In fact, they almost end up dying when they are not able to light a fire one night. The mountains are as dangerous as the desert and their survival depends on being able to light a fire. The native Mongolians guide them along the way and shepherds provide them with supplies. However, keeping in mind that they escaped from a labor camp and have no papers, they steer clear of towns and villages. When the remaining members of the group arrive in Mongolia in the Himalayan foothills, nearly everyone there treats them benevolently and warm-heartedly. For the next couple of weeks, the group begins eating snakes, and eventually, another member dies. The Polish girl is not able to bear the desert heat, which results in her slow death.

The group is faced with a much greater danger when they run out of food and water. While they are moving toward India, a teenage Polish, who has also escaped from a labor camp, joins the group. However, there is the expansive Gobi desert followed by the Himalayas that they must pass in order to get there. The group that escapes also includes the commandant from the camp and his wife, and after escaping, they head incessantly southward, aiming to make it to India, which is under decent English rule, and seek refuge there. Rawicz escapes with the hope and intention of rejoining his troops and reuniting with his wife. Rawicz was a patriotic man, and the Russians had to drug him in order to make him “confess” to crimes he had not committed. As the leader of the group, Rawicz chose to escape with men who were determined and strong enough to endure the harshness of the treat. Slavomir Rawicz’s “The Long Walk” is set during the Second World War, revolving around seven men who manage to escape a Soviet labor camp, one of them being Rawicz himself.

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