Path of Ranger: Volume 1

by RJ

  “A raft? So what? We can’t sail away on this,” Nick objected.

  “It wide enough to carry fifteen men. If we cut it in two pieces, the material would be sufficient for two tents,” Alex explained ignoring Nick’s objection. “We also have a fire chopper; it can be used for making pillars.”

  Josh didn’t rush to say anything, he just was standing there, switching the focus point of the flashlight between the boys and the trees. He took a good think about their suggestion.

  “Sounds good. Do it.”

  “Wait!” Tina interrupted. “We have a brand new raft here. Isn’t it supposed to have that thing to send a signal or something? We can use it to leave the island.”

  “To sail away on that? Straight into an open ocean? You gotta be kidding, sister,” Nick grinned.

  “You have better ideas?!” Tina lost her temper.

  “Better than using a rubber raft to go across the ocean? You bet – Don’t... It is the best idea ever.”

  “Hey-hey. Stop it, both of you,” Skyman went between them.

  When the arguing was resolved, he returned to another issue.

  “I need a few volunteers to gather firewood.”

  “Hey, chief. What’s the point of building a fire if our soldier here says that the rain is coming? It will put it out anyway.”

  “So we use it while we can!” the captain yelled.

  As soon as his temper was lost, everyone stared at him. The next second he stepped back, looking aside, to show that he was sorry for shouting. But it wasn’t groundless. Nick got on everyone’s nerves by that time. Not that Skyman wouldn’t listen to constructive criticism, only the objections from that ‘kid’ were not constructive at all.

  Soon everyone who was able got to work. Alex and Vladimir went back to the other end of the forest belt where they had seen bamboo plants. It was a perfect material for the pillars. The rest of the students were gathering dry wood, leaves and algae for the fire. When all the supplies were provided, they built two tents, large enough to cover all the passengers from the rain. And the fire materials were put into one big stock in front of the tents.

  Watching that pile of dry wood, Skyman walked around it, thinking about the way to light it up.

  “Does anyone have matches?” he asked loudly.

  “Here you go, chief!” Nicholas spoke, he was right about to smoke up that moment. He tossed the lighter to Josh. “Keep it safe. This one is my favorite.”

  Afterward, Nick put an empty pack on the firewood pile and sat back to enjoy the last of the cigarettes.

  Perhaps, Josh was a bit too harsh to that ‘kid.’ He was just young and arrogant; he didn’t mean anything bad. The pilot lit up the dry grass at the base. The fire spread across the whole pile’s surface very fast. People gathered around to enjoy the warm and finally get some peace.

  Just as Wash had predicted it rained. With the first fallen drops people divided between the two tents to stay dry. Most of them went asleep quickly. It wasn’t surprising, considering such a stressful exhaustion.

  Several hours passed. Skyman was sitting near the edge of the tent, looking in the darkness, somewhere where the pile of unburned firewood was supposed to be.

  “Is something wrong, Captain?” Ellison joined him when woke up. “What are you thinking about?”

  “Something that Steve said stuck in my mind.”

  “What exactly?”

  “Have you noticed that this island too perfectly matches his description?”

  “So-o-o?” she yawned.

  “This is a tropical island… But our flight never went through the tropics. Not even close.”

  “Did we change the trajectory?” she wondered.

  “No, we didn’t. I remember. We couldn’t just skip thousands of miles. It’s impossible,” the captain frowned.

  “Hm… I guess, that is one of the mysteries we are to solve, right, Josh?”

  They both looked at the black nothing where a horizon was supposed to be. Instead, there wasn’t a thing, no stars, no moon, no water reflection. Everything had left, trapped in their imagination.

  For all the time that Skyman spent there thinking no one else talked to him. Being in perfect silence once more, he looked around to see her. She was already asleep, just like all others. As for the pilot himself, he felt tired too, perhaps even more than anyone else. He hadn’t rested yet, not since he had awakened after the crash. His eyelids were getting heavier. The rain seemed weird to him, as it was falling wrong somehow. Shortly after the conversation, Josh laid down and went dozing.

