by Carrie Regan
As he got closer, he saw that the cap had snagged on a branch and was dangling in mid-air. He barreled forward with confidence now, stepping over low-lying vegetation, thrilled but oblivious to the fact that he had strayed off the path.
He smiled as he took a final step toward his prized possession, reached up for its tattered brim, and…swoosh!
Before his hand closed over the bill, before he knew what was happening, the ground gave way beneath him and he was falling, falling, falling into darkness. His mind reeled, arms flailed for something to grasp onto, but it was futile. He landed with a thud, and all went black.
***
AJ felt a tickling on his nose and, still lost in sleep, brushed it away instinctively. A moment later, it returned. This time, the soft pads of dozens of tiny feet found purchase on the side of his nose and slowly scaled it, beginning a journey to his cheek and the great wilderness beyond.
He jolted up and flicked the seven-inch millipede from his face. The insect curled into a tight ball, and AJ squashed it with a stomp, rubbing his face to get rid of the lingering creeping sensation.
Spotting Max and Troy snoozing, he realized that he, too, had fallen asleep. And Liz? The walkie-talkie was lying beside him, its power indicator revealing that it was out of juice. With trembling hands and a thumping heart, AJ quickly dug replacement batteries from his pack. If Liz had called, he’d never forgive himself. He yanked out the dead cells, shoved in fresh ones, and pressed the transmission button.
“Liz, Liz! Are you there?” He paused for a response. Nothing.
“What’s going on? Radio’s not working?” Troy asked groggily, stumbling to his feet. Max was also sitting up.
“Who knows? Maybe her batteries are dead.”
“Buddy gave her fresh ones, didn’t he?”
“I thought so,” AJ said. He looked around for Buddy, and assumed he’d gone to relieve himself.
“Have you two talked at all since last night?” Troy asked, concern creeping into his voice. “She would have called if something was wrong, right?”
AJ hesitated, unwilling to admit his supreme moment of weakness and lapse in responsibility in dozing off. “I’m sure she’s fine. She’s probably still sleeping, and the batteries burned low overnight.” He busied himself with his pack, stuffing clothes in it, removing the GPS, and checking for a signal. “As soon as Buddy returns, we’ll start heading back. Still no signal, but we can’t be far.”
CHAPTER 31
Liz awoke to the distant, distinct caw of a hornbill and realized, regrettably, that she wasn’t back in her Brooklyn apartment. Something had changed, though. Then she remembered: Alex, the handsome stranger who had wandered into camp the previous evening. Checking her watch, she noticed that she’d slept hours later than usual, no doubt due to a combination of his calming presence and her pure exhaustion.
She rummaged in her pack for her cleanest outfit, sponged her body with one of her last precious Handiwipes, ran her fingers through her hair, and decided that she was presentable enough to show her face to the handsome Aussie. After all, she reasoned, he wasn’t going to do much better in these parts.
She popped out of the tent and looked over at the fire, which was little more than a few smoldering embers. Alex was nowhere in sight.
Did she just imagine him? Was she losing her mind? Maybe it was a sign of malaria setting in.
Before she could panic, a comforting voice called out behind her.
“Mornin’ sunshine!”
She turned around and saw him, the handsome cowboy, looking even better in daylight. “For a minute there I thought you’d vanished,” she said.
“So soon? Naw. You were out like a light, so I set off explorin’ a little. Grabbed a shave down at the stream,” he said, stroking his now-smooth chin. As he approached, he pulled a hand out from behind his back, revealing a single exotic white flower, which he offered with a smile.
“For me?” She took it from him and tucked the stem behind her ear.
“And I thought you couldn’t improve on perfection.”
Neither did I, Liz thought. She must be imagining him. At any minute, the men would return and find her talking to herself, introducing someone who didn’t exist. She wondered how many other handsome cowboys she could will into existence before they showed up.
For now, though, this one would do. AJ may have won her heart, but it was nice to know that a girl had options. Alex grinned at her from beneath his hat. He reached out, as though to touch her cheek, and instead brushed away a strand of hair that had fallen across her face. The touch seemed a tad too intimate to Liz, and she stepped back, reminding herself that he was, after all, a complete stranger.
