Survival Instinct

                Anish, Ursula, Heather and Larry had met as members of Model UN at New York University.  After they graduated, they kept in contact and maintained their friendship.  One thing that bonded them the most was that they all loved to travel and see new places.  When they first met, Larry had a large crush on Heather.  She reciprocated in the beginning until Larry blew his chance.  Although Larry always regretted his blowing it, he was able to keep his feelings in check when around Heather and realized his role.  Due to scheduling conflicts, the four of them had never actually been on a trip together since they roomed together at a Model UN conference in Philadelphia six years ago. 

Larry and Ursula had a goal to see a new country every year.  Since Ursula was extremely well traveled, she normally made the plans on which country would be seen, and Larry, having never been there, would do everything in his power to go along.  Of the three, Larry kept in contact with Ursula the most as she would invite him to movies when she was in town.  They spoke of traveling often, this is why it was no surprise when Ursula said, “I’m thinking about planning a trip to Egypt.” 

“Awesome, when?”

“Next March, it won’t be as hot, and I’m going to try to get Anish and Heather to come as well.”

“Sounds good to me.”

Ursula being the planner of everyone, made the phone calls and for once, all four of them found a couple weeks they would be able to go to Egypt.  It had always been a goal of Larry’s to see the pyramids, and he was ecstatic that he was going to get the chance.  The only person he had known that had been to Egypt was his aunt, who said to never go with a woman because the men there love white women and have no trepidation to go up and touch them given that women are inferior in Egyptian culture.  Although Heather was Southern Italian, and Ursula half Peruvian and Polish, they were white by Egyptian standards.  Larry wasn’t going to voice these concerns, however, for he didn’t want to, nor thought he could if he did, dissuade them from going and instilling unnecessary fear was foolish.  His aunt portrayed to him that when they take you to the desert on the camel, they stop the camel and force you to give them more money if you want them to take you back.  Larry didn’t mind this since Egyptian currency was so cheap it probably would come out to like a dollar.

At last the time came to go to Egypt.  They all had prepared differently as Ursula and Heather got vaccinated and brought along pills while Anish and Larry tried nothing.  Anish was Indian and had lived in India for a year, so didn’t believe it necessary and Larry was never one to fear disease.  Anish tried to coax him into it, especially since when Larry visited him in India, Larry became sick for a day.  Larry argued that he was over it after a night’s rest, so it was no big deal.  They boarded the plane and headed off to Egypt.  Since Ursula had to travel a lot for work, she had built up an obscene amount of hotel points, which meant they would be enjoying free hotels while in Cairo.  Their first day, they took it easy and hung around the hotel before going around the city.  They were planning to see the pyramids the next day bright and early.  Although they offered rides in dune buggies, the four of them wanted the experience of riding on a camel.  Larry took to it pretty easily, surprisingly finding it not much different from riding a donkey, which he was used to from his many trips to Greece.  They all agreed that the pyramids were an awesome sight.  They took a lot of pictures and then caught a camel back.  Just as Larry’s aunt warned, the guides stopped periodically looking for tips or else he’d leave them in the desert.  Looking all around, they saw nothing but sand so obliged.  The guide did his part to make them feel foolish, for he’d go over one sand bar and the lights of the city could clearly be seen again.  Heather and Ursula pretended that Larry and Anish were their boyfriends to keep the men at bay.  It worked somewhat but they still came frequently enough to be annoying. 

When the four of them arrived back to the road, they got off their camel and headed toward the taxi stand back to their hotel.  As they were walking, however, a camel came running by and an Egyptian, in one swift smooth motion, yanked Heather by the arm and bent her over the top of the camel face down.  He kept one hand on the reigns and the other on the back of Heather’s neck holding her down and heading toward the desert.  Larry acted upon impulse and ran to the nearest camel shoved the owner out of the way grabbing the stick he uses to hit the camel, pushed up onto the camel and chased after Heather and her kidnapper.  Anish and Ursula were too shocked to act and by the time the moment set in, Larry and Heather were out of sight.  All they could do was hope they’d see their friends again.  Larry saw the kidnapper’s camel and guided his camel after it.

The kidnapper had slowed down once he was out of sight, but upon seeing a white man on a charging camel, he knew it was for him and sped up again.  It was rather difficult to go at full speed while having only one hand on the reigns and the other on his prize girl.  At first, he was disappointed that she gave up resisting so easily, but now that he had to worry about his pursuer, he was glad.  She would probably resist once he got back to his hut where he would add her to his harem.  Then he would have the satisfaction of breaking in a western infidel.  Although he only had one arm, the kidnapper believed he could still outrun the white man behind him. 

Larry was getting frustrated as he couldn’t seem to get any closer to the kidnapper.  He knew that if he hit the camel too much, it could turn against him and stubbornly refuse to go anywhere.  He wished there was some way he could slow the other camel down.  It occurred to him that Heather was bent over the camel thus may not know that there was hope to be saved.  He decided to yell and hope Heather could distract the man long enough for Larry to catch up.  Larry always carried two knives on him and today was no exception.  One was a spring assisted blade, the other a regular three inch blade.  They clipped nicely to his waist so when security checked his pockets, they never found anything.  As for the plane, he’d check them in his luggage where bladed weapons were allowed.  He yelled, “Heather, resist!”

