Path of Ranger: Volume 1 (16 page)

The survivors of the flight ‘UA-Air 107’ Kiev - Los Angeles stayed together around the crash location. They were scared, confused and intimidated. Each one of them hoped for a rescue team to come soon. But the spirit of the jungle was radiating such a vivid sense of fear, that it dimmed most of their hopes into blackness.

The fire was the one thing that brought them a bit of peace, so everyone tried to keep as close to it as possible. Those who were familiar stayed near each other. The sorrow brought them together to unite against the difficulties that lay ahead. It was vital for surviving. Several hours passed in silence, no one had spoken a single word. Perhaps it was stress. Each of the people had different thoughts on their minds. Some were concerned about their close ones, who stayed on the mainland. Others occasionally kept looking at the plane’s parts, thinking about the ones still in there. But most of them weren’t able to think straight at all.

El and Tina held together all the time. They were sitting close, keeping each other in warmth and safety. El was scared, her skin had never shivered like that in her life. As unlikely as it seemed, JB was on her mind. Not her parents or friend, but him. He wasn’t one of the thirty-three. The captain assured her that no one from the ‘first class’ lived through the crash. Her heart wanted him to live, but her mind was bringing that expectation to reality. The tiredness took over. She wanted to sleep. Her eyes were closing more and more often. She was powerless against it.

Several more hours passed. Dawn was not far. Most of the group kept near the fire camp. All of them were exhausted, the only thing they could do was to wait for help. The captain, Josh Skyman, sat in one of the plane’s seats. He didn’t change his focus for a long time, just was watching the fire, entirely lost in his thoughts.

On the dawn, the sky changed its darkness to a gray mist. Skyman was feeding the fire for the whole night, it was his duty. He had a chance to think a lot. Most of all he processed the mystery of the plane crash. It didn’t make sense to him. The plane had been brutally torn apart and suffered a terrible fall, but neither he nor anyone else could recall a thing.

Until the end of the night, after long and useless tries of explaining the cause of the crash, he changed his angle of thinking. He dropped that subject for the time being and started working on a plan for further actions. They were already there, and nobody could know when the rescue team would come. The primary objective was to survive. The decisions in that direction were much harder since he had no idea where they were and who was near him. It was enormous stress for the people. When thinking about that, Skyman didn't pay attention to his own feelings, just about those who he was responsible for. Somehow he was grateful that he didn’t have a family or a lot of close ones. So it went easier on him, compared to the others. He was a bit of a loner, the pilot. The sky was his life.

A short distraction passed, the captain returned to working on planning how to survive. He thought of two options. The first one was to stay near the plane and wait for the rescuers, who had to follow the distress signal. But he didn’t know if the instruments were still intact. And, judging by the overall look of the plane, he hardly believed it. He did tell the passengers that the equipment was dead, though, but it was just his hunch. An excuse for them not to come back to the plane. The second option meant for them to leave the plane and walk through the jungle to the beach. Stay there for some time in hopes for an occasional vessel to sail by.

Both of those options were a hazard. If they stayed, there was a risk of being attacked by wild animals, plus there were no valuable resources except the ones on the plane. The option to go was dangerous because of the journey itself since most of the people had never been in the wild before. All those possible animals, poisonous snakes and insects, the unpredictable terrain and foliage. Besides, it wasn’t certain what the shore might be like. A sandy beach or rocky cliffs? The only benefit in the second option was a higher chance of being spotted from the water line and from the sky. Skyman felt responsibility for each one of the passengers, their lives were on the line and it made the decision difficult. Yet, he had to decide, he was their leader.

