upload zip file from react-native - I'll do anything

Two days of trying. I need to put a few images into a zip and upload it to a storage bucket. I have tried setting up a backend node.js function which is able to use the InputFile.fromBuffer(). That solution works, but after one or two images, the size of the payload is too large to send to the backend anymore. Does anyone know of a way to upload files from the front-end using the react-native SDK. It doesn't support the same InputFile.fromBuffer() function. I have tried buffers, streams, blobs (not supported) EVERYTHING and can't figure it out. Please someone save me from this agony. Might just end up using S3 buckets... it should be simple but it's not.