Sahara Dawn

by David F. Berens

  Chris and Tsu spent another two hours searching the plane for anything that might be of value. They found no food and no water. The most useful thing they found was a piece of tarpaulin that was clearly used to cover part of the windshield of the plane and it was not in use.

  If they could somehow string it up between trees with a dip in its middle, it would be much more efficient at catching rainwater than the upturned cistern. However, since they did not plan to stay in one place for very long, collecting that much water without anything else to carry it in would be wasteful. The best use for the tarpaulin was to spread it along the ground for minimal protection from whatever creatures were lurking on the teeming floor of the Amazon Jungle.

  After they had finally finished their search, the light was fading quickly.

  “We need to set up camp,“ Tsu said.

  “Right, Chris agreed. “But away from this wreckage. I don’t think we need to be reminded of this trauma every moment our eyes are open.”

  With Tsu using the pilot’s knife and Chris his bare hands, they hacked their way through vines and thick undergrowth until they found something resembling a clearing in the trees. In this jungle, clearings were few. But there was an area where a few of the trees had fallen perhaps during a storm. With the incessant drone of insects and thousands of other creatures making a song in the background, they spread the tarpaulin on the floor, placed the precious cistern to one side, and laid down tattered cushions from airplane seats to use as pillows.

  “Oh my God,” Tsu said.

  “What?” Chris asked, scanning around the whole area for whichever terrifying creature she had spotted.

  “I am so thirsty. I didn’t realize it, it must’ve been the adrenaline. This is the most thirsty I have been in my life.”

  Fear gripped both of them as the reality of having nothing whatsoever to drink sank in.

  “We could die out here you know,” Tsu said quietly.

  “Thanks, I know.” He tried to smile.

  After a moment of silence, Chris said:

  “I think there were some fruit trees we passed on the way from the plane. The fruit looked damn high though.”

  “Anything is worth a try.”

  They retraced their steps, looking upwards in the last of the light.

  Their eyes landed on plump baracoco fruit high in the trees. Very high.

  We just have to get those,” Tsu said. “We have no choice.”

  The trunk was long and smooth with no branches on its lower half.

  “It’s possible to shimmy up there,” Tsu said. “Going barefoot and gripping on.”

  “Yeah, I’ve seen people do that on TV too,” Chris said pointedly.

  “Exactly. All I know about it is what I’ve seen on TV. Looks like thirsty work too, I wouldn’t wanna get halfway up and fail.”

  Chris began to untie his boots.

  “No, wait. I’ll go,” Tsu said. Chris looked at her. He knew she always had to be fiercely independent. But now was not the time for heroics.

  “If I fall, you can catch me,'' Tsu explained. “If you fall, in this light, I don’t know if I could grab you. You'd probably slip right through my hands.”

  “Or land right on your head.”

  “Exactly.”

  Now it was Tsu’s turn to begin untying her laces. Chris had no doubts about her athleticism. But he also knew that the people who did this kind of thing probably learned it while very young. They didn’t walk out of a plane crash and get right on with it.

  Tsu rolled up her pants and got to work. She gripped the tree and looked up. She definitely would not be looking down. She took a deep breath then a jump and clamped onto the trunk with all of her limbs. She slipped right off. She took another deep breath and tried again.

  Chris could hear her grunting with exertion as she found a way to begin moving slowly towards the top. In what seemed like no time, she was ten meters high. Her feet slipped from the trunk. Chris was gripped with fear and readied himself to catch her. Somehow, she swung her feet back onto the trunk. She had slid down painfully a few meters, but it didn’t deter her. Immediately, she got back to climbing.

  She was now so high that Chris could barely see her. But, suddenly, he could hear tearing noises. He guessed she must be trying to rip fruit from the tree.

  “Look out below!”

  Fruit the size of footballs began to fall. Chris caught them one by one, making sure that none landed and smashed on the ground. These magnificent delicacies had to be in the best possible condition.