Suddenly, a distant cry echoed in the jungle.
“Did you hear that?” Liz asked, relieved at the distraction.
“Heard something.” The call came again, faint but unmistakable.
“AJ,” Liz said, recognizing the voice instantly. She looked about for the walkie-talkie, remembered that she’d given it to Alex, and spotted it clipped to his belt. Without hesitation, she grabbed it.
“Guys, can you hear me? Are you there?” After a moment, a static-filled response echoed back.
“Liz?” AJ replied.
Liz’s shoulders collapsed in relief. “I’m here.”
“We’ve been trying to call you all morning. Where have you been?” AJ asked impatiently.
“I was sleeping.” She glanced at Alex and found herself questioning both of them, simultaneously wondering whether AJ really had been trying to call and if so, why Alex hadn’t noticed or responded. Men. “We tried to call last night. Where were you?”
“We?” AJ asked.
“I’ve got a little surprise for you guys.”
“Is it Buddy?” he asked hopefully. Of course – Buddy had gotten lost and wandered back to camp, he thought with relief.
“Buddy?”
AJ paused, discouraged by her tone. “He’s missing. We haven’t seen him since we tucked in last night. No sign of him at all. And we’ve been calling for over an hour.”
Liz’s heart rose in her throat as she struggled to speak around it. “We can come there, help you look.”
“Just stay where you are,” he said sharply. He was stumbling through the jungle as he spoke into the radio, searching for clues to explain Buddy’s disappearance. The last thing he wanted was for Liz to go missing as well. “And what’s this ‘we’?”
“We have a guest. A geologist, Australian, named Alex. He’s been lost in this jungle almost as long as we have.”
There was a long pause on the other end. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
Alex motioned for the walkie-talkie. “G’day mate. Alex here. Believe ‘er now?”
AJ paused again, unsure what to make of the situation. He couldn’t fathom why another foreigner would be lost in the middle of the same jungle, but the reasons couldn’t be good. “Liz, stay put. We’ll be there as soon as possible.”
Alex chose to overlook the fact that AJ had ignored him. “No worries. We can hold our own,” he said, flashing Liz a quick smile.
AJ didn’t like the idea of a stranger nosing around their camp, and certainly didn’t like the fact that Liz was alone with him. Why had he agreed to let her go in the first place? “Just be careful. We’re already missing one person.”
“Listen, mate. I’ve spent a few years in this area, and I’ve got a pretty good idea what’s happened here. If you ask me, you’re wasting your time looking for your friend. He’s probably miles away by now.”
“Well, I appreciate that. But if you don’t mind we’re going to look around just the same,” AJ said. Now he really didn’t like this guy.
“Suit yourself. The longer you wait, the more danger your friend will be in.” He handed the radio back to Liz, who took it, concerned. Alex obviously knew a lot more about the region than any of them. If he had any idea about what might have happened to Buddy, she hoped the men would be able to set their egos aside long en
ough to listen to him.
Across the jungle, AJ, Max, and Troy debated the situation. They’d scoured the area for signs of Buddy for the better part of an hour without luck.
“I say we keep looking. Give it at least another hour,” AJ argued.
“This Australian guy seems to know what’s going on. Says it’s a waste of time,” Troy said.
“We don’t even know this guy. He could be a nutcase.”
“A nutcase who’s alone with Liz,” Max reminded him. “Either way, I think we need to get back to camp.”
He had a point.
“Liz, stay where you are and start shouting for Buddy,” AJ said into the radio. “We’ll follow your voice and look for him along the way.”
***
“He’s not the type to wander off alone. He sleeps with a nightlight, for God’s sake. I don’t get it,” Liz said to Alex, in between calls for Buddy.
