Indian Ocean Invasion - 5. IOI Chapter 5

Turning off the phone, as I had no idea how long it would be before I could recharge the phone, I quietly left the store room, and nearly bumped into Mitchell.

“I have just spoken to a contact in Perth, he is going to confirm my suspicions, and get back to us, leave the phone turned off, and I am going to go and do a bit of exploring, I will be back shortly,” I said to Mitchell, before he went into the store room and closed the door.

From my backpack, I grabbed, my supply belt, which contained, a hunting knife, first aid kit, my mobile phone in a waterproof pouch and some strong twine, before I climbed down a single wide rope to the ground.

Once there I stopped and listened, as I squatted down and waited to see if anything unfamiliar moved, and it wasn’t long, before I heard voices, foreign voices, and the sound of boots on metal. After some more careful listening, I swung to the next fallen log, landing on it as quietly as possible, and ducking down low.

The voices were a lot closer now, and I could now work out that they were Indonesian and Philippine, an unusual mixture of cultures I thought, as I kept low and heard them walking towards the carpark. Towards the foreshore, I could hear some other voices and the sound of a motor, either a boat or a barge of some kind.

Once the sound of voices was clearly far enough away, I dropped down into the mangrove mud, and using my left hand, I covered my face with the black muddy mixture, to hide my white face. Very slowly, I crawled on my belly towards the coast, staying away from the steel walkway.

Stopping just before the clearing of limestone rocks, that line the foreshore, and just twenty metres offshore, there was a landing barge, with several armed soldiers onboard.

Although it was dark, there was still enough moonlight for me to see that all the soldiers were foreigners, and all of them were carrying automatic machine guns.

Turning to my side, I retrieved my mobile phone, and turned it on, making sure that it was on silent first, then I took several photographs, before turning the phone off again, and putting the phone back into the pouch.

I silently watched the barge for about twenty minutes, before quietly turning around, and heading back to the treehouse, but I could not climb up, because, there were soldiers stopped on the walkway, not that far away.

After a two hour crawl each way, half an hour of observing and another half an hour of waiting till it was all clear to climb up, I final reached the veranda of the treehouse, covered from head to toe in mud, and I stripped down to my jocks, to prevent too much mud going into the treehouse. Although the mud had stopped me from being bitten by mosquitos, I managed to locate several leaches attached to me, which a carefully removed.

I saw movement in the treehouse, and presumed that it was Mitchell, which I wasn’t happy about. “Mitchell stop, do not move, there are nasty people out there with automatic guns, very slowly move back to the store room and stay there,” I hissed at my nephew.

“Sorry Uncle, I was scared, as you had been gone so long,” Mitchell whispered back, “Go to bed now please, and get some sleep,” I answered back, and a few minutes later I heard the slight sound of the door closing in the storeroom.

I stayed sitting on the veranda, watching and listening to every sound, some of it was wildlife, and the rest was hostiles. I kept very still ignoring the buzzing and bites of the mosquitoes, and when it began to rain again, I leaned out of the veranda, to wash way all the semi dried mud on my face, head, arms and legs. Once I was mostly clean of mud, I held out my clothes so that some of the mud could be washed off.

Leaving the clothes, boots and socks on the veranda, I slowly crept into the treehouse, and entered the bathroom to retrieve my towel, and dried off, before laying down on my bed, to try and get some sleep. I woke up with a start to the sound of gunfire, it was daylight, but only just, I must have slept for no more than an hour.

I quietly crept out of bed and made my way to the store room, where I found Mitchell curled up and shaking like a scared cat. I wrapped my arms around him, reminded him to stay silent, and that I will keep him safe, and eventually he fell back to sleep again. I retrieved the sat phone and called the number for Campbell Barracks.

“Lt Commander Lewis Shaw, for Colonel Bridges,” I said as the call was answered, “Yes sir, he is expecting your call, hold please,” came a reply. “About time you called back. The Federal Police on the island have confirmed that there is Indonesians and Philippines, and they are rounding up everyone, and taking them to the detention centre, we have lost contact with the Federal Officers, so we are presuming that they have been captured” the Colonel said to me.

