Water

by Hardy, Natasha

  Josh was nodding. “That’s a great idea, Luke, these people obviously liked to depict what was going on. It makes sense that they would carry on drawing wherever they ended up.”

  Even though their argument made sense, I didn’t want to leave the valley. I walked over to the turquoise pool while the boys planned our route to lower Injisuthi cave, watching as the sunlight danced through the crystal-clear water creating patterns.

  The dream from the night before kept pushing its way into daylight. The pool looked as inviting and beautiful as it had when I’d been skipping and playing in it in my dream the night before.

  I was too afraid to swim though, the breathlessness and weight of the water as it engulfed me, those arms pulling me under, too vivid to ignore.

  Instead I satisfied the desire to get into the water by trailing my fingers through it instead, half listening to the boys as I did so.

  Halfway through their conversation, at the edge of my consciousness, I thought I heard the faintest of whispers, as if a few people were discussing something very far away. I couldn’t make out specific words, and the more I concentrated on it the fainter it became.

  “Guys, can you hear that?” I interrupted them, wiping my hand on my shorts.

  They stopped talking and listened. There was nothing.

  “What was it, Alex?” Luke asked.

  “I… I thought I heard talking,” I replied, beginning to doubt myself as the absence of human sound reverberated loudly around the valley. “Sorry, must have been an echo,” I amended as the boys went back to their planning.

  I began trailing my fingers in the water again, playing with a dead leaf that was floating on the surface.

  A few minutes later the whispered voices returned. A little more distinct this time, although I still couldn’t make out any words.

  “Come here.” I called the boys over, excited and a bit freaked out. “Can you hear that?”

  They moved closer to me, straining to hear something. This time the voice remained as distinct as before, but only to me. Both Luke and Josh heard nothing.

  “We’d better get going,” Josh said, throwing a concerned look in my direction.

  “Yeah, it’s a couple of hours’ hike to the next cave,” Luke agreed.

  I didn’t miss the “she’s losing it” look that passed between them. As much as I wanted to stay and investigate the whispered conversation I was convinced I’d heard, I wasn’t about to do it alone.

  We began the climb up the steep sides of the valley soon afterwards, leaving behind the ancient leafy coolness and walking into the baking morning sun.

  Frustration and disappointment mingled with relief as two sides of an equal argument wrestled in my mind. It wasn’t just that what we’d found alluded to the continuation of that ancient tribe; I felt as though there was something specific that I was meant to find in that valley, and I’d skirted around it, maybe even touched it very briefly, but there was no resolution. I was leaving as ignorant as I’d arrived and that frustrated me.

  And then the memory of the dream would resurface and I couldn’t move fast enough to get away, because whatever had helped those poor terrified women might not have been friendly after all.

  We walked for what felt like an age at a ridiculous angle, using the roots of the old trees to pull ourselves up, the effort reducing us to silence.

  Quite suddenly the ground evened out onto a softly undulating plain of waving, golden-green, ripe summer grasses, interspersed with spiky aloes and unexpectedly beautiful flowers. The roar of the waterfall was crystal clear after the muffled closeness of the valley floor.

  Grunting and using sign language to stop us Josh heaved air into his lungs, hands on his knees. I plopped onto the grass next to him, cheeks pink and hair wet with sweat.

  “The cave we’ll spend tonight in is just over that ridge.” Luke pointed to a black scar of cliffs in the distance. As we neared the beautifully formidable heights shaded in grey and black, we discussed how best to tackle them.

  The hill crouched in front of us, brooding. It wasn’t nearly as steep as the valley walls we’d climbed earlier, but it was steep enough. About three-quarters of the way up rain had washed the soil away to reveal the earth’s skeleton. Black rock, jagged and angry, framed the horizon, beyond which a bright blue sky formed a contrasting backdrop to the searing unrelenting heat of the African sun.

  The boys politely suggested a longer and easier way round.

