Out of Africa Part II
Exhaustion got the better of David. His sobbing died away. He sat crouched, on the ground on the edge of consciousness. Michael curled himself up into a ball and slept his bare bottom pressing up against David's. Black flies brought out by the heat swarmed about the boys settling on their bodies and bussing about their eyes and mouths.
All too soon Pietre was shouting at his men to get the boys moving again. Boots thudded against bare flesh and whips cracked as the soldiers urged the exhausted boys to their feet. Hustled into line the boys moved forward to receive their ration of a single mug of water each, then staggering under their loads, they were driven out into the burning heat of the plane.
David and Michael had this time managed to keep together. David trudged wearily on conscious only of the heat, his own exhaustion and Michael's bare back just ahead of him.
Suddenly Michael yelled and fell to one side spilling his load on the ground. A soldier ran up and lashed the boy as he lay writhing on the ground.
"Get up boy. Get back in line. Quick boy," the soldier yelled each word accompanied by a cut of the whip across the boys naked body.
Shock had brought David to a halt. The boy behind him jostled him forward. David threw himself over Michael in a desperate attempt to protect his friend. His load too went flying. The soldier cursed and transferred his attention to David who screamed as the whip cracked down across his rump. Another soldier ran up and grabbing David tried to pull him away from Michael. He twisted his arms about Michael's waste and held on hard. His naked body was damp and slippery with sweat and it was difficult for the soldier to get a firm grip..
"It's a scorpion," Michael whispered between gritted teeth. "I didn't see it till I stepped on it."
"What the hell is going on here," it was Pietre's voice.
The soldier managed at last to pull David clear of his friend. David kicked and struggled in his arms but the boy was no match for the man's strength.
Pietre bent down his sjambok in his right hand and examined Michael's leg.
" This one's going no further," he said straightening up. "Get his load redistributed and give that white brat a hiding to teach him not to leave the column. Come on quick."
One of the soldiers lifted his rifle, _c_o_c_k_ed it and levelled it at Michael as he lay on the ground. Pietre knocked the rifle up with a curse.
"What's' the point of wasting ammunition you black fool," he shouted. "The boy will be dead by tomorrow anyway."
"You can't leave him. You can't." David shouted desperately. "If you put him in the back of the van. He'll be all right in a day or two."
"You boys are here to carry our supplies," Pietre snarled. "If you can't do that you're no use to me and you get left behind and out here if you get left behind you die and that's what going to happen to your black friend boy."
"Now hold that boy still for me," Pietre ordered the soldier.
He swung the sjambok back and brought it slashing down across the front of David's legs. The boy howled and leapt. The soldier tightened his grip and swung David round again to face Pietre. The whip cracked down again.
"Let him go," Pietre said.
David dropped to his knees in the dust.
"Get back in line you little sod and keep in line," Pietre reinforced his order with a hard kick in the boy's stomach.
Pietre turned away and David seeing his chanced scuttled across the ground and threw himself down upon Michael.
"I haven't got time for this," Pietre said furiously. "Get a rope one of you. "Now get him over to the truck".
Pietre took the rope and tied David's hands together in front of him. He fastened the other end of the rope to the back of his 4x4. He stepped back.
"Right you little bugger," he said. "Now you won't have any choice but to keep moving."
He booted David viciously up the backside, jumped into the truck and with a roar of the engine sent it rolling across the desert with David stumbling behind it.
Desperately looking back David could see the line of boys stumbling once more into motion, Michael's small body lying still and overhead a dark bird wheeling.
For the rest of the day David was only vaguely aware of what was going on around him. It seemed to him however that as time went on the whip cracks and shouts of the soldiers behind him became more frequent.
For about the fourth or fifth time since Michael had been abandoned the 4x4 stopped. David sank to his knees panting and exhausted. Pietre came round the truck and untied the rope from about his wrists. David see that the flesh was raw from where the cord had cut him. Pietre hauled him to his feet. Looking round for the first time he saw that he was standing among palm trees with a small lake glistening in the sun in front of him. Pietre swung him to face away from the water.
