Sins Past

Jenna was looking through her luggage one last time. She was on a trip to Nome Alaska, but the only available plane was a Cessna, and she didn't like the looks of her pilot.

He introduced himself as “Balto Mandrell, at your service I reckon.” then he burped loudly. He was unshaven, fur disheveled, a severe cowlick, and she could swear she saw two beer cans on the floor of the plane. They made quite a contrast. She was clean, wearing high heels and makeup, spoke with a gentle English accent, and had very good personal hygiene.

“Yew kin sit up front iff'n yu wanna.” he said. Jenna preferred the back. She managed to find a dry, clean spot on the back seat, and sat up straight, the whole time thinking “Remain dignified, even though you are in a pigpen masquerading as a plane.” As soon as they took off Balto grabbed an AC/DC tape and put it in, then cranked the volume up all the way. Then he turned around, without even a finger on the wheel, and started talking, trying to be audible over Dirty Deeds, Done Dirt Cheap.

“So why'd yu wunna go flyin' up tuh Nome fer?”

“Business trip. I really despise the thought of being up there with all those rednecks and hillbillies, though.”

“Aw, they ain't so bad. Look at me! I'm fruh Nome an' I ain't despisable!”

“You aren't despisable?” thought Jenna “Larry the Cable Guy has better manners and hygiene than you!” After she noticed the three huge shotguns under his seat she was glad she kept her mouth shut!

“So, uh, wutcher business up here?” asked Balto.

“Um, I work for an oil company. We believe that there's an oil well near Nome, and we want to buy it.”

“Oil near Nome? Hah! Thet's a good 'un!”

“Just what is so funny?” demanded Jenna.

“Oh, 'bout every other year some dude from an oil cump'ny comes a'lookin' fer some, but they never find it.”

Jenna refused to be disillusioned. She said “I will bet you that there is some, but those other 'dudes' just did not look hard enough. But I will find it.”

The trip ran smoothly, except for the constant turbulence and the blaring AC/DC tape. Jenna was treated to a variety of songs Balto loved, but Jenna viciously hated, such as Thunderstruck, TNT, and For Those About to Rock, We Salute You.

Balto took out the tape after is was over, and then turned around again. “Anythin' ya wunna hear?”

“Do you have Mozart?”

“Is 'e Rock or Heavy Metal?”

“Um, neither. He's classical.”

“Oh, classic rock? No, I don't got 'im. Is Queen close enough?” He didn't wait for a response, he just jammed in a tape, and Jenna was greeted by a blast of Bohemian Rhapsody. He even began singing along in a deep voice.

“I see a little silhouette of a man SCARAMOUCHE, SCARAMOUCHE, will you do the FAN-DANG-GO?! Thunder bolt and lightning, very very frightn'ing ME!”

“What kind of a nut is this guy?” Jenna thought. “I'm putting my life in the hands of an opera-singing, Alaskan redneck! I'll be lucky if I survive!”

“BIS-MIL-LAH! No, we will not you go LET ME GO! No, we will not let you go LET ME GO!” Etc.

But eventually, they got there alive, much to Jenna's surprise. As soon as they landed, Jenna set about work. But anywhere she looked, there was no sign of oil. Two weeks later, she was disgusted and disappointed. She had completely failed. She finally went off looking for Balto, hoping he wasn't off flying someone else, since he was the only pilot she knew nearby. Then, she found him. She couldn't believe she was actually happy about finding him.

“So 'dja find yer oil or no?”

She sighed. “No, you were right. There was none! It just does not make sense! All the signs are there that there is oil but I just can not find it!”

“Aw, it tain't so bad. There's still other places. So, are y'all packed 'n ready t'go?”

She smiled. “Yes. Take me back to California.”

Unfortunately, the flight back wasn't quite as smooth. Storm clouds surrounding them, worse turbulence than before, and AC/DC playing louder than before.

“Could you please keep that down?!” barked Jenna.

“No can do! It keeps me calm!”

Jenna didn't believe it. How could squealing guitars and cannons going off (you AC/DC fans know what song I mean) keep you calm?

“Oh, well,” she thought “At least we haven't crashed.” At that moment the engine went dead. The propeller stopped spinning, and they began descending. No, falling.

“You are never listening to AC/DC again!” she screamed.

Jenna woke up being shaken by Balto.

“What's the last thing ya r'member?” he asked.

“Uh, the plane started falling and...” She looked around. They were on a beach, with a wrecked Cessna on fire next to them.

“We crashed?!” she cried. “Oh no. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my gosh oh my...”

Balto smacked her. “Snap out o' it! It won't do ya any good moanin' 'bout what happened!”

