THE ESCAPE (8)

What are Friends For?

Finally, they had caught up with him. What kind of luck did he have? He was just on the brink of making good his escape, and now he had finally been caught. Another bullet whizzed past his ear and John decided it was better to be caught than killed, even if they were eventually going to kill him.

He held the phone in his right hand and stepped forward to surrender. “I give up. Please, don’t shoot!” he shouted, hands in the air. A figure slowly emerged and he could feel the man size him up, with his gun still aimed at him. John fought to keep still, the thought of jumping into the water drifted across his mind, but he couldn’t risk it, there could be crocodiles.

The gun was still pointed at him as the figure approached the bank of the stream, still looking at him. As he came closer, John noticed that this wasn’t a face he had seen before. The man looked older, like a man in his fifties, and his gun was locally made. If his guess was right, he had to be a hunter; maybe this was his salvation, not his doom.

“Help me, sir!” he called. The gun finally began to lower and John was beginning to feel relieved. “Who are you, and why are you there?” came the voice from the other side. “I am John, sir. I was kidnapped two weeks ago, but I was able to escape yesterday. I have been running all day but I don’t really know my way and I stumbled upon the stream. I was just able to establish communication with my mother. I was talking with her when you fired your first shot. You have to help me, sir. They are still looking for me and I might not survive if I get caught again”

“If what you say is true, then my shooting could draw their attention to your location. That bush is truly a kidnappers’ den, and it has been so for the past eight years. The government has refused to come to flush them out so we decided to defend ourselves. They hardly attack us though, they tell us to keep to our side of the stream and they will keep theirs. Let’s get you over here first, John. I am not fully convinced about your story so I’ll call for backup then come over and pick you up. In the meantime, take off your shirt and trousers so I can be sure you are not hiding anything, and you aren’t actually working for the kidnappers, you never know what those men are capable of”

Knowing he didn’t have an option if he truly wanted to be helped, john complied obediently and waited for the backup to arrive. In a few minutes, the man was joined by three others; a teenager and two men. They came with a small canoe and took it to the water. Only one of them had a gun, and he didn’t look particularly happy. The two men got into the canoe and began to paddle towards John who was already feeling the effect of the cool breeze blowing against his half-naked body.

The canoe was now at his side of the stream and after careful observing John, the men asked him to join them in the canoe, with their gun pointed at him. John climbed in and as they turned the canoe and began to paddle back to where they came from, John hoped and prayed that this wasn’t a dream and that he was truly saved. He didn’t know where the tears came from or when they started dropping, but John found himself crying, and the more he tried to stop the tears from flowing, the more they flowed freely.

The attitude of the men dramatically changed as they watched him cry. He had looked so brave a few minutes ago, there was no way he could be faking this; he had truly been kidnapped. They began to offer words of comfort, telling him that it was all over now and that he was safe. They urged him to put on his shirt before they got to the other side, he could wear his trousers after they came down from the canoe. He asked if he could call his mother to tell her, but he was told to wait until they got to land.

“Mum, I’m safe. I’m finally safe” was all John could say over the phone as he jumped out of the canoe and onto land. Shouts of “Praise God”, amidst sobs and other shouts rang out on the other side of the call. He had apparently been put on speaker phone, and his tears resumed once more. Let them flow, he’d earned it. He ran over to the elderly man and hugged him then flattened himself out on the floor in appreciation of the man. He rolled and rolled and didn’t mind the amused look on the face of the young one with the man who kept trying to get John to stand up.

John didn’t notice the growing number of people who were coming to the scene of the event until there were over a hundred people gathered. It wasn’t until he saw a few young ladies among the crowd that he began to gather himself together. He didn’t have anything to say, but in a few minutes, he was surprised to hear various accounts of his ordeal, and trust people to spice it all up. Over eighty percent of what he heard never happened, especially the fast-spreading rumour that he had killed two of the kidnappers while they were chasing him, as well as the news that he was kidnapped along with his younger brother, and that his family had paid his brothers ransom while trying to raise his own money.

He decided to let them say what they wanted; he had no desire to set any records straight. He asked to be taken to a private place and the wife of the elderly man obliged him. He was led to a room, and she gave him his privacy. Now by himself, John said a short prayer of thanksgiving; called his mother and they began to make plans for his return home. He went back to find his hostess, after all he didn’t even know where he was. He gave her the phone and she talked with his mum. By the time they were through with their conversation, it was decided that John would stay with the man and his family for that day and that by morning, his mother would come to pick him up. This was mainly because they wanted to reduce the whole spectacle and get the police involved in the matter.

To make their plan more effective, they had to divert attention using a decoy. A young man just like John was transported with some fanfare in a vehicle and in thirty minutes, the crowd had dispersed. The real John was taken to the bathroom to freshen up while some food was being prepared for him.

It took John over an hour to bathe as he wanted. He had to wash it all away from his body at least. He had to wash off the smell of the den, the bushes, the rain, the night in the pit, and if possible, his memory of Khalid. It felt surreal, but he was truly saved at last.

Three weeks later

It was 2 p.m., and John was getting ready to go to the police station again, for the umpteenth time since his rescue. He always wanted to refuse, but he knew there was no other way to handle this. The vehicle would be here any moment now to pick him and his mum up and take them to the station. He had never liked the police and the fact that they brought him home hadn’t really changed much.

The last call said they had caught eight more suspects that were implicated in his kidnap. He was needed at the station to see if he could identify any of them, and add them to the three they had nabbed.

It was on their way home the day he was finally taken home that John got briefed by the police. The officer-in-charge told him that they had been tracking and trying to find that gang for years and would have made progress significantly if they were properly funded, which unfortunately wasn’t the case. The police in the area was underfunded and understaffed because the top brass felt there was no serious security threat in the area. They had written to express their genuine concerns amidst the increase in kidnap reports, but it was a long and slow process, but John’s case which was now going viral online could change things.

John gave the phone he had to the police and they found credible intelligence on the kidnappers. This intelligence was what finally made the top brass push into action and within a week; the police had raided the den. They only found two people there who swore that they were not kidnappers and that the real bad guys had fled the den a few days back.

That was the beginning of various sting operations on other criminal hideouts and suspected meeting places for these men and their operations were met with success but a lot of the kidnappers were hard to find. It was only going to be a matter of time though.

At the station, John and his mum were warmly greeted by the officer-in-charge. He wouldn’t admit it but the police station wasn’t a bad place after all, and the policemen and policewomen were only human too, just like him. He was even having a favourite at the station.

They were led to the holding cell where the suspects were kept and John had to go through the procedure he was now used to. He didn’t recognise any of the first four people, and just as he was about to feel like it was a wasted effort again, he noticed three of the remaining four faces were trying to avoid his gaze.

He looked closely at them and the first face he finally recognised was the one they called Eagle. A flood of emotions surged through John as he looked at his one-time captor and remembered the slap he had given him, he would have his payback. Looking away from Eagle, another face caught his attention. The face was somewhat bloodied and was bandaged just above the right eye, but John knew who he was seeing: it was Khalid!

The mole and fake friend had been caught and John finally felt that it was all over at last. Khalid looked pitiful, but there was nothing more to do. “John…” started Khalid, but John didn’t wait to hear anymore. He couldn’t identify any other person, so he just confirmed the identities of Eagle and Khalid and walked out.

On his way out, his phone rang. It was a news reporter who had been asking him to grant her an interview, telling his full story. John refused to take the call. She could wait, the world could wait. One day, he would tell his story, just not today. When he was ready, he would tell the story of THE ESCAPE, his escape.

THE END