Chapter 2: The Search

Early before the sun rose I got up put the remainder of my water on to boil, rolled up my bedding and re-stowed it on my pack. Useing half the water to make a cup of tea and the other to shave with, used up all my water I was carrying. I had to find another stream to fill me water bottle, and I had to see if I could find another water bottle as one was not enough. I really needed to clean my teeth, but that would have to wait until I reached a stream or running water. I buried the wrappers and tins from the compo rations and left the site as I had found it.

I then made my way down the hill to the southeast. A short way down I found what I wanted - water. A small spring was coming out of the rocks, and trickling into a tiny pool. I refilled my water bottle gave my teeth a good clean, washed my face and hands and felt like a new man again.

'Now lets find out what is going on.' I said to myself and see if I can find someone to tell me where I was.

About two hours later I came to the edge of a small clearing. I lay down behind a low bush took out my binoculars and started to scan the area. There was a low round wooden building with a thatch roof, one opening. The opening had a hide hanging to cover it. At one end was a low enclosure and I could see a couple of pigs. There was no smoke to-day and on the roof I could see had a hole in the middle and the thatch around it was all burnt and sooty black.

The ground around the house-if that was what it was- was all churned up and looked muddy but to the far right lying on the ground was what looked like a dead animal, but I could not distinguish the shape from where I was lying. I lay there for about 10 minutes, but no other movement other than the pigs foraging in their pen could be seen. So I slowly got up and made my way into the clearing. I walked towards the building, about halfway there I had a better view of the object lying on the ground. It wasn't an animal, it was a person wearing furs, and was staked out on the ground with arms and legs wide and another body also in furs lying across it.

People wearing furs and the buildings, what were these people were they back to nature nuts or what? These things flashed through my mind as I made my way to the bodies on the ground.

I knelt down and felt for a pulse on the body on top, I saw that it was a man and had his throat cut from ear to ear, also the body below was covered with blood. I pulled him off and saw that the body below was that of a woman, she looked about forty years old, dirty matted hair and generally dirty looking, I felt at the side of her neck for a pulse, expecting to find none, but I could feel a weak pulse. So I immediately cut the thongs which bound her to the four stakes driven in the ground, and carried her to the house. She was very light and easy to carry.

On entering the house I could hardly see a thing, it was that dark inside, it smelt of soot and the sweet odour of blood. I looked around, saw an area on the floor, which I worked out, was a sleeping area as I could see straw and it was covered partially by fur skins. I placed the woman's body there. I got up and the first thing I did was to tear the covering off the entrance, to have a good look around the room. There were two other bodies, which had been stabbed, a girl I would say in her teens and a small boy about ten years old. They hadn't been dead for long, as they were still slightly warm, but again they also were dressed in furs.

I carried the two small bodies outside and laid them with the other which I assumed to be their father.

I went back into the house and checked on the woman, I had seen when I examined her outside that she had no visible injuries. I lifted up her long dress length furs and saw a really well formed female figure, with a narrow waist, well developed breasts, not saggy and wide hips with a thick blonde reverted heart patch of hair on her crotch. There were no marks on the front of her body, I turned her over, and saw welds what could only be caused by a whip on her back, there was about ten of them. Some had bled but the blood had congealed. Looking closer I saw a bruising just on the hair line over her temple, which could have been caused by a blow to the head and which no doubt resulted in her unconscious state.

All I could do at the present was to lay her down and keep her warm, so I covered her with some hides that were lying there.

I unhitched my pack and took a good look around the room. There wasn't much at all, but the cleanliness left a lot to be desired. Not my cup of tea.

I heard the injured woman stir and start moaning. So I went over to her. She stared at me as if I was a monster from the deep and pushed herself back against the wall and drew her knees up to her chest, eyes bulging.

I asked her name, but all I got was a blank but puzzled stare. I patted my chest, said "Me Charlie", pointed to her, and asked "You"? I repeated it several times, then I think the penny dropped and I got what sounded like gibberish. It wasn't English anyway. So I just nodded. I had to do something to get the dirt and the dried blood off her, and looked around for something that held water. I saw a goatskin hanging by the entrance, and on examination discovered it was indeed water. Now, how was I going to wash her? I opened up my pack, got out my spare singlet, and tore it in two. I went over to her, poured the water onto the singlet and used it like a face cloth. God she jumped about a foot into the air when I put the wet cloth to her face. Almost like a vampire touching Holy Water. Maybe they didn't wash? It looked like it anyway with the state of her hair and face.

I held her, poured the water over her head, and washed her head and face, even although I didn't use soap she looked a lot cleaner, in the face anyway. How I was going to get the blood off her hides was another matter. Once I dried her with the other half of my singlet I could see that she was a very pretty looking woman.

She relaxed a good bit now, realizing that I wasn't going to harm her and was trying to help. She started gibbering away and I just could not understand one word she said but she kept pointing to the exit.

I picked up my pack and walked to wards the opening and she followed me. She ran to the three bodies lying on the ground and burst into tears. I think it was her family that lay there and there is nothing I could do. One thing for certain, I wasn't going to hang about here. I went over to her and put my arms around her shoulders, she turned and began sobbing into my chest.

I took her and my pack over to the edge of the clearing, sat her down, put both hands up, and indicated to her to stay there. Hurray! She got the message. I went back, dragged the three bodies into the house, placed them on the bed and set fire to the straw.

I went outside and set the pigs free. As I done that she came rushing over to me grabbing my arm and began pleading in her gibberish. I just took her by the arm and dragged her away. Picked up my pack again and headed into the forest in a northerly direction. She was struggling for a bit but soon calmed down and walked beside me.

