The rain wasn’t unpleasant after such a dry season. He had cover and a clear shot at anyone leaving the cave. To start with he’d wait quietly and see if those inside did anything stupid: it seemed more than likely that they would.
***
The sound of the gun firing had not reached any human ears, but it was disturbing to the animals who heard it and knew what the noise meant; like the lone elephant who had been foraging on the lower slopes of the big hill. He turned round and made his way back down to the plain, crashing through bushes and trees that cracked and splintered in his path as he walked half blindly in the night.
Some baboons stirred in their sleep; and a leopard who was already wide awake heard the noise and was puzzled. She had no idea what the sound might be, except to say that it would scare the animals she was intending to stalk and was therefore an annoyance. Within a few minutes her cat nature decreed that what could not be changed and was not repeated ceased to be of interest and could be forgotten; but her territory was close by the cave and the breeze was blowing towards her from that direction, carrying something that was more intriguing than an isolated gunshot. It was the scent of fresh blood from an animal that was quite large and badly wounded.
***
Jill’s search of the cave hadn’t turned up anything useful. George had been right to say that there was no way in or out back there. The opening didn’t close up altogether anywhere that she could see, but it became smaller even than she could crawl into. Where the roof had collapsed, thousands of years ago, there was a sheer cliff that rose maybe twenty metres above her head. You’d never climb it without a rope even in daylight and even if you knew what you were doing and weren’t half dead from hunger and thirst.
The good thing was there was no way down either, though the thought that someone might break his neck attempting the descent cheered her a little. Anyone who wanted to finish them off now would have to come at them through the narrow opening that George and Emma were guarding.
She went back to them.
This passage is the only way in or out, she said.
I hate being in here like this. No light. Just waiting, Emma said. We can’t stay here all night surely?
Why not? We’re dry. It’s warm enough. Simon is as comfortable as we can make him till we get proper medical help. The bleeding’s no worse.
He’ll die if we don’t go for help.
We’ll all die if we do.
I have to go to him.
Alright Emma, for a little while, Jill relented; but quietly. Don’t disturb Simon. And then I need you back here, both of you. This is where he’ll come at us.
Emma slipped away from the opening and clicked on the switch of her head torch. Jill switched hers off and stationed herself in Emma’s place, gripping the pathetically inadequate piece of timber that Emma had been holding as a weapon.
Not much use this, is it? She whispered to George.
The people who used to live here got by with less, he replied.
We’re the same as them now. Hiding in the dark from terrifying monsters we can’t see.
They had fire. Maybe we should start one.
No, that doesn’t help us now. But maybe something like fire, when he comes.
You’re still sure it’s him. If it was poachers, they’re miles away now and we’re hiding from nothing while Simon is losing blood.
It’s Jonathan Bloom out there, hunting us down like wild beasts; and you know it. For some reason, he wants us all dead. We know he’s armed; and that means he’s going to come in here for us before it gets light.
Why do you say that? He could have come after us here already if he’d wanted. Or if he wants us dead, he might just sit out there and wait. It won’t take long, the state we’re in.
Jill pushed the edge of the makeshift truncheon against George’s belly, not too gently. The situation was bringing out some aggression she didn’t know she had.
I’m starting to think like him George. Try to do the same. He’s out there now, watching and waiting, expecting us to do something stupid, like making a run for it while he’s got a gun pointing at our only way out. We’ve done enough stupid things and I’ve been the one responsible for most of them. We’re not going to make any more mistakes.
I’m not arguing.
He has to come in here before long, because in the daytime this is a place where people come and they’ll find us.
How do you know that?
This is one of those places where people lived all those years ago. You see how the floors are smooth. There are indents of some kind in the stones back there where the cave people were sharpening tools against the rock. Most of all, there’s these.
She slipped the head torch off her head, switched it on and pointed it at the places on the walls where she’d noticed the cave paintings earlier: faint but instantly recognizable rust-coloured images of rhinos, giraffes and other animals: all strikingly accurate and applied by hands that had been dust for thousands of years.
This place must be one of the main galleries.
Anything in the pictures about a secret passage that leads out of here?
***
The survivors of the safari were proving to be not quite as stupid as Julian had anticipated. It was natural selection in action, he supposed, since only four were left. After an hour of waiting, he was getting cold out in the rain and now he was bored of their game. He knew that going in after them, he’d need to be careful, but from what he’d seen the three that were left were close to death anyway.
The rifle wouldn’t be the most useful thing in a confined space though. He didn’t want to shoot himself by accident. He put the gun down in a sheltered spot at the base of a large rock. There the rain wouldn’t get to it and he’d know where to collect it later. He still had the pistol; and the knife come to think of it. The knife was the surest way after all.
***
The leopard was watching as he sorted among his things. Julian hadn’t seen or heard any trace of her. She knew that this was not the animal that was wounded and she’d seen enough of these two legged creatures to remember that they could be dangerous. But the smell of fresh blood was stronger in this place than anywhere; and the behavior of the human was curious. For the moment, she would stay hidden and continue to watch.
