“Are you OK?” asked Amie, half turning to see if she was injured.
“No, no I’ll be fine, but I can feel a headache coming on,” Charlie rubbed her neck.
“Have you got something to take for it, aspirin or paracetamol?”
“Uh, no.”
Amie leaned forward to open the glove compartment, and turned to hand her a bubble pack. “Here take one of these, it might help.” She smiled at Charlie in the rear view mirror.
Amie had only taken her eyes off the road for a moment, so she missed the drama that unfolded about fifty yards ahead. They were passing yet another village, when out of nowhere a small crowd appeared on the side of the road. This time it wasn’t a happy bunch of children, but several adults who would have seen them coming from miles away. In the lead vehicle Tony slowed down, wondering why the men were all waving at him to stop. He eased his foot further off the accelerator and dropped his speed to a crawl, but as he drew close to them, one of the villagers pushed a small child out into the road. The little girl, who couldn’t have been more than two years old, half flew, half staggered straight into his Land Rover, where her pitiful little body was hit by the edge of the bumper then flung into the air before falling away like a rag doll to land motionless on the road.
10 AMIE LOCKED IN
Tony was so shocked that he slammed his foot on the accelerator instead of the brake. The Land Rover shot forward, running over the little girl’s legs as it tore out of the village and up the road.
The three in the Hilux behind didn’t see exactly what had happened, but one glance at the furious villagers who were shouting, screaming and crowding into the road shrieking for her to stop, encouraged Amie to follow suit. She swerved violently to avoid the human barriers and raced after the Land Rover at top speed.
Even with her foot flat on the floor, it took almost half an hour to catch up with the rest of the party, and only then because they’d stopped on the side of the road. When Amie parked behind them, Tony and Kirsty were standing beside the Land Rover shouting and screaming at each other. Tony was shaking Kirsty so hard it was a wonder her teeth weren’t falling out.
“You stupid, stupid Yank!” he screeched. “Did you want us all butchered?”
Amie, Charlie and Nigel all piled out and ran over to them. Amie grabbed Kirsty and pulled her away from the outraged Tony. “What’s going on?” she shouted. “What happened back there? Why did you take off like that?”
“He left her, he ran over her, for Chrissake – he just left her,” shrieked Kirsty. “She’s probably dead and we could have saved her life! We should have stopped.”
“Didn’t you see what they did, you stupid woman?” Tony raised his hand as if to hit her. “They deliberately flung her in front of the car. They wanted us to kill her. They expected us to stop so they could bribe us, get money out of us for her. And, if we didn’t have enough to satisfy them, can you imagine what would have happened then?”
“They threw a child under the car?” Charlie’s eyes were wide in disbelief.
Amie put her arm around Kirsty. “It’s happened before, many times,” she said softly. “And I have to agree with Tony. It would have been madness to stop. It’s the law in many countries that if you kill or injure a pedestrian then you are responsible for them and their family for the rest of their lives. At the very least they would have stolen everything we have and possibly even killed us.”
“Exactly!” Tony was panting. “Look, I know it was a shit thing to drive on, but it was the only thing to do Kirsty, believe me.”
“But a child? To do that on purpose? That’s inhuman,” Kirsty spluttered.
“They would have planned it from the moment they saw our dust clouds on the horizon. These people are bloody starving, Kirsty; they’ll do whatever it takes to survive and if it’s one less mouth to feed, so what?” Tony drove his point home.
Amie glanced at Nigel to see how he was reacting, but it was impossible to tell. He stood there staring at the other four, mute and expressionless.
“It would be pointless going back now,” Amie said. “It happened and there is nothing we can do about it. I suggest we get out of Zimbabwe as quickly as we can. It’s unlikely they’ll have the wherewithal to let them know at the border, but let’s not take that chance. Kirsty, you come with Nigel and me, and Charlie you go with Tony. I suggest we keep going.”
For a moment nobody moved. Then the silence was split by a pair of hadidahs screeching as they flew overhead, the light reflecting off the fluorescent pink colouring on their wings, their huge grey bodies seeming to float in the air. It shocked them all into the present as slowly everyone climbed into the vehicles and headed for the border.
The tension was palpable as they approached the barrier with its small huts on either side. Kirsty had not said a word, but cowered beside Amie in the front seat, still shaking every now and again.
“Buck up, Kirsty,” Amie hissed. “You look as if you’d just robbed a bank. It wasn’t your fault; you weren’t even driving. Just take deep breaths, keep counting to ten and relax – otherwise these guys will sense something and we’ll all be in trouble.”
Kirsty sniffed, wiped the sweat off her face and blew her nose.
“What if they’ve heard?” Nigel ventured from the back seat. “What if they know? Any bright ideas about what we tell them?”
“It’s most unlikely, Nigel. If they had cell phones I’m sure they’ve run out of calling cards by now. When you’re starving the only thing on your mind is food. Just hang in there a few more minutes and it’ll all be over.”
“It will never be over, not for me, not for that child’s parents. That child is dead.” Amie preferred Kirsty when she was singing tunelessly to her iPod, this maudlin version was becoming tiresome.
