Read When The Jaguar Sleeps: A jungle adventure for Free Online Page A

still. The day seemed to be without end.
    Evening came and with it obsessive, gloomy thoughts began to haunt their minds, incessantly.
    Sandro became feverish again. He was delirious, his breath quickened and from time to time violent spasms went through his whole body and he moaned loudly with pain. Florent gave him another painkiller.
    ‘Frankly, how long can we hold out here?’ he asked. ‘A day or two at the most. Very soon we will not have even enough strength left to get out of this hell.’
    ‘We can’t just leave Sandro here alone,’ said Didier, more weakly this time. ‘In his bad condition, I doubt he will make it through another day without us.’
    Didier too was beginning to lose hope that someone would ever find them. All sorts of black thoughts and pessimistic scenarios whirled in his mind. He could not explain why but all of a sudden he became absolutely sure that no rescue would ever come. His earlier optimism and confidence began to fade dramatically. For the first time in his life he felt so lonely and lost. With great clarity he realised the cruel reality, the hopelessness of their present situation. They were stranded somewhere in the depths of a vast rainforest and could only rely on their own strength and this was diminishing with every day that passed due to malnutrition and lack of sleep. They were trapped in an unhealthy, extremely hot and humid environment.
    Did they actually stand any chance of surviving in these harsh conditions? Not much. The only hope left was that a rescue team would soon come and free them, take them away, back to civilisation.
    But do they know where to look for them? Will help come on time? And what should they do if nobody comes?
    That night sleep did not come for a long time. They were both lying side by side in silence thinking what to do next. All sorts of anxious thoughts were swirling around their minds like bees, stinging from time to time. Didier worried about his mother and his sister. Was he ever going to see them again? Could they handle another loss in their lives so soon?
    Florent thought about his parents, his younger brother and his girlfriend, Nathalie. He wanted so much to see them all back. He and Nathalie were engaged and were supposed to get married in four months. This travel to South America was his last holiday alone. He had been so excited and happy about it. He had never thought it would end that way.
    At some point, Sandro began to utter some incoherent words. His body started to shake again, and his forehead felt very hot to the touch. They did not know what to do, how to help him, and sat watching him helplessly, seething with impotent rage at being so powerless, trapped, and abandoned. Fortunately, after a short time, Sandro became calmer, and from his throat only weak moans escaped. Eventually his head fell to one side and he lay silent.
    Didier and Florent, too finally drifted to sleep.
    Friday: another overcast morning dawned.
    Immediately upon waking they noticed that Sandro was lying stiff and motionless with eyes wide open, staring unseeingly upwards. Florent ran the flat of his right hand over his face; the skin felt as cold as ice to the touch. Sandro had been dead for several hours.
    Strangely, they felt more relief than pity: both tried to hide it at first, feeling somehow guilty that they were so readily accepting this cruel twist of fate without showing more emotions. But soon they decided they could do nothing to change what had happened and they had to think about their own survival. What mattered now was staying alive and get away out of this green jungle hell.
    For now, they were free. There was nothing to keep them here any longer. They both knew what to do next.
    After a skimpy breakfast they loaded stuff that seemed to them to be useful, and left. They wanted to depart as soon as possible from this miserable place where four of their companions had already found death, and which soon could turn into their own grave as