Cut for Life

by Lucinda E Clarke

  “How long will it take us to get to your friends then?” asked Linda bouncing on the seat.

  “Hmm, several hours, so we might have to sleep in the truck again tonight,” said Amie.

  Once Atari’s few tall buildings dominating the skyline in the rear view mirror had grown smaller and smaller then disappeared below the horizon, Amie relaxed. The children’s excitement was infectious and they all began to sing.

  She stopped at the first filling station once they were well out of town, and stocked up on cool drinks, biscuits, crisps and little cakes sealed in cellophane from the small spaza shop next door. Hardly a balanced diet Amie thought wryly. The little ones giggled and nudged each other, astonished that Felicity would allow them to eat such cool stuff. Amie also bought an extra five jerricans, and got the station attendant to fill them all to the brim. She hoped she had enough petrol to get them to Apatu.

  But as the sun rose higher in the sky their enthusiasm waned and one by one they fell silent. The little ones squirmed on the back seat trying to get comfortable. They squabbled and fought for every last inch of space on the hot plastic seats, none of them willing to sit on the hard metal in the far back of the double cab. Amie thought that if Maisie asked her one more time, “Are we there, yet?” she would strangle her. It was difficult to read what the older girls were thinking. Both were silent; even Linda who could rarely keep her mouth shut. Amie tried to keep them all amused by pointing out the odd signs of wildlife, but they weren’t interested. Their earlier ebullience had dissipated and the atmosphere was uncomfortable.

  Amie was very concerned that she’d had no reply from Maddy. Had her employers simply cut her off? Decided she could fend for herself? And why had Simon not contacted her?

  She was jolted back to the present by Maisie’s shout. “Oh look, yeuk!”

  A half-eaten carcass, the skin ripped open allowing the blood and guts to spill out, was lying by the side of the road. The noise of the approaching vehicle had disturbed a dozen or more vultures, beaks clutching entrails as they gorged on their lunch. Amie stopped then backed up a little way. It was a young giraffe, possibly knocked down by a car or killed by lions.

  “Let’s go look.” Linda flung the car door open before Amie could stop her. She went to grab Linda’s arm but it was too late, she was already approaching the dead beast. “Yuck, it smells awful, how can they eat that stuff?” Her words were accompanied by a deep throated roar.

  “Get back in now!” shrieked Amie. “Lion!”

  Linda took her time to respond. “Where? I can’t see nothing!”

  Amie didn’t know whether to get out herself and grab the child, or pray she would obey. “Now! Come AT ONCE! NOW!” she screamed. “You may not be able to see it but it can see you Linda, get in the car right now!”

  But Linda was frozen to the spot. A huge, golden-maned head, followed by a skeletally-thin, pale brown body appeared from behind a bush. Linda was mesmerised by the bright yellow eyes as the lion swayed slightly. Amie could see the muscles on its back legs bunching up, ready to spring.

  Quick as a flash, Fazia flung open her door and threw a bottle of water at the animal. It flinched, took a step back and shook its head. It was enough to break the spell and Linda hurled herself into the truck and slammed the door. She scrabbled at the window handle trying to wind it up, but the lion was quicker. He recovered from the water bottle assault and bounded forward. His claws swiped at the still-open window, his paw sliding sideways across the open back window grazing Fazia’s shoulder. She shrieked while Amie stretched between the seats frantically trying to close the rear window.

  By now the lion was enraged, and whipping round, it hurled its body against the car. The little ones were screaming, bunched up on the furthest side of the seat with Fazia squashed up against them, blood dripping on to their new clothes. Amie was now exposed to the lion. She worked the handle furiously while the lion gathered itself for the next attack. She couldn’t get enough purchase on the handle, it was slippery with Fazia’s blood. She twisted back into the driver’s seat and put her foot down hard, roaring away. For several terrifying seconds the lion clung on, his paws gripping the top of the half-closed window before he dropped off. He stood behind them in the road shaking his head, letting off one deafening roar after the other.

