The Trek

When the sun was at its highest point in the sky and the ground began to bake beneath their feet it became paramount for the boy and the girl to seek shelter as soon as they could.

The bus on which they had been traveling the day before and he estimated they were at least five hours west of the nearest town.

The group had quickly panicked when they realised there was no mobile phone reception. Many of them looked desperately at their phones which for the first time in their lives had failed them. What were they to do?

They had taken this road to see the harsh outback at first hand and so it was not unusual in this part of the country to not have seen any sign of life.

Added to the problem was the fact that apart from the boy the other travellers were from overseas on their first trek in Australia.

They were stuck.

No one on board had any mechanical knowledge and so were of no help in getting the bus going. As it was most of them, apart from the boy, spoke only broken English and communication amongst them was going to be limited.

The initial realisation gave way to questions, what were they to do?

After some heated discussion, which included a lot of gesturing and raised voices, it was voted on by the group to send two people for help.

The boy from Australia was chosen and one of the foreign girls actually volunteered to go with him.

Despite the boy’s protests the group had outvoted him. He tried to explain to them that leaving the bus was not a good idea.  He recounted the stories of people dying in the outback because they had wandered off from where they had been stranded.

And so they were the ones who had set out in the blazing sun.

The boy had insisted on taking with them some bottled water, hats and the last of the sunscreen which was a compromise they made with the others as a ‘reward’ for them going off into the never never.

The landscape they walked through was sparse, with spinifex grasses and stubby little trees growing precariously amongst a never ending vista of rocks and stones.

It was flat as far as the eye could see

He couldn’t understand why the girl, who appeared frail and small, had volunteered to go with him. He had hardly spoken to anyone on the trip so far. Even when they gathered round and listened to the drivers explanation of why the bus had broken down he said nothing just listened.

****

2

The girl had only limited English but also had a steely resolve to succeed despite her own misgivings about leaving the bus. She too had read about people lost in the Australian desert, she too understood the danger they were getting themselves into. But as no one was keen to go, and she had noticed this Aussie boy earlier as she was getting on to the bus here was an opportunity  to spend time with him, albeit in a very unpleasant situation.

In her country English was a second language and she had not always paid a lot of attention in English classes and so her grasp of the language was somewhat limited.

What better way to learn than to throw yourself into a situation where you had to learn to communicate in order to survive.

The boy she noticed was somewhat pissed off because of the task he had been given. It was not his idea but as he was the only one fluent in the language the others had agreed he was the one best equipped to go for help.

He walked in front of her, stepping lightly among the rocks winding his way towards the west. She had tried to be enthusiastic about going with him but he had looked at her in disbelief when she had volunteered.

She tried hard to communicate her enthusiasm but she feared most of what she said probably sounded like meaningless babble to him.

She thought he must think I am really weird to have said she would go with him.

Every so often he would turn around to see where she was. After an hour she did begin to tire and he stopped and waited for her. He had long realised that caring for himself was going to be a big job, let alone having this naïve girl in his care as well.

****

3

Beside the trunk of a long dead tree he sat and watched as she made her way up the last little slope before the tree. She was a thin girl, he thought of her tiring quickly and that she would need to keep up her fluids if she was to survive the heat.

As the day was so hot they decided to stay where they were and wait until it cooled down a little before trekking on.

For food on that first day they had some biscuits and plenty of water. It was easy to sit there, munch on a biscuit and sip their water.

She surveyed the landscape and tried to ask him questions about it.

Her language was so stilted, at first he couldn’t understand her and he could see that she was trying to make herself understood. Eventually his ears attuned to her poor English and he began to understand some of what she was saying.

After some time spent on small talk, if you could attribute what she was saying as small talk, they sat silently for a while before he suggested they start off again.

This time when she spoke it was clear what she had to say.

‘Prasome leav man’ (“Please do not leave me.’) She was saying to him. She feared being left behind. She was aware of just how big the country was. They had during the bus trip not seen one sign of life, other than the flies that swarmed around them as they walked.

He looked at her and said he would not leave her. He would do all he could to get her back safely.

