Hunted (4 page)

2
KILLERS

The shots rang out, sending birds screeching into the sky, where the last rays of sun were sinking away for the day. The elephant screamed, curling her trunk as she blasted out a warning. Her eyes showed white with fear. Blood streamed from the holes in her head. She screamed again, a pink froth foaming from her mouth.

One of the poachers squinted into the growing darkness. The ugly scar on his cheek crinkled like a grotesque second mouth. He fired again, aiming high on the head. The elephant keeled over and sank against a large rock, thrashing the sandy surface with her trunk.

She tried to rise but crashed back to the ground. The man with the scarred face jumped backwards, his weapon ready to fire again. But the elephant was losing the battle. The ugly holes in her head leaked blood, spreading quickly into the crazy paving of her crackly skin. It flowed down onto her tusks, turning them from gleaming white to sticky ruby.

The scarred man and his poacher companions watched as her life leaked out onto the sandy soil.

Soon the elephant's only movement was the heaving of her great sides as she fought to keep breathing. Her trunk flailed like a blind, dying snake. Wide streaks of moisture ran out of her eyes like tears.

The man with the yellow bandanna put his weapon on the ground and picked up his machete. 'I reckon it's not going to fight much longer.' He wiped sand from his eyes with the back of his hand. They had to get to work and remove the tusks as quickly as possible.

The man who wore the hyena tooth kept his AK-47 at the ready. Rangers patrolled the game park and you never knew when one was about to appear.

A loud trumpeting sounded. The poachers looked at each other in alarm. Elephants live in extended family groups, and defend their cousins and sisters as fiercely as they would their children. 'I thought this one was on its own,' hissed Scarface.

They heard the sound again, and with it the crash of breaking foliage. It came from behind the great bulk of the dying elephant. The poachers grabbed their guns. They weren't about to leave their spoils without a fight.

A baby elephant trotted around the rock, its trunk high, ears flapping backwards and forwards. It let out another scream.

'Leave it,' said the man with the yellow bandanna, lowering his weapon and leaning it against a tree. 'It's on its own. We've got to get to work.' He picked up his machete and approached the dead mother elephant.

Scarface didn't lower his weapon. 'It's drawing attention to us. We can't take the chance.' His scar twitched.

The baby elephant slowed. Its steps became hesitant. It approached the body of its mother and reached cautiously towards her with its trunk, the sensitive end fidgeting like fingers. It touched her, stroking the hide. After a few moments it was still, resting the tip of its trunk on her head.

Li walked ahead of the others, maintaining the same fast pace she had set when she started off from the foot of the cliff. She was fatigued but she would not allow it to show. She would not let the team down again. She refused even to think about what had happened on the cliff. The sun had just set and as she walked she pulled her fleece out of her pack, wriggling in and out of her rucksack straps so that she could put it on while walking.

The next checkpoint was over a sturdy road bridge. It took them into the area they had seen from the cliff top. They stopped for a moment to put on head torches and Hex got out the bear banger, a metal tube that fired cartridges and made a noise like a firework. They had been told the wildlife should stay away from a big group if they kept together and made a noise, but just in case it didn't, they could light the bear banger to scare anything off. Paulo kept his torch in his hand, and shone it on the ground to check for snakes.

The river stretched out wide beside them, making gentle lapping sounds.

'That's the Luangwa,' said Alex. 'It flows from Tanzania into the Zambezi, and then into the Indian Ocean. Wow.' He was talking half to himself. Although he felt alert, he had missed nearly two nights' sleep and nothing seemed real. The darkness outside the narrow arc of his head torch seemed to go on for ever. Occasionally there was a splash as something large moved in the water - a crocodile or a hippo. Li had picked a path ten metres from the river edge to keep them at a safe distance.

They crossed a clear track in the grass. It was a game trail, a path worn down by animals going to the river and back. Paulo stopped and directed his torch down onto it. He gasped in wonder. 'Look!'

Alex and Hex peered over his shoulder, the beams from their lamps merging like a spotlight. Paulo had found a heavy four-toed print.

