Everything was ruined now, I thought. The last days would be painful. What little time we had left would be turned into something ugly.

I ran behind her through the forest. I was naked, barefoot. I stepped on something, a stone—it hurt like hell. I had to stop, bend over to catch my breath. And when I straightened up again, she was gone.

“Lou? Lou!”

Marguerite came after me. She had pulled on a sweatshirt and shorts. She handed me the blanket. I wrapped myself up in it.

“Lou?” Marguerite called.

Again I felt the thirst. I was so thirsty, my mouth so dry. Sweaty, my body was losing fluids with every passing minute.

Then we found her. She was standing completely still a short distance up the slope leading to the only knoll in the landscape.

I rushed toward her. “Lou! Wait!”

But when she saw me, she started running again.

“Lou!”

She kept running up the hill.

I was breathing hard, the soles of my feet were already scratched, but I kept my eyes glued to her back in front of me.

I didn’t catch up with her until we had reached the top. The highest point in the landscape, a bump amid all the flatness. It was brighter here. The trees didn’t block out the pale evening sky.

I thought she was crying, because she was leaning forward. I thought she was doubled over and sobbing.

But then I discovered that she was busy investigating something on the ground. She knocked one hand against something. It sounded odd. Hollow.

I approached her cautiously, leaning down to see what she was looking at: large plastic containers. Two rows of them, half-buried underground, almost hidden by dried vegetation.

She tried lifting one, but it slipped out of her hands.

I tried helping her and it was heavy. Slippery, solid, hard blue plastic between my hands.

Now Marguerite also joined us. She looked searchingly at Lou, and then at me.

“We’ve found something,” I said. “Lou found something.”

Marguerite took hold of another container. She was also startled by how heavy it was.

“Is there something in them?”

“Yes,” I said. Because now we could hear the sound. A sloshing sound from within.

I put the container down on the ground and tried to remove the lid, but it wouldn’t budge. My hands were shaking. I found a stick, gave it a try, but it was too thick.

I found another one. It fit. I wriggled it down into the crack between the lid and the container.

Finally it opened.

We leaned over the container, all three of us.

The contents were packed in plastic. I poked a hole in it with the stick.

Lou poked one finger inside. Lifted it up. Tasted it.

I did the same thing, stuck my hand in, just the way I used to do in the ocean at home. But this time I tasted it.

Water. It was water.