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

Fat Camp 409and thorough. Going through a line at the airport in the States was alot more invasive and productive than what the FARC did. This one,though, was a little more thorough. With the search complete, the sixof us marched fifty yards into the woods to make camp.TOMIngrid’s initiation of a search on Keith, Marc, and me did one thing.It made the three of us realize that no matter what, we could at leastcount on one another. Maybe the shared experience of the most recentstarvation march and all of us doing what we could to help one anotherout to get through it also contributed. We were united in a way that wehadn’t been before. I didn’t want to think about it too long or analyze it.I just wanted to enjoy the goodwill and keep whatever positive energywe had f lowing.As far as we were concerned, whatever tension was in our group ofsix wasn’t a result of anything we had done. We decided to just get pastbeing singled out for another search after the one Ingrid had initiated.Also, we’d been searched many times previously and it was likely thatwe would be again.“Given all that happened with the FARC, the escapes, the killings, itmade sense that they were shaping up a bit,” I said.“Too little too late for these shitheads. They’re never going to shapeup. How the hell they can—”“ ‘Think of themselves as soldiers. When I was in the corps . . .’ ”We all laughed at Marc being able to recite chapter and verse of one ofKeith’s favorite sermons.Marc said, “Remember the time you were using that flight-instructorstuff with Jhon and Juancho? Those guys were in the land of nod andyou kept going on and on.”It felt good to be able to laugh about some of those things. We’d beentogether a long time. It’s difficult to reminisce about an experience aspainful as captivity, but with the two of them there, it was possible.