But she did pose the killer question — where exactly would they go? And if they couldn’t get down, what then? Benjamin said they’d be trapped, so do they plan a life of living native up here? How long did he think they’d survive, weeks, days, hours?
But he remembered his military training; giving up was the mind killer. And that was something he’d never allow to happen. He crouched down beside her.
“We go back to where we came up. After all, we never fully explored the area; there might be another way into the tube we climbed up in, or another tube altogether.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “We don’t exactly have anything else to do.”
His stomach grumbled, and he realised he hadn’t eaten in so long, he’d forgotten what food tasted like. They could last days without food, but far less without water. But they needed both for energy and morale. Besides, if they did need to move quickly, the last thing they needed was to be fatigued.
“Come on; we forage as we go.”
“Jenny said things could be poisonous,” she muttered.
“We gotta take risks now, and be prepared to eat things… raw.” He grinned, hoping to lift her spirits. “Live things.”
She was having none of it. “We’re in hell.”
“At least we’re in hell together.” He half smiled.
She made a small sound in her throat. “Yeah, I guess.” She looked up. “Hey, were you always an optimist?’
He looked at her, thinking about the question for a moment.
“You know what? I did two tours in Afghanistan, one in Western Syria and a few skirmishes in some Iraqi provinces. I’ve fought hand-to-hand, with a gun, knife, and fist and boot. And I’ve been in some damn dirty hellholes.” He half smiled. “In every one of those times, I knew I could die, but I always expected I wouldn’t. Call it will to live, expectations of a higher purpose, luck or optimism, I just never surrendered then, and I won’t now… and I won’t let you now either.”
Ben held out his hand. “Sometimes you gotta fight to win.”
She smiled as she took his hand. “Yeah, yeah, I can do that.”
Together, they peeked back over the rim again. It was now 10 in the morning and dust devils spun on the cliff edge. But there was nothing else.
“Is it safe?” Emma asked. “I can’t see anything moving.”
“I’d prefer if there was,” Ben said. “Just one little beastie eating grass, without a care in the world.”
“Yeah, I know what you mean.” She exhaled.
“Well.” He pulled in a cheek. “Here’s a dumb question; when I asked you to take care of my gun, did it go in the Corsair?”
She groaned. “Yes.”
“Okay, thought so.” He shrugged. “Doesn’t matter; we still have a couple of pistols; they should at least dissuade any pursuers.”
“Ah, about that.” She grimaced.
He slowly turned to her, his eyebrows up.
“I dropped it. When the snake was coming for you, I pulled it out, but it all got crazy real quick, and it got knocked out of my hand.” She gave him a gritted smile.
“In the plane as well, huh?” He grinned.
She nodded. “I’m sorry.” Her voice was small.
“What? Don’t be. You made it out, and to me that’s all that matters.” He lifted her hand, looking deep into her eyes. “I give you my word I will never rest until I’ve got you home, okay?”
“And I’ll never rest until we’re both back at Ricky’s Ribs having a cold beer.” Emma sucked in a huge shuddering breath and then nodded. “We got this.”
“You bet we have.” Ben looked back over the edge towards his right-hand side of the clearing in the direction where they first came in. “You see that pile of rocks over there?”
She followed his gaze. “Yeah.”
“That’s where we’re headed — we go fast and low. Ready?” He looked into her eyes, seeing fear and fatigue, but also determination.
“When you are.” She placed her hands on the cliff lip.
“Let’s do it.” Ben went up and over the lip. His gun was held loosely in his hand and his shoulders were down. He turned but Emma didn’t need his help, leaping up with ease and jogging beside him.
Ben tried to keep himself between her and the jungle, as they ran fast to the rocky outcrop. He couldn’t help but turn to the dense green wall as his imagination conjured huge diamond-shaped heads and jewel-like eyes in amongst the fern fronds, coiled around massive moss-covered tree trunks or hanging from the overhead canopy.
In another few seconds, they were at the rocks with their backs pressed hard to them. Ben breathed in hard, the humid air thick in their throats, and he had to spit grit that was being flung around by the now swirling wind.
Emma leaned back on the rocks and rubbed at her eyes. She squinted. “Shit, sorry, bit light-headed.”
“Don’t worry, me too. We’ve used up our energy stores; we need food and water — food soon, and water now.” He looked over the boulders, and then along the plateau edge to the next place of cover. “We left a lot of stuff behind after the explosion — maybe damaged, but we’ll take what we can get. Might even be some weapons.”
She snorted. “Let’s dream big; we’re also going to find another way down, right?” She grinned. “So let’s hurry.”
He kissed her, grabbed her hand, sighted on his next coverage target, and ran. And then ran to the next, and the next after that. The trip took over an hour, and only a few times the jungle reached the edge of the plateau, or the rocks looked unstable and they were forced to detour inland.
On the way, they passed various creatures, mostly bovine-like herbivores, with serpentine necks and vacuous eyes, or a few smaller carnivores that stared with a fox’s cunning and followed them for a while. Only once did Ben have to throw a few rocks at their pursuers.
Finally, they crouched behind a tree trunk that measured twenty feet around, and its towering branches disappeared up into the roiling clouds. Just past some fallen trees was the scattered debris from the grenade explosion.
“Did that only happen two days ago?” Emma whispered.
“Yeah, I know, seems a lifetime.” Ben could see the place where he had stood, by himself, as the first person out of the cave. He’d remembered being in a state of awe and wonder at the massive jungle.
“We underestimated it, didn’t we?” Emma looked up at him.
“Yeah, yeah we did.” He let his eyes travel over the strewn debris. “In my military training, it’s drilled into us to never underestimate an enemy. I did it big time.”
“No.” She grabbed his arm and tugged on it. “This place isn’t our enemy; it’s just that we don’t belong here.”
“You’re so right,” Ben said. “And if Benjamin somehow made it down in 1908, then that’s the riddle that we need to solve. But first, we need supplies… any supplies — there.” He motioned with his head and crept forward.
In amongst the strewn debris of rocks from the cave, they could see Bourke’s backpack, burned up and torn open. The man’s pack once held a few rations, but these were gone and not even the foil wraps of his protein bars remained.
The bloody remains of the man had also vanished, and it even looked as if the rags of flesh and the blood splatters had been licked clean from the rocks.
They wandered through the debris and Emma found an unopened water bottle, and together they shared a few sips.
“Looks like we weren’t the only ones seeking out the supplies,” Emma said, tucking the bottle into a thigh pocket.
“Yeah, damn.” Ben sighed. “Nothing much salvageable.” He dropped the remains of the backpack. “C’mon, let’s look for another entrance.”