At the sound of hearing her name, Heather turned her head but all she could see was sand and camel legs.  She decided that she’d at least struggle in case her ears weren’t deceiving her.  She squirmed her upper body trying to get out of the man’s grip on her neck.  She felt an elbow in her back but she was undeterred as she swung her arm into his side.  The kidnapper yanked on her hair and Heather’s upper body was raised as she remained still.  Since she was being lifted, she saw the other camel headed her way with Larry on it.  The image was cut short as the kidnapper backhanded her across the face with his reigned hand before grabbing onto the reigns again.

Larry was happy to see that Heather had heard him.  She was resisting and as she was fighting, he was closing the gap.  The kidnapper had half a camel length lead on him when he vividly saw him slap Heather across the face.  Heather went back over the camel still from the blow.  When the kidnapper grabbed the reigns again, his camel slowed for a split second giving Larry the time to pull even.  He figured that this was his only chance at getting Heather.  The longer the chase, the harder it would be to get back.  He had been slipping from his camel slightly and didn’t think he’d beat an Egyptian in a camel race.  He swung his leg over toward the kidnapper’s camel and braced himself before leaping at the Egyptian.  He had a direct hit to the Egyptian’s side knocking him off his camel, but the Egyptian had the wherewithal to grab Heather as well.  Heather flipped before slamming onto her back on the sand and Larry landed on top of the Egyptian having completed his tackle.  Since the Egyptian broke Larry’s fall, he recovered from the fall quicker, giving him time to draw his spring assisted blade and slit the kidnapper’s throat.  Heather made her way to her feet out of pure adrenaline filled anger, walked over to Larry who was standing over the Egyptian and grabbed his fist holding the knife stopping Larry from retracting it.  She said, “Give me that.”

Larry did and Heather stabbed the Egyptian repeatedly in the midsection before ending it with a blow to the groin.  She started breathing heavily, dropped the knife and went to all fours panting from relief.  Larry had been looking around trying to find something he could spot with so as to avoid walking in circles when he inevitably had to try to walk back.  Both camels kept running after Larry’s leap so they were all alone.  The only thing he knew about the desert was what he saw on Man vs. Wild when Bear Grylls went to the Sahara.  Ironically, he was in the Sahara now too, and hoped he remembered enough of the survival tips to get out alive.  He did take Bear’s advice and brought a flint stick with him.  He went over to Heather satisfied that she had gotten her revenge out of her system.  Now, it was time to try to make it back.  He picked up his knife, closed it, and clipped it back to his waist.  He held Heather’s arms in his hands and rubbed them guiding her up.  Heather stood and hugged Larry tightly.  Larry enjoyed it knowing that it wouldn’t last the second reality set in that they were stranded in the desert.  By no means was the danger over.  Heather let go of Larry and looked around but only saw sand, “Where’s the camels?” she asked.

“They ran away.”

“WHAT!”

“Heather, calm down, it’s not going to help to get pissed right now.”

“Well, we’re stranded in the mother fucking desert, you let the camels get away, how the fuck am I to remain calm?!”

Larry thought how funny it was how things change.  Heather had gone from hugging him in gratitude for rescuing her to yelling at him for not having the wherewithal to save her and keep the camel.  He decided not to argue this point though.  He focused on the task at hand and said, “Okay, first thing we need to do is cover our heads.  The kidnapper’s shirt will do, it’s already wet.  You can take his turban or his pants. 

Heather took one look at the bloody clothes and said, “umm, I have a shirt, it’s definitely hot enough that I can go topless, I’m sure you wouldn’t mind that.”

Larry stared at Heather with disdain and said rather forcefully, “Heather, this is the desert, debilitating and extreme heat, in order to survive out here, you have to wrap your head, the turbans and veils aren’t just for religious purposes, but it’s a survival technique as well.  When you have unlimited water the way we can just buy it back in the city or the states, not as necessary, but we don’t know how long we’ll be out here, so we need to take all the precautions we can.  You can use your shirt, but you need to wet it.  How do you propose to do that?  Please don’t say dump water on it, considering you kind of need that to drink.”

“So you’re using his blood?”

“Most logical solution”

“Also psychotic, what would you have done if he wasn’t here?”

“Pee”

“ewww”

“Yea, if you keep that mentality, you probably won’t make it out of here alive.”

“So why don’t I just pee on my shirt.”

“Go ahead, it’s a good idea if you prefer it over blood.”

Larry removed the kidnapper’s blood stained shirt and wrapped it around his head.  He also took his turban and pants and wrapped it around his waist.  He found a couple sticks and gave one to Heather.  Heather ended up peeing on her shirt and wrapping it around her head revolted.  When she did, she took a large sip from her water bottle and offered it to Larry.  Larry had a 2 liter bottle of lemonade since he didn’t drink water.  He turned down the water and said, “We should preserve that, take a small sip but don’t swallow, you want to keep your mouth moist.  Try to hold it as long as possible as we walk.”

