Reunion - Chapter Four

Reunion

by Simon Stanford

Chapter Four

Division

Leonard Wiltshire gently lowered Mougal on to the sand. Shawn of his burden he looked every part the Rambo figure, he had a slight cut over one eye and the smudges and scratches the rest of the group had. The sunlight glistened off the beads of sweat on his muscled chest. All he needed was the bandoliers and a grenade pin between his teeh.

“My ankle, “ explained Mougal as he sat on the beach gingerly. He adjusted the side of his glasses but they wouldn't sit straight, whenever he moved one side down the other side would pop up.

“Are you ok?” asked his concerned friend, Subbu.

“Yes it's just twisted I think it's not too bad”

“You did that escaping from the plane?”

“Err no that was ok but then I was making my way here with Leonard and I tripped over a tree root.” he explained sheepishly. He could have said he did it getting off the plane to save face and Leonard wouldn't have said any different, but that was not in his nature. He was often too honest for his own good.

“It's good to see you, Nalesh. Very good”. Subbu patted him on the shoulder.

“Right we are definitely quorate now,” said Romney White , “we should start that workshopping.”

“Is that the pilot?” asked Mougal noticing the body lying on the beach beside them for the first time.

“Yes, don't worry it's on the agenda” Romney replied as though that was all that was necessary to say.

However Subbu and Stephan insisted on explaining how they had found him and the trail of cutlery that had led them here. Romney waited for the explanations to be completed with just a little impatience.

“Right now we are all up to speed. Can we get to the workshopping?”

The arrival of first Romney and then Wilstshire and Mougal had distracted the group and the tension between Stephan Court and Ian Prince had dissipated. For now.

“Now first we need to define our mission statement and then do a resources skills profile matrix and see how we can best use people to move us towards our goals.”

“Err isn’t the mission statement just to get off the island?” said Stuart as though he was stating the blindingly obvious.

“Well actually,” interjected Subbu, “ do we know if it is an island? We could just be on a rugged part of a much bigger place.”

“Yeah there could be a town further inland, or a village at least where we can call for help” added Gareth Laney.

“OK you see we need to decide what our mission is , it’s not obvious after all” said Romney triumphantly.

“Did anyone get a good look as we were coming in?” Stuart asked.

“I did”, replied Mougal, tentatively, “I had a good view over wings the whole way in even when we were spiralling down. It’s an island.”

“Well ok but that doesn’t mean it’s deserted, there could be village nearby.” Gareth continued with this point.

“Hmmm we need to brainstorm some more here, I can see” said Romney, “this is all good stuff. I should be getting this down.” He pulled out his dictaphone and started to make a few notes.

“If it is inhabited don’t you think people will have noticed our arrival?” Stephan said nodding his head over in the direction of the crash site which still had a huge pall of thick black smoke over it, though the orange glow from the flames had died down a little now.

“Well they could be trying to get to us over difficult terrain,”explained Gareth.

“We shouldn’t go too far from the crash site. That’s one of Ray Mears golden rules.” Stuart stated with authority.

“Yeah but Bear Ghryls is always travelling through the wildnerness to safety” countered Gareth.

“Bear Grylls is a knob,” said Stuart bluntly. “He usually making his way to a nice hotel for the night, it all came out in that exposé”

“Yeah whatever, he still knows what he is doing”

“This is all great stuff, but I’m not getting a sense of a mission statement here, we need something pithy, easy to remember.” Said Romney

“This isn’t a business meeting Romney. This is real life” said Ian Prince

Romney took slight offence at this.

“I deal with real life. My concepts are equally valid in this situation.”

“Bollocks!” said Prince. Tension starting to rise in the group once more. It was Sean Rourke who headed matters off this time.

“Look lads, whether this is an island with rescue having to come from the sea or from a village inland I think it’s fair to say we’ll be spending the night here at the least” There was general agreement on this albeit a somewhat sobering thought for some. “And we still have to do something about Guy.” He added.

“Well there’s no point burying him if we are going to be leaving soon, they’ll just want to exhume him” said Stephan.

“Alright, alright. Let’s leave the mission statement for now and do a little firefighting just this once” said Romney White. The others looked a little confused by the statement. Was he suggesting they tried to put out the fire are the wreck?

“Not literally obviously. I meant we can just spend some time addressing the most important problems at the moment so we can create some space to look at longer term goals and aspirations.”

There was a few more minutes of discussion and then it was decided that Guy would be moved up the beach into the shade somewhere but away from the inlet stream. Water, food and shelter were deemed the next most important things and somehow the group arranged itself about these tasks without anyone formally taking the lead. It was a long winded process because of this but it avoided the confrontation that had threatened to flare up twice already.

Prince and Laney were there only ones with any real stomach for moving Guy after which they would look for a suitable site to make a camp. Leonard went back inland following the inlet stream with Stuart Walker to try to find out at what point it would hopefully change from salt or brackish water to fresh water they could safely drink.

