CHAPTER SEVENTY-EIGHT
As Graham reached the trees on the other side of the plain, he began to worry even more about what animals might be hidden among them. Watching carefully and listening for any sounds, he moved slowly, whilst still keeping a keen eye for a stick that might be usable as a weapon.
The trees were similar to the ones he’d seen before, when he was being chased by the lions. The trunks were covered in dry bark and the leaves were a dull green. The bark was ridged and many of the trees had thorns, which would make a good weapon if a small limb containing them could be broken off.
He continued to walk with his heart constantly in his mouth, looking at every single tree and every blade of grass, turning every few seconds to see if he was being followed. He was exhausted, not only physically, but also emotionally.
Ahead of him he saw movement in the grass and heard a loud rustling sound, which made him freeze to the spot. What was it? He stopped for a moment and listened harder, straining to hear what he’d observed, whilst at the same time he was focusing his eyes on the area where the movement had occurred.
Nothing more happened, so he continued walking very slowly, but putting as much distance between himself and where he’d seen the movement as he could. As he started on his way, the grass moved again, but this time slightly further away, which relieved him somewhat, as it meant that whatever it was, it was frightened of him and trying to get away, too.
As he continued to move cautiously, feeling as scared as ever and totally vulnerable, his thoughts turned to the people behind his predicament.
‘You knew what you were doing when you put us out here naked,’ he thought angrily at them.
‘Being put in a wild environment was one thing, but having no clothes, too, made each of us feel even more vulnerable. Well, it worked, you bastards! That’s exactly how I feel!’
Then he wondered what Carly might be thinking right now, if indeed she were still alive.
If it wasn’t already mid-day it must have been getting close, as the sun felt really hot on his back and was very high in the sky. He felt around to his shoulders and could feel blisters rising on his back from the exposure. They were now extremely painful.
Something in the sky caught his eye, and as he looked up, he saw the distant contrail behind a high-flying jet. In a strange way this made him feel even more isolated from home. Although the jet represented civilisation and people, it was at such a height that he’d never be seen by its occupants. This made his predicament seem so totally hopeless it made him feel like giving up.
As he watched the jet disappear, he thought about how he had given up on life too much. He’d give anything to be rescued and returned to his simple life back in the UK, and he would even consider working and making something of himself, which was a route he had never really thought about taking before.
‘Why work when the government is stupid enough to pay you to sit on your backside?’ was how he ordinarily thought.
He then wondered about what it was that Carly had or hadn’t done, and how many other people had been kidnapped in the same way. He recalled how the man who he thought was named Ken had said, ‘There are plenty of others who simply failed to survive before you.’
‘This is like a game to them,’ he thought. ‘Someone has to stop this blue-eyed bastard from catching any more innocent people and playing his cruel experiments. The man is clearly psychotic and needs to be locked up!’
Tears began to run down his cheeks once more.
But with these thoughts came the conclusion that giving up was no longer an option. No, he must make every effort to escape and, despite being really thirsty again, he must try as hard as he could to find help or a way out. He wanted to get help to Carly and any others who had been locked up, but also to somehow stop this man and his heartless crew from the horrendous, inhumane things they were doing.
CHAPTER SEVENTY-NINE
As the crocodiles approached the white-looking, flailing animal, they slowly circled, not knowing whether this creature could kick out at them or had some other more effective means of defence. They moved in deliberately, but with steady caution, eyeing up their prey as they did.
Oblivious to the oncoming danger, Carly swam as fast as she could towards the river bank, which was seemingly not getting any closer.
There were now 10 to 15 crocodiles approaching her, with just the tops of their heads showing above the water as they closed in.
Suddenly sensing the danger, she looked behind her and could see the bumpy heads of several crocodiles only a short distance away.
Panicking, she turned and thrashed her arms more rapidly and kicked harder with her legs, until she suddenly felt the bottom of the river. As she touched it and stood, her feet sank into the soft mud. What with the resistance of the water and her sinking into the river bed, her progress was painfully slow. She glanced behind her and could see a few more heads moving towards her at speed.
She was now near exhaustion and battered from her ordeal with the hippos, but despite this, she pushed on. One by one she lifted each leg out of the soft mud. Bit by bit she got closer to the river bank. With every few steps she made, she checked to see how close the crocodiles were, finding the first one in the pack was only a few metres away, gliding through the water with relentless ease.
With a final last push and an adrenalin-filled energy boost, Carly reached the river bank and gradually struggled out of the water and onto harder ground. She knew that this close to the water’s edge she was still an easy target, because she knew that crocodiles are capable of either coming out of the water or leaping out to attack. As she looked back, they were almost upon her. Within seconds, they’d be climbing out of the water, too. She turned back to look up at the river bank in front of her, which seemed like a mountain right now — an impossible mountain to climb with her depleted energy level.
‘Perhaps I should just let them get me and give up right here,’ she began to think, as she saw them drawing near. ‘I’m probably going to die anyway. This might be a quicker way to go.’