"You can go and rejoin your black friends now boy," he said. With a boot up the backside he sent David staggering across to where the column boys were halted.
"Keep those boys together until I've had my swim," he shouted to the soldiers. "Then you can let them run loose. There's nowhere they can go from here."
Desperate with thirst the boys had to watch the man splash about in the water of the lake. Then at last he came out and waved to the guards. The soldiers moved off and after a few seconds the boys realised they were free to enter the lake. With an excited whoop they rushed across to it shouting and laughing. For a few minutes they forgot the horrors that had been inflicted on them and the sufferings that no doubt were still to come as they danced and splashed in the cool water.
Just before dusk the soldiers reappeared carrying buckets full of maize porridge. The boys squatted round them hungrily scooping the food into their mouths with their hands.
As the sun set the temperature dropped sharply. Their stomachs full the boys huddled together for warmth and one by one fell asleep.
David made himself stay awake. He had a plan. At last when the shouting and talk from about the soldiers camp fire had died away he gently disentangled himself from the jumble of naked bodies among which he had been lying and began to creep quietly towards the 4x4s. He knew there was no chance of stealing one of them. He was certain that the drivers would have taken the keys and in any event he would not have been able to drive one. He did know however that there were water bottles there and he needed some.
It was very chilly away from the warmth of the other boys and he was frightened. He was going back to find Michael. He knew his chances of survival, let alone success were small. However they had come from the South and Uncle Robert had told him enough about the stars for him to be pretty sure he could get a Southerly heading. There were lions and snakes and other dangers out there but he would just have to take his chance with them. Same with water, he would keep trying until he ran out.
At first all went well. He got four water bottles and filling them from the lake he set out carrying two in his hands and two joined together with a length of rope slung over his shoulders. He was pretty sure he got had got his Southerly heading right and there was a bright moon to light him on his way. After an hour however he realised that things were not going quite so well as he had at first imagined. He had some how lost the track and he was in among clumps of bushes that tore at his legs and which were constantly forcing him to change direction. He was trying to go South but often he was being forced to turn to the East, to the West and sometimes even to the North. Then some where quite near by a lion roared.
He wondered what he ought to do. If he stayed still was it likely that the lion would not know he was there and would simply go off to do some thing else? Or if he kept moving would the lion say to itself "a strange animal I'd better be on the save aide and stick to zebra's"? He wished he knew more about the thought processes of lions. Well the chances were just as likely to be one or the other. He had just better keep going because the longer he hung around the more likely it would be too late to safe Michael and that Pietre would come after him and catch him. He kept on but he didn't like it. Indeed by now he was very frightened indeed.
By the time dawn came he was pretty sure he had failed. He had not made anything like the distance he had hoped and although he took a marker as it became light the plain was pretty featureless. He could not after a time be certain if the hillock with the large rock on it which he had taken as his heading was the same hillock which he was now using. However the Mountains lay to the North and if he kept these behind him he should be more or less right.
The sun got higher and higher in the sky. The temperature rose steadily. David tried to ration himself with the water but he was very thirsty. He was also very tired. He sat down in the shade of a thorn tree to rest.
Then to the North he heard a sound. He stood up to listen better. There was no mistake about it now. He could clearly hear the throb of a diesel engine and it was getting rapidly closer. He forced himself to his feet and began to run. Still the engine noise grew louder. He topped a ridge and looking back behind him he saw a cloud of dust approaching him across the plain. He ran on sweat pouring from his body, his lungs aching. He was on rising ground again. The engine noise changed. He looked back. The van was halted it's engine chugging. An African soldier was peering hard at the ground in front of it. He straightened and pointed in David's direction.
