The sun was now directly above us

 Page 8.

The sun was now directly above us was we plowed forward leaving the Japanese patrol and the nesting sea birds behind us. We followed the stream as it snaked its way deeper and deeper into the jungle putting some distance between us and the Japanese.  Mr. Roberts appeared to be doing better after Smokey made a crutch from a straight tree branch with a bend in it allowing Mr. Roberts to support his weight as we traveled. With fresh water now available and our rations nearly depleted we needed food and I desperately needed meat. As we neared a second waterfall the scent of chicken filled my nostrils and I began to drool with the sense of excitement and the memory of home. I could smell them everywhere and then I heard them cackling nervously but they hadn’t seen me yet. Mr. Roberts stopped the men and watched as my nose followed the fresh scent of jungle fowl and wild pigs until I stopped and stood perfectly still. I never had to kill my own food before and didn’t need to until now and it wasn’t just for me but for the other’s too. Suddenly a brightly colored rooster flushed from behind a greenish blue flowering plant and landed high in the towering trees above me.

But it wasn’t him I was after as two hens attempted to run pass me as I quickly killed one and held the other in my mouth to the delight of Smokey. I felt intoxicated over the  taste of warm blood and the killing felt natural to me while watching Smokey clean the birds after Mr. Roberts agreed to a small fire near the base of a fallen tree. As the birds roasted and we gathered together and give thanks for the first real food since the sinking of our ship. It was now late afternoon and Mr. Roberts believed it would take at least two more days to reach our destination and  pointed to what appeared to be a clearing on one of the second highest mountains on the island. Brian buried what remained of our meal leaving no trace of our temporary camp and we marched onward stopping only for Mr. Roberts to rest and write some notes in a small journal he kept in his shirt pocket. The jungle now seemed to give way from thick lust vegetation to chest high yellowish grass and deep rocky canyons but the waterfalls seemed to climb with us cascading across the face of the mountains like a watery ladder. 

The sun was beginning to fall but not without highlighting some dark menacing clouds heading toward us rather quickly. Smokey was the first one to say, “ looks like a storms about to hit us Mr. Roberts”, and no sooner had the words left his mouth when sheets of heavy rain began to fall followed by the boom of thunder and blinding lightning. We quickly took cover near a outcropping of stone cliffs that kept the rain from hitting us head on but we needed shelter badly just as another bolt of lightning struck nearby. I never liked when it stormed and this was the worse I had ever experienced and the booming of the thunder brought me aboard the ship just as the first torpedo struck. Suddenly Brian called out as he edged his way along the Cliffside ,” over there, I’ve found a cave”. We all gathered next to Brian who held out his hand and thumbed a silver and gold lighter a gift from his wife Kimberly and followed the radio man through a narrow slit in a wall of granite just wide enough for one person but we weren’t the first to make this place their home.