Globusz^® Publishing 

he take off was easy. Helen hardly noticed the black void beneath the cliff edge, it had lost its frightening mystic and the demons had disappeared. But Helen was distracted as something troubled her. Peter decided to let her be and flew the glider in close to the cliff getting lift where he could, staying below the skyline now that the clouds had thinned. Occasionally they would see more lights on the road below, most making their way up the valley. The night breeze was freshening, blowing straight at the cliff and giving them plenty of lift. Peter, not wanting to fly above the skyline had to bleed off the extra lift and the only to do this was to go faster. He pulled back a little on the control bar and the wind whistled through the rigging of the glider, for several minutes they made excellent progress. Meanwhile Helen pondered something was still niggling in the back of her mind but she couldn’t quite grasp it. “Peter! They may not know we have the glider, but they certainly know in what direction we are heading, why are they putting soldiers, behind us, to chase us?”

“Yes! It’s odd, but the trucks were definitely going up the valley.”

They were both quiet for a short time before Peter, taking his eyes of the terrain, suddenly turned to Helen. “It’s a bluff! Most of the traffic that is, there are probably some soldiers going that way but they know we will be at least three, maybe four hours ahead of them. I would put the majority of my search force up ahead... quietly, and hope we would walk into them.”

“Of course, and they know we can see into the valley, so they show us the lights of the trucks. To give us a false sense of security, yet show they have the beaters coming up behind. I think they are trying to panic us, tire us out and make us careless. What do you think?”

“Yes! Something like that... If that’s right then they will be setting up the trap tonight to catch us during daylight. We will just have to fly on, straight over the top of them. I think it would be best to sacrifice some of this speed and gain height instead. We may show up against the skyline, but there’s a better chance of getting past their line if we go higher. I’ll try and fly in closer to mountain-side too, it may be a little bumpy but we will be less visible.”

Peter pushed forward on the control, the wind in their faces dropped and the glider noticeably slowed, at the same time he started drifting off to the right ever closer to the slope. They found more lift and as the glider climbed up towards the ridge it started bucking as they came into more turbulent air. Occasionally they drifted over the ridge but this caused them to lose the rising air currents and they then had to dive back again over the edge. Peter concentrated on the flying whilst Helen was staring ahead, looking out for obstructions when she saw a large shoulder of the rock face projecting upwards and outwards into the valley.

She pointed it out to him. “It appears to be right in our path; do we go around it or over? Either way we are going to be very visible from below.”

“Right! I see it... I think we will try and go behind; it shouldn't be very far to the cliff edge on the other side, that way we will be out of sight from the valley. Get ready though we may have to change course at the last moment.”

They had enough height it appeared but flying behind the rock the glider encountered a down draft which forced them lower. Almost halfway across they were nearly brushing the tops of the bushes and Peter was thinking about landing. “Best get your feet down we may have to land and walk a few yards.” He was looking round for a suitable spot to land when away to their right they both saw the bouncing single headlight of a vehicle coming towards them. Peter pulled back slightly on the control bar; they gained speed but sank even lower, flying between some of the taller bushes. “Hold tight! We have to try for it.” he muttered in a loud whisper.

Helen saw the shrubbery dashing past only feet below her and closed her eyes but that was much worse and she immediately opened them again. They were now so low that odd leaves and twigs clutched at the control bar, brushed a wing, then another, and then there was a taller bush right in front. She knew they were going to crash, it was much too late to land, too late to get her feet forward, she raised a hand to cover her face, bracing her other arm on the control bar. At that moment Peter pushed forward, met the extra resistance and pushed harder. The glider popped up, but not quite enough, as the control bar smashed through the top of the bush, Peter saw a flash of a headlight again out of the corner of his eye. When the control bar hit the bush it was as if the hang-glider had been tripped up, the bar was pushed back and the glider dived at the ground beyond the bush.

But! There was no ground there for them to hit, that last bush had been on the very edge. They were out in clear air, over the edge of the cliff, and going down at a steep angle, their speed increasing alarmingly. Helen sucked in her breath as Peter pushed forward gently and to accompanying groans from various bamboo struts and guys, managed to level out. As soon as the speed dropped off he turned in again towards the slope. Neither had said a word as Helen looked back in time to see the headlight joined by a second one near the cliff edge. “Motorbikes! That was too close for comfort... Scramble bikes I bet, two of them. They’ll be soldiers on scramble bikes, like we saw when we were in the truck going to the prison. I hope they don’t shine their headlights this way.”

