“No… Sir, please keep this for yourself. I… I can’t hang on any… longer. We can’t both be dead here…” Zachary shut his mouth tight, refusing to drink.
“Darn it, Zach. Your wife has just delivered a child. You can’t die yet. Are you that cruel to let Sabrina and the baby live by themselves? Hurry up and drink it!” Christopher insisted while pouring the water into Zachary.
The latter was afraid that the precious drops would go to waste. He had no choice but to open up his mouth and drink the water. Once his lips were moisturized, he cleared his throat, and said in a clearer voice, “Sir, are we going to die here?”
“That’s impossible. I still want to return to Eve and keep my promise to give her an extravagant wedding. Until then, I won’t die so easily,” Christopher said confidently. Then, he propped Zachary up. “Come on, let’s keep walking forward. I remember seeing an oasis on the map. It should be ahead of us. Once we get there, we’ll find a way to contact Sean.”
“I can’t move anymore. Sir, you should go ahead. In case John catches up with us, I’ll distract them.” Zachary pushed Christopher away and slumped on the ground. The hem of his pants was torn, revealing a horrifying wound that was filled with pus. The stench of blood and the putrid smell of rotting flesh permeated the air. It was absolutely awful under the hot weather.
“Shut up. We shall leave together if you think of me as your own. Otherwise, I’ll ask Sabrina to remarry when I get back.” Christopher dragged him up again. Unfortunately, he could only take one step forward before collapsing once more. His physical strength had seemingly reached his limit.
In fact, it was considered a miracle that he could sustain for that long without food and water. Moreover, he was badly injured.
Clenching his teeth, Christopher took a knife and cut off the rotten flesh from Zachary’s leg. Subsequently, he applied some medicine from Yorksland on it. However, it did not have much impact due to the medicine being too mild and generic.
While he was bandaging Zachary’s wound, Christopher heard someone talking nearby. “The two fellows are hurt, so I bet they’re not far off. Go get them without any further delay!”
“Boss, why must we chase them? It doesn’t affect our business after all.”
“What do you fool know? Christopher, that jerk killed so many of our men. I managed to escape him, and I swore that I’ll avenge for our people,” John bellowed.
Christopher’s expression dimmed as he heard some of the dialogues indistinctly. “Zach, let’s go. They’re here.”
As no response was received, Christopher nudged Zachary a few times, only to realize that he had passed out. Using all of his might, he carried Zachary on his back, quickened his steps, and fled.
Had Zachary not saved me in the nick of time, the wounded one would have been me. Regardless of what happens, I’ll never give up on him. I must ensure that he survives the desert, for the sake of Sabrina and their newborn. I must bring him back to his beloved family safely.
The experience of entering the desert for the first time was beyond my worst nightmare. I had never been to any highlands, let alone places with extreme weather. Avenport was by the sea, so it was very humid all year long. It was definitely nothing close to a desert climate.
Upon walking around the desert for one day, the severe heat had completely drowned my enthusiasm. My only source of motivation to keep on searching was none other than Christopher.
Three days later, I still had no news about him. It made me feel so dejected. I had been to the two oases indicated on the map, but he was still nowhere to be found. There was only one more oasis yet to be visited; my last strand of hope. I was uncertain what to expect if Christopher was not there.
In the vast desert that had no end, there was no guarantee that one’s corpse could be located if anything untoward happened.
I sat on a huge rock, munching some tasteless dried food. Lyle passed me a bottle of mineral water and saw that I was utterly downcast. He commented, “I see that you can be fearless when it concerns Christopher. Sandstorms can happen anytime here. We may face danger before we could find him.”
