Trying to see into the darkness, she stared in the direction of the noise she’d heard, but actually hoped that she wouldn’t see what had made it. She was scared that, whatever it was, the animal was stalking her and would suddenly pounce out of the darkness to eat her alive. The seconds ticked by and turned to minutes. It seemed like hours to her, yet there were no further sounds.
She tried to get herself comfortable again, but she couldn’t relax, as she had to stay alert just in case something appeared out of the blackness. She tried to imagine what animals might be out there, and to visualise what creature might have made that last sound, which was a bit like the gruff rumble of a dog, but, like everything else, it was also unfamiliar to her. And the likelihood of there being any dogs out here was remote. Even if there were, they’d probably be wild and unfriendly. Her eyes were wide open and she dared not close them, for fear of falling asleep and being attacked whilst she slept.
‘Please, please help me. I don’t want to die,’ she said out loud. ‘I’ll do whatever you want,’ she said, hoping that some human might hear what she was saying.
Then the sound came again, but this time it was much louder and nearer to where she lay. She sat up and looked out into the dark. Her heart was now pounding again and she was convinced that she was being stalked by whatever this animal was. She decided to scream at the top of her voice, hoping this would scare it away.
Her screaming stopped and all went silent — or what seemed like silence, after she had screamed so loud. Her screams had not had any effect on the crickets, which continued with their night-time concert, irrespective of what was happening around them. This frustrated Carly, as it made it more difficult to listen for other sounds, like a stalking animal.
‘I’m a sitting duck,’ she thought, ‘and there’s nothing I can do about it.’
She had no idea what time it was, nor how long she’d been under the bush since it had gone dark, but it felt like hours. She sat there with her heart palpitating and wondered how long it would be before she would see the sun rise.
‘What if I never see the sun again?’ she thought. ‘I just want Blake to give me a chance and to see that I’m willing to make changes in my life.’
All she could do was huddle and wait and listen for more animal sounds, but time ticked by so slowly, and she knew that even if she were to survive, it was going to be a very long night.
CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR
Konner was by now up in the higher branches of the umbrella tree. He was as far up as he thought he could possibly get, but he could still hear the lions below. He pushed himself hard against the bark of the main tree trunk again, which dug into his bare flesh. He spread his legs apart onto two separate branches, giving him as much balance as possible, should he need to kick out at his attackers.
The deep, echoing growl of the huge male lion sent a shiver up his spine and made him wish he had his rifle right now. He reached his arms behind his back and gripped hard to the tree trunk. He looked down again, relieved in some part that he couldn’t see the ground below. But he had created an image of lions in the dark, slowly climbing the tree.
As he looked harder and peered through the branches, he could just make out the shapes of lions circling the base of the tree — there seemed to be about six in total, but he couldn’t be sure, as the dark made it difficult to get an exact count. They were looking up at him with their deep, piercing eyes.
Then he saw a lioness lurch at the trunk of the tree, putting her huge claws on the bark, and he began to climb higher once again. He gripped tighter to the trunk behind him and pushed his feet into the branches, as his heart pounded.
Using her claws like grappling hooks, the lioness’s muscle sinews rippled as she tried to cling on to the tree. She was desperate to get to what seemed like an easy meal.
Knowing that her prey was up in the branches, she worked her way up the trunk bit by bit, whilst he watched in horror, seeing for the first time that lions actually can climb trees.
‘Surely, they’re not built for this,’ he thought, as in all the animal programs he’d watched, there wasn’t one he’d seen showing lions climbing trees.
‘They must be extremely hungry.’
His legs were shaking violently and he thought he might lose his footing, or that his legs might collapse. The branches where he’d got to were beginning to get a lot thinner, so he daren’t go any higher for fear of them giving way. But the lioness was making slow progress towards him.
He looked up to survey the part of the tree that was above him, and as he did, he got a glimpse of the starry night sky. The sky was the deepest black and the stars appeared even closer and brighter than he’d ever noticed before. It seemed ironic that he’d be looking at a beautiful night sky, whilst he had a pride of lions in a frenzy below, all waiting to feast on him.
Each pinprick of light that represented a star was millions, if not billions, of light years away. A seeming impossibility that he could see these stars so far away, and as he looked into the blackness and the almost abysmal feeling of the African sky, it made him feel vulnerable and alone. It was a feeling so deep that it made him suddenly go spacey, and have what felt like an out-of-body experience. It was a sensation that he’d never felt before, and as he was now a bit unsteady, he held on even more tightly to the branches around him.
It was the sound of the lion’s claws against the bark below him that suddenly brought him back to face his grim situation. The lioness crawled even higher, as she gripped the flaking bark of the tree. She used her powerful back legs to push herself higher still.
She had now reached a split in the tree and was getting much too close for comfort. The lioness had fixed her gaze on him with a determined look of predatory meaning. This terrifying look sent a primal shiver down Konner’s spine, a feeling he’d never experienced before — a feeling that must in some way be an almost daily occurrence for the local wildebeest and other wildlife living out here. It was a feeling that was lost on modern man. He knew this look, though, but the last time he saw it was when he had been peering through the telescopic sight on his rifle only a few days ago.