What used to be a huge fire camp became a pile of ashes with a thin smoke trail coming from the center. Skyman was staring at it constantly but noticed nothing. He focused completely on his thoughts. Such a concentration was broken by the movement of one of the passengers. A man woke up. His smooth movements suddenly got sharp and abrupt when he looked around. It seemed as if he had forgotten about what happened and being there was a surprise for him. In a few seconds the man calmed down, it all came back to him. He raised up and walked towards the captain. He was nearly six feet tall, strong, with short dark hair. Straight posture and firm moves. Skyman recognized the military in him. It was easy for someone who had served in the army himself. The stranger came closer and sat on the log, next to the captain.

“Hello,” the man said, rubbing his sleepy face.

“Good morning,” Skyman nodded in return.

“Steven Wash,” the man introduced himself.

“Josh Skyman.”

They shook hands.

“So how are we doing, Captain?”

“It could be worse. Not that many of us are injured,” the pilot explained.

“At least some good news… What’s the plan?”

“I haven’t figured the details yet. Just have a few thoughts. When others wake up, I want to put it on a discussion.”

“And to get to know them better, right?” Steven looked into Josh’s eyes.

Now his look was firm and confident, not that sleepy one that was a minute ago.

“I see you have experience?” Skyman asked, but he already had an answer.

“Colonel of the U.S. Army,” Wash explained. “It’s vital to know who you are dealing with. What they are capable of. What to expect from them.”

“It’s still early, let them rest some more. Then we’ll gather up for a talk. Everything will be clear then,” the captain summarized.

Josh felt like it was said enough, so he focused back on the dying fire to keep thinking.

The passengers were getting up. With each new one awoken the overall fuss grew, it was breaking the sleep of the others. With no proper instructions and being uncomfortable in such conditions, people were going from confusion to panic. The arguing arose nearby the rainforest glade. There wasn’t an individual subject to argue about. Just an expression of the fear and hysteria.

Steven stood aside for a while, observing. The crowd was disputing about lots of small things, but most of all it was the further course of actions what bothered them. When the situation escalated to screaming, Wash noticed that something was missing there. The captain had disappeared. As for himself, Steven eagerly waited for everyone to wake up so they could discuss everything. And now the leader was missing. Without him, the crowd was like a pack of animals, rather than constructive human beings.

Unless the captain would appear that instant someone had to step up to stop the kerfuffle. “I have to make it right,” Wash thought to himself. He walked around the gathering in a search of a better spot, thinking of what to say on the way. He had to choose the words carefully since he had just one chance. Otherwise, they would just ignore him.

“Hey! Hey! Stop this! You listen to me!” Steven spoke loudly. “What are we doing?” he took a pause. People calmed down and turned to look at him. “Yes, we are scared. We all are scared. It is hard for us to believe what happened, to accept what happened. That’s because such terrible things usually don’t happen, they are not supposed to happen. But it did, and we are here, all in the same trouble. Now what we shouldn’t do is to fight each other, because we are all that we have. There, in the plane, are people that won’t be here anymore. It is a sad thing to live through, but we have to. I’m sure if those people, our close ones, friends, strangers would have been given another chance they wouldn’t waste it on arguing. They would have tried to survive at any cost. So let us try. Let’s put our differences aside and try to live through it. Together. Otherwise, we die.”

Steven kept talking and talking, and people were listening. He was a bit of surprised by that. He wasn’t the best orator. Nevertheless, he found the exact words to calm down the crowd and the situation was once more under control.

Meanwhile, Skyman returned from the woods. He didn’t draw any attention at once, just joined the others, who were standing in a half circle listening to the colonel. Josh understood what happened. The passengers had woken up and they had questions, the absence of answers planted a panic. Wash’s deed was necessary to keep the situation under control, the pilot realized it. Yet, he felt a strike of jealousy for a moment. He had to be on that spot. It was his responsibility and his natural right due to the captain’s privilege. This idea held at all times with him. Now, when he saw Wash in the place of a leader, he realized that privilege had to be earned yet. And he would certainly have opponents.

Soon Wash noticed the captain so he stopped the speech. People kept quiet for about a minute. Then the fuss gradually arose once again. The crowd divided into small groups by mutual features (age, familiarity, points of view), as it would help the survivors not feel alone in that time of sorrow.

