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Author's Chapter Notes:

Sorry for the delay, I kind of lost my mojo for a little while!

Chapter 19

 

 

After the near death of AJ, our spirits well and truly plummeted. How much more would we have to endure? Was it just going to be one thing after another until eventually we succumbed to nature? What was going to be next; eaten by bears? No, I didn’t think they lived in the jungle. It was hard to imagine ever seeing civilization again. No one was coming for us. Maybe no one even cared. We were kidding ourselves to think otherwise.

“Come on, we better get moving” I said after we’d been wallowing in self-pity for a while “night will be falling soon and I for one don’t fancy staying here overnight”

“Me neither” said Howie, wincing as he got to his feet. He’d used the last of the pain killers that morning and therefore they had now worn off, the pain was written all over his face. His leg wasn’t getting any better, and I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who was worried about him. The best any of us could do for him was to check it and keep it clean. If he picked up an infection, well, it didn’t bear thinking about.

“Get me the hell away from here” AJ shuddered.

We all agreed we would try and get as far as we could before sunset; away from the scene of AJ’s brush with death and hopefully closer to the edge of the jungle. I slipped my knife into my back pocket and took the lead, hyper aware of our surroundings now. No wonder it was one of the most inhabitable places in the world. Who the fuck would want to live amongst this? Sure it might look pretty at times, but believe me, the jungle sucked!

Brian got the map out for a look, but to be honest, we still had no clue where we were. We weren’t skilled navigators; we were singers and we didn’t have a need for this shit in our usual daily lives. I wished I’d paid more attention in geography class…or done the whole Boy Scout thing. I guess that was something we all wished we’d done.

We hardly said a word as we walked, lost in our own thoughts, our positivity slipping away with every passing hour. Even Brian, the usual optimist of the group was having a hard time. If he’d lost hope, I didn’t like to think of the outcome.

“Let’s set up camp here for the night” Brian announced. We were all knackered and emotionally drained, we couldn’t have walked any further and the sun had just about disappeared. I made a fire and we sat around it with glum expressions on our faces. We had nothing to cook but at least we could boil a little water and have a hot drink.

“We’ll look for food in the morning” Howie said. He voiced what the rest of us were all thinking. Although we were all hungry, none of us had the energy to go looking for food. Brian found a couple of granola bars deep in the bottom of his bag, so we shared them between us.

That night I hardly slept, I drifted in and out of sleep, imagining all sorts of awful scenarios. I kept seeing AJ in the snake’s vice-like grip, hearing his voice call for help, witnessing the snake crush the life out of him. But in my dreams we were too late to save him. The snake grew to monstrous proportions and swallowed him whole, then turned its evil eyes to the rest of us, daring us to try and out run it. I woke in a cold sweat.

“Nick, are you OK?” Brian said in the darkness “you were talking in your sleep”

“Yeah, I’m OK” I lied “what about you?”

“I’m scared too” he admitted “what if we never get out of here?”

“We’ll be alright, we’ll find a way” I said, trying to sound positive. It wasn’t working. I felt anything but positive about this situation. But I didn’t want to start talking about it, because once we talked about our fears, it became reality.

The next morning we all felt tired, irritable and miserable, but we forced ourselves to keep going. We found some more bananas and eat them whilst we walked, perking up a bit as the sugar gave us the boost we needed.

By the afternoon though, Howie wasn’t doing too well. He was complaining that he was cold, despite the intense heat. He slumped down and cried out in pain. Brian placed his hand against Howie’s face and muttered something I couldn’t quite hear.

“What’s up?” I asked “is D alright?”

“He’s burning up” Brian replied “we need to try and bring his temperature down”

How we were going to do that, I didn’t know. All we had left was boiled water, which wasn’t even cold. The only thing we could do was place a wet compress against his head and hope for the best.

“Guy’s, I’ll be fine” Howie said, his words coming out slightly slurred as the fever quickly took hold of him.

I didn’t think so. Neither did the others.

“We’ll have to make a stretcher of some kind and keep going. We can’t stop” Brian shook his head.

“I know” I agreed.

“Mother fucking jungle” AJ sniffed back a tear “Howie is not going to die”

We made a makeshift stretcher out of clothes and got Howie into it. Being the strongest amongst us, me and Brian carried him, leaving AJ carrying what few things we had left in our back packs. Now, more than ever, we needed some luck.

 

 

Chapter End Notes:

Short chapter I know, but that's how it ended up.  Thanks for reading :)