Cover

Title Page

Dedication

To the young survivor
reading this book for the first time.
May your eyes always be wide open
to adventure, and your heart full
of courage and determination to
see your dreams through.

1

HUNGER PAINS

Evie crawled ahead through a ditch full of damp, rotting leaves, then straightened up behind a tree, keeping out of sight.

“It’s perfect,” she whispered excitedly back to her friend Harry. “If you crawl down this ditch, the flag is only twenty metres away.”

Evie and Harry were playing Capture the Flag. They had one thing on their mind – reaching the clearing in the middle of the woods where the flag was planted, without being caught by the other boys and girls who were guarding it. They both wore armbands stuck on with Velcro. If anyone in the clearing was able to tear it from them, their go would be over and they would become guardians too. But if they got to the flag with their armbands still on, they would have won!

Evie looked back. Harry was staring glumly at the ditch. “It looks really manky,” he moaned. “I don’t want to get my jeans dirty. Chimp Skinnys are so expensive.”

Evie sighed. That was so Harry, caring more about his trousers than winning the game.

But she knew there was no point arguing with him when his mind was made up.

So instead, Evie and Harry crept from tree to tree. Both of them were crouching down by a bush, keeping very still and almost holding their breath, as a guardian stalked by.

And then there was a loud rumbling sound from Evie’s stomach.

Evie’s face turned bright burning red.

The guardian had heard. “Intruders!”

Evie and Harry fled, with the guardians chasing them.

“Why couldn’t you just lie down in the ditch like I said?” Evie gasped as they ran.

“It’s not my fault! Your stomach gave us away!” Harry panted. “Didn’t you have any breakfast?”

Evie didn’t really want to think about breakfast. All she had been able to choose was a banana and a bread roll. After a couple of bites she had changed her mind about the roll.

“Let’s split up,” she said.

“Okay. See you later.”

Evie sprinted back in the direction of the ditch, two guardians closing in behind her.

Evie stood holding her lunch tray. All the other campers were chatting and laughing as they piled their plates up. But not Evie. Hers was empty.

It had been the same at breakfast.

It was the same at every meal.

Camp meals were epic, and they took care of everyone’s needs. Vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, lactose-free, kosher, halal, whatever. But there was never anything that was right for her.

Camp food never came close to Evie’s perfect meal. It was always too sloppy or too spicy, and she never knew when she might find something unexpected and gross on her plate.

So, even though she was hungry as she stood at the front of the lunch queue, she couldn’t make up her mind.

By the time Evie sat down with a handful of things on her plate, almost everyone had finished. The clean-up crew were getting ready for action. She looked at her meal. An apple that looked a bit bruised on one side. A spoonful of dry-looking rice with raisins. A couple of crackers and a slice of cheese that was the wrong colour. The only thing she could possibly eat was the crackers. The rest, she just knew with a guilty stab, would go to waste. She had only taken it because the leaders all insisted that she eat something.

The crackers were so dry they made her mouth feel like it was full of cotton wool. Evie wandered back into the food tent to look for the water jug.

The tent was empty, except for a boy called Charlie. And he was carefully dropping a stone into the jug. He stared at it like it was really important.

“That’s disgusting!” Evie couldn’t help a flash of temper. “I was just about to pour a drink!”

Charlie whipped his head round.

“Oh, sorry.” He reached into the jug.

Evie saw what he was about to do.

“Don’t put your fingers in the water too!”

Too late. Charlie had picked the stone out of the water again.

“I could get you a drink from the tap?” he suggested as she trudged back to her seat outside.

Evie was grateful when Charlie brought her the glass. She was surprised when he sat down with her. Her meals were usually lonely because she took so long picking her food.

They chatted a little while Evie finished her crackers, trying not to grimace too much as she swallowed. They talked about the afternoon activities. Evie had thought she would try the Construction Challenge.

Suddenly Charlie reached into his pocket and held out a compass.

“You know,” he said shyly, “whatever you do this afternoon, I think this might be useful.”

“Er, thanks,” Evie said. She took it, even though she wasn’t sure why a compass would help with building things. “Do you want to swap something for it?”

Charlie shook his head.

“It’s okay,” he said. “Just consider it a gift.” He gave a last smile. “See you at Construction Challenge,” he called over his shoulder as he hurried off.

Evie took her tray over to the rest of the piled-up dirty plates. As she headed for the tent exit, she checked the compass.

