The Great Thirst Boxed Set

by Mary C. Findley

  Later, after a hazy period of sleeping and possibly fainting, Talia made Jiggly swallow some more water, sipped some herself, and shared a tube of peanut butter with him, or tried. Aimlessly she wandered farther back into the tunnel, and almost fell into the yawning cavern where it ended, with a rushing river disappearing below the jagged edge.

  “This … wasn’t here before,” she commented, and shocked herself by being somewhat able to hear the words. She stared down at the chasm. How far down is that water? Too far. But where does it go? The wrong way, she had to conclude, watching it foam and froth and disappear under the rocks beneath her feet. She sat down. The name Saraswati-Ghaggar-Hakra started rolling around in her head, a cross between a song and a chant, matching the rhythm of the water. “Even if the river ran the right way, I haven’t got a stick of wood, much less a raft or a boat. Somebody smarter than me will have to figure out how Jiggly and I can get out of here.”

  She kept staring at the water and rolling Saraswati-Ghaggar-Hakra around inside her head. After awhile she got up and checked Jiggly. He had a fever and shuddered at her touch. She slid the water bottle between his lips and he jerked and made her spill the rest of it.

  She stared at the puddle of water as it disappeared into Jiggly’s matted, filthy shirt. “Keith is smarter than me, right, Lord?” she asked. It was good to hear her own voice again. It was starting to sound close to normal. She wished she could hear Jiggly’s annoying voice, too, but so far he hadn’t said anything.

  Keith. “He’s going to come for me. When I was tapping Alive, I heard somebody tap back, Coming, before I lost the phone, didn’t I? Didn’t I, Lord? Oh, please tell me someone’s coming.” Please.

  She dug in her pack, pulled out her paracord and the little grappling hook, tied the bottle’s neck securely, and spent a long time dangling it down into the water, gradually filling and spilling and filling again, until she had most of a bottle. She bathed Jiggly’s face and head, dropped a purifying tablet in, and made him drink. The game of filling and using the water kept her occupied for some time. She tried to apply more antiseptic to Jiggly’s shoulder and to ignore the angry swelling. Neither she nor Jiggly had kept their watches. The light that seemed to penetrate the rockslide that had once been a well was too uniformly gray to give her an idea of whether it was night or day.

  A thudding sound woke her one of the times she slept beside Jiggly. She spun around, firing up all the hurts again. Now it was pitch dark. She snapped a glow stick, hung it around her neck, but had to creep to get back toward the river’s edge. Looking down, then holding the glow stick at arm’s length. she saw a strange thing butting up against the rocks. Some kind of big, long, box … a frame … something that looked like the amphibian skins stretched over the sides. It sagged. It was half-full of water.

  “What is that? Where did it come from?” And why?

  She got her paracord and hook and played Go Fish until she caught the corner of the frame. Fighting to drag the thing up when she had no real strength was … challenging. By resting it on outcroppings and twisting to drain water from it, she finally pulled it up to her level.

  “This is made of … it’s the frame pieces from those tablet stands …” Talia stupidly snapped and unsnapped the pieces. “Who would have thought of this?”

  Coming. Keith! Talia snapped together two poles, surprised at the strength of the delicate-looking framework pieces. She wrapped pieces of skin around them and made the travois she’d thought about … how many hours ago? Dragging it back to the doorway of the tablet room, she said, “We have to get ready, Jiggly. Help is coming. Keith is coming.”

  Chapter Sixty-two – “Anywhere You Need to Go”

  “God, thank You so much for healing David, because we would be dead so many times if he wasn’t here, doing this,” Keith breathed as David slammed out with his pole and deflected the boat away from another rock wall. They spun in the middle of the river. Cindee bailed frantically with a skin pail, because they always shipped half a boatload of water when that happened. Keith paddled fiercely with his pole while David complemented him on the other side, and the boat righted itself and continued on down.

  The oversized baton flashlight was like a pencil beam in the darkness. They usually only had a moment’s warning before a wall flashed up almost in their faces. But their crazy craft seemed almost indestructible. Keith had to wonder how far they would have to go, and whether they would find Talia at all. When they had explored the tunnel in the well, he had not heard or seen any sign of the river beyond that one brief sound of its rushing.

