MAYA COSMIC NUMBER PUZZLES VOLUME 237 MAYA COSMIC NUMBER PUZZLES VOLUME 237 | 页面 16

That suggested to the group, there had been no fight. Each man knew the unloving
jungle can kill you in many ways- some very fast, and some very, very slowly. Thomas
started to think back to the days of war, when he was in the jungles of the Pacific islands.
The dead man had brought back memories of that horrid war. Now, it seemed they were
in a war with the jungle itself. Keep focused, Thomas reminded himself. Keep moving
forward to the edge of the jungle, it would be only a few more days to go, he kept telling
himself. He remembered the last little home he had seen on the edge of the jungle. It
would look like a castle when he saw it again. Guillermo was slowing them down; he, too,
looked overheated. He assured Thomas he was feeling fine, even though he looked pale
and sick. Thomas felt Guillermo’s forehead, and found he was burning up.
“Drink more water,” Thomas told him, “and take some of these aspirin.” At the next
stream, Thomas ordered the men to make camp and to build a fire. They still had a couple hours of daylight remaining, but everyone needed the early rest. The stout burros
still looked fine, better than the men, even though the burros were the ones carrying the
heavy loads.
Daylight brought an ominous gift. Three more of the stolen burros arrived, walking
peacefully towards camp. More dread and d espair set in with everyone. What black evil
was happening on the trail up ahead? Thomas overheard the men talking about unseen
Maya demons. Two more hours of trekking on the trail, where it was steep on one side and
a sheer drop on the other, there, right in the middle of the narrow trail, were the reasons
the burros had rejoined the pack. Three more dead bodies lay scattered within twenty
meters of each other. Their machetes lay close at hand, but there was no blood found
on them. The bodies, too, were clean. Thomas almost wished that they had wounds. He
knew he could kill something that had claws and teeth. He ordered the dead men buried.
Each of the survivors knew the dead men and hard questions needed answers, which
the jungle is slow to give. The question on everyone’s mind was what bad thing was going to happen next? Hours later, further along the trail, the last burro the deserters stole
was found eating some vegetation. Twenty minutes after that, another lifeless body was
discovered next to the trail. Once again, no marks were found on the corpse. This time
the men wanted to go on without burying their friend, but Thomas made them do it. As
he had painfully learned during the war, hard work keeps fear at bay.
Tired and confused, the men drove themselves to walk forward towards civilization. Exhaustion didn’t matter when fear gripped your soul. Family and friends beckoned
in the men’s minds pushing them to march even with their eyes glazed, feet hurting,
and backs straining. They traveled up one hill, down another, hacking away at anything
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