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The trip into town was around four miles by means of the road. But we weren't on the road, we were on the riverbank. Unlike the path we drove to reach the campground, the river had a number of twists and bends, which extended its distance significantly. There was also the fact that it was still pretty dark out and the river's edge was dotted with large rocks which only served to further impede our progress. Still, I was optimistic that we would reach Simpletown in good time. I think I was just relieved to not be running from a forest fire anymore! There were still remnants of the fire glowing in the distance behind us, but the bulk of the threat had dissipated once it hit the edge of the cliff. With nowhere else to go, it simply fizzled out.
From our original group, eight people remained. I still hadn't had the time to learn everyone's names. I only knew the names of Pete and Sarah, two members of our party who I had deemed to be the most competent. Mike had been another one I knew somewhat, but he was gone now. I tried my best to suppress that memory, but his resolute face kept creeping into my thoughts. Struggling to fight the memory, I walked up alongside Pete and struck up a conversation.
“How long do you think it'll be before we reach town?” I asked.
Pete scratched his head. “I'm not sure, man. How long do you think we've been walking for now?”
I glanced down at my watch. Miraculously, it had kept ticking despite being dunked in the river. “It's been about an hour I would say.” I responded.
“Hmmm...” Pete mused. “Maybe another three hours or so then. I've hiked along this river before and it was roughly a four hour trip from base camp to the city. Of course, I did it during the daylight and I wasn't tired from being chased by a forest fire!”
I pondered his words silently. It was going to be a long night apparently. Some of the people in the group already showed signs of fatigue. And none of us had eaten anything since at least lunchtime, before the rain storm that hit us. That seemed like an eternity ago now. But there was no choice but to keep pressing onward.
We rounded a bend in the river and to my delight, I spotted an overpass where the main road crossed from one side of the embankment to the other. If we climbed out it would save us a tremendous amount of time! I pointed this out to the group and we all agreed it was a good idea. So together we commenced to picking a careful path up the rocky embankment to the cliff's edge. It took some doing, but we finally managed to all reach the top safely. I was already feeling good about our vastly improved situation when we got our second turn of good fortune!
The sound of a diesel engine could be heard rumbling through the forest. A minute later the headlights of a large bus rolled into view! Overcome with joy we all jumped and frantically waved our arms to flag the bus down.
“You guys look like you've had a rough night!” the driver exclaimed after stopping and opening his doors.
“You don't know the half of it!” I exclaimed as I climbed aboard. “How far are we from Simpletown?”
“It isn't far now,” the driver responded. “I would say about forty-five minutes. We'll be there by dawn.”
I slumped down in my seat with a sigh of relief. Forty-five minutes and we would be safe.