Chapter 28
Day 23
I wake up fairly early, because my wrist is hurting so badly, I can’t sleep any longer. I notice that the fire has almost completely died out, so I throw a couple of logs on top, and it starts to burn again. In a matter of minutes, everyone is awake, ready to face Day 2 in the Outback. Dane immediately grabs the empty water bottles and the box of condoms, and puts them into the backpack. He hands everyone another water bottle for the day.
“Drink a couple of swigs, everyone. We need to keep hydrated, but not overly hydrated. Derrick, are you ready to go search for water?”
“Yeah, just give me a second; I need to take a whiz.”
“Wait for me, Honey. I need to go too. I might need your help getting my pants back on.” Henderson and Dane started laughing at that comment. I wonder why.
I beg Derrick to please be careful out there this morning, and don’t lose track of where they are. He tells me not to worry, that he will be extra careful. We get back to the camp and Dane is ready to go. “Well then, let’s go, shall we!”
Henderson brings me three aspirins and tells me to take them. They might help my hand feel better, but I doubt it. It is the kind of pain that makes you rock back in forth in agony. Surely someone will come and find us this morning… they have too. It’s been 20 hours since we crashed, and I thought someone would have found us by now. Henderson says if we aren’t located in the first 24 hours, it means our Emergency Transmitter is not working. I hope that is not the case, but it is looking like it might be what’s happened.
There isn’t really much we can do about the situation. All we can do is wait until dark. Henderson is rummaging through his suitcase trying to find a clean shirt. The one he has been wearing has blood from his head injury on the front. He has found a Hawaiian floral print shirt, with super bright colors and is putting it on.
“I think the rescue plane will be able to find us just because you are wearing that shirt. It is just about the brightest, wildest, shirt I have ever seen, but I like it,” I joke.
“That’s why I am wearing it. I didn’t want to blend in with my environment.”
“You have succeeded in--not blending.”
We both start laughing so hard, my side starts to hurt. “Stop, stop, I can’t
laugh anymore.”
Derrick and Dane return to the crash site looking like a couple of kids who were playing in a mud hole.
“We found water. It’s dirty as hell, but it’s wet. Do we have anything else we can store water in?” Dane asks.
All of us start thinking, wracking our brains, trying to think of something. “What else is in the tail section, Henderson?”
“I don’t know. Let’s go see.”
They come back holding what appears to be a big bowl, but it is actually the cone off of the tip of the tail.
“We might be able to put this into the embers of the fire and actually boil some of this dirty water. After it has boiled, we can use some clothes to move the cone to an area away from the fire while it cools. Then, all we have to do is add the water tablets, and we have drinkable water,” Dane explains.
Henderson places the cone into the embers and uses rocks to brace it so it doesn’t fall over. Henderson grabs a shirt and holds it over the cone section. Pouring the liquid over the shirt will help filter out some of the dirt in the water. What a great idea. It is about half full, so Derrick and Dane go back to the spot where they found the water earlier and fill up the containers and condoms again. They return within the hour and pour the contents into the make-shift pot. Now all we have to do is let it boil. Everyone drinks the rest of their water bottle and starts another one. Drink it while you got it.
“Great plan guys,” I say with excitement.
Dane tells us to go ahead and drink a bottle of water each today, so we will be hydrated for tonight. If no one had found us by this evening, we are going to head north and hope for the best. Dane and Derrick are going hunting again today for more food. They will fill up the empty water bottles again while they are hunting.
“We shouldn’t be too long, Honey, I’ll see you in a couple of hours,” Derrick says as he kisses me on the forehead.
He and Dane start walking, and Henderson says, “I think this water is done. Please hand me a couple of shirts and I’ll take it off the fire so it can cool.”
I handed him a thick flannel shirt Derrick was saving for a chilly night. Henderson moves the cone section full of water away from the fire and comes back and sits down by me.
“I know that leaving the airplane goes against everything we have ever heard or have been taught, but your wrist is getting worse, and we really need to get you some medical attention. I would hate for that wrist to get toxic.”
“I know you are right, but I am a little nervous about leaving. What if we leave and end up in a worse situation than we are now? I know we can ‘what if’ the heck out of this, but we are out here, somewhere, and don’t even know where. But thank goodness, we have Dane. He knows this country, and if anyone can get us out of here, it’s Dane.”