“How do you happen to know all this?”

Larry knew this question was coming and he wished he had a better answer, but he had to tell her the truth, “I watch Man vs. Wild and I remember what he did when he was in the Sahara.”

Heather gave him a doubtful look and said, “Convincing” and started walking off.

Larry noticed her take a small sip and he had a sneaking suspicion that she didn’t swallow.  Larry took a small sip of his lemonade and kept it in his mouth and walked after Heather.  He knew that if you didn’t spot, you ran the risk of walking in circles.  Bear never fully explained just how you spot in the middle of the desert, but he looked off in the desert and seemed to make out a tree in the distance.  He knew how the desert can lead to mirages and things are often times further than they seemed or not there at all.  The thing people commonly mistook about mirages, however, was that they really weren’t a figment of the imagination as they have been photographed.  It is merely the way your brain processes the visual cues that creates them, but the landmark doesn’t move and is worthy of a spot.  He decided to head for the tree, not telling Heather of his plan to try to see if she veered off the straight course the way it was predicted one would.  The first time she did, Larry pointed out his tree and she agreed to go after it.  Heather had brought suntan lotion with her and they agreed to apply some every couple of hours.  After a while of walking, Larry spotted a scorpion, Heather got scared, but Larry used his stick to pin down the tail.  He whipped out his knife and cut off the stinger.  He had seen Bear Grylls eat many scorpions and the fact that he loved was that every species was edible; this took the guesswork out of it.  Larry already decided he’d steer clear of plants because he didn’t trust his ability to tell poisonous ones from edible ones.  He turned to Heather and said, “You want the first scorpion?”

“ummm no.”

Larry shrugged his shoulders, lifted the scorpion up and bit down hard on it hoping it wouldn’t use his pincers to grab his tongue.  He wouldn’t say it was the best meal he ever had, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as Bear made it seem on the show.  Heather was repulsed but Larry just inserted another mouthful of lemonade and went off.  When they would go over sand dunes, Larry taught her the trick to run down them by leaning back and taking long strides.  Since getting up took up a great deal of energy as you slid down with every step you took, this was a small reward for the effort.  When Heather tried to do it slowly, she slipped and tumbled down and decided Larry may know more than she gave him credit for. 

As they walked further, Heather jumped and clung on to Larry frantically saying, “Snake, snake, holy shit, there’s a snake.”

Larry couldn’t identify it, but snakes were edible.  He motioned Heather behind him with his arm and brandished the stick at the snake, which lunged at it baring its fangs.  Larry threw his bottle to the side of the snake and watched it strike after it leaving it horizontal to Larry.  Larry pinned the head down with his stick, took out his knife and stabbed the back of the snake’s head and cut it off.  He then buried the head, since the venom remained even after a snake’s death.  He wrapped the snake around his neck and smiled at Heather who had taken a couple steps back the moment she realized he was engaging the snake.  This time, she was not repulsed; she was famished and asked, “Can we eat that?”

Larry smiled, “Yes, but we should get out of the sun first, honestly, you should eat the next bug we see, they have eight times more protein than a steak.”

Heather took a deep breath.  She was famished, weak and exhausted, and suddenly bugs didn’t seem too bad right now.  It had been a few hours since they’d been walking and she didn’t like it.  Larry kept insisting that they keep heading for the tree for they needed shade.  It wasn’t long till Larry found a scorpion, and he pinned it down, took off the stinger and looked at Heather.  She took a long swallow and said, “Okay, but you have to feed me, I’m not touching that thing.  And you can’t tell anyone about this.”

Larry’s greatest hope was that he’d be given a chance to tell someone about this because that would mean they succeeded in getting out.  He held it over Heather’s open mouth and said, “Bite hard, it will probably defend itself.”  Heather did, gagged a little bit and spat profusely but only after swallowing it. 

 

Back in Cairo, Ursula and Anish were desperately trying to find someone to help find Heather and Larry.  They had gone to the local police, but they just said that two Americans in the desert would be dead in no time and trying to find them would be fruitless.  After being given this answer a few times, even after offering to bribe them, they tried their luck at the American consulate.  To their credit, they said they’d try, but they were brutally honest when describing their chances.  They left their contact information and where they were staying and the American authorities told them to try to be patient and distract themselves with the sites.  The waiting killed them, but that’s all they could do.  They decided to drink away their problems as site seeing just didn’t seem too appealing anymore.

