Graham shuddered with the horrible thought of this poor woman being out in the wild like he had been earlier, but at night. He couldn’t think of a worse thing to happen, and he could only imagine how she must be feeling, having experienced this himself in the day-time.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
After the two men returned from putting the two marks out into the wild, Scott immediately went to Druker’s office, where his boss was looking at the tracking screen. The screen was showing two new dots that represented Prow and Hurley.
‘So how did it go?’ Druker asked.
‘Well, we dropped Hurley off first and then dropped Prow off after that, and at the time they were both still out of it, but I don’t think it will be long before either of them comes to,’ Scott said.
‘We put Hurley in the open area just outside Area Two, so he’s actually just in Area Three. And we put Prow within the trees near where that small river leads into the Luangwa River,’ he explained.
‘Where we’ve put her, we noticed there was a large troop of baboons, and they caused a big commotion when we arrived,’ Scott added.
‘That will be interesting,’ Druker reflected. ‘Baboons have been known to attack larger animals, especially if they feel threatened and their territory is encroached upon.’
‘Let’s see what happens. She’ll probably be awake now and will probably be really pissed off, as she is a bit of a feisty one,’ Scott said.
Druker paused for a moment, then said, ‘My suggestion is we wait until one of these two croak it and then send Smith back out right after that, but this time let’s put him in the cave where we put Lane, in Area Two.’
‘I think that’s a good idea, boss,’ Scott replied. ‘It will be interesting to see if either of them survive the night, though.’
‘Yes, they’ll both be working very hard right now, as there’s no let-up in the wild. There are no days off, no holidays. Nature respects no one but the strong,’ Druker responded in a profound tone, which Scott had never observed him using before.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
Konner awoke to a strange sound above his head. As he came to and opened his eyes, the sunlight blinded him. He squinted towards the bright sky, thinking, ‘I must have fallen asleep, but how strange. The last thing I remember was being in some kind of round-shaped building.’ He then recalled a man coming in and gagging him to stop his shouting; he also remembered having a mask placed over his face.
When sat up, in order to work out where the noise was coming from, Konner realised that he was still totally naked. As his eyes final adjusted to the bright sunlight, he looked around to discover that he was in a field — or what appeared to be a field.
‘How long have I been here for?’ he thought.
The noise that he could hear was coming from some strange-looking birds that were circling over his head. A few of these birds had landed on the ground and were gathered around him. Startled, he then realised that these ugly birds, with their featherless heads, were vultures.
He considered for a moment why so many of these scavenging creatures might be around him. He then got it — vultures always gather at the site of a dead or dying animal. Quickly, he looked around to see what they might be interested in, but there was nothing. Then it came to him in a scary flash: ‘Oh, my god, they are here for me! They think I’m dying or that I have died!’
With this thought, he jumped to his feet, and although his only audience was a crowd of vultures, his modesty instincts made him cover his manhood with his hands. With him standing, the vultures took to the air, many letting out loud squawking noises at the same time. The vultures continued to circle in the sky above him.
‘What on earth is this?’ he wondered.
Then he thought back to what had happened. He remembered some men coming into the building where he was being held. At the time he was blindfolded, so he wasn’t sure just how many men, but he remembered hearing a few different voices. He recalled them talking about a procedure and taking him to an operating room and then he remembered they’d injected him.
The bed he was in was in a round room with a number of windows, all of which were covered over. He recalled that within minutes of waking he had begun shouting for help. It was at this point that a tall, muscular man had come rushing in to tell him he’d better shut up or there’d be consequences, and then proceeded to stuff a gag in his mouth.
Konner recalled his futile resistance to what this man was doing and he’d continued his shouting until his shouts were muffled by the gag. There was not much that he could do, as his arms and legs were restrained at the wrists and ankles. He then recalled that this same man then put a blindfold on him, so that he was no longer able to see what was going on, either
As he looked down at his wrists, he could still see where the restraints had been, as the ties had left him bruised. There were similar marks on his ankles, too
‘What is this?’ he questioned out loud. ‘What the hell is going on?’
As he surveyed the savannah, he still felt woozy, as some of the drugs continued to flow through his veins.
‘Am I awake or is this one huge nightmare?’ he questioned, and then pinched himself. ‘Have I gone completely mad.’
Suddenly he realised something. ‘The man who gagged and bound me was the same man who shot me in the bush.’ Then he recalled his hunting trip with Bram and his shooting the lion. He remembered seeing the three magnificent creatures for the first time, which had all disappeared into the bush when they saw the Land Rover.
He recalled getting nervous when Bram had pulled the Land Rover up in the wooded area, especially when he’d told him to get out so they could then track the lions on foot. He remembered seeing the three lions in the clearing, with the largest of the three standing looking back at him and Bram.