“Oh, thanks, Charlie!” she thought grumpily. The compass had five directions on it, not the usual four. And what was wrong with the needle? It kept spinning round and wouldn’t rest. “Like a broken compass is going to be really helpful …”

Evie stepped out of the tent into sunlight.

Way too much sunlight. She squeezed her eyes shut against the sudden glare.

“Woah!”

A wave of heat swept over her. Wow, talk about a heatwave. So far Camp had been mostly sunny with a bit of rain, but no one had said anything like this was coming.

Evie slowly opened her eyes.

But Camp had vanished. Instead, she was standing in the middle of a vast sea of yellow-brown grass that came up to her knees.

And there ahead of her, as large as a house, staring right at her and flapping its massive ears, was the biggest elephant she had ever seen.

2

DON’T MESS WITH MOTHER

Evie stood still. Very still.

Every elephant she had ever seen in a zoo looked friendly. But this one wasn’t just looking at her, it was glaring.

The elephant was about fifty metres away, but she could still see that its dark grey skin had more wrinkles than she could count. Then there were the two long, dirty white tusks, which were curved and pointed.

Behind it were more elephants, standing in the shade of some scraggly trees and bushes next to a muddy pool of water. They were making gentle, rumbling noises at each other. A couple of them were babies, though they were still almost as big as a car. Evie watched as one of the adults dipped its trunk into the water, then curled it back and sprayed itself. The air was so hot that everything seemed to shimmer.

None of the elephants in the pool seemed worried about Evie. But the big one was still staring at her. She knew she was in danger.

Just then, someone spoke quietly behind her.

“Don’t move,” murmured the man’s voice. “Just stay still like you are, and don’t look round. That beautiful creature staring at you is the matriarch – the chief mother of the herd. Elephants are very protective of their young, and it’s her job to move to the front if she thinks the herd may be in danger.”

Although she wanted to turn to see the man who had appeared out of nowhere, Evie did as he said. He sounded like he knew what he was talking about.

“Danger?” she whispered. She couldn’t think what could possibly harm an elephant. They were massive.

“She thinks we might be dangerous.”

“But we wouldn’t hurt her,” Evie said.

“Well, she just knows we’re humans – and in her experience, humans mean trouble. There are people around who’d shoot her to take her tusks.”

Evie stared at the enormous animal. What kind of cruel person could kill such an amazing creature, she wondered, just to get hold of a pair of extra big teeth?

“What should we do?” she whispered.

“We just back off,” the said simply. “We don’t turn around or make any sudden movements, but we make it very clear we’re leaving. Ready? Let’s go.”

Evie took a step backwards, feeling the long grass brushing her legs. The sun was baking hot and it felt like every part of her skin was slowly roasting.

Suddenly the elephant’s behaviour changed. She stopped flapping her ears and shaking her head. Instead she flattened her ears against the sides of her head and stopped sweeping the ground in front of her with her trunk. She curled it up between her tusks.

“Uh-oh,” said the man, still just as calm as ever. “She’s going to charge. We can’t outrun her, so just follow me and do exactly what I do …”

The elephant charged.

“This way!” said the man, spinning her round.

Evie followed as they sprinted through the burnt yellow grass. She could hear the thunder of the elephant’s footsteps behind.

Suddenly Evie tripped and the ground fell away. She tumbled down a grassy bank and gasped as her elbow scraped against the dry ground. The man took the slope with long strides. A moment later, they were both standing at the bottom of a dry ditch, gasping for air.

The matriarch elephant had stopped at the top of the slope. Her ears were flapping again and her trunk was uncurled. She threw back her head and gave a loud trumpeting blast.

“Translated, that means ‘I win and don’t you forget it’,” said the man. He grinned down at Evie. “Elephants don’t charge downhill. They’re too heavy, so they overbalance and hurt themselves. Coming down here was the quickest way to safety.”

The man helped Evie stand up while she clutched at her hurt elbow. She looked around.

“What is this place?” she asked.

“This is a dry river bed,” he said. “Probably leads down to the water hole that you saw. In the rainy season, this place will be flowing.”

That wasn’t what Evie had meant. She had meant, where am I? And why isn’t it Camp? And who was this man who had appeared from nowhere and was helping her like this?

She looked at him carefully. He was tall and suntanned, wearing a battered, wide-brimmed hat, tough-looking clothes and scuffed boots. He had a backpack, and there was a knife with a long blade hanging in a scabbard from his belt.

He nodded at her hurt elbow. “May I check that for you?”

Evie nodded.

“We should get this seen to,” he said, examining her grazed skin. “I saw something this way that will help.”

