Chapter 5- Scavenger Hunt

Peter woke with a start at the sound of a primal growling that sent shivers up his spine. Immediately he scrambled to his feet and looked around to the dense foliage that remained. His pulse raced as he scanned the edges of the clearing in search of a wild animal, but in the back of his mind he knew that even if he managed to spot it there was nothing he could should it attack. He felt absolutely helpless, but compelled nonetheless. When he heard it again, he followed the sound down to Gabriel who was rolling around and wincing. While he was relieved it wasn't an animal that came to eat them, knowing it was emanating from the only other survivor was no better. He had never in his life heard a sound like that come from another human. He kneeled by his side and started to place his hands on his shoulders in an effort to comfort him, but paused in midair when he remembered his apparent aversion to being touched. "Gabriel, what's wrong?" He asked with great concern, brow knit tight.

There was a short pause while he opened his deep brown eyes in a squint to look at Peter in the bright morning light before he broke out into a smile and laughed. "I feel like I was in a plane crash, man. Fucking everything hurts. Didn't yesterday. Shit!"

Peter smiled back in relief even though he was keenly aware of the all encompassing pain that coursed through his own body. "Yesterday we were both running on adrenaline and shock. I think it all wore off. We probably pulled ever muscle in our bodies being flung around like ragdolls." It would have been a grim thought except for the fact that they had survived. He imagined them looking like the crash test dummies he saw in car commercials, head and limbs flying forward before snapping back in mangled contortions in slow motion.

Gabriel raised his left arm and looked at his watch which was broken beyond repair. He didn't quite know how to feel about it. On the one hand he would have liked to know what time it was, but on the other it was one of the last things his father had given him before he disappeared in a puff of smoke when he worked in his watch repair shop. He wore it not for the sentimental value, but because it was a practical, useful object that was currently useless. Still, he would hang on to it and fix it when he got back to New York.

"What time is it?" Peter asked noting what he was doing.

"Dunno." Gabriel admitted. "I can tell you the plane crashed at 6:37pm. That was the time my watch stopped. Do you have one?"

Peter shook his head sadly. "It was in my bag." It was a nice watch that Nathan had given him for Christmas and suddenly he wanted it back in the worst way.

Gabriel then looked at the sky and observed, "It looks like it might be around 9:00 or so."

Peter thought he was joking but asked, "How in the hell did you get that?"

"Simple math." Gabriel replied as though it should have been apparent. "The sun looks like it is about a quarter of the way across the sky, so assuming sunrise is around 6:00 and at noon the sun would be directly overhead, halfway would make it 9:00."

"If you say so, dude." Peter smiled shaking his head. He didn't want to tell him that it never in a million years would have occurred to him to do geometry to find out what time it was. It just seemed like too much effort. "All I know is that it is damn hot and if we don't find some shelter we will fry like two eggs on a rock sitting up here."

"Yeah, it does kinda feel like we landed in the pit of hell." Gabriel agreed. "You must be dying in that thermal."

Peter looked down at his arms with a frown. "What the hell was I thinking?" He muttered.

Gabriel laughed and said, "I don't know, probably that it is cold back home. No one on that plane got dressed yesterday wondering what would be appropriate attire in the event the plane would fall out of the sky. Don't be so hard on yourself." He sighed looking around at the devastation and it still didn't seem real. It was like yesterday was all a bad dream even though every fiber in his battered body told him otherwise.

"Do you think they will find us today?" Peter asked pulling him from his thoughts.

Gabriel shrugged. "I hope so, but I think we should plan for the possibility that we will be on our own for a few days. Have you ever been camping or anything like that?"

After he thought about it, Peter chuckled. "I went skiing in the Alps once when I was like 10."

Gabriel tried to keep the look of disgust off his face as he regarded Peter. Of all the people to survive, it would have been another rich kid with a silver spoon up his ass. He seemed a decent enough guy so far, but he knew it was only a matter of time before he started to think he was better just like everyone else did…"Ok. It shouldn't be that hard as long as we think things through carefully. Building a shelter seems pretty easy. We have food and water. All we have to do is wait."

"We can scavenge what we need from the wreck," Peter chimed in with a hint of hope in his voice, "but what about wild animals? How do we stay safe from them?"

Gabriel thought back to his classes and remembered the intolerable Sister Mary Katherine who was old enough to have created the earth. She was an old school nun who required her students to sit up straight in their chairs and would not hesitate to bring out the ruler for anyone who violated her rules. She taught world history and he remembered learning about the religious beliefs of the Mayans. They often thought animals were deities and the only two he could remember were a large bird and a jaguar. He had nothing to worry about regarding the bird but…

"There might be jaguars." He said with hesitation. "But if there are we can't stay here. It will only be a matter of time before they are drawn by the scent of the bodies. We can build a shelter far off the ground away from the crash. I suggest we get what we can now in one shot and then never go back. The bodies will not only draw predators, but in this heat they will decompose very quickly and I do not want to be crawling in that shit for anything."

There was something in the way that Gabriel kept referring to the people who had died as bodies that Peter found disturbing. They were humans who all had lives and hopes, not inanimate objects. He also found the thought of wild animals consuming them like a zebra carcass disconcerting, but they were just animals that had no sense of decorum. As far as they were concerned, they were lucky to stumble on a hanging buffet and it was open for business. He really couldn't blame them, it was just their nature.

It was mutually agreed that Peter would search his half of the wreckage and Gabriel his. Anything that could be deemed useful was fair game no matter the origin and on Gabriel's insistence, nothing was sacred. If one of the passengers was holding a knife or a lighter, it was to be pried out of their cold dead hands without hesitation. After several hours, the men met in the middle of the two segments, each holding a blanket full of items. Miles of wire, a first aid kit, fire extinguisher, flare gun, more food and drinks, clothing, shards of plastic, 3 lighters, opened packs of gum and mints, bottles of aspirin, and plenty of magazines.

"Check this out." Gabriel almost whispered as he pulled out several small bottles of alcohol from his pockets to show to Peter.

Peter laughed and protested, "But we aren't even old enough to drink!"

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "And who the hell is going to know? Are the jungle police going to spring out of nowhere and bust us for underage consumption? If so, I will gladly spend a night in jail to get out of this shithole. Besides," he said in a quieter tone, "today is my birthday. I just thought you might want to celebrate with me."

It seemed to Peter that he wasn't used to inviting others into his life judging by the awkward way he looked at the ground when he spoke. "Hell yeah, man!" Peter said excitedly. "Congratulations. How old are you?" He always had a way of making people feel comfortable and he hoped it would work now too.

"17." Gabriel answered with a small smile. "One hell of a birthday, huh?"

"One you won't forget, but at least you lived to see it." Peter replied. "Cool. How about we get going on that shelter and celebrate after we are done?"

Gabriel nodded and the two drug their booty to the edge of the clearing and began to plan on what kind of shelter they wanted and how it would be constructed. Peter quickly discovered that this was going to be more Gabriel's domain and he was content to just gather branches while Gabriel lashed them together for most of the afternoon.