Most long time subscribers will know I write poetry. I have been trying to write fiction. It is difficult. What follows is a short story constrained at 1000 words that is loosely themed about the idea of summer.
The Rescue
1
The wind blew, rustling the leaves. He awoke to a breeze cooling the sweat on his forehead. Opening one eye he squinted in the bright midday sun. It then disappeared as Nils stepped into his vision. "Ah sleeping again eh Joey" he drawled in his thick Afrikans accent. He lit a smoke and handed it down to Joe before lighting another "Yes, yes I will say a fine time for a snooze". Joe puffed silently for a moment then wiped his brow with the back of a well tanned hand. "What's going on Nils? It's my day off". Nils gazed out, the savannah in the distance shimmering. "Ja, ja I know but I think we got lost tourists out there Joe, city types". Joe sighed and then stood, he was just shy of six feet and deeply tanned. He was wiry where Nils was solid, lean muscles in an endurance frame. Nils was clad in the standard khaki fare of the safari, his FN-FAL rifle slung across his broad back. "Come now, we have a briefing, I think ze are German" the giant Afrikaner chuckling at his exaggerated faux German accent. Joe smiled, pulling on his bright Hawaiin shirt, a gift from Denise "Well let's go bru".
2
Joe and Nils walked into the command center to a hubbub of activity. The building itself was old, cooled only by large fans. A few of their rangers milled around it talking quietly amongst themselves in Xhosa and pointing at spots on the map. "About bloody time" boomed the voice of Hector SteenKamp, the game manager. "These bloody Germans have not checked in for over 72 hours now." Joe raised an eyebrow "We have a 24 hour rule, what happened?" Steenkamp slammed a log book down "Ja the new guy couldn't find this log book and then started his own, but didn't tell anyone." Frustration oozed off Steenkamp but beneath it Joe could tell the normally genial man was scared. Dead tourists in the park would be bad. "All right, let's get up to speed then."
The details tumbled fast from those assembled. Joe jotted down the pertinent details in his notebook as Nils asked the questions.
5 people from two guest groups
Youngest 23, oldest 60.
German
Single 4x4, Landy, rented
Provisions for a single night
Cell phones but no GPS signal detected, privacy concerns.
It was not yet peak summer but this didn't bode well. Joe knew that Europeans underestimated hydration needs out here. Dangerous game made the headlines but dehydration was the bigger enemy.
Joe then spoke quietly to his Xhosa rangers, he, like them might be vital if any of the tourists had left the vehicle.
It was time to go.
3
The Landy bumped continuously along the rutted track. A tin roof. Joe and his rangers were used to it. Years of hard travel and time in the field an inured them to this discomfort. They'd got a lead from the hapless employee who'd sent the Germans out, they had been heading to a remote part of the park. It was now just a matter of time and luck.
Hours passed. He thought of Denise. What would she be doing? She hadn't been his first tourist romance but he still hoped she would be his last. He could still picture her lounging there by the pool, effortless beauty. Sipping a gin&tonic "On saafaari daarling" she had giggled.
A cry from one of his rangers snapped him back to the present and he immediately slowed the vehicle. Fresh looking vehicle tracks led off the road. He cursed under his breath. The rangers hopped out. The tracks led off the road down a shallow embankment and disappeared just out of view. "Mlondi, Aviwe you boys get back in the Landy and drive on for another 10 miles eh, you see nothing you come park back here and follow. The rest of you with me." They grabbed packs and rifles and set off.
4
He needn't have worried, as they crested the ridge where the tracks had disappeared he heard a yell. Below he could see the rolled and wrecked land rover. He and his men descended.
"Ya Nils, can you hear me? Ya, ya we found them. Well we found four. Yes four, badly shook and low on water. Look we're going to be in a race against time here. One of them went walking for help by himself, ya of course the older man. We'll need the heli now"
Nils' voice crackled a confirmation and Joe looked back to the dazed group of tourists. Mlondi was giving them small sips of water and Aviwe was examining the youngest woman's shoulder. "Dislocated" he replied to Joe's gaze.
He nodded and waited.
5
The Heli touched down for the fifth time and Joe hurried out under the blades before it took off again instantly. The bush here was barren and arid. It had made tracking hard going. He was one of the best trackers here now, despite his blonde hair and blue eyes he read the land almost as well as the Hadza.
He started forward noticing sign, ever so slight. The man had to be close.
To find him he pulled every trick in the book. They'd follow the sign for a bit and then Nils would leapfrog his rangers in two different directions ahead. As soon as one of them found the trail he'd follow it as Nils flew the rangers ahead again.
It was the only way they'd find the man before the African sun claimed him.
He saw the slumped figure against the baobab. Joe reached him with the water bottle open already. He was in a bad way but alive. His radio crackled "Joe we've got no sign further on eh, he must be where you are"
Joe wiped the sweat from his brow in that cooling breeze "Ya I found him". A fine time for a snooze he thought.