Li gave it a glance. 'Hippo. Keep off its trail or it'll panic and go for you.'

'That's nice,' said Paulo. 'I thought hippos were cuddly.'

'They're not,' replied Li. She marched on.

Paulo shrugged. Li was usually even more fascinated by the animal world than he was. She was probably tired, or maybe she was still worried by what had happened at the cliff. He wanted to say to her,
Don't worry, we're all doing strange things in this race - because we haven't had any sleep.
But this clearly wasn't the time or the place.

It wasn't long before they came to another game trail. Paulo stopped and flicked his torch over it. 'More big feet,' he said, delighted. 'Looks like skid marks with three huge toes.'

Li glanced at it. 'Rhino,' she said, without much interest.

But Paulo found the endless variety of tracks fascinating. He found little ones like dainty points, which Li said were made by a tiny antelope called a dik-dik. Hex and Alex caught his enthusiasm, walking along for most of the time with their torches pointed at the ground.

Paulo found some broad, heavy tracks.

'Lone buffalo,' said Li grimly. 'Good job it's not going our way; we'd be stuffed.'

Alex decided it was time to cheer Li up. He stopped and pointed out another track. 'Li, what's this?'

She looked down. Alex was pointing at a deep track made by a mountain-bike tyre.

Li looked at the track for a moment and then a smile made its way slowly across her face. 'That, you dunderhead, is an elephant riding a unicycle.' She walked on, shaking her head.

The others followed. Soon it was time for Paulo to check everyone's physical condition.

'I feel two point seven five,' said Hex.

'Three-ish,' said Alex.

'Four,' replied Li.

'What's that?' Hex stopped and stood stock-still, listening. 'Did anyone hear that?'

They all halted. Above the ticking of the insects there was a long, mournful sound from the river.

'No, not that,' said Hex. 'That's a humpback whale playing the tuba.'

Alex and Paulo laughed.

Li said, 'It's a hippo.'

Hex was still listening. 'There,' he said. 'I think it was a scream.'

'Baboons. Come on, we'd better keep moving.'

And then they all heard it. The voice was unmistakably human. The word it cried out was also unmistakable:
'Help!'

Alex called out, 'Hello? Where are you? Shout again.'

The sound came again, loud and desperate. It was close.

'Over there,' said Paulo. He turned towards it.

The voice called out again: 'Careful! There's a pit.' A figure came towards them, rustling through the grass, the headlamp held low in his hand and bobbing as he ran.

'Tessa's hurt,' he gasped. His accent was South African. He wore a badge -
CHRIS, TEAM SPITFIRE
- and a red sweat band around his head. 'Are you the organizers?' Before any of them could answer, he turned and started running, his bobbing torch leading the way. 'They're coming,' he called.

Team Alpha Force gave chase. Paulo, in front, was the first to see what the problem was. His torch grazed a mass of pointed stakes in a shallow pit. He stopped at once. The torch beam found a tangle of grass and branches. The desperate face of a girl flinched away from the light.

'A poacher's trap,' said Alex. He took his head lamp off and flashed it around. 'There's the bait - look.' In one corner lay the roughly cut haunch of some dark animal, the cloven hoof still intact and rimmed with a fine ring of white hair.

Paulo got carefully down into the pit. He was the team medic - another skill honed during his long years of treating injured animals on his parents' ranch.

The frightened girl was breathing hard and sweat was running down her face, mingling with her tears. She was wearing a fleece but it was damp with sweat and she was shivering. Paulo took his fleece off and put it around her shoulders.

'I didn't see it. We must have gone off course a bit. I just fell.' Her voice was weak.

'Hush,' said Paulo. 'Everything's going to be fine.' It was when he ran the torch over her that he saw the damage. At first it looked as though Tessa was just sitting in the pit with one leg extended awkwardly before her. Then he realized that one of the stakes had been driven deeply into the back of her knee. Blood had coursed down her leg and the stake in a sticky black river. Her shorts were soaked too. The pit must have been disguised to look like solid ground. She must have walked straight onto it and crashed through, impaling her leg as she fell.

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.