A Life Wasted

Running in the Night

For a long time, there was nothing but open pasture, which suited me fine. I doubted there would be any searchers past the woods where I was last seen, at least not on this night, so I ran without worrying about being seen. I would avoid roads, and when I needed to cross a road I'd be careful, but the woods and pastures should be safe in the dark. I remembered driving across several creeks in the earlier car chase, so I hoped to find one of those soon. Thirst had been a problem all day, but now that I was free and moving the lack of fluids in my body began to threaten my ability to push forward.

I made it through a series of pastures and into a decent size wooded area and still hadn't located any water. When I left the woods and entered the next pasture I had taken about ten steps when I stepped in a hole that swallowed my leg up to my knee. I froze knowing the damage such a hole could cause to me. Had I been running when I stepped in it my leg would now be broken. I carefully extracted my foot, which was all the way clear of the hole before I realized my foot was wet. I looked around for a stream but there was none to be found. But there was water at the bottom of that hole so I'd make that work.

I didn't have anything to dip into the water but I did have a sweaty handkerchief. Praying there wasn't a snake in the hole, I reached in and soaked the handkerchief in the muddy water. I pulled my arm out and squeezed the muddy water into my mouth. Nothing had ever tasted so good. I repeated this until there was no water left in the hole. My thirst was far from sated, but I felt better. I kept walking.

A few hours later I was again struggling with thirst when I came to the first road I had seen. There was a dry ditch on my side of the road so I laid in it for some time looking for any sign of an observer. I had to be careful crossing any road because this would be the kind of spot the cops would set up an observation point to watch for my crossing. I knew how to be patient but in this case it was extremely difficult. On the other side of the road I could smell the sweet scent of running water and hear the comforting sound of a fast running creek. It sounded like a large creek, perhaps a small river. Whatever it was I wanted to be in it so bad that waiting and watching was a painful act of self-discipline. After some time, I saw the lights of a car in the distance so I slipped back into the woods. It was a police car. It was driving slowly with its spot light trained on the creek and open field beyond it. After it passed I was confident I was alone. Had there been a posted observer the cop would have stopped to check on them and chat.

Depending on where you're from it could have been called a large creek or a small river. The water was cold and delicious. I laid in the fast moving water and drank my fill. I stayed in the cold water until my limbs were numb and my stomach hurt from the volume I had consumed. When I left the creek I felt clean and renewed. Convinced I would make it through the night I continued to walk across another dark pasture.

Before the sun rose I found a large wooded area. I moved deep into the woods and found a well-hidden spot to lie down and sleep. I woke hours later, but the sun was still high in the sky. My first thought on waking was that I was going to die of thirst. It was also my second thought.

When I crawled out of the woods where I had been surrounded the previous night I followed the only route open to me, which was south. Since I'd started my run to the south I used the stars to navigate by and continued going south throughout the night. Since I had no idea what was in the area around me it was as good as any direction. So when I woke in the woods I noted the location of the sun and used it to navigate south again. After less than an hour of walking south the woods gave way to an open field across the top of a hill. At the bottom of the hill was a country road and on the other side of the road another bare hill. Knowing I couldn't cross that stretch in the day light I turned east and continued on within the relative concealment of the woods.

After another hour of walking I was stopped by another open field in front of me. With open fields to my south and east I had little choice but to wait till dark before continuing on. Staying hidden in the edge of the woods I moved around to get a good look at the open country to my south. While doing this I spotted a small spring fed pool of water on a sloping hill. Since I hadn't had any water since the previous evening I cautiously moved closer to the field for a closer look. The pool of water was about twelve foot in diameter and as I would discover, about a foot deep. It was little more than a large mud puddle, but to my water starved body it looked like the source of all sparkling water.

The water was inside a fenced in pasture that held eight milk cows. The cows were high in the sloping pasture, closer to me than was the water, which sat about a quarter of the way down the hill. At the bottom of the hill was a house and barn. It looked like a hobby farm to me. Not enough land to make a living on, but enough to play with. A place where both parents worked regular jobs but kept cows and chickens as a hobby. Behind the house two small children played with something too far away for me to make out. No adults were in sight but they were surely close. There was no way I would go near that house or those children, but I very much wanted to drop my face in that pool of water.

At first I thought I would be able to crawl under the barb-wire fence and all the way to the water without exposing myself to the house below, but as I got closer I realized that slop of the hill was such that even if I belly crawled to the water I would be exposed to every point around the house and barn, but also to a car driving down the country road in front of the house. I didn't know the time, so had no idea how long I would have to wait until dark, but I was not going to leave that water. Regardless of how long I had to wait for dark, I would wait right there until I could safely reach that water. It didn't take me long to fall asleep.

I woke to the sounds of shouting in the distance. This startled me for obvious reasons. It took me a moment to realize the sounds were coming from the farmette at the bottom of the hill and the shouting was to bring the cows in. I crawled to the edge of the woods for a closer look. The sun had settled into the west and it was dusk out. Realizing that it was nearly dark enough that I couldn't be seen from the distance I crawled under the fence and moved slowly towards that wonderful pool of water.

At the bottom of the hill a man, woman and two children were calling the cows home for milking. The cows had been grazing near where I hid, but were now moving slowly down the hill. Not wanting to spook the cows and alert those below to my presence I stopped moving forward to allow them to pass. The cows move down the hill in single file walking directly towards my water. I cringed when the first cow walked into the water, paused there and drank her fill. The second gal did the same thing. She walked into the middle of the foot-deep water, drank for a moment then moved on. When the third cow repeated the action I was sure I'd have to wait until they all drank before I could get my drink. It was clearly dark enough now for me to crawl to the water unseen, but again, scared to spook the cows I waited patiently.

At first I was a little disgusted to have the cows walk into the water that I would have to drink from. After all, it was a small shallow pool of water that was nearly stagnant. Not only were the cows dirty but as they moved through the pool they stirred up all the dirt and things that had settled to the bottom. By the time the last cow reached the pool I had convinced myself that it didn't matter. I'd drank worse. I would not hesitate to drink this water. As the last cow finished drinking she paused and raised her tail. I said, "No!" loud enough that she turned around to look at me. That didn't stop her though. With her tail raised with the female politeness of a cow she let go a day long stream of urine.

If you've never witnessed a milk cow pee, let me tell you it is an impressive sight. It's like a water faucet had been opened full to release a thirty-second-long blast of yellow fluid. I was close enough to smell her urine as it splattered into the pool of water. I remained motionless for several minutes after that old girl had moved on. What I had witnessed disgusted me so much my whole body shook. I couldn't believe that last cow had peed in the water, but I accepted that there was nothing I could do about it now. With the determination of a man fighting to survive I crawled to the edge of the pool, closed my eyes and drank all that I could hold.