  Amie kept driving, ignoring the hysterical children in the back, but shouting to Linda to get into the back and wind some fabric: clothing, T-shirt, anything onto Fazia’s wound to stop the bleeding.

  Further down the road Amie brought the Land Rover to a halt and got out to investigate the damage. She opened the back door and examined Fazia’s arm. The lion’s claw had raked her shoulder ripping the skin and leaving three deep furrows down her arm. The bleeding had stopped but the wound was raw and angry. Amie washed it out using their precious drinking water as sparingly as possible and wrapped the cleanest spare T-shirt round it. Infection was a definite worry; lions were not known for their clean habits.

  It took a while for them all to calm down, drink and eat some food before setting off again. It was well past midday and Amie wondered how soon she should turn off the main road. It wouldn’t be possible to drive into Togodo through the border, she would need to strike west and find an unmanned crossing before re-joining the main highway. She hoped she’d remember the route she’d used once before, a place where there were no fences and where it was impossible to know when you crossed from one country into the next.

  “We’re taking the scenic route girls,” Amie chuckled, hoping that driving off the main road wouldn’t alarm the kids too much. She bumped onto the side of the road, the tyres rolling unevenly over the gravel surface and low-lying rocks, sending small stones shooting out on either side.

  “Why! Where we going?” Linda demanded, her equilibrium almost fully restored.

  “We can’t go through the border gates without passports,” Amie explained, “so we’ll have to find a place further on. We won’t get lost,” she promised them.

  The Land Rover juddered over the rough ground. In places the scarcity of grass left the soil bare and the vehicle kicked up a bright orange dust cloud behind it as Amie weaved in and out of the trees. In other places, the vegetation was denser and several times she was forced to reverse and find a way around large clumps of bushes. There was little wildlife and nothing for them to eat; the rains were overdue, but there was not a cloud in the brilliant blue sky and the sun which continued to bake the earth, made the conditions inside the truck unbearable. Amie guessed that the inside temperature must be over forty degrees, but try as she might, she could not persuade the girls to wind down the windows. They were even more terrified now than before that more animals would jump into the car and eat them.

  The Land Rover hiccupped several times and Amie noticed that the needle on the petrol gauge rested on empty. She chastised herself for not filling up earlier on the road, because now they were in a particularly dense and overgrown area, which was not very safe; but she had no choice. She switched off the engine and climbed out to get one of the jerricans.

  “Don’t go F’licity!” screamed Winnie, kneeling up on the back seat.

  “I’m only putting in more petrol,” Amie reassured her. The children were truly terrified, this experience might scar them for life, Amie thought. While rich tourists pay a fortune to experience the wonders of Africa and its wildlife, it wasn’t weaving the same magic for these poor babies.

  At first the petrol cap refused to give way and it took both hands to turn it. Planting her feet firmly on the ground, Amie hefted up the heavy can before remembering she would have to fashion a funnel if she wasn’t going to spill half of it. She found an empty water bottle and using her belt buckle she raked a hole near the bottom and managed to wrench away the base.

  “Linda, come and help me please,” she called.

  “I’m not coming out there, you’ve got to be joking, ain’tcha,” she answered from the front seat.

  “Fine,” replied Amie, �
�then none of us are going anywhere. We’ll just stay here until we run out of food and water.”

  “Whatcha need me for?” Linda procrastinated.

  “I can’t hold the can and the funnel at the same time. Hurry up, the longer you take the more chance there is of something coming along.”

  Linda climbed down from the front seat, looking each way over and over as if she was on a pedestrian crossing on a busy high street. She skittered over to Amie at the back of the vehicle and took hold of the improvised funnel. She was so busy looking around for danger that the moment the petrol began pouring into the funnel she let it slip sideways and the fuel slopped onto the ground soaking into the sandy soil.

  “Watch what you’re doing,” Amie snapped. “Concentrate, Linda. Come on, you can do this.”

  By the time they’d finished emptying all five cans, both of them were drenched in sweat and Amie’s muscles were screaming from holding the heavy can. Linda leaned into the back grabbed a bottle of water and began to knock it back.

