Chapter 18

Vincent must have passed out while lying on the ground between his two women. He was lying on his back with his head resting against his arm when he returned to reality. Something had pulled him out of his unconscious state and he tried to determine what it was. He was now only half aware of his situation since his mind was still partly out of focus due to his long period of unconsciousness. In spite of that, he felt that he was still in great danger and that he had to act fast.

He turned his head in every direction to look around but nothing was moving. When his eyes came to rest on Nika, he discovered that she had changed position. While he watched her, he could hear her mumbling words that he couldn't understand. She was now resting on her belly, whereas before he had passed out she had been lying on her back. More important still, her body was a dozen feet closer to the river now.

This suddenly gave him hope. If only, he told himself, he could drag her body to the river. Why not roll her until she was in the water? She was less than ten feet from the river now.

With much pain and tremendous effort of will, Vincent got back onto his feet. He stood over Nika's body for a while, then bent over and placed a hand under her left shoulder. The other hand he placed around her waist. He gently lifted her shoulder while at the same time pushing on her waist until he saw her turn over onto her back.

Again and again he repeated this. Sometimes Nika would regain consciousness for a few seconds and cry out in pain as her aching body was forced to move. But Vincent didn't pay any attention to her loud protests since both of their lives depended on how fast he could get her to the river.

At last, after what seemed to be a long time to him, she was only one turn away from the water. Vincent then forced his own protesting body back beside Verla. He could actually feel his strength leaving him. It took him twice as long to roll Verla and it caused excruciating pain in his aching muscles and joints, but he was able to roll her near the river using the same method he had used on Nika.

As soon as both women were near the river, he started thinking. There was no question of pushing both unconscious bodies into the river since they would drown immediately. He even doubted very much his capacity to keep his own head out of the water in his exhausted state. He needed something to help them float so that they would not need to exert effort all the time to stay above the water. But in this barren place there was only the yellow grass around them.

At last his eyes came to rest on their supplies which were in a pile just a short distance from where the fire had been burning less than ten hours previously. Yes, he told himself, there was something he could use there.

He experienced more pain as he slowly walked toward the pile. He took out the two water bags that used to belong to Kowa. They were made of the hide of an antelope-like animal that Kowa said was called a balu. After the skin of the animal had been dried in the sun for several days, it had been coated with the same rubber-like resinous paste that had been used to make the canoe waterproof.

Vincent poured the water out of each bag and blew as much air as he could inside the bags. Then by means of a short strip of leather, which he cut from the rope, he tied the neck of each bag as tightly as he could. On his way back toward the river he felt very weak. When he tried to stand up, he found that it was impossible. His fatigue was just too great.

On his hands and knees he was finally able to crawl to the two unconscious women. He used leather strips from the rope and tied both bags together. Next he tied both women together by passing the rest of the rope under their arms. With the two air bags between them, he next wrapped the rope around them and around the bags.

As soon as this was done, he crawled into the cold water of the river and struggled to drag the bodies of the women with him. Had the slope along the bank not been as steep, he wouldn't have been able to do this, but gravity aided him. Once Verla's body was in the water, the slight pull of the current made it easier for him to pull the rest of his invention into the water.

Once both unconscious women were floating on the water, he placed one hand around the rope holding the two air bags together. He felt a certain satisfaction with what he had accomplished even as his body grew numb in the cold water.

The current slowly carried them downstream as a single mass. Besides reducing the pain in all of his joints, the cold water made him want to sleep. More than once he was tempted to submit to the relaxing sleep that every cell of his body was craving. He did close his eyes once and his grip relaxed on the rope but he was immediately jerked out of sleep when his face was submerged in the cold water.

A few times he had to pull one of the women's heads out of the water by pulling on their long hair.

Gradually, after what seemed to Vincent like hours, the river carried them toward the forest. Around mid day, when the sun was directly over his head, he saw the first trees growing near the bank of the river. By that time he was so weak that he didn't even try to get them all onto the dry sand. Instead he used his remaining strength to concentrate on the task of keeping one hand around the rope and his head out of the water.

Hours later, he felt a sharp pain on one of his kneecaps. The pain was intense enough to jolt him out of his half unconscious state. After realizing that he was not dead, it took his mind many long seconds to understand his current situation.