  Chris was holding one of the fruits in his hands, admiring its beauty.

  He heard a scream. The silhouette of Tsu’s body emerged from the sky. Her slender build was now irrelevant, she was a huge object propelled by gravity, building velocity all the time. Falling right down on top of Chris. Wide-eyed, Chris opened his arms. She was tumbling towards him at incredible speed. In the low light, it was extremely hard to judge distance.

  But somehow, he knew he would not let go. He caught her perfectly, lowering his arms slightly upon contact to soften the fall. She looked into his eyes and, after a moment, she burst out laughing. As he held her, they kissed. But not for long. He lowered her to the ground and they took the knife to the fruit with every bit of strength they had left.

  It was smeared around their faces as they chomped away in silence, gorging on the deliciousness of the taste and the relief. They did not need to say another word to each other that night. They fell into one another’s arms and slept.

  That was until the rustling began. The jungle was not short of noise, but this was different. Loud and close. After the rustling came the grunting. The animal was taking loud breaths as it sniffed out scent. Eyes wide, Chris and Tsu exchanged glances. Then, silently, they sat up.

  “Knife,” Chris mouthed. Tsu handed it to him. Her recent attempt at heroism had been partially successful at best, so she deferred to Chris. He grasped the knife in his hand and got to his feet. The grunting stopped. That was not good. It was clear the animal would not just have lost interest, and instead knew that its prey was on the move. The first thing Chris saw were the teeth. Two white fangs emerging fast out of the darkness like a speeding train from a tunnel. The jaguar was fully in the air. It collided with Chris and knocked him flat on his back with a thump that stole all the air from his lungs.

  He had his arms up in front of him and could feel the enormous weight of the beast pushing down on him. The thing was big enough to crush him and do serious harm even without the use of its giant teeth or razor sharp claws. And it was loud, its relentless growls swirling around and adding to the chaos and confusion.

  It was trying to get its jaws to his throat. Tired from everything they had been through, his arms felt weak. As soon as his strength failed, that creature would demolish him. He couldn’t help but notice the smells. A primeval smell like he’d never experienced before. Probably closest to rotting meat.

  Its wild eyes were inches from his. This beast had nothing in mind but a meal. No intent to cause suffering or to avoid it, just to eat and be gone. Chris’s arms began to tremble. He knew he would soon be overpowered. Tsu was nowhere to be seen, and he was glad of it. He wouldn’t want her to take this thing on to save his life, while risking hers.

  He knew that if he tried any form of self-defense that he might try on a human, like a gouge of the eyes, the thing would not relent. It would not think about consequences such as blindness, it would keep attacking. His arms began to lower. The animal’s jaw drew nearer to his face, opening in anticipation. Its mouth went wide. It lunged, almost sinking dagger-like fangs into his cheek.

  Its head lurched sideways, twisting away from its body almost ninety degrees. Chris saw Tsu’s bare foot in the darkness. She had delivered a mighty kick to the jaguar’s head. It righted its neck and was looking at Chris again, clearly thinking he had delivered the blow. In the second of hesitation, Chris kicked out, connecting with the animal’s back leg.

  It slipped.
For a moment, its weight was lifted and Chris rolled away.

  “Knife!” he screamed

  “It’s gone!” Tsu screamed back. The thing stood between them, apparently deciding which one to attack.

  It pounced. Straight towards Tsu, its teeth aimed at her throat. She put her arms in front of her to cover her face, but just like Chris, it knocked her right onto her back. It was thrashing around, desperate to get a hold. With blood dripping from various parts of his body, Chris took a look around for something to use. He was hoping to see the knife on the ground, but he could barely see anything.

  Then he remembered, he had seen a large rock beside a tree where they had tried to sleep. He had thought about using it as a pillow but given up on the idea. He sprinted over and fumbled around in the darkness. He could hear Tsu’s yelps and gasps as she struggled to get a breath. He knew full well that fighting that thing was extremely hard work, especially when you were terrified and exhausted.

