by J. Burchett
At last they reached an outcrop of rocks that pushed up through the yellow grass.
“Food time,” said Ben, flopping down under the welcome shade of an overhanging ledge. He unwrapped an energy bar.
“They’ve stopped as well,” said Zoe, watching the screen on her BUG.
Mr Hall was tucking into a plateful of food, which they saw each time he dipped his head to shovel up another forkful.
“Eat up, boy!” he said through a mouth full of food. “This is top rate tucker!”
For a moment Lester came into shot. He was toying miserably with the food on his plate.
“Tell him what we’ve got in store for tomorrow, Chitundu,” barked Mr Hall. “That’ll bring a smile to his face.”
Chitundu appeared now, squatting a little way from his guests and looking pleased with himself.
“We will make camp tonight and at first light tomorrow we will reach the elephants where they go to drink,” he said. “I have lamed a calf by throwing a bolas at him. The snare is cutting into his leg and slowing him down.”
“Disgusting man!” hissed Zoe, as Chitundu continued to outline his plan.
“His mother will not leave him so they are gradually getting further behind the herd. It will be easy for your father to shoot her. She is a magnificent beast – good tusks.”
“Excellent!” came Mr Hall’s voice. He sounded excited. “She’ll get pride of place in my hallway.”
“What do you mean?” came an appalled shout. Lester was staring at his father, a look of shock on his face. “You didn’t say you were going to shoot anything,” he went on. “We’re here to photograph the animals close up, aren’t we?”
“Yes.” The scene moved up and down as Mr Hall nodded his head. “Nice and close!”
Zoe felt sick at his smug tone.
Lester went on. “I don’t want to hunt! I’ve told you loads of times, but you never listen. It’s illegal here in Kenya anyway.”
“That makes it more of a thrill,” came Mr Hall’s voice. “Anyway, Chitundu’s taken care of all that, haven’t you.”
“Yes, sir.” Chitundu was grinning at his boss.
“No-one suspects a thing, do they?” said Mr Hall. “Although I did wonder why you brought the trek forwards suddenly. There’s no problem, is there?”
“No,” said Chitundu. “The only reason we set out this morning is because I had to change my leave with one of the other chefs.”
“What about the Samburu?” asked Mr Hall. “Do they know what’s going on?”
“They will not bother us.” Chitundu was smirking. “I have been doing this for a while now. The people in my village claim to have some stupid bond with the elephants and there were protests at first, but I got some…friends to pay them a visit. A few huts got burned, and they learned the errors of their ways.”
Zoe turned to Ben. “So that’s what happened at the Samburu village,” she said.
Ben nodded. “It certainly explains why the tribespeople were so frightened.”
They turned back to the screen as Lester spoke.
“This is awful, Dad.” He’d come up close to his father. “I don’t want anything to do with it.”
“Don’t be a wimp! We’ve got a special treat for you. Haven’t we, Chitundu?”
“I have a gun especially for your height and weight,” he answered. “The young calf will be barely able to move now with that bad leg. He will be perfect for your first kill.”
“You’re not getting Tomboi,” Ben muttered. “Not if we get there first.”
“I don’t like it.” Lester sounded scared. “You need to toughen up, son,” Mr Hall said brusquely. “And I know just how to do it. I’ll give you a boxing lesson. It’ll make you strong and sharpen up your reflexes. Then you’ll be as good a hunter as me.”
“I don’t want to.”
Ben and Zoe could see Lester backing away from his father.
“Nonsense! Take a swing!”
“No! Leave me alone –”
“Put your fists up, boy!” came Mr Hall’s challenge. He seemed to lunge at his son and the next minute the scene on the BUG shook and spun.
Zoe gasped. “His hat’s fallen off…” She and Ben got a sudden view of a huge boot sole, then there was a nasty crunching sound and the screen went black. They looked at each other in utter dismay.
“He’s trodden on it!” cried Ben. “He’s broken the OWL!”
