Chapter 8

Danni and Sarina had been trekking through the jungle for several hours. As expected, their pace was even slower today. It was making the march agonizing slow but Danni kept it that way because of Sarina. Every time she looked back, she could see the little girl was struggling just to keep one foot in front of the other. Still, she determinedly kept walking.

Trying to hurry her was out of the question. It would just make things worse by sapping what little energy Sarina had left. Danny would make frequent halts, give her some of their dwindling water supply and part of a sandwich. Then she would let her rest in the shade of a tree for a few minutes.

“Come on kiddo, we got to keep moving. I know it’s hard so I’ll go really slow for you,” Danni encouraged the girl as she urged her to her feet. “We’ll walk just a little while more and then take another rest, okay.”

Danni kept her pace to an ambling walk while Sarina gamely followed her through the jungle path. They stopped for about sixth time in a couple of hours when Danni heard the voices. She quickly bade Sarina to sit and be silent and listened. From what she could tell, there were several of them, and they weren’t that far in front of them.

Maybe a few hundred feet at best, Danni thought as the talk from the unseen strangers continued. They weren’t muted to whispers like they were on high alert. Instead, they sounded more like people having an ordinary conversation.

Danni frantically wondered who the voices belonged to.

Could the rebels have started invading this area in an attempt to circle around the government forces or was it the government forces? Either way it didn’t look good, The rebels would be merciless with them and government officials would start asking all kinds of awkward questions like what was she doing out in the middle of nowhere with a little girl. She knew she didn’t have the proper answers to satisfy them.

Danni decided she had to take a closer look and see exactly who it was and what they were up to. If they were soldiers then maybe she and Sarina could circle around and avoid them. That would add hours to their perilous journey but it might have to be done. On the plus side, maybe it was just workmen or peasants passing through. Then this could be good fortune because if she gave them some plausible excuse for being here, they’d be willing to sell her food and water for some of the American money she carried. At least that would put an end to some of their problems.

Danni leaned into Sarina’s ear and whispered to her. “Hush now. You stay quiet. I want to check out the voices.”

Sarina shook her head and began getting up as if to follow her so Danni whispered again. “No, you stay here. Don’t be scared. I’ll be right back. I won’t leave you, I’d never do that. Okay?”

She waited until the girl sat back down. As she began creeping forward towards the sound of the voices she hoped Sarina would obey her. She could cause lots of problems if she decided to go looking for her. She was immediately in her old stealth mode drummed into her by years of training with the Special Forces. Her head and entire body was low to the ground. She barely made a sound as she crept through the dense jungle foliage and leafs hardly moved as she made her way towards the voices.

A few minutes later she found them. From her prone position behind some thick bushes Danni peered down into a shaded glen at the base of a shallow valley. At the first sight of the army uniforms her heart sank.

I knew we couldn’t be this lucky, Danni sighed in frustration.

She counted the group. At first she thought there were four of them. Three men and a woman, looking relaxed as they sat with their backs to trees but then her experienced eyes discovered others. There was one half hidden by some bushes to the left of the group. She looked right and spotted another one partially concealed behind some fallen logs. No doubt they were guards, keeping an eye out for intruders while their comrades rested. She felt thankful she had approached so stealthy because they weren’t aware of her presence yet.