Misplaced 1, part 5.

   Everyone seemed rather subdued and tense that morning.  No one had slept well, being kept awake by thoughts and fears as well as more practical discomfort.  Most of them were tired and disinclined to do anything strenuous like collecting firewood or finding food.  But the supplies from the plane were nearly used up, and they were starting to get worried about where their next meal would come from.

   And yet the morning was practically wasted.  After that bright dawn the sky had turned overcast and grey, and Ruth felt that there was a storm in the air.  A few people made a half-hearted attempt to collect some more fruit but all that was easy to reach had been collected yesterday and it was difficult to know what was edible and what wasn't.  Besides, Ruth thought, they couldn't live for any length of time on fruit alone.

   She looked round.  Nick, Jack, David and Ernest were gathered round the fire, still arguing about the best way to make a bigger, better shelter, and drawing diagrams in the sand.  Some of the others were there too, listening but doing nothing to help.  Others were still sleeping, or at least dozing, in the shelter or in the shade at the edge of the forest.  Patrick had wandered off after everyone else had begun to wake up- she did not know where he had gone. 

   Ruth felt frustrated.  No one seemed to be taking this seriously, to face the fact that unless they were rescued today they were in serious trouble.  The longer they went without proper food the weaker they would become and the harder it would be to find the energy needed to collect food.  People would get ill and depressed.  If their rescue was delayed for any reason it might come too late for some of them.  She tried to calm down by telling herself that they had all had a shock yesterday, that everyone was tired and afraid and uncertain what to do.  But something had to be done, and done soon.

   She carried the armfull of fruit she and Rachel had been able to gather back to the fire.  The techies were still arguing about how to make the shelter waterproof and seemed no nearer to a conclusion or to starting work. 

   "It's just as well we built one last night or we'd have been sleeping outside," Rachel said to Ruth.  Ruth didn't comment.  She was trying to resist the urge to shout at the techies to just get on with it- something she had frequently felt during setbuilding sessions back in York, but even more now where more than the look of the next show was at stake.  She sighed.  Tom had also returned and was sitting nearby, obviously as uncomfortable as she was.  They exchanged a glance that showed they were thinking along the same lines.

   Quite a few people were now hanging around the fire.  Ruth could feel the tension in the air.  People weren't sure what to do.  They needed to be told, to be led.  But she knew that wasn't a role for her.  She was an administrator, not a crisis leader.  No one would listen to her, she didn't have sufficient respect.  She couldn't stand it any longer.  Leaving the others to it, she slipped away alone again. 

   She wandered away from the camp and headed down towards the sea, still thinking about their situation.  Bad as it was, it could have been so much worse.  From here, the sea looked pleasant and peaceful, but if they had been forced to land in the ocean rather than on an island, she knew that their chances of survival would have been much slimmer. 

   She heard a shout coming from the direction of the crash site.  A shout of fear, quickly echoed by a chorus of other shouts and a scream.  She ran back towards the noise.  Before she had taken many steps there was a huge crash.

   It wasn't until afterwards that she found out exactly what had happened.  The techies and some of the others had gone to the crash site to look at what was left of the plane and see whether any of it was salvageable to use in their shelter.  The techies had found some more of their tools.  While they continued searching the plane, Matt and Kat had taken a couple of saws and begun to test them on a nearby tree.  Apparently there had been an argument about whether their tools were good enough to cut down a whole tree, and Matt was determined to prove his point. 

   Until the tree started to sway, no one had noticed that the direction it would fall.  Afterwards Matt insisted that it should have fallen the other way.  Whatever, by the time they saw it begin to sway it was too late.  Slowly at first, but gathering momentum as the remaining fibres of its' trunk broke under the strain, it began to descend towards the fragile remaining shell of the plane. 

   It was Tom who saw it and shouted out to warn those inside the plane of the danger.  Nick and Jack scrambled clear just in time.  Rick, his arm still in a sling, had been stood between the tree and the wreck of the plane and was fortunate to be missed by the main trunk, although a stray branch did catch him on the head and cause him to fall awkwardly to the ground.

   By the time Ruth got there everyone was talking noisily about what had happened, in reaction to the shock.  Half a dozen people, Rachel first among them, tried to tell her what had happened.  Rick was sitting down, rather dazed, and Nick, Jack and Alex were looking at the damage the fall had caused. Where it had struck the plane the metal had been crushed and contorted almost through to the floor of the plane.  Anyone underneath at that moment could easily have been severely injured or even killed.  

