6 Miles With Courage Read Free

the left side, where he is greeted by the cypress tree pressing against the fuselage. He continues around the tree which takes him to the nose of the airplane. He stops there momentarily putting both hands on top of his head before lowering them to his mouth in disbelief. There is no way to reach or even see his father! He walks around the front and then climbs back inside shutting the door.
    “Dad ,” he says, “we are in deep trouble.”

Chapter Four
     
    “Ants! Ants! They’re biting my neck! Get them off me!” Ryan’s dad screamed. “They’re crawling all over me, hurry get them off me!” Ryan reaches over to brush them off but he doesn’t see any ants. Ryan is thinking that his dad must be hallucinating.
    “Dad calm down , there is nothing on your neck.”
    “It hurts like crazy son, get them off!”
    He looked again , “Dad I’m telling you I don’t see anything.”
    Rob calmed down.
    Ryan sees what looks like blood coming out of his dad’s ear. This worries him but he does not tell his father.
    “Ryan you need to listen to me very carefully. I’m in a bad way and I’m going to need medical treatment very soon.”
    “I figured that dad. I am hoping they get here in a hurry.”
    “Get here? Son nobody will even miss us until s even o’clock and by then it will be dark! They won’t even start looking until tomorrow and they will never spot us down here under the canopy.”
    “ What do we do?”
    “There is only one thing we can do . You’re going to have to go for help and bring them back here!”
    “Dad , what you’re saying doesn’t make sense. First of all, I don’t know where here is and secondly I don’t know in which direction to go for help. You may not know it, but I can tell you we are in a deep dark swamp in the middle nowhere! That’s just crazy talk dad! Crazy talk that’s all it is, God! I wish you could see, and move!” Ryan, cupping his brow with his hand, lowered his head and gently sobbed.
    “Ryan I have a very good idea where we are. Remember I told you I just finished a survey of this area? ”
    Ryan is listening but not giving much thought to what his father is saying. He gives a half-hearted answer in a low somber voice, “yes dad I do.”
    “Not only do I know where we are, but I know with certainty that I can tell you which way to go.”
    Ryan rubb ing the tears from his eyes asks, “And how is that?” Expecting his dad was about to make another delusional statement just like he did about the imaginary ants on his neck—thinking he’s in shock.
    “All you need is the right equipment , and to know how to use it and I can teach you what you need to know!”
    “ What equipment dad?”
    His father replied “Son, everything you need, is in that duffel bag behind you on the rear seat.”
    It took a few seconds for those words to sink in but when they did, he raised himself up and spun around to take a look. At first he thought his father was mistaken, he did not see anything. Then he felt something like canvas tucked in tightly behind his seat. Could it be that maybe the force of the crash jammed it back there? He grasped whatever it was with a tight grip, and pulling it free, spun around falling back into his seat. In his lap was a heavy duffel bag. He looked at his dad.
    “I see you found it ,” his dad said. Then without a word they both chuckled. His father couldn’t “see” anything.
    “Son with what’s in that duffel bag, you’re going to get us out of here!”
    Ryan anxiously opened the bag. Inside he found what his father would use to estimate a job, and if needed get him through a night in the woods. But for Ryan it is survival gear.
    There are two unopened plastic water bottles, matches in a water proof container, some beef jerky, and a couple of granola bars. There is also a machete and sheath, some bug spray, a roll of survey ribbon—brightly colored—and a map of the area with survey lines marked on it. There were socks, and a t-shirt,