He turned to hike up the side of the ditch away from the elephants. “Come on,” he said and Evie followed. She didn’t want to do anything to make the matriarch angry again.

When they got to the top, Evie slowly turned a full circle where she stood. Now that she wasn’t being charged by elephants, Evie could concentrate on the big picture.

“Where am I?” she said.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” the man said. He raised his hand to shade his eyes, taking it all in. “This is savannah grassland, right on the equator. Safari country.” He held out a hand to Evie. “I’m Bear,” he said, “and I’m your guide out of here.”

“I’m Evie,” she said, shaking hands.

“It’s nice to meet you, Evie. We’ve got quite a trek ahead of us,” Bear said. “Are you ready for some real adventure?”

Evie looked around again.

It was so peaceful. But also it was really big. Who knew what other dangerous creatures might be around? Even the elephants, which she had thought would be friendly, weren’t. Evie was determined to learn, which meant she needed a guide to help her.

“Sure,” she said. “I’m ready for adventure. But where’s everyone else?”

She and Bear were the only people she could see for miles around.

“They’re a long way away off,” Bear smiled. “This is a place for animals. A lot of them, all locked in a struggle for survival. See this?”

He knelt down and Evie saw something that looked like a cat’s footprint.

But this wasn’t a normal sized cat. This one was massive. The print was bigger than Bear’s hand. The big central dip was shaped like a curved triangle, and the four smaller dips around it were sharp and pointed, like claws.

There were some droppings on the ground next to it too. They were the size of Bear’s foot.

Evie stood up and looked around. She had a sudden urge to make sure that the owner of this footprint and these droppings were nowhere nearby. Because out here, big cats could only mean …

“Welcome to lion country,” Bear said.

3

THE MEDICINE TREE

“Lions!”

Evie felt even more scared now, but there was something about Bear’s smile that reassured her. “Don’t worry, lions are usually only dangerous if they’re hungry,” he said. “Or protecting their young. Or if they’re surprised.”

“Um,” said Evie, looking around. “That’s not very comforting, Bear. Are they ever not dangerous?”

“Well, they do sleep a lot. But yes, we take them seriously. It’s not just lions, though. We’re several links down the food chain here. We’re going to have to use our brains to stay safe and survive, just like our ancestors did.”

Evie looked unsure.

“We’re going work together and be just fine, Evie,” said Bear, as he set his backpack on the ground and rummaged inside.

“I’ve got some things that could help you on safari.” He passed up a battered green hat with a wide brim. “Like this. It will stop the sun baking your brains out.”

His hands went back in the bag, and he pulled out a long-sleeved shirt made from a hard, tough kind of cloth.

“And this – you can wear it over your t-shirt like a jacket. Your arms need protecting from the sun.”

“Thanks!” said Evie, jamming the hat onto her head. It felt good to have shade over her eyes. As she was about to push her arms into the shirt, she paused.

“But, won’t this make me too hot?” she asked.

“As long as we keep moving, we’ll have a stream of air going inside our clothes and past our skin, and that will cool us down. That’s why we wear loose clothing, not tight.”

Next out of the bag came a pair of boots.

“Your feet and ankles proper support. We’ve got some trekking ahead of us.” We’ve got some trekking ahead of us.”

Evie winced when her sore elbow brushed against the shirt. Bear took a closer look at the cut.

“We need to deal with that, and over there is just the tree that we need.”

He led her over to a tree that stood on its own, between them and a small hill. It reminded Evie of a giant clump of broccoli, with a tall trunk and a half circle of branches on top. The tree was about three times as tall as Bear, but he could reach the lowest branch. He pulled it closer and plucked off one of the leaves. The leaf was thick and shiny, almost like it was made of plastic, and its edges were jagged like a cactus.

Bear slashed the tip of his knife along the leaf. Then he squeezed it. Juices started to flow out of it.

“This is an aloe tree,” Bear said. “It’s one of nature’s brilliant antiseptics. There’s so much animal life here that you can’t leave an open wound untreated. You could end up with tetanus, or worse. Are you ready for me to put some on? I’m afraid it’s going to sting.”

“Okay,” Evie said bravely. A bit of stinging was better than getting infected.

Bear dabbed some of the aloe juices onto the tip of his finger, then rubbed them into the cut on Evie’s elbow.

He was right. It did sting, big time. But Evie breathed deeply and got through it.

“Well done, champ,” said Bear as he wrapped a bandage from his pack around her elbow.

“Thanks,” she said. “So, what next?”

“We need to plan the way ahead,” Bear said, “so we need to get up on some high ground and take a look.”

