The night was a long and bitterly cold one. The lions continued to prowl around the camp several times during the night but kept their distance as long as the fires were burning high, which was most likely the biggest reason why Alex and Sam didn't sleep much.
"Who knew wood burned out so fast?" Sam managed to cut the dense atmosphere with one of his let's-lighten-the-mood stints. "I guess we can thank our lucky stars we're in the middle of the bush, can't we?" he added.
His sense of humor in the midst of the direst of circumstances was quite possibly the very reason Alex found herself warm to her unwanted chaperone. Somehow he always managed to lift her spirits.
At one stage he spread the bonfires into three or four different piles of wood around their camp. It looked as if he almost had fun doing it too.
"Are you a boy scout at heart, Sam Quinn?"
"I wish. But I can't lie. I think I might be a pro at this now. Maybe I have a bit of scout in me after all."
Through the night Jelani's breathing became very rapid, and in the early morning hours, he developed a high fever. With the limited water and medical supplies Sam had in his backpack, there was nothing they could do for him out there. Alex stayed by his side throughout the night until she fell asleep somewhere in the early hours of the morning. When she woke she looked across to where he was still lying unconscious. The swelling in his abdomen had doubled in size with bright purple bruising all around it. Sam was already up and checking on him and had done so throughout the night.
"Hey, there, sleepyhead. How are you feeling?" Sam asked.
"Morning," she said, flashing a slight smile as she sat up. Sudden dizziness threw her off balance, and a sharp, intense pain hit her between her eyes.
"My head hurts, but I'm okay. How's Jelani?"
"Not good I'm afraid Alex. We're going to have to get him to a hospital somehow, urgently. It doesn't look like the bleeding has stopped, and his fever is spiking. Perhaps you want to take a look around now that we have daylight. I don't have any idea where we are."
Alex looked through the opening between the bull bar and the door.
"I can't see the lions."
"Yup. It's been rather quiet for the last hour or so. Let's hope the lions gave up and left for greener pastures."
Sam pushed the rickety door aside for them to get out of their vehicle shelter.
It was daybreak and the sun was just peeking out behind the now bright orange horizon. Alex looked around across the vast African bush. It was breathtaking. But there was nothing but trees and shrubs for miles in any direction. She wasn't sure how they could have strayed from the road this far into the backcountry. It looked vaguely familiar, but she couldn't be sure. Bush was bush, and trees were trees no matter where you were in the Savannah. There was no way of telling at all. Everything looked the same. She pulled out her map from her backpack in a desperate effort to see if she could make any sense of their location.
"I think we left the road here and possibly veered off over there. We need to head west. If I have my bearings right, we should only be about a mile or two out from the river. If we keep west, with any luck, we should hit the road we were on. If not, we might then at some stage find the river and we can follow it north."
"Right then. We'll have to get a move on quickly before the sun comes up fully. I would hazard a guess that it gets sweltering out here during the day. Fancy a cup of coffee before we leave?"
"Ha-ha, hilarious, Mr. Quinn."
She liked a man with a sense of humor. His cunning ability to de-stress the situation was without fail what she needed at that moment.
"Okay, I might have a plan." Sam perked up. "I saw Bear Grylls do this on one of his television episodes once. We need to make a stretcher for Jelani. Let's see if we can find two long branches and something to tie down the car bonnet with him on top of it."
"Bear Grylls? Are you serious?" Her giggle didn't throw him.
"What? So I'm a fan, a big one if I may say so. Never miss an episode. Grylls did it and it looked fairly easy. So unless you have a better idea," he remarked with his hands on his hips.
"Oh, I'm not laughing at the idea. Rather just how this adventure has already changed you. I'm just surprised that's all. With your crisp white shirt and shiny shoes, I just didn't peg you for an adventurer at all. And what's with all the medical stuff anyway? How is it that you know more about playing doctor than chasing relics?"
"I read a lot that's all," he said, bending quickly to pick up a nearby branch.