It took forever to get through the Zimbabwean side of the border. Again, the guards insisted they unload everything from both vehicles and they poked, prodded and peered into every bag, package and box. They were keen to charge export duty, but Tony argued that they’d already paid import duty on the same goods they had brought in from Botswana only a day ago. For heaven’s sake, he argued, most of the stuff you couldn’t even buy in Zimbabwe – most of the shops were empty.
Several hundred more Rand had exchanged hands before the soldiers finally let them through. On a positive note, Kirsty had become more pissed off than sad due to the officials’ intractable behaviour and that helped her recover some of her equilibrium. It was easy to have sympathy and compassion for those with so little, yet at the same time, they could drive you to distraction when they behaved in such an unreasonable way.
Once through no man’s land, their reception could not have been a bigger contrast. Again they were greeted by happy, smiling Africans who were polite and friendly, welcoming them into Ruanga and insisting they have a good and pleasant trip. They could still be seen smiling and waving in the rear view mirror as the vehicles drove away on the tar road.
But only a couple of kilometres further on it came to an abrupt halt, changing into a wide, but dusty gravel highway stretching for miles ahead.
If anyone had told the group how different the country was on the other side of the border, none of them would have believed it, but now they could see it for themselves.
The little villages they passed through were surrounded by well-tended maize meal patches, vegetable gardens and clean swept areas around the traditional huts. The people looked healthy and happy and waved as the trucks barrelled along in a cloud of dust. The whole atmosphere was laid back and the aid workers felt their tension ease.
Once out of the village areas, they parked up on the side of the gravel road and consulted the map and the GPS. “It’s only when you relax, you realise how uptight you were,” Amie remarked to no one in particular.
“Hmm,” grunted Tony as if he’d suffered no tension at all. “The first village on our schedule is about two hours away.” He consulted his list. “Bwenjeje, or however you pronounce it, but it�
�s not on the main road and we don’t have exact co-ordinates for it ...”
“We can ask the locals for directions,” Kirsty suggested.
“I’m not sure I would rely on that,” Amie told her. “Most locals have little idea of geography or direction and we could be driving around for ages.”
It occurred to Amie – and not for the first time – how disorganised this trip was. Wouldn’t their training have given them a better idea of where they were going? Hers hadn’t, but she wasn’t a real aid worker at all, and her instruction in Scotland had been very different. Why they had flown in to Botswana, then driven right across Zimbabwe to get here when there was a perfectly adequate airport in Atari, the capital of Ruanga, was a mystery. No one had asked that obvious question, no one had brought that particular elephant into the room. There was something not quite right about it all. And if they were there for quite another purpose, why hadn’t they all been briefed together and told what their targets were? While Tony fit the description of a hard-nosed, bad-tempered bully, she didn’t think for a moment that either Nigel or Kirsty posed much of a threat. And Charlie looked pretty harmless. But, what did Amie know, she’d never been involved with aid workers or how they were supposed to operate. Hardly comparable with helping out at the orphanage with Mrs Motswezi; a life time ago now.
When Tony turned off the main road and headed into the bush, the road narrowed to a track only wide enough for a single horse and cart. Amie followed as far behind as she dared, keen to avoid the clouds of muck flying up from the dusty ground. The road was bumpy and little used, vegetation growing sparsely across the track. After half an hour the Land Rover came to an abrupt halt, then slid down an incline into a bed of deep sand. Behind the wheel Tony tried reversing and then going forward but each time the wheels sank lower and lower until the vehicle was axle deep in the loose soil.
“Oh shit! Just what we need!” howled Tony. He leaped out and kicked the front tyre.
“Like that’ll help,” said Charlie walking round to examine the damage. Amie brought the Hilux to a stop and everyone piled out.
“Now what the fuck do we do?” Tony looked furious.
Kirsty looked on the point of tears. “Are we going to be stuck here? What are we going to do?”
Amie was astonished at their behaviour. Had no one ever told them how to handle a situation like this?
“It’s no big problem,” she said. They all turned round to stare at her.
“Oh yeah?” Tony’s voice dripped with sarcasm. “What do you suggest we do, just lift it up and carry it out?”
“Hardly. We have two choices,” Amie replied. “We winch it out, which is easier and if that doesn’t work, we jack up the car and get it out that way.”
To everyone’s surprise it was Nigel who went round to the front of the Land Rover and pulled the wire off the winch, then walked over to the nearest tree where he wound it around the base of the trunk securing it with the hook. He returned, climbed into the driver’s seat and told everyone to stand clear. He revved the engine and slowly the wire cable took up the strain and pulled the car out of the sand and onto firmer ground.
Amie turned to Charlie and Kirsty. “What training did you have before you left home?” she enquired. “Didn’t they cover basic stuff like this?”
There was silence for a couple of moments. Kirsty was the first to own up. “I did a three-day course on line,” she said. “It was mostly about first aid and how to use water tablets and the dangers of tropical diseases, that sort of thing.”
Amie turned to look at Charlie who sniffed disdainfully. “I have a master’s degree which qualifies me for this sort of work.” But not, thought Amie, simple and practical things like getting yourself out of trouble, obviously. The whole group was odd. Who in their right mind would send unprepared innocents out into these sparsely inhabited parts of Africa?