“This is serious!” said Zoe. “We can’t keep track of them now. We won’t know how far they’ve got.”
“Then we’re going to have to pick up our pace,” said Ben. “I’ll message Uncle Stephen to let him know we’ve lost our link.”
By nightfall Ben and Zoe were exhausted. They’d ignored their aching legs and pushed on until the sky was glowing red and the sun was a huge orange ball on the horizon. The heat of the day was already beginning to cool.
“We should stop,” said Ben. “We need to sleep.”
“But there’s no shelter here,” protested Zoe. “Look, over there. That small rise in the ground. It’s not far. We can lie in our sleeping bags and still see across the plain.”
“We won’t be able to light a fire up there, though,” said Ben, as they carried on. “It’ll be spotted. Lucky our sleeping bags are warm.”
When they reached the little hillock, Ben shook out the ultra thin sleeping bags – clever inventions of their godfather’s. They made themselves as comfortable as they could on the hard ground.
Zoe handed him an energy bar. “Fish and chips!” She grinned. “Followed by chocolate ice cream!”
“I wish!” groaned Ben.
Supper over, they lay down, listening to the rustling of animals in the grass, the howls of wild dogs and the manic laughing call of hyenas.
Ben checked his BUG. “Just making sure the scent disperser’s still on,” he said. “Most of the predators around here like to hunt at night.”
Zoe stared up at the thousands of stars, sharp and bright against the deep black sky. Eventually, she fell into a troubled sleep, full of guns and dying elephants.
“Zoe!”
She woke with a start.
“Don’t move!”
Ben was lying stock still beside her. It was very dark and her breath came out in clouds in the cold air. And then she saw it. An even darker shape padding around their backpacks, almost close enough to touch. They had a visitor – a huge, hungry-looking lioness.
CHAPTER NINE
Ben and Zoe listened to the soft snuffling of the lioness as she prowled around them. The lioness padded up and down, pushing at their backpacks with her nose. One toppled as she touched it and she sprang back, snarling. Zoe’s eyes flickered with terror, but she didn’t dare move, not even to reach for her tranquilliser gun.
Now the lioness was out of their view, but they could hear a strange scratching sound, then a “bleep”. Zoe’s heart sank as she realised that the lioness must be pawing at her BUG! If she damaged it the scent disperser might stop working – then she’d be sure to catch their scent. Zoe could feel panic rising in her chest. Remember your Wild training, she told herself. Don’t move. Slow, shallow breathing.
Ben lay still. He sensed that Zoe was getting desperate, but there was nothing he could do. Now the lioness’s huge head came into his view, looming over him. He closed his eyes as her muzzle grew closer and closer. He could feel her hot breath on his face. It smelt of blood. Her nose touched his cheek. It was strange how gentle this ferocious animal was being when at any minute it could… Ben shut out the thought.
Then they heard a distant bleating sound. The lioness whipped round and sped off towards it. Alarmed cries and the pounding of hooves filled the air.
For a moment neither Ben nor Zoe moved. At last they sat up and stared anxiously into the dark, looking for any signs of the lioness returning.
Ben reached out for Zoe’s BUG. “Yuck! It’s got lion slobber on it, but at least it’s still working.”
“I was so
frightened,” breathed Zoe shakily. “I nearly gave us away.”
Her brother put his arm round her. “You’ve just avoided being eaten by the top predator in Africa,” he said. “I reckon it’s OK to be scared.”
Zoe gave him a grateful smile. “I hope whatever it was that was making that noise got away.”
“Just think of the lioness as an alarm clock,” Ben went on. “I’ve never woken up so quickly in my life!”
“Let’s get going,” said Zoe, rubbing her arms to warm herself. “The hunters won’t be up yet, so we’ll gain some time. Due east now, to the waterhole.” She pulled out their small, lightweight night-vision goggles and handed a pair to Ben.
Ben nodded and tossed her a cereal bar.
“You can’t be hungry already!” exclaimed Zoe. “It’s only four o’clock!”
“Got to have breakfast,” declared Ben.