"Nope, I don't believe you, Sam Quinn. Reading is one thing, but carrying a full medical kit into the bush and stitching up head wounds is an entirely different thing altogether. I watched you examine Jelani and it seems to me there's an awful lot of medical training there. Call me naive, but somehow I don't suspect it's from watching Bear Grylls episodes."
"It's a long story. Come on, the sun is getting higher. We're running out of time."
"Look around, Quinn! I've got nothing but time. We're stuck in the African bush with prowling lions, the militia, and who knows what else after us. Spit it out. My life might be at stake, and I deserve to know what I am getting myself into here. Heck, I might not even live until tomorrow."
Sam looked slightly uncomfortable as he tied the cords from his backpack around his clever piece of engineering. Alex was determined to know the truth. She needed to know whom Professor Keating saddled her with, especially if her life depended on it. Keating said he had been his top student, but it was evident that Sam Quinn had never been on an actual expedition before.
"I'm waiting, Mr. Quinn. What's your story?"
"Fine. I'll tell you. I doubt you'll stop until you know anyway. But in the event of us perhaps not seeing another day, and because you're so persistent, I'll give you the short version. As long as you don't judge me. Agreed?"
Alex nodded.
He took a deep breath and continued.
"I'm not exactly an archaeologist. I am in actual fact a qualified trauma surgeon."
"A doctor? What do you mean you're a doctor? Professor Keating is head of archaeology and you're supposed to be one of his students so what you're saying now doesn't make sense."
"Hold the knot down there, please."
"Quinn! Stop trying to derail the conversation with this stupid stretcher-ma-jig. Will you tell me the truth, please? Who are you? I deserve to know. If anything, at the very least, what I have gotten myself into with you. I mean, do you have any experience with archaeological expeditions or not?"
"Not exactly. This exploration is my first if you must know," he said, sounding sarcastic and annoyed.
Alex swore under her breath.
"These antics are so typical of Professor Keating. I thought you were his 'best student ever.' Of course not. I should have known the moment you sat on that plane with your white-as-snow shirt and shiny shoes. You're just a pawn in an elaborate plan to get me to go chase after an ancient city that I'm not even sure exists. Not to mention the mysterious key everyone thinks is real. It's a blooming joke. So you're nothing but a babysitter to keep my stupid agoraphobia at bay. You're probably going to get us both killed at some stage too. No wonder Keating insisted I come. It wasn't just a case of finding my father but finding Rhapta. Sneaky weasel. How could I be so stupid? I'm not some puppet the faculty can use as they see fit. They outright conned me!"
"Are you quite done, Miss Hunt?" Sam finally spoke as he pulled tight the last knot of the cord. He stood tall next to her before reaching for Jelani.
"Stop whining and help me get Jelani on the stretcher."
"That's it? You have nothing to say for yourself?"
Alex puffed much like the lions did the night before. She wasn't impressed with how calm Sam was in the midst of her enraged fit but she looked across at Jelani whose fever had spiked out of control, instantly riddled with guilt as she watched him lying there so helpless and innocent in the situation. Jelani didn't think twice about helping her get her father back. He depended on her now. She needed to swallow her pride and focus on getting him to the hospital and fast.
"You lift his feet," she grudgingly spat. She conceded for Jelani and her father. Not because Sam ordered her.
With Jelani safely secured on the make-do gurney, Alex gathered her bag and whatever supplies she could find from the car. There was a small emergency kit and a couple of bottles of water in the cubby and much to her joy, a small compass.
"Hold on, Jelani old friend. We'll get you out of here in no time," she whispered next to her injured friend.
With newfound excitement she opened the map and flattened it on the sand, pinpointing the road she suspected they headed out on when they had left the airport. She was right. The river lay to the west, but she had no idea how far along the river the village was.
"I'm going to need to speak to Jelani, Quinn. Will he wake up?"
"No way of knowing right now I'm afraid. We can try."