  Amie’s hand shot out. “Hey, hold on. Not so fast, we’ve got to make it last. Take just enough to wet your mouth. I may be able to fill up the bottles if there’s water in the river, but that’s not a good idea, we could get all sorts of diseases from it.”

  Linda glared as she allowed Amie to take the water away from her. “I thought I deserved a reward for helping you with that smelly petrol. I stink now.”

  Amie rolled her eyes. “Yes, Linda, you did well, and this isn’t easy for anyone. We’re all hot and bothered and scared but you are one of the older ones and with Fazia injured you’re now my go-to girl. I’m relying on you to help me as much as possible. OK?” Amie was so tempted to say that she could just as easily have left them all behind in the village. Of course, she would never have done that, and they did, after all, help her escape from the hut, but this was the first time she’d been in a really bad situation with unwilling or incapable people.

  Linda looked down and shuffled her sandals in the dust, then nodded and went quickly round the truck, clambered back into the front seat and slammed the door. Amie guessed she would sulk for a while; a change from her constant chatter and more than occasional moaning.

  She fired up the engine and they continued to head north. They had only covered a couple more miles when they came to a river. Amie thought this might be the border between Ruanga and Togodo, but it was impossible to tell. She was relieved to see the water level was low and with care they could get across. Had it been the rainy season the rushing waters would have been too dangerous, and there were no bridges besides those at the border posts.

  “Are we going to drive across that?” A small voice from the back asked. Maisie, kneeling on the back seat was gripping Amie’s shoulder so hard her little fingernails were digging into the fabric of her T-shirt.

  “Ouch, Maisie, that hurts.” Amie uncurled Maisie’s fingers and patted her hand. “Yes, darling, we are, but I must make sure that we choose a very shallow part.”

  “We won’t drown, will we?” Winnie joined in leaning forward between the front seats.

  “No, darling, it’s not deep enough.” Amie cursed under her breath. I hope it’s not too deep, she thought. The danger was not the river itself but the wildlife that was likely to be around it. The end of the dry season meant fewer places for the animals to gather and drink, attracting elephants and other big game; game that might take an unhealthy interest in them. Should they attract a bad tempered crocodile or disturb a submerged hippo then Amie didn’t rate their chances too highly. She drove slowly alongside the lazily flowing water, telling the children to keep a careful eye open for anything in or near the river.

  “How can we see the fish?” Winnie piped up.

  “They have to stay in the water all the time or they’ll die and then we can eat them,” Linda replied.

  “Uh, sometimes they can jump out,” Amie replied. Should she tell them about the hippos and crocodiles, or keep quiet? The last thing she needed was a truck full of hysterical children, again, while she was trying to navigate across – and that’s what she’d get if she mentioned the ‘c’ or ‘h’ words.

  She noticed a large flattened sandy area sprinkled with hoof prints which were mirrored on the far bank. If animals crossed here, it was a good bet they knew the best places. Primeval memories were passed on from one generation to the next as the herds migrated annually to new grazing grounds.

  Fazia leaned forward and whispered in her ear, “Amie, look behind – elephants.”

  She was right. The large, grey leviathans were ambling towards the river and the Land Rover was right in their way. There were about twelve of them, their trunks lifted to smell the water, their ears flapping lazily in an effort to keep their bodies cool.

  “No one say a word,” Amie whispered. “Keep as still as you can. Don’t move.” Amie put the clutch in, engaged reverse gear and keeping the revs down, manoeuvred the truck at an angle away from the river. Elephants in herds like this were rarely aggressive. They could be curious but also turn nasty if they thought their calves were threatened. Should one of the animals come to investigate, it could tip the vehicle over just for fun.

  When Amie reached what she felt was a safe distance, she stopped and let the engine idle, prepared for a quick getaway if one of them charged. She knew that while their sense of smell was keen, they had poor eyesight and if the humans did nothing to draw attention to themselves, they should be quite safe. She looked to see which way the wind was blowing, but the air was still, the leaves hanging limply in the heat.