 

At last, Larry and Heather reached the tree.  Larry would be lying if he said he wasn’t shocked.  He did forget that he was supposed to find a landmark so that he would know where they came from.  He hoped this wouldn’t be a fatal mistake.  Heather sat in the shade and rested against the tree panting.  She took a long sip of water, and found that the bottle was almost empty.  Larry used his stick to dig a hole about the size of his midsection and told Heather to lay in it.  One will find that a couple inches of digging can be 20 degrees cooler than the surface sand.  Heather lied in it and let out a long sigh of relief.  She was ready to stay there all day.  Larry checked his watch then used Bear’s technique of using the height of your hand against the horizon and the sun to see how many hours of daylight were left.  He checked his watch to make sure he was doing it right.  He felt this was cheating, but really he was testing Bear’s method, both methods gave him about two hours.  He needed to make camp.  He dug a small hole in the sun and put the snake in it and buried it.  Heather saw this but was too relieved at the cool pit to care.  The second she lied in the hole, she decided to stop questioning Larry for he seemed to know what he was doing, even if it was from a TV show.  He timed 15 minutes and took the snake out to find it a different color.  His make shift oven worked, which scared him more than fascinated him.  He knew it was hot, he didn’t need this reminder.  He made a pit for himself then sat against the tree panting.  He said, “Well we got dinner Heather if you’re interested.”

“I don’t want to move.”

“I don’t blame you.”

Heather struggled to get up and said, “Let’s eat.”

They took turns biting the snake and both remarked how it tasted a lot better than they thought it would.  As they were eating, Heather said, “Larry, if you get us out of here, I’m going to fuck you really really hard.”

Larry smiled.  He was a little surprised at the bluntness and didn’t know how to respond.  He would be lying if he said he wasn’t somewhat relieved Heather elected to walk around in her bra as he watched the sweat glisten off her body but this thought was far from his mind as surviving dominated it.  He knew he was doing well but it only took one fuck up and they were both dead.  He decided responding with sarcasm would be best, “Well, I was going to get us killed, but when you put it like that…”

Heather gave him a dirty look and said very seductively, “Just a little more incentive, surviving is cool, but adding to it doesn’t hurt.”

Larry just smiled and said, “I suppose you’re right.” 

He was kind of ashamed that she was actually right.  He felt more motivated and focused on surviving now.  Larry and Heather lied in their respective ditches for an hour before Larry got up.  He walked around gathering rocks, careful of scorpions and snakes.  He was actually hoping to find some, as he wanted some more snacks.  He did manage to find a couple.  He was carrying his stick in one hand and the kidnapper’s turban so as to shield his hands from the scalding rocks.  He made a circle of rocks in the sun that he could lay inside.  Heather was kind of curious what he was doing but she was enjoying relaxing too much to care.  He called out to Heather, “It’s going to get cold at night, do you want to share the bed I already made, or do you want your own?”

Heather sat up and thought immediately that it would be a little bitchy to say she wanted her own so she said, “One’s fine, but remember, we’re not doing anything unless you get us back to civilization.”

Larry lied in his pit sighing again and said, “Fine by me, I’m too tired anyway.” As Heather smiled and lied back down in her ditch waiting for the sun to go down. 

Larry collected some sticks that had fallen from the tree and put them near his rock circle along with some leaves on top of it.  As the sun went down, he used his flint stick to get a fire going and lied down using the heat the rocks emitted to keep him and Heather warm though the night.  Heather lied cuddled with Larry as they used each other’s body heat for extra warmth.  Heather was happy that Larry didn’t seem to be trying to push the envelope, it made her like him more but she was going to keep to her statement that she would only give in to lustful desires if Larry could get them back to civilization.  Both Heather and Larry quickly fell asleep. 

The sun woke both of them up and the fire was still burning but low.  Larry had kept the scorpions he gathered in a bag and planned to eat them for breakfast.  At this point, Heather was over her fear of eating bugs as she realized that survival was necessary.  The problem was, she was out of water.  Larry had about a third of his two liter bottle of lemonade, which he was now going to share with Heather.  Heather felt kind of embarrassed that she ran out so opted to only take a sip when Larry did.

Larry looked out and tried to find another marker to aim for.  He decided to climb the tree to see if he could get a better view.  He untied his shoes and tied his laces together around the tree to give him better grip as he made his way up the tree exactly as he had seen Bear Grylls do.  It ended up being a burden and as soon as he rested on one branch, he removed his shoes and just climbed from branch to branch getting to the top.  When he looked out, he found the one unmistakable sign that he would not be going back the way he came; buildings.  He saw the civilization and mapped which way to go.  Seeing this gave him renewed energy and he hurried down the tree and told Heather the exciting news. 

 

The consulate was telling Anish and Ursula that it was unlikely that a couple of city dwellers would survive all day and night in the desert.  Although they both felt bad about it, Ursula convinced Anish that sitting around sulking about it wasn’t going to help anything and that Larry and Heather would want them to enjoy their time.  They set off on what they had planned to do and see with a heavy heart.  There was still a little bit of hope, but both were rational people and realized that the odds were not in their favor.

 

Larry and Heather walked through the desert, at the top of each sand dune they could make out the city line but it always seemed so far away.  They wondered if it was a mirage, but Larry reconfirmed that mirages really were destinations.  Larry really tried to cut back on his liquid intake since it had to last for two people.  He was kind of surprised that Heather was able to go as long as he could.  He believed that the fact that he never drank water naturally would help him now in the desert since his body was more adapted to this.  Heather, however, was keeping pace thus far.  Larry looked at his watch and saw that it was noon.  They had been walking for about four hours and it was nearing the hottest part of the day.  He spotted another tree and decided to head there for a rest, which Heather was all too happy for. 