At that point the plane started making odd noises.

“Aw crap.” said Balto. “RUN!”

He pulled her off her feet and began yanking her away from the plane.

Balto started quietly singing “For those about to rock, we salute you...... fire.” Then the plane exploded.

“Well, what do we do now?” asked Jenna. It had been about two hours since the plane exploded, and she had just started getting over the shock.

“I ain't got no idea.” replied Balto. “I reckon we could try'n start a signal fire, but I don't think no one'd see it. Ya see, we're purty dang far from regular flight paths. I'm the only 'un that uses it.”

“Maybe after people realize we crashed, they'll come looking for us. Did you have one of those transceiver things or something?”

“It busted five years ago, an' I could never afford tuh have it repaired or nuttin.”

“Well, maybe they'll fly your flight path, you know, to try to find remains of the plane.”

“I'm the only 'un that knows the path. I never told nobody what path I took.”

“Why?”

“I dunno. I just never thought any'un would need tuh know.”

“Supposing we get rescued, do you have any other jobs? You know, to fall back on?”

“Nope. An' I only got about seventy bucks in my savings account. All the rest went tuh gas for the plane and rent.”

“Oh. At least you'll get some insurance money for the loss of your plane.”

“I ain't got no dang insurance on my plane. I had to get rid of it 'cause it got too expensive.”

Jenna was beginning to feel sorry for this guy. Parts of his plane broke and he couldn't get them repaired, he had no other jobs and little money, and wouldn't even get insurance coverage for this mess!

“I reckon you're a bit better off'n I'll be.” he said. “You work fer one o' them oil cump'nys, so I'll reckon ya get a bunch o' money from that.”

Jenna was silent. It just wouldn't seem right telling him about the $100,00 dollars a year she made, especially after all he had told her.

“Well, I reckon we oughta find sum food 'er somthin. It's bad enuff we got stranded on some dang island, it'd be even worse if'n we starved tuh death here.”

“What in the world could we eat here? It's a desert island! We sure won't find an Applebee's here!”

“Ya learn a few survival tricks bein' a pilot in 'merica's final frontier. Evah heard o' coconuts? Or wild onions? Or fish?”

“OK, I get the idea. Yes I've heard of them but... what do they look like in the wild?”

Balto smiled. “Why don't I show you?”

Fifteen minutes later, they had gathered a day's supply of food. Not only had they gathered some wild edibles, Balto had fashioned two spears out of palm tree branches he had sharpened with a knife he (fortunately) had in his pocket when the plane exploded. Using the 'spears' they had managed to kill a small boar and three fish.

“Where did you learn all this stuff?” Jenna asked Balto while he cooked the meat over a fire he had built earlier. At first Jenna had given up the prospect of building a fire when she realized they didn't have any matches. Balto, however, took the lens off two different watches Jenna had, then he put water in between them, then sealed them together with some clay he had found. He used that to focus the sun's rays and burn some dry bark he found. After they caught fire, he built the fire up from there.

“From a lotta different places. Experience, fer one. This ain't the first time I crashed. Five years ago m' plane stalled 'n smacked a snowbank fifty miles from the nearest town. I was stuck in the wilderness fer seventeen days in the middle o' winter afore I was found. I learned a lotta techniques from that. Readin', fer another. Ever read Mysterious Island by Jules Verne? Er Stalkin' the Wild Asparagus by Euell Gibbons? Ever watched LOST or Survivor?”

Jenna was more in awe now than before. Not only did he know all these survival techniques, he read! Jules Verne, none the less. She had tried reading one of his books before, and got about fifty pages into it and gave up. “So what else do you know? I mean, you can fly a Cessna, you can survive in Alaskan wilderness, and on an island. What else can you do?”

“Well, I can speak French 'n Chinese, I can fly things like 747's as well, I know a bit o' advanced Physics...”

“Whoa. If you know all that stuff, why aren't you working in a different field? Why don't you move to New York City or Chicago and become a CEO for a company or something?”

“Why? Lemme ask ya somthin'. How long do you work?”

“From 9 to 5, Monday to Friday like everyone else.”

“I work 'bout sixteen hours a week, if'n I'm busy. Yer the first person I flew fer 'bout two weeks now. How off'n do ya get ta do want ya want? Ya know, like vacation, goin' to a football game, things like that?”

“Um, not very often. I do get three weeks vacation each year.”

“I get ta take time off whenever I wanna. If'n I decide I want ta go somewhere, but I have a flight scheduled, I kin cancel it. I can do whatever I want! I'm master of ma own schedule! No one ta tell me what ta do, er when ta do it!”

“But... you said you only had seventy dollars in your bank account! How can you live on that?”