  The fear from the children was palpable and it wasn’t surprising. The first time anyone saw elephants in the wild with no fence or ditch between themselves and these magnificent beasts, they tripled in size.

  “I need a wee,” came a quiet whine from behind.

  “Then wee on the floor,” snapped Linda without turning round. “It’s too dangerous for you to get out now.”

  “F’licity,” Winnie appealed to a higher authority. “I just gotta go.”

  “Sorry, Winnie, but we need to stay in the truck, you can’t get out now. If you have an accident, we’ll all understand. Remember we must keep as still as we can while the elephants are so close. Just watch them, they are wonderful creatures, but we must wait for them to pass.”

  Winnie sniffed loudly but did not ask again.

  “Like the queen,” whispered Fazia, surprising everyone. “We always have to wait for her to pass when we go to see her.”

  Amie smiled, the child never ceased to amaze her. “Yes, Fazia, just like the queen.”

  The elephants were in no hurry to leave. They waded into the water showing Amie just how deep it was. She took note of the places where it looked deeper and mentally planned their route across. After a while, the herd moved off while the children watched, fascinated by the antics of the babies when they slipped down beneath the water further downstream and were scooped up by their mothers out of harm’s way. The older ones sucked the water up into their trunks, flipped them backwards and sprayed the sparkling droplets over their thick hides.

  Amie noticed a crocodile gliding through the water towards a calf that had strayed from its mother, and bit her lip. There was nothing she could do or say to warn them. Nature would take its course. She breathed a sigh of relief when she saw one of the older cows charge towards the reptile. It lifted its head, reared up and flew sideways through the water disappearing from sight. Amie’s hopes of refilling the water bottles were dashed. They only had a couple left. With so many creatures around, there was danger in replenishing their supplies from a river that was certainly contaminated by myriad diseases. It was amazing that Winnie’s bladder was full.

  The sun was going down fast. It was time to either cross the river or back away from it before it got dark. It would not be too clever to stay so close if a hippo decided they’d parked right across the regular path to its grazing area. She’d hoped to cross into Togodo before night fell and relax a bit more o
nce she was out of the country where she was wanted for murder. She wondered briefly if anyone had found the body of the big man yet and if so, was there anything to tie her to his death?

  17 RISING FROM THE DEAD

  Responding to her silent pleas the elephants stopped their play and continued their trek across the river, mothers and aunts guiding the young calves with their trunks until they had all reached the other side. They slid and slipped up the shallow bank finally disappearing from sight.

  Amie pointed the Land Rover at the river after the elephants had gone. She engaged four-wheel drive and drove slowly but steadily into the water. She weaved across where she had noted it was shallow, but the water lapped up and over the wheel arches. Even when she felt a hard bump on the side of the truck she kept going, not caring to see if it was a croc, a hippo or a log. Just as they were approaching the opposite bank, the wheels spun in the mud. Amie applied steady pressure and the drive train bit, gaining traction so they shot up the far slope with ease.

  The children lurched backwards then forwards crashing into each other. Maisie complained as she rubbed her arms and legs, Fazia cradled her injured shoulder, but Winnie just whimpered.

  “All OK in the back there?” Amie shouted over her shoulder.

  Linda looked round and said, “Winnie’s blubbering but the others are all right, no damage.” She reached over to touch Winnie on the knee. “You awright?”

  In the rear-view mirror Amie saw Winnie give a tiny nod, her lower lip trembling. She nodded a thank you to Linda before looking for the tracks left by the elephants. They’d veered off to the left, so she turned in the opposite direction to keep a safe distance between them.

  She drove on for another hour before parking the Land Rover under a large syringa tree.

  “Why have we stopped?” It was Linda of course.

  Amie wasn’t going to tell them it was madness to drive over that terrain in the dark, or that she had no idea where they were. “We’ll spend the night here, but we’ll have to stay in the truck. It won’t be too comfortable but we will be safe. Tomorrow we should get to a town.”