Moving mechanically for want of any better inspiration just at the moment, Keene clambered up to the truck bed, and leaving Charlie to his rapture, began hauling out what was left of their gear and supplies to take stock. Most of what had been stowed in the open bed of the truck was gone, which had included the drums of diesel oil—now neither here nor there anyway—but more importantly the main fresh water container. However, there were several bottles clipped in a rack. They still had the food, medical kit, spare clothes, and carrying packs, which had been in the closed compartment behind the cab. Then a fit of nausea and dizziness came over him. He stumbled across to some nearby rocks and sat down.
Charlie came over with one of the water bottles, a tin cup, and the medical kit. He gave Keene a drink, and when Keene had recovered somewhat, began cleaning the gash in his head and began closing it with suture clips. At least, Keene had been right in guessing it was mostly a scalp wound. The amount of bleeding had made it look worse than it was. “We should move from here as soon as we can,” Charlie said. “Those rocks up there look precarious. There could be more falls at any time.”
Joburg lay ahead to the south, where the ridge they had been descending from eventually broke up into a region of rounded hills. Obviously, the information from probe flights and the Scout’s journey stored in the runabout’s on-board system would no longer be of any use to them. They had compads, but using them to access copies from Serengeti would be an invitation for the transmissions to be traced. “I estimate about thirty miles,” Keene said. “The settlement shouldn’t be too difficult to find when we get in the general area. There’s a conspicuous peak to the east that should give us our bearings. At the rate we’re likely to manage in this kind of country, say, three days. Maybe four? . . . Ouch!”
“Sorry, Lan. But it looks a lot cleaner now. I’ll put some of this on and cover it up.”
“So what do you think?”
“You still believe there will be any point in trying to warn the Aztec, after all that time?”
Keene realized that it hadn’t occurred to him to wonder about it. But there was no way to change any of that. “What else can we do?” he answered simply.
“After all this time away from Earth? Do you really think either of us is up to it?”
“There’s only one way we’ll ever know, isn’t there?”
A few seconds of silence followed. “We do have two choices,” Charlie said.
“What’s the other one?”
Charlie shrugged as if reluctant to state the obvious. “Accept reality, Lan. Admit that it was a good try, but it’s over. Call Serengeti to have them pick us up. . . .” Keene raised his head. Charlie saw the look on his face. “You’re right. There’s only one.”
They laid out what they had and sorted it into piles. The food, fresh water, cooking gear, personal hygiene items, medical kit, foam-quilted bed covers that they’d brought to substitute for sleeping bags, and a minimum of the spare clothing they had brought were obvious selections. Keene added some of the lighter-weight tools and a few oddments like electrical tape, twine, repair aids. Would there be a need for some kind of weapons, just in case? Charlie wondered. Keene didn’t know. The best improvisations he could find were a two-foot pry bar and an alloy survey stake used for ground marking. Finally, he ducked down through the passenger-side window of the cab to retrieve whatever he could find that was useful from there. The on-board processor was still working, and twisting uncomfortably, he transferred a copy of the Scout’s map from its store into his wrist compad. That should get them to within sight of the landmark peaks, he told himself.
When he straightened back up, he found Charlie staring thoughtfully out at the marshes. He followed Charlie’s gaze but could see nothing especially significant. “It isn’t duck season, Charlie,” he said.
“The Bolivians used to make boats out of reeds like that,” Charlie answered distantly. “I got to ride in one once up on Lake Titicaca. So did the Egyptians long ago, too.” There were clumps of tall reeds lining the water in places.