“Sorry for the delay sir, I did a bit of scouting around the coast near my location, I can confirm one LCM 8 Landing Barge near Martin Point. I agree with the two nationalities that are the invasion force, but I only know Malay and Japanese, so I can only pick up the odd word that I understand from the Indonesians.

I estimate that it is a large invasion force, they have automatic guns, and probably a lot more. I recommend, that no civilian or military aircraft or boats, approach the Island, as it may result in fatalities,” I said.

“I agree with you Lt Commander, it is good to have someone as skilled as you on the island, the crafty beggars have used the cyclone for cover, to sneak onto the island unnoticed. It is just after 0600 hours, here, report back every six hours with any updates, and keep your nephew and your heads down,” the Colonel said before ending the call.

I lay back down on my bed and dozed on and off for an hour or so, before I heard the soft feet of Mitch approaching, and I sat up. “Uncle, I really need to pee,” he said to me softly.

“Ok mate go out onto the veranda on the north side and pee over the side, try and do it quietly” I replied, and while he was doing that I dressed into some fresh clothes, and went into the store room, to see what I could rustle up for some breakfast.

Once we had both eaten, I untied and retied the two cane lounge chairs, so that we could sit on them easily, but they stay fixed to the wall, while the fold up chairs and table remained in the store room, along with the coffee table.

“What is going to happen Uncle, are we going to be able to go home soon?” Mitchell asked me, “Unfortunately, we are caught up in some sort of territorial conflict with our Asian neighbours. Why? I am not sure yet, we will give your brother a call shortly, to let him know that we are fine, then we will start planning what to do next” I replied.

Ten minutes later in the store room, so our voices cannot be heard, I dialled Jeremy’s mobile number. “Lewis, what the hell is going on, there are media rumours that there is some sort of invasion happening, but they don’t say where and by whom,” Jeremy said anxiously, when he answered the call.

“Hello brother, well I can tell you that we are both fine, and to answer your two questions. Where is here on Christmas Island, and Who is soldiers from the Philippines and Indonesia, that is all I know at this moment, apart from that all the island residents are being rounded up and taken to the detention centre. I suggest that you say nothing to anyone about this, as we don’t want to cause a panic on the mainland.

I am guessing that they want control of the island because of the phosphate mine, but I cannot confirm that,” I replied, “Holy crap, it is like that movie that came out a few years ago, what was it called… Tomorrow when the War Began, that is what it was called, and it was about an Asian invasion force landing on mainland Australia” Jeremy said.

“Yeah, sounds like the movie makers have a lot to answer for, giving them big ideas, anyway, I just called to let you know that we are both fine, Mitch is very scared, but I am keeping him quiet, and he is staying at our hidden location, we have enough food for a few weeks, so try not to worry. I have already been in contact with my superiors at Campbell Barracks, to they are up to date with everything.

I will call you again in 24-hours’ time, as I have to go and do some more scouting, talk to you then, bye,” I said and ended the call. “Did dad sound very worried?” Mitch asked me, “Yes, a little bit, but I told him we are fine, now as you just heard I am going to do some more scouting, but not until it is dark again, this time I will be gone all night, so don’t worry if I am late.

Last time I came back I had to wait half an hour, before I could climb up to the treehouse, because there were soldiers on the walkway, just keep your head down at all times, and don’t make a sound, and we should both be fine” I said to my nephew, as he grabbed one of his books and went to lay down on his bed outside to read his book.

I sat in a lounge chair and carefully listened to all the noises, and heard the occasional sound of crying or shouting, and this went on for most of the day.

In the late afternoon, I spoke to Mitch about me being away for most of the night, and that he was to remain in the store room for sleeping, and he could go out into the main living area, if he kept low and quiet. During dinner, we ate in the store room, and we listened quietly to the news broadcast from the mainland.

