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

Freedom 417Marc laughed and then turned serious. “I’m going to need this thing.The first one I had lasted me five years. Who knows how long I’m goingto have to eat with this one.”After breakfast, Tom and I sat and watched as Marc played chesswith Jhon Durán for a bit. None of us knew where things were goingfrom here, but Arteaga seemed to be the center of attention among thegroup. Eventually he walked over to us and said, “We are going to go ona helicopter today. One of the guards told me. Expect helicopters.”“Really? Helos? They’re going to take us out of here to do the examsand stuff?” I suddenly felt the urge to pee, and I walked away from everybodyto do my business. Suddenly, as I was standing there, I heardthe familiar noise of helos dropping down.“Keith! Helos! Keith, helos!” I heard Marc yelling for me. I zippedup, confused as hell about what this meant. For years one of the worstsounds coming out of the jungle was the bhwhup bhwhup bhwhup of ahelicopter’s blades slicing up the air. The adrenaline started pumping,and the hairs stood up on my arms. As I looked out over the tops of thetrees ringing our clearing, I saw two Russian built M–17 helos descendingand going into hover.If Arteaga hadn’t told me just minutes before that helos were comingI would have run. As it was, I was torn. I kept looking at the guards,waiting for them to fan out so they could cover all of us with fire. Insteadof doing that, each guard called out a single name: “Raimundowith me,” “Erasmo with me,” “Flores with me,” “Tom with me”—allthe way down the line. I wondered if this was how they did it. All ofus paired up with a guard who would then shoot us. I could see they’dprepared for this and were ready for us. For once, the FARC seemeddisciplined and organized. Maybe that was all they were good for, killinghostages when the rescue helos showed up. Tom was taken nearthe front of the line, while Marc and I were at the back end.Marc looked at me. “Do we go?”I shrugged. “At this point, yes. But we’ve got to be smart.”