Alex knelt next to her friend. "Jelani, can you hear me? It's Lakicia."
She waited, but he lay very still.
"Jelani, it's me. I need your help to get us home. Can you hear me?"
He groaned the faintest of groans.
"Quinn! He can hear me!"
She tried giving him a sip of water, but he was frail and lay with his eyes still closed.
"Jelani, I'm so sorry. I know you're in pain but I need you to please point out the village on the map. Do you think you can help us?"
She held the map up and lifted his arm, unfolding his limp forefinger and placing it on the river on the map. She watched as her friend forced his eyes open with all the physical strength left in his injured body.
"I got you, Jelani. I got you. Help us find our way out of here, my friend, so we can get you to the hospital."
He moved his hand left, ever so slightly, and pointed to a spot by the river.
"It's there? Excellent! Okay, rest, my friend. We're going to get us out of here, okay? Just hang in there a little longer."
Alex raised his weak hand gently against her cheek.
"Hang in there, Jelani. Don't give up. Fight!"
"It looks like we're all set then. Let me check your wound and then we can head off," Sam interrupted.
"I'm fine. Let's just get out of here."
"Alex, I need to clean your wound. We can't afford for it to go septic. It's fine if you're upset with me, but Jelani, your father… heck yes, even I depend on you."
"Of course you depend on me. You won't last beyond that bush over there. Just because you made one Bear Grylls experimental thingumabob and a couple of fires doesn't mean you'll find your way to the village. So I guess I'm babysitting YOU, Sam Quinn."
She stormed off in the opposite direction from the sun, noticing Sam had finally changed his clothes. It was screaming never-been-worn-before and she was certain the price tag was still attached, but he looked far more like a relic hunter than a doctor.
"Okay, Alex, please wait. I'm sorry if I told you to stop whining. It was chauvinistic of me."
"You think that's why I'm upset." Alex looked back at Sam who was dragging the stretcher behind him.
"Well, what then?"
She ignored him, not sure why she suddenly had wayward thoughts about how kind he was. Watching him drag the injured body of a man he had just met, confused her to the point where she wasn't even sure why she was angry. It was ridiculous. She had a concussion. That was it. The concussion made her act that way.
"Well, I'm waiting. You're storming off like a bull is chasing you. Do I look like a bull?"
"Oh, so this is funny to you? Well, let's see then shall we? You're a doctor. I asked for an archaeologist, and I landed up with a doctor! Clearly to hold my hand and keep an eye on my stupid condition. What if we never had the accident huh? Would I even have found out?"
"Can you slow down please, Alex? I can't keep up. Jelani might be as thin as a stick, but he is nonetheless heavy to haul about on my own. Is this our first fight?"
"First fight. Have you completely lost your mind? Couples fight and last time I checked we are NOT by ANY stretch of the imagination a couple!"
"Ah, come on, Alex. I'm just playing with you. I'm sorry, okay? Wait. Just stop for a minute, please? Let me explain."
Alex was in her full mind to explain a thing or two to him but decided to stop under the shade of a large thorn tree.
"You deceived me, Quinn. Where I come from it's wrong to lie to people."
"I wasn't telling a lie though, Alex, merely not volunteering any information upfront."
"That's hiding the truth. It's the same thing as lying."
"In my defense though, Alex, Professor Keating didn't flat-out play open cards with me either, you know? He gave me the assignment, and I took it. No questions asked. The fact that you have an illness was only disclosed to me just before I got onto the plane. Heck, I thought you were a bloke! Besides, I owe him."
"What do you mean 'you owe him'?"
Sam finally caught up with her under the tree. He shuffled restlessly under her questioning gaze; wiping his face before answering.