“We now have confirmation, that a local Federal Police officer, and a local resident, both reported an invasion force landing on Christmas Island, in the early hours of this morning. It is believed that both have been captured since their initial report, as there has been no more updates.

It is speculated that the unknown Asian invasion force, has round up all of the residents, and placed them in the vacant immigration detention centre, and that they are there to gain access to the valuable Phosphate mine…”, I was not happy with the news report, as it sounded like that I was one of those people who reported the incident.

Turning on the sat phone, I called Campbell Barracks, and I was quickly put through to the Colonel. “Sir I have just heard a news report, and it sounds like they are talking about me, which means you have a leak at your base, so I suggest that you plug up that leak pronto,” I said angrily, and ended the call, stopping the Colonel from having the chance to reply, and I shut off the phone, to prevent him from calling me back.

Once it was fully dark, and after I checked that Mitchell would be ok for the night, I put on my belt, adding some energy snack bars, and an extra water bottle, as I had a long night ahead of me.

I gave Mitch a quick hug, before I climbed down the rope, and lay flat on the fallen log to listen for any sounds of soldiers, which there were none, so I made the first swing towards the walkway, and laydown flat and listened again.

There were no sounds at all, not even from the coast, which made me think that they had moved the barge, but I didn’t want to get too slack and get caught out, so I kept super alert, as I made the next swing.

Before making the final swing to the walkway, I spent an extra amount of time listening, and I was glad I did, as I felt a soft westerly wind blow over my back, bringing along with it, the sound of voices.

I waited and listened, till the voices faded away as they walked further away, and I quietly made the final swing, and landed softly on the steel walkway, and dropped down low, and listened.

There was no sound of approaching footsteps, so silently I walked towards the carpark, stopping every 30 seconds to listen for any approaching sounds.

When I was about 50 metres from the carpark, I looked to my left, so see if I could find any vines handing down from the trees, and I found one, that didn’t give away, when I gave it a good tug, and as quietly as possible, I swung into the forest, to stop leaving any tracks.

I grabbed hold of a small narrow tree, as I came to the end of the swing, just 20 odd metres away from the walkway, which I hoped would be enough distance, and getting down low, onto my hands and knees, I began to slowly crawl in the direction of the detention centre, about 4 km’s away.

It was a long and slow night, and I arrived at the outskirt of the clearing of the detention centre at about 0100 hours, after a drink and a snack of an energy bar, I thought about what I could do next. I looked at the wrapper of the energy bar, as I started to think of a way of getting in contact with one of the residents.

I carefully watched, as guards patrolled inside the high razor wire fence, that surrounds the compound, after observing them guards for a while, remaining in the cover of the forest, I crawled along the boundary, to check out the buildings, and it looked like everyone was fast asleep, in the buildings, but after a while I spotted some people asleep on the basketball court, obviously because there was no air-conditioning inside.

Taking the waterproof pouch off my belt, I deleted all phone numbers on the mobile and the sim card, except for one number, that being the number for the sat phone. Once I had done this, and put the phone back in the sealed pouch, I removed my boots, and thick woollen socks, and put the pouch into one sock, and wrapped it up tight, then put that into the second sock, and tied a knot into it.

Next, I found a place, that was closest to the basketball courts, were I had enough cover to remain hidden, and I threw the sock over the fence, and lay down flat again. I heard a grunt, and some mumbling, as I lifted my head to look, and I saw detained resident sitting up, rubbing his stomach and looking at the sock.

I watched him feel the sock, before he looked in my direction, and I gave a small wave, before ducking down again and heading back into the thicker forest, well away from the fence, where I watched, as the man stared in my direction, before putting the sock in his pocket and laying back down again.

Happy that I had managed to smuggle a mobile phone into the compound, hoping that mobile coverage reached that area, I began the long journey back towards the treehouse. It was well after sun up before I arrived near the walkway, I was about fifteen metres away from it, but I had no idea where abouts along the walkway I was.

I waited for about twenty minutes, listening for any noises of soldiers, but heard nothing, so I slowly crawled towards the coast, hoping I hadn’t passed the spot where the rope is.