  Unless something had changed, there was no way they would find anything but more tunnel. Keith could feel everyone’s exhaustion. What a stupid plan. All we wanted to do was find Talia, but how can we do that, God? How can we hope to do that?

  “Heads up!” David shouted, and rammed his pole forward again.

  “Whoa!” Keith and Cindee lurched forward as the boat took a nosedive and threatened to slip under a rock shelf. David threw his arms up and caught a rough spot in the cliff face. Keith levered himself onto a two-inch ledge below him. Cindee grabbed a pole and jammed it between two out-thrust surfaces. The boat scudded and shipped more water, but it held. David groaned and Keith grunted while Cindee bailed enough water out to keep the boat from being pulled under by its own weight. The side clattered harmlessly against the rock wall when the pole popped loose. David groaned again.

  “If we drop down, the boat’s going under, isn’t it?” he asked.

  “Yeah, I think so,” Keith replied, his face smashed into David’s leg. “Cindee, can you jam the pole back in there?”

  “It’s too wet,” she said, crying. “It just keeps slipping out.”

  Keith could only see with one eye, but he wondered about the strange gray light above them. Something tickled his shoulder. Cave. Spider! He jerked and almost lost his footing. David grabbed his shirt with one hand, still clinging to the rock by one set of fingertips.

  “Steady, Heart-holder,” he said, quite calmly. Keith scrabbled and his feet held. David grabbed his other fingerholds again.

  “What’s that?” Cindee asked. “On your shoulder, Keith.”

  Keith twisted. A blue paracord seemed to have tangled itself in his collar. A paracord with an itty-bitty grappling hook.

  “Keith. You came.” Keith stared upward and saw Talia’s battered face and matted hair above him.

  “Evangel.” David just breathed the name out. “Is that cord secure?”

  “I’ve been tying knots in it for … I don’t know how long … the frame pole is anchored against a doorway … yes …”

  David grabbed the cord and scrambled up. Keith wanted to scramble up too but he had to wait for David to drop the cord down again, and he was nowhere near as good at rock climbing as David, so it ended with the pilot hauling him up and rope burns under the arms. None of the last few hours’ pain and exhaustion mattered as much once he got Talia in his arms again.

  He was barely aware of David getting Cindee and the boat up. All of them lay there, in a state of collapse, until Keith could make himself move a few inches and start checking Talia out.

  “You look awful,” he whispered.

  “I know I must,” Talia said with a weak smile. “But Jiggly looks worse. We have to get him out of here.”

  “Jiggly?” Everyone echoed her. For the first time Keith saw the travois leaning against the tunnel wall. They all gathered around, staring in awe at Jiggly’s sagging form.

  “We still have some medical supplies left, right?” David asked, Cindee. She went back for their packs. David knelt and sucked in a breath as he examined Jiggly’s wound. “Evangel, you’re a very bad nurse.”

  “I know, I know,” Talia murmured. Keith hugged her but she winced and he eased up. “We’re just alive. That’s all. I didn’t have the strength to do anything else. I’m sorry.”

  “He’s going septic,” David said. “I don’t know why he’s alive.”

  “I
tried to pray for a miracle,” Talia whimpered. “I just didn’t have enough faith.” She burst into tears against Keith’s already-soaked shirt.

  “Hey, c’mon, please, Talia,” Keith said. “Nobody’s blaming you.”

  “Is this water from the river?” Cindee asked, handing David a pack and holding up Talia’s water bottle with the other hand.

  “Yes. I used up my water purification tablets. But I tried to cool his fever. I tried …”

  Cindee embraced Talia and kissed her bruised cheek. “Shhh, sweetie,” she said. “We’re going to help Jiggly now. Keith, maybe you should let Talia give you the tour of the improvements, post-explosion and earthquake, to the tunnel. Maybe the two of you can also figure out our exit strategy together, now that you’re not distracted with worry.”

  Keith supported Talia as they made their way to the mouth of the tunnel. He stared up at the crazy rock puzzle. They sat down on the unbroken part of the ledge.