The night world turned green as they put on their goggles. They trod as softly as possible between the clearly defined trees and deep grasses, checking the satellite map as they went.
“What’s that sound?” asked Ben suddenly, clutching at Zoe’s backpack strap. “I can hear a sort of hissing ahead. And look, it’s like the ground’s moving!”
The children backed away. A wide column of ants was marching along, completely blocking their path. It stretched endlessly in both directions. The ants scrambled over sticks and leaves in their way, not stopping for an instant. Every now and then one or two larger, square-headed ants could be seen.
“They must be the soldier ants of the colony,” whispered Zoe, pointing down at them. “They’re as long as my finger.”
Ben tapped a key on his BUG and held it towards the seething mass of insects. The hissing sound was even louder now.
“At least it wasn’t a snake,” said Zoe in relief. “It must just be the noise of them marching. Can we get through the column?”
Her brother shook his head. “Dorylus,” he read. “Also known as safari ants.”
At that moment a large stray centipede scuttled towards the column. The nearest ants immediately swarmed all over it. Soon it stopped writhing and its body was eaten within seconds. Zoe shuddered. “We’d better wait until they’ve all gone.”
Ben laughed. “There’s probably millions of them. We’ll be here for days!”
“If only those acacia trees were growing nearer each other,” said Zoe. “We could use them as a bridge.”
“And if there were vines we could do a Tarzan swing right over the ants,” joked Ben. “No point wasting any more time. Maybe we can get across further along.”
They trudged alongside the ants, keeping a safe distance. They saw other insects that were unwise enough to get close being engulfed and eaten in a flash.
“It’s like they have their route and they’re going to stick to it,” said Ben.
They could see the wide column of ants weaving its way across the rough open ground into the dark distance.
“This isn’t working,” said Zoe anxiously, checking the map on the BUG. “They’re heading south now and we need to go east. They’re pushing us off our route. We have to cross them somehow or it’ll be too late by the time we get to the waterhole.”
“We can’t yet,” said Ben. “All we can do is carry on.”
“Look!” Zoe was staring ahead. “The trees here are growing closer together. Follow me.” She grasped the trunk of the nearest one and pulled herself up into its branches. Ben could see that its leaves interlaced with a smaller tree on the other side of the ant column.
Soon Zoe was hanging by her arms from a high branch, which shook dangerously as she moved. Then she leant out and grasped a branch from the smaller tree. It seemed sturdy enough. “Here goes!”
The branch sunk under her weight as she swung on to it and for a moment she thought she was going to lose her grip. She glanced down at the teeming river of ants, remembering what happened to the centipede that had got in their way. It didn’t bear thinking about. Knuckles white, she held on tightly and made it to the trunk, hand over hand. She jumped to the ground, a look of triumph on her face.
“Nothing to it!” she called.
Ben shinned up the trunk and edged across until he was hanging from the smaller tree. The branch began to creak ominously.
“Hurry!” called Zoe. “It’s going to break.”
“Nearly there,” Ben assured her as he scrabbled along.
A loud crack suddenly split the air and the branch tore away from the trunk. Ben plummeted downwards, kicking madly to land clear of the column of deadly insects. He rolled over as he landed and stood up quickly.
“That was close!” he gasped. Then he leapt in pain and clutched his arm. “Ow!”
Zoe could see a large ant on Ben’s elbow. Then she spotted two more, higher up his arm. She dashed them off his skin, leaving dark marks. Ben yelped each time.
“It’s OK,” she said. “They’ve gone.”
“Thanks,” groaned Ben, examining the bites. “Pity they left their teeth behind!”
Zoe shone her torch. Stuck deep in Ben’s skin were three sets of tiny ant fangs. She tried to pull them out, but Ben yanked his arm away with a cry. “Too painful,” he told her. “Anyway, there’s no time for this now.”
