Chapter 11

I woke to the sound of the birds singing happily and various other jungle sounds. Sunlight was trickling through the foliage and I looked at my watch, it was only 5.34am. “Fuck me, is that all?” I said to myself and yawned. But at least we’d all managed to get a few hours sleep, which is more than any of us thought we’d get after the ordeal we’d been through the previous day.

I stretched, looked around to see if the others were awake (they weren’t, or at least they appeared to be sleeping) and then slumped back down into my sleeping bag to try and get a little more sleep. It was no use though, and after five minutes of lying there with my eyes closed, listening to the damn birds tweeting away in the trees, I decided to give up. I quietly unzipped my sleeping bag and nearly screamed when a couple of spiders crawled out, I wondered what else had shared my bed during the night and shuddered at the thought. Maybe it was better I didn’t know!

“Sleep well?” Brian mumbled from his sleeping bag. Maybe I hadn’t been as quiet as I’d thought.

“I guess so, what about you?” I asked.

“Well, I’ve had better nights” he replied and slid out of his sleeping bag and joined me next to the fire I was trying to get going. He prodded at the injury on his face and I took a look at it for him to make sure it looked alright. I’m no expert or anything, but it didn’t look infected and the bleeding had stopped.

I would’ve given anything for a nice cup of coffee, but unfortunately we didn’t have anything remotely like coffee. We did have rehydration powder sachets, freeze dried meals and water. I held up a selection of sachets, ranging from oatmeal to chilli and decided that chilli for breakfast was not an option.

“Freeze dried oatmeal it is then” Brian poured water into a small metal tin and placed it over the fire to warm so that we didn’t have to eat cold oatmeal.

“Mmm my favourite” I said sarcastically. But it would have to do, it could’ve been worse and at least we didn’t have to go rummaging for food in the wild.

“Wanna wake the others?”

“Already awake” Jordan replied.

Half an hour later we were all sitting around, finishing up the portions of bland oatmeal we’d warmed over the fire and washing it down with rationed water.

“How’s the leg this morning?” I asked Howie, noticing that his makeshift bandage was saturated with blood. The strain of walking on it the day before can’t have done him any good.

“Still hurting like hell” he said as he grimaced in pain trying to move out of his sleeping bag “but I’ll survive”

“I think we’ll have to apply a fresh bandage to it” Brian suggested, ripping up a t-shirt into strips to use.

“How about you Jordan, how’s the head?” I asked.

“Fine” he replied.

“Want me to take a look?” I asked.

“No, it’s OK, but thanks anyway” he said and so I left it. There wasn’t any blood seeping through and he said he was alright, so I took his word for it.

We packed up our sleeping bags and other bits and pieces before getting the map out. We didn’t have a clue where we were and so soon put the map away and looked at the compass instead. We’d been heading west yesterday and so decided to carry on that way, hopefully we’d either find civilization or be rescued soon.

“I have a good feeling about today” I announced optimistically “they’re gonna find us soon”

“I hope so” AJ puffed on a cigarette.

“Don’t worry, we’ll be home before you run out of smokes” I teased

“I frigging hope so!”

I really could’ve done with a shower, my clothes were a bit sweaty and dirty and were the only ones I had after burning the other set, but they’d have to do until we either found a river or lake to wash in, or were rescued. I was hoping the rescue would come first.

“Right then, are we ready to go?” I asked my fellow plane wreck survivors.

“Yeah” they all replied

“Come on then, let’s see what today brings”

~*~

The temperature was rising as we trekked through the jungle, sweat pouring off all of us as we carried our rucksacks under the sweltering sun. Every so often we stopped for a sip of water and a rest, and then resumed our journey.

“I wonder how much longer?” AJ said in what sounded like a whiney kid’s voice. I couldn’t blame him, I’d had enough too. I was drenched in sweat, it was running down my face and stinging my eyes and all I wanted was an ice cold shower and a cold beer.

“Wish I knew” Brian replied, not as chirpy as he’d been when we started in the morning “but I do know people are looking for us, they wouldn’t just leave us here”

“It could take some time though, those little planes aren’t like the big commercial planes, and they don’t carry those black boxes which record all the flight data, so can’t really be traced. The search and rescue teams are going to have a tough job on their hands trying to locate us. Better if we can find a way out ourselves” said Howie, seemingly full of knowledge on the subject of plane crash survival.

“Yeah, you’re right there D, if we’d stayed where we were, we might’ve been in for a long wait” I said, agreeing with Howie.

By now our clothes were sticking to us, the heat was becoming almost unbearable, it was like being in a sauna or something like that. We’d all tied the top half of the all in one overalls around our waists as it was far too hot to be wearing that in the jungle, but I also took my t-shirt off and tied it around my head to protect myself from sunstroke. It was also to help curb the trickle of sweat which kept running into my eyes. I wasn’t sure whether the trees were enough to keep the sun from burning me, but didn’t want to take the chance. It was better to be prepared rather than suffer for it later.

“Think I’ll do the same” said AJ taking his t-shirt off too and wrapping around his shaved head. Brian, Howie and Jordan soon followed.

“I wonder how big this jungle actually is?” I asked out of curiosity after we’d been walking most of the day and not come across anything but jungle.

“Fucking huge” said AJ

“Well thanks genius” I laughed

“My pleasure” he grinned “seriously dude, I have no frigging clue”

“Me neither, but it must be fucking massive, we could be walking for days before we get out of here”

“I hope not” Jordan said

“Same here” Brian agreed.

“Come on then, we better shift our asses or we’ll never get out of here” I announced.