“We’d need to track her, so the Land Rover won’t be much use,” Dirk observed glumly. “And I’m loathe to leave even fewer people here in camp.” He scratched his head. “She’s a tough one,” he added, “and she’s a lot better prepared than last time.”
“I don’t care about any of that,” said Helen. “You have to go and find her. If you don’t, I’m getting in the truck and going myself. She could be in terrible danger and I could never live with myself if anything happened to her.”
“I guess the least we can do is to drive west for a few kilometres and see if we can catch sight of her, but I don’t hold out much hope, when we’re not even certain which direction she took,” grumbled Dirk. “And if we find her, do you think you can persuade her to come back to camp?”
“I’ll have a damned good try,” said Helen. “You’ve always said I have good persuasive skills, and I’ll use every one of them if I have to. I’ve grown very fond of the girl and I’d be heartbroken if she got herself into trouble.”
“Well if she has, we might never know,” Dirk replied reasonably.
Helen shook her head. She knew what Dirk meant. If Amie had fallen prey to a hungry animal, they might never find her remains. She could only pray for her safety.
Amie spent her first night in a shallow cave cut into the rock on the side of a slight incline. She knew such territory was a favourite place for leopards, but she had to trust to luck. She disturbed a pair of elephant shrews that were thoroughly put out at having to share their sleeping quarters, but Amie ignored them as she squeezed into the narrow space. There were a couple of bats near the entrance but, by now, she’d become so tough they didn’t bother her at all. Those silly movies showing bats getting tangled in hair and flying into people’s faces were as fake as the vampires they showed sucking blood.
She spent quite a comfortable night, enjoying some of the delicacies Jonathon had brought back from Umeru, which she’d helped herself to from the food stores. She hoped Helen would forgive her.
Although Charles was convinced he was fit, he was beginning to realize he was more out of shape than he thought. Jonathan seemed oblivious to the heat, and as for Jefri, he appeared to have an unending source of energy as he loped onwards mile after mile after mile. He took short sharp steps, seeming to skim over the ground at an amazing rate, often stopping to wait for the Europeans to catch up with him.
Charles was worried about slowing them down, but when his heart began thumping faster in his chest and his breathing became more ragged, it was time to own up and beg them to take a rest.
Jonathon looked at his friend as Charles wrenched the backpack off and collapsed onto the ground. Jonathon grabbed his wrist and took his pulse. “We’ll need to slow down,” he said to no one in particular. “The camp is not going anywhere in a hurry, and I’d rather we didn’t half kill ourselves to get there a few hours earlier.”
Ben nodded. He hadn’t wanted to admit it, but the pace set by Jefri, which Jonathon had matched with ease, had been telling on him as well. He was much fitter than Charles, but he was more used to city life and riding in cars and taxis than traipsing over the open African veldt in his native land.
Jonathon offered Charles a drink - water laced with sugar - and suggested they rested for a couple of hours before looking for a suitable place to camp for the night. So far, their trip had been uneventful. Only a few peaceful animals grazing on the grasslands peered at them before moving a few steps away. There’d been no sign of other people either which he thought strange.
“Why haven’t we come across any villages, or people? I can’t understand it,” he turned to Jefri and Ben.
Jefri shrugged, but Ben answered. “This is an area the government chose as a nature reserve. All the people were moved out and they were not happy, but the government told them they would make money from the tourists coming to look at the animals. And some hunters would pay lots to shoot the big animals.”
“And it never happened?” asked Jonathon, although he already knew the answer.
“No. No tourists came and no lodges were built and the people were afraid to move back into the area. They were scared of what the government might do to them,” Ben added. “It is such a shame my country could be a paradise for people to come and visit.”
“Why am I not surprised to hear that?” said Charles, whose breathing had returned to normal. He mopped the sweat off his face with a handkerchief.
“Very few people understand that Ben. You’re one of the few,” observed Jonathon.
“How far have we come?” asked Charles.
Jonathon looked at the GPS. “We’ve made good progress, exactly on target for a six day hike.” He looked at Charles. “How are you feeling?”
“It’ll get better,” Charles said with more optimism than truth. “Give it a couple of days for the joints to loosen up and I’ll be fine.”
“Another ten minutes and we can push on,” said Jonathon, deliberately not looking at Charles to gauge his reaction. He saw that Jefri looked as fresh as a daisy and hadn’t even sat down when they stopped. He was rummaging in a nearby bush looking for edible berries and leaves.
Amie was not giving herself the luxury of a rest. She was worried that if she stopped, she would find it difficult to get going again. She kept up a steady pace, neither too fast nor too slow and when she looked behind her, she was surprised at the distance she’d covered. She hoped the others weren’t too far ahead, but just as she was congratulating herself on how well she was doing, she heard several loud crashes to her left. It sounded as if a fleet of trucks was trundling straight through the bush. For a brief moment she didn’t move, and then she looked around wildly to find a tree. If she got off the ground, she’d be less visible. She spied a good-sized acacia but the thought of the thorns tearing at her clothes and her hands gave her second thoughts. Although the thundering noises were coming closer, they didn’t seem to be moving very fast.
