An hour later, the valley they were walking in was coming to an end. Hills and mountains now stood in their way. However, it had brought them to where Lara had hoped to find, extremely thick tree coverage. It had become more difficult to walk through, dense with fallen leaves.
"It looks like there's no other way but up." Lara mentioned.
"Good, I can't go any further!" Julia responded. "I'm tired!"
"OK, I guess we'll stay here tonight then."
Julia threw down the tent she was carrying. Lara picked it up and began looking for a place to set up. The heavy thick tree canopy made this area dark, even though there was still some daylight left.
Julia looked for a place to sit down.
The quiet serenity of the forest was soon broken however. Julia heard the soft thump of the helicopter in the distance. She looked up, but there was no way to see through the tree canopy. She turned to look at Lara, but Lara had disappeared.
She got up and walked in the direction that Lara had been.
"Lara?" She spoke. There was no reply.
"Lara!" She raised her voice.
"Over here." Lara answered.
Julia breathed a sigh of relief. She walked towards Lara, and found her standing by a patch of ground surrounded by fern.
"What do you think, does this look good?" Lara asked.
"Yeah, I guess so." Julia answered.
Lara threw down the tent and began setting it up. The ground was quite cushy with the covering of leaves, and provided a comfortable bed to lay on. Lara crawled inside, with Julia following her. Lara zipped up the door, but then unzipped a small window on the side.
Julia had curled herself up in a ball, laying on her side. Lara laid down next to her, facing her. Julia closed her eyes and rested. Lara rested as well, but admired the beauty of Julia's eye lashes, eye brows, and her angelic face.
The silence was broken by the sound of Lara's grumbling stomach. Lara was already hungry.
Julia giggled.
"Hey..." Lara whispered. "I think I'm going to look around and see if I can find us something to eat." "OK, be safe, and don't lose your way back." Julia replied.
Lara had walked towards a large area of sunlight, hoping to find something, maybe blackberry bushes, or a stream of water. When she got there she indeed found a stream, but there was very little water, almost none at all, just the remaining ground water draining out of the mountains after the recent rains. But she followed it downstream hoping to find more water, or something edible.
She began to see debris and trash laying about. An old tire here, shot gun shells there, and other shards of metal and plastic. The further downstream she went, the more junk she found, but so far none of it appeared useful to her. Lara had probably walked a quarter-mile until she finally found what she had hoped to find, more blackberry bushes.
These were more difficult to get to however. The foliage of grass and shrubs were thick, and she couldn't see what she was stepping into. But it was food nonetheless. She began picking several to eat, but remembered not to get carried away and leave plenty for Julia. She wondered if Julia had the strength to walk out to this area and then walk back.