***
It won’t be long now, Jill said.
How can you even know that? George asked.
I told you, I understanding him more now, Jill said. And everything is just the same as if we were animals. We’re being hunted after all.
What do you want us to do? Emma asked her.
Take this, Jill returned the length of wood to her. When he comes, he might make a noise deliberately, trying to panic us. Both of you stay exactly where you are. No lights and no sound. Whatever you do, don’t give your own position away. Make him come on to us without knowing anything.
I’m too terrified to stand even thinking about it, Emma said. I don’t know that I can do this.
You can do it, Jill told her firmly. People always have. Humans have been defending places like this since they started to be human. Just stay careful. When he gets to this point, he’ll know, like any animal would, that right here is the most dangerous place for him. If we’re lucky he believes we’re too terrified and weak to fight back, but anyway he’ll be on his guard. When he ducks through this gap, he’ll be looking out for you.
She tapped the lengths of wood that the two of them were holding, each in turn.
You have to hit him with these when he actually steps into the chamber. Not too soon, so that you don’t get him properly and he’s warned, but before he has time to register where you are and shoot, or whatever else he’s planning. There’s two of you, so he’ll be confused as to which one to go for first. Once you start hitting him, keep hitting as hard as you can and don’t stop, even if he goes down and you think he’s finished. Remember all he’s done and what he’s put us through. In fact, don’
t even look at him. Just keep your eyes closed until I shout now and then start swinging.
What will you be doing?
I’m going to try to summon up an old friend to give us an advantage.
She left them there and went back to her pack. Simon seemed to be calm. He was breathing steadily, but he still wasn’t conscious. There was nothing they could do for him right now. She put that problem out of her mind. Instead she felt in her pack for something she’d carried with her even after it would have made more sense to leave it behind. She checked the power supply indicator to make sure there was still charge; then she switched off her head torch and felt her way in the darkness back to her friends, with the camera nestled carefully in her right hand.
***
Nothing. No crying or moaning. No lit fire that would give him an easy target as people moved around it. No frenzied desperate bolt for safety. No pleas for mercy. No indication that there was even anyone left inside the cave.
Julian had made his way carefully to the cave entrance. He must be only a few metres away from where the others were cowering, but they were not making his job easy.
As he stepped into the outer chamber, he began to whistle a carefree relaxed tune that should have sent anyone who was already feeling stressed completely over the edge and into panic. Still nothing. Well, he wasn’t here to start a conversation with them.
A sudden doubt attacked his self-confidence. Was it possible there was a back way out of the cave and that they were already long gone? No, it couldn’t be: that was a stupid idea given the lie of these rocks. But now that he’d had the thought he was unsettled by it.
Out of the rain and into the dray air of the cave, the noise of his footfalls echoed in sudden stillness. He made no attempt to disguise the sound.
He hadn’t switched on his own head torch, but Julian’s night vision was excellent. He could make out that the first chamber, in which he stood, was hardly a cave at all. It was more like a space sheltered from the elements by the overhanging rock, with high walls that almost joined to a ceiling and something like a raised mezzanine level running unevenly around the sides.
Access to the inner cave was through a lower, darker, narrow opening that he could just make out in front of him. Likely they were hoping that he wouldn’t dare to enter it in the dark, but the dark had never held terrors for Julian. He knew that really he should go back for the rifle. Spray a few rounds of automatic fire into that opening then see what was left at his leisure. They’d be cut to pieces or else come scurrying out into his waiting arms.
But by now, he was looking forward to something more personal; and besides the rifle was a long way off. Julian wanted to be finished with this business and he was still troubled by the nagging thought that they might have already escaped the trap somehow. Impatience clouded his thoughts.
He stood still for a moment and, then whistled part of a different tune. After that he began to move again, but this time more quietly; so quietly that his approach would not have been audible even to someone listening for it.
***
Jill didn’t hear Bloom’s final approach, but she knew it was coming and every nerve was strained for it. He didn’t put her off with his whistling or his pantomime stamping about. When it went quiet on the other side of the gap, she knew exactly what that meant.
Even Bloom couldn’t disguise the spring with which he bounded through the opening from the outer cave. The instant Jill heard it she pointed the camera in his direction and depressed the shutter. The flash blazed in the darkness, leaving an image burned in her eye of Bloom staring directly at her. He looked completely deranged. His hair was plastered down by the rain and he was open-mouthed as if preparing to bite. He held a knife in one hand and a pistol in the other.
His leap had carried him almost past George and Emma, who stood on either side of the passageway with their improvised weapons raised and their eyes tight shut; frozen in that moment.
Jill clicked the shutter again.
Now, she screamed as the light flashed again.
