Plane Crash in Hell
The camp had been quiet ever since Corrie and Kevin left. All questions that flooded through our minds were left unspoken. The most conversation I had in the two days after they left was an argument with Homer over who got to eat the last iced Vo-Vo. It ended with me storming off in a fit, I guess we were all just over emotional at that moment.
I should have apologised to him.
It was the dead of night, two days after Kevin and Corrie left. We all sat around a campfire and stared at the flickering flames drifting off into the distant sky. I sat between Lee's legs, leaning against his chest as he curled some lose strands of my hair around his forefinger.
Fi was leaning on Homer's shoulder, and he had his arm around her waist, both off in their own separate worlds. Chris was drinking, again, I hadn't seen him without a bottle in his hand for the entire two days. Robyn was the only one of us standing, she has a problem with sitting still for more than a few minutes, she's very restless like that.
"What do you want for dinner?" She said quietly and we all jumped, I noticed Fi wiping away quickly some tears off her crimson cheeks.
My stomach gave a loud grumble as I noticed how hungry I was. I began to voice my suggestion when a small whirring noise could be heard, like a mozzie buzzing around your ear.
It happened all at once after that.
The noise got louder until all we could hear was a loud roar, shaking the trees.
Robyn, Homer and I sprang up at once and headed for the sand bucket to put out the fire. Robyn got there first and in an instant it was black, we all stared up dumbfounded at the sky. I distinctly heard Homer let out a string of muttered curses before giving us orders to get underneath trees.
As I found shelter beneath an old gum I noticed the roar of the plane sounded wrong, it was a pitch too high. I realised this at the same time as Homer and gave him a horrified look.
The plane was crashing.
"Everyone find shelter!" I screamed and all that returned to me was confused expressions.
"Wha-" Chris began but he was cut off by the plane's ear-splitting screech as we saw it dive overhead, spinning in a vortex towards the ground far away from us.
Even though it wasn't going to hit us we still screamed; all of us.
It seemed like a year that we stood there, waiting for the explosion. When it came I crouched on the ground, covering my head, I don't know why, but I did. I could hear the flames licking up the trees as far away as we were.
I looked around at my friends and they were all in the same position as I was. We were silent, staring wide eyed at each other, unsure of what to do next.
"We need to put out the fire," Robyn cried, as if she just realised that explosion means fire.
Before any of us could stop her, she was gone towards the direction of the crash site, our sand bucket in hand. We rushed after her, tripping over fallen logs and other tree limbs.
As we got closer to the plane I had caught up to Robyn and was pulling her back, silently telling her to slow down. She gave me a quick exasperated glance and then slowed down to be at the front of our single file line.
"Ell," Homer whispered in my ear, just loud enough so only I could hear, "I got a quick look at that plane as it was going down, I don't think it was one of ours." I stopped dead in my tracks and almost fell to the ground as Homer collided into me and the others hit Homer because of my sudden halt.
"We could be going straight into an ambush!" I hissed at him, grabbing Robyn's wrist so she'd stop walking.
"I doubt it," Homer said, walking to the front of our line. Just beyond the trees ahead of us I could see a small amount of flames surrounding the plane. Amazingly, it had crashed in the river, making fire not much of a problem.
Homer turned around to look at us and put a finger to his lips. He pointed to Fi, Chris and Robyn and then motioned to the bucket Robyn was holding, making a strange action with his hands. I assumed the three understood what he was meaning because they put on a confidant face and nodded enthusiastically.
He then turned to Lee and I, giving us a more serious look then nodded his head towards the plane. We obediently followed, slowly pushing ourselves through the shrubbery and branches in our way, making as little noise as possible, which was still a lot.
Once we reached the clearing I could see the plane fully. It was small and black, a fighter jet, with two passengers inside. From the corner of my eye I saw Robyn, Chris and Fi putting out the leftover flames. I held back the urge to throw up as I saw blood smeared across the glass roof of the plane. Being the first to take a few steps closer I leaned over and took a look inside the cockpit.
I almost screamed as I saw an Asian man, no older than seventeen years old, with half of his face lost to a curtain of his own blood. I studied his corpse-like body for signs of life but there was none.
I turned back to Homer and Lee, giving them a small shake of my head to let them know he was dead.
I was unsure of how to react in seeing a dead body, I finally decided to back away and let Homer or Lee deal with the other person.
Lee stepped forward, giving my hand a tight squeeze as I walked back to the edge of the clearing. I watched him closely as he had a look into the passenger seat at the other man. Lee's body suddenly stiffened then he twisted himself around to look at us, his face pale white.
He mouthed something unintelligible, but I didn't need to hear what he was trying to say, I already knew.
The soldier was alive.
Shaking, Lee backed away from the plane towards us.
"What are we going to do?" he whispered and we were all silent, none of us had a clue.
"We could question him," I offered.
"He most likely doesn't speak English," Fi pointed out.
"We could take him back to Wirrawee," Chris said.
"How? He's probably badly injured, he seems unconscious, and plus he would be able to lead his people back to us," Lee gushed, obviously wound up from seeing the soldier alive. I put a reassuring hand on his shoulder and he gave me a brief smile.
"It might just be a chance we have to take, it's our only choice," Robyn said.
"It's not the only choice and you know it," Homer spoke up, he had been quiet the entire time.
"There is another way to solve our problems, and we wouldn't have to deal with any problems that follow," Homer's voice sounded dark, and I was getting more nervous, a bead of sweat running down my forehead.
"What are you getting at, Homer?" I asked cautiously.
"We could kill him," He said quietly and Robyn was quick to shut him down.
"No way!" She cried, "We'd be just as bad as them, it would be killing in cold blood." The tone she took had a tinge of ice to it.
"Well you give me a better Idea," He growled and she went silent. We all turned back to the plane, we could now see the man was conscious and watching us, fear wide in his eyes.
We all knew Homer's idea was the only logical one, but was it ethical?
I heard Robyn breathe a prayer and I was thankful, we were going to need all the help we could get.