"How can you say that? Nigel, it was an accident!"
"If she’s dead I’ll never forgive myself!" Growing more unstrung by the moment he suddenly couldn’t control the wave of panic submerging his jarred emotions. "Sydney, I may have killed a mother and her unborn child!"
"Don’t get ahead of yourself here! We have no idea where she is, and just because we don’t, doesn’t mean she’s dead. Get a hold of yourself, you’re having a panic attack for God sake!" She demanded, and forcibly grabbed him by his jacket. "Listen to me, you would never hurt anyone on purpose Nigel, now stop this! Please." She had an urgent, pleading tone to her voice that commanded his immediate compliance, and he gave it to her. "Good, that’s good. I need you to be here with me right now Nigel... Concentrate. If you can’t, we don’t stand a chance at getting out of here alive. Are you with me?" She watched his soft, shadowy eyes for a flicker of understanding, and he slowly nodded his head.
With a little bit of effort and a lot of guts, they managed to snake their way down the trees that held the demolished floatplane suspended in place. Sydney knew that soon they would be missed, and a search party would be on the way. Until that time, all they had to do was look for Cameron and stay alive.
"It seems like all it ever does is rain here." Nigel loudly complained across the forest floor as they both fanned out around the wreckage to try and locate Cam. The little Englishman teetered off in a southerly direction while his partner headed towards the beach. There were bits of debris scattered all over the immediate area and it was hard to pick out some of the pieces. Most of it was mangled beyond recognition, and his heart just sank. If Cam was ejected from the cockpit what shape could she possibly be in? All sorts of horrible images bounced off the walls of his brain, he just couldn’t help it. He closed his eyes and uttered a small prayer, hoping against the reality of it that she would be found alive and unharmed.
"Nigel! Over here, I’ve got her!"
"Really, I’ll be okay..." Cameron tried her best to convince her, but obviously she wasn’t listening. She sat there while Sydney checked over every inch of her body, making sure nothing was broken, or worse... "I’m really sorry Sydney, I have no idea what happened..."
"It wasn’t your fault." Syd looked into her eyes. "I just had the same conversation with Nigel, he was blaming himself too."
"Cam! Oh, what a relief!" He cried out, thundering through the brush and stumbling into the sand. "I, I thought..."
"The worst, if I know anything about you Nige." She smiled weakly, trying to help him feel better about an already dreadful situation. "You’re a hopeless worrywart! Must be the English half of you, the Irish part wouldn’t put up with it."
"Well, how did you end up over here?" He wanted to know. "It’s quite a stretch from the actual crash site."
"I can’t remember anything after catching the trees, I woke up out here, and my lower back is killing me!"
"That means you must have been thrown, what... almost forty meters!" Sydney could hardly believe what she was hearing. "That’s impossible!"
"Maybe she wandered out here in a less than conscious state Syd. Now that sounds more plausible. It's more realistic than being tossed forty meters." Nigel interjected. "Do you remember anything at all?" Cam just shook her head.
"Well, that’s not really so important right now, we should stay close to the plane." Sydney suggested.
"You’re right, we’ve got a better chance of survival among the shelter of the trees than out here on this unprotected beach. Let’s go." Cam extended her hand.
"Are you sure you’re up to walk back to the plane?" Sydney took her arm and carefully helped her up. "I don’t want you to overdo it."
"It’s just a couple of scrapes and bruises Sydney, I don’t think there’s anything seriously wrong. I still can't believe it." She replied, and pushed herself into a standing position. "You on the other hand, look like you could use a few stitches!"
With Sydney on one side, Nigel took her other arm and they made the tedious hike back.
Despite her own physical distress Sydney dutifully tended to Cameron’s minor scrapes and cuts, honestly surprised that was all she had suffered. It didn’t look like anyone should have survived that crash. All three knew it was only a matter of time before a search party would be out looking for them, so they waited.
Go to Part Twenty-One.