  “Amu and Zanamu?” she asked in a little thin voice.

  “Sophie’s okay. They were getting ready to do surgery on Naddy when we left. We’ve been out of touch awhile.” Keith pulled out his phone and dialed the hospital. “Yes, I’m calling to check on Dr. Nader Ramin, please? Um … I’m his nephew-in-law, I guess …”

  Talia smiled and took the phone. She spoke Urdu, Keith had no doubt. Her voice got stronger as she talked. When she hung up, her smile was stronger, too.

  “Critical but stable,” she said. “Zanamu says the surgeon is optimistic. Thank you for leaving to take care of him, Keith.”

  “It wasn’t just him,” Keith admitted. “David got shot up. We had to go. We just had time to hear that alive of yours.” He pulled her close, very gently.

  “And to say coming?” Talia nuzzled against his neck. “I didn’t dream it?”

  “No. No dream. David said he told you, since I don’t speak Morse Code, either.”

  “David was shot? Was he hurt badly?”

  “It was a flesh wound in his arm, but, wow, it bled a lot.”

  “He was climbing the rock … he seemed so well … how?”

  “Oh, Cindee tossed some water from the great bath at Harappa on him and asked God to heal him so she wouldn’t have to worry. Did you know they’re … a thing?”

  “A thing? Cindee and David? What kind of a thing? But … wait … Cindee prayed, and God healed him? Healed him completely? Right then?”

  “Yeah. My faith wasn’t big enough, for sure. I had no idea it would happen.”

  Talia started to cry. Keith held her and didn’t say anything for awhile.

  “It’s not your fault, or anybody’s fault, about Naddy, or Jiggly,” Keith said finally. “About whether they live or die. How many lepers were there in Israel? How many blind? How many demon-possessed, paralytics, dead people … whatever? Did Jesus heal them all, even when He was there with them every day? One time, I think the Scriptures say, He healed them all. But that was probably just all the ones there that day, that time.

  “The apostles probably healed more people than Jesus did. Some people get healed. Some people laid by that pool at Bethesda all their lives and never got up and walked. God is God. When a miracle happens – when somebody gets healed, it’s for one reason. It glorifies God. Maybe it glorified God that David was able to do all he did to help us get here to you, so that’s why he got healed. Maybe there’s nothing more Naddy or Jiggly have to do to glorify Him. Talia, my sweet Talia, we trust God. That’s all we do. When nothing goes right, we trust Him.”

  “Cindee said we were supposed to be figuring out a way out of here,” Talia said after another silence. “Did you do it yet? Because I didn’t figure out anything.”

  “Yeah … no. Neither did I. We need to, huh? For Jiggly’s sake.” They got up slowly, Keith supporting Talia again. It worried him, how fragile she seemed, but he didn’t want to say so. Something’s not right with her. They needed to get out for her sake, too.

  “Hello! Is someone down here?” a man’s voice called.

  Keith and Talia turned. Talia gasped and held her side, almost falling. Keith scooped her up in his arms.

  The taxi driver who had brought them from Faisalabad stepped out of the room where the tablets had been. “You’re still here? the helicopter had left, so we thought everyone was safely away. Come. Oh, dear, the young lady doesn’t look well. There is a passageway to the surface through here. Come. I can take you anywhere you need to go in my taxi. Anywhere.”

  Chapter Sixty-three – The Care Co-ordinator

  The man carried one end of the travois-turned stretcher. David carried the other, with Jiggly not even making a sound. Keith tried to carry Talia, but she came to herself and insisted on walking with Keith and Cindee’s help. The trip out was rough, and they stared in horror at the devastation. Many more caves had collapsed. The surrounding area still smoked above the acres of charred brush. The taxi driver’s sister joined them and they all rode back to Harappa. David prepared the helicopter to fly Keith, Jiggly, Talia, and Cindee to the hospital.

  “I’m so sorry about what happened to your people,” Keith said to the brother and sister just before they boarded the helicopter.

  “You got all the tablets?” the sister asked.

  “Yeah. We did,” Keith replied.

