Page 64 of Wild Temple
During the breaks, I tried to fashion makeshift shoes, but there was never enough time, and I didn't have a knife.
We continued on the journey and crossed through a small stream. My feet sunk into the muck, but it was better than the hot, sharp rocks by the bank.
We continued the march up the mountain. Done with the foothills, we were now on the ascension to Pura Jiva. A journey not for the faint of heart.
Sweat soaked through shirts and pants, and it became apparent the platoon wasn't all that well-conditioned. I don't think they humped through the mountains like this on a regular basis, and it showed.
Without a shirt and drenched in sweat, any breeze cooled my skin. But even through the thick canopy of jungle, I felt my shoulders and back getting a little crispy.
I worried about Hannah. Frail and weak from malnourishment, they’d been keeping her doped up and docile. But she hadn’t had a fix in a while and was starting to come down. Hannah hadn’t been on the junk long enough to get dope sick—only a couple of days. But the come-down wasn’t fun. She was itchy, irritated, agitated, and felt like trash. Mix in the heat and dehydration, and she was in a world of hurt. She’d hurled in the underbrush more than once already.
We caught a brief shower in the afternoon that lasted about 15 minutes and cooled things off for a moment. But it just made the air wetter and damper. The thirsty dirt soaked up the water.
We made it about an hour up the mountain when the procession came to a halt. The late afternoon sun still blistered. The platoon was done for the day. They’d had enough marching through thick jungle and climbing slippery mountainsides.
Caspian wanted to push on, but all he got back was, "No."
They were ready to punch out for the day.
The soldiers found an area to make camp and started setting up for the evening. There were only about eight of them, plus Caspain’s two goons. I swear we lost two soldiers along the way who decided to play hooky.
JD, Brooke, Hannah, and I didn't have tents, sleeping bags, or rations. It would be a long evening in the bush, full of mosquitoes, spiders, ants, and every other creepy crawly thing imaginable.
My mouth was as dry as the Sahara. With the heat and the amount I had sweated out during the day, I was well on my way toward dehydration. I figured the others weren’t far behind. JD hung tough, but Brooke looked flushed and weary. Hannah’s sunken eyes and sickly skin made her look dead.
"Are you okay?" I asked when she sat next to me.
Hannah shook her head. “Just kill me now.”
"I'm sorry," Brooke said. "This is all my fault."
"Don't take the blame. This is that guy’s fault," I said, pointing to Caspian. I shouted at him. "You think we could get some food and water?"
He gave me a look like the request was absurd. “What makes you think I'm going to share any of my rations with you? My men need all the food and water they can get.”
"If you want to find Pura Jiva, you better take care of the only person that can get you there.”
Caspian considered it for a moment. "Good point." He snapped his fingers and commanded one of the soldiers to give Brooke and Hannah a canteen of water and a ration offood. His crew had taken all of our food and water, plus they had their own. The MREs weren’t standard issue for the local army but could have been acquired on the black market. They had plenty to go around. Caspian could have supplied them. Either way, they would keep you from starving.
“I don’t know if I can keep anything down,” Hannah said.
“You need to try.”
It probably wasn’t the best meal for a sensitive stomach, but she needed nutrients. We all did.
Brooke tore open the package of chili mac and offered to share.
“You need all the strength you can get,” I said, declining her gesture.
“You’re not going to make it through tomorrow without eating.”
She had a point.
The girls had never eaten an MRE before. I showed them how to use the FRH to heat the entrée. The field ration heater contained magnesium, salt, and iron. When mixed with water, the chemical reaction could reach 180 degrees.
The MREs contained beef sticks, crackers, jalapeño cheese spread, Twizzlers, lemon poppy seed pound cake, and electrolyte powder. Given the circumstances, this was fine dining.
We split the ration between us. At least it was something.
