Page 5

Chapter Five

D espite the vicious pounding in his head, Charlie forced his eyes open. His first impression of the devastation around him was disbelief. Jagged metal, shredded wires, complete chaos and then there was lush vegetation, so close he imagined he could touch it.

His seat belt still trapped him upside down and it took an effort to release the buckle. He fell hard. Pain shot through him, and he howled.

When the agony subsided, and he could move again, he ran his trembling fingers over his chest, searching for the source of the pain.

The horror of what he found hit him like a freight train.

Oh god! My rib bone is sticking out of my skin .

A cold sweat washed over him. Squeezing his eyes shut, disjointed memories of the crash flashed across into his mind—the deafening roar as the plane cleaved in two, the kaleidoscope of sparks and debris, and the front half of the plane disappearing as he fell away.

Charlie sat until the silence engulfed him and he couldn’t stand it anymore.

He opened his eyes and gasped at a body dangling above him. It was the man who’d sat beside him. “Tom?”

Tom’s hands hung below him, lurid and purple, and a drop of blood fell and landed in a dark pool beneath the motionless body. Hundreds of ants had formed a thick black circle around the puddle .

Charlie blinked. How long was I blacked out?

Sweat dribbled down his temple and he wiped his forehead.

“Tom?” His voice was a tortured whisper and as he reached for Tom, excruciating pain ripped up his spine. Gasping at the pain, he touched Tom’s shoulder but got no response.

Fighting delirium and sucking in short sharp breaths, he felt for Tom’s pulse.

There wasn’t one.

How could this be? I’d just been chatting with him.

Charlie slid to the cabin floor and wept.

When he could cry no more, he wiped his burning eyes and licked his cracked lips. Beyond the cabin, a sepia colour washed over the foliage.

Oh no, the sun’s setting. That means it’s nearly six o’clock.

His heart skidded to halt.

I’ve been unconscious for at least two hours.

Where is everyone?

A shrub covered in small surfboard-shaped leaves was in the distance. The leaves were a mixture of red and green and he searched for the tell-tale sign it was the Pityrodia jamesii plant. Several grasshoppers with fire-red and blue colours nestled in amongst the distinct leaves. The Leichhardt grasshopper was a rare sight as they lived only on this plant and only in Kakadu National Park.

At least I know where I am.

But this discovery only distressed him more.

I’m a very long way from civilisation.

Charlie hauled himself up, stepped over a mass of colourful wires and staggered away from the wreckage. The smell of burned rubber and pine mingled together. Cool air teased his thin arms, and he tried to rub warmth in.

But with each painful step, fear inched into his brain. He couldn’t see the other half of the plane. He was all alone.

For a brief, horrifying moment, he wondered if he was dead, but the agony in his chest confirmed he was alive.

He took another step. Stabbing pain ripped up his back.

Charlie fell to the ground, and fighting excruciating pain, he turned around and crawled toward the plane.

His tongue was like leather as he clambered over the shredded edge of the wreck.

He slumped against the wall and pain ripped through his body like an inferno.

Charlie vomited, screamed at the agony, and passed out.