or land. Suddenly, in the distance, she could see a row of black SUV’s lined up near the face of the mountain. She guided the chopper closer, where, on the opposite side of the trucks, stood two men dressed in black, and a metallic shelter. “I think I’ve found the lab,” she said smiling, slowing the chopper to a hover. “But where’s the entryway?”
Treen wiped her eyes, then wiped them again, and again. Sure, the helicopter rocked slightly and she was tired, but not tired enough to imagine the face of the mountain rising like a garage door. Without a single blink, she continued to stare and sure enough, the face of the mountain had begun to raise — a humongous, granite door, which blended so perfectly with the outer rocks that no one outside Blue Neptune’s weirdoes would’ve ever found it.
“Unbelievable,” said Treen, as the massive door opened completely. The line of vehicles slowly began to roll inside the opening — wide as a hanger — with vehicles also exiting.
Suddenly, the guards outside the shelter began to point at the helicopter. Some of vehicles moving to enter the tunnel veered out of line and sped in Treen’s direction. They’d just received word that the helicopter had been stolen.
Still hovering, Treen spun the aircraft around, where she noticed more vehicles headed towards her — probably Lance and the rest of the Ecnals she’d left out in the wildflowers. She spun again. The guards from the front aimed their weapons and fired. The helicopter rocked out of control. Treen glanced up at the tunnel, where the wall of granite had slowly begun to close.
The droids probably thought Treen was an expert circus pilot with the helicopter swinging circles and dodging most of their bullets. Truth was, every since the first few bullets had cracked the windshield, she’d lost control...
The guards continued to fire at her and Treen made a decision — a crazy decision, which seemed to fit her insane circumstances perfectly. Her family was somewhere inside that tunnel and she was going in one way or another: “I hope there’s enough room for a helicopter,” she whispered, thrusting the aircraft forward.
Treen wanted to close her eyes, but the odds of her living through this were bad enough already. The opening was definitely wide enough for the helicopter, but the lower the door moved, the lower her chances were of flying inside. She adjusted to the proper altitude, then made her move.
“Steady, Treen! Steady! Oh, Jesus, help me...” After a drastic dive, the aircraft soared beneath the door, and into the tunnel with room to spare! Paying close attention to the well-lit outer walls, she held it steady and zipped over the cars, startling the droids beneath her.
Treen’s erratic flying caused chaos in the tunnel; the vehicles below swerved and collided, with the fiery crashes adding to the constant roar of the rotors.
Fortunately, for the wobbling aircraft, the tunnel ran straight. Treen sailed down the orange-lit cylinder with no cars, guards, or gunfire in sight. However, in the distance she could see that her trip was probably headed for an explosive end.
Like the entry, several guards stood beneath and around a metallic shelter, which probably housed the controls to the massive granite door ahead of her — a closed door that would soon cause the explosion of the Blue Neptune helicopter. Even if Treen could swing the chopper around and somehow fly safely out of the tunnel, she wouldn’t. There’d be no turning back at this point.
With trembling hands, streaming sweat, and a heart fluttering as fast as the rotors, Treen tried to control the helicopter and figure a way out of the mess she was in. Just then, she noticed the illuminated emergency exits that lined the outer walls along a narrow sidewalk. It didn’t matter where the doors led because they appeared to be the only way out.
Treen began a gradual descent, but rushed the landing when she noticed the SUV’s speeding towards her from each direction. Without shutting the rotors down, she leaped out. Her hair blew everywhere as she dashed away from the unstable aircraft, towards the nearest emergency exit. If she hurried, she could make it inside the door before the guards even realized she jumped out.
“Be open, be open, be open,” Treen whispered rapidly, reaching for the doorknob. Although the small door was much easier to enter than the colossal one she flown through, she was just as relieved to slip inside.
Treen knelt on a dim platform, situated between stairs that led up and down the mountain walls. She snatched off her pack then snatched out Ariel’s holster and flare gun because soon, the Ecnals would surround the chopper and boy did she have a surprise for them.
When Treen peeked through the door, the Ecnals were driving up to the helicopter, which had been rotating on it’s own for several minutes. As the guards stepped out of their vehicles, Treen realized that her fiery plan would work even faster when she noticed fuel spilling from the bullet holes that had pierced the chopper.
She waited for as many droids as possible to surround the helicopter, but when some of them began to shake their heads and back away, she knew they’d found she wasn’t inside.
“Please, Russell, don’t be over there,” she whispered. She aimed the flare gun through the cracked door then fired towards leaky fuel. She then slammed the door and ran down the stairs.
Kla — BOOM!
The helicopter blast was small compared to the explosions that followed when the Merafueled droids met the flames. Add in the number of SUV’s that blew up, and the tunnel had become a massive fireball.
Panting, Treen could feel the surface rumble as she neared the bottom of the long staircase. She continued to pray that Russell Wellbay was nowhere near that chopper when it exploded.