Evie rolled her sleeve back down as they trudged up the small hill she had seen earlier. Just like Bear had said, Evie could feel the air moving beneath her clothes. Even so, she wasn’t exactly cool.

“Um, Bear,” she said, “I’m feeling pretty thirsty.”

“I’m not surprised,” he said, handing her a large leather water bottle. “In this heat we both lose water at double-quick time. If necessary we can go weeks without food, but without water we’ll barely last a couple of days. That means that finding water, and saving what we have, will be one of our main priorities. Once we’re up on this high ground we should be able to see signs of water nearby.”

The bottle was big enough to hold a couple of litres, and Evie had to use both hands to take it. The water tasted musty but it washed the thirst away.

At the top of the hill, Evie let out a gentle wow! of surprise. She could see for miles and miles. The savannah seemed never-ending. She paused, thinking she could see something important.

“Is that a river?” she asked eagerly, pointing to a line that wiggled its way across the landscape in the distance.

“Good spot, Evie. It is a river. That’s a great result. Once we’ve got there we’ll have at least another thirty miles to go before we hit the next water source.”

Evie scrunched her eyes. She couldn’t see any more rivers around.

“There,” Bear said, pointing at the mountains on the horizon. There was a flash of white on one of them.

“Probably a glacier,” he said, “which means there’ll be melting water, and streams, and the source of that river – and where there’s plenty of water, there’s people. So, that’s our destination. It’s still early and it’s going to get much hotter, so later on we’ll find somewhere in the shade to camp for a bit. But for the next few hours, and then in the late afternoon, we’ll just press on. We need to fix the direction we’ll be heading –”

Evie remembered the compass. She had still been holding it when she was being stared at by the elephant, and it was in her pocket now. She took it out. Just four directions on it now. She squinted across the dial at the mountains.

“That’s due east,” she said.

“You’re right, well done. That river’s between us and the mountain, so if we stick to due east, we’ll get to it.”

Evie hesitated a little. Bear turned to look at her, and smiled. “It may take us more than a day to get there, but if you’re up for an adventure we’re going to be fine.”

Evie took a deep breath in. “Okay,” she said. “Let’s go.”

They set off down the hill. This side was steeper than when they came up. Evie could feel the boots holding her feet in place on the ground. She was glad she wasn’t still in her trainers. She would have slipped on the grass and ended up on her back.

Evie was determined, but as they walked in silence, for the first time she realised what kind of job she’d taken on.

The savannah might look beautiful, but elephants, lions and other animals lived there. And the heat was like a heavy weight on top of them.

And they had thirty miles to go. On foot.

With hardly any water.

4

PARCHED EARTH

The ground rose and fell in gentle curves beneath them as they walked. Evie and Bear followed the compass, heading due east, which mostly kept them on the low ground. They couldn’t see the river anymore, but they could see the mountain. And they checked the compass to make sure they stayed on course.

“We’re going to have to be careful about water, until we find some more,” Bear said as they walked. “Try to breathe through your nose, not your mouth – it’ll help your body keep water in.”

Bear stopped and picked up a couple of pebbles. “Here’s a trick,” he said as he popped one into his mouth and gave her the other.

“Put this under your tongue,” he mumbled. “It’ll help you salivate, which stops you feeling thirsty. The moisture stays in your body so you’re not losing any.”

Suck on a stone? Evie pulled a face as she held it between thumb and forefinger and studied it.

It had been on the ground. She didn’t really want it in her mouth.

“Could I give it a wash first?” she asked. Bear smiled back at her.

“The point is that we’re saving water,” he pointed out.

Evie remembered the lump of stone that Charlie had dropped into the water jug. She had been so grossed out that she refused to drink the water after that. Could she really put a stone in her mouth?

Her mouth was dryer than it had ever been. She was so thirsty. This was getting serious. So Evie rubbed the pebble on her clothes to make it as clean as possible. Then she squeezed her eyes shut, called up all her willpower, and put the pebble under her tongue.

It was cold and dry. It didn’t taste too bad either. And soon it did exactly what Bear had said it would do. It made her mouth water, and she felt a little less thirsty.

But she was really hungry now instead. That single cracker at lunch wasn’t enough to keep her going. Her stomach rumbled loudly and Bear turned to her with a smile.

“Hungry, huh?” Bear said. “We’ll find food as we go, but I’ve got a snack to keep us going. Have you ever tried biltong?”

“Bill who?” Evie asked.

The Story Continues on BooksBarbecue!

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