by Chris Ryan
Hex, Li and Alex watched from the edge of the pit. Hex was glad of the darkness; as Paulo's light picked out the wound he was sure he had turned green.
Paulo looked closely at the girl's injury. The blood seemed to be oozing rather than coming in spurts, which suggested it was from a vein and not an artery. That was good. However, the bleeding hadn't stopped, and that was not good. And the stake might have pierced the joint, which was even worse.
Tessa fixed him with desperate eyes. 'Get this out of me.' Her voice rasped.
Paulo spoke gently. 'We shouldn't do that. We should get you to safety. That stake is probably stopping you from losing too much blood. We can move you with it.' But he didn't let her know what he was really thinking: if the stake was removed there was a chance she might bleed to death.
Alex spoke to Chris. 'How long has she been here like this?'
'An hour – two hours maybe,' said Chris.
'Where's the rest of your team?' said Hex.
Chris's voice was defensive. 'They were being idiots so we decided to let them cool off on their own for a while.'
Alex too was glad of the cover of darkness. It meant Chris couldn't see his undisguised look of astonishment. Going off on your own in an area like this was sheer lunacy; teams had to stick together. 'So no-one knows you're here?' he said.
'They were bound to come past soon,' said Chris. 'We were going to meet just before the next checkpoint.'
Paulo looked up from tending Tessa's wound. 'Can one of you guys have a look at these stakes? See how we're going to get it out.'
'No problem,' said Li. She stepped down into the pit.
Hex unscrewed the cap on his water bottle and passed it down to Tessa. 'Drink some water; you need fluids.'
Tessa grabbed it with both hands. 'Thanks,' she whispered.
Li pulled at one of the sharpened stakes in the pit. She thought she would be able to move it easily, but it had been hammered in deep. She had to give up. 'I can't budge it.'
'Here, I'll help,' said Alex. He jumped down beside her. He grasped one of the stakes and pulled back, using all his weight, as though he was working a giant lever. The stake loosened a little but not much. He paused for breath.
Li grasped the post. 'Let's try together, One . . . two . . . three . . .' They pulled backwards.
'Now push forwards,' said Alex. 'It's coming.'
Finally the post came out. Alex and Li both doubled over, catching their breath. Their head torches illuminated the base of the stake. 'Look at the depth of that,' said Alex. 'No wonder it didn't come out easily.'
They heard the rasp of Tessa's voice. 'The poachers hammer them in like that so they don't fall over when a heavy animal lands in them.' She winced as she spoke. 'I live in a game reserve.'
Paulo bit his lip. The stake Tessa was impaled on was just as deep in the ground. If they yanked it about like that they would cause her unbearable pain. What were they going to do?
Then the sound came. A deep roar, out in the darkness.
Everyone froze: Paulo, his light inspecting the base of the stake; Alex and Li, about to get out of the pit; Hex, digging for medical supplies in his rucksack; Tessa, slumped in pain; Chris, watching them.
'That was a lion,' said Li. 'And it's very close.'
3
RESCUE
Chris's voice was hushed, as though he was afraid the lions could hear him. 'They've been sniffing around ever since Tessa fell. They know someone's injured. We used that bear banger thing but they kept coming back. Now we've used all our cartridges.'
'Lions can smell blood from miles away,' said Li. 'And they hunt at night.'
'We'd better rethink our plan,' said Alex. He climbed out of the pit. 'We can't take Tessa out through those hungry lions. But the last checkpoint is only about ten minutes away. I could go for help—'
'You can't go on your own,' said Li. 'I'll come.' She vaulted out of the pit.
'I'll stay and help Paulo,' said Hex. 'If we stay close to the stakes they should give us a bit of protection.' He grabbed Chris's sleeve. 'Chris, you get in too.'
As Chris looked around, Hex felt him suddenly go rigid. He stood stock-still, staring into the dark beyond the pit. 'Look,' he said softly.
Alex followed the line of Chris's torch. A pair of eyes looked back at him from the blackness, reflecting like mirrors.
Alex spoke quietly. 'Hex, have you got the bear banger? I think we'd better set it off.'
