Crashing Into Paradise

Rest in peace

“Just now... just now, that bear. It ate someone.”

Max watched her, and he looked sympathetically at the shaken and frightened Anna.

She gasped, and then her blank eyes stared in horror at Max as she realized what she had just seen.

“I think I know him!” Her voice sounded stiff. “The clothes he was wearing, I remember them.”

Max nodded at her to let her calm down. If it was true that Anna remembered him, then he needed to check; it could be one of their team.

“I'll go make sure.”

Max led her to sit inside. he watched her with pity for a moment, then took a deep breath.

“You stay here. Hide in that cave, then keep the fireplace outside lit as a signal.”

Max turned from there and was ready to go out, but his hand was caught quickly by Anna. “What are you doing? The bear might still be there. You could be in danger too.” Anxiety spread across her face.

Max lowered his gaze to her wrist, which she held tremblingly. Her hand was so cold like fear had frozen it.

He gently released Anna's hand. “I'll be careful and come back soon.”

Max grabbed the water bottle he had placed there, he needed to find water or something they could eat immediately.

“I'll look for water and food, so just stay here and hang on for a while.”

He left there and returned to the location where the bear had eaten the human corpse. When he got there, the bear was no longer there; he didn't finish his meal.

But even so, Max couldn't recognize the body.

He sighed in horror, although he had served in a military unit and seen many dead bodies in various circumstances, seeing an incomplete body never made him used to it.

“I'm sorry for what you went through.” He bowed his head, taking a moment to pay his last respects to the body.

Then Max crouched down next to it. The head was gone, and half of the chest was missing. The left and lower half of the body remained.

Max resisted the urge to vomit. He reached into the pocket of the corpse and found his wallet. From it, he got the corpse's identity card.

“Sir Mark Popbell.” His breath caught, and his head bowed deeply. The man was his partner in the cyber team.

Someone friendly enough for Max, but they died tragically. For the sake of the kindness that Max remembered, with what energy he had left, Max dug a hole there.

He pulled out Sir Mark's body and placed it in there. Before he covered the hole with the earth, Max removed the watch from the body's wrist.

He looked at the watch intently. “This is your favorite watch, let me keep it for a while, and later I will return it to your son.”

Max remembered the many stories Mark had told him, including the watch he wore. He had loved the watch his father had given him and intended to pass it on to his son.

So, as the last thing he could do, Max wanted to fulfill his wish.

“Rest in peace, you've done a lot of good in this world,” he said softly as he closed the hole.

As a sign, Max placed some stones that he had stuck there. Then he left the place.

He walked away from their fireplace while memorizing and marking the trees so he wouldn't get lost. He tried to get back to where he had been, recalling that he had jumped with the backpack strapped to his arm after putting on the parachute and pulling Anna into his arms just before jumping out.

There was no time for him to grieve, even though he felt so devastated by Mark's death. As Max began to sweep the area again, something behind a bush, at the edge of the cliff, caught his eye. He moved closer.

His eyes opened wide as he found the bag he was looking for. “There it is!” he exclaimed excitedly.

His hand began to prepare to reach for it, the bag dangling slightly off the edge of the cliff, hooked onto a large root that protruded into the outer side of the cliff. He braced himself against the edge of the cliff, then began to stretch his arms out again.

A little more, just as he was about to reach the bag. The ground collapsed at the edge of the cliff, Max's body swayed, his hand leaning out of line with the cliff almost lost his balance; his reflexes in pushing his weight in the opposite direction saved him.

“s**t! I almost died again.” He crouched down with his legs weak and his heart beating violently.

After nearly dying in the plane crash, he was again threatened in that place. He calmed himself down for a moment until he heard the sound of water splashing down there. Max woke up again, he looked over the cliff and searched for the origin of the sound.

Just below, he saw the flow of a waterfall. While above him, he was sure there was some sort of large river. Max started calculating the distance between the two, between which one was closer for him to stop. “I need food too, so maybe the waterfall is better.” He had already decided.

Max looked back, and he picked up a large branch, which he used this time to pick up his bag. Carefully and painstakingly, he finally managed to get his bag. He existed with relief after getting the bag, then his eyes caught some kind of berry in another bush, but this time he was sure that the berry was not poisonous.

He returned to the cave where he told Anna to hide, standing in front of her with his hands full. “Give me your hand.”

“What for?” He confused Anna, but then opened his palm in front of Max.

“Eat it.” Max split the berry.

He sat there and ate it without saying much, his eyes staring outside and looking at the fireplace to make sure it stayed lit.

Anna watched Max and the berry in his hand in turn. “But you said the berries were poisonous.” Her face showed doubt and fear.

Max turned to her, the woman, despite her predicament and somewhat disheveled appearance, her beauty was undeniable. Her stern face and the gaze from her pair of beautiful eyes were perfect enough, but if Max's gaze dropped down, then it would be a different story.

That body seemed to be calling him to come closer if he stared at it longer. The curves of her body, even though they were covered by Max's shirt, were still visible and very tempting.

Max averted his eyes. “This one is not; you can eat it. This berry is juicy enough and fibrous enough that you won't get too hungry in the meantime.”

Max proved it again by eating the berry in front of Anna. He knew Anna was watching, and what he did made her believe and then eat it.

He rested for a while, and just as his watch showed the time of noon had almost passed, he got up from there.

“Where are you going again?” Anna got up from her seat.

“There's a river a bit far over there, I'm going there to get some water and see if there's anything else to eat-”

"I'll go with you.” Anna approached, and she looked at him expectantly.

Max furrowed his brow; he couldn't guarantee it was safe out there. If Anna was coming, it meant he would need to split his attention between finding what they needed and looking after Anna.

Max shook his head. “No, stay here. You need to keep the fire lit.”

“But I need water.” Her voice rose in firmness. Then she showed him her mud-covered body and her scraped legs. “The fire will stay lit, the wood burned for quite a while before it turned into coals. I've been watching and even timing it.”

Max stifled a laugh; her words had made him wonder what she was doing it for, but he refrained from asking.

“I need water.” She spoke softly. “You have no idea how disgusting my body feels.”

Yes. Max could understand that.

At least the way Anna's body shook with disgust when she said that could adequately describe her frustration at their current situation.

Max nodded. “Alright, but make sure you stay close to me.”

With her innocent face and smile, the woman nodded. “Okay. I'll be somewhere you can see, you don't have to worry.”

Although he agreed with that, Max didn't feel very comfortable when he left the cave where they would spend the night. There were dangers out there that he couldn't predict.