The Question – VIP priority 12 November 1942 by dwindt
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Description
I regain consciousness still harnessed in my seat. It’s dark and cold. My hands are numb. It’s close to 0ºC – (32ºF); possibly about 02h30. We had been flying for about 2 hours before the engine cut out and we crashed. I can still hear the contracting engine metal clicking as it cools down. I have an emergency survival kit that has a miner’s torch in it. I take it to search for and find the French officer. He has been thrown out of the cockpit and into the sand dunes 20 meters beyond the wreckage. He is bashed up badly, unconscious but alive. I drag him back to the wreckage, secure a parachute over the tail wing as a temporary shelter and tend to his injuries. Through rough calculations, I surmise we are approximately 300 miles from the USS Ranger. Our ETA was 05h00 so we will only be missed in another 3 hours.
By 15h00 this afternoon, It will be about 50º C - (122º F). The wind blowing across the flats will billow 80º C - (176ºF) hot sand up and over the ridge. Most of the water will be gone. No rescue party will have found you. You will have a decision to make. A shimmer of what appears to be water, lies beyond the mountains and across the flats, some 20 miles away. What will you do?
Comments (4)
coyoteviper
great image, and challenge question. a slim chance is better than no chance. make a drag litter for your comrade and only what you need, and start walking. try traveling during the cooler hours of the day if possible.
dwindt
Thanks for the comments and glad I managed to get the grey matter thinking. There's always hope so you've got to try. Even if there's a possibility of the shimmer being a mirage. The desert is an unforgiving place, one that I'm not sure a fly boy would be accustomed to. Walk 30 miles on the beach in the soft sand, then do it dragging a weight....then do it around freezing. It'll take a special person to survive that, with little water and the wicked heat of the day approaching. Hopefully you will reach shade before the sun comes up. In South West Africa and Angola one has to tend with the Mopane fly. It's like a Rhino version of a nat or fruit fly. It is attracted to any moisture like in your eye, ears, mouth. If you swat them, they normally fly away cause they are so tough so you have to crush them. This gives off the scent of the Mopane tree sap and attracts more flies. It affects you physiologically. Of coarse the fire ants can freak you out as well as what we called the piss moth. If it excreted on you, it would burn blisters on you that would often fester. Our platoon dug in one night only to be woken by the night watch. A sound of under growth and trees crushing like silent tanks approaching us and a troop of elephants walked through our post. That was exhilarating. The trap door spider that follows the inprint of your foot steps. You stop for the night, take your boots off...a perfect home for him....and snakes that find refuge in your sleeping bag for the warmth of your body. Every desert must have unforeseen dangers lurking close by. God bless.
crender Online Now!
So such Amazing !
dwindt
Thank you Crender
JoeJarrah
excellent narrative image
dwindt
Thanks Joe. It took a while searching for and manipulating all those models....and then creating the scene in a way that would complement the situation...not that the situation can be complemented.
richard2015
Great job on this, and thanks for the narrative adventure!
dwindt
Thank you Richard2015 and you're welcome. You have some stunning renders. Well done!