Chapter 25
I feel someone shaking my shoulder from behind. “Kobi, Kobi, get up. We have to get out. I lift my head and look around, dazed and disconnected.
“Derrick? Derrick? Where are you?”
“I’m right here, Sweetheart. Are you okay?”
“I think so. Are you okay?”
“Yes, I’m fine. Come on, we have to get out of here. We are leaking fuel and I smell smoke.”
“Okay, I’m coming.” I go to unbuckle my seatbelt and realize I can’t lift my right hand. I look down at the wrist and see a big bump and a lot of bruising already. I think it is broken. I use my left hand and cup the wrist and hand so I can lift it. I am lucky to have a button up shirt on today, so I tuck my arm inside my shirt and use it like a make-shift sling.
Henderson is slumped over the yoke. I place my left hand on his shoulder and give him a little shake. “Henderson?” I shake him again and he regains consciousness. He has a nasty gouge on his head, just above the right eye and it is bleeding badly.
“Come on man, we have to get out of here.”
We both climb out of the cockpit and make our way to the exit. The tail section, just aft of the bathroom, is gone. It ripped off during the crash and is a couple of hundred feet back. Derrick is at the entrance waiting for both of us. He sees the blood on Henderson’s head and immediately tears off a piece of his shirt and places it on the wound.
“Here, hold this on the cut and apply pressure to stop the bleeding,” Derrick insists. “Kobi, what’s wrong with your arm?”
“I think I broke my wrist. I’ll show you later.”
Derrick, Henderson and I exit the airplane and get to a safe distance before I realize that Dane isn’t with us.
“Derrick, where is Dane?”
“He went back into the airplane to salvage any supplies he can find. We need water and the first aid kit. He thought it was worth the risk, going back in. He’ll be okay. Don’t worry.”
I squint at the plane and see Dane inside throwing stuff into a bag. “Hurry up Dane, there is a gas leak.” I see flames under the left wing so I start screaming at Dane. “Get out! There is a fire!”
Dane grabs the first aid kit, and is exiting the aircraft when it explodes.
The force of the explosion hurls Dane about 50 feet in the air. Dane is on fire and lying on the ground, face down. I feel the blast from way over here. Derrick runs over to Dane and extinguishes the flames with his hands. He rolls Dane over and checks for a pulse. He’s alive! Derrick picks up Dane and carries him over to where we are sitting. Dane’s face and arms have been burned, but I think he is going to be okay.
Henderson is looking at the wreckage, watching the plane burn, when he mumbles, “I’m so sorry.”
“It wasn’t your fault,” Derrick says. “We are all alive because of you. Thank you!”
We are very lucky indeed. Henderson has a head injury, I have probably broken my wrist, and Dane has some burns on his face and arms. As far as I can tell, Derrick is fine. No one has a life-threatening injury, which is amazing after what just happened.
The four of us stand up and survey the land. Dane is looking for any landmark that might provide him with a clue as to where we are. The landscape is a burst sienna color speckled with dots of yellow with little short, stubby bushes as far as the eye can see. Off in the distance, I see a dark purple range of hills or mountains. Not sure which. It is dry and vast.
It is about 12:30 p.m. and getting very hot. Derrick gets the bag that Dane was filling up in the plane and sits down.
“Now, what do we have here?” He starts taking everything out of the bag. “It looks like we have 13 bottles of water, a few sodas, some juice boxes, and a dozen bags of peanuts. I also found an apple and two oranges in the mini-fridge. Not bad.”
Henderson punches Dane on the arm and says, “Thanks for getting the supplies and the first aid kit out of the wreckage. You are a brave man.”
“I second that!” I say as I thrust my good hand up in the air.
Dane is very humble and not making a big deal about his act of valor. He is sitting up now, and I can clearly see the burns on his face. Dane is a tough cookie, as my mom use to say; he is tough as nails. The burns appear to be flash burns, not as bad as we initially thought. Derrick hands everyone a bottle of water. Dane opens up the first aid kit to take inventory. It is a fully stocked kit and has just about everything we need.
