ALEX
"Ah no worry, Pommie. We lost dem far behind. Ol' Jelani da best at shaking danger."
They sped off from the airport, and Alex glanced at Sam where he sat in the rear of the open Jeep. He was still looking back through the trail of dust and not entirely convinced by Jelani's overconfident assurance. Sam nervously wrapped his now-white knuckles around the bull bar of the vehicle in a pointless attempt to stick to the seat and not be flung out around the next corner.
Alex suppressed a giggle as Jelani purposefully flattened his foot on the pedal, all the while watching for another reaction from Sam. Sam's once starched white shirt was left tainted with a red-brown film of African dust kicked up by the back wheels next to him. Alex knew that when Jelani drove a vehicle, one had to hold on for dear life to stay seated. To attempt anything other than holding on was lunacy, much less change into different clothing. The poor sod was in over his head and had no idea how to survive in Africa. He was probably too focused on his dream to meet the famous Professor Hunt, Alex thought.
She closed her eyes for a second, sending up another prayer that her father was okay and still alive.
"He'll be okay, Lakicia. Your old man is a warrior remember? He has always found a way to get out of a sticky situation. We'll find him. I promise."
Jelani still had a knack of knowing the very thing that went on in her head.
"Your intuition has always been as sharp as a knife, my old friend. I suspect it's precisely the reason why Dad always trusts you to lead the ground team on all his expeditions. Your father's skillful training stands you in good stead."
"I learned from the best, Lakicia, but I promise you, your father is alive and well."
"I hope you're right, Jelani. If he does manage to free himself somehow, he will try to find the village. I guess the question to ask should be whether he would be able to determine how to find it without knowing his exact location."
Jelani fell quiet for a while. His always-smiling face suddenly turned pensive. Being her childhood friend, he primarily grew up with her parents in the village. Izzy was so determined in finding that stupid key that Tanzania, initially meant to be just another quick expedition, turned out to be more like their long-term home. Jelani's mother had died of malaria when he was just a toddler so naturally, they had stepped up to the plate and taken him in.
"I'm sorry I couldn't protect her, Lakicia. She was like my very own mother to me. I would have saved her if I could. I did try to track her but… well, you know what happened. And now I've gone and done the same to your father."
"Oh, Jelani don't!" She touched his arm.
"None of this was your fault," she added.
She felt her chest suddenly tighten as the horrific memories of the past and now, her father's kidnapping flashed through her mind. Jelani's perplexed look didn't help and what he said next, troubled her even more.
"Everything happened so quickly. I'm still not sure I quite understand how your father's kidnappers even found out where we were."
"What do you mean 'you don't understand how they found you'?"
"Just like I said Lakicia. You know we're always careful with being followed and covering our tracks to the village. We had a big cattle theft some time back. So my father thought we should rather move the village to a new spot a little bit further down the river. No one knew of our new location. We have watchers in the trees all day and night."
"Yet they attacked?"
"Exactly. We've mastered protecting our villages and have been doing this for decades. Tracing us is nearly impossible.
"I see your point, Jelani. What about access via the river? Could they have come in from the other side perhaps?"
"Not a chance! That's impossible. This river spot is perilous. At the moment the crocs' breeding ground is in the area so swimming will be a suicide mission. They would have had to use boats, but then we would have seen them. I guess we'll never discover the truth. No point now in any case. We can't change what happened. We lost four of our warriors, and your father is still missing."
Alex tugged at her seatbelt. Feeling the wind through her hair barely satisfied the urgent desire to breathe more air into her lungs. A massive wave of panic sneaked up on her. They took her father and the thought of him lying dead somewhere was devastating. But this affected Jelani too.
"And your father, Jelani? Did he… is he alive?"
"Ah yes, of course," he giggled with a proud smile.
"The Chief is as tough as coconuts. He would never lose a fight. He showed them rebels all right. But unfortunately, the fight was long since over and not his to have. They only took your father and left. Almost as if they came just for him and nothing else."
"And Eric? Where was he when all this happened? He took over the phone when Dad tried calling me, and he said they shot him, but then the phone went dead. Is he dead?"
"Shot?" a very surprised Jelani exclaimed.
"Not to my knowledge. Saw him running off with my own two eyes, Lakicia. And the other day in the city, I could have sworn he was buying rum at the liquor store. I've been looking everywhere for him since."
