A few minutes ago, the market had been a bustling hive of activity, women buying their fruit, vegetables and meat for the evening meal. Now, it was a scene from hell. Shrieks and screams resounded through the air and people, those who still could, were running in circles. A few of the women were trying to save what produce they had left, others simply trampled the plastic sheeting treading on oranges, bananas and raw meat as they ran to get as far away as possible. Others were sneaking around on the periphery, stealing as much food they could stuff into their pockets.
Amie ducked down and ran too, she had no idea where her strength came from, nor her energy, but her instinct for survival kicked in. As she ran, she kept as low as she could, slipping into doorways whenever she saw someone coming. She couldn’t see any soldiers, or were they rebels? Was this a counter attack by the remnants of the former Kawa government? A splinter group of the new government? Peace keeping forces from another country? It didn’t matter, Amie wasn’t going to put her trust in any of them.
As soon as she thought she was far enough away, she stopped for a moment to take stock. Uncurling her fingers, she poked and prodded herself, flexing her arms and legs. It didn’t feel as if she’d been shot. Though there was plenty of blood on her jacket, it didn’t seem to be her own. It was a miracle she’d been so close to so many guns and bombs yet she’d escaped unscathed.
It took her some time to reach the outskirts of town, but she hardly remembered how she got there. She had one bit of luck when she sheltered in an open shop doorway. The owner was lying dead on the pavement outside, and the place was empty. Behaving in a way she wouldn’t have thought possible only a few weeks previously, Amie stepped over the body, ducked inside and grabbing some plastic bags she filled them with bottles of water, biscuits, energy bars, sweets and soap. She had no money to leave on the counter, but hoped she would be forgiven for stealing. It’s in a good cause, she told herself, and the poor guy wouldn’t be needing any of it now.
She had a further windfall in the shop next door. Maybe only a few hours ago, it had sold the usual wide variety of general products serving the local population, a little bit of everything like an Aladdin’s cave. It too was deserted and Amie was able to grab clean clothes including a warm jacket, a blanket, a torch, and several boxes of matches. They also had a range of rucksacks and Amie stuffed all her new found possessions into one of them and crept back out into the street.
It was almost as if she had this part of the city to herself. The streets were deserted and as she made her way towards the southern suburbs, she met no one. They had probably all disappeared out into the bush, she thought, on the run, which is exactly what I am, a criminal on the run. If I was innocent before, I’m not now.
When Amie reached the last suburban street where it met the undeveloped open bush, she hesitated. This was a new danger, another enormous leap out of her comfort zone. It was unlikely she would meet many wild animals this close to town, but they were out there. She pushed these thoughts to the back of her mind. Maybe the creatures would have been frightened off by the sounds of the gun fire, or maybe they would be attracted by the smell of blood? Either way she hoped she might just go unnoticed and unmolested.
She took her first tentative steps into the unknown.
14 DANGEROUS TERRITORY
When they’d stayed at the game lodge, the air had been filled with a variety of noises, grunts, growls, the occasional roars in the distance, and the ever-present cicadas. Now, the only sounds Amie could hear were her own footsteps and her heavy breathing. The rucksack which had seemed light in town now began to weigh a ton and her shoulders began to ache.
She decided to keep walking until the light failed and then she would hide up. It would be too dangerous to try and find her way in the dark. So far, she’d been beyond exhaustion, but as the landscape began to mist over and undulate, she realised her strength was finally giving out.
She found a depression in an old Baobab tree and taking a long stick poked around in the hole. She could hear Dirk’s voice inside her head. ‘Never, ever sit or lie down without checking first if you have stumbled into another creature’s home. Investigate first.’
Satisfied that the opening contained nothing more threatening than a couple of stray moths she’d dislodged, Amie wriggled into the hole pulling her rucksack behind her. She took off her jacket and rolled it up as a pillow, draped the blanket over her knees and lay down. It was not a comfortable night, and despite the protection of the Baobab tree, she jumped at every little sound. She dozed off and on and in between she recited her times tables, tried to remember long lost pieces of poetry, and made mental lists of all the people she had known, anything to keep her mind off the possible dangers lurking close by. At first, she twitched every time she heard movement among the leaves, but finally she was too tired to keep watch any longer and fell into a deep sleep.
When Amie woke, the dawn was just breaking. She didn’t feel refreshed, but a drink of water and a couple of energy bars helped. She should start walking now, before the sun got high; later it would be too hot to continue and she would have to rest up again. She was less likely to be seen at this time of the morning, although the Africans were early risers, but the biggest problem was she wasn’t really sure which way to go. Geography – geography lessons! What did I learn in geography? she asked herself. The sun rose in the east, so she needed to veer left to find the coast but maybe it was best to keep a little inland and walk parallel to the sea.
Before she abandoned the shelter of the baobab tree, she put her hand on the gnarled trunk, and whispered a heartfelt thank you. Dirk had told them the Bushmen always apologized to their prey just before they finally dispatched it, and it seemed to Amie that this great tree had protected her through her first night alone. She had never heard it mentioned that the original people who inhabited this area, had ever thanked the trees and plants, but she felt it couldn’t hurt. She hoped she would remember all the other things Dirk had taught them on that weekend all those months ago.
