Their faces hardly belied the ordeal they underwent a few days ago as the 12 boys and their football coach were ushered on to the set designed to resemble a football field for their first public appearance after they were rescued from a flooded cave in Thailand.
Clad in T-shirts emblazoned with a red graphic of a wild boar, they smiled and offered traditional Thai greetings to the crowd assembled at the set in northern province of Chiang Rai in Thailand. 'Bringing the Wild Boars Home,' read a banner in Thai.
The boys and the coach introduced themselves before they began to recount the fateful few days they spent in the cave, with nothing but each other's comforting presence, even as the water kept rising around them.
The boys, true to the kids of their age, had not informed their parents about the little adventure they were about to undertake on June 23. According to their plan, exploring Tham Luang cave complex was going to be just an hour's affair after their regular football practice, and they saw no reason to keep their parents in the loop.
They had food before they set out on their planned, supposed-to-be-an-hour-long escapade. Coach Ekkapol Chantawong had consulted the team about the idea and all were only too eager and excited about the trip.
And so, with not a shred of idea about the dangers that awaited them, they set out into the cave. The rest is a history that they, or anyone, would ever want to repeat or revisit. They realised that they were trapped after a heavy downpour flooded the canals when they had almost finished their exploration and were ready to come out.
The seriousness of the situation hadn't dawned on them. The water would soon recede, they thought, and soon they would be out.
The water kept rising.
Chantawong went ahead to check if it was possible to swim to the front of the cave. All the boys could swim, although they said they aren't good swimmers. (The media reports had claimed that only a few boys could swim). They began to discuss if they could proceed to the front or retreat.
Someone from the team asked if they were lost. Chantawong said, “No”.
But they were lost, trapped.
The water kept rising.
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It was getting darker and they could hardly see each other. The coach asked them not to be frightened or dispirited. He asked them to start digging at the cave walls, a task they continued to do till they were sapped out of all energy. “We took turns in digging,” said Chantawong.
Fear began creeping in. The coach told them the water would recede in the morning, and so they decided to spend the night in the cave. They had no food, as they were not prepared to spend the night there.
They prayed the first night and went to bed in the cave.
The water kept rising.
Chantawong and his band of brave boys weren't really hungry or weak the next day. They had water to drink. In the next few days, they tried to find a way out. They continued to dig at the canal walls.
Fatigue and desperation took over the boys as the days passed by even as they held on to hope and continued digging. The youngest among them, who is 11 years, was the weakest. He almost fainted. “I had no strength. I tried not to think about food so that I didn’t get more hungry,” he said.
And then there was hope. It was day 10, and a miracle was about to happen.
Meanwhile, outside, the rescue operations were going on in full swing. Divers went into the cave in search of the boys.
The boys, huddled together in the damp and dark flooded chamber several kilometres within the cave complex, heard someone talk. They could hardly believe their ears. Chantawong asked one of the boys to respond to the voice.
“It was in the evening when we were scratching rocks on the top of the boulder that we heard voices,” said Adul Sam-on, 14.
“Hello,” said the boy, and the rescuer responded, “Hello”.
“It was magical,” he said. “I had to think a lot before I could answer their questions.”
The rescuer asked the boy how many of them are there, and he responded, “Thirteen”. He asked the boy if all of them were fine.
“Brilliant,” the rescuer said upon hearing that the boys were doing okay.
And then began the momentous rescue operation.