   Ruth went over to Nick and the others.  "That was close," Jack was saying.

   "Matt and the others should have waited, or gone further away," Nick replied.  "But he wanted to prove his point..."

   "Without you guys we'd be in trouble," Ruth said.  "We need you if we're going to be able to fix the radio and get rescued.  But people don't know what to do- they need organising."

   "I think you're right," Nick said, as Alex nodded and Jack shrugged in agreement.  "We'd better get things sorted out."

The story continues...

Misplaced 1, part 4.

   Ruth crouched down behind the seat as they plummeted towards the ground.  Around her everyone was screaming and shouting contradictory advice, but she was silent.  She didn't dare look up.

   Then the impact.  The plane hit, skidded along the ground for a few metres and finally came to rest.  The noise on its own would have been enough to frighten Ruth- the shouts and screams, the creak of metal, the crash as trees were mown down, and then, most terrifying of all, an explosion from the back of the plane and the sound of hot air whipping past her face, and of flames catching hold behind her.

   She stood up, hardly noticing pain in her arm as the overwhelming heat and choking smoke caught at her throat.  She tried to get out of her seat and find an exit, but the smoke was already making it hard.  She heard someone screaming behind her and turning saw someone coughing, disorientated and trapped in their seat.  She reached out and took their hand, helping them up and pulling them out with her. 

   Someone had managed to get an emergency exit open and light was flooding into the plane from outside.  Ruth headed towards it, dragging the other person- she could see now that it was Stephanie- with her.  She seemed to be struggling to walk, so Ruth tried to put an arm round her to support her.  Most of the passengers were already thronging round the exit, coughing and panicking.  By the time Ruth reached the door she was more than half carrying Stephanie, and between the smoke and the extra effort she was struggling to breathe. 

   Coughing, she eventually reached the exit and looked out into the clearer, cooler air.  The ground was still a metre or so below them.  But now she could see why Stephanie had been still in her seat, unable to move.  Some flying shrapnel from the explosion must have caught her, and there was a terrible wound in one of her legs.  Ruth wasn't sure she could reach the ground without falling herself, let alone get Stephanie down.

   But then Patrick appeared on the ground to help, and somehow between them they managed it.  Somehow they reached a safe distance from the plane, and lain Stephanie down on the ground.  Other people were crowding round her and Patrick.  Aside from them, alone and forgotten, Ruth leant against a tree and sank down, coughing and struggling to breathe...

   Ruth woke up, her heart beating fast, confused and disorientated.  She sat up and looked around.  All was quiet.  She could hear one or two snores and some heavy breathing coming from the shelter they had built the day before.  She had volunteered (of course she had, she always volunteered for things like that) to sleep outside because there wasn't really room for everyone inside.  Looking across the glowing embers of the fire she could make out the slumbering forms of Nick and Jack.  Jack should have been keeping the fire going.  Quietly she put some more wood on the fire and watched the flames rise.

   It must have been a dream.  There had been no fire, no explosion in their crash.  She had helped people escape, yes, but none of them had been as badly injured as Stephanie in her dream.  The dream had been more frightening than the actual event.  And yet, in some way she couldn't understand, she knew that the dream had been their crash. 

   She jumped as whatever had made the screeching sound earlier cried out again.  That must have been what woke me up, she thought.  I must still be a bit in shock.  She was nervous and jumpy, and very glad of the fire's protection and light.  And heat too, for she was shivering a little, although it wasn't really cold, even at night. 

   She felt very alone.  Even though the others were there, they were no comfort to her, being asleep.  Beyond the firelight, everything was dark.  She stared at the flames, thinking about how fire could harm as well as help.

   Suddenly she saw something move, on the very edge of the firelight, out of the corner of her eye.  She stiffened and moved one hand towards a long branch one end of which was in the fire.  Then it moved again, closer and she could make out its' shape was human.  For a moment that was equally terrifying, and visions of them all being murdered by primitive savages played in her head.  Then she saw that it was Patrick. 