Peter and Paul Speke went with Sean Rourke further round the arm of the cove to see what if any food there might be to be had. They reckoned they had seen coconut palms on the way in and maybe there were other fruit bearing plants around.

Romney said he would review his notes and write up the minutes on a notepad he had. No-one wanted to argue with the pointlessness of this, especially, if it kept him and his mission statements and workshops out of everyone’s hair.

This left just Subbu, Mougal and Stephan sitting together on the beach where the whole group had first convened.

*

“Not picked for the team again eh?” said Esacam.

“Somethings never change , mused Stephan. Mougal’s ankle had eased a bit and he was up and hobbling round on it.

“Let’s go back to the crash site see what we can get from there.”

“It’s too dangerous. We agreed” said Subbu. The plume of smoke still seemed to growing up and up into the sky.

“The plane itself is but we could go around that and along the path we took coming in. I think we lost a lot of the hold luggage over that run in through the trees. We might be able to find some useful stuff.”

It seemed a reasonable idea and it gave them something to do, making them feel more useful than they were just sitting on the beach. They mentioned to Romney what they were planning but they weren’t sure if it had registered with him. He seemed intent on drawing a mind map, spider diagram of something or other so they left him to it and headed back along the beach in the direction Subbu , Stephan and Stuart had first come following the trail of cutlery. The sun was climbing slowly up into the sky out of the sea and the temperature was rising with it. Water would soon be the most pressing issue.

The trio worked their way back round the other arm of the cove. As they rounded it they saw the shattered fuselage of the plane engulfed in smoke and with the occasional orange flame to be seen flicking out from underneath. Most of the skin of the plane had melted away leaving the main structure like the blackened skeleton of some giant flying dinosaur.

The three of them surveyed the trail of devastation left in the wake of the crashing plane. It had cut a straight swathe through the undergrowth and forest that edged the arm of the cove before the plane’s wing had caught something hard and pivoted the whole thing round into the sand embankment as it tore from the main body of the plane.

“It actually ended up in a fairly straight final approach,” remarked Subbu, “given how severely were were spiralling in initially.”

“Maybe the power in the engines cut completely, or equalised or something” proffered Mougal by way of exlplanation

“Or the turbulence as we got close to land helped straightened her out. Anyway that’s not important now, let’s see if we can find anything useful along the wake. You going to be able to manage Mougal?” asked Stephan.

“Yes I think I will manage alright, the swelling has already started to go down. I think keeping moving is good for it.”

They edged carefully round the still smoking smouldering wreckage and could feel the heat press against their faces and then on their backs once they were far enough round to be able to follow the huge scar in the landscape made by the plane. Small palms and mangrove trees were splintered and uprooted and all the vegetation flattened for a distance of about 200 metres, then the canopy of the forest started to re-assert it’s dominance though above this there could be seen here and there a few rocky outcrops.

“One of those could have ripped open the hold , or some of the taller trees” said Stephan.

They walked along the flattened path fairly easily and then were able to thread through the undergrowth and forest relatively easily for another hundred meters or so.

“There’s something,” said Subbu pointing to an incongruent patch of pink hanging from the branch of a tree a few metres ahead. On closer inspection it turned out to be a pair of pink Y Fronts.

“Hmm the fruit of the loom not of the tree I think, “ said Subbu reaching up and pulling them down. The other two chuckled. It was a start and showed at least that their theory about the hold luggage being spilled out before the main crash was a valid one. As they moved further they started to find more items of clothing and then the shattered remnants of a Samsonite case.

“Walker’s” said Stephan reading the label.

“Probably filled with contraband then, “ said Subbu raising another chuckle.

Despite the extreme circumstances in which they found themselves, Stephan could help enjoying being in the company of his two former school friends.

Over the course of the next twenty minutes the group found several large dumps of items that had come from the hold, usually with the associated bag itself in tattered remnants nearby. It was mostly clothes and as you might expect, light summer clothes suitable for a tropical climate but the also found a couple of travel appliances, an iron and a hair dryer ( the hair dryer must be Rourke’s they decided or maybe Wiltshire’s. Either way it wouldn’t be much use).

“Ah here’s my bag, “ said Mougal coming across a large blue wheeled trolley case, or rather the handle and bottom section, the top was nowhere to be seen.

The contents had not gone that far and further inside was a smaller black satchel.

“Laptop and spare phone” said Mougal delightedly.

He reached in and pulled out the silver metallic lap top first. He pressed the catch to release the screen from the keyboard base as he held it on the forearm. The screen promptly separated from the base which fell on the floor shedding components from a large gaping whole that had been scored along the bottom.

