Calypso's Mast

Chapter 14 - Escaping South

The rain woke up Banning. Pitcher was already sitting up. The shelter wasn't weatherproof so they were both getting wet. It was late and the light was fading fast.

"Great," he said. "This will top up our drinking water."

He climbed out of the shelter and looked around carefully listening. After a few moments he gathered up some palm fronds, stripped them with his knife and skilfully wove them into a mat about a metre square. Then he walked out into the open with it along with the water bottle, and funnelled the captured water into it by folding two of the opposite corners up slightly.

"While I fill the bottle," he said, "would you like to dismantle the shelter and spread the leaves around so that it looks like no one was here? Let's not give them any more clues than we really have to,  about what we are doing."

She broke do the little shelter and randomly distributed the leaves around the area. By then the water bottle was full again and they were both drenched. It wouldn't fool a skilled tracker but their pursuers weren't anything like that.

Banning looked up at the dark sky.

"It's hard to say how long it is going to rain for. If we make a shelter and wait, we will likely run out of food," he said. "On top of that, the bad guys will have a greater chance of finding us. Are you going to be okay to walk?"

"Absolutely!" she said. "Let's put some distance between us and them."

The rain was warm and drizzled steadily.

"We might be better off carrying our clothes and walking in our swimmers so that we minimise any chance of chaffing," he said.

She nodded and stripped down to her bikini and folded up the shirts and towel to carry. He took off his shirt and pants and just left his briefs and boots still on. 

"My, my, my..." she whispered to herself in awe, admiring his good form. His wedged-shape torso rippled with each movement of his arms.

The sun was completely gone and everything was dark.

"This will give us a nice clean-up as well," he said as he shoved the clothes into the bag. "The main rule for the journey is absolutely no light. Even a match can be seen for miles in a place like this. Are you all good?"

"Yes." She thought he looked pretty sexy in briefs and boots, but wisely said nothing about it.

"Fantastic. Let's go."

The walked down to the beach. Banning picked up a dead palm frond and swept the sand behind them to cover their tracks as they walked down toward the water. When he was finished, he threw the branch into the ocean.

They slowly and steadily walked south about three metres from the water's edge. There was hardly a whisper, just a gentle lapping of wavelets on the sand. The sea was calm. There was no breeze and a steady drizzle continued. Banning stopped and looked carefully at the ocean for a long moment.

"I'm surprised at how much we can actually see," said Pitcher.

"Your eyes adjust," he said. "I think the tide's heading out. That's ideal because by about midnight it will be low tide and by dawn, it should be high tide which will erase all our tracks."

"Good. Do you think they will look for us at night?"

"No, I don't think so. It takes a lot of concentration to fly in the dark and even more to be able to look down and pick things out. I reckon they will quickly realise that it's futile. Besides, the microlight is noisy. We'll be able to hear them coming and get ourselves concealed well before they get anywhere near us."