  He picked up the rock in his hands. It was about the size of a human head. Suddenly, he felt stronger than he had ever felt. More confident. This thing was going to die.

  He strode over to where the struggle was continuing at full throttle. A battle for life. In the humid Amazon air, he lifted that rock above his head. He brought it down from on high, hoping his aim was true.

  At the last second, the leopard turned to look at him. But it was too late. The rock hit it so hard Chris thought he had smashed its skull in two. It was trying to regain its balance when Chris lifted the rock again. He brought it down in exactly the same place, between the nose and the eyes. He fell forward with the momentum as the beast collapsed in front of him. He found himself slumped on top of it. It was perfectly still.

  Chris and Tsu lay there in the darkness, not moving. They didn’t have the energy to move, barely even to breathe. The first thing that came to mind when their heartbeats slowly dropped, was that without treatment, they would die from their wounds. Any infection could be deadly, and in this environment infection was highly likely.

  Treatment, meanwhile, was nowhere to be found. A previous search of the plane had not uncovered any first aid kit. That didn’t seem like the sort of thing their criminal hosts would’ve kept on board.

  Suddenly, without discussing anything, they both stood and took each other‘s hand. They began to walk. Away from their meager belongings in the camp they had thought would give them some comfort. Half delirious, they simply had to escape. Or at least feel like they were trying. The sun, what little of it could get through the canopy, was rising. It would give them a sense of direction. They hoped they might find loggers, probably working illegally but those scumbags might just save their lives. If not, at least they might find a less hostile place to die. Somewhere by a stream that trickled peacefully as they drew their last slow breaths.

  The next hours were some of the worst of their lives. Exhausted, bleeding, and in pain, they tried to rip their way through the jungle with their bare hands. They didn’t even know what they were looking for. The best they could hope for was a source of freshwater so they could drink and clean their wounds. Anything that would bring them a little relief or hope. They had stopped talking and were just breathing, the sound of their heavy breaths being drowned out by the teeming life of the jungle. Every minute was hotter.

  Tsu stumbled and crashed to the ground. Chris thought she had tripped on one of the many branches or vines that were constantly entangling their feet. He held out his hand to help her up, but she didn’t move.

  She shook her head and tried to mouth the words I can’t. Chris knew that the effects of the wounds from the encounter with the leopard along with the snakebite must be taking a heavy toll.

  He figured they had been trekking for around eight hours, which in this heat would have been enough to floor most people even without injuries. Dusk was coming once again.

  Tsu closed her eyes. As Chris kneeled down towards her, all of his scrambled mind and aching body was screaming at him not to do what he was about to do. He gently placed one hand under the back of her head and one under her knees. He had no idea if he had the strength to lift. He tried and stumbled before he had even lifted her six inches. He barely had the energy to keep himself upright.

  He bowed his head and closed his eyes. He stayed still. In his mind, he told himself over and over that he had the strength to continue. To do what must be done. That the pain and weakness he was feeling was imaginary. Or, at least, it could be imagined away.

  Calmly, he placed his hands in position again and closed his eyes. He lifted. His legs were burning as he stood. He was now cradling Tsu in his arms. His body and clothes were completely drenched with sweat. There was dirt all over him; in his nostrils, beneath his fingernails, and in his mouth.

  He no longer had any free hand to hack away at the jungle. He glanced up through the thick canopy and could just about make out where the sun was. They had been traveling in the same direction all day. They must be heading towards something. Something other than this ecological mesh they were entangled in.

  His progress was painfully slow. He almost fell many times, often stumbling to his knees and ensuring that his balancing act prioritized keeping Tsu from hitting the ground.

  As the sun began to disappear, he was certain he could hear the sound of running water. Was it imagined?

  The sound was growing louder, but amongst all the myriad noises of the jungle it was still impossible to tell what it really was. Then, Chris felt a strong breeze. Something he had not felt for hours. It must mean a clearing in the trees. Moonlight glistened on the water. If Chris had any energy left at all, he would have run. As it was, all he could do was stumble towards the stream, drop to his knees, and gently place Tsu next to the water.