“After I buy gas, food, and pay my rent, that's what's left over. It's enough fer me ta live on. Well, I reckon we oughta find some shelter fer tonight. You stay here'n eat. I'll go find somethin'.” He grabbed a stick and caught the end on fire, and went out into the woods.

About half an hour later, he came back. He got Jenna to go into the woods, and led her to a tree.

“This is it? A tree? You want me to sleep on a tree?”

“Not on a tree. In a tree.”

He pointed to the base of the tree, and there was a hole big enough for her to crawl through. She went in, and there was enough room for her to stretch out.

“How did you find this?” she asked.

“Find? Who says I found it? I made it.”

“You made this?”

“Yep. It's quite simple really. Ya take a burnin' stick 'n ya build a small fire at the base o' the tree with it. Ya just keep it burnin' 'till you got yerself a cozy little hole like this. The hard part is keepin' the rest o' the tree from catchin' on fire.”

Even before she could thank him, he turned around and walked out into the forest to find some place for himself to sleep.

Jenna woke up the next morning and started looking for Balto. She eventually found him up in a tree. He had cut a tree into several planks and then laid them out between two branches. As soon as Balto saw her, he jumped ten feet down out of the tree, landed on his feet, and it didn't seem to hurt.

“Say, Jenna, I was walkin' 'round last night an' I found this black goo. I tasted it, an' it tasted kinda oily. I's just wonnerin' if'n ya knew what it was.”

“You see goo and you taste it?”

“Well, yeah! How else'm I s'posed ta figger out what it is?”

“Wait. What did you say it tasted like?”

“Oily.”

Jenna had a crazy idea, and she hoped she was right. She hurriedly asked Balto to take her there.

When they arrived, Jenna was about to check, when she realized “I don't have my equipment. There's no way I can see if there's oil!”

“Y'ever seen 'Beverly Hillbillies'?”

“No. Why?”

“Ya shoulda. Y'd 'ave learned a lot.”

Balto got his 'spear' and threw it with all his might into the ground.

“Okay.... what good did that do?”

“Shh. Just wait.”

Three seconds later, oil began bubbling out from where the 'spear' struck. Soon, there was a puddle of oil in a four foot radius around the 'spear'.

Jenna was even more in awe of Balto than she ever was before. He had personally found the largest oil well she had ever seen. While she stayed behind and did what little work with the oil as she could, Balto decided to explore the island some more. After an hour, he had found nothing. After the second hour, he wished he had stopped at the first hour. He turned tail and ran for where Jenna was. They had to get off the island immediately!

Jenna was thrilled. “A village? Are you serious? We should go and see if we can get some help! They might have a radio we can use! We could...”

“Jenna! We need to get off the island! We can't go anywhere near that village!”

“Are you crazy? Here we are, stranded on an island, and you find a village and think we need to stay away from them? They can help us! I'm going there and I'm going to see if we can get off this island.”

“No! Look, I'm your pilot. Pilots are captain of the plane and the passengers. The pilots are in charge of keeping their passengers safe, and if you want to remain safe, you need to stay away from that village!”

“And what makes you think there's anything wrong with that village?”

“I just know, okay? And we need to stay away!”

Jenna didn't listen to Balto. She turned away from him and walked into the forest in the direction of the village.

Balto was on the beach, trying to build a raft. He had to get off. It didn't matter if he just found another island, even if it was smaller than this one. He just had to get away from this island. He stopped working for a moment and thought about Jenna. She was heading for the village, unprotected and unprepared. He knew he had to find her. He had to save her.

Jenna had finally found it. There was a clearing in the forest about half the size of a large mall. Inside the clearing was ten hut-looking things. She entered the clearing and began looking for someone. She heard a crack next to her. She turned her head to see what it was....

Balto was running as fast as his feet would carry him. He reached the area that the village was in, just in time to see someone throwing a knife at Jenna. It struck her in the leg, and she fell over. All of a sudden, ten people were upon her, tying her up. Balto knew it would be stupid trying to save her then, but there was nothing else he could do. He grabbed the biggest rock he could find and hurled it at the crowd of people. It hit one on the head, knocking him over. Everybody turned their head and looked at him.

“Hello Balto.” said one of the men. “Welcome back.”

Balto and Jenna were being carried to a metal hatch in the ground. The man who had recognized Balto said “See if you can actually escape this time.” Before they tossed them down, the dog noticed Balto had a knife. He took it from Balto.

“Thank you.” Then they were thrown in.

“How did you know these people were going to be like this? Who are they?” asked Jenna.