As they walked toward it, Larry heard a thud and in the split second it took to turn his head, his mind feared the worst.  His fears were confirmed as Heather had collapsed.  Larry ran over and turned her on her back but her eyes were glazed over in unconsciousness.  Although Larry was exhausted, he used all of his adrenaline to give him the second wind to pick Heather up deadweight and firemen carry her across his shoulders.  He ran toward the tree as fast as he could glad that it really wasn’t too far.  He set Heather down and dug a ditch as fast as he could.  He knew from running cross country and seeing people collapse in exhaustion that the proper remedy was to elevate their legs and lightly pour water across their face and lips.  This made the ditch more necessary since it would be difficult to keep her legs elevated and apply water at the same time.  He removed her shirt from her head and lied her upper body in the ditch with her legs elevated on the side and kept repeating her name as he lightly poured lemonade across her face sporadically.  He did this getting more frantic every time Heather didn’t wake up.  When he ran out of lemonade he looked around trying to figure out something to use as liquid. 

He thought of something and took a deep breath before standing up, dropping his pants and urinating into the bottle.  He argued that it would be warm, but 98.6 degrees was a lot cooler than what the desert was offering.  It crossed his mind that Heather may be pissed but he reasoned that her life depended on it.  Since he wasn’t very hydrated, he didn’t get much, but it was something.  He lightly poured his urine onto her face and looking away as he was somewhat grossed out about it.  He saw a small mammal head toward the tree for shade.  He dropped the bottle, took out his knife and threw it at the mammal shocking himself when he actually hit it.  Deep down he knew that if he had that throw 100 times, he’d probably miss 95 times, but this just happened to be one of the times he got it.  As he ran up to it, he was shocked to see a snake lunge at his prey.  Instinctively, Larry swatted the snake away, chased it down, held it with his stick and cut off the head.  He buried the head and took both animals back to Heather.  He buried the snake under the sand using his make shift oven again and setting a countdown on his watch for 15 minutes.  The mammal he held over Heather and cut its underbelly exposing the organs and letting the blood fall onto Heather’s face. 

                One of the times Larry went to Greece for Easter, he saw his uncle prepare a lamb from beginning to end.  Meaning, the lamb was alive when he started.  Larry watched as they gutted the lamb and remembered his friend that he took there remark how everything he learned about biology was being proven right.  The thing he remembered the most about this conversation was that the large intestine held water and he vividly saw a spray of water when his uncle grabbed the lamb’s large intestine.  Larry was planning on this mammal being similarly put together.

                Larry squeezed the large intestine and directed the water onto Heather’s face and mouth.  He checked for a pulse and was happy that he found one.  He knelt his head to her mouth and looked at her chest feeling her breath and seeing her chest go up and down.  She was still breathing, but she wasn’t conscious.  This gave him hope but frustrated him at the same time.  He decided that maybe he could produce some more urine, then he had another idea that would give him more liquid and is edible.  He smiled making a promise to himself that he would try not to tell Heather about this if she wakes up because it was getting disgustingly desperate.  He got up and gripped his penis in his hand over Heather and closed his eyes imagining sexual thoughts as he felt his penis grow in his hand.  It didn’t take long till he ejaculated over Heather’s face. 

The 15 minutes were up as he took the snake out from under the sand and put it to the side.   Heather wasn’t awake and Larry was running out of ideas.  He tried producing more urine, but didn’t get much.  This time he carefully aimed it at her mouth.  Although he was repeating her name over and over and pleading with her to wake up he was losing hope.  He stroked the side of her cheek with the back of his hand and said, “I’m sorry, I tried.”

He sighed heavily over Heather and thought he saw the slightest flinch.  He figured it was part of his imagination but that didn’t stop him from shaking Heather grabbing the turban he had stolen.  Heather let out a sigh as she was beginning to come to.  Larry started wiping her face with the turban to hide the evidence of what he had to do to wake her up while consoling her.  Heather sat up and heaved.  Larry sat against the tree and let out a long sigh of relief.  He reached over and handed Heather the snake as he panted more from stress leaving his body than exhaustion.  Heather grabbed the snake and bit into it viciously as she was in desperate need for some nourishment.  Larry just watched her, he figured she needed it more than he did and he still had the mammal.  After she finished about half the snake, she began realizing where she was and had regained all cognition of her surroundings and felt a little guilty.  She held out the snake to Larry and said, “Want some?”

Larry had been staring at her the whole time with a mixture of emotions.  Guilt for what he had to do, confusion on if he should tell her, and most predominantly relief and joy to see her move consciously again.  Her voice snapped him out of his trance and he shook his head telling her she needed it more than he did.  He gathered twigs and leaves and made a fire.  He had already taken the organs out of the mammal and he skewed it on a stick and put it across the fire, dug a ditch and lied in it.  He wanted to relax.  Heather was still tired but finished the snake and returned to her ditch to rest some more breathing heavily.  Larry was worried she was going to pass out again so wanted to keep her talking.  The only thing he could think to say though was, “Thank God, Jesus Christ Heather you have no idea what I had to do to wake you up.”