   He saw down near the fire.  "I couldn't sleep," he said.  "I told Jack I'd look after the fire, so he could sleep, then I saw some bats and wandered off to see if I could find out where they came from.  I think there must be some caves further up the hill over there.  They all came and went from that direction.  And then the stars were so beautiful I stood there looking for a while."   Ruth looked at him.  How could he be thinking about stars and bats in this situation?  And yet somehow she envied him.  Perhaps that was how he coped. 

   "Of course I couldn't see any constellations I recognised," he said.

   There was beginning to be light beyond the firelit circle.  Dawn was coming, far out over the sea, and the first faint hint of it had reached the island.  It grew stronger as Ruth sat there watching, in amazement at the colour and beauty.

   With the growing light the fire began to seem pale and dim, it's power diminished by comparison to the infinitely greater fire raging ninety-three million miles away.  The stars faded away with the coming of the new day.  Ruth looked at the sun and stars differently now she had been out there.  Like fire, it was frightening and yet beautiful.  And yet now they were as lost, as alone, as forsaken here as they had been drifting in space a year ago. 

The story continues...

Misplaced 1, part 3.

There was no sugar, the milk salvaged from the plane was on the point of turning bad and the water tasted faintly of dust, but Ruth thought it was the best cup of tea she had ever drunk. She felt much better after it, and she could see that the others did too.

The smell of tea had brought the techies over to the fire, still arguing about the best way to build a shelter. Ruth listened to them for a while. Then she got up and wandered away.

Near the crash site were the uprooted remains of several trees. Ruth began to collect some of them and drag them over to an outcrop of large rocks. Rachel and some of the other girls joined her.

"What are you doing?" Rachel asked.

"If we wait for the techies to build a shelter we'll still be waiting this time tomorrow," Ruth said. "I was going to try to make a shelter for tonight, even if it's only temporary."

They collected long bits of wood from the crash site and forest floor, and carried them to the rocks where they made a rough framework by lashing them together. The filled in the gaps in the roof with sheet metal which had been torn off the plane. It was a bit rickety, but it was sheltered by the rocks and would keep off the rain- if it ever rained here. It was so hot and sunny that it was protection from the sun that seemed more essential. The metal roof was burning hot, so they collected broad leaves that they hoped would insulate it.


The techies were still arguing round Jack's campfire, but when they saw what Ruth and the others were doing they came over to look and comment.


"It would be better if you put cross bracing on the sides," Jack said.


"No, I don't think you need to," Nick said. "The rocks keep it pretty steady."


"We haven't got any more wood," Rachel said.


"We can always improve it later," Ruth said. "But at least we've got somewhere now, especially for the people who are injured. It'll be dark soon."


She was right. The sun was now close to the horizon, and to everyone's relief it was cooler. The techies gave up arguing for the moment and went to collect more wood for Jack's fire. They had decided to keep it going all night, as it would make it easier for anyone searching for them from the air to find them. Some of the others were sitting round it, talking quietly. Everyone still seemed a bit dazed from the crash. At one side of the fire sat Rick, his broken arm in a makeshift sling. His leg was also painful, although he insisted that this was just his normal 'brokenness' made worse by being shaken around by the crash. The others had made him sit and rest, but it was obvious that he was still in some pain. Claire too had spent the afternoon sitting in the shade, dazed from hitting her head hard against the seat in front. Most of them bore cuts and bruises from the crash.


They all sat around the fire, tired. They had eaten some of the fruit the foraging party had found, but no one seemed very hungry. Everyone was very quiet, Ruth thought, and she wondered if they were still in shock. Nick and David had some of the plane's radio equipment and were fiddling about, trying to mend it, but they were having no luck. They had, of course, tried to use their mobile phones as soon as they had crashed, but unsurprisingly there was no signal.


Ruth stared at the fire. She had always loved watching the flames, feeding them and feeling the heat. She had never been afraid of controlled fires, like some people she had known. She had used them for heat, for cooking, for a sense of company and fellowship. Fire was somehow alive.


But she had never been so dependent on it as now. There was no escape route, no back up plan, there was no gas stove or electric kettle. The fire was all they had. One by one each of them gathered round its flames, drawing together against the dark.