As she tried to gather the last of her strength, she could see that the lead crocodile had almost reached the spot where she had first touched the bottom of the river. That changed her thinking: ‘No! They’re not going to get me! I don’t want to die that way!’
With that, she renewed her efforts and finally worked her way up the river bank and away from the impending danger.
Once she’d got to the top of the bank, she sank to the ground and lay there exhausted.
Eventually, she sat up from where she had lain and inspected her battered body. There was a huge gash across her torso where the hippo’s tusk had cut into her, which was oozing blood. This wasn’t the only cut she’d suffered from the horrific ordeal with the hippos. She considered herself lucky to have escaped with her life, plus now she’d managed to get away from the crocodiles.
She was aware that all her cuts were covered in dirt and that the water she’d just escaped from was full of filth and bacteria, so if she didn’t get to a hospital soon, and if another animal didn’t kill her, she’d likely die from her injuries and infection.
Despite her battering, she amazed herself by somehow managing to get to her feet. She looked over to the trees where she’d come from earlier and it appeared that the elephants had moved on. So she felt that this was the best place to go for now, whilst she decided what to do next.
She walked slowly towards the trees. Looking down to the river, she could see the crocodiles slowly moving away, and, as she looked across to the other river bank, she could see a few climbing back out and into the sun.
It was a long, agonising walk, but eventually she reached the cover of the trees. She decided to return to where she’d spent the night and, as she was approaching the spot, she heard the same sound as she had before — a dog-like barking, which came from the branches above her. She instantly froze, not knowing what animal had just made this noise, as she’d been unable to see it in
the dark.
Her heartbeat jumped to the high rate she’d experienced before, as she feared the worst. She looked up into the trees to see if she could spot what had made the sound this time. On the other hand, she wasn’t too sure if she really wanted to see what it was.
Shaking with fear and still in pain from her ordeal in the river, with blood still seeping from the deepest of her cuts, she hobbled away to find cover in the trees. As she sat down on a higher piece of ground, the trees above her moved and the creature that had made the sound made another, but much louder this time. She wasn’t too sure if it was closer now than before, but either way it was too close for comfort. And it seemed to be focusing on her.
She pulled her knees up under her chin and crossed her arms around her legs in a foetal type position, hoping to somehow make herself feel a little safer. She was now shaking uncontrollably, as if she were cold. She realised that she’d gone into shock from her recent ordeal, but was now absolutely terrified of what might be in the trees above her head.
It was then that a large, dog-like creature dropped to the ground. The animal in front of her opened its elongated jaw to reveal large, canine teeth, and just as it did, more similar-sized creatures came out from the bushes making dog-like barking sounds, too.
The first creature rushed at her as she jerked backwards from where she sat, but as she did so, one of the other two creatures came at her from the side, catching her arm with its huge teeth and ripping a large chunk of her skin away from her upper arm, revealing the muscle beneath.
What she didn’t realise was that these were the three top-level bucks of a baboon troop. The animals were treating her as a threat to their troop and were dealing with it in the only way they knew how — by attacking.
Carly screamed and stared with saucer-like eyes at the large buck in front of her, not knowing that these were the worst possible things she could do.
CHAPTER EIGHTY
Graham decided to continue walking towards where he’d seen the herd of wildebeest and zebra feeding and away from the cover of the trees, on the hope that they would be near a water source.
‘Wildebeest survive,’ he thought. ‘Or, at least most of them do. Why can’t I be like them and survive out here, too?’
He knew there was a waterhole somewhere in the area, which was near to the river also, having been there before, but he had no idea where it was in relation to the cave area in which he’d been placed.
‘Perhaps they’ve put Carly where I was before, or perhaps they still cannot use this area after they’d evacuated me,’ he considered.
Walking became harder with every step he took, as the soles of his feet were massively blistered now and cut-sore. He was surprised at how he had found this deeply placed need to survive. It was strange, knowing how he was back at home and how lazy he was ordinarily; this new-found fortitude was a revelation to him.
As he continued to walk, he caught something move in the corner of his eye. At the same time, he heard a sharp, shrill call. As he turned to look where the movement and sound had come from, his heart abruptly beat faster.
Where he’d seen the movement was a mound, and next to the mound was an entrance to what appeared to be an animal’s den. The hole looked like one in a rabbit warren and the ground around it was well worn, with many dirt pathways leading away from it.
Then he saw a creature scurry towards the hole and disappear into it very quickly out of sight. Instantly, he knew what he’d seen — a meerkat. He recognised it from a program he’d watched not that many months ago. As he surveyed the area, he realised that there were numerous holes and mounds around where he stood.
His heart was still pounding, as the movement had surprised him; he knew all too well that movement of any kind could represent all sorts of danger. This time, though, he knew he could relax a bit. Meerkats didn’t represent any threat to him.
Then suddenly he heard another sound, and another movement caught his eye. Off in the distance he saw what appeared to be a vehicle moving along at speed. It was throwing up a huge amount of dust as it roared along.