  It was a long rest, more than a day passed since the captain entered that tent. By the time of his awakening, the rain was over. People spread across the beach. It was a bit of a surprise for the pilot. He stood up to see what was going on, but slight vertigo came upon his head. The sounds went dimmer, and vision was smudged. The passengers were wandering around, no one cared that their leader returned to them.

  The next few minutes Josh spent walking on the sand, along the coastline to see if everything was fine. It looked so. Not far from the camp he noticed Ellison, who had a company of a few girls. They were building something.

  “Hey, you! Rise and shine, sleepy head,” the doctor said cheerfully. She sat near a stock of bamboo sticks that probably were a material for something.

  “For how long I was out?” Skyman asked rubbing his right eye.

  “3thirty to forty hours, who knows…”

  “So, it’s morning,” the captain looked at the grey sky. “It looks more like twilight.”

  “Yeah, yesterday it was like that all day long.”

  “What are you doing?”

  “We are building a fruit stand,” Ellison explained proudly.

  “Fruit stand?” Josh wondered. “Do we have fruit now?”

  “Yes. We found some near the jungle,” she smiled at him. “And now, we need to keep them dry.”

  The girls held two bamboo sticks, one crossing another, so the doctor could tie them with a sheaf of dry roots.

  “Wait, what?! You have walked into the jungle by yourself?!” Skyman demanded an explanation.

  He almost took it as an offence to his leadership.

  “Is there something wrong, Josh?” the doctor seemed surprised by such a reaction. El and Tina left weaving either to stare at the captain. “Steven took care of everything. We walked back to the fuselage, just as we planned. Guys have gathered a firewood for a signal fire in case if Mia to show up there. Then we went straight back. And we picked some fruit on the road. Today, while you were still asleep today, Steven took a few guys to go search for some of equipment.”

  “How could you go into the jungle without telling me?! It’s too dangerous!”

  “Do we have another choice? Everything was wet on the beach. The only dry firewood left was in the jungle.” His feelings were understandable to Ellison, but she was getting more and more irritated by such drama. “What’s wrong, Josh? Steven has a military experience; he knows how to get the job done.”

  “He’d better!” Skyman said angrily. Then he turned around and marched away.

  It was difficult for Josh to realize that he was on the beach and they were far away, in the jungle where he didn't have a way to help them. Like never before the island seemed evil to Skyman. Thinking about that, the captain came to the conclusion that it wasn’t in his power to change anything anyway. All he could do was to wait for them to come back and then to scold the participants. There were already lots of ideas emerging on such matters in his head.

  The better half of the day passed. A scout team came back. By that time, Josh almost forgot that he was mad at Wash and the boys. He had made himself useful in reinforcing the tents along with other men. They wanted to make sure that the camp was ready in case of another rain.

  Steven was leading the chain of returned men. Alex, Vladimir, and Vitaliy stayed right behind him. They were cheerful and couldn’t wait to share the good news with others.

  “Oh! Ca
ptain, nice to see you!” Wash went to him smiling. He reached to Skyman with his hand for a shake.

  Skyman frowned, moved his chin up and took a good look at all of them. He was picking the right words.

  “Where have you been?” having rather serious, but calm intonation Skyman started when shaking the Wash’s hand.

  “We thought that since the rain stopped, it would be nice to do something useful before the clouds send us some more water down here.”

  The colonel still looked cheerful and confident.

  “Steven, do you even realize what kind of a risk you have brought on yourself by going there?”

  “It’s alright, Josh. We stayed together all the time and we didn’t go too deep,” just as the captain was going to say something Wash continued. “And look what we’ve found!”

  Vitaliy took out from the bag an old radio. The pilot’s mood changed instantly. He still was pissed, but the piece of equipment distracted him.

  “Where did you find it?” he asked in excitement.

  “It was lying there, around the west edge of the jungle. I guess it could’ve fallen off the plane during the crash,” Alex intruded.