The fire crackled and burned. In the background she could hear the swish and rush of the sea. And now night had come the forest was waking up. The leaves rustled. Patrick was staring up at the sky, where the dark shapes of bats were just visible against the sky. Further off they could hear a sounds that were somewhere between screeching and roaring. Something was declaring that this was its' territory, that it would not back down. Although distant and obviously nothing to do with them, it sounded threatening, unfriendly.


"Do you think there are any predators here?" Rachel said, breaking the silence.


"Depends what you mean by predators," Tom replied. "If you mean are there any creatures here that prey on other animals, yes, I'm sure there are. If you mean are they a danger to us, probably not. The island isn't big enough."


"I do wonder what that noise is, though," Emily asked.


"Some kind of bird?" Rachel suggested.


"It's more like a mammal, I think," Tom said.


Ruth thought of another use of fire- for protection. Keeping the fire burning all night would serve that purpose too.


In the dark the island was a different place. It seemed threatening, hostile, wilder than it had during the day.


The unspoken fear of each of them seemed to close in, to be lurking just beyond the firelight. Would a search team find them tomorrow? Or the next day? Would they ever be found? And how long could they survive here if they weren't? Their thoughts were dark and melancholy, even in the firelight. The song she had sung during the crash came back to Ruth. They had escaped death then, but what had they escaped to? Like the character whose song it was, they were free and yet still prisoners.
 
 
The story continues...

Misplaced 1, part 2.

"Is life a thorn?  Then count it not a whit,

Nay, count it not a whit, 

Man is well done with it!

As soon as he's born 

He should all means essay 

To put the plague away,

And I, war-worn, 

Poor captured fugitive, my life most gladly give,

I might have had to live another morn!"

   All was quiet now.  The noise of the crash and the devastation it had caused to the forest had scared away the local wildlife.  There were a few bird calls deep in the trees, but for the most part the island, like the travellers, seemed dazed.

   The crash itself could have been much worse.  There had been no fire, no explosion.  The pilot had brought them down onto the tiny island, destroying the plane's undercarriage and a swathe of forest.  Trees had been uprooted and the noise had been like a battlefield in competition with a thunderstorm.  But the plane had remained, for the most part, intact.  There had been injuries to deal with from the crash itself- cuts, sprains, a couple of broken bones, but all the passengers had survived.

   At first after they had got free from the wreckage no one had wanted to go back near it.  Those who weren't trying to help the injured stood or sat around a short distance away from the wreckage, unsure what to do.  Ruth, thinking dully, knew it was shock.  She badly wanted a cup of tea, but had no way of getting one.

   Rachel had come and sat next to her.  For once, she was quiet.  She looked around.  Patrick was sat on a stood rock, rubbing his eyes.  Tom and Adam were nearby, dazed and unsure like the rest of them.  No one seemed to be missing.  

   After a while she saw Nick and Jack talking, and they stood up and went towards the plane.  A couple of the others joined them.  Slowly she got up and went to join them.  

   They climbed with some difficulty back into the wreckage and began to work their way forwards.  The front section of the plane had been the worst damaged as it had taken the worst of the impact. 

   When they eventually got into the cabin they found the body of the two crew members, hunched over the controls.

   "They must have been killed as we landed," Nick said.  

   So they were on an island alone in the ocean, not even in sight of any other land, and the plane's radio equipment (as they soon discovered) had been destroyed in the crash.  Nick and David tried to salvage enough to make it work, but with no success.  

   But things could have been worse.  When they investigated deeper into the wreck of the plane they found that their luggage had survived with little damage.  As well as all their personal items, most of their costumes, set and props had survived along with the tools they had brought.  Tools that would be useful in building a shelter.  Although electric drills and saws were not much use without a power supply.

   Even so, matters were bad enough.  They were marooned with no shelter, little food, and no way of communicating with anyone else.  They went back to give the bad news to the others.

   "Won't they search for us?" Rachel asked.  

   "I'm sure they'll search," Ruth said.  "The pilot must have radioed that he was in difficulty and given his position."

   "I don't know how much air traffic control there is out here, though," Tom said.  "It's not like Europe."

   "But even so, when we don't arrive they'll know something's wrong.  They'll know the route we were taking.  They'll find us."

   "We can hope so, anyway."  They were all gloomy.  Ruth knew that they were all, like her, afraid.  

   "The thing is," Nick said, "We don't know how long it will take them to find us, even if they start looking now it could be days.  We can't just sit here and wait."