They had a professional tracker. David knew he was all but lost but still he kept on. He heard a shout behind him. They had seen him. The volume of the engine noise increased remorselessly. He glanced back. The van was within a hundred metres of him. Now the van was right on his heels. He looked back again the front fender of 4x4 was within a couple of metres of him. Through the wind screen he could see Pietre holding the steering wheel, an unlit cigar clamped between his teeth, grinning fiercely.
Desperately David dodged to the left, trying vainly to threw the van off. Then to the right. Still the van's front bumper was close behind him. He stumbled and fell. The 4x4 brakes squealed and it skidded to a halt, it's front wheels only a few inches from David's naked body.
Pietre came round the van carrying his sjambok. He looked down at the boy. Gently he shook his head.
"Uncle Pietre is disappointed with you boy," he said. "Uncle Pietre thought he had taught you a lesson in obedience and good behaviour but you don't seem to have learnt it yet. Uncle Pietre will have to give you another lesson."
David got to his knees and tried to dart off. One of the soldiers caught him and laughing threw him back to the ground at Pietre's feet. The white man lifted the lash back over his shoulder and brought it down across the boys bare rump. The pain drove the breath out of his body. Pietre raised the lash again. Desperately David tried to crawl away from him. This time the whip landed across his shoulders knocking him flat the ground.
"Hold him down", Pietre commanded.
One of the soldiers put his boot on the small of the boy's back forcing him to stay down. The lash crashed down again and again and again as the boy writhed and howled in the dirt.
At last it was over. David's arms were puled behind his back he felt cold metal around his wrists. He was picked up by one ankle and an arm and thrown roughly into the back of the van. It rolled off David lying on it's metal floor whimpering quietly to himself. The soldiers started to amuse themselves by kicking him to and froe between them until Pietre alerted by their giggling, ordered them to stop.
"I want him beaten not killed," he shouted.
-------------
A helicopter bussed towards the oasis from the North.
"We'll be just in time," Pietre said fighting to hold the steering wheel steady as the 4x4 bumped across the plain.
The helicopter made a circle of the oasis and then descend slowly to the ground it's rota blade throwing up a great cloud of dust. Pietre gunned the van forward. Soldiers and boys mixed together in their excitement came running out of the palm trees to see what was happening.
Pietre braked the van to halt . He hauled David from the back of it and taking a steel collar from one of the soldiers snapped it about the boys slim neck. He hooked a length of chain to it and tugged.
"Come on boy," he said. "You've got to meet a very important man."
He began to walk towards the helicopter. David tugged along by the collar around his neck, his hands manacled behind him stumbled after him.
Three men got out of the helicopter to meet them. One was clearly the pilot; a tall hard bitten man who looked as though nothing would surprise him dressed in oil stained overalls. He was followed by a very fat middle aged man who was obviously finding the heat a trial and a much thinner smaller younger man his neck hung about with cameras.
The fat man shook hands with Pietre
"This is my photographer," he said waving at the younger man. "Well Pietre I've spoken to the editor and he's spoken to the proprietor and they agree two hundred thousand for the story and then there's whatever we can make for ransom money and there frankly the sky is the limit I should have thought."
"Two million I was thinking of going for," Pietre remarked.
"Why not go for five as a starter," the fat man suggested. "we can always come down."
Pietre shrugged. "I'm easy," he said.
"And our private arrangement. Twenty percent of what ever we get for the ransom to be split between me and Nigel."
"Sure. If we can get five million I can make do with four."
"Good, good," the fat man said jovially, "and this is our little friend who's going to make us all that lovely money."
He leered over Pietre's shoulder at David.
"He's in a bit of a mess, but I suppose that's all to the good really for our purposes. Pictures of the poor little bruised darling will go straight to the hearts of the mother's of Surbiton. And to Nigel's too. He loves little boys don't you Nigel?"
"I don't think we should let him have this one," Pietre said. "They might insist on a medical examination before they paid up but he can have the pick of the blacks if he wants. He can have one of them tonight or two for that matter. If he makes his choice after he's finished with this brat I'll have them cleaned up for him. I'd be glad if he didn't damage them overmuch. They'll be going on the block soon and I don't want their value effected."