He found himself being drawn into the nuances of her language as they set off into the afternoon sun.

****

4

In the cool of the afternoon they managed to keep walking for two hours.

Two hours may have passed but the landscape did not change.

It was a continuation of the barren rocky landscape their bus had broken down in. Several times in the late afternoon she tripped and fell, each time grazing her shin. Thankfully he had equipped himself with a small first aid kit and the band-aids came in handy.

As darkness approached the searing daytime temperatures dropped.

The boy thought it wise to stop as visibility was poor in the darkness. They had little to keep themselves warm during the night as the cooling night temperature was not something they considered when they first set off.

He noticed that she was shivering as she sat up against a rock.

They had no bedding; they had been hopeful of finding help before nightfall.

In the interests of staying alive and surviving the night he moved over to her and sat beside her, his arm against hers. Realising the warmth that his body generated she moved closer in against him.

They sat this way for some time.

****

5

The girl had long realised that she had bitten off more than she could chew. She was in an alien country with very little language to support her, in the Australian outback, with a strange boy who barely spoke to her and whom she thought, saw her as a millstone around his neck.

She felt embarrassed that she was not able to keep up with him and thought to herself that they were stuck in this place because she had held them both up. Falling over, twice, had not helped her image of herself. Though he had placed band-aids over both grazes and he had always been gentle in the way he spoke to her and tended her injuries.

It was the fact that he was so matter of fact that bothered her the most. She had watched a lot of his back throughout the day and had begun to think of him as an ok sort of boy. He hadn’t yelled at her, or called her names or chastised her for holding him up; he had in fact been very patient with him.

Now she found herself sitting in this wilderness side by side with him, in their own brand of silence.

He suggested or rather gestured to her that she should try and get some sleep as they would be up before the dawn to set off in the direction they believed help lay. He was saying to her that they would have to ration their water as he was unsure how far it was to go.

She understood very little of what he was saying. The word sleep she knew, she got the impression from the tone of his voice that he wanted her to rest before their next day’s foray into the heat and flies.

She awoke with a start, suddenly unaware of where she was. There was darkness all around her. Above were the stars, beside her on the ground the boy lay curled up asleep. She took in how small she felt she was in this magnificent land.

Also she was cold. The difference in temperature from day to night was astounding. How do people live in places like this? Then she corrected herself, they obviously don’t as there was no one within miles of them as far as she could tell.

Instinct told her to take advantage of the boy’s warmth. She curled up around his body with her arm across his chest, soaking up the warmth radiating from his body.

****

6

When she awoke the dawn was just arriving. The boy was gone.

She sat up to see him standing off to her right surveying the landscape. Her stirring caused him to look back on her, she smiled at him, and was glad he was still there as initially she had felt a surge of panic rush through her at the thought that he had gone off without her.

He looked at this girl, this strange girl with whom he couldn’t communicate, and against whom he had awoken that morning grateful for the warmth she had shared with him.

The boy was a timid boy by nature. This was his first trip away from home, his first encounter with the outback. His parents had thought that it would be good for him to get away and take a break from his friends in the city.

He had not been very keen about the idea but at the persistence of his parents he had relented and booked his ticket. A week in the outback would be a new experience for him, and so far it had certainly lived up to that challenge. That he had drawn the short straw, so to speak, and had therefore been lumbered with this girl only added to his woes.

The thought of perishing in the outback was bothering him greatly. That he had little outback experience didn’t fill him with any confidence in his own ability to survive this situation. That they had found no sign of life the first day bothered him as he knew they would not survive many days in the place with the high temperatures and cold nights. And their water supply was decreasing rapidly.

That he felt responsible for her safety added to the burden he felt.

He thought she was ok. There was nothing abhorrent about her. She was as his mother often said about people ‘pleasant enough’.

With the dawn upon them he told her to get ready to leave. With a sense of urgency in his voice he conveyed the notion that had to move on and move on soon. He would look for a sheltered spot later in the morning so they could get out of the mid day heat.

****

7

Overnight he had lost his sense of direction. In this landscape everything looked the same. He knew they had been travelling west and so with the sun at their backs he set off hoping that he was going in the right direction.