“I told you, there are evil elements at work in this jungle. I thought it was pure local superstition before, but-“
“Thank God!” Alex’s comment was interrupted by an exclamation from the fringes of the campsite. Liz spun around and saw AJ, Max and Troy emerge from a thick tangle of brush. It’d taken them close to an hour to find their way back to camp. Liz rushed to AJ, practically knocking him off his feet. When they broke apart, she gave a quick hug to Max and an even quicker pat to Troy. Behind her, Alex cleared his throat.
“Oh, sorry! This is Alex.”
He stepped forward with a gleaming white smile and held out a hand. “G’day.”
“AJ,” he said, offering his hand while sizing Alex up. Max and Troy, equally suspicious, followed suit.
“Alex has spent the past four years at a mining camp outside of Kimkali. He knows a lot about the area,” Liz said, embarrassed by the frigid welcome.
“Hell of a lot of good it’s done him, if he’s as lost as we are,” AJ said. Noticing the flower behind Liz’s ear, he touched it, thinking she’d never looked prettier. She smiled self-consciously and glanced quickly at Alex in a way AJ didn’t like or trust.
“So which of you blokes blew the guard last night?”
“Excuse me?” AJ said. He really didn’t like this guy, with his blue eyes and perfect teeth and the apparent ease with which he’d won Liz over. Didn’t like him one bit.
“Well, I assume you weren’t dumb enough to set up camp in the middle of the jungle without posting a guard, though if you were willing to send this lady off on her own, perhaps I’m giving you too much credit. In any case, it doesn’t matter. Your friend is missing, and if the legends are true, the Bambada have taken him.”
Troy’s eyes grew wide as saucers. “The Bambada? So they’re real?”
“I see you’ve heard the stories,” Alex said. “Probably didn’t believe them? Neither did I. But I’ve seen proof.”
“The skins,” AJ said.
“Yes, the skins, and other signs. Traps. Meat curing pits. The Bambada are vicious, and now they’re on our trail.”
“What will they do to Buddy, if they do in fact have him?” Max asked.
“Skin him. Use some of the internal organs for talismans and black magic rituals. Eat the meat, the heart, the brains. They believe the heart gives the conqueror the strength of the victim, the brains his wisdom.”
Liz, Troy, and Max looked queasy. AJ paced anxiously.
“We need to get out of here,” Troy said.
“Maybe, maybe not,” Alex countered. “If rumors are true, your friend still has a chance. The Bambada follow the same rules as local hunters. Live prey isn’t sacrificed for at least seven days, to make sure the meat isn’t diseased. Chances are your friend is still alive. And if they’ve caught a lotta game lately, they might keep him alive even longer. But their village is at least another day or two away. So the question is, do you want to spend another few days in this jungle, risking your lives trying to save his?”
“Hell yeah,” AJ answered immediately. “You guys are with me, right?”
Conflicted by concern for their friend and a fear-fueled eagerness to leave, they hesitated.
“Lawrence Julian Thompson could be with him,” AJ continued hopefully. “This could be our big break.”
The promise of a resolution to their story had little impact, even on Max. Buddy’s disappearance was the last straw: he was bound and determined to leave, whatever the cost.
“It’s been months since he went missing. He’d be ground beef by now,” Troy said.
“I can’t believe you guys! What if you were the one who was missing?” One by one, AJ looked the men in the eye. “How would you feel if we just sat around, talking about you being turned into ground beef?”
“I didn’t say that about Buddy. I meant Thompson.”
“It doesn’t matter,” AJ fumed. He tried to control himself, knowing full well that he was, above all, angry at himself. He’d failed his team by falling asleep. If he hadn’t, nothing would have happened to Buddy. Maybe they would have taken him instead, which would have been preferable to the idea of carrying this guilt around, possibly for the rest of his life. “Fine. I’ll go alone.” He picked up his pack and slung it onto his back.
“Hold up there, mate. You can’t expect to find him yourself,” Alex said.
“What do you suggest?”
Liz grabbed her pack and went to his side. “I’m going too,” she said resolutely.