“What did you have to do?”

Immediately Larry regretted saying it but he already had so he had to respond, “Tell you what, you gave me incentive, now here’s yours.  If you make it back with me, I’ll tell you.”

They debated this for a little bit but Larry remained stubborn and Heather agreed.  They rested for a couple hours than Larry took the mammal off the fire and bit into it.  It wasn’t bad and he and Heather shared it.  Larry climbed up on the tree to get his barings again and headed toward the city.  With nothing to drink and Heather already collapsing, Larry was losing faith in their getting back.  He thought Bear Grylls said that cacti actually don’t have much water when you cut them open.  As he kept walking though, he decided he’d try it, knowing that people always died when they tried something against their better judgment.  He told himself not to eat any plants since he couldn’t tell which were poisonous and which were edible but he needed something to drink.  He wrapped the turban around a cactus to help guard against the thorns and put his knife against it and smashed the back of it with a rock taking off the top.  He looked inside and sucked at it getting some moisture.  He did this to another cactus and Heather sucked from it.  It wasn’t much, but it made them feel better.  Larry noticed the sun going down and he opted that he would need to make a camp for the night.  He gathered up rocks and scorpions he found under them like he did before and made a circle like he had before.  He had kept a couple leaves and twigs from when he nursed Heather back to health.  He set them up to make a fire and did.  He and Heather sat in the sand in the sun and watched the sunset.  It was hot, but they were too frustrated and disheartened to move.  Those buildings just didn’t seem attainable.  When the sun set, they curled into the rocks and slept waiting for the next day knowing that this time they were a lot less prepared to battle the desert.

They woke up at dawn the next day as the sun beat against them.  They prepared themselves and headed toward the buildings they kept seeing.  Heather had lost her faith in Larry to get them out of there alive now.  It seems that finding something to eat, making fires, and beds was the extent of his knowledge.  This was the desert, there just weren’t many trees around and Larry was just as clueless as she was on how to find water.  She knew she could do no better so just kept walking hoping that maybe a rescue party would find them.  Larry was dejected and kept trying to think of anything else he could do but heading toward what seemed to be a mirage of civilization seemed like his best move.  I mean it had to mean something that it never really disappeared unless it was blocked by a large sand dune.  But he was losing hope and walked on dejected.

After two hours of walking, Larry and Heather could hardly believe when they actually arrived at what seemed to be a marketplace.  After all the imagining how happy they would be to get back, it was more of a sense of shock.  The vision of them jumping for joy hugging each other, was just not possible due to their physical exhaustion.  They mindlessly walked over to a vendor and said the one thing that they really wanted; something to drink.  Larry and Heather had almost forgotten that they actually had a pretty good amount of cash on them.  It was worthless in the desert, but now it was very important all over again.  This mental transfer from survival mode to city mode was taking longer than expected.  Still, Heather managed to buy six liter bottles of water and Larry bought two bottles of water and four of lemonade. 

Heather and Larry opened their respective bottles and put them to their lips as their bodies relaxed and gulped down the liquid.  With every deposit of liquid into their stomachs, mental cognition and revitalization was returning.  The vendors looked at them as stupid Americans who couldn’t handle the desert, but Heather and Larry didn’t care.  They finished the first bottle rather quickly and each opened another bottle of water just as quickly.  Larry dumped the whole bottle over his head and Heather alternated between drinking and dumping it on hers.  They dropped that bottle and walked one hand carrying three liter bottles, and the other carrying an open one that they drank from as they got into a caravan and told them the address of the hotel. 

They were surprised to note that although they were about 10 minutes by caravan when Heather was taken, now they were two hours.  They probably could figure out that, although camels do go faster than they did, three days to walk back probably meant they didn’t go a direct route.  When the caravan gave his price, they raised it by an equivalent of 10 US dollars if he went fast.  Egyptians usually drove really fast and recklessly but they wanted to get back to a hotel as quickly as possible and the Egyptian appeared to be trying as hard as he could.  They sat back and relaxed half asleep as they experienced moving without effort for the first time in three days; a luxury they had taken for granted up until now.

They finally arrived at the hotel and they walked in.  The woman at the front desk recognized them and immediately called the consulate to let them know the Americans they were looking for had arrived and to notify the others.  Heather and Larry walked into their room.  Larry knew that the gentlemanly thing to do was to let Heather take a shower, but he really wanted one too.  Heather noticed that Larry was also looking at the bathroom as she was.  She could read his mind and said, “Larry, I’m going to be really clear, I plan on taking an extremely long shower and it’s not fair to make you wait for me.  I know what I said about if you got us back here, and it will happen, but, despite what I’m about to suggest, please not now.  I’m too exhausted, deal?”

Larry was too tired as well.  All he wanted was to regain much deprived of things like sleep, a shower and a decent meal.  He said, “Deal, but what did you have in mind?” feeling that he knew the answer

“We shower together.”