"Don't worry Captain, Nigel's not all that well endowed. Now come on Nigel start taking your photographs. This is an assignment you should really enjoy."
"Don't you think it would be better if one of the soldiers held that chain rather than the Captain," Nigel said hurrying forward with his camera at the ready. "Nothing racist you understand but I think a black man would have more dramatic impact."
"Yes that's right lovely."
Nigel busied himself taking photographs. David stood patiently in the blazing sun, naked, his hands manacled behind his back. He had long since passed beyond feeling either shame or embarrassment.
Nigel moved round behind David.
"Oh look at the poor little darling's bruises," he exclaimed touching David's thighs, "and here."
He pulled David's hands up his back so that he could see his bottom more clearly .
"Get on with taking the photographs can't you," the fat man said impatiently. "You can kiss the bruises better later if you want."
"I would love to do that but I don't think the Captain would be too keen on that. I think it'll be a couple of little black bottoms for me tonight."
"Do you know Captain it's very difficult to get a good photo of the boy's bottom with all those lovely welts on it. His hands hide it. Would it be possible to tie him up some where with his hands above his head."
"Yes sure. You men string him up by his wrist over the roof bar at the back of the 4x4"
"Oh Captain before you do that just get the van turned so the light's right. Yes that's it. Oh what a lovely little bum and those nasty cruel welts."
Nigel took some more photographs and then came close to David and ran his hands over his backside.
"Poor little boy," he crooned. "Did the cruel men take the nasty wicked whip to that tender little bottom of yours."
"Do you know Captain, what would make a really great shot would be a picture of one of your men actually using the whip on the boy."
Go on one of you men. Do what he says," Pietre said in a bored voice.
"Wait a second. Let me just get in position. Right Now."
The whip sang through the air and cracked down across David's bottom. The boy screamed and pulled at his bound hands.
"Oh that was really good. And another one please just to make sure the shot comes out. This time across his shoulders."
The whip whistled down once more and again the boy yelled as the lash struck home.
"Oh lovely! I just like the way his legs came up in the air when it hit him that time."
"Now how accurate are you with that thing. I think it would be a really dramatic picture if I could get a close up of the tip of the whip at the moment it strikes his bottom. Wait now while I get my camera right. OK Now. Excellent...... He does make a noise doesn't he."
"Once more please. Try to land it as near as you can on the same spot. .... That's really good. ....... Do stop making such a fuss you silly boy."
"One last thing now. I think a really striking picture would be one of the poor little lads face at the moment the whip hits him."
"Let me get up on the van ...... Now one of you men pull his head back so that he's looking up at me. .... Oh dear such a pretty little face and all covered with snot and tears. Right I'm ready. ....That's excellent..... I think that'll be an absolute classic.....Once more........Good. I should imagine if that gets printed the whole world will see his tonsils he opened his mouth so loud to scream."
"Now I don't mind what you say Captain. I must give him a kiss. There on the lips. Salty with tears the little lamb."
"I tell you what Captain you wouldn't have one of the black boys whipped as well would you please? Pictures of that would add more depth to the story I think."
"Certainly. Take that boy down and get one of the blacks. . One of the bigger boys....It doesn't matter which one."
Released David sank snivelling to his knees in the dirt. Pietre went to secure the boy's hands once more behind his back. Pietre took the boys wrists and then paused. There was absolutely no resistance. He hesitated and then smiled.
"Up on your feet," he commanded.
David obeyed and stood before him his head bowed his hands hanging loose at his sides. Pietre put a hand under the boy's chin and tipped his head back. He looked into his eyes. He saw fear and hopelessness but nothing else. Anger, pride resistance all had gone. Pietre nodded to himself. The boy had been broken.
Pietre turned back to look at the van. A sturdy Negro boy was being dragged towards it by two of the soldiers.
"Get a bloody move on," he shouted. "Let's get this boy flogged sharpish. I want my bloody lunch."
to be continued.