   "We should stay near the crash site, though," Tom said.  "It'll be easier for them to find that."

   "Yes, but we need to find shelter, and water and work out how to get food," Nick said.  "We've got to make sure we survive to be found."

   And, thought Ruth, we need to do something to take our minds off the crash.

   So half an hour later the silent island had become a hive of activity.  The island rose at one end, and a rocky hill rose above the forest.  Among the rocks where the ground became steeper they had found a stream, not very big but fresh, trickling downhill through the jungle.  Nearby was a flattish open space, sheltered by the forest on one side and the hill on the other, and it was here that they decided to build their make camp.  Some of the techies set about building a shelter.  Well, perhaps 'building' was too optimistic.  They were trying to agree on a design and method of construction.  As the group contained at least two technical directors, this was taking some time.  

   Some of the others had climbed to the hilltop, the highest point on the island, to see if they could see any other islands or ships to signal to; others had searched the island for any sign of human habitation.  Both groups had returned dispirited and unsuccessful.  It was clear that for now, at least, they were dependent on their own meagre resources.  

   Ruth and some others were trying to find food.  They had found some trees with recognisable fruit on them, but they were up higher than anyone could climb, despite spirited efforts on the part of Patrick.  Ruth was terrified someone would fall.  Eventually they discovered some rope amongst the tools and props- no one was quite sure why, but they were certainly glad of it- and used it to rig up a kind of harness.  But fruit alone wouldn't feed them for long. 

   They carried what they had been able to find back to the campsite.  Everything they had been able to salvage from the plane was piled up near the rocks.  Jack was building a fire near the stream.  Ruth saw that he had some sort of pot filled with water and was trying to balance it over the fire on large stones.  He looked up as she approached.  

   "We found some food and stuff on the plane," he said, holding up some teabags.  "Fancy a cup?"

   "I'd love one," she said.  

The story continues...

   

Misplaced 1, part 1.

Away we go to an island fair.

"Away we go to an island fair

That lies in the southern sea,

We know not where and we don't much care

Wherever that isle may be."

   The University of York Gilbert and Sullivan Society were seated on a plane.  Fortunately they were the only passengers, because they were singing loudly.  It was something that almost inevitably happened, especially when they were on their way to a performance.  

   And this was no ordinary performance.  They had been invited to perform a show on a small island in the Pacific, whose monarch had been at York Uni many years before and had been one of their former members.  Well, so he said.  Unfortunately it was a period they had no record of.  He was holding some kind of cultural festival, it appeared, and had invited them to come and perform.  With expenses paid.  Unsurprisingly, the society had voted unanimously to go.  

   So there they were, aboard a plane with their costumes and set, and with miles of deserted ocean below them.   And of course they were singing- The Gondoliers at the moment.  It seemed appropriate.  

   Ruth looked out of the window.  The ocean below was beautiful, the sky was clear apart from a few small clouds.  The journey had been remarkably trouble free, there hadn't been many delays, and even the weather had been good.  She relaxed, and leaned back in her seat.  All was well.  

   It was good to be away for a while.  York, beautiful city that it was, just wasn't quite the same any more after all the adventures they'd had in space.  Not that they'd wanted them, of course, but they all recognise that it had been a life changing experience.  When they had arrived home they had just wanted some time to relax and adjust to normality, but they had been besieged by journalists, medical and technological experts and other people desperate to hear their story.  Even after the initial excitement had died down, psychologists and computer experts were still arguing about whether their adventures were real, or a complicated group hallucination, or an elaborate hoax.  The media didn't care, of course, but although it was hardly unexpected several of the group had found it hard, after all they had been through, to cope with being accused of lying in the popular press.

   So they had been glad of the opportunity to escape recession-hit, media-mad, rainy Britain for a few weeks and go somewhere warmer, drier and quieter.  Although not much quieter at the moment, Ruth had to admit. But since she was singing as loud as anyone she couldn't complain really.

   Then she heard, over the tuneful voices, a sound coming from the intercom speakers.  She stopped singing and listened.  It sounded worried.  She tried to quieten the others.  Fortunately the song was coming to an end anyway.  As the others' caught the pilot's tone the mood dropped.