“You’re right about that. Here, let me see your hand.” I show him my fingertips and they are really black now, and it hurts badly. “Yeah, you need a doctor, Kobi. I’m really worried about your hand. Here, why don’t you drink some water? You should probably lie down and rest because we will be walking most of the night and you need your strength.”
“Thanks, Henderson.”
I don’t know how long I slept before Derrick and Dane came back to the
camp. Derrick comes to where I am sleeping and gently shakes my foot. “Hey Sunshine, look what I found for you.”
I sit up and looked at Derrick and he is holding a piece of fruit. It is a wild orange, and they found three of them.
“Here, I want you to have my share,” Derrick says.
He sits there and peels it for me to eat. It’s not bad. Then he hands me some water and tells me to drink at least three big swigs. I do as instructed. I am feeling a little better now, so I decide to sit up and see what else Derrick and Dane brought back with them.
Dane holds up a stick and I see three lizards on them, two like the ones we had last night and something else. “It’s a Goanna,” Dane says. “Let’s cook these little guys up, and what we don’t eat now, we’ll take with us.”
I ask Derrick for the time, and he tells me that it is 3:00 p.m. I couldn’t have been asleep that long, but I was. Dane is cleaning the lizards so they can be cooked. Henderson and Derrick are purifying the water and pouring it into the empty water bottles. There is a little water left over, so everyone takes a drink until it is empty. Derrick takes the water bottles that he and Dane filled up while they were out hunting, pours the liquid into the cone section, and puts it back on the fire. We will need to have every water bottle full, and our bodies well-hydrated before we start walking this evening.
The lizards are cooking and we are packing up only what we need to carry for survival. Most of the clothes and personal items will be left behind because they are not essential. We have no idea how long or how far we will need to walk before we find some kind of civilization. I know everyone is taking a spare pair of socks and an extra shirt to wrap around our neck just in case the air gets chilled
during the night.
The lizards are cooked, and Dane starts separating the meat from the bones just like he did last night. There is a huge pile of meat sitting on the shirt in front of us. This is great. We all eat as much as we can, and take the rest with us. Now, we are waiting for the sun to set. I see the sun starting to dig its way into the earth’s surface and am truly amazed at how beautiful the sunset really is. It is about one-third of the way down, and the sky has just about every shade of the rainbow. With so much empty land, it made the sunset even more beautiful and easy to see. It is so rich in color that describing it is a very difficult task. Twilight is a
rriving!
The sun itself is not the bright yellow it was; it is turning a darker yellow, even a little orange as its sinks below the horizon. The horizon has a glow as if on fire, but eventually, it fades. The sun is cooling. The sky around the cooling sun is turning a rich shade of purple with darker shades of deep, royal blue. The stars are free to come out now.
Everything is packed, and we are ready to go. Dane and Henderson are extinguishing the fire by throwing dirt on the flames. The embers will be hot for a while, but there is no threat of starting a fire out here because it is barren. A dry bush here and a stick there won’t be enough to start a wild fire. Luckily, we have a full moon tonight, which will provide us with a little light while we are walking.
Looking into the distance and seeing nothing but darkness causes an emotion I have never experienced--hopelessness. But, I will not share that particular feeling with anyone because we all need to stay positive and upbeat for each other. If one of us gets depressed or starts to whimper negative emotions or thoughts, it will create an unhealthy environment for all of us. “Keep positive,” I
say to myself.
We are probably about two hours from the crash site now, and I ask if we can stop for a few minutes and rest. Everyone unanimously says, “Yes.” I think the men wanted to stop but didn’t want to be the first to ask. We find a little area with a few rock outcroppings to sit on. All of us take a long, slow, swig of our water. After 10 minutes, we get up and start walking again. The temperature is perfect, and none of us are sweating at all.
After 30 minutes or so, we are halted in our tracks by a familiar sound. Just ahead we hear yelping and barking. Great! A pack of wild dingoes, just what we need. The four of us stop and sit down in the dirt so we can listen more closely. It is really hard to tell if they are fighting or playing with each other. They might even be fighting over a piece of food. Every now and then I see the eye shine of their eyes. I can hear them breathing now and I am really scared. I grab Derrick and hold him tight.
Dane whispers, “Don’t anybody move.”
No one is moving anyway. I can hear them getting close now. What are we going to do? Suddenly Dane jumps up, shouts as loud as he can, and starts waving his arms, holding his knife in one hand and a stick in the other. It works because the dingoes are running away.
