CADET GUIDE

An officer cadet, during an overseas training stint in Brunei, was finding his way through a jungle. The sun was high up overhead, but half the time it was obscured by the mass of leaves and other foliage. There were shadows playing games with him, and it was difficult to assess which direction he was moving in. The only way was to depend on his instincts.

He moved with difficulty through the thick, tangled undergrowth. His back was aching from the heavy full-pack he was carrying, and on his neck and arms he could feel the itchy spots caused by mosquito bites. But he moved on.

Soon, he reached the swamp. He knew it was the center of the wet lands he was supposed to cross. He should have gone around it. Arriving here meant he was lost. It was even more difficult to determine you direction here. The terrain was no help, for everything kept changing after sometime, and the swamps looked all the same in every direction.

He sensed desperation arising within him, but he controlled himself, and trudged on.

Yet the situation only worsened with every step. The ground got slimy, and the mud got more and more difficult to journey through. At one point, the water reached up to his waist. He remembered a movie which had a character struggling in quicksand. But he pushed the memory aside. He had to move on.

The sun filtered through the web of leaves over-head. In his exhaustion, the officer cadet’s instincts told him there was something ahead. He heard the sound of trudging in the muddy waste. He blinked vigorously.

There was another cadet in front. He was a tiny green dot flickering through the gloomy, dirty brown of the mud.

He struggled to call, but somehow the dryness of his mouth prevented him. It was all he could do to preserve. He urged himself onwards, psyching his body up to surge forward faster, to catch up with the person in front. He didn’t want to be alone. Hence he made the cadet ahead pace him.

“Track him, keep him in sight,” he told himself. “Don’t you dare lose him, or you’re dead, buddy.

The water grew shallower and less muddy. As both of them travelled on, it seemed the bush area was becoming less dense. He knew they were reaching the edge of the jungle. He must have covered miles and miles.

Strangely, the person leading the way managed to keep his distance from the officer cadet all the time. When the cadet was tired, he slowed down. When the cadet trekked on faster, he shot ahead to keep the distance. Never at any point would his trail be lost, for the cadet could always see, but never really clearly enough to identify his features.

Evening came, then night. The officer cadet lost hope of ever getting out of the jungle. How he longed to get back to his bunk and let all the tension go. The means didn’t matter. He just wanted to get back there. But with hardly any light, how could he ever do it? And his guide had disappeared. It was black all around and nothing could be seen. Minutes seemed like hours and time had no limit. He was like a wanderer, floating in limbo.

Sounds. Voices.

Out of the blackness another presence manifested itself. They was someone else, and another, and another. They bumped into each other. In his joy of being rescued, the cadet slumped into the arms of the strangers. They escorted him through the labyrinth, out of the jungle.

He saw that they were people he knew. The group consisted of instructors taking his platoon in different courses. He collapsed onto the ground, unable to continue any longer.

But his first enquiry was: “Where is the guy before me? Has he arrived yet?”

“What guy? Who do you mean?”

“I don’t know-“

His instructors helped him to his feet. One of them said, “You are the last one. The others came in hours ago. We suspected something went wrong. That is why we formed a search party and came out to look for you.”

“But there was this guy ahead of me!” the cadet stuttered. “He must be lost too. He was only about hundred meters in front. You… you must look for him too. If not for him, I…”

The instructors shared a knowing look with each other as the tired cadet faltered. There was a sudden silence. The leader of the party was the first to speak.

“It was on the same day. Every year, on this day, he appears.” He clapped the cadet’s shoulder. “Soldier, you were saved by a ghost. He was an officer cadet, too, who drowned in the swamps three years ago – on this very day.”

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