  “Won’t we find more cave paintings on them?” I asked.

  “We might, Alex, but they’re really tough to climb and we don’t have the right equipment.”

  We carried on walking for what felt like hours, taking a seemingly endless and exhausting well defined trail that took us around the side of the cliffs and eventually along the top of the ridge.

  Had I been more alert I’m sure I would have noticed how well worn the path was, but I was tired, and I wasn’t thinking and I was lagging further and further behind the boys.

  The first hint of danger came with a strange coughing bark that echoed off the hills. I froze. Fear’s metallic flavour filled my mouth.

  Luke and Josh both dropped their packs and started scrabbling for their guns.

  A streak of grey through the grass between the boys and me confirmed my greatest fear about this trip.

  We had unwittingly walked into a troop of baboons.

  Baboons aren’t just another type of monkey. They are huge. They’re the size and have the nature of a pit bull but with four hands, opposable thumbs and canines to rival any leopard’s. They are aggressive and have been known to attack solitary leopards and even lions – and win. They are also smart and notoriously territorial, which, all in all, amounted to bad news for me.

  I was isolated from the boys.

  I was smaller than the boys.

  I was the only one without a gun.

  I was a female, and I had food in my backpack and they knew that, and that made me the natural target.

  Luke was the first one to stand up with his gun loaded and on his shoulder. He swung around as another baboon darted past him and froze when he saw how far behind them I was and how many baboons were between us.

  The look of panic that crossed his face as he assessed the situation frightened me even more.

  “Alex, stay very still,” Luke called. “I can’t shoot at anything until we’re together in case they attack you.”

  “OK,” I squeaked.

  Josh and Luke began edging slowly toward me, each step resulting in agitated chattering and the occasional coughing shout of one of the male baboons.

  The boys were about thirty paces from me when an enormous male baboon stalked up to me. His shoulder came up to my mid-thigh and the deference the other baboons showed him, cowering away from him as he passed them, marked him as the troop leader.

  He sat down ten paces from me and yawned, displaying all of his yellowed teeth.

  I remembered from Dad’s bush education that baboons don’t yawn because they’re tired, baboons yawn to show you their teeth.

  “Luke?” I hissed, my voice rising in panic.

  “Look at the ground and back away very very slowly.” His voice was tense.

  I obeyed, listening to the low conversation between Luke and Josh as they tried to find a way out for me.

  “Move to the right, Alex,” Luke directed.

  The ground was sloping downward making balancing difficult. As I edged backwards my foot slipped, and I dipped forward suddenly. The baboon reacted to my sudden movement by leaping at me and puffing out his fur making him look even bigger than before.

  “Steady, Alex.” Luke’s voice cracked with strain.

  I glanced up to see where he and Josh were. They both had their guns trained on the baboon, but my position meant that if they missed him, they would hit me instead.

  My stomach lurched. There was a really good chance I wouldn’t be getting out of this unscathed.

  I took another step backwa
rds, the slope of the hill making it more and more difficult to hold my footing.

  The baboon barked again. A few of the smaller males sprang to his side.

  I could hear Josh and Luke whispering again.

  “Alex, on my count I want you to take two more slow steps backwards and then fall flat on your stomach,” Luke instructed.

  I nodded as fear twisted though me.

  “Step one. Step two.”

  I wobbled on the sloping ground.

  “On the count of three, Alex.”

  I sucked in a breath and tensed my muscles to make the fall faster than his bullet.

  “One; two; three.”

  I threw myself down.

  Three things happened at once.

  A loud bang as both boys shot at the baboon.

  The animal’s angry shout as they missed it.

  The horrible sensation of slithering backwards and then falling and falling.

  Chapter 8

  Introductions

  I hit the water at an awkward angle, my head snapping backwards as the air was knocked out of my lungs, the icy water closing over my head.

  I was in trouble.

