“Just follow my lead. They strike only when they are hungry or feel threatened”, the tour guide cautioned. “The beasts can sense fear in you, try not to show them that you are afraid. Whatever you do, don’t reveal your weakness to them”, he added almost immediately.
Moussa the tour guide has heard several stories about the forest natives. He once had an encounter with them as a little boy. On that fateful day, he was hunting his favorite insects when he suddenly ran into them feasting on the flesh of an elephant they had killed not quite too long. Moussa was able to escape unharmed from the beast by applying a technique he was about to share with the team. Moussa instructed all the team members to lie down as if they were dead until the beasts finish their inspection. One thing about the beasts is that, they will never feed on a thing they had not killed themselves.
Moussa moved towards each of the team members and acted as if he was stabbing them. One after the other, they fell to the ground and laid dead. After he was through with the team members, he quickly did the same to himself. The beasts growled and moved towards the supposedly dead men on the ground.
“No matter what happens, do not move.” Moussa whispered as the beasts came closer.
The beasts in anger moved to each of the supposed dead bodies and snuffed them with their nose. Susan who was asthmatic could no longer bear the smell coming from the beasts so she sneezed so hard that the beasts had to move backwards. On hearing this, every team member sat up. Moussa knew they were in trouble. He stood up and commanded the team to run for their dear lives. Susan was already having a crisis.
They quickly assisted her with her inhaler as they ran for the trees. Moussa instructed them to climb the trees and hide since the beasts could not climb the trees. The team reached for the trees as the forest natives stood around all the trees and roared like a lion in labour. They roared and roared until the solitude of the night was broken.
At dawn, the team members were already fast asleep, all thanks to the comforting words of Moussa who told them they were safe from any form of attack from the forest inhabitants. A strange sound came from the skies. It was the giant bats, they had returned from their night hunt and the team members were comfortably sleeping in their nests. John opened his eyes to behold the giant bats surrounding them on the tree. Before he could say a word, the claws of the bats reached for his eyes, causing him to dodge and fall to the ground. The team heard his scream and woke up. They quickly climbed down the trees to avoid the same fate.
“Run and don’t look back” Moussa gently whispered to the team to avoid awakening the beasts who were already weakened by the rays of the sun penetrating the forest. The group was thrown into a serious confusion. They ran to no direction in particular until they got to a river. They sat by the bank to regain their strength as they waited for Moussa who stayed behind to cast some spell on the sleeping beasts.
“Where do we go from here?” asked Suzan. “Home of course,” Dan shouted. “I never bargained for this” he lamented. “We don’t even know this forest. We are lost in no man’s land and there is nothing we can do again. We need to go back home.” He cried like a little girl who was about to be spanked by her father.
“I understand your plight my fellow comrades, but we can’t just abandon our mission. We have come a long way to give up now. Think about the glory, think about the fame, think about the cash we stand to gain from this and finally, think about all the power we stand to gain from this. The world will be at our beckon call; we can do whatsoever we want. Stan spoke to the group. His voice came with courage and fear at the same time. He was determined to complete the mission while a part of him wanted them to go back home and forget about all that has happened.
“Let’s do this together, we can make it. We can change the world,” he concluded.
The tour guide arrived and gave them a breakdown of all that is left to be achieved on the journey. He assured them that they were close to their destination. All what stood between them and their goal was the river which they will have to cross the next morning.
“You mean we are spending the night out here?” Dan cried. “Yes we are,” Moussa responed. “And what are these strange tracts by the river bank?” Pat asked as the whole team moved closer to see what she was talking about.
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**Picture used is from Pixabay
