Her Emergency Knight

The hollow tail section that Jennifer had been wedged into was angled down to where the rudder was lodged between two huge rocks. Guy was using a much smaller rock to hammer at a flap that must be some kind of luggage compartment. Jennifer was pleased to see he was now wearing a dark blue padded jacket, similar in style to her paler version.

The light was changing by the time Guy returned. The sun was lower and faint wisps of cloud and snow pockets on distant peaks were tinged faintly pink.

‘I found a tarp,’ Guy said with satisfaction. ‘And a billy. I even found some food. The dried soup won’t be much use without hot water, but there’s a packet of chocolate biscuits.’

‘Never know when you…might need a Tim Tam,’ Digger murmured.

‘I’m going to collect some rocks,’ Guy told Jennifer. ‘We’ll use the wingtip as a support and anchor the tarp. If we can keep the three of us sheltered as close together as possible, we should get through the night OK.’

‘The night?’ Jennifer didn’t care that the word came out as a frightened squeak. ‘They’ll come before then, won’t they?’

Guy moved a hand towards the orange glow beginning to silhouette the mountains. ‘We’ve got about thirty minutes of useful daylight left. If they had any idea where we are, they would have flown at least close enough for us to see them by now.’

‘There is an emergency locator beacon on board, isn’t there?’ The way both men avoided her gaze was unnerving. ‘Isn’t there?’

Digger mumbled something about it all being his fault and then closed his eyes as though his pain level was again intolerable. Guy jerked his head.

‘Come and help me with these rocks.’

Jennifer followed him until they were out of Digger’s earshot. ‘Are you going to tell me what that was all about?’ she demanded.

‘They’ve been waiting for some new beacons to come in. About a month ago there was an incident that showed a certain batch of beacons to be faulty. A batch that included the one on this plane. They ordered the new ones straight away, of course, but so did everyone else. There was a waiting list.’

‘So…’ Jennifer’s tongue found a tiny laceration on the inside of her cheek as she absorbed the information. ‘What you’re saying is that the beacon on our plane may not have been activated at all. They might not even be looking for us.’

‘Oh, they’ll be looking.’

‘But?’

Guy sighed heavily as he reached down to pick up a rock. ‘But probably not around here.’

‘Why not?’

‘Sightseeing flights normally take in the lakes and the fiords. A round trip down to Milford Sound and back.’

‘So?’

‘So we went the other way. To find the glaciers.’

Jennifer picked up a rock and tucked it into the crook of her left elbow, making her arm ache with renewed strength. She ignored the pain. ‘Digger must have filed a flight plan.’

‘He did.’

‘Good.’

‘No. His plan was for the Milford run.’

‘So why the hell did he change direction?’

Guy had three rocks in his arms now. ‘Because someone important wanted to see the bloody glaciers, that’s why.’

‘This isn’t my fault!’ Jennifer glared at Guy but he was busy searching for rather scarce stones of a manageable weight. ‘He asked me what I wanted to see. How was I supposed to know? Nobody disagreed. Including you.’ Jennifer swooped on another rock but her arm protested viciously at the extra weight and both rocks fell to the ground. ‘Oh, dammit!’

Guy caught at her upper arm, his own rocks abandoned, as Jennifer reached down again. ‘Let me see that arm.’

‘It’s fine.’

‘Like hell it is.’ Guy’s fingers were on the now swollen flesh, having pushed up the sleeves of her anorak, jacket and soft jumper. His touch was gentle but firm and there was no way Jennifer could suppress her flinch as the ends of her broken bone moved against each other.

Guy caught her gaze. ‘You realise this is fractured?’ His eyes held hers. ‘Of course you do.’ There was a flash of something like respect in his steady gaze. ‘Were you going to do something about it or just carry on collecting rocks?’

‘We need the rocks.’ It was surprisingly difficult to break the eye contact, but the rocks in question provided a new focus until Jennifer found a way to change the subject. ‘What about you? That’s not Bill’s blood, is it?’

Fresh drops glistened on the dark grey rock at their feet. ‘We don’t have enough fluid for two people in shock,’ Jennifer reminded him. ‘And if you keep bleeding like that, I’ll be the one who has to deal with it.’

Her tone sharpened as she spoke. Silly, pointless tears were threatening to clog her throat. They were lost on a mountaintop and nobody had any idea where they were. They were all injured to varying degrees and a sub-zero night was about to enfold them.

‘Tell you what. We’ll get the tarp in place and then I’ll splint your arm and you can bandage up my leg.’ Guy’s forefinger touched Jennifer under her chin and she was startled into raising her face to meet his gaze again. ‘We’ll look after each other,’ he continued softly, ‘and that way, we’ll all get through this. OK?’

‘OK.’ For an instant, Jennifer really believed that everything would be all right. Together, they would survive. Guy’s strength was obvious, both emotionally from the reassurance he was able to impart and physically, which he demonstrated by picking up his own collection of brick-sized rocks and then the two Jennifer had found.

His gentleness became apparent a little later as he bound Jennifer’s forearm to a small cardboard splint, and his stamina was evident when he unflinchingly tolerated her ministrations to a badly grazed arm, a deeply lacerated calf and possibly a fractured ankle that had swollen far more than her arm had.

By the time they had finished their first aid on each other and had crawled inside the shelter they had created around Digger, a darkness more complete than Jennifer had ever experienced enfolded them. They checked their patient by the light of the torch Guy had had in his kit and then settled, one of either side of Digger, to help keep him warm.

‘Nice,’ Digger murmured. ‘If I just asked…would you hold my hand…again, Jenna?’

A few seconds later Jennifer heard loud crackling noises coming from Guy’s side.

‘Hey, Jenna?’

‘Yeah?’

‘Could I interest you in a Tim Tam?’

The bubble of laughter took Jennifer completely by surprise. Here she was, crowded into a makeshift low tent with two men who had been strangers to her only hours previously. They were facing what was probably going to be the longest night of their lives, but the danger they faced had somehow bonded them into a unit that felt more like a family than Jennifer had felt part of for many, many years.

A chocolate biscuit should be well down on any wish list right now. A helicopter would have been at the top of that list. A hot drink should have also rated pretty well but as Jennifer’s chuckle escaped she knew that the Tim Tam was enough for the time being.

And it was all they could do, the three of them, right now. To take each moment as it came and deal with it the best way they could.

Together.

‘Yes, please,’ she said softly into the darkness. ‘I’d love a Tim Tam.’

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