Henderson’s head needs stitches, and the only item in the kit we can use are some butterfly stitches. Dane removes a few from the package and walks over to Henderson. He uses a little of his water on a piece or gauze and cleans the wound. It is bleeding badly. Dane puts a small amount of the ointment on the wound and uses the butterfly stitches to close the gash. He gets a fresh gauze pad and cleans his head again. The bleeding is almost completely stopped. He takes a little more ointment and spreads it on the wound, and then tapes a clean gauze pad on top.
“Good as new, Buddy,” Dane says with a smile.
“Thanks Dane, I appreciate that very much.”
“I am going to run to the tail section and salvage anything out of our luggage I can find. I’ll be right back,” Henderson says.
“Hang on Henderson, I’ll come with you.”
Derrick and Henderson start walking back to the tail section. Within a few minutes, I see Derrick coming out of the tail with one of my suitcases. He and Henderson are bringing all the bags out and piling them up close to where we are sitting. I am looking around, hoping to find an area that has a little shade, and there is none in sight. It is hot! I take a long swig of my water and look over to where Derrick is putting the luggage.
Dane comes up to me and says, “Let me take a look at that arm.”
I pull my arm out of my shirt very slowly and hold it out for Dane to see.
“Crickey, Kobi, that looks bad. Judging by the redness and bruising around this area that is swollen, I think that wrist is broken. Hang on a minute. I am going to search through the suitcases for something I can use to make you a sling. I’ll be right back.”
Henderson comes back for his water bottle and I ask, “How is your head?”
“I have a headache, but other than that I feel fine. How about you?”
“I’m fine, just broke my wrist, that all. How long before they start looking for us.”
“I don’t know. I wasn’t able to establish radio contact with the center before we crashed, so I can’t say for sure. I’m sure they are organizing a search and rescue team right now.”
Dane comes back with a piece of the airplane and a couple of his shirts. “I found this little piece of the airplane hanging off of the tail section that I am going to use as a board for your arm.”
Dane has a little trim tab from the stabilizer, which will work perfectly. First, he wraps the tab with a shirt so it has a little cushion to it, then he wraps my arm. Next, he places my arm on the tab so my fingers are hanging off the edge in front. Then, he takes a shirt, which he has ripped into strips, and secures the tab to my arm. He wraps and wraps my arm giving it plenty of cushion in case it gets bumped. Finally, he has made a sling out of one of Derrick’s button up shirts. He puts the shirt around my arm and ties it at the back of my neck. A few more tucks and folds, and it’s perfect.
“I know it hurts, Kobi, but does that feel secure?”
“Yes, it does, Dane. Thank you so much. I am so glad you are here. I don’t know what we would do without you.” He just smiles at me.
“Now, let me take a look at your face, Dane. Is there any burn ointment in
the first aid kit?”
“Yes, there
is a tube right here.” He hands me the tube.
“Dane, you need to get a soft cloth out of the suitcase and clean your face off, if you can. It is filthy after your face got planted in the dirt earlier.”
He comes back with a towel, takes a little of the water from his bottle, and gently wipes the dirt off his face. It is as clean as it is going to get under the circumstances. I use my left hand and carefully rub the ointment all over his face. His eyebrows and eyelashes have been singed, but he doesn’t have any major blistering yet.
Derrick and Henderson have all the bags out of the airplane and are starting to look through them for any items we can use. Dane goes over to give them a hand. Dane immediately goes to his suitcase and pulls out a big knife. That might come in handy later. I know I have a couple of packages of trail mix in my suitcase. I always have trail mix. Derrick puts the items into a backpack and walks over to where I am sitting.
“How are you feeling, Baby?”
“I’m okay. What’s in the bag?”
“Well, I found some trail mix, some disinfectant wipes, a bag of jelly beans, a half bottle of Scotch, a sewing kit, and your hat.”
“I’m so glad you found my hat.” I put it on immediately because the sun is burning my head. “The Scotch will be useful as a sterilizer, if we need one. Maybe we should all have a change of clothes too.”
“Good idea. I’ll be right back.”
“Baby, we need to find some shelter.”
“I know. But we should stay close to the airplane, right?”