Slowly she wriggled out of her refuge and dusted herself down. She changed into the clothes she had taken from the shop, and groaned to see she had grabbed a tight blue, sleeveless dress which was not at all suitable for walking about in the bush, but it would have to do until she could wash her old clothes which now stank, she had been wearing them for far too long. She hoisted the rucksack onto her shoulders and began to walk. The sun should move from my left to my right, she thought, and if I can keep in that general direction, I should be making for Ruanga, away from the rebels’ homeland, away from Budan in the north which may also be at war with Togodo now, particularly if they also want to claim the new mineral wealth. She would make for Ruanga where hopefully President Zanda’s people were still living in peace and harmony.
At first her legs were stiff and her whole body ached as she shivered in the cool of the early morning, but she picked up speed as the sun began to warm the land. She lined up a landmark in the distance, a tall outcrop of rock that rose higher than anything else, and keeping her eyes firmly fixed on that, she made it her first goal.
The terrain was easy to cover, flat sandy soil, interspersed with low shrubs and trees. The land stretched as far as the eye could see ahead of her and on both sides, on and on into the distance. Behind, she could just make out the shapes of the taller buildings in Apatu that were still standing. The only obstacles she had to walk around were the giant termite mounds, some almost as tall as herself. For the most part, she could walk in a fairly straight line, and by the time the sun made it too hot to go any further, Amie felt that she’d made good progress.
She collapsed under the shade of a large bush and ate four biscuits with several sips of water, before reluctantly packing the rest away in her rucksack. She had no idea how long her meagre supplies would have to last, but she would use them sparingly. She was very tempted to use a little of the water to wash herself, but decided that was not sensible. She would save what little she had for drinking.<
br />
Amie walked for six days, sheltering at night under bushes or in depressions, covering herself with leaves before wrapping herself in the blanket to keep out the cold. Her dress clung to her back where she’d sweated during the day and she’d come across no water in which to wash or replenish her supplies. She was down to her last bottle.
She’d caught glimpses of the sea a few times on her left, but she was too scared to walk along the wide beaches. She would be so exposed and vulnerable since she had no idea who controlled the beach area. She realised with surprise that she was behaving like most of the other African animals, resting up when it was dark and again during the heat of the day, and only walking at dawn and dusk. The only problem with that was she was active when they were, so, she had to be constantly on the lookout. She had no idea what to do if she saw a lion or a hyena. Climb a tree? She just hoped they wouldn’t be hunting too close to the coast. She tried not to let the rhythm of her footsteps and the repetition of simply going forward, to dull her senses. She needed to stay alert to any dangers.
She came across several animal tracks in the sand, but she couldn’t tell one from another, which was probably a blessing in disguise she decided. But now water was going to be her biggest problem. She was still close to the coast, and Amie desperately tried to remember how far inland the salt water might permeate the soil. She would have to turn further inland away from the sea, and try to find a river bed, it was her only hope. She’d not seen any sign of dwellings in the last three days, and that suggested there was no fresh water supply in the area. No water, no people, no wild animals she reassured herself, but that doesn’t solve my problem.
Reluctantly she veered off to the right and began to make for the low-lying hills. Water courses must drain down to lower levels, she tried to reassure herself. All water makes for the sea, but the hills seemed so far away and she was worried she would go too far inland. Under the unrelenting African sun, she began to perspire and she knew that was the fastest way to lose body fluids. She found a large shrub and crawled under its welcome shade.
As the sun began to lose its heat, she dragged herself to her feet and began walking again. The hills seemed farther away than ever and she began to despair. All around her the flat sandy plains stretched in every direction, and she was beginning to feel disorientated. She stoically put one foot in front of the other and trudged on. The landscape began to undulate in front of her eyes and she was vaguely aware she was approaching a line of trees that curved round a slight depression in the ground.
Trees often grew by rivers, she thought just as she tripped over a tree root and found herself rolling down a gentle slope. She landed in a flat sandy area, cursing and swearing as she knelt up and rubbed her arms and legs. Was this a river bed? It wasn’t very deep, but it was wide. The only way she was going to find out was to dig.
That was the next problem, she didn’t have a spade or even a tea spoon and that only left her hands. Taking off her rucksack, Amie began to scoop out handfuls of sand. It wasn’t as easy as she expected, for as soon as she dug down a little way, the sides of the hole caved in and she had to work further and further outwards to make the hole deeper. It was beginning to get dark and she was feeling very vulnerable, but she was also desperately thirsty so she kept digging.
She lost all sense of time as she threw scoop after scoop of sand to one side. Her breathing became ragged with the effort and her arms began to ache. The hole was maybe half a metre deep and as fast as she grabbed one load of sand the hole seemed to fill up again with two more.
