Chapter 109 The Ambush
1405words
She was right. They grab her swiftly under her arms and pull her up. When she straightens up she gets a mighty fright at the strange scenario in front of her. Sharp spear points are threateningly pointed at them by a force majeure of young, black men with scamp skins partly covering their genitals. Except for Francois and Nico, the rest of the party stands stark naked without a single weapon or piece of clothing about two meters from one another bound by a single rope to their wrists. Tania's gun and sword suddenly vanish from her shoulders and the last three of them are obediently driven by sharp spear points to join the rest.
A man, slightly older than the rest, sturdy and very lengthy, gestures aggressively with his hands and orders in broken English: "Pull out everything and throw it down."
There are a lot of hostile men that threaten them with their sharp spears. They are tied up with a long rope like slaves in the old days. Three of the men now carry all their stuff in three bags. One their clothes, one their weapons and another their provisions and they start walking ahead. The leader follows and takes the front end of the rope and leads them as if they are his booty while the rest with their spears follow them. Despondently they follow the man who leads them naked over the rocks.
Lesley whispers quietly: "What the fuck! They don't look like cannibals."
Scarcely has she uttered the words or one of the young men yells at her and prods her lightly with the sharp spear in the left buttock. Frightened she jumps forward and bumps into Tania. "Ouch, fuck! He stabbed me!"
The man puts his finger against his lips. She feels over her buttock and finds her hand full of blood.
Silent and afraid to speak a single word they follow one another carefully over the rocks. These rascals have waited for them to climb over the edge of the waterfall and ambushed them one by one and then used Francois and Nico to pull them up so that no one got a hint that something is amiss. Now they proceed all along the stream over wet, slippery rocks with here and there a shrub and with steep cliffs on either side. The gorge is very narrow here. It feels like an eternity that they struggle ahead before they eventually, with a footpath to the left out of the stream, climb up against the left side incline and then the footpath ends in a level platform looking over the gorge.
On the platform in a circle stand a lot of shelters of branches and hides. The leader yells something and suddenly the whole place comes alive as people of all age groups rush out of their shelters. Amazed and curious they look at the naked, white people while the leader thoroughly ties the rope to a thick branch of a tree against the incline. He gestures to four men to watch them.
The leader walks valiantly up to the centre of the platform and pompously yells at the people like a hunter proud of his catch. He gestures to the three men carrying the bags to come forward, open the bags and show them to them. Delighted some of the young women clap their hands and ululate on top of their voices and others rush forward with a few hides which they spread open on the ground on which all the stuff is now packed out. Elated it is discussed by all of them.
The leader now walks to and fro like a cock very happy with himself and he is talking continually. The dialect is strange and all that the white people can make out in between his babbling is the name that is repeated continuously: "Murdock ..."
With all the noise the guards are not continuously looking at them with their attention mostly on the commotion in the middle of the platform. Nico takes his chance and whispers: "They are speaking Xhosa and I know it. They are arguing amongst one another whether they should give all the stuff for the important man Murdock. That shit who led us here wants to slaughter all the meat and hide it and don't want to tell Murdock about it but it seems as if not all of them are happy with it. They are terribly afraid of this cruel Murdock."
Michael whispers: "What meat should be slaughtered?"
Spyker whispers: "We are the meat, you cunt. It seems to me these are also a lot of cannibals but they are not sick. Human meat must be part of their survival."
Lesley whimpers: "Oh fuck! What are we going to do?"
Three old men are now confronting the hero and they argue very aggressively.
Nico again whispers: "The old men are afraid to hell of Murdock. They suggest that they should go and negotiate with Murdock and we give all our stuff to him to swap for leaving them in peace for a time. They are afraid Murdock would find they held something back and then would punish them severely. Murdock seems to have eyes and ears everywhere. It seems to me they are winning the argument. He seems to become all the more unsure of himself."
Tensed Tania whispers: "Fuck! Hand us over to Murdock! I don't want to be slaughtered and devoured."
Nico whispers: "He is quite agitated now because they threaten that he should take us immediately to Murdock to negotiate or else they will send a messenger to Murdock. Look, they are now grabbing our things and put them back in the bags."
Aggressively and angrily the hero unties the rope from the branch. He pulls Nico roughly towards him and then starts to lead them away. The guys with the bags are going ahead and the rest of the soldiers follow the procession. They leave the platform and follow the footpath up against the incline.
Hungry, thirsty, and dead tired with burning soles eventually the sun is setting. They have been walking barefooted the whole day. They cover a few kilometers crossing the stream sometimes from the one incline to the next. They reach a deep pool where the soldiers with cupped hands drink cool mountain water.
Michael wishes they could have refreshments now but now the three carriers stand next to the leader with all their stuff in the bags. After a while, they are lead away again and now the leader is ascending a steep incline in a crevice of the cliff at one side of the pool. It is a narrow passage wide enough for only one person. Anxiously Michael looks down over the edge of the abyss next to him with the dark pool beneath. They are all tied together so that if one goes down all of them would be plucked down. The pool looks terribly deep because the rock face is vertical and high. His only consolation is that the water will stop their descent because it looks deep and he doesn't see branches or rocks.
Nico follows the leader and Francois is right behind him. Systematically Nico shortens the rope behind him and pulls it taut and quickly looks around to Francois. The guys at the back can't see it and he winks at Francois who immediately realizes what he is planning and nods. Nico gestures with his arm that he must stay close to him. Francois warns the next one and so down the line eventually reaching Michael.
Anxiety gnaws at Michael's stomach. It is dizzyingly high. They are near the summit of the cliff and will soon leave the footpath. They have now shortened the rope and follow close to one another.
Suddenly Nico shoots forward coming between the leader and the rock face and shoves him over the edge of the cliff. He grabs the carry bag from the man just in front of him and jumps. The rest jumps down behind him.