'Good idea,' said Hex. 'Cover your ears, everyone.'
Hex lit the banger. A loud explosion split the night. Tessa jumped as though it had gone off underneath her, then gave a sob of pain.
Her nerves are shot to hell, thought Paulo. He patted her arm gently.
Alex, Hex and Li peered into the gloom, sweeping their head torches from side to side.
'I think it's gone,' said Alex. 'We ought to get going now. We can run there in—'
'We mustn't run,' interrupted Li. 'If there's a lion watching we could trigger its kill response. We've got to walk.'
Alex swallowed. 'Great,' he said.
'Take this,' said Hex. He passed over the bear banger and the remaining two cartridges.
'Surely we need to keep it with us,' protested Chris. 'We're sitting targets.'
'We'll probably be OK if we stay in the pit,' said Paulo. 'There are quite a few of us and if we make a lot of noise we can probably keep the lions away.' He looked at Li and Alex. 'You take the bear banger.'
Alex took his compass out of his rucksack and began to get a bearing. Normally he carried it in the survival kit he kept on his belt, but the rules of the race were very strict about what equipment was allowed. Even Hex had had to leave his most precious possession behind with Amber: a state-of-the-art palmtop computer. They weren't even allowed mobile phones or radios because back-up crew might use them to help their teams navigate, which would be cheating. That's why the course included so many checkpoints – to ensure the contestants were safe and well and coping with all the challenges.
Li swept her torch around the undergrowth again. 'We seem to be clear. Let's go.' She turned away.
'We'll be back as soon as we can,' Alex called over his shoulder.
Hex, Paulo and Chris watched their lights bob away into the darkness and heard their voices fade. Soon they could hear only the night sounds of insects and the cries of far-off animals. They were on edge as they listened, expecting another blood-chilling roar.
Tessa's weak voice rasped, 'Have the lions gone?'
Paulo tried to sound reassuring. 'They're usually scared of people, and there are lots of us here to stop them coming near you.' But he knew that these days, some lions had lost their fear of humans. He hoped these hadn't.
'Yes, I know,' said Tessa. 'I grew up with them, remember?'
Paulo smiled sheepishly. She probably also knew what he'd left unsaid too.
Tessa noticed. 'I'm very glad you're here,' she said quietly. 'You're a lot more use than certain other people I could mention.' Her voice had an edge, despite her weakness. 'Tell me something – if the medics can't get this stake out of my leg, what will they do?'
'Don't you worry about that,' said Hex. 'They'll know how to get it out.'
Tessa muttered. It sounded like: 'No they won't,' but none of them realized what she was about to do. Suddenly she jerked backwards, drawing her leg up violently. A guttural groan came from deep in her throat.
'Tessa, no!' cried Paulo.
With a ferocious cry the girl pulled her leg off the stake.
Blood spurted furiously from the wound as the artery began to pump. A bright red jet hit Paulo on the cheek. Hex whipped a large, absorbent field dressing out of the medical kit and clamped it down hard on Tessa's leg. Tessa squirmed and writhed with pain, oblivious to his attempts to help her.
Hex hung on. 'Keep still, Tessa,' he called. 'I need to stop the bleeding.'
The blood soaked the pad in no time. It pulsed up between Hex's fingers like a sticky geyser.
&n
bsp; 'Paulo!' he shouted. 'Tie a tourniquet.'
A roar welled out of the darkness.
Chris's light flashed off the trees as he scanned the undergrowth in panic. 'They're back,' he said. Anxiety made his voice high. 'Tessa, why did you do that? You've made the lions come back.'
Paulo and Hex could see nothing but Tessa's blood. Hex's face and T-shirt were splattered, the pad was sodden. He had all his weight on it, but Tessa's leg was jerking and the pad was in danger of slipping off.
Paulo went for the nearest thing that would make a tourniquet. Hex's eyes opened wide in surprise as his friend's hands lunged towards his waist. Paulo grabbed Hex's belt buckle, unfastened it and whipped the whole thing out of his shorts in two seconds flat. He wrapped it around the top of Tessa's thigh and pulled it tight.
