Chapter 8: Is This A Rescue?

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Over The Pacific Ocean.
Thunderbird 1.
(Scott's POV)
We had taken off from Tracy Island as soon as we could to get to Tokyo, the potential threat of another near nuclear catastrophe weighing on my mind even though it was pretty slim. I was currently just over half way towards the danger zone when a thought came to me, FireFlash had crashed into a busy street in Japan's busiest city, the chances of surviving such a thing seemed slim to none depending on force and magnitude of the crash. As I closed in on Japan I get a call from Thunderbird 5,
"Thunderbird 5 to Thunderbird 1 come in" John says of the commlink
"Thunderbird 1 here" I answer
"I got some more information from the Japanese Authorities" John states
"what's the latest?" I ask
"it's not good Scott, the buildings were worse hit then first thought and amount of debris is making it hard for Japan Disaster Control to find survivors" John explains but I can sense a but at the end of his sentence
"John what aren't you telling me?" I question
"from the information I've been given, there have been no survivors found so far, everyone they do find are dead" John explains
"there has got to be some survivors in there, I'm going to maximum thrust to get there and set up mobile control" I say as I set the thruster controls to maximum
"F.A.B Scott" John says as the communication link ends and I speed towards Japan.
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Tokyo, Japan.
Minutes Later.
At Maximum thrust I arrived at the Japanese mainland in minutes and as I flew into the city the location of the Danger Zone was very clear as smoke plumed into the sky, Flying to Danger Zone I landed Thunderbird 1 in an intersection right next to what could only be called devastation. Before I left Thunderbird 1 I activated the communications Link,
"Thunderbird 1 to Thunderbird 2 come in" I say
"Thunderbird 2 here" Virgil responds
"I'm at the Danger Zone" I say
"Already?" Gordon questions
"The Japanese Authorities are having trouble with the debris and find survivors, so I flew here as fast as Thunderbird 1 could" I answer
"You're worried aren't you?" Virgil asks
"With the reports that John has gotten it doesn't look good, and from what I can see there is so much devastation" I answer
"The Japanese coastline is within view, we'll be there soon" Gordon says
"F.A.B" I respond
"Thunderbird 2 out" Virgil says as I press a few buttons to open the cockpit and lower the seat so I can get out, Once I'm lowered out of Thunderbird 1 I get out of the seat and look around to find the closest emergency worker.

After looking around I see a group of emergency workers at a tent marked in Japanese that translates to 'Emergency Outpost'  and make my way over to them, as I approach the tent I look to one of the men and ask in Japanese,
"I'm with International Rescue, where can I find the person in charge?" I ask
"Inside the tent sir" the men answers directing me inside the tent, walking into the tent I see a women looking over a map of the local streets,
"excuse me, I'm Scott Tracy from International Rescue" I introduce myself as she looks up at me
"I'm Sakura Ito, I was wondering when International Rescue would arrive" Sakura says introducing herself
"I take it, your in charge?" I ask
"indeed, I'm glad that you're here as the extent of the crash is far worse the we feared" she explains
"what's wrong?" I ask
"Three metro lines run underneath this street and two of the stations had trains in them when FireFlash crashed, we tried to find survivors in the wreckage but the tunnels collapsed and once we dug through we found no survivors" she explains
"how many people were down there?" I ask
"over 2000 people" she answers
"what about on street level?" I ask
"closer to 10 000" she answers
"so roughly 13 000 people?" I question
"yes, and we fear that they all have suffered the same fate" she answers as the sound of Thunderbird 2 arriving can be heard
"we will do everything we can to find survivors out there" I say
"I hope there is some hope in the darkness out there" Sakura says
"Sakura even a little hope can go a long way in a situation like this" I say as I exit the tent to meet up with Virgil and Gordon.

As Thunderbird 2s Pod bay lowers to the ground and the main door opens I stand outside waiting to enter. As soon as the pod bay door is opened I make my way up the ramp and walk up to Virgil and Gordon,
"I Thought Alan might have come?" I question
"well he didn't, he's still healing from New York so we convinced him to stay at home so we have Alan and John monitoring things for us" Gordon answers
"what's happening out there?" Virgil asks changing the subject
"metro tunnels underneath the street have collapsed killing everyone in the stations and the street is in utter devastation with about 10 000 people suspected to be out there" I explain
"bloody hell that's a lot of people" Gordon says
"I know and we need to do as much as we can to find people out there" I say
"right, so we need the cutting equipment, and medical first aid equipment" Virgil states as we begin to get the equipment needed for the rescue.
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(Virgil's POV)
After getting the cutting equipment and medical equipment and splitting it between us we made our way over to the street and what I saw was not an easy sight to see, the whole street was a mess and I swear I could see blood on some of the pieces of debris. The entire area was just devastation but we had a job to do and we got to it as we split up to go through different rubble paths to clear the crash site, I moved through the the rubble pathway to the far left and as I made my way through I could see the main section of FireFlash with smoke coming from the underside of the Aircraft and through some of the cargo doors that had been ripped open. As I made my through the wreckage I could see destroyed and upturned cars, burst water mains and sparking electrical boxes as well as groups of Japanese Rescue workers,
"Gordon to Virgil come in" I hear over the commlink
"Virgil here" I answer as I look around
"This looks a lot more horrific then I thought" He says
"I Know what you mean, there aren't words to describe this" I say
"Can you even call this a rescue?" Gordon questions
"I don't know but Scott is right, we need to do as much as we possibly can" I answer
"Right, your right, I'm near a group of rescue workers so I'm going to see if they need help" Gordon says
"F.A.B, I'm nearing a section of FireFlash so I'm going to search around the area to try and find survivors" I say as we close the communications link and begin our separate searches.

As I began to move debris and dig my way through the wreckage the thought of what is going on around me races through my mind, and the only thing I can think is that this rescue doesn't seem like a rescue that much. The amount destruction and all the blood and the faint smell of death in the air begged the question, is this really a rescue? was there anything we could possibly do?

TO BE CONTINUED...

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