LiTTLE CHERiNE Book 02 - post111

Our clothes were wet and it was cold outside and I was standing thinking what to do. Solomon came to me in the dimness of our cave and asked to speak to me.

^{Aiming for the waterhole}

Previous Post 110

978

“We will not make it. We are still strangers to these bodies, yet Ordinx and I can feel how weakened they are. You know that if the two of us lose our bodies we will return to our normal state. There will be no damage to us.

These bodies have not had their energy forms, their souls, created. We beg of you, to consider our proposal seriously.

You must use your blade to cut open my veins. Each of you must drink of the blood. When the body is dead you must then cut it up and eat what you can. We have been told that in your primitive days cannibalism was often resorted to. These are not human bodies - the soul makes it human. For the love you bear for your wives and children, please do this. You will have Ordinx with you for a further part of your trip. If you are weakened you can then use his body to strengthen yourselves and continue to fight your way to surviving.”

“You are finished?”

“Yes - you are angry?”

“I am not. You asked me to listen and consider your request seriously. I just wanted to make certain you had finished. Looking at what you say and why you said it in a cold and logical way, you are right. Unfortunately we are not cold and logical. Life, even the lives of my loved ones has a limit to its value.

To you these bodies are empty husks. To us they are the vessels that will carry two persons we already love, there are two souls waiting to be born and these bodies belong to them. Solomon, I would sooner you take me. At least if I die I will be able to find my protector and save everyone.

My friend, there will be no killing of anyone. We are a family, all of us, and we will all survive. What you ask us to do would be morally wrong and would mock our dreams for the rest of our lives. I will not sacrifice our dreams.”

“If I left this body you would not eat it? Not even to save your unborn baby?”

“Why do you ask me, ask the mother. Aganthi?”

She did not disappoint, as I’d been certain she would not. “It is not something we can do Solomon. My baby will understand when I meet her in the void. She would not understand or forgive me if I saved her by doing this.”

“You are entirely illogical!!”

“But that is what makes life such a joy! If you have a dream and you are prepared to die for it, then there is value to you living. I will fight to the last breath in me to save us. If we did what you ask, soon as we found that things looked impossible, we would give up, for our lives would have lost their meaning. Do you think that the love of my girls comes first? If they do not respect me, their love has no value.”

979

We stayed another day, Meli wrapping the pots in damp clothes. When we were ready to leave, the pots still held their water. We spent the last hours drinking as much as we could.

During the day, I laid stones pointing in the direction we should take to the nearest outcropping. As we came out in the near dark, I realised the stones had been moved. They pointed in a direction which had nothing but flat desert as far as I had been able to see during the daylight.

I explained my dilemma. The girls all agreed we should follow the stones, while the guys felt we should take the route I had planned.

I decided to go with the girls. Our saviour had no reason to want to mislead us. Our journey started again. We walked for three nights and tried to sleep through two days - one of them out in the open, on the sand and rock. We were extremely lucky in that most of that day was overcast. Still by the end of the third night we were worn down, cracked lips bleeding and all our exposed skin badly burnt, and were obviously not able to last for much longer.

The weaker we got the more often I caught Solomon looking at me. I would just shake my head and force us on. When I saw Wendy could not continue, I got Henry to put her on my back, whether she agreed or not. When I could not carry her, Henry did so. By then I noticed our two friends were stumbling all over. They were losing their co-ordination. We had to help them also.

I took the razor and made a small incision on my wrist, I saw the blood spurt out and put my finger over the cut. Without a word I came from behind Wendy and as quickly as I could I opened her mouth and stuck my wrist to it.

Softly I whispered. “If you do not drink it, you will have wasted my strength for nothing. Just swallow Wendy.”

She made noises of protest, but I used my strength to hold her to my wrist. Once I felt I had given enough to strengthen her, I clamped my fingers to my wrist. She stared at me with horror in her eyes. Swiftly I repeated the same procedure with Solomon and Ordinx. I tied a piece of cloth tightly over my wrist, closing the cut.

Not one word was spoken by anybody and the rest of the girls did not show they had noticed.

We continued to walk and I was pleased to see the three seemed a little stronger - perhaps it was more psychological than real, I am certain they did not drink enough to get nourishment of any real value. The hours passed and I felt the hope in all of them dwindling.

“It looks as if your bushman misled us Robert.”

“I do not think so. Angelo, what is too difficult for us may be a normal day for him. We cannot blame him for our own weakness and ignorance.”

“You are impossible to understand.” Ordinx exploded. “You have thrown away the lives of all those you love by refusing our offer and yet, against all odds, you continue to believe in a primitive savage you have never met!”

“You are wrong Ordinx, we have met him. We met his spirit in the cave he led us to. We met his heart in the time he took to hunt for us. Neither of those would have pointed us in the wrong direction…now please conserve your energy. Once we are home we can argue all you want.”

Solomon and Ordinx stopped, staring at me in amazement.

“Once we are home!! We are walking our last steps and you can still believe that!”

I did not have the energy to smile. “What last steps? You are both so busy giving up you have stopped looking. There are some thorn trees ahead and I see birds. We will eat and drink and live to walk on home.”

They needed help to stagger those last couple of kilometres, but we made it. I had to shout at all of them in anger to stop them running into the water.

^{Meerkats, close to the waterhole}

980

“This is not Europe, it is Africa! There could be crocodiles in that water. You will wait until I have checked it out.”

I went along the edge, my toes squishing in the mud, looking for what may look like logs floating in the water. There were a few deer at the other end, but they only watched me nervously. I called for my group to come two by two, so that I could watch out for them. I took off what remained of my shirt and tearing it in two. I folded it over.

“The water is filthy, nothing I can do about it. Put the material over your mouths and suck the water in through it. At least that should stop you from swallowing insects.”

As the girls put the cloth to their mouths, a man’s voice spoke to us. “Ladies I would not do that. You would end up with all kinds of bugs in you. I have some clean water here.”

We twirled around and saw a young man, he must have been a farmer from the sun-tanned look of him and the rough clothes he wore. He gave an apologetic grin. “The bushmen told us some whites were lost in the desert and would be coming here. I guess you were able to read the directions they left for you along the way.”

“What directions? He left some stones in a line facing this way, but that was over three days march from here!”

“Then you are incredibly lucky. Sorry, I had to stay hidden. We get all kinds of rubbish out here. Poachers and prospectors. Many of them would not think twice about killing me if it meant a free ride or water in their bellies. Soon as I saw the ladies though, I realised you must be tourists who got lost.”

“Lost!! You can say that again! We are in Botswana?”

“Jesus! You must really be lost if you do not even know in which country you are. You are in the Ghanzi District within the Kalahari desert. ”

^{Map showing departure point (Sun City), arrival point in Namibia - and trek through the desert}

Next Post 112

I hope you enjoy reading this story of fantasy, adventure and love.

Αλέξανδρος Ζήνον Ευσταθίου

(Alexander Zenon Eustace)
^{4th December, 2018}

* posted on Steemit: 4th December, 2018



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