Hex felt the throbbing under the dressings start to slow. 'It's working, Paulo,' he said. 'Keep it tight.'
Gradually, the flow of blood stopped. Tessa lay quietly. She looked exhausted.
'I'll secure the tourniquet,' said Paulo. 'Can you put another dressing on that?' He looked at his watch; every ten minutes he'd have to remember to loosen the tourniquet and retighten it, otherwise Tessa could get gangrene. He looked round to see Chris standing up in the pit, sweeping his torch around the undergrowth. Then he sat down again. He looked terrified.
Paulo stood up. 'Anything?'
Chris's teeth were bared in fear. 'I can't believe you let them take the bear banger.'
Paulo let the remark pass. An argument wouldn't do any good. It was far more important to see if there really was anything out there. 'Sit down,' he said. Chris did as he was told; he was too scared not to.
Paulo looked into the darkness. There was enough undergrowth to provide several lions with plenty of cover, even in broad daylight. Then, in the beam of his torch, a mere five metres away, he saw a lioness.
She was completely still, like a picture taken in mid stride, front paw lifted. She was gazing at the group intently. Paulo tried flicking the torch beam back and forth across her eyes. She didn't flinch, but stared back. Paulo could see the texture of her nose, the outline of her mouth like a rim of black leather, the way her sandy fur faded to white on her muzzle, the open jaws that revealed a red flash of tongue and the jagged outline of teeth.
Chris stood up. Paulo swiftly moved his torch away from the lioness so that Chris wouldn't see her – he was bound to panic. 'Sit down, Chris,' he said. 'There's nothing there. Come on, guys, let's make a bit of noise.'
Alex and Li were making good progress. They retraced their steps down to the path they had been following, and onto the track. Soon they were passing over the game trails they'd seen earlier.
'There's the rhino track,' said Li. She was talking partly to herself, to convince herself they didn't have much further to go. The torch on her head was creating a tunnel effect, making her feel sleepy again. The grassy track in front of her looked neverending, like a pattern designed to put you in a trance.
Alex caught the weariness in her voice. 'Take the torch off your head, then you don't get that weird effect,' he said. 'It was driving me mad too.'
Li slipped the headband off and wrapped it around her hand. Alex was right, that did feel better. 'Good thinking,' she said. 'That's—'
A sound exploded from the bush. Li grabbed Alex and gripped his arm hard, her nails digging in like claws. All he could hear was a frenzy of roaring, savage and purposeful, out there in the dark. And it was very close.
'It's lions hunting,' whispered Li. 'Over by the river.'
They heard scrabbling – a fight? There was a high-pitched sound like a howl; then its answer, a deep, forbidding roar. More voices joined in. How many of them were there?
'I'll get this thing ready,' said Alex. He prepared to light the bear banger.
'Don't use it yet,' said Li urgently. 'We might not need to. It sounds like they've made the kill and now they're all gathering to eat it. We should be able to get past without them bothering us if we stay well away. If we upset them, though, we'll be in more trouble. They're really hyped up when they've made a kill.'
'Are you sure?' said Alex. He flashed his torch around. He could see nothing but darkness and foliage. It made the noises all the more horrible.
'Sort of,' said Li. 'Just keep that bear banger ready.'
They marched on. Behind them, the roaring gave way to fighting and snarling. 'Now they'll start to squabble over who eats what,' said Li.
It was a chilling sound, vicious and primeval.
Gradually, the noise of the lions faded into the distance. Adrenaline stopped pumping through Alex's veins and he felt a wave of fatigue. It was extreme, like having a blanket dropped over his head. Not now, he said to himself. He gripped the handle of the bear banger hard, feeling its ridged handle dig into his palm. Maybe that would keep him awake. But he had been on the move for more than two days and nights. He had to try not to think about it. He couldn't believe that his body was craving sleep here, among all these hunting lions. Do it for the others, he told himself. They were depending on him to bring help.
'Paulo, don't fall asleep,' said Hex. He caught Paulo by the shoulders and shook him urgently. 'We mustn't fall asleep.'
Paulo was sitting next to Tessa. His head had nodded onto his chest for a moment. He came to with a jolt. 'Dios,' he muttered to himself. He hadn't realized he was dozing. A shiver turned his spine to ice. A lion could so easily have crept up on them.
