Calypso's Mast

Chapter 11 - Separated

By the time he had finished gutting and skinning the snake, their clothes were dry. He looked at his watch.

8:00pm.

He cut a section of the snake's body into portions and hung it up over the fire to smoke the flesh.

"Obviously I can't take the whole thing but I can take a few kilos to help get out of the devastation zone and leave the rest for you to eat while I'm gone. Snake is a surprisingly sweet flesh. You will like the taste of this, especially when it is smoked.

Pitcher was worried.

"What do we do if another snake or some other dangerous creature comes in here and you are away?" she asked.

Banning paused and looked at Suzi, lying by the fire. Tears came to his eyes again.

"I was going to leave my little girl here to look after you, but everything's changed now. Maybe we should all go out together. We can take it a little slower. We have some food to get us started. But as you said, you have no shoes and not much in the way of clothing to protect you."

There was a pause.

"How about we walk to the beach from here and then we walk south toward Lockhart River along the beaches?" he said.

O'Grady's face lit up.

"I can handle that. Walking along the beach is a great idea."

Pitcher was a little more cautious. "The sand is probably going to be hot in the middle of the day."

"It won't be hard on our feet and we should find some shelter during the heat of the day and walk in the early morning and late afternoon," said O'Grady.

"That could work," said Banning. "I'm game if you two are up for it. That will be quicker than pushing through the bush."

They both nodded.

"Let's get packed and get some sleep. We need to be out of here at dawn," he said.

Banning had a duffle bag of tools in the toolbox, so he emptied the tools out and filled it with survival equipment – smoked snake, smoked fish, water. Then he prepared his bow and other essential items from amongst the collection he took from out of the toolbox.

Once the preparations were complete, Banning gathered up Suzi and took her outside in the dark. He was gone for about an hour. When he came back, he dragged the rest of the snake's body outside and down the hill. After that, he stoked the fire and settled back against the cavern wall to snooze and wait for dawn. Pitcher came down and sat by his right side and O'Grady sat on his left.

They were all silent, sombre, succumbing to the hypnotic gaze of the fire. After a while both of the women had shut their eyes and were breathing slow and deep, leaning back against the wall. O'Grady's head would nod and she would pick it up and then slowly nod off and then jerk again, trying not to fall over. Pitcher went to sleep on Banning's shoulder and began snoring in his ear. He sighed and tried to sleep but it was an uphill battle. After a while she stirred, stretched out a little more and flung an arm across his body before going back to her snoring. O'Grady eventually fell over sideways from her seated position and lay awkwardly, sleeping soundly, where she fell.

It was hours before Banning finally slept. He spent a lot of the time thinking about Suzi and the events of the past few days. When he awoke, he was stretched out on the ground, O'Grady was asleep on her back, on the ground, using his thigh for a pillow and Pitcher had her head resting in his belly. Both were still asleep. The fire had burned out and he was feeling a bit cold. He looked at his watch – time to go.