“That’s okay! We’re too far away now. But that was close back there; I hope they didn’t get a good look and recognise us for what we are. It would make things a lot more difficult, if not impossible. Who would have thought they would get the whole army out for two escaped prisoners?”

“Where did they come from Peter? We have only seen the one road the whole way we’ve come, and that wasn’t much of a road. So where did they come from and what were they doing there?”

“My guess is they are the advance guard of a screen come up the mountain to cut us off. We were lucky, if they had got onto the top of that rock ten minutes earlier they couldn’t have failed to see us and recognised the hang-glider.”

They were still flying close to the edge and making good progress, the breeze was holding and they managed to regain some height. However the rain earlier had cooled the air, the temperature had dropped. After getting jeans and trousers wet through with the rain, then flying fast and now the aftermath from all the excitement, they were getting very cold. They both had scratches on hands and arms, and both were tired. Helen began to shiver. “Peter... I’m cold, if I don’t get exercise soon and get warmed up I’m going to catch a chill,” then added lamely, “we could have a bite to eat as well.”

“Yes! I’m cold too, and we won’t warm up whilst flying. It would be nice to put more distance between us and those bikes but I think you’re right, we’ll try and land on the top of the ridge, then quickly pack up and walk. We should be okay. I’ve not seen any more lights along the ridge. No one is going to move without lights.” Conveniently forgetting that is precisely what he was proposing they should do. “Keep a lookout for a decent landing point will you?” They flew on for several more minutes; Helen growing colder, shivered even more. Now they were flying near the top of the ridge and Peter was beginning to get desperate as he felt her shivers. At last he saw a small area with no trees, but well behind the ridge, if he once tried for it they were committed; there would be no rising air currents there to allow him to fly back. He made the decision. “There on our right. It’s a smell area with no trees. There will probably be bushes but I will drop us in, a bit like we did on the road... Get your feet clear now.”

The glider swooped down to the right, with the wind behind them now they were going very fast over the ground and went past the clearing before Peter swung the glider round to line up for the landing. “It’s water, Peter I can see the moon reflecting of the surface.”

“Sorry! Too late we haven’t any lift; it can’t be too deep though.” They were coming in much slower now as he crossed his fingers hoping the water was shallow. Both hands on the control bar gripped tight, he was tense as he pushed forward. Too much! And the glider climbed, hesitated then settled. It was a bad landing, a drop of ten feet straight down into two feet of cold water, but they could walk away from it. “Hold it up, keep the sail up out of the water; we don’t want to get it wet any more. Walk straight ahead to that small bush, it looks drier over there.”

* * *

It took them an hour too dismantle and pack the glider, trying to keep the sail as dry as possible, whilst splashing around in the shallows, much to the annoyance of the local frog population. They were both getting bitten by flying insects. Peter was annoyed because Helen had dropped the front end of the glider and it had got wet. Helen, wet up to her thighs, cold throughout, and tired was utterly fed up. “For heaven's sake let’s get out of this damn swamp that you landed us in. If we get walking I may at least get some feeling back in my feet.”

Peter, about to make a sharp response, bit his tongue and held back. It was no use making things any worse; he could understand how she felt as it was exactly how he felt. “Right! I’m ready so let’s start walking; I think it would be wise to keep away from that ridge for a while. We’ll go to our right, that way we will have this swamp between us and the edge that we have been following. If there are any more motorbikes or troops about I don’t think they will want to cross this water.”

Helen immediately took the lead, leaving the small ‘island’ that they were on, and set of splashing through the water towards the forest, soon she was wading up to her knees in water. They hoisted the glider onto their shoulders and continued, the water reaching Helens waist before eventually she climbed out onto higher ground near the edge of the trees. After only ten minutes they had begun to warm up, the humidity was high and shortly Helen was running with sweat and feeling very uncomfortable. “How about stopping for a bit and drying ourselves off? My boots are still full of water.” She asked.

“You’ve only been walking for a few minutes, and now, you want to stop.”

“We could have a piece of that chicken and a drink of water we need to drink plenty with this humidity.” The offer of food always swung the argument.

