Stephen Leather - The Hunting

‘I can walk,’ said Erol.

‘You’re limping already,’ said Abdullah. ‘You haven’t even got shoes, bruv. A couple of kilometres and you’ll be begging to be carried.’ He shook his head. ‘Nah, it’s every man for himself. If we stay together, we die together. If we all take care of ourselves, some of us might make it.’ He waved at Sal. ‘Come on, Sal, let’s bounce.’

‘You’re making a big mistake,’ said Raj.

‘Maybe, but at least it’ll be my mistake,’ said Abdullah.

‘Brothers, I think Raj is right,’ said Jaffar. ‘We’re stronger together.’

‘No, we’re a bigger target, easier to hit,’ said Abdullah.

Sal nodded. ‘He’s right. We can move faster alone.’

‘Except you don’t know where you’re going.’ Raj shook his head bitterly and waved them away. ‘You know what? Do what you want to do.’

Abdullah and Sal spoke to each other in their own language. They didn’t appear to be arguing. Eventually Sal raised his hand. ‘ Ma’a as-salaama ,’ he said. Goodbye.

‘Yeah,’ said Sid. ‘ Ila-liqaa’ .’ Until we meet again.

Raj pointed at the transceiver in Sal’s pocket. ‘You should leave that with us,’ he said.

‘Fuck that,’ said Sal.

‘There are more of us.’

‘So?’

‘Just give it to me, Sal.’

Raj held out his hand but Sal shook his head. ‘I’ll swap it for the Glock.’

‘That’s not going to happen,’ said Sid.

‘Then we’re out of here,’ said Sal. The two Somalians disappeared into the forest. For a few seconds the rest of the men heard the crunch of their feet in the undergrowth, and then there was only the sound of the birds in the treetops.

Raj looked over at Jaffar. ‘Can you look for wood for a splint, something we can use to bind Mo’s leg?’

Jaffar nodded. ‘Sure.’ He started walking around, looking through the undergrowth.

Raj went over to Erol who was sitting down and massaging his ankle. ‘How are you feeling?’

Erol grimaced. ‘Abdullah was right, I don’t think I’ll be able to walk much.’

Raj knelt down and examined the swollen ankle. ‘It’s sprained, not broken,’ he said. ‘I’ll bind it and we’ll find you a stick to walk with. You’ll be fine.’ He patted Erol on the shoulder and went over to Sid.

Sid had prepared six strips of cloth that he had laid out on the ground. ‘Okay?’ he asked.

‘Perfect,’ Raj said.

Jaffar came over with two branches that he’d stripped clean of twigs. One was about an inch thick and two feet long, the other was thinner and longer. ‘Let me have the knife,’ Raj asked Sid and Sid handed it over.

Raj took the thicker branch from Jaffar, put one end against a rock and used the knife to carefully split it into two. He took the two pieces of wood and the strips of cloth over to Mo. He knelt down and placed the two pieces on the outside and inside of the man’s broken leg and nodded. It would be a good fit.

‘Sid, give me a couple of pieces to use as padding. Wider and longer than the strips you’ve done.’ He tossed the knife over to Sid who started hacking away at what was left of the fatigues. ‘Hey, Jaffar, see if you can find some sort of stick that Erol can use to help him walk,’ he said.

‘Will do,’ said Jaffar.

Raj took two of the strips over to Erol and used them to bind his injured ankle. ‘It won’t be comfortable but it’ll ease the pain,’ he said.

‘Abdullah was right, I’m fucked without shoes. Jaffar too. It’s okay for you and Sid, you’ve got the boots you took off that guy and Sid had his sandals on when they took us. But if we do any walking, my feet will be shot.’

Raj nodded. Erol was right. The undergrowth was covered with twigs and sharp stones and their feet weren’t tough enough to cope with a long trek with no shoes. ‘I’ll sort something out,’ he said.

Sid finished hacking out two pieces of the fatigues to use as padding and he gave them to Raj.

‘Thanks. Can you cut a few more pieces that Erol and Jaffar can use to wrap their feet?’

Sid went to work again with the knife. Raj took the thicker strips of cloth that Sid had given him and put them between the sticks and Mo’s leg, before using the thinner lengths to bind the wood in place. The trick was to make the ties snug, but not too tight that they would cut off the circulation.

Once he’d tied the splint he wrapped cloth around the ankle to minimise any movement. Bending the ankle meant the muscles and tendons put stress on the tibia and fibula and that can lead to pain. ‘How does that feel?’ he asked when he’d finished.

‘It’s okay now, but I’m not sure what it’s going to be like when I start to walk.’

‘We’ll take it slowly,’ said Raj.

Jaffar returned from the forest with two branches, both about five feet long. ‘How about these?’ he asked.

‘Perfect,’ said Raj. He took them and offered one to Erol. Erol used it to get to his feet and took a few steps. ‘Yeah, that’s not bad,’ he said.

Raj gave the other stick to Mo. ‘Do you think you can walk on your own?’ he asked. ‘We can fix up a stretcher if we have to, but walking under your own steam will probably be quicker.’

Mo nodded. ‘I’ll give it a go.’ Sid and Raj helped him up. He put his weight on the stick and took a step. Then another. ‘It’s a lot better than it was,’ he said.

‘You’re going to be in pain, no question of that,’ said Raj. ‘But both breaks are clean and you’ll heal okay.’ He held up a hand. ‘Right guys, gather around, we need to put together a game plan.’

Erol hobbled over with Jaffar. Sid tossed them several large pieces that he had cut from what was left of the fatigues, along with a few strips to tie them into place. Erol laughed. ‘Are you serious?’

‘Best we can do,’ said Raj. ‘But it’ll be a lot better than nothing. The forest floor will rip your feet apart.’

‘Too fucking right,’ said Jaffar. He showed them the sole of his right foot which was bleeding from several cuts.

Erol and Jaffar sat down and Sid helped tie the material around their feet.

‘Right, there are five of us and my suggestion would be that we stick together,’ Raj said. ‘Anyone else got a problem with that?’

Nobody argued, so Raj continued. ‘The helicopter that dropped us here was a H175 Airbus which has a cruising speed of about two hundred and seventy-five kilometres an hour. They cold-cocked me so I was unconscious for the first part of the flight – how long do we think we were flying?’

Sid shrugged. ‘Ten minutes maybe.’

‘No, brother,’ said Mo. ‘It was eight minutes exactly. Not including the take-off time.’

‘You’re sure?’ asked Raj.

Mo nodded. ‘I counted.’

‘Good,’ said Raj. ‘So, eight minutes at two hundred and seventy-five kilometres an hour means we travelled …’

‘Just under thirty-seven kilometres,’ said Mo.

Raj grinned. ‘Nice one,’ he said. ‘Are you a human calculator?’

Mo smiled. ‘I have always been good with numbers.’

Raj took the survival knife from its scabbard. There was a small compass set into the hilt and he looked at it, then pointed in the direction the helicopter had gone. ‘South,’ he said. ‘Now assuming the helicopter went as the crow flies and wasn’t trying to confuse us, the house is thirty-seven kilometres in that direction. The problem with that is, as I told Abdullah, that’s probably the direction the man with the gun will be coming from. Did any of you see a road or a town as we flew here?’

The four men shook their heads.

‘Then it looks to me as if the house is our only hope. But we can’t go straight towards it. We need to weave around a little more. The obvious thing to do would be to go west or east for a short while, then head south – then turn towards the house when we get nearer to it.’ He pointed west. ‘The ground seems to be going up there which means we might be able to get a better view of the surrounding area. But obviously going up is harder than going down.’