Thirsty Sands (Part 4)

2019-7-30

Thirsty Sands (Part 4)

Jafar Rabiei

Design: Ali Vaziri

First published in 1991

Publishing House, Islamic Propagation Organization

Printed at the Aryan

On the other hand, I hoped, too, that our combatants would in the next stages of the operations, liberate the whole region and save us from this critical situation. This was why I decided to lie still as if I were dead. The two Iraqis, I knew, were talking to each other. From the movements of their hands, which were constantly pointing towards our positions I realized that they were reconnaissance forces. Moments passed slowly. I was constantly an alert not to make any movement giving them the slightest indication that I was alive. Of course I considered it possible they may have seen me, but not as one injured, since there were a good number of dead bodies lying around me and naturally anyone coming into the minefield from Iraqi positions would expect to see these dead bodies. Then after the passage of minutes, the two got up and returned in the direction of their bunkers without noticing me. With their leaving I took a deep breath and thanked God who demonstrated in reality the truth of the following Holy Quranic verse:

I spent the third night as I had the two previous nights bearing up with the pains from my deep wounds, and suffering severe thirst.

On the morning of the fourth day I was so thirsty I started lapping up drops of dew which settled on the weeds. I stuck my dry and cracked lips on the drops of dew on the weeds, but this was hardly enough to wet my dry lips, let alone quench my thirst. The sun gradually kept moving over my head. I decided at whatever cost to move towards a dead body lying three meters from me. I hoped that I could find water in his canteen. With the name of God on my lips I began to move. Creeping ad dragging myself in jerky, spasmodic movements, I felt as if the sky was whirling round and round about my head. It appeared as though I was about to fall down from a high peak into a deep valley. Fear overtook all my being. After moments of pause my pain would subside. I made the next movement. Sometimes after a move I would become unconscious and would again regain consciousness. With all possible efforts, I finally approached the corpse and pulled out his flask, using my teeth. I held the canteen with my forearms and opened its covering with my teeth.

But no sooner did I want to bring the flask to my mouth that it fell down to the ground and the water began flowing out of it. The regret over losing the water overtook all my being. The sands had swiftly sucked the water, and I had remained with u thirsty body. My eyes could hardly bear seeing this. When I managed to pick up the flask again there were only a few drops of water left. I drank this down but it was in no way enough to quench my thirst. I decided therefore to drag myself on to the next dead bod y lying one meter away from me. With any difficulty I did so. I took out his canteen with teeth and opened its covering, and using my forearms neared the flask to my mouth. Crazy with thirst I drank all the water hoping to quench my thirst. Drinking this water I began to realize that not only had my thirst not been quenched; in fact I had a double need for water. Inevitably I got myself to the third corpse, but there was no water in his flask. I was no longer able to move. It seemed that all my energy had been drained out of every joint of my muscles. The sun was going down. I was surprised that despite my movements during daytime I had not attracted the attention of any of the Iraqis. I immediately started to move back towards my previous place behind the hushes. Weather had grown completely dark. I again lost consciousness from intense thirst and tired ness.

It was about midnight when I regained consciousness through severe pain and thirst, and after a few moments of the most severe pain, I passed out once again...

I had the fifth day before me with dumb states and despairing thoughts. Now there was not even a one percent hope of my remaining alive, or of the arrival of help from our own combat­ ants. The only friend I had at those moments of loneliness was remembrance of God and the pure Imams (A.S) and this gave me some peace. Only with the remembrance of God hearts would rest at peace. I was thinking of what states I would be in after death. I imagined hell in obscurity and, in brief, I was lost in my thoughts. On the morning of 22^nd of Bahman, after a relatively period of relative unconsciousness and as soon as I opened my eyes, I noticed there were several army men wearing red helmets standing around me. As soon as they saw me and noticed movement in me they started yelling. I did not know what they were saying.

To be continued…