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

22 OUT OF CAPTIVITYlent of doing a combination of a high hurdle race mixed in with thelong jump, the high jump, and the triple jump—all on a steeply slopedpatch of ground.The guerrillas were gesturing with guns and making it obvious thatthey wanted us to take off across the clearing. One of them held hisgun in the firing position to show us that even though they were lettingus run free, we were still going to have their weapons trained onus. What they were also telling us was that they weren’t about to go outinto that clearing and expose themselves to weapons fire. Finally, oneof the FARC grabbed Marc and another grabbed me. They gave us ashove into the slash-and-burn. We took off running and jumping anddodging as best we could. Fortunately for us, the helo was upslope of usand we safely reached a point about halfway between Keith’s positionand the structure. We crouched down near a stump. From my vantagepoint, I could see another guard at the house waving at us to come therest of the way.At that moment, for some reason, I remembered a conversation Ihad with my wife, Mariana, a week or so before the crash. She and Iwere talking about the risks of my job and we were both wonderingwhether it was worth it. I was making good money, and we both ultimatelydecided that I should stick it out a bit longer—at least throughwhat was left of that rotation. Funny how the mind works and whythat thought would come to me just then. I was worried about her feelingguilty if I didn’t make it. Worried that she might think she undulyinfluenced me.I didn’t have much time to contemplate things. Marc looked at meand nodded, and the two of us headed for the house. It was like wewere playing a deadly version of the video game Frogger. We’d hear thehelos coming our way, so we’d take cover behind whatever we could.One helo would move off, and we’d zig and zag our way to another bitof cover. After what seemed like twenty minutes or more, we had coveredthe 500 feet of the clearing and made it into the shelter the house