  “No, it couldn’t have. We were coming from the east. Besides, it’s not from our equipment. This radio was here long before us.”

  Everyone froze, not understanding. They didn’t know what to make of it.

  “So, you suggest that we are not the first people that have been here?” Steven said what everyone was thinking.

  “I don’t know. Maybe.”

  “That is a good sign, right? If there were people, maybe they are still here. They can help us.”

  Hearing that provoked a wave of muttering in the crowd. People were looking at each other, smiling and greeting one another. That radio felt like a rescue ticket for them. The captain studied it carefully. Just as he was going to tell them his new plan, Ellison joined them.

  “You’re back,” she said while looking at each of the scouts. Suddenly her face went puzzled. “Hey, where is Nick?”

  Steven turned to her right away, he looked surprised.

  “What? Didn’t he come back earlier?”

  Skyman went all listening. His questioning look scanned each one who was there.

  “He went with you, right?” the doctor asked.

  “Wait,” Steven jumped in explanations. “When we reached the jungle he said that he didn’t feel well and he went back to the beach.”

  “Did you leave him alone?” Skyman asked after he felt the situation. The radio didn't interest him anymore.

  “We could see the beach from that place…” Steven justified.

  “You left him alone!” Skyman escalated.

  “He did insist on going alone.”

  Josh looked at others, everyone was positively nodding in confirmation of Wash’s words.

  “I can’t believe it! How could you leave him alone?! You’ve said it yourself that he didn’t feel well. He can lay halfway dead in the jungle now, for all we know!”

  No one had time to say anything when Skyman was already instructing a search party.

  “We have a few more hours before dusk. Take only what you need; water, flashlights… Ellison, you’re coming with us. We might need medical assistance.”

  With no objections, the guys called a few more people to join them. The party was formed quite fast and they all went back to the jungle. Steve realized the scope of his fault. It put an enormous feeling of guilt on him. Being true to himself, he admitted that he liked the idea of becoming a leader himself. But now it was clear that that role passed completely and irreversibly to Skyman.

  “Tell me in detail, where did Nick go to? What was going on when you saw him last time?” the pilot asked while leading the search party.

  “He said that he was heading back to camp,” Steven spoke.

  “We-l-l… Not exactly,” Vova added. “He said so. But he didn’t go straight ahead. He seemed to be looking around, searching for our previous path, I would say.”

  “Tell me more!” Josh pushed.

  “It all started after we passed that cliff. Nick was looking back all the time, it seemed like he tried to remember our trace.”

  “Yeah, yeah. He suggested to make a stop there, you remember? Right after we went by that cliff,” Vitaliy said.

  “Maybe he saw something there?” the captain wondered.

  “Or the guy just went off track…” Alex muttered to himself, but everyone knew what he meant by that.

  “Stop it!” Skyman retorted. “He didn’t seem suicidal anyway. But we should check it.”

  The search party went where the guys saw the cliff earlier. It took them about an hour. They tried to keep to the edge of the jungle, not going deep inside. Meanwhile, it became much darker. The twilight changed the daytime.

  The cliff appeared to be a quite large canyon. It was in the middle of the jungle, but there was not much vegetation in it, rocks mostly. It looked about seventy feet deep. The party searched near the edge and the adjacent forest. They found nothing.

  The night came upon the island. Three flashlights weren’t nearly enough to supply the entire team with proper illumination. The search had lost its precision.

  “We can’t find anything here,” Eugene said gloomily.

  “What? We can’t give up! That is what we can’t do,” the captain refused.

  “Come on, Josh. We are concerned about Nick no less than you are. But let’s be honest, we won’t find him today. Let’s go back to camp, and tomorrow we will renew the search,” Ellison supported the student.

  Just as the pilot wanted to say something about the responsibility for each of their lives, Vladimir’s voice sounded from aside.

  “Look! I found something! Come here!”