Not far away was a manketti tree that looked easy enough to climb. Amie rushed over, dropped her water bottle and knife on the ground and began scrabbling up the trunk. She would need both hands to climb and she didn’t have time to pack them away.
She scraped her hands as she pulled herself up, but she was in such a panic she hardly noticed the pain. Breathing heavily, she rested for a moment, squatting on the first major fork and looked down. She was only a few feet off the ground, possibly twice the height of a man. She decided to climb higher but the vegetation was thicker and the branches closer together. As she reached out along the largest lower branch, she was unable to move, her backpack was now wedged between the branches. Bit by bit she released the straps and eased it off. Slinging it over one arm she stretched out along the branch. Grabbing hold of it she pulled herself higher, and reached for the branch above that, but her hand slipped and jerked downwards, allowing the strap of the backpack to slide down. Gravity completed the bag’s journey and it landed with a thud on the ground at the base of the tree.
For a brief moment she considered climbing down and trying to retrieve it, but the noises that had panicked her in the first place, were much, much nearer. She wriggled up onto the next high branch and clung on for dear life. From her perch she saw a large grey shape below, then another, and a small herd of elephants moved into view beneath her. It was impossible to tell how many there were, but she thought she saw at least two small calves, still none too steady on their little legs.
Her heart missed a beat as a trunk appeared below her, waving backwards and forwards, before it moved away to attack the nearby acacia tree. Which way round is it? Amie tried hard to remember. Was it poor eyesight, good sense of smell or, poor smell? No, it must be a better sense of smell. As long as I stay absolutely still, they might not see me at all.
The first elephant below the tree moved on, followed by a second one that rubbed its back against the trunk. Amie held on to the tree, like a drowning sailor clinging to the mast of a ship at sea. Common sense told her that, in gen
eral, elephants were not a danger to humans. It was unlikely she would be trampled to death, but they were also curious creatures and she had no desire to be used as a football should they find her and feel playful.
The moment that thought crossed her mind, she saw to her horror, one of the smaller elephants had noticed her backpack at the base of the tree. He poked it with his trunk and managed to roll it a little way, but was interrupted by one of the fully-grown females who came to investigate. She smelled it and gave a low rumble, which to the rest of the group, seemed to be a signal to move on. Another elephant came to poke the unknown foreign object, picked it up and tossed it high in the air. It came to rest several yards away. She ambled over and curled her trunk around it again, but one of the straps flew up and flapped onto her nose so she tossed it to one side in contempt.
Amie had no idea how long the elephants grazed below her, while they tore the leaves off the trees and investigated the ground. To her it seemed like hours, but eventually, much to her relief, they moved off. Despite her fear, she could only admire the great beasts as they meandered along a pathway their herd would have used for thousands of years. The gentle giants were awesome and the thought of them being slaughtered simply for their ivory was heart breaking.
She waited until they were almost out of sight before she plucked up the courage to come down from the tree. When she first lowered herself onto the branch below, she found her fingers refused to let go of the branch she was clutching so tightly. It felt as if they were wrapped permanently around the wood, and she’d have to prise them loose one at a time. Eventually she slithered and fell, rather than climbed down and landed with a thump at the base of the manketti tree, jarring her whole body.
Gingerly she got to her feet and poked and prodded herself all over, but although she was bruised, she didn’t appear to have any broken bones or suffered any real damage. She staggered over to her backpack. Luckily it hadn’t contained anything breakable, but she wondered if the elephants had been able to smell the water bottles inside it. The knife was still lying in the grass, but her almost-empty water bottle had been squashed flat, so much for keeping it for a refill she thought wryly.
She checked out the position of the sun and realised with relief the elephants were heading east not west; she guessed they were heading towards Dirk’s camp. She set out to walk north-west as best she could judge it, the dying rays blinding her on her left, as the sun sank lower in the sky. It was more difficult now to get into an easy stride, each step hurt and she guessed she might have pulled a leg muscle in her frantic attempt to get out of the elephants’ way. It could be a lot worse she consoled herself.
Back at the camp a rather dejected party had returned after searching for Amie for most of the day. At first it had been easy to track her, but then the heavens opened and the rain had come down in torrents, washing away all traces of her journey. It was a sudden cloud burst, localized, but enough to persuade Dirk and Kahlib to give up.
“It’s in the lap of the gods now,” he told Helen sadly. “She survived once and I wouldn’t be surprised if she makes it a second time.”
“I hope you’re right,” replied Helen. “I hate to think of her out there all alone. I don’t know what possessed her to try and follow the men. She must really love that child, even after not seeing her for all this time. I’m not sure what the outcome will be if they do meet up again.”
As the sun sank below the horizon it cast a bright orange glow across the sky. Amie stopped for a moment to gaze - Africa in splendour. But there was no time to linger; she needed to find as safe a place as possible for her second night. An acacia might be a better bet if she could climb it carefully and avoid most of the thorns. They were more plentiful and gave a lot more shade. Of course, it didn’t matter which type of tree she chose, the mosquitoes would inevitably find her. She only hoped the repellent in her bag hadn’t been ruptured after playing elephant football.