Wash walked towards the captain on first sight. He nodded at him, showing his acknowledgment. As soon as Steven was close enough they both walked aside from the others to talk.

“So, how are we doing?” Skyman asked.

“Fear and intimidation. I tried to keep it calm, the best I could.”

“Yeah, thanks for that. You did a good job.”

“What about you? Where have you been?”

“I looked around. Played a couple scenarios in my mind.”

“Anything good?”

“Yeah, actually. I see two options: to go through the jungle to the east, or to go down the plain though the north shore.”

“So, you think the best way is to relocate to the beach?” Steven asked.

Skyman stalled for a second. When he looked at Wash’s eyes, he sensed that doubt in there. It felt quite unpleasant.

“We have no means of communication. If there is a best place to look for us, that is around the shore. I’m just not sure which one yet.”

“Let’s evaluate all pros and cons of the options,” the colonel suggested.

“The north side has a beach on it, we would benefit greatly from the open space. Plus, the path there lies through the plain. The east shore is a rocky terrain, not the best place for surviving. To get there, we would have to go through the jungle, which is dangerous by itself. But we were coming from the east. There is a possibility to find some wreckage from the plane in that direction. If there is working equipment that might’ve fallen off the plane on its way down, there would be a chance to contact the outside world.”

“So, north - a good place to live while waiting for the rescuers. East - a dangerous experiment, but a possibility of solving the communication problem. Right?” Wash summarized.

“It is a tough decision.”

“These people went through a lot. Another hard journey might be overkill for them. I think we should go north.”

“To go to the beach, where we would wait for a vessel to come by? Perhaps you may be right. Everyone needs time in peace to rest. But as soon as we get back on our feet I think we need to put together a search team of volunteers to make that ‘eastern detour.’ If there is a transceiver, it will increase our chances significantly.”

"Sounds like a plan. It’s time to start getting out of here, Captain.”

Somehow Wash didn’t seem threatening to Skyman anymore. In fact, he saw him as a useful asset to his own way of doing things. It was working out perfectly.

After the conversation was over the two men went back to the group, which waited for their leaders. Josh and Steven rejoined them. Wash sat on the rock, somewhat aside of the gathering. Skyman walked through to take a center spot for everyone to see him. He waited for a moment of perfect silence. They were ready to listen.

“More than a day has passed already. You are tired, you are hungry and devastated. We are afraid, but we can’t lose hope. We don’t know for sure what happened to the plane, or where we are, or when the rescue team will come, or if it happens at all.” A wave of whispers rolled through the crowd. “That’s why we can’t just stay here doing nothing. If we want to live, we have to make it ourselves. Now the best option for us is to go to the north shore, set up a camp there and wait for someone to give a distress signal to a ship, or a plane perhaps.”

Josh tried to pick the words with care so that he would prove his point and not cause another panic. He knew that one wrong word might destroy the hope.

“But, what about the rescuers? What if they come to the crash spot and we’re not here?” someone asked.

“What is your name?” Skyman asked.

“Nick,” the guy said. “Nick Lewis.”

He was young, about twenty-six, with dark hair, average height, thin face and comparably strong figure.

“Yeah, what about the rescuers? Aren’t they looking for us?” another girl asked.

“Sure they are. And it’s entirely possible that they are going to come soon to get us out of here,” Skyman continued. “But we don’t know the state of the communication equipment. The cabin was wrecked into pieces during the fall. They might come in a couple hours or a couple weeks. It depends on how much time it takes to figure out our position. And our supplies are limited here,” the captain nodded at the stock of junk food and water bottles from the plane, which wasn’t nearly enough for such group. “We won’t make it here. But we might, there. All we have to do is to find a source of fresh water, some food in the jungle and a clear view, where someone could see us. I say we start from the last one.”