Bram had whispered to him to take aim and to shoot, telling him to aim for its chest. This he had done without any questions, not wanting to miss the opportunity of his first lion kill – the lion had dropped immediately, as his bullet pierced its skin, entered the chest cavity had punctured its heart.
‘Why the hell have they put me out here on my own?’ he thought.
The ground under his bare feet was hard and it hurt him as he started to walk. He chose to walk away from the sun, which was beating down on his bare back. He no longer had the factor 50 sun cream he’d brought with him. So unless he could find some shade, his back would soon become burned and blistered.
The plain he was on seemed to stretch out for many kilometres and it was scattered with a few umbrella-shaped trees. He decided first to walk to the nearest one and sit under its branches. This would at least afford him a reprieve from the sun’s rays whilst he contemplated his predicament and collected his thoughts.
As Konner approached the first acacia tree, he could see a herd of various large plains feeding animals. With the heat haze it was difficult to determine what the animals were, but he soon realised that where there were herbivores eating grass, there would usually be carnivores looking to eat them, too.
As he reached the acacia tree, his bare feet were already feeling extremely sore. The grass here was not a complete blanket like it was in his garden at home, but rather a patchy growth, between which was hard dirt and stones.
Thankfully, there was a bit of shade under the tree, so he decided to sit there for a while.
He settled down on the ground, but it wasn’t at all comfortable on his bare skin. He had to get up again and brush away small stones and debris from the ground where he wanted to sit to minimise any discomfort. He then slowly lowered himself to the cleared area and thought to lean his back against the tree, using this as something to lean on. However, the bark, which looked a bit like a patchwork of peeling paper, was uncomfortable. It took him awhile to find a spot that didn’t aggravate the skin on his back.
Whilst he was manoeuvring himself to find a place of comfort, he became aware of something in his neck. Reaching around, he found a small lump at
the nape. He felt a small cut, which he didn’t remember being there before. As he touched the lump, it moved, as if there were something under the skin like a small stone. He shuddered with the thought that he’d been through some kind of operation, and without his consent.
‘Maybe this is what they were referring to when they talked about a procedure and the operating room, but what have they done to me?’
He looked apprehensively around where he sat and wondered whether there might be some cameras watching his every move.
‘But how could this be? They couldn’t know which way I’d go after waking, so to have cameras in all directions is not realistic,’ he concluded, but still kept looking around to see if he could see anything that resembled a camera.
‘Perhaps they don’t actually care where I am, so they aren’t watching my every move,’ his thoughts continued, ‘so I might be stuck out here forever.’
As Konner sat there he realised he was really thirsty and he scanned the plain for what might reveal a place where he could find water. He decided to wait under the tree until the sun had gone down in the sky, and only then would he make the effort to find somewhere to quench his thirst.
‘Those bastards! But will I survive this ordeal?’ he said out loud.
He could hear the herd of animals in the distance and recognised the sounds of both zebra and wildebeest. He remembered watching a wildlife program on the African plains and remembered the sounds they made. These made him feel very alone out here. The bleats and brays were not friendly, although he knew the beasts would not hurt him, but they made him feel extremely vulnerable and very far away from the safety of his apartment in New York City and his life there as a dentist.
He was more worried now about how he was going to walk the distance to find water, not knowing which way to go. How far this might be was a problem. He considered for a moment what animals he might encounter on his way. He was sure these wouldn’t only be the feathered kind he’d awakened to nor the herbivore kind he could see in the distance. He already knew there were lions in the region, but where were they in relation to the one he’d shot?
Just as he was having these thoughts, he caught some movement in the grass to his right.
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
Carly awoke with the sound of running water next to her ear and felt what appeared to be a rough bed beneath her. As she came to, she knew instantly that she was naked from top to bottom. As this realisation hit her, she sat up and looked around.
‘Where the hell am I?’ she said aloud to herself.
She felt extremely self-conscious, as she was not used to being naked, especially out in the open.
Confused and a bit dazed, she thought, ‘What’s going on? She then shouted, ‘Help!’
As her mind was beginning to clear, she recalled speaking with a naked man named Graham in a cage, whilst she was also caged and opposite him. She remembered him telling her that they were part of an experiment and that they were in Africa. She also recalled how she’d reacted in complete disbelief, thinking that this man was mad.
‘Maybe Graham wasn’t so mad after all. But in Africa?’ she thought, as she looked around at the scenery.
She was suddenly aware that what this man had said was very likely true; it looked like she was now out in a wilderness, and if it was Africa, then that would also mean dangerous animals could be around, too.
She then recalled what had happened when she was in the cage — that a man told her to be quiet, but that she had panicked and ignored him. That he’d prodded her with a stun-stick. That she’d been thrown back against the cage, and must have blacked out. Now she found herself waking up here amongst the trees.