  The student was standing right on the edge of the cliff. A fallen tree was lying aside of him with its top hanging above the cliff. People gathered towards Vova’s signals, which he was making with a flashlight.

  “What is it?” Skyman rushed to ask, still catching his breath.

  “There!”

  The light beam revealed a satchel that hung on one of the tree’s twigs.

  All three flashlights pointed at the object of interest.

  “Just like new. Looks like it could be from the plane,” Alex said. “We need to get it.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous. It’s too far. Too dangerous,” the pilot objected.

  “I’ll get it!” Vova stepped up with a great confidence.

  When hearing that, Skyman tried to call for reason in the young hearts of the boys, but Ellison pulled his hand to stop him. Everyone had their own job, it was clear by then. Josh stopped. He just gave the brave young man his flashlight that was much lighter than what Vladimir had on him. Then the captain stepped back.

  First of all Vova carefully studied the tree. He needed it for his mission. The distance wasn’t that grand, just twelve feet or so, but it sure seemed so. The student examined the bark with his foot to make sure it wasn’t slippery. It felt fine. He went on.

  Cautiously Vova got on the trunk, then using small steps he moved along. His hands tried to grab any twig they could, fixing his body weight after each new step. In a few seconds, his confidence increased significantly. As for the others, it was quite opposite. They worried more and more, thinking that some satchel wasn’t worth it. Each time Ellison felt that Skyman was about to call him back, she squeezed his arm as a reminder not to interfere.

  Vova reached the end of the trunk, the twigs were bifurcating in a vast network further from that spot. The satchel was yet few feet away from him. So he leaned forward, trying to reach for it. After few tries, he shoved a flashlight in his pocket to free his left hand fully, which was hindered before. Now he couldn’t see an object, but his position became much stronger with two hands in the process. Using the picture from his memory and that perseverance of his, the student finally reached the target.

  As soon as the satchel got to Vladimir’s hands, he put i
t on his shoulder and changed his position to move back. Using the flashlight freely now, Vova had to study the trunk again, since the path was reversed. Suddenly, he noticed something below, down on the ground. When scanning the pit with the flashlight, he couldn’t recognize what he saw. It seemed like a shirt or something. Then he stopped moving the light and watched with more care. What he saw there made his blood cold.

  “Is everything alright?” Skyman shouted.

  “Nick. I found him. He’s dead…” Vladimir said. His eyes never moved away, just stared straight down.

  Skyman’s paranoia wasn’t baseless after all. The moment he heard those words something squeezed him from inside. He realized that it was the only possibility that could’ve happened, he couldn’t even imagine otherwise. Josh wouldn’t come to see the body; it was lost for him. He looked at others, they were crushed just like him. Ellison still held to his arm, her eyes went wet with tears. The last one who Skyman looked at was Steve. The pilot’s look was clearly saying: “It’s your fault.” But he never said it out loud.

  “Let’s get back to camp. Tomorrow we come back to get him for a proper burial.”

  The last words of the captain were the last words before a long silence.

  DAY IN THE JUNGLE

  The sun was already far up when JB woke up. It felt like a hangover, his head was spinning and the light was too sensitive. The illumination was enough to see everything, yet this ‘daytime twilight’ appeared strange to him.

  Bridgers hadn't moved that night, he held one pose throughout his sleep, so his back felt terrible in the morning. The fire camp became a big pile of ashes, and a thin line of smoke was still stretching out of it. JB didn’t want to get up, morning laziness got to him. It was warm and cozy compared to the conditions of the night before. The idea of getting back there, to the jungle, disgusted him. Yet, his sensitivity to the uncomfortable position was growing, as along with his hunger. It was time to get up. JB hated it.

  The night ended with an ache in his bones and muscles. His sense of coordination and overall movements weren’t in the best shape either. Bridgers walked a few steps, his right knee itched. He was going to scratch that, then he recalled that awful fall the night before. The leg had to be severely wounded. JB even suspected that the bone might be fractured. But it there was no pain. It seemed weird, considering what a pain he felt during the night.