  I managed to clamp my mouth shut as I fought the panic and dark spots that danced in front of my eyes. I tried to move my arms and legs, to pull myself back towards the receding light of the surface, but they were so heavy and it was such an effort.

  To add to my horror, silken strands of viscous water moved over my arms, feeling like fingers that were pulling me further and further down.

  Sinking.

  I screamed as the pain rushed up the sides of my head again. It was a useless sound, muffled and very weak, and it didn’t even come close to countering the relentless searing pain that had me curling in on myself. And then with a sharp jolt I’d hoped never to feel again, it was gone, and I knew I was dying.

  Dreamy thoughts flitted through my mind.

  Mom; Dad; Luke; Josh; home; air.

  Air!

  Warm air was forced into my lungs.

  Strong hands holding my face.

  Water rushing past me.

  Lips clamped firmly over mine forcing air into my starved lungs.

  I must have passed out because the next thing I was conscious of was rough rock pressing into my aching back and hands smoothing the hair from my face, and an urgent voice in my ear begging.

  “Wake up; please wake up!”

  I concentrated on opening my eyes, pushing my eyelids up with effort.

  A halo of light surrounded him.

  I focused on his mouth which was still moving in muttered petition as his hands continued to smooth my hair, his eyes raking my face.

  I dragged another breath into my lungs and closed my eyes so that I could concentrate. My thoughts moved sluggishly as I mentally ticked off sensations.

  Toes still moving – check

  Sensation in my legs – check

  Back… sore but not excruciating.

  Fingers – check

  Face – check

  Breathing…

  Breathing was difficult, as though my lungs were still compressed by the weight of the water.

  A stab of alarm pierced my dreamy thoughts breathing shouldn’t be this difficult. Something was squashing my lungs.

  I lifted my arm with effort as I tried to find whatever it was that was holding me down. My hand found his bare chest which I pushed slightly.

  He moved off me quickly, muttering apologies. I curled onto my side as the aches from my fall began to register. I was still focused on him, feeling strangely detached from my body as my logical mind told me that I must be dead or at the very least dreaming.

  I watched him settle next to me on the rock, trying to force my confused brain to give me comforting answers.

  This – boy?… Man? I couldn’t decide how old he was – had saved my life.

  I clung to that thought.

  Where had he come from? I’d never seen him before and was sure I’d have noticed other hikers.

  His forehead was creased in obvious anxiety as he continued to touch my face.

  He looked up suddenly the light of the sun behind him momentarily blinding me.

  He took my face in his hands and lightly brushed a kiss on my cheek before whispering, “Be careful, Alexandra.”

  And then he was gone.

  The explosion of a gun going off, angry animal noises, and Luke and Josh yelling obscenities at the baboons, preceded the echoed pounding of their feet and eventually Luke’s anxious voice.

  “Alex.” His voice ricocheted off the rock surrounding me.

  I took stock of my surroundings for the first time. I was on the edge of an enormous sunken rock pool. Smooth rounded rock walls scooped skywards and then curled in on themselves. On the opposite end of the pool from where I lay the rocks formed a solid ceiling, the water inky beneath the canopy.

  “Alex!” Luke and Josh shouted, their voices strained.

  I could see them crouching on what must appear to them to be solid ground, but from my perspective was only a half-metre worth of rock above the cave roof, as they searched the water below them.

  “Over here, Luke.” My voice sounded weak even to me, and I wondered if they could hear me.

  “Alex!” Josh yelled again.

  I summoned the last of my strength and yelled as loudly as I could. “Here!”

  “Are you OK?” Luke shouted, his voice worried.

  I thought about my answer for a few seconds. Was I OK? I knew I’d almost drowned, and I knew that someone had saved me, but I couldn’t see him anywhere, which made me question whether he had, in fact, saved me or whether I’d imagined him altogether.

  My gaze swept the pool, the rocks and then up to where the boys were edging forward on their bellies to the edge of the rock ledge trying to see me. It was obvious from the freshly exposed earth and floating clumps of grass beneath it that I’d fallen into the pool on that side. I swivelled my now aching head to my right, a dark hulk behind me startling me until I realised it was my backpack.