“Pardon me for saying so, but a hell of a lot of good that’ll do. We’ll have the two of you lost in the jungle instead of one. I know as much about the Bambada as any white man, and I’ve been working in these parts for years. I’ll go with you. I can show you the plants to eat, how to trap animals and the like. Won’t be the best food you’ve ever eaten, but it’ll keep us alive.”
“Great. You two can stay here at camp, alone, and wait for us,” AJ said to Max and Troy. “Two days’ journey, you say, Alex? So we’ll be back in about four days.”
Max and Troy studied each other, each sizing up their potential campmate, each suitably unimpressed. When it became clear that AJ was dead set on finding Buddy, Max finally relented and spoke up. “We can’t have a complete stranger out risking his life to find Buddy while we just sit idly by, now, can we Troy?” Troy nodded rapidly in agreement. “And if we play our cards right, we might get a conclusion to our film. In fact, I think we should include Buddy’s disappearance in the film, shoot a few sequences of the crew discussing it and looking for him. Will help add to the drama.”
“Good thinking, Max,” AJ said, sparing the aging star the indignity of calling him out on his cowardice.
“We need to finish Thompson’s story, whether we find him or not. Bill will have our heads if we don’t come back with a show,” Max said.
“I can’t believe my ears. Your mate is missing and you’re still talking about finishing your film?” Alex said.
“Well, if there is a bright side, at least he’s just the sound man,” Troy said. “If it had been the cameraman, we’d be in a real bind.”
***
Alex poured over the topographical and satellite maps with the now-functioning GPS, and within moments had an itinerary for the team.
“Tonight, we should reach the Nburu River. From there, it’s pretty straightforward. You see those hills to the west?” He pointed to a collection of nested, crooked rings on the topographical map. “That’s the part of the Nburu where, according to legend, the Bambada live. It’s where Thompson was probably headed, and where they’ve no doubt taken your man Buddy. The hills have acted as a sort of natural barrier that’s helped them defend their land and treasure from generations of invaders.”
“So you buy this treasure business?” Liz asked skeptically.
Alex’s eyes widened. “Gold, diamonds, other precious gems. Rivers running with them, they say. Not to mention the Bambada’s boundless knowledge and extrasensory powers. Imagine, the gift to see the future, read minds.”
“You don’t actually believe all that bull
shit, do you?” Max asked.
“I believe that there’s something to the rumors. And given the geology of the region, this area has the potential to be as rich as they come.”
Troy nervously followed the conversation. “Extrasensory powers? You mean they could be reading our thoughts?”
“Don’t worry. I’m sure they would have been bored to tears long ago,” AJ said.
Alex pulled a Ziploc-wrapped book from his back pocket: Burton’s Travels in West and Central Africa, 1789-1793. “It’s all in here,” he said, waving the book.
“Thompson’s book,” Max noted.
Liz perked up. After skimming the book and taking notes on the relevant sections, she’d left it behind in their previous camp when they pared down their belongings. At least she thought she had…
“Hope you don’t mind. I came across it in camp this morning. Been trying to get my hands on a copy for years. There can’t be more than a dozen left in the world. It’s the bible for anyone seeking the Bambada. Burton became obsessed with finding them after hearing the wild stories of other explorers. He recorded some of them in this book, alongside some of his own adventures, then published it to fund his own expedition into the Nburu.”
“What happened to him?” Troy asked.
“Never returned.”
The silence lingered awkwardly, until AJ roused them. “So we head for the Nburu River, then on to the hills. Let’s get a compass reading in case the GPS fails again and get a move on. Buddy’s waiting.”
It didn’t take long to break camp. They set off west, passing the men’s camp from the previous evening, taking extra time to look for signs of a struggle and call for Buddy. There was no response.
Torn between their desire to continue searching for Buddy there and fear of what would happen to him if they didn’t press on, they continued, Alex in the lead with the now-functioning GPS and machete, AJ close behind, slashing at the remaining vegetation. While he hated to admit it, AJ was happy to have an extra arm swinging a machete and another strong back to help carry their loads. They moved quickly, reaching Thompson’s last camp – a sandy bank along a bend in the crystal clear Nburu River – an hour before sundown.