"This is the best I've found, the resolution isn't that high but it's the latest satellite photograph of the area. I'd say that it confirms what other images show even if they were taken months ago: no trees fallen on the road that can block us, apparently, but we can't know if there're rocks and we could blow a tire out there. That road isn't an airstrip well-maintained by a cleanup crew on permanent guard duty."
Sergeant Gomez shrugs while holding his laptop in front of us. Leaning over the armrest of the pilot's seat, Gabriel stares at the screen intently while I wait for him to make a decision: he's more experienced and has more hours of flight than I have, I'll do what he says.
"What do you think, Commander?" I ask while checking the flight instrument systems out of the corner of my eye. We should begin to descend in about 10 minutes. My superior rubs his hand along his jaw thinking, estimating angles, wind speed and chances of survival, I guess...
"We're going to land," he mumbles finally. "The truth is that this is the only possibility right now, I don't think the airport is a safe place and it's too far anyway, besides it'll be dark soon and we don't have signal lights. The road seems clean and the fish farm buildings are a good place to hide a plane: is someone is checking the satellites like Rick's doing I don't want this bird to be clearly visible in a picture standing out against the pavement. If we're very careful with the wings I think we can park between those two warehouses without destroying them... What do you say, Lieutenant?" I nod after a quick calculation in my mind: I'm a sharpshooter, I'm good at measuring distances. "All right..." Gabriel leans his body over his armrest even more while Ricks leaves the cockpit and commands with a firm tone of voice. "I want everybody sitting down with the seatbelt fastened and the adults holding the dogs, nobody will leave his seat till I said so." He looks at the clock and screens and yells again. "You have 5 minutes to go to the bathroom if you need it, then... you'll have to pee your pants..."
"Very descriptive..." I mumble shaking my head.
"Sorry for being sincere..." he answers with an amused smile while we check altitude, speed and landing gear. Everything seems right, it's about time to descend slowly.
Fifteen minutes later, we're landing on the road smoothly. The landing approach was beyond perfect, no bird has hit our engines and no rock has blown a tire. Maybe he stepped on the brakes a little bit too abruptly but the plane remained stable all the time: no professional pilot could've done better. My Commander drives the private jet slowly between the fish farm buildings while I'm giving him instructions till we stop finally. Gabriel turns off the engines, unfastens his seatbelt and gets up looking carefully through the windows above the nose of the plane. I get up copying him and we leave the cockpit, everybody stays on their seats as he commanded while we check outside walking from one window to another. Everything seems right and calm.
"Adrian, I need Nat and you to go outside and check the surroundings. I don't want you to take any risk, don't go too far, juts walk along the plane to make sure there's nothing odd out there. You don't need to walk into the buildings either. I just need you to take a quick look and come back..."
"Wait a minute, Commander." I cut Gabriel off while walking to the couches at the back of the plane. The kids still have the seatbelts fastened and are waiting for instructions, even the twins are behaving unusually well because they can sense the seriousness of the situation. I kneel down on the floor in front of Samuel and take Maya's hand. "Okay, listen carefully. Today has been full of excitement and you must be very tired, there's still light outside because of the time change but if we were in Siberia it'd be time for you to go to bed. We'll have a three-hour uphill walk ahead of us now. I need you to tell me if you think you can do this, please be honest. We could stay here tonight protecting the plane and climb to our new refuge tomorrow morning when everybody will be well-rested, it wouldn't be a problem, okay? If you give out half way we won't be able to take you in our arms and keep walking, we need to remain alert with our weapons ready and your mums will be carrying Meli and the dogs."