“All right, for something to eat and drink we can have five minutes. I could do with emptying the water out of my boots too.”

First thing after dropping the glider was to remove their boots and pour out the water. But getting them dry inside was impossible. Fortunately they both had spare socks which they changed into before replacing their boots. “That’s much better, my feet feel as if they belong to me again,” said Helen digging into her back pack for the chicken. She still felt very wet, her jeans were wet through and sticking to her thighs and her shirt was soaked but for the moment her feet felt dry.

The chicken legs disappeared along with some bread and cheese and half a bottle of water before they declared themselves fit and ready to go. Half an hour later, half an hour of skirting the bog, of climbing over bushes and walking into trees and they were ready for another break. In an attempt to keep out of the water they had to go deeper into the forest and here there was no breeze. They had been using the machete sparingly both to avoid leaving a trail and to keep the noise down, but this meant walking around every small bush and obstruction. They were soon dead-beat and had no idea how far they had walked. Yet another stop for water and a rest brought a lightening of the sky which heralded the dawn of a new day. With it came the usual dawn chorus of screeching monkeys and squabbling macaws to drown out the croak of the frogs. Another hour of walking and the sun lazily shone through the damp mist as the rain forest and near by bog began to steam. During the night it had been humid but soon they were walking through a steam room. Sweat ran down their foreheads and into their eyes, it dripped from nose and chin as the damp still air hung around them. Helen’s head was bowed, shoulders rounded and her knees were bent as she staggered onward. Peter, in no better shape, followed. As long as she kept going he would also. He was hoping for a clearing, or any sort of break in the forest so they could get a breath of air. In the end it was Helen who stopped first as her knees buckled and she fell to the ground, the glider dropping into the undergrowth beside her. Peter lowered his end and knelt beside her, he took the carry straps of her shoulders as he turned her over. Her eyes were closed and she was nearly unconscious. Quickly he found the water bottle and poured a little over her face then into her mouth, her eyes flicked open and she looked around without comprehension. It was only after putting an arm round her neck and getting her to sit up did she realise where she was.

“I’m sorry Peter, I must have tripped,” she mumbled, as she started to get up.

“No! Stay there for a while, there’s no rush. It’s time for a rest. This place is as good as any.”

They sat together on the ground leaning against a tree, the ground beneath them wet and boggy which they hardly noticed. Helen closed her eyes and as her head fell forward she dozed. Peter watched her with envy; he was worried but couldn’t sleep as his thoughts wandered. ‘Helen looks all in; she can’t continue for much longer in this part of the forest, it’s too damp and the going’s too heavy. Neither can I for that matter, this is worse than climbing,’ he thought. They had both been on short rations for far too long and it was beginning to tell. ‘We’re in a predicament, there’s no rise, no place to take of from. In this situation the glider is an encumbrance we could do without. We appear to be in a shallow depression between the higher mountains some distance away on the right and the ridge along the edge of the valley that we’ve had been flying.’ He had been pondering on they’re options for some time. The choice was between going to the higher mountains to get height so they could fly tonight or move to their left and take a chance on meeting other soldiers near the edge of the valley. He thought this through without making a decision before his eyes eventually closed as he too was overcome with weariness.

Peter awoke slowly; there was no sudden jerk, just a vague feeling of unease as he forced his eyes open, what was it that had awakened him? At first he didn’t see it but rather felt it. The slight movement between his legs caused his heart to miss a beat, a thin green and yellow snake was nestling there enjoying the extra warmth. Peter froze and stopped breathing. ‘Go away, slither off and don’t stay there.’ His prayers weren’t answered as he took another breath before nudging Helen.

No response!

He nudged her again, harder!

No response!

He pushed her and she fell over before coming awake.

“Helen wake up. For gods sake wake up.”

“Ugh! What was that for? Couldn’t you just give me a shake, you don’t have to push me over.” as she rubbed at her eyes.

“Look! Between my legs, a f-----g snake.”

“Oh! Don’t be so melodramatic, it is getting familiar though.” She said, retreating. “What type is it? Is it dangerous do you think?”

“Never mind what type it is, they’re all bloody dangerous around here. Just get rid of it.”

Slowly Helen crawled away and got to her feet, the snake didn’t move; it was quite warm and comfortable. “How Peter? What do you want me to do?”