Zoe ignored him and took out the firstaid kit from her backpack. She scanned the labels in the torchlight. “Analgesic cream,” she said, unscrewing the lid. “It’s very strong and it’ll take away the pain.” Without waiting for a reply, she rubbed it on to his arm and then they set off.
Finally the children emerged from the trees, just as the first rays of dawn light were spreading over the open ground. They took off their night-vision goggles and stowed them away. Within a few minutes the great yellow ball of the sun was clear of the horizon. Birds started their dawn chorus and a group of baboons skittered away towards the trees as the children approached. A herd of buffalo meandered by, and a group of impalas chewed peacefully and watched.
Beyond was the white-capped peak of the distant mountain. And in front of them was the waterhole, rippling gently in the sunlight.
“We’ve made it!” gasped Ben. “And we’ve beaten the hunters.”
“And look – the herd is coming!” said Zoe in excitement.
The children crouched in the dense undergrowth, watching the line of elephants lumbering towards the pool’s edge.
“That must be Nyeupe, the matriarch, up in front,” Ben whispered, pointing to a huge pale-looking elephant with extra baggy skin.
“I can’t see a calf so Tomboi and his mother must be quite a way behind,” said Zoe.
The matriarch gave a snort and waded into the pool. Others followed, sucking up the water and squirting it into their mouths.
Zoe sighed with delight as two of the elephants on the bank entwined their trunks playfully round each other.
“No time to go gooey!” declared Ben. “We still have to intercept Tomboi and his mum. They must be coming from the same direction as the rest. If we go round the northern edge of the water, behind the thickest trees over there, we should be able to meet them as they try to catch up with the herd.”
The children got up as slowly as they could and made for the bushes where the elephants had come from.
“This has to be their regular route,” said Ben, staring at the path through the trees. “Look how the ground’s trodden down.”
“Tomboi must be in real trouble with that snare,” whispered Zoe. “He’s not even in sight yet. What if it’s already badly infected?”
Just then, Ben’s BUG vibrated. “It’s Uncle Stephen,” he said.
“I’m afraid there’s been a bit of a problem,” came their godfather’s voice. He sounded worried. “The Kenya Wildlife Service may not get to the waterhole in time.”
“It’s up to us then,” said Ben.
“Don’t try any heroics. This could be really nasty – just try and get some footage of the hunters on your BUGs that we can pass off as a tourist video. Over and ou
t.”
Zoe turned to Ben. “We’ve still got to try and stop them!”
Suddenly, a deafening shot rang out.
“The hunters!” gasped Zoe. “They’re here!”
CHAPTER TEN
Ben and Zoe raced along the elephant track towards the sound.
Rounding a baobab tree they drew back at the terrible scene in front of their eyes.
A full-grown elephant cow lay on her side. Blood was seeping from a wound in her flank, forming a dark red pool under her belly. She wasn’t moving. Her young calf stood over her, bellowing mournfully and desperately trying to raise her with his little trunk. The children could see he had a wire wrapped around his back leg and the wound was oozing yellow pus. The calf looked almost too weak to stand.
“It’s Tomboi!” gulped Zoe. “And they’ve shot his mother. We have to stop them getting him as well.”
She leapt forwards and Ben quickly pulled her back behind the tree. “Stay here!” he whispered. “The hunters will see us.”
But the little calf’s pitiful cries were too much for Zoe. “We can’t just sit and watch!” She tried to control the sobs rising in her throat.
“We have to wait,” insisted Ben. “It’s too dangerous.”
The sound of angry yelling reached them from somewhere nearby.
“You idiot, Lester, grabbing my arm like that! You put me off my aim.” They recognised Frank Hall’s voice.
“Don’t worry, Mr Hall,” Chitundu put in quickly. “It was a really professional shot. I’m sure you killed her. Let me check.”
“You shouldn’t have done it, Dad!” They heard Lester yell back. “It’s barbaric!”
“Rubbish, boy. This is sport,” snapped his father. “Now it’s your turn. Here’s your gun. Hold it like Chitundu showed you. The calf’s a sitting target. Don’t you let me down!”