Larry didn’t respond, he just stripped and walked into the bathroom and Heather did the same.  They turned the shower on and stepped into it absorbing it into them and froze in reprieve.

 

Ursula and Anish had gotten cell phones so they could be reached.  They weren’t too hopeful but just in case.  As they were at a historical site, Ursula’s cell phone rang and she answered it hoping against hope it was good news.  Sure enough, the consulate was calling to let them know that Larry and Heather were alive and well back at their hotel.  They wasted no time in hopping on a bus back toward their hotel.  They had been an hour away but didn’t care, the trip back was well worth it.  When they got in, they heard the water running and their eyes widened at the sound of other people inside the hotel room.

After standing with eyes closed under the stream of water for about 10 minutes, Heather and Larry were over their initial joy and opened their eyes to look at each other.  Heather saw Larry struggling to maintain eye contact and she realized she’d have to start the conversation.  “So, what did you have to do to get me conscious?”

Larry smiled, he realized that this was actually the perfect place to tell her since they were surrounded by things used to clean yourself.  In fact, that was the whole point of a shower.  He said, “Well, even though this may affect you keeping your word… “as he told her the entire story of what she missed while unconscious. 

During the story, Heather’s eyes widened and nodded.  At first, she didn’t think anything he’d say would upset her, but she wasn’t ready to hear him masturbate over her.  She grabbed her face wash and scrubbed her face as Larry chuckled.  Neither one of them wanted to get out of the shower and they scrubbed themselves vigorously trying to get the desert off them.  They realized they should probably get out when they heard the door open and close.  They had been in the shower for about an hour and felt it necessary to come out.  They covered themselves in towels and ran out.  Heather ran into Anish’s arms and Larry ran at Ursula as they hugged happy to see each other and not caring they were in towels.  They switched off and Larry hugged Anish and Heather Ursula.  After embracing back and forth for a while as Anish talked a mile a minute asking what happened, Heather said, “We’ll tell you everything, but right now, we need a big dinner.”

Larry and Heather got dressed ecstatic to be wearing different clothing and went to a restaurant and ordered a lot of food and rehashed the entire story as Anish and Ursula listened intently.  Larry tried to leave out all the details about Heather’s unconsciousness, but Heather finished that part of the story and they all gave him a dirty look. 

After dinner, they went back to the hotel and relaxed.  There were two beds and Ursula and Anish shared one and Larry and Heather shared the other.  Anish and Ursula woke up much before the other two and decided to get breakfast figuring that Heather and Larry needed their sleep.  Although they got to bed rather early, Larry and Heather were not up until after noon.  They decided they would go sightseeing and make the most of what was left of the trip trying to leave their desert experience behind them.  This time they did go out at night and had a rather normal vacation day.  The only difference was Heather elected to hold on to Larry at every moment nervous of every Egyptian she saw as she didn’t want to be taken again.  The sleeping arrangements remained the same but this time Heather nudged Larry in the middle of the night and said, “Hey, come to the bathroom with me.”

Larry knew what was coming and now he was ready to accept it.  He walked to the bathroom with a smile wearing only his boxers while Heather had pajama pants and a T shirt.  They entered the bathroom and Heather closed the door and stripped herself as did Larry.   She slapped Larry across the face and gave Larry an innocent smile and said, “That’s for what you did while I was unconscious.” Before running up to him and wrapping her arms and legs around him with her lips pressed against his. 

Larry took two steps back but wrapped his arms around her and made out with her profusely.  Heather placed Larry’s penis into her vagina and threw her body toward him as hard as she could.  Larry leaned against the wall as they caressed each other and made out.  Larry was surprised how forceful Heather was being but he would consider himself masochistic, and loved rough hook ups.  After a while, Heather jumped off Larry and backed up a little bit before running and tackling Larry to the bathroom floor, mounting him and gyrating her waist around with his penis inside of her.  She leaned forward and drove her breasts upward repeatedly into Larry’s face who timed it so he could suck on her breasts with every motion.  Heather stood up and as Larry tried he was forced back down by Heather’s right foot as she brought it over his midsection and up toward his face demanding him to kiss her feet.  Larry sucked every toe individually and she repeated it with her left foot before mounting him.  Larry sat up and they thrusted themselves back and forth as they kissed each other’s lips and necks.  Heather leaned back and Larry caressed her breasts with his hands before pulling her back up to continue making out with her.  Heather shoved Larry back down and again Larry didn’t resist it for he loved every minute of it.  Heather spun her body around while Larry was still inside her causing a sense of euphoria for Larry.  She lied back and tilted her head as she thrusted her pelvis up and back down on Larry’s member so as to stimulate her clitoris from backward penetration.  She shifted her body forward, pushing up on her hands and wrapped her legs around Larry’s head shoving her groin in his face as Larry licked her vagina and clitoris as she inserted his member into her mouth.  As Larry was doing this, he caressed her legs and butt pressing her groin to his face harder.  He was slightly short of breath as Heather was flexing her legs around his neck but he made no effort to pull her off.  Suddenly Heather screamed out as she climaxed.  Before Larry could rejoice, he found Heather twirling back around and mounting him again.  She grabbed his arms and pinned them behind his head and started grinding her upper body so that her mouth and breasts slapped Larry in the face with every rotation.  She sat up and violently motioned her waist around and up and down, Larry then felt the explosion of semen leave his body as he started breathing hard having achieved orgasm.  Heather smiled and leaned back and continued to ride Larry harder this time.  Larry struggled as the moment right after orgasm, men need a slight break but Heather was not allowing him to go limp and kept riding harder and harder.  As she was doing this she said through clenched teeth, “I almost died because of you,” “You want to make me eat scorpions, snakes and shit, fuck you.”