She was concentrating so hard, that at first, she wasn’t aware that the sand now felt damp. She stopped for a moment and watched in amazement as a small pool of water seeped into the lowest part of the hole. With this encouragement, she renewed her efforts until she could see a little puddle of water. It suddenly occurred to her it might be salty and she held her breathe as she dipped her fingers in and licked them, brackish maybe, but not salty; it was drinkable. She gave a whoop of joy and set to enlarging the hole even more.
It took her far into the night to find enough water to refill four bottles. She was angry with herself for throwing away two empty bottles at the beginning of her journey, it had never occurred to her to keep them, but four were better than one, she told herself. If she remembered correctly, you could go a week or more without food, but three days was the limit without water; even less in a hot African climate.
That night, she climbed up into the lowest fork of a large tree that bordered the dry river bed. She was worried the scent of the water she had so thoughtfully excavated might attract game. As a reward for all her hard work, she treated herself to a whole bottle of water. The brackish fluid tasted better than champagne. Her muscles ached, her stomach rumbled, but sheer exhaustion put her to sleep. Her last thoughts were that in the morning, she would have another good long drink before she set off again.
When Amie opened her eyes as the dawn broke the next day, she was amazed she hadn’t fallen out of the tree. She congratulated herself on her survival skills, until she looked down and saw a lioness beside her water hole. Her blood froze, there was wild life out here, but she’d become relaxed and careless, sure this area was safe! She found herself holding her breath, as if the very act of her breathing would attract attention. She was not very far off the ground and she knew the lioness would have no problem climbing up after her. She would only have to stand up on her hind legs and stretch to reach Amie.
For the moment though, the lioness lay quite contentedly in the river bed, yawning a few times and giving her paws a good lick. She appeared neither aggressive nor hungry, and Amie hoped she had hunted recently and would not be looking for another meal any time soon.
Amie knew she dared not move until the animal had left, and that meant she would lose at least half a day’s travelling south – that’s if I’m not her next meal, she thought wryly. Despite her terror, Amie couldn’t help but admire the sheer beauty of the animal as it lay in the sunshine. The wind blew through her tree rustling the leaves. Another danger, was Amie downwind? The light breeze was blowing gently into her face, so she reasoned she must be downwind. It would be a disaster if the lioness could smell her, so she had to hope and pray the wind wouldn’t change direction.
It wasn’t until the sun was well over the hills that the lioness finally stirred, stretched, and slowly began to wander off. Her stomach looked very distended and Amie wondered if she was pregnant. Dirk had told them lionesses often leave the pride before giving birth, to protect the cubs from the males. They would rear them for the first few weeks on their own before taking them back to the family group.
Amie stayed for a while in the tree. She was loath to descend, but she knew she couldn’t stay where she was indefinitely. Her legs were cramping up from sitting still for so long; she could only hope the lioness was close to giving birth. Maybe lions were like humans who often didn’t feel like eating shortly before going into labour.
I’m rambling, she thought, as slowly and painfully she lowered herself to the ground. She’d noticed the lioness had walked away upwind, so hopefully she wouldn’t get Amie’s scent. Every hair on her back tingled as she carefully worked her way up the river bed, turning soon after, towards the mountains. The sweat began to pour out of her as she walked quickly and quietly away from her night’s refuge. The rest of the pride might be close, she could be walking straight towards them. She didn’t know how far lionesses travelled to give birth to their cubs in safety. She’d seen virtually no animals until now; could that lioness be nomadic, not part of a pride at all, a solitary female? That’s what I am going to believe Amie told herself. I can’t go back, so I go forward.
It was one of those rare days when the clouds wandered across the sky, giving some relief from the heat of the sun, so Amie kept walking. She’d planned to refill her empty bottle from the river before she set out, but the thought of sharing the same water supply as a lion put her off. Who knows what diseases she might ingest?
She still had a few biscuits and sweets and a couple of energy bars left, and these would have to last her until she found sanctuary.
She felt she’d made good progress that day, the hills looked much closer and while she’d been so busy watching the lioness, she hadn’t taken much notice of the position of the sun. She just kept trying to remember her brief glance at the Internet maps she’d called up on her lap top back in England. She thought the range of mountains, or small hills – she had no idea how high they were – marked the border between Togodo and Ruanga.
Not long before the sun began to sink in the sky, Amie stumbled onto a dirt road. This was not what she was expecting, but she hoped it ran south from Apatu. It was a wide, gravel road but didn’t look as if it was busy. Amie hoped she could follow it south. It made walking a lot easier, easier to see snakes, she rationalized, but did it lead back to Togodo? Maybe it went to the border? For several moments Amie dithered as she tried to make up her mind whether to follow it or not. She wouldn’t necessarily be safer on the road, but if a vehicle came along, she would hear it, and see the dust long before it reached her and she could always dive off the road. She decided to take the chance.
It had now been several days since she’d seen another human being, but while she was feeling almost desperate for contact with one of her own kind, she was also terrified of meeting anyone. She had no trust in any Togodian and she kept wondering if she was the only European left in the whole country. It was a very worrying thought.
Amie in Africa Box Set 1 Page 29