“They're part of a criminal organization. They had been sent to jail many times, but each time they had a 'mastermind' on their team that would keep busting them out. Finally, a judge sent them to this island instead, believing that they wouldn't be able to get off. Every four months the government would send a helicopter to check on them. However, their mastermind thought of a way to get them off. He drew up a design to make a boat. Not merely a raft, but a seaworthy boat, sails and all. But, the day before they left, their man told them he realized there was a flaw in the design, so they decided to fix it the next day. That night, the mastermind stole the boat.”

“How do you know all this?” asked Jenna.

“I was the mastermind.”

Jenna was shocked, not only by the confession, but he was no longer speaking with a hillbilly accent.

“After I stole the boat, I made my way up to Nome, where I became a Cessna pilot. I took on that accent, and made an honest living. Well, now you know the real reason I don't have insurance or any of that stuff. If I applied for insurance I would have to give my name and all that stuff.”

Then, the hatch lid opened, and one the dogs from the village threw down something.

“What's that?” asked Balto.

“Food! Thank goodness. I haven't had a thing to eat all day!”

“What kind of food did they give us?”

“Um, a fish, a coconut, and two bananas.”

“Sweet! Jenna, we're getting out of here!”

Jenna was impressed with Balto once more. In under a minute, he had devised a plan to escape, using only the food their captors had provided. It was over the top, but it was effective. What Balto did was, the next day when the guy came to give them food, Balto hurled the coconut at his forehead, knocking him into the pit. Fortunately, he had a rope slung over his shoulder, which Balto tied to the fish. He then used the fish as a weight on the rope so he could throw the rope out the hatch, and hopefully snag the rope on the handle. After a few tries, he finally got it snagged on the handle. Balto gave it a tug to make sure it was secure. Then him and Jenna climbed up the rope, then ran.

Unfortunately, Balto's plan did not include what to do afterward.

Nikki had a proposition for Balto and Jenna. The helicopter would be coming soon, and Nikki and the gang planned to leave on it. One problem though. They needed Balto to fly it for them. He was headed for the hatch to tell Balto his plan, when he saw the hatch was wide open. He ran over to it, looked down in it, and saw one of his men down there. He gathered everyone, and sent them all out to look for Balto. They needed him, badly.

Balto and Jenna were furiously working on a raft to get them off, when Nikki came on the beach. He pulled out the knife he took from Balto and pointed it at them.

“Now look Balto, you have two choices. A helicopter will be arriving today, and we're going to hijack it and get off this stinking island, and we need you to fly it for us. So, you can either join us again and leave this island, or you can stay. Your choice.”

Balto had hoped he would never have to make this choice again, but now he had no option.

“Alright. I'll join.”

Well, things were screwing up in Balto's life once more. When he had told Nikki he would join them again, he had lied. Unfortunately, he had made it sound a little too convincing, and Jenna believed him. Now she was avoiding him like the plague. They were walking back to the camp, and Jenna stayed as far away from him as possible. Balto intended to tell her he was lying, but he couldn't with Nikki standing right there.

“Oh well, she'll just have to hate me for a few more minutes.” he thought.

When they finally got back to the camp, Nikki said “Alright Balto, you come with me. As for you, miss, you'll have to be going back into the pit.”

“No,” said Balto “I'll watch her for a while.”

Jenna looked at him in disgust.

“Don't worry Jenna, it'll only be an hour or so.”

Nikki took Balto out of earshot from Jenna and began explaining their plan.

When Balto was finally away from the rest of the convicts, he turned to Jenna.

“Look, when I told Nikki I was joining again, I was lying, alright? I had to do that so we could get off this bloody island.”

“You.. what... huh?”

'Boy, Jenna, that sounds real intelligent' thought Balto.

“They're going hijack a helicopter. Their plan is to hide, and make the camp look like it's deserted. They're hoping that the men inside will come out of the copter to take a closer look around. As soon as they all leave, Nikki and his team will jump them. When they do, we hop aboard the helicopter and fly off while they're busy fighting. Okay?”

“Uhh, okay.”

Balto could just picture Jenna with the words 'Clueless' behind her, and Jenna herself going 'Duhhhhh.' It was a lovely picture. However, his overactive imagination was interrupted by the sound of helicopter blades.

“Ze plane! Ze plane!” cried an old Russian goose.

“It's the helicopter!” said Nikki. “Everyone, into the forest! Balto, you ready for this?”

“Yep.”

He turned to Jenna and whispered “Okay, nows the time. Remember, head for the helicopter after the convicts have attacked the crew.”

The helicopter landed in the clearing. At first, nothing happened. Then, the doors on the side opened up, and half a dozen men stepped out. All the convicts tensed themselves and prepared to leap. Balto however, noticed something.

