[HANSON STORIES]

Times Running Out

Chapter 9 - "His lips are blue!"



The helicopter ride continued for five more hours until they needed to hit a refueling station that was placed halfway between where the cabin was and where the city of Anchorage Alaska was located. Just a few more hours and the men would be home free.

"Ok, we only got enough gas to get us to the station, we gotta stop here." Jon indicated on a large map of the area.
"Rightio." Jamie said, watching Mac change course slightly.

************************


At the refueling Station

"Ok, careful where ya land.." Jamie said softly.
"Duh Gomer Pile."
Jamie just shook his head and felt the light 'thump' of the chopper landing. He immediately hopped out and ran for the pumping apparatus, while Jon and Will ran for the extra supplies waiting for them in the station's storage units.

In the back of the helicopter, the teenagers lay in a huddled mass of flesh, desperately seeking warmth from the frigid air. Dave's back was pressed against the access door to the cabin and could feel a little heat from a tiny crack in the bottom between the floor and the door. He was envious of anybody who was warm right now and tried to get as close as comfort would allow to the nearest person he could. He took a deep breath through his nose and registered Star's strawberry shampoo and he yanked his head back a little.
"This sucks the big one..I wanna go home.."
Clint was having much the same thoughts as he felt the freezing winter air blast across his back when the cargo hold door was opened and the cargo started piling in. He shivered violently and started crying because the cold was so frightening. He knew it was still day time and yet it was so cold. He couldn't even remember being so cold before, it was disconcerting. The air continued to flow over his body as the tears continued to flow down his cheeks when he realized that the others were crying too, they could all feel the frosty air biting at the exposed flesh. They were far from dressed appropriately for the weather.

"Is that all of em?" Will called.
"Nope, still gotta get the other room. That's only half!" Jon called back.

Bob's heart sank and he felt hopelessness gnawing at his soul, the cold was sucking a lot out of them, he knew, and they were having just as hard a time keeping their spirits up as they were keeping their body beat up.
"God this is pointless, why are we even fighting?"
Bob lay his head down on the cold floor and forced himself to stop shivering. A weird warmth seeped into his limbs and he wished he could tell his siblings the secret to being warmer, but his mouth was clamped shut from his rigid jaw muscles and the duct tape. He felt somebody nudge him, but his body was too far relaxed to nudge back, Bob's conclusion, and he just sighed.
Bob didn't know it, but only seconds after he stopped shivering, hypothermia pressed against him harder then his brothers ever could and took a firm grip. The warmth he thought he was feeling was his body's last ditch effort to keep warm.

"Hey…Mac!? This kid don't look so good!" Jamie hollered up to the cab.
Annoyed, Mac yelled back, "What's wrong?"
"His lips are blue and he's not movin!" Jamie called back worriedly.
"Uh…damn, get him up here with us!" Mac ordered.
Jamie quickly complied, scooping up the inert boy and making his way to the cab door. He felt a pang of guilt when he saw Dave hurriedly shuffling his body around to make room for his passage. "We shouldn't be doin this to them...oh well." His mind dismissed his regret when he saw Mac's face.
"Lay em down in your seat, you can sit on the floor if you're so worried about him. It's not too much colder."
"If it's not too much colder then he can lay down there." Jamie snapped back, already bending over to rid himself of the teenage burden.
"No, look at him! He's freezing, give him your seat till he's warm and plop him back with the rest." Mac growled. He knew ransom worked better if your victim was alive.
Jamie snarled but complied, "Fine."

************************


"Where'd they take Bob?" Taylor thought with concern.
He didn't even know anything was wrong until Jamie came back and started yelling about it. He'd been concentrating so hard on keeping warm the he'd been ignoring everybody except the two people on each side of him.
"This really sucks, I wonder where we're going...?"

************************


The helicopter weaved its way through the beautiful Alaskan terrain, drawing closer to the small cabin on the cold Alaska tundra. Herds of caribou were passed by the swift machine, some of them being chased by small packs of wolves on the hunt. Will grew confused when he spotted more then a few grizzly bears roaming around the tundra below. And Jamie, forever having endless knowledge of Alaska, informed him that even though it was winter it didn't mean the bears would go into hibernation yet. Some were known as late sleepers and didn't make it to their sleeping quarters up until December if food was plentiful enough.
Will just gave a thoughtful, "Hmm…"

The cabin itself had a working bathroom with a shower, a kitchen, four open rooms, and a bedroom. The four empty rooms were converted into bedrooms for the remaining three captors and the captives. The cabin would be considered small by most standards except for the fact that it was built on the frozen pastures of Alaska, and that would make it big by Alaskan standards. That still didn't mean anything was large though. The hallways were cramped and you had to walk sideways to get two people through if they needed to pass each other by, each going a different direction. The bedrooms had only enough room for a one person bed and a trunk for belongings and if you were lucky it fit a tiny nightstand.

