... we were able to set up camp under quite a big tree with a good shade cover. It seemed going west was panning out to be a good survival strategy since there was definitely more vegetation and less barren ground than the previous day. We were thirsty again though and had to resort to drinking urine again as the piglet had been drained of blood. We managed to scrape strips of meat off the pig and we ate them, sitting under a bush. We tried to calculate how much ground we covered over night. I thought we’d have had to cover at least ten ks but Carl wasn’t that optimistic, putting the distance at about seven ks tops. It didn’t really matter, we decided while we watched the sun rise; the main thing was to get some rest to keep moving. We hunkered down to sleep.

I’m not sure how long we slept but when I woke up it was raining. Huge, fat raindrops fell down in a torrential shower for about five minutes; this glorious rain coming at the right time like a miracle, to save us. We lay on the ground with our mouths wide open, catching the water and the taste of it was pure heaven. It didn’t last long but long enough to get some liquid down our throats. It completely revitalized us and we set off, west again.

We trudged along, with our piggy swinging between us, talking about the lives we used to have. Carl, it transpired, had been a thief and a bank robber all his life, and quite good at it except for the last robbery in which someone, a bank customer, keeled over from the shock of it and died on the spot. It brought bad luck to Carl; he got caught a week later and eventually sent to prison for twenty years. Carl regretted it to this day.

‘I should have made sure the bank was empty. I should have gone early in the morning or just before closing; this branch was always empty then. But no, I had to go in when there were customers. I thought it’d be easier; they’d be anxious to comply if they thought customers would get hurt. And I didn’t even have a real gun,’ Carl sighed, shaking his head. ‘If it weren’t for the heart attack, I wouldn’t have got caught. It was just bad luck, that’s all,’ Carl concluded philosophically.

I had no such interesting tale to tell. An orphan, I had been in trouble all my life, going from one foster home to another, getting into strife wherever I was and gradually working my way through the system, beginning in reform school and ending in prison. For what I couldn’t even tell; just stealing shit mainly, I told Carl, omitting a few details I didn’t want him to have. There was no need for him to know everything about me; I’d learned that in reform school. I’d learned a few other things there which I also didn’t want to mention as I was keen to make a good impression on Carl, who struck me as a good guy.

‘What are you gonna do when you get home?’ Carl asked, now that we were talking about me.

I shrugged. ‘Don’t know. I’m gonna try stay out of trouble,’ I replied and meant every word. I knew I couldn’t go on living my life the way I had been, just drifting from one bad thing to another. I felt that if we got out of the desert alive, I would try and turn over a new leaf.

‘I’m gonna go back to carpentry,’ Carl said, surprising me with his answer as I’d had no idea he had a legitimate trade. ‘I used to make a pretty good living at one time.’

Carl went on to say that for a brief period in his life, when he first fell in love with his wife, he went straight and had a good job outfitting shops. He even liked it; it was only when his wife left him for another guy he went back to his robber ways.

‘Was he rich?’ I wanted to know. I meant the other guy.

‘No. He was stupid. And fat.’

At that we both laughed; it was good to see Carl grinning again. Grinning, he looked like a giant rabbit with his big front teeth, bulging brown eyes and long ears; he truly did look the part. A big friendly rabbit. Even had the trademark hair, short and grey, slightly balding behind the ears.

‘I’ll bet I know what you’re thinking,’ Carl said, grinning at me like mad.

‘Go on, then. What?’

‘You’re thinking I look like a rabbit.’

We both burst out laughing again and I told him it was exactly what I had been thinking.

‘I was,’ I said. ‘I’m sorry. I don’t mean to be disrespectful.’

‘I’ve heard that so many times, man…’ Carl waved his hand, dismissing my apologies and stepping up the pace as the terrain changed and we were now on a plateau. ‘One time I even won a prize when — what the hell is that?’ Carl sidetracked mid-sentence and pointed ahead. To be sure there was something unusual going on; huge vultures, a whole bunch of them, on top of something big on the ground just a few meters away from us. It looked like an animal, a deer or a pig, had died there and the vultures were finishing off the carcass, tearing bits off and feasting like there was no tomorrow. But something about the shape of the carcass caught my attention; I squinted so I could see better and recognized that it wasn’t a dead animal but a person, a nude person, lying there. Carl got it at the same time as me and we looked at each other and then began to shout as we hobbled towards the body to scare the birds away.