"Well, we're going to have to find him before they do. He might very well have some idea where they are holding Dad captive. I just hope we locate him before… well before they—"
Alex couldn't bring herself to even speak the words or think the unthinkable. Losing her Dad the same way she had lost her mother was not an option.
A sudden surge of overwhelming anxiety and fear engulfed her. The choking sensation in her throat had her tugging on her shirt collar. Her hands were sweaty and trembled uncontrollably, and her heart pounded in her chest. She reached for the pills inside her jacket, but her pocket was empty. She dug deeper. Still nothing. She crossed over to the other pocket thinking she might have confused the two but this one turned up empty as well. She patted down her pants pockets, and unclipped her seatbelt in an attempt to lift her body off the seat, hoping that the bottle had slipped out onto the seat beneath her.
"Alex, have you lost your mind? Sit down!"
Alex was vaguely aware of Quinn shouting at her from the back seat.
"Where did you learn to drive, Jelani? For the love of Pete slow down!" Sam yelled out when Jelani hit a pothole and Alex was almost thrown out.
Jelani didn't seem to know the brakes even existed and merely raised his foot off the accelerator.
"Stop, you damn lunatic. Alex will fall out! Hit the brakes!"
Sam's words were only just spoken when Jelani slammed on the brakes causing the Jeep's rear to slide out sideways and veer off the sandy road. A couple of branches hit Alex across the face as she fell back into the seat. Jelani frantically attempted to adjust the steering wheel in the opposite direction in an effort to gain control of the now out-of-control car. The vehicle lunged to the other side and lost its grip on the soft sand and then rammed through the bushes before it hit a large thorn tree.
Alex became aware of her body ejecting from her seat before it became buoyant through the air and then thumped down hard onto the ground.
Her head spun and an intense pain ensued from somewhere she couldn't quite make out. Exhaling a deep groan, she managed to sit up. Fresh, warm blood ran down her temple and more trickled down the center of her nose. Her wrist hurt when she pushed herself up from the ground. She struggled to keep her balance and fell back down against the tree.
"Jelani, Quinn, Jelani!" she called out in a voice that didn't sound like hers. The blood blurred her vision, straining her eyesight, so she tried wiping some away with the back of her hand. That didn't help. Instead, she now couldn't open her eyes at all. She pulled her shirt from around her waist and wiped away the blood.
A very faint moan and a rustle in the nearby shrubs had her squint for better visibility.
"Jelani? Is that you?" she asked, still wiping the gushing blood from her eyes.
"Alex… it's me. Are you okay?" Quinn's strained voice came from behind the shrubs.
"Quinn! Yes, no. I'm not sure."
"Hang on, I'm coming."
She watched as he stumbled to his feet, pulling off bits of shrubbery as he made his way to her.
Sam cursed out loud and then added, "You're bleeding buckets, Alex! Stay down."
Seconds later Quinn ripped his sleeves off his fancy shirt and turned them inside out before wrapping it tightly around her head.
"Sit back. We have to stop the bleeding. Try not to move."
"Jelani… where is Jelani?"
They both paused for an instant, straining their ears in the hope of hearing Jelani move somewhere, but there was nothing but a deadly silence.
"Stay here. I'll go look."
Sam, naturally still dizzy from the crash, walked across to the upside-down Jeep that lay under a nearby tree.
Alex willed her thoughts into Jelani still being alive. Without him and the sheltering safety of his village, they'd be vulnerable to the rebels and all sorts of prey. It wouldn't be long at all before they'd be captured—or dead.
The screeching noise of steel against steel followed by a muffled bang had her look up toward the wreckage. Her sight was completely blurred. Dependent only on her hearing she turned her head and detected another muted unidentifiable sound coming from somewhere behind her.
Still leaning against the tree trunk, she wiped her eyes once more before turning her head toward the direction the huffing sounds came from. With slightly less blurred vision, from behind the thick tree trunk, she spotted movement in the shrubbery about fifty to a hundred meters behind her.
"Quinn!" She whisper-shouted toward the wreckage, just as another chuffing noise came from the bushes behind her.
Alex recognized the sound to be a cat of some sort; a lion or perhaps a cheetah.
She looked back at the wreckage. Sam was still nowhere in sight. Her mind raced with options. They were in the middle of the African Savannah with just about every wild animal roaming about. Most tourists would pay top dollar to spot any one of the animals, and yet here they were, about to become their dinner!