The lioness was just starting up the next set of branches towards where he sat, when she lost her footing and fell backwards. One of the larger branches broke her initial fall, but as she tried to get her balance, she spun and fell the rest of the way to hit the hard African ground below. As she reached the bottom, she was met by the growling pride, as if they were disappointed in her failure.
He stood with his back against the tree, watching intently, as the lioness that had struggled to get to him, was now pacing around with the rest of the pride at the base of the tree. Relieved to see her fall, he was also surprised she got up and shook herself off, without any obvious signs of injury.
He hadn’t realised it, but he’d been holding his breath and now started to breathe again. His heart was still pounding away inside his ribcage, pumping his adrenalin-rich blood around his more than tired body.
The lions were still circling like vultures, as if watching and waiting for their meal to die on the plain. He could still make out a couple of the pride, walking with purpose, around the base of the tree. Every now and again, one would lurch up at the tree with its front paws and look up through the branches at Konner. Each time they did, he would hold his breath, hoping that none of them was a good climber, and he hoped they would eventually move away.
After what seemed like an eternity, and still frozen against the tree, he stared down at the ground, gradually seeing fewer and fewer lions. Finally, he could no longer see them at all. It looked like they were giving up on their meal — for now.
He felt a slight sense of relief as the lions decided to move away and off into the dark. This whole ordeal seemed to drag on for hours, but since he no longer had his watch, as this had obviously been taken away from him at the same time as his clothes were removed, he had no way of knowing how much time had passed.
Even though the lions appear
ed to have given up, he was sure that the pride would still be lurking around nearby. So he wasn’t safe yet. His predicament was still extremely precarious; he was still stuck up in a tree and still surrounded by wild animals. He now hoped that they had gone searching for one of their more traditional meals of an African evening.
Konner new he was dehydrating and soon would become very hungry. As he stayed propped in the branches of the umbrella tree, he knew that it was going to be a very long night ahead, and he was unlikely to get much sleep.
He did move around to make himself a bit more comfortable, whilst trying to avoid the thorns that were everywhere, but this was difficult to do in the dark.
He knew he would have to spend the rest of the night where he was, rather than risk climbing down. He would wait until it was light, when he would be able to see if danger lurked, if the lions were still nearby and ready to pounce. He also worried that if he did manage to drop off to sleep, he might fall from the branches.
The sounds of the animals were all around him and seemed to make an empty space appear enclosed and claustrophobic, if that were possible, in what was one of the most open spaces in the world. He was not sure how far his trek across the plain had taken him, nor whether in the morning he’d be able to find water and something to eat, but he would now make every effort to move during the day instead of at night, and to find somewhere safe to hide before darkness fell. Also, he was still hopeful that tomorrow he might be able to find someone to help him.
A night full of demons and a place where he was no longer safe seemed to bring up primeval feelings from deep inside, feelings he’d never known he could have. They seemed to be coming from a place that had lain dormant in his body, waiting for a moment like this to stir and come forward. He knew now that he was a part of the food chain, not at the top. Instead of being the hunter, he’d now become the hunted.
The safety of home and being able to walk down the street feeling secure seemed like a long way away, a place he wasn’t certain he’d get to see again. The very slim chance of being mugged whilst walking the streets at night, which he did worry about on occasion, paled in significance to being on the food menu out here on an African plain.
As he began to reflect on what had happened to him, he thought again that perhaps there might be someone watching him from a camera, some weird, sadistic person waiting to see how and when he got eaten by a lion. He then touched the lump on his neck. ‘This has to be some sort of tracking device they’ve inserted in me, so they know exactly where I am,’ he thought once more.
This made absolute sense. Otherwise, it would be virtually impossible to find him again — assuming they would want to find him, that is. In a very small way this actually made him feel slightly safer, as he knew that, although these men were obviously crazy in some way, someone could know where he was. It also meant that perhaps if he could survive for a couple of days, they might well come and pick him up, and then he would have a chance of escape.
With these thoughts and, as he sat in the tree knowing he was safe for a while, the adrenalin levels in his blood abated. He began to become acutely aware of the pain in his body, mainly from his feet after walking across the plain, but also from the gouge in his calf caused by the lion. Added to this were the numerous scratches and holes in his skin from the umbrella tree thorns.
He began to worry about whether his wounds might get infected, especially the one from the lion’s claws, although he knew in some ways this was the least of his problems.
Since he also knew there was no way of disinfecting his injuries out here, his feelings of worry soon turned to anger — anger at his kidnappers, people he hadn’t even seen except for the face of the man who had shot him with a dart.
CHAPTER SIXTY-FIVE
He was exhausted, but after what seemed like an eternity, he eventually fell asleep on the hard floor of the cage. When Graham awoke, not quite sure how long he’d been out, he could see light coming in though the corrugations along the roof line, so he knew it was morning.