“Get a stick, a long one and see if you can encourage it to move.”

She hunted around for a moment before he heard the sound of chopping with the machete. Helen came back, a two metre length of a branch in her hand. “Now stay still a moment.”

“Stay still! What the hell do you expect me to do?”

She didn’t bother to answer as she carefully pushed the end of the branch down between Peter’s crutch and the snake then taking a firm grip on the branch suddenly flicked it away from him. The snake flew through the air and landed several yards away. Peter jumped to his feet, his whole body shaking, as the snake slithered into the bushes.

It was several moments before he stopped shaking and got him self under control, he put his arms around Helen. “My saviour. Thanks! I’ve never been so scared in my life before. Snakes! I hate them.” He gave a last shudder then took a deep breath as they stepped apart but still holding hands he faced her. “Right I’ve been thinking, we have three options, we can go right, higher up into the mountains, but then we will have to fly back to the valley tonight, assuming we can get enough height. Two! We can go left towards the cliff edge overlooking the valley but that means wading through that swap again. Also we have more chance of meeting any soldiers, sent to cut us of.”

“You think those on the motorbikes were just the advance guard?”

“Yes! I think they were sent on ahead, possibly to that rock so they could spy out the land.”

“And the third option? You said three and I suppose that is to continue straight on.”

“Yes! We could carry on and then work our way left towards the valley in the evening, so we could fly again tonight. But that would be real hard work Helen, the rain forest here is difficult walking to say the least.”

“Well I don’t fancy the high mountains, they’re too far away. I don’t fancy going through that swamp again either, so my vote is to keep straight on.”

“Okay! It’s unanimous we go straight on. We’ll stop and rest properly when we find some where dry.”

“If we find somewhere dry, and where there aren’t any snakes.”

This last comment caused Peter to shudder as he took another sip of water. They set of, Peter in the lead now swinging the machete occasionally as he imagined chopping the heads of all the snakes. The sun climbed higher and burnt of the mist, they were able to make better progress. All the time Peter was looking for a place to rest and make camp, they had enough food, and water wasn’t an immediate problem. They would need to get more water tonight or early tomorrow though. There were however no clearings, and no dry areas, all their stops had been taken whilst standing. The sips of water got less and less as the level in the water bottles went down. It was getting towards noon, the rest periods were getting longer and the periods between them shorter whilst the swamp to their left was getting deeper. After one of these stops Peter turned half right away from the swamp towards slightly higher ground, only to find a short time later the ground falling away in front of him. Resigned to arrive back at the swamp once again he was pleasantly surprised to find the trees thinning, and glistening through the leaves was the surface of a lake. Climbing over fallen trees they stopped at the edge of the forest and lowering the glider to the ground. Both stretched and offloaded their back packs before parting the last of the shrubbery and cautiously peering out over the water.

Before them was a short shingle bank then the surface of the lake with not a ripple to disturb its surface and no breeze to move the leaves on the trees. The lake stretched away to their right for several miles reflecting a perfect picture of the sky and mountains in every detail. Directly across from them, the other shore covered in green forest, rose out of the water about a mile away, and away to their left the lake disappeared behind a promontory of green shrubbery.

Helen was the first to break the silence. “Doesn’t it look beautiful, so peaceful, even the noise from the forest behind us seems subdued?”

“Yes! It does look nice and very exposed... this must be the lake behind the dam, and if we go round that headland to our left I bet we can see the dam.” Peter bent down put a hand in the water and after first smelling it took a sip. “It tastes okay; I suppose it should be in a lake this size, we won’t be short of water for a while... Come on Helen, before we rest we’d better reconnoitre. Let’s walk to the end of that promontory and have a look... We have to know how secure we are here.”

“How secure we are, you mean there may be soldiers on the lake or the helicopter?” She replied, then bending down proceeded to make a small cairn of stones. Adding in reply to Peters raised eyebrows. “Just a marker to tell us where the glider is, we had best take our back packs though.”

They set of together along the shore line keeping close to the cover of the forest and soon arrived near the end of the promontory. Then walking slowly and peering through the edge of the forest they continued until Peter stopped when the far edge of the dam came into view about two miles away. They lay down and crawled forward whilst keeping in the shade under overhanging leaves. Eventually a thin line could be seen on top of the water that was the rim of the dam, broken in the middle by a small concrete building with one window facing towards them. On the rim of the dam they could see several figures walking to and fro. “Peter they have soldiers guarding the dam. Why put a guard on it? Do they expect us to do some damage to it do you think?”

