Out of Captivity : Surviving 1,967 Days in the Colombian Jungle

Running on Empty 309display for all to see. We’d been with Milton’s guys for so long, we’d forgottenwhat it was like to be the new kids. But there was good news aswell. Even though losing the connections we had for information wasdifficult, Jair’s style of leadership was way better than Milton’s, and hewas much more responsive to our needs. I got the sense immediatelythat this was a big step up for us. They had prepared a bathing platformfor us in the creek and that was more than we could ever have expectedof Milton’s lazy bunch. Simple things like soap and toilet paper let usknow that this group was better supplied. The food was more plentifuland that always helped our morale. Nevertheless, when we brought upthe subject of radios, Jair seemed surprised—so much for Milton lettinghim know what we needed and wanted.The very next night, we were given the order to move out. Jair andhis guerrillas were in much better physical condition and clearly betteroutfitted than Milton’s bunch. They were heavily loaded with supplies,but when we set out with them, we were moving double time. Beforewe had gone very far, we came to a large open field, and standing in itwas an older FARC member, a guy we recognized from our proof oflife. His name was César. He was the leader of the 1 st Front and one ofthe most vicious warriors in the FARC’s history. As we filed past himhe said in English, “Good morning.”We didn’t have too much time to wonder what he was doing there.This group had us on the move, hustling us out of that hot zone asquickly as possible. Marc had hurt his knee and mine were still painfullyswollen, not to mention that I was troubled by an Achilles-tendonproblem. Still, we both wanted to make nice with the new group, so wedid everything we could to keep pace. At times we were actually running,and we estimated that we were moving at a rate of about twentykilometers a day for the first three to four days. The odd thing was thatas fast as we were moving and as difficult as that pace was, the guerrillaswere being nice to us. They kept saying, “This isn’t a forced march.If you need to stop, we can stop. Just let us know.”