  I stared at the backpack stupidly as my brain clicked laboriously through everything I’d seen so far. His existence solidified in my mind. There was no way I would be on this side of the pool having fallen from that height, landing as I had, with my backpack on and then having to have swum all the way across the pool, in sodden heavy clothes and with the pack’s weight strapped to me.

  My analysis, although frustratingly sluggish to me, had only taken a few seconds to work through.

  “Yes, I’m OK,” I answered Luke.

  “We can’t see you, Alex, can you see us?” Josh yelled.

  I sat up watching spots dance in front of my eyes and edged forward to the edge of the boulder. I waved my hand out over the water and yelled, “I’m on the opposite end to you on a rock.”

  The simple action exhausted me, so I moved back from the water and lay down again, breathing deeply and closing my eyes against the nausea and dizziness that threatened to overwhelm me.

  “OK, we’re going to try to figure out how to get you out of there,” Luke yelled back.

  It was only with Luke’s statement that I realised my dilemma. From this angle, the pool seemed completely encased in rock, the angle of the walls impossible to climb without proper equipment.

  So where had my saviour gone? There were no ropes hanging from the sides of the hollow and Luke and Josh would’ve seen him if he’d scrambled out of the pool. I stared at the inky ominous water that lapped gently beneath the rocky overhang.

  It wasn’t possible, I told myself sternly as I connected the very obvious dots that led to a completely irrational answer. The only other way for him to have left would have been to go into the cave somehow.

  I stared at the obsidian water. No light suggested that it was an exit from the relentless rock that held the water, and me, within its grasp.

  My dazed mind wandered towards a ridiculous conclusion. Unless he’d swum, there didn’t seem to be an obviou
s route out of the pool.

  I could hear Luke and Josh walking carefully around the perimeter of the pool, little shards of rock plopping into the water marking their progress.

  Eventually, Luke’s face appeared on the opposite side of the pool to where I was sitting.

  “How you doing, Al?” he asked again. I propped myself up on my elbow and shrugged, tears welling in my eyes as relief flooded through me.

  Luke’s forehead creased into a frown, belying his calm voice.

  “So we reckon the best bet is to lower a rope down to you and then pull you out,” he said in a soothing tone, before moving back from the edge of the pool only to be replaced by Josh, who grinned impishly at me.

  “Good to see you, Al. Enjoying the sun tanning?”

  I smiled a wobbly smile back, too tired and scared to answer him.

  Josh directed Luke until he was directly above me, and a few moments later a rope tumbled over the ledge. It hung about two metres from the rock I was sitting on directly over the deep-blue water.

  “Alex, we need you to get into the water and then tie your pack to the rope.” Josh’s voice echoed as I watched him scamper around the edge of the pool to where Luke must have been.

  The thought of going back into the water that had almost claimed me sent panic racing through my veins. My breathing, coming in short shallow gasps, echoed off the rock walls and seemed to get louder and louder.

  “Alex, what’s wrong?” Luke’s voice floated down to me. He sounded worried.

  “N-n-nothing.” My teeth chattered together, betraying me.

  Just take a deep breath, I told myself, you can do this.

  “You can do this, Alex.” Luke echoed my thoughts. “Just stay calm.”

  I slipped into the frigid water, hauling the already sodden pack off the rock. It was like being attached to a rock as it almost immediately pulled me under, it was so heavy. I kicked as hard as I could but within a few seconds realised I didn’t have the strength to keep us both at the surface.

  My head had just dipped below the water, panic closing my throat, when the pack seemed to grow suddenly lighter and my thrashing legs managed to push me back. I peered down through the rippling water, trying to work out how it was possible that I was at the surface, and moving, almost without trying, toward the dangling rope. A shadow that I was too afraid to explore extended from beneath my pack.