“That was so scary.”
“They shouldn’t bother us anymore tonight. I scared them just as much as they scared you. Come on, just a few more hours until the sun comes up. Let’s try to get a few more miles in tonight.”
We get on our feet and start walking. I hope he is right about the dingoes not bothering us again tonight.
Day 24
We walk until we see the sun start to poke its head up above the horizon, so we know it’s time to stop and set up camp for the day. Just a couple of hundred meters in front of us, we see a tree right next to a rather large rock outcrop.
“That looks like a good place to stop for the day. The outcrop will provide us with a little shade later on this afternoon. We can secure the blanket to the outcrop and make a small lean-to shelter,” Dane suggests.
Derrick and Dane have the shelter set up, and Henderson is working on a small fire pit, while I clear the area under the blanket so we can rest later. Dane really wants to go hunting for an hour or so to see if he can luck out and get another lizard or two. Derrick, of course, will go with him. I motion to Henderson to come over.
“Henderson, I need to check your head and make sure there is no infection on the wound. Can you bring me the first aid kit?”
“Sure. Here you go.” Slowly, I remove the outer gauze bandage. The gouge is healing nicely. There is no infection, and the butterfly stitches are holding well. I rub a little antibiotic ointment on the wound and place a fresh piece of gauze over the top.
“It looks good, Henderson. There is no infection, and the stiches are holding well.”
“Thanks, Kobi. Will you be okay here by yourself for a while? I am going to walk around the perimeter and gather up as much firewood as I can. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
I’m sitting in the shade, feeling like a heel because I can’t help the guys do
anything. I know it is just me thinking that way, but I still feel bad. By noon, Derrick and Dane return, but unfortunately, they are empty-handed. They didn’t find any water either, so we are going to ration what we drink today. Since we have nothing to cook, there is no reason to start a fire, so Henderson puts the wood down inside the pit and comes out of the sun to the shade of the blanket. The best thing we can do right now is rest, which is exactly what we do.
I feel something crawling on my arm and that wakes me up. It must have been some kind of bug, I guess. I am surprised to see that it is dark already and we are all still asleep. I sit up and take a small swallow of my water. Derrick must have felt me move because he is awake now and decides to get Dane and Henderson up as well. We pack up the camp and start the night walking again. Tonight is a lot harder than last night because my stomach is empty and screaming for food. I suggest to the group that we eat a bag of peanuts or maybe a few jelly beans to give us all a little bit of energy. Dane takes his share, and passes the bag back for everyone else to take their share.
We are nibbling as we walk, and I have to say that having just a few jelly beans did the trick. I have a little bit of energy now and am feeling better. Off in the distance I faintly see the outline of some trees in the night sky, with the help of the moonlight. Dane sees it too, because we alter our course just a little bit to the right so we can stop and rest under the trees.
Henderson suggests, “This might be a good place to stop for the night. Let’s set up the transpiration bag over one of the tree branches and hopefully collect some drinking water by morning.”
That’s a great idea, so we all agree to rest here for the remainder of the night. Dane thinks that if he digs down deep enough, he might even find water. It’s still dark, and there isn’t much we can do until we have light, so we decide to build a small fire, since we have a few hours until sunrise. All of us are staring into the flames when we hear a noise just to the left of us.
“What is that,” I whisper. “There it is again.”
“There’s no telling what’s out there, Kobi. It could be a dingo, or a kangaroo. Whatever it is, it shouldn’t bother us because of the fire,” Dane says calmly.
The words weren’t out of his mouth for five seconds when I see the visitor. I can barely make out the shape of a kangaroo standing behind the fire about 10 feet back.
“Look, there he is. See it? It’s a kangaroo, and he is looking at us. He’s a curious little thing, isn’t he,” I say with excitement. This is the first kangaroo I have seen since we’ve been here. We are surprised to see that he is so calm. He is standing there just looking at us. I wish we had something for him to eat, but he’s probably better at getting food than we are. Then I see a few more kangaroos standing to the left and right of him. It must be a family of kangaroos. They seem to be very curious about us.
One of the kangaroos has something in its pouch, under its belly. Something is moving around in there. I know it’s a Joey, and then I see it; there is a little head sticking out of the top of the pouch. Talk about cute! All of a sudden, for no apparent reason, the kangaroos run away, almost like something frightened them.