The vehicle was heading his way and as it drove past the wildebeest and zebra, they scattered, which created yet more dust clouds in their wake.
His heart beat rose once more, knowing that this would mean another stint in a cage eating dog food. He began to run in the opposite direction, away from the vehicle.
As he ran, he could clearly hear the engine getting closer behind him.
Turing to see how close the vehicle was, he saw dust billowing out from the back, which made it seem as though it were on fire. The noise of the tyres on the rough ground and the sound of the suspension being put through its paces got even louder.
The Land Rover was soon almost upon him and then it came to a grinding stop. As it did so, a huge dust cloud erupted around the vehicle, almost completely engulfing it, so that he could hardly see its occupants.
As it began to settle, both the driver and his passenger jumped out of the vehicle and ran towards him. He realised instantly that the man who was the passenger had a rifle. As the two men approached him, the driver smiled and greeted him in a South African accent: ‘Hey, you’re safe. Thank goodness we found you in time!’
Graham’s face broke into a smile. When the two reached him, he saw the man holding the gun also had brought some clothes, which he handed to Graham.
‘Here, put these on,’ he said. ‘You must be really sore from the sun and now you can cover yourself up.’
Overcome with emotion at his rescue, Graham fell to his knees, unable to instantly respond. The men waited patiently until he could collect himself.
‘Thank you so much,’ he finally managed to say, then: ‘How did you find me? Where are the men who kidnapped me?’
The driver was a tall man with tanned skin who was dressed in a khaki uniform and wearing a hat and sunglasses. He had a hardened look, but his face softened as he smiled back at Graham and said, ‘Looking at your skin, you must be so sore. You are safe now. Your kidnappers have been arrested by the police.’
‘Oh, thank God! I wasn’t sure whether you were those men again, coming to catch me and put me back in that horrible animal cage,’ Graham replied.
‘How did you find me and how did you find out about what they were up to?’
‘When we raided their camp, we found their equipment, which they were using to track you,’ the driver explained
‘Somewhere on you there is a tracking device, but seeing that you’re naked, it must be under your skin somewhere.’
With this Graham felt to the back of his neck, where he knew there was something under his skin.
‘That makes sense — I’ve got something under my skin back here,’ Graham told the men, as he moved the lump on his neck.
‘You’ve been treated like an animal,’ the man with the gun said with disgust. ‘But you are one of the lucky ones. We’re not quite sure, but we do know that some of the people they captured have not survived the experience.’
‘What happened to them?’ Graham asked, as if he didn’t already know, having nearly succumbed to the lions before being saved in the nick of time by his captors.
‘We’re not absolutely certain, but we know there were at least two others that didn’t survive. They were killed by wild animals, we are sure of that,’ the driver said, with a sad look on his face.
‘Here, put these clothes on to cover your dignity and to help keep your skin from getting any more sun,’ the driver said, again with comforting concern for Graham.
‘We can talk more about this once we are in the Land Rover heading for the other person out here. What’s your name?’ he then asked.
‘Graham. My name’s Graham. Other person? Is that Carly?’ Graham questioned impatiently, as he began to get dressed.
‘And where are you from?’ he asked Graham.
‘I’m from England, a small town called Chelmsford. What about Carly? You mentioned another person. That must be Carly,’ Gra
ham replied, repeating his question with urgency, as if the man hadn’t heard him the first time.
‘I guess it could be Carly. We must move quickly to find her, too. How do you know her name?’ he asked.
‘She was in one of the other cages after I was recaptured by the kidnappers, who for some reason saved me from being eaten alive by the lions,’ Graham said.
‘I was knocked out by a stun gun and when I awoke, she was gone, so I have to assume she is out here somewhere, too. Have you found her location?’ he pressed the men for an answer.
‘We are going to see if she is still alive. We only have the one tracker unit and you were closest, so hurry up and get dressed and into the vehicle, mate,’ the driver pushed.
‘We must get to her quickly, as she is a few kilometres from here,’ he continued, as Graham finished donning the clothes and climbed into the back of the vehicle.
‘By the way, we’re rangers. I’m Jack, and this is my colleague, Ian,’ the driver offered. ‘And that’s Kyle in the back,’ he added, as Kyle nodded and smiled at Graham to acknowledge him.
The men explained to Graham that he was in the Luangwa Valley in Zambia, which is one of Africa’s prime wildlife sanctuaries, with big concentrations and varieties of game. They described the region as the ‘real Africa’ and told him that he was really lucky to survive, as there were plenty of predators, including lions, cheetahs, and leopards, roaming this valley.
Almost before Graham had a chance to settle into his seat, the vehicle lurched forward and they were on their way. The typical sound of the Land Rover resonated through the vehicle, with the noise of a worn diff whining and the sound of the tyres running on the uneven African dirt.
As Graham looked forward, he could see the tracking device held by Ian. It was making an audible beeping sound and the screen had a red dot which flashed in time with the beeps.
‘Is that Carly?’ Graham asked anxiously.
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