“No I don’t think they are guarding it, the soldiers are all walking to the east. I think they have come up in the cable car and are walking over the dam, along the cliff edge towards where we saw the motorbikes last night... That’s going to make things a bit difficult though, we can’t cross the dam, we can’t get to the cliff edge to fly and we haven't got enough height here. That means we will have to walk to the higher mountains behind us.” He turned on one elbow and looked back at the mountain peaks. “That’s going to cost us at least a day.”

Helen turned and looked first at the mountain peaks then at the smooth mercury surface of the lake. “Why don’t we just swim across? You can swim can’t you? If we wait until dark it shouldn’t take long, there won’t be any currents. What about it?”

He glanced at the water then looked at her, a big smile on his face. “Yes I can swim. That’s a good idea... But the glider would get wet and we don’t want to leave it behind... We’ll have to build... a raft, that's it! ... Build a raft for the glider and our packs. Then as you said we can swim across pushing the raft... Are you okay pushing the raft?”

“Yes, no problem swimming that distance with a raft, what’s the temperature like?”

“Oh! That’s Okay, it’s quite reasonable, mostly water from the forest with only a little melt water from those peaks. It felt warm enough before. Right lets get back to the glider, no sudden movements, just crawl back slowly until we are out of sight.”

It didn’t take long to reach the cairn of stones and shortly they began to assemble the raft from the fallen trees that had been cleared to make the lake. These were soon tied together with vines and creepers, as Peter pointed out it didn’t need to be strong, only enough to support the glider until they got to the far shore. It was mid afternoon before everything was completed with the raft drawn back beneath the over hanging forest they could now relax, eat, drink and sleep. Sleep was what they both needed the most, so it wasn’t long before they were both curled up lying beside the raft beneath the damp blankets. They were fed, watered and relatively comfortable, they slept.

* * *

Fidel, down in the valley, was as tired having only slept for four hours. He walked up and down, looking out the window, now in the middle of the morning he was expecting some news from his specials. “Give them a call on the radio, can they see anything? Make sure they are awake.”

The scouts lying quietly on the top of the rocky knoll, their motorbikes well hidden on the rear slope were waiting for the escapees to come walking along the ridge towards them. But nothing moved, except for the traffic on the road in the valley, nothing disturbed the peace. They had a pair of binoculars, which they were careful to keep out of the sun and whilst one searched along the ridge and the surrounding forest the other rested.

The small hand held radio by his side squawked and a lazy arm reached over, picking it up with a sigh. Identities were exchanged followed by the inevitable question... “No nothing! No sign of anything. No flutter of frightened birds. Nothing to report.”...- “Yes we have an excellent view, we can see for miles along the ridge of the valley... in both directions.”... “I know they won’t be behind us, I was just explaining our vantage point.”... “Yes we will keep a good lookout.” He tossed the radio to one side, lay back and closed his eyes, his turn in ten minutes.

Fidel stopped by the table and leant over the map once again. He didn’t need to look at it again. He could picture it easily. ‘They were there, fresh and well fed at midday yesterday; they were there on that ridge just after sunset when we lost the dog... Slow! They must have stopped for a siesta. Now travelling at a good pace without stopping they should be at the knoll by midday, assume four hours sleep and that makes it late afternoon.’ He walked outside and checked his mobile, a poor signal and probably the last station along this lousy valley. He speed dialled Noberto’s direct line.

Pleasantries were exchanged before he explained where he was. “We have the army beaters pushing from behind and the specials have set a trap for them on el Castillo botas, I expect to have them before nightfall.”

“You’re sure Fidel they have eluded you before and have managed to get a long way down that valley.”

“Noberto trust me, we have them boxed in, the valley on one side the forest and mountains the other and the army behind them. He cannot keep on going. He has to be dragging that woman along. They must need sleep and rest by now, and my men are fresh.”

“I hope you’re right Fidel, I hope you’re right. The other matter, the dam, is it in hand?”

“Si! Noberto everything is taken care of. The first part starts tonight.”