Chapter Three: SURVIVAL IN THE WILD
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No help had arrived for the plane crash survivors. Neither the survivors were able to send emergency signals. They had spent hours on that cliffed coast.

Sun was still blazing at the top of the head. Finding it strange, Aarav checked his watch.

10 pm. It should have been 10 in the night making them stranded on that cliffed coast for almost 10 hours. And it still was not night. Worse or for better it didn't look like the sun was going to set any time soon.

"Any progress?" Aarav asked the pilot who was fiddling with what looked like radio and transistor.

"None, it is broken. And we're screwed", replied the pilot with a grim look.

"Indian?"

"No, Pakistani. What? You don't like me now", the pilot replied in the Hindi language.

"Indian, Pakistani, Japanese, American, we all are stranded. I can forget our friendly neighbourhood feud for the time being. By the way, Aarav Adhiraj, ex-military", Aarav said while extending his hands and grinning.

"Aadil Abdelnour, Pakistani but never been there. Brought up in England"

"Leave that junk for now. Come. Let's scout the area."

"Sure, let's go"

Aarav calls upon Asahi and Ian for scouting. Four of them delves deep in the forest with some improvised weapons and daggers. They move cautiously to avoid any wild animals.

On the way, they saw a peculiar animal which looked a bit like a rabbit with horns. Insects were abnormally huge. They found a tree which looked like it was the tallest. Aarav decides to climb the tree, while the rest of them were on lookout and gathering whatever looked edible.

After some time when he reached the top, he could see far and wide. However, this vantage point only gave him hopelessness. They were nowhere. They were in the middle of nowhere. All he could see were vast jungles, a never-ending river, a range of mountains and a few volcanoes. He could only hope for those volcanoes to be dormant. He had no wish of being charred to death.

"krrrrahkkkk"

Aarav heard a loud screeching voice, like that of a bird. He turned around. A huge condor-like bird, at least ten times bigger than that, flying at the top of its speed, towards him.

"Shit!"

He had no choice but to jump. And jumping from that height meant obvious death.

"F#&k you", Aarav couldn't help but swear.

He jumped down to the nearest branch. By the time he could further get down, the condor-like bird flew down and dived. It pulled a 20-metre long snake, in one swoop, with its beak. This snake was just a few inches away from him and he hadn't even seen it there. That condor came for its dinner and flew away with it. Aarav was neglected in all this as if he wasn't there, to begin with.

He breathed a sigh of relief and prepared to descend from his climb. He thanked his lucky stars. He would rather prefer dying from a fall than be on someone's menu.

His face was pale when he came down. He called his team back and they headed back to their campsite as it was getting dark. After ten more hours, the sun starts to set. They had spent 25 hours in daylight and they had to spend another long night in that unknown place.

A huge butterfly or what seemed like a butterfly, about 40 cm wide flew past Kiara, jolting her awake.

"Holy f#%k, what's that? "

Kiara and others could see a few butterflies like insects flying around the area. Their size was utterly disturbing. The only thought that came across her mind was the size of mosquitoes. How big would they be!

The sun was on the horizon. After spending about 25 hours, finally, it was evening. Her bad feeling that she was not voicing seemed to be true. They were not on Earth anymore.

The Flora and fauna was something she had never seen before or had any knowledge. Daylight time was too long. There was this unsettling celestial object in the sky. Too huge than the moon, venus or Jupiter, or whatever planets are visible from the sky.

Aarav and other guys had come back from their scouting. He gathered everyone around the bonfire and told them about their situation. Everyone had a grim look on their faces. A lot of people died. Some people required immediate medical attention. But their chances of getting rescued were slim. They cannot communicate to get outside help. And the place they were in looked like an isolated island.

"It's going to be a very long night. And we are in the jungle. It means there would be wild animals. We would be safe as long as we stay vigilant. And we all need to help each other. Guys, you can't stay still doing nothing."

Aarav said in a very serious tone. His gaze was towards a few individuals who were not cooperating despite being in good health. After his speech, and getting a raincheck, others who were not so cooperative started helping. They built few traps and surrounded their campsite with them. They made improvised weapons which they carried for individual safety.

The people who were not doing anything were a lot more than ones doing. All the air hostess that survived, were working and helping others under the leadership of Julia. She had a perfectly sane head even after this traumatic incident.

The astonishingly good looking Korean boys were hopeless. Was it because of the language barrier or they were too shocked? It was hard to say.

After that speech, an average looking and older Korean guy, started to help around. Rest three out of the four younger boys, moved around at least to make a place for their sleeping.

Another group of youths comprising of mostly British started to move around as well. They looked obscenely rich. One could guess that they had never even boiled water for themselves.

Out of them, a tall handsome guy was berating his girlfriend who couldn't help but cry insolently.

"Cindy, are you dumb? So damn useless", yelled the handsome guy berating his girlfriend.

"Jason, don't yell at me", said Cindy meekly.

They were trying to make a shade for their group, which was now ruined.

Seeing the situation, Aadil came to their help. He asked Cindy to go help the injured.

Cindy went inside the injured's shelter where Kiara was peeling and cutting some unknown fruits into a bowl. Fiona was helping around by fetching water for the patients.

Cindy was still sobbing. She looked around. The blood and unsettling condition of patients were not helping her calm down. Kiara saw her.

"Cindy, can you help me with this?" Kiara asked the puzzled Cindy.

"Huh"

"Take these vegetables to Tamara, she is cooking outside"

"oh! Yes." Cindy took the bowl and went out. Her incessant crying stopped after she got something to put her mind on.

Out of 50 or so people, that were left, no one had any experience of survival in the wild, or any catastrophe. They were lucky to have Aarav, a military officer, Samuel, a doctor. Because of these two people, their chances of surviving had increased.

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