Mougal threw it to one side and reached back inside the satchel. He pulled out a flip top mobile phone in a black leather cover. Gingerly he opened the phone, half expecting the top section to fly off but it was intact. The others gathered round as he pressed the on switch. The screen went white and began its start up sequence. They waited eagerly whilst the top part of the screen said “searching for network” .

It was of course too much to hope that there would be a phone signal within range and so it proved.

“Now that would have been something, to be able to go back to the group saying we had called for help” said Stephan.

“Ah well maybe it gives more credence to the idea that we are on an island, even in the Himalayas these days you can get a phone signal right up to Everest base camp they say.

“I can tell you precisely where we are, “ announced Mougal, “the phone has GPS built in. He pressed a couple of buttons on the keypad.

“We are…..5° 19′ 28″ N, 132° 13′ 16″ E” he said with authority.

“And where is that exactly?” asked Stephan.

“Ah no data signal so no map, Still we can use it to find our way round and map the island at least”.

“That’s true. Better turn it off for now to save power. We need to be heading back the group was supposed to reconvene after one hour.” They gathered up a few items they thought might be useful or at least show the potential value of following the trail as they had and headed back to the rendezvous point on the beach where they had found Guy.

*

As they arrived most of the the rest of the group was already assembling.
“Where have you three been?” asked Ian Prince.

“Treasure hunt, “ said Stephan and threw the pink Y fronts over to Walker, “we followed the trail the plane left. Most of our luggage is spread out along the path the plane made as it came in. We can go back and look for more stuff if anyone had anything of real use in the hold”.

“Mougal found his spare mobile phone” said Subbu.

“Did it…” said Rourke

“No signal” said Subbu before he could finish his sentence. There was a collective dropping of shoulders from the rest of the group who had all obviously had a similar thought.

“But it does have GPS which we can use as a compass. So very useful. How did the rest of you get on?”

Over the next few minutes the groups reported their findings.

Prince and Laney said there were a couple of naturally flatter areas at the edge of the foreshore further round the cove that should be safe from any incoming tide and had overhanging trees and palms suitable to make a shelter. Rourke and the Speke twins hadn’t had too much luck on the food front but brought back a selection of berries and nuts and even a couple of mushrooms but there was much debate about whether any of it was safe to eat and how they would tell.

The best news came form Leonard Wiltshire and Stuart Walker, the stream inlet by their rendezvous did indeed have fresh water less than a hundred metres in, just the other side of small pool that seemed to act as a natural filter and barrier against the salty brackish water going any further upstream. They would have to do better on the food front but at least they had a source of clean drinking water.

They decided they should all make a trip back to the crash site and search the wake of the plane to collect more of their luggage that had been spilled out from the hold. If they all went they could cover a larger area quicker and garner anything of any practical value and bring it back to the beach for examination.

*

After half an hour they were all back on the beach a little way round from where they had found the body of Guy and they laid out all they had brought back from the spray of broken hold luggage.

It was a motley collection of items, crumpled and cracked suitcase halves, clothes, shoes, a couple of bags of toiletries including over a dozen condoms, “they’ll make useful water carriers” suggest Laney who had admitted to having packed them in his luggage. It was clear what his intentions for the stop over in Bangkok had been. Stuart Walker reached down and picked up one of the packets.

“Cool, we can even have strawberry flavoured water as a special treat,” a few giggles went through the group and Laney blushed.

They’d also bought two or three of the travel appliances back . Not because they thought they would have any opportunity to actually use them but their flex cords might be of use.

By far the most useful item they had was a red swiss army knife belonging to Stuart Walker. He usually carried it about his pocket but as he was checking in back in London ( which seemed so far away now both in time and distance ) he realised he wouldn’t be able to take it through security and had stuffed into the outer pocket of his upright case. It was a minor miracle they had found it given the wide area over which there luggage had been scattered, some of it ending up in areas too inaccessible for them to reach.

It was the first piece of good luck they had had on this trip, unless you counted them all surviving the crash of course, which was an even bigger miracle, or so it seemed to the at the time.

They stood and looked at the items they had amassed. It didn’t look like the ideal survival kit but it was all they had and besides, reasoned some of the group, they would only have to spend the night here and surely rescue would come in the morning, or at some point the next day.

The sun was rising high into the sky and the temperature was rising with it. They determined water and shelter were the next two priorities and whilst Romney made copious notes of everything that no-one else seemed remotely interested in, the rest of the group split into two without too much disagreement.

One group, Prince, Laney, Wiltshire and the Speke brothers were dispatched with the inflatable “water carriers” and the bottom half of a Samsonite suitcase to bring back as much fresh water as they could manage. The rest set about trying to make some sort of shelter on the area Prince and Laney had found a little further round the cove.

*

The shelter they ended up constructing could most charitably be described as rudimentary. Hampered by only having one knife and that itself being rather small they could only cut smaller branches and sticks from the trees and shrubs that lined the edge of their chosen site. Overall the jungle or forest quickly became impenetrable just a few of metres further in.