She had a vague idea of their location being somewhere close to the village that was on the banks of the river. With the sun just about set it meant that they would be on the immediate path to the river and that meant only one thing; they were near a watering hole. Most of the animals would have returned from the river by sunset to find shelter for the night or, in the case of a lion, readying itself for a hunt.
Either way, they were in danger. Alex wiped her eyes again hoping to see Sam who was still not back. She dared not call out to him again. Whichever cats were hiding in those bushes would be alerted by any loud noise. While her eyes were fixed dead on the spot behind her, another slight movement came at her from the Jeep's direction. It was Sam walking toward her from the wreckage. As he met up with her, Alex noticed Jelani's limp body in his arms and moments later, Sam lay Jelani on the ground next to her. He was oblivious to the fact that they were prime prey to lurking carnivores.
Alex swallowed twice, trying to force the hard lump in her throat down as her eyes teared up at the sight of Jelani's limp frame.
"He was pinned under the Jeep, Alex. He's still breathing, but he might very well have internal injuries."
While Alex made every attempt to speak, she couldn't. Her lips were moving, but there was no sound coming from her throat. She tried again but managed to only utter the tiniest of squeaks. She had to somehow stop Sam from talking and warn him about the lions. With a shaking hand, she lifted her finger in front of his mouth signaling for him to be quiet, but it was too late. The lions made their presence known with a loud growl.
"WHAT— WAS — THAT?" Sam mouthed as more growls filled the air.
Still unable to get any sound from her voice Alex quietly cleared her throat in the hope that this time she'd be able to speak.
"Lions," she croaked as she successfully managed a soft, hardly audible whisper.
"Have some water. I kind of need you to speak right now, Alex," Sam whispered back, forcing some water down her throat.
"Tell me I didn't just hear you say it's a lion."
Alex gulped down the water and nodded. "I'm not sure, but yes, I suspect so. They're not a threat right now. Just keep your voice down. The wind is in our favor but we can't stay here, Quinn. We're going to have to find shelter and quick."
"What do you mean a LION?" he said with a tiny note of angst in his voice.
"We are in the middle of the African bush, Quinn. Lions and cheetahs and all sorts of other wild animals are all around us. But while the wind is still blowing toward us, we're fine. As long as the direction doesn't change and we don't make any sudden sounds or movements to threaten them, we'll be fine."
"Don't you think we should start running? I mean we have a lion in the bushes!"
"I'd say lions, actually, as in more than one. As I said, we're fine for now. We just need to stay low and move in the opposite direction from them. We need to find shelter and preferably before the sun sets fully. I'm more concerned about Jelani. Is he okay?" Alex intentionally changed the topic to direct Sam's attention to more urgent matters at hand.
"I'm not sure he's going recover, Alex. Look here," he said, pointing to Jelani's stomach as he lifted his T-shirt.
"He's got internal injuries for sure. Notice this purple bruising and swelling here. His breathing is also very shallow, and he's lost consciousness. I could be wrong but it seems to be his spleen or most likely his liver."
"How do you know all this, Quinn? Aren't you an archaeology student with Professor Keating?"
"Well, yes, sort of. It's a long and complicated story. Can you move?" He purposefully moved off the topic.
Annoyed with his blatant disregard, Alex managed to get to her feet, albeit still leaning half against the tree and out of sight from the lions.
"Perfect. Do you think you can walk?"
"Yes, I think so, but perhaps we should consider climbing this tree, Quinn. I'm just not sure how to help Jelani up there."
"Come on then. We'll take shelter underneath the car wreck for the night and figure something out in the morning. Your head is bleeding again."
Fresh blood drenched Sam's improvised bandage around Alex's head.
"If that is, in fact, lions in the bushes as you suspect, they would beyond a shadow of a doubt smell your blood. I don't think I have to tell you what that means. It's just a matter of time before we are all minced meat."
"Shh, we have to keep quiet," Alex whispered as they watchfully started toward the wreckage.
The upside-down four-wheeler lay perpendicular to the ground, creating a perfect little cave within the confines of the bull bar and sidebars. With a tiny bit of tweaking, the shelter should do just fine.
"I'll make some fire. The place is abundant with enough dry twigs around to make a big enough fire to keep the lions at bay for the night. I seriously doubt we will be able to sleep much, if at all," Alex volunteered while Sam lifted Jelani into the wrecked vehicle.