The area surrounding the cabin was barren for miles on end, as most of the tundra was, which pleased the four kidnappers because if the teens got away this time they'd be found easily enough...unless they froze to death. Mac planned on having Jamie spend the last hour of the trip lecturing the captives the danger of running away, he hoped it would work.

When the little house on the tundra finally came around, it was night. It required a search light to locate the landing pad and the surrounding grounds that were recently shoveled clean by hidden accomplices, and they landing skids touched down.

The kidnapped pop stars in the back of the helicopter were quickly rendered to darkness as they were all tranquilized for the short trip inside. This was managed by each teen being grabbed under the arms and dragging them out of the chopper, onto the landing pad, down the dirt path, up the tiny staircase, down the hallway, and into the steel reinforced room. Mac caved in to the idea of giving the young people blankets and before anything was carried out, anything being the kids, the floor was covered in one blanket and two more were lying folded on the side. The boys, and girl, were dropped to the floor until all of them were piled up and Will simply grabbed a single blanket and spread it over on top of them all. He shut the lights off and the room was bathed in darkness.

************************


Isaac stirred from his sleeping position and resettled himself after feeling the cold seeping across his body. His memory wasn't serving him at the moment as he snuggled deeper into the body of a 'brother'. On the verge of waking up and yet still asleep, a day dream/dream flowed around his mind as he watched on with amusement:

Scott was standing with a glittering red Les Paul Gibson hanging around his shirtless torso directing Clint where to stand. Taylor and Dave were setting their keyboards up on opposite sides of the stage while Zac and Bob set up their drums right next to each other. Isaac himself stood next to Scott with his own smoky red Les Paul draped around his chest, waiting for the commotion to die down a bit before he spoke. Zac yelled at Bob to watch where he shoved his drumsticks as one stabbed him in the back because the older drummer had shoved them in his back pocket and bent over; resulting in the stabbing.

Taylor looked up with a frown. Which changed to a smile as Dave tossed the black electrical tape across the room and he bent down to fix the wires to the garage floor. Dave quickly did a small sound check, making sure the mic worked, as did Clint. Zac, Bob, Isaac, and Scott. Taylor finally finished up and did his own check before sending a thumbs up at Dave. Clint smiled to himself, feeling special at being the only bass player in the room.

"Are we ready?" Isaac smiled all around.
"Yeah." "Sure." "Uh huh." "Yup!" "Lets do this!"
"What are we gonna play? It's gotta be something we all know or it'll sound really stupid." Dave let everyone know.
"Oh duh..." Taylor rolled his eyes smiling.
Bob smiled and said, "How 'bout 'Magic Carpet Ride'?"

The Hanson brothers smiled huge and nodded. Isaac happily started the chords to the old song and watched the rest of the gang follow suit. That had been one of the first thing they'd done while the Moffatts were house hunting. The four boys were more then welcome to stay at the Hanson house while Sheila and Frank stayed at a nearby hotel. They'd spent the entire day teaching each other their separate songs from their new albums and learning to play with two of each instrument, except for Clint. That evening they'd stayed up all night collaborating on a song that nobody was ever going to hear. It described the pain, fear, and confusion of the situation they were forced to endure. You could hear the desperation in the chords of the guitar; the sadness of the keyboards; the throbbing heart beat from the bass; the sad rhythm of pain from the drums; the soulful pain through the silky vocals. It had been the perfect therapy for them all.


Isaac finally snapped out of his dream when a body near him shifted. He knew he didn't share a bed with anyone and the sudden movement caused him to sit up quickly. He grew alarmed when it felt like he couldn't open his eyes, he realized a moment later that his eyes were open. The room was so dark that he couldn't tell whether or not his eyes were open or closed and this freaked him out. His real fear grew even faster when he realized that Taylor would have a freak attack if he woke up to conditions like this. Taylor only thought his therapist was the only one who knew of his fear of being blind.


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