“Yeah, that’s the first place that search and rescue will be looking, but it might take them days to get here. Henderson wasn’t able to establish radio contact, so the controller may not know we have crashed. When they don’t see our transponder bleep on the radar screen any more, they will figure out that we have crashed. Hopefully, they will pick up the Emergency Locator Transmitter, if it works.”
“I wonder if my cell phone works.” Henderson says. He gets his phone out of his pocket and of course, we have no service. I check my phone and it shows the same thing.
“What are we going to do?” I ask.
Dane interjects, “Let’s not make any decisions right now. In a survival situation, the first thing you need to do is get to a safe location. Second, tend to the wounded and other priorities. Third, think about shelter. Fourth, drink fluids and stay hydrated. Fifth, eat and rest, especially in the heat of the day. So far, we are doing great.”
Dane tells everyone to drink at least half of their water bottle, and rest for a while. Derrick is looking through all of the suitcases searching for something like a blanket we can use to shelter us from the hot, midday sun. Unfortunately, there is nothing like that in any of the suitcases. The hull of the airplane is unusable as well, because it has been burned. The tail section is not large enough, so we are forced to seek shelter elsewhere. Maybe we can tie up a bunch of shirts and make a cover at least to protect us from the hot sun.
Henderson advises us that we should really stay with the aircraft, because that is the first place the rescue team is going to look--if there is a rescue team. After talking about it for a few minutes, we agree to stay with the wreckage until the morning. If no one has come looking for us by then, we’ll start looking for a better place. Dane and Derrick decide to walk around and collect as much firewood as they can find. We want to have a big fire going tonight for two reasons. First of all, it can be seen for miles and miles, and we definitely want to be seen right now. Secondly, a big, roaring fire will deter predators, should any decide to stop by for a midnight snack.
Henderson has volunteered to build a fire pit. He begins by digging a hole approximately six inches deep and two feet in diameter. He lines the hole with rocks and begins to stack the rocks around the hole in a circle. After the fire pit is finished, it has probably a one foot wall of rocks around it. I have taken the clothes from the suitcases and laid them out on the ground, which gives us a little bit of cushion for sitting and sleeping. I wish I could help more, but my wrist is hurting, and I can see my fingertips turning a bluish-black color now.
Derrick and Dane are back, each with a huge armful of wood. They walk over to the fire pit and drop the wood just next to the rocks.
“Nice pit, Henderson,” Dane raves, as he starts to stack the wood inside the pit to be burned. “I need to find some kindling to put under the wood, something small and dry.”
“That shouldn’t be a problem out here,” Derrick jokes.
“Hey, catch that tumble weed right there, Derrick. We can break that into pieces and use it for kindling. Henderson, where did you learn to make such a nice fire pit? This is awesome!”
“Thanks. I went to survival school a long time ago when I was a Lieutenant in the Guard, and thought I had forgotten most of what I learned. I’m surprised how quickly it is all starting to flood my memory again. Sometimes out here in the Outback it can get windy, so having a wall of rock around the fire helps to protect the flame.”
“It looks like you have this fire building under control, so Derrick and I are going to hunt for food,” Dane announces.
Food, what food can they find out here in this environment? Maybe a lizard, or a snake. I have a feeling dinner is going to be something unique tonight, to say the least. The pain in my wrist is getting worse, so I grab the first aid kit, hoping that there is a bottle of aspirin that I can use. As luck would have it, there is a bottle of aspirin. The dosage calls for two tablets, but I am going to take four so I can get the pain reliever into my system. I don’t know if the aspirin is going to help at all, but it is worth a try. I ask Henderson if he needs any for his head, and he nods no.
“My head is actually starting to feel a lot better. I have a mild headache, but not bad enough to take those. If anyone needs those, it’s you, Kobi. I’m worried about you.”
“Thanks, Henderson, but don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine. That’s a nice fire you have going there, but why is it so big? It’s hot as hell right now.”
“If someone is trying to find us, maybe they will see the smoke, plus we will have good coals for tonight’s fire.”
“Good thinking. The pain must be affecting my logic.” Henderson chuckles and keeps working on the fire. We are going to need more wood if we are going to keep the fire burning like that all night, so Henderson starts looking for more.