Merry Christmas Jericho pt2

Jimmy pulled the patrol car to the side of the snow covered dirt track road.

“I don’t want to get stuck in the field, so we’re on foot from here” he said climbing out

“What is that stuff?” asked Stanley, as he peered through the window.

“Lets find out” Jake reached into his coat to check his gun. “can you make it Stanley”

“Just try and stop me” Stanley replied with a grin.

The 3 figures trekked across the field to the slopes of the hill.

“Looks like Oliver got as far as this, before he fled back to town” Jimmy hunched over fresh tracks in the snow, where several fragments of metal were stuck into the ground.

Jake crouched down and inspected a piece of the shiny metal, he rubbed off the snow with his gloved hand, his fingers traced along the seams and rivets.

“Looks like aviation grade aluminium” said Jake “maybe a small aircraft?”

“The bad weather must have caused the mud to slide and brought this stuff down from the top of the hill” Jimmy pointed to the top of the hill.

The metal fragments of the wreckage were along the slope, the larger pieces were at the top near the tree line.

“C’mon guys let’s get up there and check it out” Jake led the way, Jimmy gave Stanley support as they climbed the steep hillside.

“Hey Jake wait up” called Stanley, as he and Jimmy stopped to catch their breath, Jake had reached the summit and approached the trees.

When they caught up with Jake he was kneeling by some fragment of the cockpit, a large burnt out structure was several yards further into the woods, partially imbedded into the ground.

“What’d you think Jake?” asked Jimmy fishing through the wreckage

“Well it looks like a Aerostar 700, The landing gears down, so I guess they were trying to set it down in the field, but they came in too steep” Jake replied

Stanley was looking around “have you found any bodies?”

“No the plane came in fast, and broke up on impact” Jake answered walking to the tail section

“Do you think they had passengers?” Jimmy walked towards Jake

“My guess is may light commercial freight, or charter flight, maybe” Jake shrugged

“Hey what’s that?” Stanley pointed to the far side of the crash site.

Several aluminium flight storage cases were scattered under a smashed section of the wing

The 3 men huddled together under the wing, and checked the storage cases.

“Maybe it’s food supplies or clothes” Jimmy prized the lid open

“Oh man you gotta be joking” Stanley peered into the container

“This ones the same” Called Jake

“Of all the things they could have been, but this” Jimmy had his hands on his hips

“Maybe it’s just what the town needs” answered Jake

“How’d you figure that” Stanley asked lifting the lids of more crates

“The town needs the hope of a better future and this could be one step towards that, we’ll drag these down the hill, and go and collect your truck Stanley” Jake opened more crates

“Do you really think that it’s worth all the effort and fuel?” asked Stanley

“I wouldn’t ask, if I didn’t” answered Jake

Stanley and Jimmy shrugged and began to close the crates back up again.

The 3 struggled with the boxes down the hill, until there were only 4 left at the crash site.

“You and Jimmy get back and get your truck, I’ll get the rest of the boxes” Jake waved them off.

Later that afternoon as the Sun began to fall on the horizon, the 3 man team arrived back into town, Jake had been planning during their ride home and was outlining his plan to them.

“So do you think Mimi will go for the idea?” he asked Stanley

“Jake I’m really not sure..err..i mean I’ll ask but I sure can’t promise” Stanley shrugged

“What about Johnston, will he agree?” Asked Jimmy

“I’m about to find out” grinned Jake