After another two hours of steady walking he heard her say something that sounded to him like she was distressed. Looking back he saw her sitting on a rock, crying. He was sure she was saying she was tired and needed to rest. He was feeling the same way.

So nearby was a small rock outcrop with what appeared to be a piece of rock overhanging and providing a bit of shade for them. Here they rested, he gave her some of his water as she had drunk her own bottle during the morning.

He had a half bottle left. At no time that morning had he seen any sign of life. He was feeling desperate. He knew that panicking was not going to help in any way. It would be fruitless to continue and so he resolved to stay where they were until evening.

Most of the afternoon she slept on and off. The boy stayed awake his eyes scouring the horizon for anything that might give him hope. There was nothing. Apart from the heat and the flies.

As the second day came to an end he went out and climbed on top of the rock to see if there was anything in any direction.

Far away towards the west there was a light. It was very dull, at first he thought it was his eyes playing tricks on him. But as he stood there staring at it he could make out that it was indeed a light and he suddenly felt a sense of resolve and a sense of purpose.

He ran back to the girl waving his arms and calling to her that he had seen a light and they had best start heading towards it. She could sense his excitement and she too felt some hope again.

While he had gone she had begun to wonder whether or not she was going to get out of the situation she had found herself in. His excited return must have meant he had seen something, help, maybe rescue was close by.

****

8

They set off with an expectation that before long the ordeal would be over. The light appeared to be not too far away but the boy knew enough about the bush to know that lights and distance could be deceptive.

After two hours of urgent slog through the desert they appeared to be no closer. Still the light was a shimmering glow in the distance.

The boy felt a sense of desperation but quickly resolved not to allow panic to overtake him. They had to push ahead, they had to remain positive. Help was within reach.

The girl who had set off excitedly towards survival soon realised the awful truth of the matter.

The hurrying that they were engaged in resulted in her feet quickly getting sore, the blisters from the day before had burst again and she was feeling she was holding him back, that she was an even greater burden on him. There developed within her a feeling helplessness. She knew she couldn’t keep going at this pace. Her energy already at a low was ebbing away at a rapid rate.

Sustabdyti! (Stop) she called to him as she came across a rock big enough for her to sit on.

He stopped some ten paces ahead of her and looked back.

He could see that the girl was very fatigued, her steps had shortened and her eyes were betraying the hopelessness she was feeling.

Despite his initial thought of leaving her there he dismissed that idea with the notion that they were in this together. He was going to see them through.

He sat besides her sipping on the last of the water, having given her a last drink. His mind was racing with a lot of thoughts, none of them good. How was he going to get out them of this?

By now he could tell that the girl was exhausted and that it was going to take a lot longer than he ever imagined to get to safety. She not only looked fatigued beyond reason, she was crying softly, looking at him, hoping he expected that he would have some last miracle suggestion that would get them out of this mess.

Placing his arm around her shoulders he suggested she rest.

Man labai gaila aš negaliu eiti toliau. (I am so  sorry I cannot go any further).  She couldn’t help but feel the panic of one who saw a bad end coming.

She closed her eyes.

****

9

When she awoke she realised she was in a bed. It took her several minutes to gather some sense of her surroundings. She was in a hospital. Immediately a wave of relief swept over her.

A nurse came in and looked at her, telling her how lucky she was to be alive. Another day, she heard, and the conclusion to their trek would not have been so happy. Realising that she was hooked up to a series of tubes the girl lay there; she had no memory of how she had arrived at this place. The last thing she remembered was falling asleep in the desert and knowing her death would save the boy.

Her mouth was blistered; she knew her feet were as well, her skin felt hot, probably from sunburn and exposure. She needed to sleep.

****

10

The boy had noticed that the girl had fallen into a deep sleep. He had left her asleep believing sleep was a way she might be able to restore some of her energy levels. After a time she had not stirred and he was aware that her breathing was shallow and it was as if she was panting.

