TOMB HUNTER

The Adventures of Larra Court

Episode 10

Larra’s Indonesian Adventure

Chapter 13 The Nurse

Judy Cross gripped the back of the pilot’s chair so tightly that her fingertips turned white. Her stomach churned as the plane continued to lose altitude. She was now beginning to question her desperate flight from Brunei in the face of the Japanese invasion. But rumours had come to the colony of what the Japanese had done to the nurses in Hong Kong. Fear of rapine and murder had led her to take any offer, even one as desperate as that offered by an eccentric like Charles Turner.

“Come with me, Jude,” he had begged. “You don’t want to be ‘ere,” when the Nips arrive. You know what they do to white women.”

She did know, and so she had taken the Cockney aviator up on his offer. What she had not counted on was the fact that the flight Turner had planned was at the very limit of the range of the Fairchild 24H. But even worse the aircraft had run into Japanese fighters just a couple of hours after takeoff. By means of brilliant flying Turner had managed to evade the enemy, but not before the slow moving aircraft had taken a couple of holes in its fuel tanks.

He had been forced to head away from northern Borneo, flying into the Dutch territory of Kalimantan, but losing fuel, Turner had been forced to drop the aircraft to just above treetop level and look for a place to land. Unfortunately, unending forest stretched out in all directions. It became more and more obvious that the aircraft was going to have to be taken down in the trees.

Turner turned his head. “We’re going down, Jude. Hold on; I’ll look for a soft spot.”

Judy removed her wire-frame glasses and tucked them into the pocket of her uniform. Then picking up a seat cushion she held it in front of her and bent at the waist. She uttered a little prayer and then there was a grinding crash.

Her entire world spun, literally, as the plane tore apart. Turner had slowed it down to stalling speed, but no aircraft is designed to land on treetops. The plane caught the top branches and turned 180 degrees. Not surprisingly flying backwards through the branches did not agree with it. It came apart like tissue paper fed into a fan.

The noise as the plane disintegrated was incredible, drowning out Judy’s high pitched screaming and then everything was silent, Judy included.

She came to an hour or so later. She was not quite sure how long she had lain on the forest floor. She only remembered her surprise and confusion at no longer being in the plane. Her body ached and it was only with difficulty that she got to her feet. Her first thoughts were for the whereabouts of the plane and her next for Turner.

She found the plane first, what was left of it. How she had survived a crash that could reduce an aircraft to pieces of crumpled metal she was never able to determine. Somehow fate had smiled on her, at least that was what she thought at first. Later she wasn’t quite so sure.

Turner was spared her doubts. She found his broken body in the wreckage. She was alone in the forest.

There wasn’t much she could do for the dead pilot, but she felt that she could not just leave his shattered body for the ants. As a nurse working with her missionary father in Brunei she had seen injuries and ill patients. Turner’s shattered body was not pretty, but it did not disturb her beyond the fact that she was viewing the body of a man who had tried to help her.

She felt in her pocket for her glasses. To her relief they had not been lost in the crash. The wire frames were a bit bent, but they were still serviceable. Straightening them, she put them on and peered at the scattered wreckage. She needed something to dig with, but doubted that Turner had included a shovel as part of his equipment. She found part of a broken wing strut. She was not in the best shape for digging a grave, but in the tropical heat the body would begin to deteriorate quickly and she wanted to get the task over with as quickly as possible.

Fortunately the rainforest ground was relatively soft, and with a lot of sweat and effort she was able to gouge a shallow trench. The effort of dragging Turner’s body to the hole used up the remainder of her strength, and she was weaving on her feet by the time she finished.

She staggered to the broken passenger seat and sat down. She needed a few minutes to rest and think.

She considered her situation. The plane had come down somewhere over the jungles of Borneo. She had no idea exactly where she was and she had no survival gear or even proper clothing. Her nurse’s smock and light work shoes were not intended trekking about in a rainforest. Her only assets were the fact that as a young girl (which was not so long ago, considering that she was only eighteen), she had shown considerable interest in the flora and fauna of Brunei and Sarawak. She could identify several dozen different plant species, some of them edible. Her biggest problem would be not succumbing to some tropical fever or dying of exposure.

In order to deal with the last problem she decided to construct a temporary shelter. There were enough pieces of airplane scattered about to make do. She needed to rest and recover from the effects of the crash. Tomorrow she would think about getting to civilization.

Constructing her crude shelter completely exhausted her. In spite of the hunger pangs tormenting her stomach she crawled into the shelter and collapsed. In just minutes she was asleep.

She awoke near morning. Her head hurt even worse than on the previous day. She guessed that the increased pain was probably due to a mild concussion. She should not have pushed herself so much. It meant that she would have to rest most of this day as well. She gathered enough energy to find some water. There was a natural rock outcropping where she found a small pool and she salved her thirst. Then she spent an hour scouting the area about her crude shelter and located a few edible fruits. She also found some roots that could be eaten when cooked. She made note of these but made no effort to dig them up. She would need to figure out how to make fire first. She then returned to the shelter, and eating half of the fruit she had found, she settled back down and slept the rest of the day.

She awoke several hours before dawn. Her headache was gone, but she was very hungry. She ate the rest of the fruit, but knew it would not hold her long. She needed something a bit more substantial, but knew that would have to wait until she reached some sort of settlement. Unfortunately, she had no idea where a settlement might be. In the dense rainforest and jungle there was no way of determining where anything was. She could be just an hour’s walk from help if she knew which way to go, but a wrong choice could leave her wandering aimlessly in the jungle until she died. She decided that her best chance was to head north. That way at least she would probably not be heading into the mountains.

Of course, that was assuming Turner’s plane had come down on the north side of the mountains. If it had come down on the south side….

She would have to work that problem out as it developed. In the meantime she would have one more quick look around the crash site. There was something she wanted very much and she had not yet come across it.

She found it shortly after dawn. It had very little survival value, but it made her feel much better to find her purse. In it was a comb, a mirror, and a little make-up bag. She spent half an hour carrying out a quick grooming and then studied herself in the mirror.

A blue-eyed blonde stared back at her. “I’m really quite pretty,” she thought. It was good thing the Japanese had not caught up with her. She had heard that Asians were particularly partial to white women who looked like her. She thought about the rest of her body. She was a bit above average height, slender, and athletic. She had been very good at so-called girls’ sports in school and had a strong, trim figure.

It was a good thing she was fit. She would need her strong body if she was to escape the jungle. She was surrounded by dangers and could die at any time.

“Well,” she muttered, “there’s only one thing I can do about that.” She picked up her few possessions. “Here goes nothing,” she added and headed into the forest. Maybe by pure luck she would stumble upon a settlement. At least she wouldn’t be raped by the Japanese.

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