Hex checked Tessa. 'The tourniquet seems all right. Where's Chris?'
Paulo shone his torch around. Chris was slumped in a corner, his head burrowed into the side of the pit like a hibernating creature. Paulo turned to Hex and said quietly, 'I reckon he's better like that.'
As Paulo swung the torch back, he caught sight of a pair of eyes up on the rim of the pit. 'Lion,' he said simply. A huge face, surrounded by a mane, was staring back at him.
Hex's foot touched something. It was the bait the poachers had left. Hex picked it up by its hoof. 'Mind out,' he said to Paulo and hurled it at the lion. The lion whirled round and trotted after it.
'Nice one,' said Paulo. The lion stopped a few metres away. He sniffed the meat and settled to gnaw it.
'That won't keep it amused for very long,' said Hex.
Suddenly they heard a noise. Relief flooded through Hex's veins like a ray of light. 'Hey, that's a vehicle.'
A powerful set of headlights swung through the trees. Hex and Paulo stood on tiptoe in the pit and waved. They saw the solid front of a Range Rover. Its bonnet bore the red cross of the medics. With a squeal of brakes it pulled up beside the pit.
Alex and Li jumped out, along with three paramedics.
'She's over there,' said Li.
One paramedic ran past her and dropped down into the pit beside Tessa. He took one look at her and called up to his colleague: 'Get the stretcher.'
Chris woke and stood up, rubbing his eyes as he made his way to the edge of the pit.
Paulo and Hex climbed wearily out. 'You made it,' said Paulo to Alex.
Alex nodded over at the undergrowth. Just beyond where their torches had been able to reach were three more lions, only twelve metres away, sitting on their haunches and staring at the group.
'Looks like we were just in time,' said Li.
4
TO THE BITTER END
The transition point was bustling with horses, riders and helpers. Competitors were starting to come back from the mounted orienteering phase of the race.
Paulo, Hex, Li and Alex walked their horses in and jumped off. It was mid-morning the next day. They had completed another section in good time and it was all change again.
Tessa had been taken to hospital and Team Alpha Force had voted unanimously to continue despite the detour. There was still a race to complete. So Li, Alex, Hex and Paulo had hiked to the next checkpoint, taken a two-hour break for sleep, and met Amber for the next phase – the thirty-kilometre orienteering ride. Now they were back, having successfully
persuaded their mounts through rivers and over mountain passes.
John Middleton grabbed the two friskier horses and led them away to untack and rub them down. Amber laid her crutches down on the ground and hopped up to take the quieter ones. But as she led them away they jogged with their tails in the air and eyes wide, staring at the strange bouncing creature that had taken charge of them. Amber realized she had made a mistake. Far from being tired and docile, they thought she wanted to play.
She pulled one of them up hard. It stood still, shocked. She sprang off her good leg up onto its back. The saddle immediately felt like home. 'Right,' she said. She gave the horse she was on a strong squeeze with her thighs, and firmly held the reins of the other one. 'Now I'm up here you'll do as you're told.' The horses quietened down immediately.
As she took the horses to the washing-down area, a truck trundled slowly past. It bore a logo: TEAM WOLF. Three competitors were lolling together on the back seats, fast asleep like children. Amber stared. The teams weren't allowed into their back-up vehicles so they must have withdrawn. But Team Wolf were legendary in adventure-racing circles. All around her, Amber was beginning to see how the course had taken its toll. Team Alpha Force were proving themselves in one of the toughest sports on earth.
This next phase was the final one – an eight-kilometre sprint. In normal circumstances that was a negligible distance for Alpha Force. At the start of the race they had agreed that this was where they would make up any lost time or mistakes. But now, after days of constant slog, it seemed a different prospect.
Paulo slipped off his riding boots and protective chaps. He picked up his running shoes but could hardly bear to put them on.
Alex, his chaps discarded where they had fallen, was already tying his laces. If they kept a positive frame of mind they would finish in good time. 'We'll get straight out and do the final push now, OK?' he said. His voice was strong.