He wondered how Carly was doing, having spent a night out in the wild. ‘I wonder whether she is still alive or did an animal get her in the night,’ he thought.
He’d woken up hungry, as he’d not eaten much at all yesterday, but he didn’t dare ask for anything to eat for fear of being hit with the stun gun again. So he sat there in his cage and waited.
After he had sat there for what felt like an hour or so, he heard footsteps approaching the building.
The bolts on the door, which were now familiar to him, sounded and the door opened. The man who entered went over to where the dog food was kept, and, as Graham’s eyes were adjusting to the new light coming in, he could make out that the man was Scott, who grabbed a food bowl and filled it with the dry food. He brought it over to his cage, whilst Graham watched, not daring to mutter a word.
‘So, do you want it smashed on the floor again or are you going to be a good animal today?’ Scott tormented.
‘Animal, he called me an animal,’ Graham thought and wondered how to respond.
In the end, he said nothing, just stared at Scott and waited for him to give him the food. Instead of giving it to him, though, he put it down outside of his cage and said, ‘You stink again, so you need hosing down.’
‘Please, no, I hate that, please!’ Graham pleaded, as Scott walked off towards where the hose was kept.
He returned with it, turned it on and pointed it towards Graham and his cage. The water was warm to begin with, but then turned cold, as he was blasted with a powerful jet of water. As he tried to move out of the line of fire, Scott moved the nozzle to wherever he’d moved, so Graham closed his eyes to avoid getting water in them. After a few moments of firing water directly at him, Scott did eventually redirect the jet and clean the cage floor, so that the urine and faeces were washed away into the channel that ran across the back of the building.
‘There you go, clean again,’ Scott said in a sarcastic voice. ‘Now, do you want your food?’
‘Yes, please,’ Graham said begrudgingly, as he sat there dripping wet.
Before he gave him the food, he filled the water holder with the hose, then wound it back onto its reel.
Scott returned to the side of his cage and stood there for a moment. To one side of the cage and next to where the water holder was, there was a smaller access designed for passing food through. As Scott put the food bowl through this access hatch, he said, ‘There you go. You’d better eat this all up, as I doubt whether your girlfriend and the other man we set free yesterday will be alive this morning, then it’ll be your turn again.’
‘My turn. Why are you doing this to us?’ Graham dared to question.
‘Because we enjoy it,’ Scott said, as he turned and walked away.
Graham was left hanging with this last comment. He shook his head and wondered how someone could be so unkind to a fellow human being. ‘What makes someone like that?’ he thought, as he looked down at his dry-looking breakfast of dog food and began to eat.
CHAPTER SIXTY-SIX
Night eventually gave way to light, and Carly saw the sky turning blue again as the sun began to rise. She had not slept at all the whole night, and her bottom was very sore from sitting in one position for so long. The few leaves she’d managed to put under her hadn’t really helped at all.
She stood up and moved out from under the bush where she’d spent the night and began walking very slowly back towards the small river. She never walked particularly fast, anyway, but now this was made even harder because her feet still hurt from their ordeal yesterday.
Carly was thirsty and, despite the discolouration of the flowing river, the sight of the water this morning was a good one. It looked refreshing as she tried to work her way down the riverbank, being careful where she put her feet.
She reached the water’s edge and placed her left foot slowly into the water, which was cool to the touch and soothing. Then she stood there in her bulky birthday suit letting the water
soothe both feet for a while.
Tears began to run down her face as she realised how vulnerable she was. She looked around at the landscape she’d never seen before, except on TV nature programs, and began to realise the enormousness of her situation.
She looked down at her feet, which were completely immersed in the dirty-looking water, then looked out across the undulating surface and wondered what creatures might lurk beneath the surface and further down.
‘Are there any crocodiles?’ Carly pondered with dread, and with this thought, her heart jumped.
Still feeling thirsty, she decided that she had no choice but to drink. Even though it was river water, it hadn’t done her any harm the day before. Her mouth was dryer than she’d ever known, so she knew she was dangerously dehydrated and had to drink as much as she could.
Carly crouched down to drink, but as she did, her left foot slipped and she fell backwards into the water.
The fall was so unexpected, she let out a loud scream and then felt the impact on her side of something hard on the river bed, an object that dug into her naked skin.
Lying in shock in the river, she struggled to get up, but as she sat up, her more than ample bottom remained in the river mud, with water swooshing around her as it continued its journey downstream.
She looked down at her side, where she had hit the hard object, and, sure enough, whatever it was had broken her skin. Bright, red blood flowed out from the gash and down her side. As it entered the water, it turned immediately light red, but within seconds the colour had dissipated and merged into the river water.
Carly sobbed, as she now realised her predicament had just gotten worse. She already knew she wasn’t built for an African experience, but now with cuts and bruises down one side, she might get infected, too.
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