“Jenna! Those guys have guns!”

“What?”

“Those men that stepped out the helicopter have semi-automatic weapons!”

“Then... are we still planning on taking the helicopter?”

“I don't know. Only if every man is subdued. Hopefully our 'friends' over there hiding in the bushes don't see the guns and still jump them.”

Then, it happened. Six dogs,two polar bears, and two geese, all leaped out at the armed men, tackling them all. Looks of shock appeared on their faces as a semi-automatic went off, nearly hitting one of the dogs.

“Now Jenna, now or never!” Balto shouted.

The two of them ran out from the bush they were hiding in and ran across the clearing toward the helicopter. “Only fifty more feet” thought Balto. And then, a mere fifteen feet from the helicopter, Balto fell over, with a sharp pain in his side. He looked down and saw a red spot growing on his shirt. He looked up and saw that the armed men had fought to their way to their feet, and one of them had shot Balto in the side, and began running toward Balto and Jenna. As he was running, he lifted his weapon and took a shot at Jenna, who had been trying to help Balto to his feet. As soon as she realized what was happening, she ducked behind the copter, feeling regretful that she had to abandon Balto. The man kept running toward Jenna, and fortunately he hadn't noticed that Balto was still alive. As he ran past him, Balto kicked at the man's leg, who then fell over onto the ground. When the armed man tried to get up again, Balto crawled over to him and kicked him again, and grabbed his weapon. The man spun around and tackled Balto. They began wrestling, each one trying to get the gun out of the other's hand. Right when the man gained the upper hand, Jenna leaped at him with a large stick and whacked his temple with it.

“Come on, hurry up!” she said.

She lifted Balto to his feet and helped him hobble over to the copter, going as fast as she could. However, even in the fray of flying bullets and general mayhem caused by the convicts and policemen's fight, Nikki noticed them getting in. He quickly ran over to it just as Jenna was closing the door. He swung a stick in and stopped the door from latching, then opened it back up and jumped in just as Balto took off. He wasted no time in showing Balto how mad he was. He threw his stick at Balto with all his might. Balto ducked and it flew into the windshield, busting just about all of it. Balto tackled Nikki into the floor. Now the helicopter, with no one at it's controls, began slowly descending. Jenna quickly jumped into the pilot's seat, and began learning how to fly a helicopter. Jenna managed to get the helicopter's altitude back up, but with all the wind blowing on her face, she made one slight mistake. She accidentally hit something in the cockpit that made the entire copter jerk to the right, causing Balto and Nikki to roll into the door. And, unfortunately, Nikki didn't completely latch the door shut when he entered. The door flew open, and Balto and Nikki both fell out. Balto grabbed one of the runners (you know, those thingy-muh-bobbers that look like skis on the bottom of the helicopter?), and Nikki grabbed onto Balto's leg. Now Balto, having been shot in his side, didn't have the strength to pull himself up, but Nikki had no problem with it. He pulled himself up Balto, then onto the runner. He stood up straight, and then he turned to Balto and stepped on his hand, and not very gently either. Balto shot out with his other hand and grabbed hold of Nikki's ankle and pulled it out from underneath him. Nikki fell backward on the runner and landed on his back, while Balto finally got himself onto the runner. Nikki got up, enraged even more than before, and swung at Balto. Balto ducked, then charged at Nikki's stomach with his head. Nikki fell on his back again, but got up into a crouching position and grabbed Balto's shirt. He pulled hard and Balto began falling on top of him, when Nikki stuck his feet out and kicked Balto again. Nikki scrambled up and got a hold on the door handle and yanked it open, planning on getting inside and taking care of Jenna as well, when Balto suddenly got up and grabbed onto Nikki's shirt collar and yanked very very hard on it. Nikki flew back and teetered on the runner for a moment, then fell off. Balto watched as Nikki fell into the water, and smiled at how big of a splash he made. The wouldn't be enough to kill the guy or anything, but it sure wouldn't feel good. Balto climbed inside the copter and looked at Jenna.

“I think it's time I took back the cockpit. Your flying makes me nervous.”

Two months later...

Things had finally been fixed up. The convicts were taken off the island and put in a maximum security prison, and all the guards that came on the helicopter had been picked up as well. Balto, however, had begun flying 747's rather than buying another Cessna. As for Jenna, she told the oil company about the large supply of oil on the island. Her boss had been so impressed by the size of this deposit that he offered Jenna a promotion. She didn't accept it, but instead quit her job and learned how to fly 747's as well, and eventually became Balto's copilot.

Author's note: If you actually liked this fanfic (yeah right), than watch for the sequel, 'Countdown', coming soon.