   "This is your pilot speaking.  Please strap yourselves into your seats and try to remain calm.  I have to tell you that we appear to have developed a leak in the fuel system.  As a result we do not have enough fuel to reach our destination and will have to perform an emergency landing."

   Ruth thought about the hundreds of miles of open ocean below them.  Emergency landing?  The G&Sers looked at one another in horror.  

   "It's happening again," Ruth thought.  "After all that happened in space, I thought we'd be safe when we got back to Earth.  But no.  After all that, it's going to end here."

   After the pilot's announcement there was a couple of minutes' silence.  Then the babble of voices began to rise again.  There wasn't really any screaming, although several voices were raised and people were talking and shouting at cross purposes.  Ruth leant her head against the back of the seat in front of her.  She was surprised she wasn't more afraid, but it took her a minute or two to get her thoughts settled.  Then she sat up and looked at her housemate in the seat next to her.  

   "You'd think we'd be used to crash landings by now," she said, trying to smile.  Rachel had been with them during the space voyage, but had been rather in the background.  

   "We're going to die," Rachel said frantically.  "Isn't there anything they can do?"

   "I'm sure the pilot will do his best," Ruth said.  "Look, you'd better fasten these straps."  She helped Rachel fasten the seat straps.

   "What's the point?" Rachel asked.  "If we're not killed in the crash we'll drown."  But she did the straps up anyway.  Ruth made sure her own were fastened.  The pilot's voice came over the intercom again.  

   "We are currently heading for a small island on which I hope to land.  The risk of exploding upon impact is hopefully low due to the lack of fuel, however please exit the plane as soon as possible after landing in case of fire."  The speakers clicked off.

   "And if we don't drown we'll burn!" Rachel shouted as the plane began to loose height.  The G&Sers braced themselves behind the seats.  Everyone was quiet.

   Into Ruth's mind came a tune unbidden, and softly, under her breath she began to sing.  In the seat in front of her, Patrick joined in, and one or two others also picked up the tune as the plane continued to plunge towards the ocean of everlasting blue and the tiny speck of an island.

"Is life a boon?  If so, it must befall,

That Death, when'er he call, 

Must call too soon.

Tho' fourscore years he give, 

Yet one would pray to live 

Another moon.

What kind of plaint have I 

Who perish in July?

I might have had to die, perchance, in June."

The story continues...

Misplaced

   "Run!"

   The creature loomed above her, taller than a human, outlined black against the light from the fire.  They had thought the campfire would provide protection against animals, but they hadn't expected anything as big as this.  

   Close by David crouched over Becky, trying to rouse her.  There was blood on the ground beside her and she wasn't moving.  Everyone else was fleeing as fast as possible, apart from two or three who were standing at a safe distance, watching and calling to her and David.

   Ruth looked up at the creature.  She wasn't sure if it knew she was there, half hidden as she was behind a rock, but she didn't dare move in case it noticed her.  

   "Come on!" Nick called.  "Run!"  The creature had begun to advance, its indistinct shape moving stealthily towards her.  Slowly she tried to draw her feet under her, ready to start running.  She had never been much of an athlete, and she didn't think she could outrun the creature, but she couldn't just stay here.  

   She stumbled up and into a shambling run, just as the creature's paw swept down.  A claw scraped down her arm and side, but she kept running.  Nick and the others had turned to run too, as the creature took a few steps after her before seeming to loose interest as it sensed an easier target.  

   Ruth heard a scream, and looked back to see the creature bend its head to the hollow where David had been with Becky.  Then the scream stopped.  Ruth turned and ran after the others, struggling to catch up but they all seemed so far ahead.  She seemed to be dropping further and further behind and the pain from the wound inflicted by the creature's claw was increasing.  She wasn't sure which direction she was heading in any more. Dimly she head the creature roaring behind her, and in terror she quickened her pace, using her last strength.  Then, dizzy with pain and fear, she tripped over a tree root and fell...

   Ruth woke up suddenly.  She opened her eyes and sat up.  The first light of dawn was peeping over the horizon, and the fire had sunk down low.  She looked around at the others.  There were David and Becky, lying close to one another, breathing gently and regularly.  There was Nick on the other side of the fire, there were all the others, lying here and there around the fire.  There was no blood to be seen, no wounds, and no giant monster with huge white teeth.  All was calm and quiet.  It had just been a dream.

   Or had it?

The story begins here...