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Chapter 3: Day Two - Basic Survival
Just as dusk was beginning the set, Ike removed the second man from the galley area. They had been waiting for five hours now, and so far there had been no sign of another plane or helicopter. The temperature in the small area was steadily dropping. He went into the fuselage and returned carrying several more winter coats which he laid over the blankets that were already piled over them. They had already pulled the two children into their pallet and were using the fur coat that had been their pallot for a top covering. The more body heat they generated together, the safer they would be from the cold. Taylor was drifting in and out of sleep, complaining of a monster headache and Ike suspected he had a concussion. Zac was still not responding to them, but he was making noises and moans when they moved him or cleaned the gash on his head. Ike took that as a good sign.
Ike was rummaging through cabinets when Taylor woke. "What are you doing, now?" he ask groggily.
"Looking to see what is here," Ike said, opening a small refrigerator unit. "We need to eat before it gets dark and we go to sleep."
"What we need is a flashlight." Taylor suggested.
"No luck on that yet, but I have found plenty to drink and a ton of Lorna Doone cookies in these little packages." Ike said selecting several bottles of juice out of the jumble of broken glass in the small refrigerator and handed them over to his brother. "What we need is a First Aid Kit, and there should be one onboard somewhere."
Taylor sat up wincing with pain. His head felt like it was going to explode but he valiantly tried to ignore it. He tore open two packages of cookies and put a cookie in the little girls mouth and watched as she started to chew.
"Good girl," he praised. "You know Ike, we need names for these kids. Neither one is talking and we can’t keep calling referring to them as the girl and the boy."
Ike was busy crawling under a cabinet, still searching. "So name them." he said casually.
Taylor fed the little girl another cookie and gave her a drink from the apple juice bottle. She was watching him silently with large blue eyes, reddened from crying. Her hair was almost black, curly and somewhat matted to her head. She was a pretty little thing. "You look like my friends Denny’ little sister., so I’m going to call you Katie. Unless you can tell me your name? Okay." She just looked at him chewed another cookie but she didn’t speak.
"Now, how about you," Taylor said turning to the dark headed little boy of seven or eight. "You haven’t spoken all day. Do you want a cookie?" he offered.
"Pastelito," the little boy said softly and nodded his head.
Taylor looked at the little boy, handed him a cookie and pointed to himself. "Taylor." then he pointed to Zac and said "Zac," and pointed to the little girl and said "Katie". Then he pointed to the little boy and said "Como se llama" [What is your name].
"Mi, Antonio." [Me, Antonio] the little boy responded.
"Oh, boy." Taylor exclaimed. "Hey, Ike!’
"What?" Ike said crawling out from under a cabinet with a white box with a red cross on it in his hand.
"How good is your Spanish?" Taylor ask looking up at his brother as he handed the boy another cookie and the bottle of juice.
"About as good as yours, why?" Ike ask preoccupied with his find.
"Antonio here, speaks Spanish," Taylor exclaimed. "No wonder he hasn’t spoken all day, he probably doesn’t understand a word we’re saying!"
Ike looked up at the boy "Espanol?"
"Si, donde iz mi madre," [yes, where is my mother] the boy ask.
"I think he just ask where his mother is," Ike guessed. "Oh, this is going to be fun. I don’t know if she’s back there." he said with a jerk to his head. "And neither one of us remembers enough Spanish to be able to explain it to him."
"So, we don’t." Taylor said. "He’s already figured out that we don’t speak the same language, it might be better to just ignore what we don’t want to talk to him about and try to make him understand what is necessary."
"Sounds good to me," Ike responded. He opened the latches on the first aid kit and cussed. The only items inside were a couple of rolls of white bandage tape, a box of Band-Aids and several individual packets of aspirin.
The little girl responded to the sight of the box of Band-Aids, "Owie" she exclaimed pointing to her wrapped arm.
"What does she want?" Ike ask disgustedly. He was disappointed at his find.
"What any kid wants," Taylor said crawling across the blankets to his brother and opening the box of Band-Aids. He took one and went back to the little girl. "Mackie wants a Band-Aid on every little bump and scratch."
"A Band-Aid isn’t going to help her arm," Ike protested.
"Maybe not," Taylor said as he placed the little brown bandage on her hand. "But, if makes her think it helps, that’s all that counts. I could use some of those aspirin."
"So could I, but I don’t think we should. We probably both have light concussions, especially you, and I’m not sure if we are supposed to take aspirin or not."
"Terrific," Taylor exclaimed and handed the children more cookies. Ike moved over to the pallet and tried to get Zac to drink a some water. He was swallowing, another good sign. Then he opened a couple more packages of cookies and handed one to Taylor and kept one for himself. They ate in silence, sharing a bottle of juice, both wondering if they would survive the sub-zero temperatures the night would bring.
It was getting dark outside, and the light inside the plane was dimming. It was only seven o’clock but they were exhausted and scared. Ike took Zac’s hand and without spoken words Taylor gripped both Zacs and Antonio’s hands. The little boy reached out for Ike’s other hand, forming a circle and bowed his head as Ike said a prayer. When Ike finished, Antonio crossed himself, an affirmation of his own faith and slid under the blankets, pulling them over his head. Taylor tucked Katie in between him and Antonio and shut his own eyes. Ike stroked his little brothers brow, placed his hand on his chest so he could feel him breathing and said another silent prayer just for Zac and shut his own eyes for the peace of sleep.
* * * *
Taylor woke up slowly, as he moved his head, he moaned softly but opened his eyes with a jerk when he felt a hand over his mouth and heard a whispered "Shhhh..." from Ike. He turned his head and almost moaned again at the pain but he needed to see both of his brothers.
Ike repeated the "Shhhh..." and then whispered. "We’re all okay. The little ones are still asleep so be quiet."
"Zac?" Taylor croaked his voice breaking in fear.
"Same as last night, but he’s alive." Ike whispered. "The lady died."
Taylor’s eyes jerked over to the floor where the unconscious woman had lain. The space was empty. Ike had already removed her to be with the other passengers.
"Go back to sleep, there’s nothing we can do about it," Ike whispered with a catch in his voice. "Just go back to sleep for a while."
The air was bitterly cold, but under the blankets and coats it was still warm, so Taylor burrowed back under the covers and drifted back off to sleep. When he awoke for the second time that morning, his head didn’t hurt quite so bad. He was still stiff and hurting but the jackhammer seemed to be gone from his skull. Ike was up, wearing a coat he didn’t recognize and pulling off his boots and socks.