The Weeping River

Chapter 4: Astray

1100 hours, 13th August

We're running out of fuel. Westvallen is trying his best to make sure that word isn't spreading, but I heard it from Mendez. Apparently it'll last for a few more days so we still have time to figure out what to do next. There's only one thing to do though; go ashore and hike. I don't know how long we'll last out there on account of the killer natives, but we don't exactly have a choice.

Well in other news, Kelly went and stuck her nose where it didn't belong. She was allegedly cleaning my quarters and found the photograph. The one of Keith. I wanted to snap at her for rifling through my things, but I was tired. Tired of all of it. I told her everything. That he was a good boy who liked his toy farm animals and that he passed away from polio when he was eleven. It'd been so long that I struggled to remember when it happened. It was embarrassing. How could I forget a thing like that? Kelly went and apologised for bringing it up, but I told her it was fine and that she should go fetch some food for the boys on the bridge. It gave me time to sit there and look at him. I miss him so much.

0600 hours, 16th August

It's been three days since I wrote. Three nights of dreaming about dead crew members. The first night was Kelly. She was washed up on a beach. Crows were pecking at her eyes. Second was Mendez clinging to a piece of floating debris while a strafing Zero sent machine gun bullets ripping through his body. Third was Caradine. A Jap boat chugged by him as he waded there in the water. They threw a grenade in there with him. I suppose this is my life now. I just see all this when I lay down to rest.

Anyway. Westvallen finally found the stones he needed to tell the crew about the fuel situation. Needless to say, a lot of the men didn't take it well. At first I thought he might have a mutiny on his hands, but then I saw ten to twenty sailors just throw themselves into the water. Just like the marine who fell in almost a week ago, they went straight down and never came back up. That's when Caradine lost it. He just about went catatonic. Westvallen had to relieve him and confine him to the infirmary.

Tanaka came by my office this morning when I was trying to file all the paperwork for the poor bastards who did themselves in. Said he would've come by sooner, but Kitsch wasn't doing a very good job with leading the troops so he had to pick up some of his slack. I brewed some coffee; not much of the stuff left so I've been saving it for special company. I asked him what he thinks about us needing to go ashore. He tried to sugar coat it for a while, but I eventually scalded him enough for him to drop it. He thinks everyone will die within minutes of stepping onto dry land. I laughed and said I'd give us seconds.

Right now, we're readying goods to take with us after we abandon ship. I was trying to figure out which medical supplies to take and what to leave behind because we sure as hell can't take everything. We're going on foot and we don't have pack animals or anything like that, so it has to be fairly light. Eventually I started thinking about it this way; if anyone gets hurt out there, we're not going to have the luxury of stopping for long enough for me and Klein to operate. We'd have to either leave them or put them out. That helped me cut down quite a bit.

I also have to tend to the rest of the injured. The ones who are too weak to be moved. They'll be resting soon enough, after I get the morphine ready.

1800 hours, 16th August

We set out from the ship an hour ago, just made camp in the forest. I don't think I've ever been this exhausted and on edge all at once. For whatever reason, nothing leapt out at us during the hike. Twenty minutes in, some of Kitsch's men started saying they heard noises coming from the mountains and the bushes. It took a bit, but I heard it too. Crying, sobbing, screaming. We were expecting to be boxed in and stabbed to Hell and back, but nothing happened. Everything was fine.