Alex kept her eyes on the lions. From that angle, she could see two, maybe three female lions and a male lion lying in a circle between the shrubs. They were far enough away but still too close for comfort. The sun was almost all the way set which illuminated their golden eyes in the new moonlight. If Alex and Sam wanted to survive the night they'd have to get the fire and shelter going as quickly as they could.
"They seem relaxed for now. I'm not sure if the lions have spotted us yet. Perhaps, if we're lucky, they would have had a full hunt last night." She pacified Sam who was too busy to even think of being prey to a group of lions.
He heard her but didn't react. He had pulled the wreck's doors off and positioned them inside the bars. The rear seat's cushion was flat on the ground, and Jelani lay safely on top. Alex watched as Sam examined Jelani's body with precision. He had one hand flat on Jelani's abdomen while he tapped it with his other hand. Clenched between his teeth was a small flashlight. He checked Jelani's heart rate on the side of his neck and then took the torch and shone it back and forth into Jelani's eyes.
"Who are you? Where I come from archaeologists don't carry out medical checkups on the mummies."
Sam ignored her. She cracked another thick branch over her knee and threw the larger one into the fire. She decided to leave him be for now, for Jelani's sake.
The flames burned high and should do the trick but Alex found herself stealing glances at Sam often. With one sleeve missing and his messy hair, he was quite a looker. Tall, dark, and handsome. She couldn't remember the last time she noticed a man this way.
Without warning, Sam looked up and caught her staring at him with a dreamy look in her eyes. Unprepared and hopelessly embarrassed, Alex blushed under his warm eyes and quickly busied herself with adding another couple of logs to the fire. She cursed herself for acting like a stupid schoolgirl.
"Is he okay?" Alex asked, hoping it would divert his attention from her pathetic behavior.
"I'm afraid not, Alex. He urgently needs a hospital. I suspect he had a serious knock on his head too. If the internal bleeding doesn't stop by itself, he might not make the night. I'm sorry."
"All this is my fault." Alex slumped down against the car.
"Don't be ridiculous. None of this is your fault. I shouted at Jelani to stop the car. But if I am totally honest, the man was driving like a lunatic and was out of control. It was an accident waiting to happen."
But Sam's words did little to shift her guilt and Alex silently cursed her stupid disease. Her head hurt and she had now lost her pills to boot. Her thoughts attacked her mind in a vicious battle over which she had little control.
"Why can't I just pull myself together? My father has gone missing. Jelani is dying, and now I'm stuck in the middle of Africa!"
Sam's hand was suddenly firm on her shoulder, his other hand under her chin tilting her head back. Something in his eyes gave her instant strength.
"We need to clean up your wound, Alex." He pulled out a bottle of sterilizing liquid and a cotton swab from his backpack. The blood had dried up and caused the sleeve-bandage to stick to the wound and Alex pinched her eyes in pain as he pulled it off the open wound.
"Ouch!"
"Sorry. The alcohol might sting a bit, but you need stitches." He dabbed the liquid on the open wound that had started bleeding again.
"I'm going to need you to hold very still, Alex. I'm not going to lie. It'll hurt, but I promise to work as quickly as possible."
"No way!" She pushed his hand away. "I am not having you stitch me up. With what, I might ask? Your shoelaces? You weren't a doctor last time I checked. We'll be at the hospital in the morning, and I'll ask a proper medical professional to care for me."
"The hospital might not be within our reach by tomorrow, Alex. Look around you. We're in the middle of nowhere with no idea where we are. Your wound is deep, and you can lose a lot of blood by then. Not to mention the fact that, with all this dust floating about, you can easily contract an infection. And no, I have a genuine suture kit. My shoelaces are too dirty," he added with a taunting giggle.
The blood trickled down her nose and over her eyes again. She spotted the mischievous twinkle in his eye. He was right, and she knew it. It wasn't as if she had much choice in the matter. Her head wound did seem to be bleeding a lot again and with the lions on the prowl, it might not be safe to leave her injury until the next day. They didn't have any idea where they were. At least not until the sun came up and even then there were no guarantees they'd find their way back.
Sam didn't wait for her to argue again. He held his flashlight between his teeth and tilted her head back, still dabbing at her open wound.
"Okay, fine then. Do what you need to do," she conceded stubbornly.
To her relief, Sam didn't react. Instead, he picked up a stick and placed it sideways in her mouth. Within minutes he had her wound stitched up and dressed with a proper medical bandage from his backpack.