"I have a very old-school and controlling father, okay? I come from a long line of physicians, and he insisted I carry on the tradition and pursue a medical profession too. But it isn't my passion in life. Never has been. From as far back as I can remember I've been interested in artifacts and ancient history. I spent hours at the museums. I read every journal there was and by the age of fourteen stumbled upon a National Geographic with your folks on the cover. I was hooked. I knew this was what I wanted to do for the rest of my life and I started following your parents' discoveries all over the world. Becoming a doctor was never on my wish list. Archaeology is down to the core fascinating, but my father didn't want to hear anything about my dreams. It would have placed shame on the sacred family legacy, so I succumbed to his demands. But last year, I lost my best mate in a cycling accident. And suddenly life as I knew it, changed forever."
His demeanor softened as they sat under the shade of the tree, revealing another layer Alex didn't expect to see.
"I realized I was lying to myself; that I am fulfilling someone else's dream and not my own. Life is too short to not go after what your heart desires."
"So you enrolled in archaeology."
"Not quite. My father would disown me. I met Professor Keating at a benefit some time back, and he offered to teach me in the evenings. Night school so to speak, except it was at his house and one-on-one with one of the country's most respected archaeology professors. In exchange, I would be his wife's physician and see to it that she got the best treatment possible under my supervision."
"Melanie. She died last year of colon cancer. It was awful."
"Yes, Melanie. She fought a good fight right till the end."
Alex caught herself scratching the beginnings of a heart with a stick in the sand in front of her. But she stopped and quickly wiped it clean with her foot.
"And that's it, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. So when your father's situation came up, Keating approached me. I couldn't say no. He's still teaching me at night, even long after his wife passed. Yes, quite possibly because he'd kill two birds with one stone but is that so bad? The guy cares about both you and your father, and I happened to be available and experienced on both levels. Okay, fully experienced in the medical field and somewhat experienced in the treasure-hunting field, but you get the drift."
Alex was annoyed but somehow Sam always seemed right about everything. So he wasn't perfect and where she lacked he made up for it and vice versa.
"You still have lots to learn about relic hunting, but I suppose you're right. I easily would've done the same, had I been in your shoes. But get this straight, Dr. Quinn. I don't do well with liars. No more secrets. If we're going to do this expedition together, we can't be keeping anything from each other. I need to know that you have my back and that I can trust you. I have a sneaky suspicion things could get very messy and out here that means you end up dead."
"Deal," he said, spitting into his hand and holding it out for her to shake.
"Okay, that's pushing it a tad too far. I think you've been in the bush too long. Let's get on with it. We have a long walk ahead of us, and before you know it, the sun will be at its highest."
The next two hours their conversation took on a much lighter tone as they got to know each other. Sam told her about his controlling father and his childhood. How his mother sneaked adventure books into his room. How she managed to sign him up for scouts without his dad ever finding out about it. About his best friend who got hit by an oncoming drunk driver while out cycling and how much he missed him. How the two of them grew up together chasing the same dreams. He shared stories about their regular secret escapades in the nearby woods on an imaginary quest, finding make-believe hidden treasures and ancient relics. How he was like a brother to him and how his death left a massive void.
Several times through their conversations, Alex found herself wanting to hug him and tell him it'll all be okay. Somehow, he had touched the tender side of her and she decided to let him in, just a little.
She found herself pondering how terrible it had to be for him to grow up in a home where no one ever supported his dreams. Her parents never once forced her to follow in their footsteps. On the contrary, they tried nudging her out of it. 'Perhaps you should find something safer to do in life. Like a teacher or curator,' her mother always said. Ironically, now that she thought about it, it was the very thing from which her mother ran. Her mother's own parents practically disowned her when she went off on her first expedition. They insisted she become a teacher too, but she defied her father and left on a study group through the university. Good thing it was too. It's where she later met her husband. They seemed to have hit it off from the get-go. Alex recalled how her father insisted they were soulmates even though he didn't really believe in that stuff.
The thought of having a soulmate perplexed her too. Could it be that in the entire universe there was only one person who'd be destined to spend your whole life with you? One soul. Kindred spirits. Thinking the same, finishing each other's sentences, picking from each other's plates.
In her head, she concluded that the soulmate theory was just that. A theory.