  “Then the message is safe,” she said. “That is the most important thing. God’s hands hold us up and cover us. Everything else is about protecting the Word. Thank you.”

  “Your wife has internal bleeding,” a doctor told Keith through a woman interpreter. “We can’t be sure of the extent of the injuries without surgery. But in the meantime she gravely neglected and overexerted herself. Where have you been, and what in the world happened to her?”

  Keith opened his mouth but nothing came out. The interpreter pulled the doctor aside and spoke rapidly to him. doctor’s expression softened. He turned back to Keith and the interpreter relayed his next words with a sympathetic smile.

  “I am hopeful, since she is in such excellent physical condition,” the doctor continued. “We still must do surgery as soon as possible.” Keith hurriedly signed forms.

  The interpreter reached up and patted Keith’s shoulder as the doctor turned and walked off. “She is in good hands. We’ll keep you informed.”

  “Hey, Dad,” Keith said as he collapsed in the surgery waiting room and grabbed his buzzing phone. “I was just about to call you. Wow. So much has happened, I don’t know where to start.”

  “Let me start, then, Son,” Joshua Bradley said. “I called to explain a picture I just sent you. Did you get it yet?”

  Keith checked and stared at a plastic freezer bag. It contained a fair quantity of what looked like grayish-white powder.

  “Dad, what is that? Are you crazy, sending me a picture like that? What if somebody saw it, and thinks you’re a terrorist spreading Anthrax or something?”

  “They can’t think anything worse of me than I already think of myself. You don’t know what that is, do you? It’s what’s left of your grandfather’s Bible.”

  “What? That can’t be. How do you know?”

  “Your grandmother called for help at two in the morning,” Principal Bradley responded. “She can’t sleep through the night, as you know, and sometimes gets up and reads one or the other of the Bibles she has – hers or my father’s. She keeps one on each nightstand. She reached over while turning on the light and found this pile of dust there.”

  Miraculously, Keith had been able to recover their baggage intact from Gondrani. “But we all have our Bibles. At least, I think we all do. They’re perfectly fine.”

  “Yes. So is your grandmother’s and so are all the ones here at the camp,” Joshua agreed. “We’ve been checking with our online contacts. Nobody else has mentioned anything like this happening to any other Bible.”

  “Are you positive this is Grampa’s Bible?” Keith demanded.

  “As positive as your grandmother is. You’re the scientist. Explain it.”
<
br />   “I guess … Grampa’s Bible had to be fifty or sixty years old, right? He would never change to a new one. Just kept taping up the old one. So the scanning process – that little trace of radiation we found – did this because the Bible was so old, maybe?”

  “I suppose that’s possible,” Joshua shrugged. “How many people have a Bible as old as his was? Even my mother’s only using the one she got at his funeral. That one’s no more than ten years old. So maybe it’ll be all right. I guess I might have overreacted. I’m sorry. You said you had news about your trip? You’ve only been there a couple of days, haven’t you? Did you already find something?”

  “We found something, all right … more of the tablets, and some artifacts that may have clues about how to decode the tablets. Not really sure yet, what they’re going to do with all these tablets in languages nobody knows.”

  “That must be discouraging,” his dad said. “But at least you are finding things.”

  “Yeah … wow, it really has been only a couple of days, hasn’t it? The price tag’s getting kind of high, though.” Keith sighed, then launched into as succinct an account as he could of all that had happened. Silence greeted him on the other end of the phone. “Dad? Are you still there?”

  “Son, I can’t tell you how sorry I am,” his father said. “Here I got all worked up over that Bible … So maybe Naddy will be all right, in time? But you don’t know about this Jiggly fellow? And Talia? She’s …?”

  “Still in surgery,” Keith said. “Yeah, I don’t know anything much. I haven’t even checked up on Naddy’s condition. I was sitting here, trying to figure out when the last time I slept was …”

  “Keith, you have to get some rest. I can’t believe you went through all that. But you’ll be no good to Talia if you don’t sleep. I remember how bad it was when your mother got sick, and some of those times with Joana – You have got to take care of yourself, Son. I just can’t believe you’re able to get good medical care right there in the country. How is that possible?”