Once Nigel had re-wound the winch, Tony simply nodded at him, got back into the Land Rover with Charlie and drove off. Amie was fuming. Selfish idiot. What if they needed help if they ran into a patch of deep sand?
Nigel was staring at the ground. “Someone else has been along here recently,” he said.
“Are you sure?” Amie walked over to look at the tracks Nigel indicated. “Those aren’t our tyre marks?”
“No, see the tread is different.”
Amie shrugged. “Well, we can’t be the only vehicle in the area I guess. Come on, we’ll lose them if we don’t get a move on.”
While Nigel took the wheel of the Hilux and inched slowly forward, Amie was able to direct him past the sandy area and they followed in the dust storm Tony had left behind. Normally, it was wise to hang back, too many small particles in the air would clog up the air filter very quickly, but they didn’t want to lose sight of him.
The whole episode had increased the tension in the group and it was nearly dark by the time they’d caught up with Tony and reached the first village. As they drove in Amie was surprised to see that it looked quite deserted, no sign of the usual crowd of excited children, no women cooking an evening meal, no old men lolling under the trees. This far from the main centres, vehicles were a rarity and as they unfolded their cramped limbs to step onto the ground, the silence was deafening.
“Right,” Tony barked, once more in command. “Time to find a place to camp and get ourselves organized.”
“Shouldn’t we ask the chief first?” Amie asked. “That’s protocol, although I don’t see anyone to ask, this village looks abandoned. Are you sure this is the right place, Tony?”
“Well, of course we’ll go and have a chat with him, after we’ve set up ...”
“No,” Amie interrupted. “We need to get his permission to set up anywhere in the village. He may even refuse us.”
“OK then, we’ll set up over there, outside the village then he can’t object.”
“Tony, we’ve no idea how far his jurisdiction covers. He could be the chief for several villages around here and all the land in between. He may not even be here, and then we’ll have to wait for him to return to ask permission.”
“But we’re here to help them! Don’t they realize that? They should just be grateful we’re here.” Charlie stamped her foot.
“Why should they think that? We turn up out of the blue and start ordering them around because we think we know best? Think again, Charlie. They’ve been living here for thousands of years ...”
Tony butted in. “OK, OK, you don’t have to go on about it. We’ll go find the chief then and have a pow-wow with him.” He marched off towards the larger huts on the far side of the kraal. One or two women suddenly appeared in the gloom but neither of them called out a greeting, which Amie thought strange. This was not usual for Africa where the people were renowned for their hospitality. Here the atmosphere was bordering on hostility; she could feel eyes watching them and spied a group of men standing close together on the far side of the village.
The sun had disappeared, but still the sweat ran down their faces, their clothes sticking to their skin. Heat radiated from the metal vehicles and the engines crackled as they began to cool. Kirsty leant back against the Hilux and bounced away as the hot metal burned her skin. She swore.
Tony strode into the central area and looked around. It wasn’t obvious which hut belonged to the chief, most of them looked the same size. The two African women followed him with their eyes but didn’t move or speak. It reminded Amie of her last trip to the waxworks museum, only here the atmosphere was hostile. She felt uneasy, the hairs on the back of her neck were raised. Were the others picking up the same vibes? Had news of the accident across the border reached here? No, not possible, but something was going on, and it wasn’t good.
“I don’t think this is a very good idea,” Kirsty whispered. “We’re not welcome here. We should go.”
“Perhaps we’ve come to the wrong village,” Charlie whispered. “We were told the villagers were expecting us and would be thrilled to see us.”
“T
hese villagers certainly aren’t,” said Amie. “Maybe we should leave, drive on to the next one.”
Tony paused some distance from the group of silent men who stood waiting on the far side of the compound. “Come on, you lot! What’s keeping you? Get a move on,” he called back.
Nigel and the two girls hesitated then shuffled over to join him. Charlie tugged at Tony’s arm, but he shrugged her off and made for the silently waiting men.
Amie took the opportunity to slide round the side of the Hilux and take out the SIS cell phone. She quickly typed in a message to Maddy. Sure, this is the right holiday place? She wrote. You said the locals were friendly but they most certainly are not.
Just as she was about to press ‘send’ she sensed a presence behind her and whipping round caught a brief glimpse of a familiar face. A hand came crashing down on the side of her neck and the world went black.
Had she been conscious she would have seen him rip the phone out of her hand, glance briefly at the screen, drop it on the ground and stamp on it, shattering the glass. He picked up the pieces and flung them high up into the branches of an acacia tree where some lodged way up among the top branches, while other bits fluttered back down to the ground.
He turned his attention to Amie. He picked her up and threw her over his shoulder like a rag doll, opened the door of the nearest hut, and flung her inside, then backed out and fastened it securely behind him. He disappeared into the darkness.
Tony marched closer to the group without glancing back to see if the others were following him.
Charlie, Nigel and Kirsty hung back and watched.
“Where’s he going?” asked Kirsty.
Cut for Life Page 10