Partly from panic and from his own sense of survival he had lifted her onto his shoulder and headed off in the direction of the light. As she was a slight girl he found after a while he could negotiate the terrain and keep a steady pace, but he was also aware that his own physical strength was fading with every step.

In his mind he began to think of all the things he had in his life that were worth living for. He had parents, a brother and sister, though older than him they were close to him, there were his mates at the university who were all off at their various beaches surfing their hearts out during the holiday break. And there was the future. Life was a constant series of adventures and he didn’t want to miss out on any of them.

Thinking of the future and of what was dear to him distracted him from the pain in his legs from the load he was bearing.

Eventually he stopped. He needed to rest. His legs and feet hurt with a pain he could never have imagined. He set the sleeping girl down and placed his backpack under her head. She looked so peaceful; he began to fear that she might die before help could be found.

At that time he had no idea of where he was. He sat in the darkness with her sleeping at his side. His mind was steeling itself for his next effort. If need be he’d begin to count steps. So many steps before he would next stop. In his fatigued state one hundred steps seemed a likely number to aim for.

He lifted her once again onto his shoulder and set off. Quickly he found the pace he had walked at before returned to him and he was pleased with himself for being able to continue.

Near to seventy-five steps he stopped and listened. There was a sound. It sounded like a truck. He hastened his step in the direction he thought he could hear the sound.

****

11

Away to left there were two lights coming towards him. He made towards it. When he was within a couple of hundred yards he placed the girl on the ground and ran towards the noise that was by now loud and getting closer. Beneath his feet he felt the hardness of a bitumen road, he felt suddenly elated, all he could think to do was wave his arms like a madman, hoping the driver would see him and pull up.

There is no doubt that the driver was shocked to see a person out on this piece of road, in the middle of the night. To say that the place was a long way from anywhere was an understatement. The driver saw a boy, waving his arms, staggering towards him.

When he stopped the boy babbled something about a girl and pointed vaguely behind him before collapsing onto the roadway. The driver lifted the boy into the truck and then walked back down the road in search of another body. There was just enough light from his rig to see a small mound lying in the dirt some ten feet off the roadway.

The girl he placed in the cabin with the boy and drove to the nearest rest stop. The people there were surprised as well, as the day before word has come that there were two missing tourists in what most people believed was the opposite direction.

They were particularly concerned about the girl. Frantic phone calls soon had the air ambulance on its way. It arrived at dawn and by then the boy had regained consciousness and was equally worried about his foreign friend.

The air ambulance took them to the regional hospital where the girl was put on a series of drips; her blisters and sun burn treated.

For two days she had slept.

****

12

When next she awoke she opened her eyes to see the boy sitting in a chair across from her bed. He was looking at her, worried for her well being.

Once he had recovered he was allowed to sit by her bed while she slept. They had offered him a trip home but after calling his parents and telling them he was recovering well he had kept of vigil beside her bed.

For many hours he had watched her sleep. Despite his limited knowledge of this girl he felt a responsibility to see her through to recovery. If it meant sitting there for a week then he would.

He looked up and saw that she was awake. Looking over at him.

He stood up and went to the side of her bed. She smiled up at him and he smiled as he told her she was safe and that she was to stay in the hospital for a few days until she had recovered enough to go home.

Aš niekada padarė jį ten, jei jis nebuvo už jus. Aš žinau, tu nunešė mane, aš esu labai dėkingas.

(I would never have made it out there if it had not been for you. I know you carried me, I am very grateful.)

Thank you she said to him in English.

He was happy for her that her condition was improving. Her family had been informed and the boy had organised for her to ring her mother and let her know that she was safe.

He watched her crying on the phone to her mother. After a time she handed him the phone and he heard the voice of a woman say in broken English, like her daughter, that she was thankful that he had saved her daughter.

He sat down beside her. He was happy that she had been able to speak with her mother. He knew his own mother had been frantic about him and he was within driving distance.

Ar galite likti su manimi, kol aš esu gerai? (Can you stay with me until I am well?)

Unsure of what she had actually said, he took her hand and felt her fingers tighten onto his.

He smiled, her hand firmly within his.

Sometimes he thought, you don’t need words.

 

The End