  He plunged his cupped hands into the stream then thrust them towards his mouth. He drank deeply. He quickly took up some more of the water and put it over Tsu’s dirt-stained face. He sat her up and parted her lips. When the water entered her mouth, her eyes opened. It was like a magic elixir. Their eyes met, and each noted that some brightness had returned to the other’s. In each other’s arms, they lay by the stream and slept.

  The fierce sun shook Chris awake from his strange dreams of reptiles and birds of paradise. A man was standing over him. For a moment, he thought he must still be in a dream. The man was naked except for a loincloth. The only other thing worn on his body was a huge hoop through his lip and two of the same through his ears.

  He was short in stature and muscular, but with aggression in his eyes, which were wide and staring, he looked as imposing as a man-mountain. Chris tried to sit, but before he could manage it a heavy blow rocked his head sideways. He blacked out.

  When he finally came around, he woke to the sound of screaming. Deep and anguished howls of human suffering.

  Chris had to assume he would soon be suffering the same fate. He was sure he had been captured, and he waited to feel the pain. The fog of exhaustion and trauma would, he assumed, rapidly clear enough to make him aware of his awful surroundings.

  Through blurred vision, he could see a strikingly beautiful woman holding a wooden bowl full of water. She was gently rubbing the water onto his head with her hand. She wore the same adornments as the man at the river, and very little else. She was bare-breasted, and her cheekbones protruded beneath huge brown eyes. She put the bowl to Chris’s lips and helped him to drink. If this was torture, then it was more confusing than any of the tricks his many adversaries had tried over the years.

  He turned his head and saw Tsu next to him, on a bed made from branches and leaves. She was receiving the same care from another woman.

  It would have been the picture of tranquility if it were not for the horrific screams conflicting with the slow and gentle treatment he and Tsu were receiving.

  He turned his head in the opposite direction, moving his body cautiously as he has been learning to do since this series of afflictions had weakened him over the last few days.

 
They were in a clearing where a small, primitive settlement had been constructed entirely from natural materials found in the jungle. He saw a man tied to a tree. The poor man was being lashed with hefty, solid sticks. Sometimes, the men who were beating him stopped and poured some kind of liquid into the gaping wounds on his body. It was this that made him howl so terribly. Chris then realized the man being assaulted was the same person he had encountered by the stream. Chris had no idea what was going on, but his best guess was that one tribe had tried to capture Tsu and himself, and another tribe had rescued them. But all of the people around looked the same. The same adornments, the same minimal garments.

  Was the man being punished by his own tribe for his aggressive behavior down by the water?

  After a short time, the man was untied and led away, whimpering. When the woman came back to tend to Chris, he tried to explain that the man should not be harmed on their account. She had no idea what he was saying and did not attempt to understand. As she stroked his hair, he fell into a deep sleep….

  23 A Fire Still Burning

  For five days, Chris and Tsu were nursed back to something resembling health by the tribe that had found them. They did not get to find out what happened to the man who had originally picked them up at the river. They hoped his torment had ended quickly.

  During those five days, they drifted in and out of sleep. They lay on wooden beds beside each other, not speaking but occasionally reaching across to gently grasp each other's hand. They were brought fresh fruits, water that was invigorating in its purity, and, as they became stronger, some unidentifiable meat that had been cooked over open flames.

  On the sixth day, Chris sat bolt upright. He was ready to move. Tsu ran her hands across his naked back, admiring how muscular his shoulders were even after this ordeal.

  He turned to look at her and smiled.

  As if somehow having sensed something had changed, the young girl who had been tending to them the most, a round-faced girl with hair falling across her forehead, walked over to where they had been recuperating. She spoke no words and simply helped Chris off the bed. She then did the same for Tsu. Chris thought he heard Tsu’s bones creaking.