On the third day the team stopped talking completely.
The dialogues, which were already few and far between, became practically just hand signals, as if they had all suddenly become deaf and dumb.
After spending four days like that – in a state of constant vigilance, exchanging only hand signals and glances - they had regressed to an animal state very reminiscent of a wolf pack.
They walked slowly, studied their surroundings and would stop and start walking again.
Every now and then, they even smelled the air.
Coletta who was at the front of the line, often stopped the team stop in front of a particularly thick 'wall' of vegetation beyond which he thought he 'sensed' something.
During those moments, he would stop in front of the vegetation just standing there motionless and listening, while some yards back, the rest of the team stayed as still as statues.
Occasionally, he closed his eyes while ‘picking up’ on something rather than actually hearing it.
They had regressed to an animal state for real.
As a result, they never got any decent rest.
Whoever was at the head of the line would stop because of a potential danger and consequently, those at they had to stop too. During those tense intervals, whoever was at the back used to eat their C rations, gulping down some of their concoctions, and that ended up being their break. Often times, those turned out to be the only kind of breaks they had.
They were already behind schedule and they basically got further behind every day.