About half an hour later I heard a lot of yelling and the sound of running feet, turning I saw coming running behind us three men, dressed in skins, blue painted faces and arms, brandishing spears, which looked like they had flint points. The woman on seeing them started screaming. I knew right off that these must be the ones who had slaughtered her family. They must have seen the smoke from the burning house and came to investigate.

By this time the nearest was about 25 yards from me, so I just took out the 9mm and shot him in the head, if he was going to try to kill me then I had no hesitation to blow his brains all over the forest floor. The noise of the discharge slowed the other two down, but they still came on slowly waving their spears at me. I was having nothing of this so I un-slung my rifle, loaded a Styx round and fired at the nearest ones sternum, at 50 yards it went in and took out the whole of his back. I quickly loaded and shot his pal the same way.

I went back and checked the bodies out and their weapons. They were flint tipped spears and they also carried what I presume they used as knives, sharp flint stones. They each had a small pouch round there neck, inside it were pieces of carved bone and other small twigs, but each of them had a small sandstone image of a fat woman with bulbous breasts and thighs, with the vagina clearly scratched in. I kept the pouches, the spears and knives but left the bodies where they lay.

When I got back to the woman, she was standing there petrified, staring at my rifle and then back down towards the bodies lying on the ground. She then done a funny thing, she got on her knees in front of me, grabbed my trousers, and started on the gibberish once again. I had to teach this woman some Basic English, or somehow pick up her language, since I seem to have been stuck with her. I got hold of her arm and lifted her to her feet. She was only about 5 feet tall, and as I said previously not very heavy. I think what she was trying to tell me that she was grateful for killing the three men.

I thought we had better high tail out of here before any more of them decided to attack us. Not that I cared, if the only weapons they had were flint tipped spears. I could kill them before they could get well into throwing distance, but I didn't want to just blindly go around killing anyone I saw.

So at a fast pace I headed back towards the clearing where the truck was.

It didn't take much of an effort to locate the site, I do have a very good sense of direction and the compass helped us to keep a good northerly course.

On arriving, the woman just stood there with her mouth open, staring at all the vehicles in open wonder. The first thing I had to do was get something to eat, and then I was going to search the vehicles for items of use.

I got out my field cooker and put some water on to boil. Whilst I was doing this the woman just stood with open mouth, at the way I lit the stove and the mess tin. I opened up two tins of egg and bacon, got a couple of oatmeal biscuits and handed one of each to the woman as well as my spoon. I had to use the fork. But she just stared at them. So I had to show her that it was for eating by eating some myself. I knew she had seen a spoon, because I had seen wooden ones at her home.

Once she tried it, she soon scoffed the lot and ate the biscuit too. By this time the water had boiled and I made the tea, again only one mug so I poured half in the mug and left the remainder in the mess tin, I then got out the tube of condensed milk and squeezed some in each and then handed her the mug. I again had so show her that it was for drinking. She followed, but was taken back a bit, as it was still very hot, so I indicated to her to only sip it. It was like teaching a kid from scratch.

After I cleared up and put my things away I started on the clearing.

It looked as if all the vehicles arrived at the same spot, and if anything else arrived it would hit smack bang into the truck and trailer, with all that ammo anything could happen.

So the first thing was to see if the truck would start. I got in and found that the ignition was still on and the truck in gear. So I put it in neutral, hit the starter button and it started right away. I put it in reverse, let out the clutch and she moved like dream, I managed to drive and park it well into the trees as far in the forest as I could. All the loose covers I tied down, took the shovel and pick that was on the truck and walked back to the clearing.

The woman was just as I had left her. I think she was too frightened to move, with the roar of the diesel engines and the size of the truck it must look like a monster to her.

I couldn't go on calling her the woman, so I went up to her and done the "Me Charlie" routine and I pointed to her and said "You Jane". (I got carried away with the Tarzan movies). I kept repeating it, and I could see she was trying to form the words, then all of a sudden she pointed to herself and said "Jane," and then to me "Chally". Oh! I wasn't going to try the pronunciation bit, so I nodded in agreement that's how I became Chally.

The very first thing was to get rid of all the bodies that were lying around the clearing, in and out of the vehicles. I went a little into the forest, about 20 yards, and started to dig a big hole. It was reasonably easy even although there were a few roots, after about four foot down and a hole about six foot square, I felt I could get all the bodies in.

"Jane" I called, as she was sitting well back from where I was digging. At least she responded to the name. I indicated that I needed her assistance.

The task was to collect the bodies. I started with the army driver and young officer, all personal items I removed from them, dog-tags, watches and their wallets and dragged them over with the help of Jane - she was stronger than she looked. There was an old tarpaulin lying near a truck, I used it to collect the bones of the three bodies I had seen earlier and put them in the pit.

I then went to the older vehicles and removes the skeletons, there was six of them. All the clothing had deteriorated into rags and any personal items had rotted beyond recognition. They were lighter and were easy to drag into the pit.

The trial came with the other four bodies, they were in a state of decomposition, when the doors of the vehicle were opened they stank like hell. I had two handkerchiefs, I gave one to Jane and showed her how to tie it round her head over her nose, but she seemed more interested in the cloth itself than the smell. Anyway to cut a long story short we managed to get them into the pit and I then covered them all up. Any personal items, except for cheap quartz watches were contaminated with the body fluids when the body was decomposing and other items, I left all these on the bodies.