There were a few moments of debate about the difference between a forest and a jungle and as no consensus could be reached Romney White cheerfully added to his agenda for items to be discussed, even though for all practical purposes it made no difference to their situation. Mind you for many that could be apt description of Romney himself at the moment.

The original idea had been to make a couple of tent like structures with supporting ribs and then cover this with a layer of palm fronds and other foliage to provide cover from the sun and the rain if it came.

Unfortunately lacking any real means to secure the twigs they could successfully cut into useful lengths this proved beyond them for the time being. In the end they settled for individual bivouac type affairs that were actually just two rows of palm fronds propped up against each other. It would do for the night they reasoned and so arrayed in a semi circle, the “entrances” facing the sea were 12 verdant green one man shelters.

Part of the reasoning for not being too worried about the quality and robsutness of the shelters was the group's general conviction that help would soon arrive and at worst they would be spending just one night under these makeshift tents.

“The flight plan will have been filed with Manila and when we didn't arrive that will trigger the search” said Subbu with confidence.

“They'll have the last radio contact and maybe radar tracking to a point and from their they can send out a search party to start looking in the general area,” added Nalesh.

“Well we are certainly doing well for a signal fire at the moment,” Stephan indicated the plume of black smoke that now seemed to have stopped growing over the crash site but was maintaining a constant shape and size reaching a couple of hundred metres into the air.

“Plus as Laney says, there maybe help on this island on its way too.”

*

The water bearers returned not long after completion of the shelter. The Speke brothers, ever the willing work horses were carrying the the upturned half of the samsonite suitcase filled with Laney's “water balloons”. In total they had over 36 litres of water which even in a tropical region like this ought to be enough to last 12 people for one day.

They still hadn't quite worked out how they were going to get the water out of each container as experiments trying to make small whole to let the water drip out resulted in the condom bursting and splashing the entire couple of litres of water all over the place. The current idea was to find another container they could burst the condoms into without losing the water and then dole that out to individuals.

Prince and the others surveyed the work of the shelter team.
“Is that it?” he asked, “doesn't look very secure”

“It's fine,” said Stephan Court and to prove his point, rather recklessly he pushed his foot against the apex roof line of the shelter nearest him. It wobbled precariously back and forth then looked as though it was going to settle back down again before collapsing completely and falling over to right into the adjacent shelter. Unfortunately the placement of the shelters was such that this set of a domino chain reaction and one by one in quick succession all twelve shelters knocked into each other one by one and totally collapsed.

Stephan blushed while Prince and one or two of the water bearers smaned.

“Good work, Einstein” sneered Ian Prince. Stephan glowered back at him but said nothing.

There followed a few more minutes of heated discussion about how to create the shelter but eventually they struck on the idea of weaving the palm fronds together to make more stable mats of material in V shapes that could be used as bivouacs.

It had been Leonard Wiltshire who had come up with the idea and as he was able to straddle the two sub-groups that clearly had started to form, namely those of the brainstrust geeks and the physical Rugger Buggers, it was accepted without too much resistance from either side.

“Oh this is totally Maslow”, declared Romney White taking a few moments to look up from his incessant minuting, agendising and dictaphone recording.

“Who's a what now?” said Roger Benedict.

“Maslow. You know Maslow's hierarchy of needs. The pyramid. Physical needs, safety needs, social needs and so on right up to self-actualisation.”

“Oh” replied Roger blankly. He was a man of few words at the best of times.

“This could be a great opportunity for personal growth you know. By having to go back to the bottom step on the pyramid it gives us a chance to be, well re-born from an organisational point of view. Re-evaluate ones position in the organisation and in society as a whole.....”

“Well that's fascinating,” interrupted Ian Prince, “but I'm quite keen on just getting back to civilised society.”
“We should think about a fire, for cooking , for warmth and maybe for signalling as well. That wreck isn't going to burn for ever.”

“We need a high point for a signal fire” said Stephan trying to wrest control of the group back again. “Up on that cliff top promontory, looks best.”

“Yes I was going to say that actually, Prince”.

Overlooking this side of the cove was a steep cliff rising maybe 200 metres above the campsite. Tapering down from there were a series of jagged terraces probably caused by land slippage from coastal erosion. It wasn't quite a path or series of steps but it certainly looked assailable with the occasional scramble or climb.

“We'd get a good back over inland as well, maybe we can see the nearest village,” said Laney still pushing his theory.

“Ok let's see what we can collect for two fires, one for the camp and one for a signal fire up there then we can work out how to get it up there.”

Once again there was the natural split of tasks two fires, two teams. The sub-groups were becoming entrenched but for the moment it avoided further tension between the two would-be leaders. Ian Prince and Stephan Court.