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

408 OUT OF CAPTIVITYby asking for them back. I wasn’t one of the many kinds of “them” thatIngrid might imagine were after her or out to hurt her. I’d been helpingher, at great risk to myself and the relationships I had with the otherhostages. Denying this was not something I could do.“Marc, bro, I am so sorry. That was the sickest thing I’ve seen outhere. You’ve just been betrayed by someone who you reached out toin the goodness of your heart when no one else gave a fuck about her.You did the Christian thing, the charitable thing, the hardest, rightest,most stand up thing in the world, and this search is how you’ve beenrepaid.”“That’s just how some people are. It’s almost like she can’t helpherself. She put her image and her fear of it being damaged aboveour friendship. I don’t really get it.” My voice started as a whisper butpicked up in intensity as I spoke. “I’m so pissed I can’t even thinkstraight. If there’s one thing you don’t ever do it’s going to the enemylike that. Unbelievable.”“Did she get what she was after?”I hesitated for a moment before a smile crept across my face. I shookmy head. “No. No. They couldn’t put their hands on anything. Nothingand no one is going to touch me now.”Later that day, our chief guard came to us and said, “Pack up. We’removing all of you.” None of us was ready for another march. We stowedall our gear and waited for the order to move out. The head guard andthree others approached us. I didn’t think much of that since each ofus typically had his own person watching him. Instead of marching usout of the camp, we were told, “Requisa.”“Not this again.” Tom sighed. “We just stowed everything.”“I wonder what it means?” I asked.“Wonder if there was another escape?” Keith picked up his backpackand shook the contents onto a sheet of black plastic the guardsprovided. At least our things wouldn’t get all dirty. The thing we’d noticedabout the searches was that they weren’t especially professional