They were no longer moving. They were all quite immobile in the shallow water of a section of the river that was much wider. Nika and Verla were still bound together with the air bags between them. They were all only half submerged since they had somehow run aground on a piece of wood stuck in the bottom of the river. Vincent managed to notice that it was getting dark just before he passed out completely. When he recovered part of his senses much later, he felt pain in every part of his body. Every joint ached terribly when he tried to move. On the other hand, when he tried to remain still, it was just as bad since the pain seemed to come from every square inch of his flesh. Even his bones seemed to signal pain to his blurred brain.

With his eyes half open, he saw the shadow of someone's head just a few inches from his face. With the sun in the background it looked like a ghostly apparition. As for the face, he couldn't even see enough to identify its owner. After a minute of this he once again passed out.

The third time he regained consciousness it was dark again. He waited and looked around without daring to move his head. Only the silhouettes of the tops of the trees in the background were in his line of sight. He didn't dare twist his neck since he still recalled the terrible pain he had endured when he had tried to move the last time. He remained conscious long enough to think about the fact that it was now dark and that he was experiencing only a dull ache all over. He knew he was still extremely weak and most of all he wanted to sleep. He soon did.

It was late afternoon when he awoke. He was able to move his head sideways without any pain and he saw the shapes of his two women just a few feet away from him. The three of them were now on dry ground. How they had arrived there, he had no idea.

He then remembered the blurred image of a face he had seen the previous day. Yes, someone had been in the process of pulling him out of the water at that time.

With his mind now functioning better, he began to analyse his situation. Because they were now away from the radioactive zone, the Rad Virus was probably repairing their dying cells and replacing the dead ones. He also knew that they were all going to be as fit and healthy as before if they were given enough time. Even the pain was almost completely gone now.

Half an hour later, he was able to get up and walk a little. Nika was lying nearby. She and Verla were both stretched out on the sand and they were still sleeping. All around them, he could see footprints. After closer examination it became evident that his women were responsible for the tracks in the sand and there didn't seem to be any trace of strange footprints.

Vincent carefully walked over to Nika and bent his head above her. She immediately opened her eyes. The moment that she realized he was standing over her, she threw her arms around his neck and hugged him without saying a word.

"How do you feel?" asked Vincent gently.

Nika kept on hugging him for long seconds, then she looked at him. It was quite evident that she was very glad to see that he was in much better shape.

"I am much better. Verla is also doing well. We thought that you were dead a few days ago."

"Have I been unconscious for a long time?"

"This is the second day that we have been taking care of you. As for how long you were out before that time, we have no idea since we were both in a similar unconscious state."

"So Verla is doing find then?"

"Yes she is. I was the first one to become aware of our uncomfortable position in the water. It took me over half a day to find enough strength to drag myself onto dry ground. By then Verla was also coming out of her death-like state and when she became strong enough to walk a little, we both managed to pull you out of the water. That was two days ago."

Verla must have heard them talk and she was soon standing next to them. She also threw her arms around Vincent and kissed him passionately.

"I am so happy that you are going to be well again. For a while we were not sure if you would recover."

"Don't worry, I feel much better now. But we still have the problem of finding food, and judging by the emptiness in my stomach, I think it is a very urgent problem."

"We found some dry berries still clinging to the branches. Here, eat this; it will help you."

Verla gave him a small bundle wrapped in a large leaf. Inside were brown-red, wrinkled berries. When Vincent ate one he thought that it was the tastiest fruit he had ever eaten in his life. It took him only half a minute to swallow the two dozen berries.

"We must eat something more substantial and soon. Otherwise we will lose most of our strength and we won't even be able to walk after a while. We mustn't be more than a few hours walk from our food reserve of smoked fish. I will rest until tomorrow and then I will go back and return as soon as I can with our supplies."

"Why go back there to that death trap?" demanded Verla. "Let us forget the food and go away immediately. We will find food on the way."

"You seem to forget that everything we own is over there: the map, the knives, the guns and the food of course. No, I will go tomorrow."

"Then we will go with you," said Nika finally.

Vincent knew that it was asking too much to expect them to wait for him while he went back there. Besides he doubted very much that in his present weakened condition that he could carry all of their supplies the whole distance.

"Very well then, you can come for half the distance. The rest I must walk alone."

They all agreed to this compromise and the three of them began to plan their trip for the following day.

The sun had barely risen the next morning when they started on their way. They followed the river upstream for over two hours. After entering the forest, they noticed that the height of the trees was gradually decreasing as well as their number.