Nestled in the middle of the forked trunk, a good distance off the ground, she devoured two snack bars and drank about a third of a bottle of water. She had gathered a few juicy berries and leaves as she walked, confident this time she’d chosen ones that were quite safe to eat. She wriggled around and managed to get herself quite comfortable and was settling down when she thought she heard voices. She stayed stock-still, thinking hysterically that all this excitement was getting too much for her.
Her ears pricked up, alert for the slightest sound, and even though they’d stopped talking, she heard footsteps approach and pause at the base of the tree. Looking down in the rapidly-fading light, she couldn’t make out at first how many of them there were, at least four, possibly more. She didn’t move a muscle, and breathed as quietly as she could.
“This would be as good a place as any for the night.”
“Is it not too open?”
“No, we can see anything coming from a mile off, and if we make for the more wooded areas, we’ll be going back on ourselves.”
The men started to unpack, lit the primus and put water on to boil.
“We’ll cross a river tomorrow,” said one of them, “and we can top up the water supplies.”
“That’s good news.”
“I think we’ve come further today than I thought, another three or four days?”
“It won’t be too soon for me, even though the ground is quite level, it takes a lot of energy to walk in this heat.”
“Ah, but we need to go over those low hills, the camp is on the other side.”
“Coffee anyone?”
Soon the smell of coffee was joined by the sound of cans being opened, and little was said while the men ate.
Amie leant back in the tree and smiled. What were the chances of both her and Jonathon settling down for the night under the same tree, it must be millions to one. This would only happen in some silly book, never in real life. There were several acacia trees dotted all over the veldt, although this one was much larger than all the others, so it was the best choice. Now, how was she going to plan their reunion?
Looking down through the leaves, she saw Jefri nudge Jonathon and whisper to him. Jonathon looked as if he was about to leap to his feet, but Jefri grabbed his arm and spoke softly again in his ear. Jonathon nodded and swiftly reached behind him, picked up his rifle and aimed it up into the branches.
6 WAITING FOR JONATHON
“Jonathon! No!” shrieked Amie, as she tried to scramble out of the tree. “It’s me, it’s Amie!”
Jonathon dropped the gun as if it was red hot and stood up.
“What the hell are you doing here?” he roared.
If Amie had stopped to think, she would’ve realised her behaviour was likely to make him very angry. Walking off alone into the bush had been a very stupid thing to do, putting not only herself at risk, but causing worry and inconvenience to other people as well. For the first time she wondered if Dirk and Helen had gone out to look for her.
She clambered down to the base of the tree and was a little reassured to see the wide grin on Ben’s face, he obviously approved. Jefri looked nonplussed, Charles looked as if he’d seen a ghost, but Jonathon was furious.
“I can explain …” began Amie.
“I don’t care what you have to say,” said her husband. “You had no right to go wandering off by yourself. Anything might have happened to you.”
“Well it didn’t,” Amie responded. “I’m fine, I’m in one piece and it looks as if I made better progress than you did!” she added in a fit of bravado.
Jonathon ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. “I can’t believe you would do such a thing.”
“Well I have, and now I’m here and it’s too far to turn back, so you’re stuck with me,” Amie decided the best form of defence was attack.
Ben held out the can of meat, but Amie shook her head. Despite the fact she was hungry, she wasn’t going to admit it. “No thanks,” she said, “I’ve already had supper.”
Jonathon gave her a dirty look and sat ba
ck down.
Charles spoke for the first time. “I’m sure an extra pair of hands will be useful and Amie might even be a help.”
“I have no idea how,” grumbled Jonathon, “she’s more likely to be nothing but a bloody nuisance.”
“Thanks,” replied Amie. His words hurt. He was being totally unfair; she’d already proved how capable she was in getting this far.
There was an awkward silence and the atmosphere was strained. No one knew quite what to say. Eventually Jonathon said, “Well you’re here now and there’s nothing we can do about it. Just be sure you don’t hold us up.”
While everyone else got out their sleeping bags and prepared to settle down, Amie climbed back into the tree. She felt safer above the ground and this particular tree was quite comfortable. As on previous nights, she knew she wouldn’t sleep deeply, as her sense of survival was wired and she would wake frequently to check for danger. However, apart from a lion roaring in the far distance, the rest of the night passed peacefully.
They set off not long after the sun rose, eating on the move as they pressed on westwards. Ben reckoned the camp was possibly a couple of days march ahead, but he warned they had guards around the camp and he was not sure how far out they patrolled. He told them it was next to a river, wide and fast flowing, and he had counted fourteen tents in all.
They walked for two more days and, on the last night after the evening meal Ben attempted to draw a diagram for them. Using a stick, he marked the outline in the sand. “They have three tents close together at this end; I think these are for those in charge, as they have guards outside. This tent here is where they keep the women. The rest, along the other side of the central area, are used for the soldiers, but these two at the far end, I think that is where the stores are. That is all I know.”
“And they cook here in the middle?” asked Jonathon pointing to the area between the tents.
Amie in Africa Box Set 1 Page 43
