Rogue Element

Joe could barely remember having another life before the one he was now forced to endure. He was losing track of time. How many days, weeks, years ago since the plane crash? Was it a week ago that the cobra had helped them escape from certain capture and death? How long ago had they run into the logging camp? Joe trudged on behind Suryei as she climbed slowly, one heavy step at a time.

At first they didn’t know whether the sound was behind them or in front of them. But it was man-made, an engine, and it was getting close. Then Suryei saw it and risked giving away their location to the soldiers. ‘There,’ she yelled, pointing and looking down as it circled low and slow over the trees in the valley, banking into figure eights. It was bright purple with a yellow and red striped propeller. An ultralight. It was discovery, rescue, a hot bath. So many wonderful things flashed through Joe’s mind that he shouted for joy, like a fan at a grand final whose team has just scored the winning points.

But then the little aircraft shifted its pattern to a new part of the sky, gaining altitude, and Joe and Suryei were overcome by an enormous sense of loss. They jumped up and down and screamed, desperately waving their arms. The little aircraft gave no acknowledgement of their existence. They heard the clatter of a long burst of machine-gun fire. Suryei and Joe watched, horrified, as the ultralight flew into the dotted line of tracer reaching up from the jungle.

The pilot appeared to jump about in his seat and there was a puff of black smoke from the small rear engine. The propeller stopped and the aircraft’s wing dipped steeply. They watched it spiral one and a half times before the craft vanished silently into the trees 500 metres away. Suryei was first to start walking, continuing her way up a steep incline. She had a grim expression on her face, one that didn’t invite conversation or comfort.

Joe ignored that and caught up with her anyway. ‘That’s good,’ he said, gasping for air.

‘Yeah, right. Soldiers, ten. Suryei and Joe, zero.’

‘There’ll be more ultralights,’ said Joe, trying to convince himself that rescue was nearer.

‘What makes you think that?’

‘It had to have been from another logging camp, or maybe a bigger base camp somewhere. Maybe they were checking things out, to see what had happened to their mates.’

Suryei nodded but kept walking. Whether Joe was right or not, there was nothing else they could do.

The little plane was soon forgotten. Before long, Joe and Suryei were back in their own spaces, together but apart, heading uncertainly to an unknown destination.

They climbed on for what seemed an eternity. Just when they thought they’d put the last hill behind them, another would rise out of a valley. And then there was food, or lack of it. It had been twenty-four hours since they’d eaten anything. Coconut trees abounded but, so far, they hadn’t managed to find any coconuts on the ground. And climbing the trees was out of the question.

Suryei caught Joe picking at some fruit hanging from a low branch. ‘I wouldn’t, if I were you,’ she said. ‘They’re brightly coloured. Nature’s way of saying, “I’m poisonous”.’

Joe let the berries fall to the ground. Things were bad enough already. He didn’t want to make them worse by getting violent stomach cramps.

Lack of food was starting to slow them down, and so were the hills, again. They were getting steeper. Both Joe and Suryei now had legs of clay. Every step was an effort. Joe stopped to get his breath. The scree shifted under his feet and he slipped back a couple of metres. He bent forward and let the axe, propped on the ground, take his weight. Ants scurried over the scree looking for food. He wondered if they were as hungry as he was, and doubted it. He panted. The muscles in the front of his legs, his quads, were pulsing, twitching, like the flanks of a horse that had run a hard race. He didn’t think he could go on, but at the same time he knew he had to.

He wondered how high they’d climbed. The trail behind disappeared after a hundred metres into the dark green melange of the bush beyond. The vegetation was not as dense here at the higher altitude. Above was blue sky. The sky! Joe hadn’t seen that for a while. It had been obliterated by a continuous canopy, which had also thinned considerably.

Joe caught a movement from the corner of his eye. It was Suryei, further up the trail, standing on what appeared to be the summit, the crest of the ridge, but Joe wasn’t being fooled by that mirage again. A couple of times he thought they’d reached the top but it was only the angle of the scree lessening briefly before steepening again maddeningly. Suryei gestured urgently. Her hand movements said, ‘Haul your arse up here, quick. There’s something you should see.’ At least, he guessed that was what she meant. They hadn’t actually talked for a good few hours. Talking took too much effort, and made the climb that much harder.