Finally Heather stopped and started breathing heavy.  She began to cry and lifted her body up so that Larry was no longer inside her and she lied down on his chest crying.  Larry was confused why but he ran his hand through her hair in comfort.

“I’m sorry” Heather said

“Sorry?! You said you would do that.  That was awesome.  Thank you in fact.”

“It’s just that I had to dominate a guy, I mean now that I’m not in survival mode, it just hit me all day that I could be some fucking terrorist harem whore.  I mean he would have raped me repeatedly for the rest of my life, nobody would have found me.  I just fucking hate men.  So I just saw you naked and I pounced wanting to take out all my anger on you.”

Larry looked back and forth.  He didn’t know how to react but he knew that he enjoyed every second of their time in the bathroom and couldn’t really figure out why he wouldn’t.  He decided to try to be sarcastic and said, “Well, any time you want to take your anger out on me, go ahead.”  Heather looked up and smiled sarcastically.  Larry got serious and said, “Look Heather, you can’t focus on what ifs, or what almost happened, focus on what did happen.  What happened was you were picked up on to a camel and rode around until I caught up and killed the fucker, then we spent three days in the desert and now we’re back in civilization safe and sound.”

“You don’t understand.  I felt so helpless.  I’ve never felt that helpless before, and it wasn’t just the Muslim in the desert, I had to completely trust you with my life, I was completely reliant on you, I’m not much of a feminist, but I never wanted to be completely reliant on a guy.  I mean why else did I go to school?  That’s fucked up right?  I mean I’m alive because of you and I was mad at you.”

“It’s really not that fucked up, it makes sense you’d generalize but you’re okay, that’s all that matters.  Hopefully you never have to feel that way ever again.”

“Do you regret anything?  Would you have chased after him knowing what you do now? that you’d have to spend three days in the desert and be forced to kill?”

“Without hesitation, Heather, look it sucked the last three days but now that’s it’s over it’s a great story.  We went on this trip for an adventure and to do something we’ve never done, we exceeded our expectations in that category.”

“I know, it’s just a little different for me, I can’t divorce myself from the fact that I almost died out there, and before that, I was almost kidnapped to be raped for the rest of my life.”

“Again, key word almost, it’s really that simple, you were revived.  Change your terms from ‘almost kidnapped’ to ‘rescued’ and ‘almost died’ to ‘revived’ makes it sound better, easier to digest.”

“I’m still scared every time I see an Egyptian, and I’m in Egypt.  I mean, no offense, but I wasn’t grabbing on to you every second of the day because I’m attracted to you, I was grabbing on so it would be harder to grab me again.  I’m so scared of this place now, I mean I think I’m going to be grabbing on to you until we leave.”

“Oh darn” Larry said very sarcastically.  He really couldn’t understand why she would think he would have a problem with any of this. 

Heather smiled again.  She pushed herself up and lightly kissed Larry on the mouth.  “Thank You.”

“Thank You.”

Heather and Larry got up, got dressed in what they had came in with and went back to sleep.  They had woken up Ursula and Anish with all the banging and the screaming but they understood and pretended to be sleeping when they came out again.  The rest of the trip went by uneventfully.  Heather still clung on to Larry whenever they were in public but they made the most of the rest of the trip and then headed back to the States as planned.  When they got back, Ursula, who was extremely good at researching online, found Bear Grylls’ e-mail address and Larry sent him a thank you e-mail.  He didn’t believe he would have survived had it not been for Bear Grylls.  To Larry’s surprise, Bear responded and when Bear came to New York he went out with Heather and Larry to hear the full story.  They relayed it and Bear pointed out some other things he could have done but credited Larry on his thinking with the ejaculate, pointing out that it was high in protein and vitamin C.  He was extremely surprised at how just that one show gave Larry enough knowledge to survive three days.  He attributed most of it to luck, but he didn’t tell him that.  When Heather made fun of Larry about it, Bear commented that while they were filming the show, two of his crew members had to be air lifted for heat stroke and that was with him leading, an expert. 

As time passed, Heather got over her experience.  She realized talking about it helped and there were plenty of people who were interested in hearing about Egypt and her three days in the desert.  She vowed never to return.  She ended up dating Larry as the nightingale syndrome never really wore off and Larry had liked her before so the sparks came back easily.  All four of them remained friends and planned to keep the tradition alive by going to a new place next year, hopefully a place where women are not looked as subservient and subhuman.