For something like a second, Julian was completely blinded by the flash of the camera. Before he could recover, he felt the impact of something crashing heavily into his back. That blow sent the pistol spinning out of his grasp; and another one, lower down on the back of his legs, dropped him to his knees.
He moved his head sideways, somehow anticipating a swing that missed him and crashed against the wall of the passage. There was a sound of wood splintering. Another blow caught him cleanly on the shoulder as he swung the knife in a broad arc, trying to wound his attackers or at least force them to give him space. He managed to keep hold of the knife, but there was a feeling in the arm now that wasn’t right.
Next, he felt a sickening force hit his jaw and mouth, as Jill swung the camera on its short strap, with all her strength, against his face. Blood exploded from his lip and nose and he knew straight away that some teeth had gone. That was too much. He had to get away.
Jill’s only thought at that moment was that they needed to put this madman down and make sure that he stayed down. If he left that cave on his own feet, they wouldn’t be safe. The others had the same idea. They were half crazy themselves with it. Bloom should have had no chance against the three of them, but even with his nose broken and his shoulder dislocated, there was some force inside him, perhaps nothing more than pure unrestrained egoism, that held him up from falling.
Everything was confused in the darkness, but somehow Bloom raised himself from his knees and backed away from them, slashing wildly with the knife and making a serious laceration in George’s thigh. They had to allow him space for a moment; and in that moment he turned and ran.
Jill made them hold their positions for a full minute in case Bloom came back. Then she allowed Emma to switch on her head torch in order to examine George’s wound. Jill herself remained at the gap; holding onto the one unbroken length of wood that they had left.
I think he dropped the gun, she hissed at Emma. It’s somewhere around down there. Find it.
The incident had lasted only seconds and now their refuge was quiet again, except for George panting heavily, as he tried to hold in the pain of the knife wound; and Emma scraping round on her hands and knees looking for the pistol. She eventually found it and brought it to Jill who exchanged it for the improvised club.
I’m not even going to try to work out how you fire this, she told them. But if he comes through there again I shall try to brain him with it. I’m just glad we have it and not him.
***
Julian was outside in the rain, trying to shut out the screaming agony of his wounds and remembering all the rugby field bragging from years gone by, about chaps who had reset their own dislocated shoulders and simply carried on. It was lies and exaggeration mostly, he supposed. He’d never thought he would actually have to do it himself.
In the event he found that what the manoevre required was pure concentrated will rather than any particular technique. You could easily feel where the joint ought to be. The difficulty was having the determination to put it there and not passing out as you shifted the bone. He discovered that it hurt: a lot.
He was missing three teeth that he knew of and his jaw was starting to swell. He was fairly sure that the jaw was broken. His mouth and nose were bleeding heavily and there was a gash in the side of his head that was also bleeding hard although he thought that it was nothing to worry about. The blows to his back and legs shouldn’t cause more than bruising.
Julian was dazed, but he had enough command of his senses to be driven half out of them by fury. After he’d run out of the mouth of the cave and limped back to the point where he’d left the rifle, he’d almost fainted from pain. Instead he’d grabbed the backpack and tried to lift it. Instantly, he’d been close to passing out again. That was when he realized that the shoulder that was more badly injured than he’d known.
Now that he’d pushed the shoulder back in, he rummaged through th
e sack to find what was left of the medical kit from the truck. He gulped down a handful of painkillers, dry. He’d have to bandage himself up too, before he could go back and deal with those people.
He wouldn’t be surprised a second time. The rifle was where he’d left it. He stroked the stock with his good hand. No more messing about: he’d go in with the setting on automatic and let them have the full magazine before he even set foot inside that place again. Even if he didn’t get direct hits, the ricochets in the confined space would probably do the job. With any luck they wouldn’t be quite dead when he followed up that volley. There’d be something for the knife to do. It was what he should have done in the first place. He’d been stupid.
And it was so unfair. His face was smashed up. He was bleeding heavily and his plan was in ruins. How would he hope to get away looking and feeling like this? All he could think of now was that somebody must pay. Revenge his only consolation; after he’d thought everything through so carefully.
It was the injustice of it all, rather than the pain, that made him cover his broken face with his hands. He kneeled down on the ground and suddenly began to sob like he was crying for every bad thing that had ever happened in his life.
And that was how the leopard found him.
***
Hours later, as dawn was nearing outside, the three of them were huddled around Simon, who still hadn’t spoken. In spite of what Jill had said about the pistol, she’d kept it with her. After an examination by torchlight, she believed that she’d understood the mechanism well enough to be able to use it at close range. She’d kept the barrel pointed at the empty passageway more or less from the first moment that Jonathan Bloom had retreated back down that way. She continued to hold it leveled on that gap as they talked, in voices that they still dare not raise above a whisper. It was the longest night of Jill’s life.
There must be something more we can do for Simon, Emma was saying. Jill was barely listening.
We can’t do anything until it’s light, she replied. It will be safe then.