With these thoughts, she felt the back of her neck, which was still very sore from her ordeal. As she felt her nape, she could feel a lump there. The lump was not like a bruise, which is what she expected, but was different; there clearly was something under her skin the size of a large bean. Maybe this was as a result of hitting the cage bars, she thought to herself, but it did seem a bit strange, as it moved in her fingers under the skin like there was a foreign object there.
As she was remembering as much as she could about what had happened to her and realising that she was probably part of some kind of sick experiment, Carly’s feelings of anger came back.
‘Why me? Why have they brought me here? How dare these men treat me in this way! What have I done to be caged and then put out into the wild, and without my clothes?’ she ranted to herself in disgust, as she began again to crave a cigarette. Her usual habit of smoking twenty-plus cigarettes a day was going to be a huge challenge for her, as she wasn’t going to be able to satisfy that need.
Feeling helpless, she tried to get to her feet, which she found a struggle, as she was just coming around from her ordeal and the effects of the anaesthetic she’d been given for the operation. The episode with the man prodding her with the stun gun in the cage only seemed like moments ago, but now she realised it could have been quite some time ago.
‘They’ve managed to get me out here whilst I was knocked out. But how far am I away from the place with the cages?’ she wondered.
Feeling helpless and extremely vulnerable, she began to walk. As she did, she realised that her feet were also bare. The ground where she was walking was hard and the stones dug into the soles of her feet.
She stood in a wooded area, which was next to a small river, trying to decide what to do next. She was thinking about the man with the prodding stick, feeling angry and at the same time wondering how to get to help. ‘Surely there must be someone nearby to help me,’ she deliberated.
Despite being naked she didn’t feel cold; instead, it felt unusually warm. As she looked up, she could see that the sky was a lovely blue colour, with not a cloud to be seen.
She returned to the memory of waking up in a coffin-like box. She remembered the men looking in when the lid was taken off, with the man called Blake being one of them. This was the man she’d met at her interview only a few days ago.
‘They injected me. How dare they?’ she said to herself indignantly, as she recalled what had happened.
She thought back to the interview and remembered the picture of the African plain with the elephants and giraffes behind Blake’s desk. She also began to reflect on her interview again and what a strange experience it had been from beginning to end. She also thought about how she’d known instinctively that there was something wrong, a sixth sense perhaps of what was to come.
It was too late to change what had happened, but she wished she’d not gone to the interview at all.
Her thoughts turned to where she found herself and she thought again about how warm it felt.
‘This is definitely not English weather. Maybe Graham is right about it being Africa,’ she thought.
She then thought again about the coffin experience and how it felt like she was floating. ‘So maybe I’ve been in an aeroplane, but how did they get me through the airport?’ she questioned.
Walking was difficult, as the ground beneath her feet was rough. She wasn’t used to having bare feet. She glanced down at her bare, white skin and stopped to look at her more than ample breasts, which had now begun to sag.
Her stomach was also bigger than it should be, which obstructed her view of her female parts and her bush, which she’d never taken care of and had simply let grow.
Her stream of thoughts was suddenly broken when she heard a sound and realised she was not alone. There was movement in the trees on her side of the river. The sound was a bit like a barking dog, but surely there were no dogs out here.
Carly froze to the spot; her heart was in her mouth and the adrenalin in her blood raised her heart’s rate to what felt like an alarming level.
CHAPTER FIFTY-NINE
After having dinner with Scott, which had been a large T-bone steak with fries and all the trimmings, Druker returned with him to his office. The pair went straight to the tracking screen to see what was happening with
the marks.
The dot representing Konner had moved some distance, but then it had come to a complete stop. The one with Prow’s name attached to it had also moved from where it had been to begin with, but not as much. However, it had moved enough for Druker to know she was awake and experiencing the wild, which is the part he loved about his experiment.
‘One down, three to go,’ Druker said.
‘That one is a bit feisty, believe it or not,’ Scott said, pointing to Carly’s dot.
‘Yes, these fuckers sit around all day on their fat arses and then when you bring them out here, they get all righteous and fight for themselves,’ Druker snorted.
‘Yes, I know; they still feel like they’re owed something for some reason,’ Scott replied in his mixed English and South African accent.
‘Why don’t we let Smith out again, as he’s been a bit of a pain like Prow?’ he asked.
'As I said earlier, let’s wait until one of these is terminated, and then we’ll put him out in the cave,’ Druker replied, adding, ‘I think having two marks out at a time is more than enough for us to track. If we had three out and some two-bit tourists came wandering along, as they often do, getting three of these suckers back would be a bit more of a challenge.'
Druker took another swig of red wine, which he’d poured after opening a new bottle of Château Lafite Rothschild.
‘Hurley seems to have stopped for quite a while now, whereas Prow has kept moving. Night will be setting in soon, so I wonder if something has happened to him.’
Scott thought about this for a second, then replied, ‘it seems quite soon for him to have been attacked by something, but I guess it’s possible, as there are lions and those hyenas about where he is.’
Nothing Left But Fear Page 18