DREIUNDZWANZIG
Das Wandern I: Das Geheimtreffen
Hermann had woken up with drink-induced headaches before, but when he woke up that morning at approximately 5:30 am, he realized that whatever pain records he had set for himself in the past were all but broken. Someone—Markos, he assumed—had taped a pocket knife to the end of his rifle for use as a crude bayonet, and a few pieces of paper lay around the cave with messy writing on them. Even in his impaired state, Hermann immediately knew who the notes had come from, as he certainly hadn't written them, and his friend was the only other literate resident of the pride.
Hermann got up, rubbed his eyes with a groan, and tried with difficulty—the light was quite low, and his vision was as hung over as the rest of him—to read the messages.
Don't forget to take this, read a piece of paper in German underneath an ammunition box.
And this, said another note by his suitcase. As Hermann wearily made his way towards the car, cane in one hand, suitcase dragging heavily behind in the other, he caught sight of one last paper next to the nearly-empty bottle of Scotch from the previous night, both of which were placed unmistakably at the cave's exit. He bent over with a groan to pick up the note, and read it:
Hair of the dog?
"Markos, now is not the time," Hermann mumbled as he kicked the bottle away and crumpled the piece of paper. He was going to toss it off to one side when he saw that there was writing on the back as well:
Come back alive, Sterlitz.
Vitani and Adila were already waiting outside by the car, both nervous and excited, as neither had ever been in a car before, and had only ever seen one from a distance in the past. "What happened to you?" Adila asked as soon as she caught sight of Hermann, who wasn't even making an effort to hide his condition.
"Hung over…never drinking again…" Hermann answered for probably the twentieth time in his life. He opened the Mercedes' trunk and heaved his suitcase inside, making sure to leave the rifle and ammunition next to the driver's seat where he could get to them easily. "Vitani, go up front; Adila, you take the back seats; they should be big enough for you if you get in lengthwise." He took one last look at the German flag over the rocks, barely visible in the early morning mist and hanging flat in the calm air, before he climbed into the car himself.
"Everyone settled in?"
"I think so," Adila said from the back, stretched out across the seats.
"Me too!" Vitani replied, looking out the windshield with her front feet on the dashboard. "Make it go!"
"Feet off the furniture," Hermann said as he turned the key in the ignition. "Come on…start…"
With a shudder and a cough, the old car sprang back to life, startling even the driver, who was more than used to being in and around automobiles. Hermann put the engine into gear and set off in the direction of the rising sun—or at least where he assumed it must have been in the fog—watching in the rear view mirror as first the flag, and then the rocks on top of which it sat, vanished into the sheet of gray.
A few hours later
The sight of Mercedes sedan driving by surely would have been a common occurrence in Hermann's native Stuttgart, but in the African bush and to all who lived there, cars were few and far between…especially when driven by a human and co-captained by a pair of lions. With no air conditioning or navigation system, Hermann had resorted to open windows and Vitani's directions, which seemed to be consistent as long as she stayed awake. The three were now driving in the general direction of a river as it flowed through a wide gorge, the boundary between Simba's lands and what would eventually become the Outlands. Vitani told Hermann he would know the border when he saw it—the gorge would narrow to a ditch as the river became little more than a creek, while the current abundance of wildlife would seemingly disappear into barren nothingness. But based on what Hermann was seeing out his driver's side window, they weren't quite there yet. "Any idea of where we are?" he asked, still feeling a few lingering effects of the previous night's Scotch festival.
"Somewhere between where we left from and where we need to go," Vitani said, resting her head on the top of the door sill. "I don't think we're too far, though; the gorge over there keeps getting smaller. Does everyone have one of these 'car' things in Germany? They sure are more fun than walking everywhere."
"Not everyone has a car, but many people do. In fact, my country has several places where they make these and ship them out all over the world; one is even right in Stuttgart."
"What kind of cars do they make? Are they hard to learn to drive?"
"They make very expensive ones. To answer your second question, most cars are fairly easy once you get the hang of driving them. The wheel I'm holding controls the steering—where I want the car to go—and I can speed up or slow down with two pedals down by my feet. What it is you're looking at so intently out there?"
"We're here. Stop."
Hermann pressed the brake pedal and coasted the Mercedes to a halt. He now saw exactly what Vitani had been talking about: the gorge was no more, just a creek running between two plains, one of which could not have been much different from the other. On one side, there was grass, trees, birds flying in the sky—a typical African savanna straight out of a travel brochure. The other side, however, was practically devoid of any vegetation whatsoever. It was a nearly flat, featureless landscape, broken only by boulders and the silhouettes of large, circling birds which Hermann could immediately recognize as vultures.
"I didn't know I was getting a Chernobyl Exclusion Zone tour on this trip," Hermann said as he stuffed a a handful of rifle rounds into his pocket, half-expecting to see signs in Russian warning of dangerous radioactivity. "Adila, Vitani…you two know where we're going once we get across?
"I do," Adila said, already walking towards the creek. We go straight ahead towards where those vultures are; we're bound to run into someone there. There's a cluster of rocks you can't see… it's where some of the lionesses stay during the daytime"
"Friendly ones, I hope. You go in front of me," Hermann said to Adila, "and Vitani, you go behind me. We'll proceed in a diagonal line of three; any sign of movement whatsoever, let me know. I've got a feeling there's more than lions and buzzards camping out here."
Hermann took an uneasy step across the creek and motioned for his two companions to follow. He put a shell in his rifle, snapped the bolt shut, and took up his place behind Adila. "Let's get in, do what we have to do, and get out," he said. "Stay sharp and do as I say, and we'll be back for more drinking songs by sundown. If we're attacked, we'll try and talk our way out of it first, but if that doesn't work, I won't have much of a choice but to use this." He pointed to the gun, hoping the others would understand. "I've got to protect myself and you two before anyone else, that's just the way it has to be."
Adila started walking forward, with Hermann and Vitani following in a staggered line behind her. For the first few minutes, Hermann went along with the rifle on his shoulder the whole time, just waiting for some kind of savage beast to jump out from behind a tree, but he slowly figured out that the emptiness of the landscape was not an illusion: there really was nothing here besides himself and the lions he was with, not even a tree for anything to hide behind in the first place. As such, he eventually resigned himself to a ready carry, deciding to focus more on finding a contact than the possibility of being eaten. "How did you two ever survive out here?" he asked Vitani as he continued to scan the horizon for signs of life.
"I don't know," she answered. "There's almost no food or water; we had to fight the vultures for most of it, and they never let us get close…they know they've got beaks and claws, and they definitely know how to use them. If I hadn't lived, it certainly wouldn't have been the first time someone's starved to death in the Outlands. Do you see the rock now?"
"Yes, I see it. Let's everyone pick up the pace, I don't want to spend any more time here than I have to."
As Hermann got closer and closer, he began to see more detail in the rock than Vitani and Adila had been heading him towards, but he couldn't tell if there was anyone on or behind it, at least until a lioness's head popped out from the other side. Hermann instinctively dropped to one knee and shouldered his gun, even though his two companions were urging him not to.
"Vitani! Adila! What are you doing here…and who have you got with you?" the unknown lioness asked in a soft, concern-fraught voice as the rest of her emerged from behind the boulders. She started towards the three of them, which immediately prompted the wrong reaction from Hermann.
"Halt!" he shouted as he curled his finger around the trigger. "Stay right there…don't move, or I'll fire!"
"Put the gun down!" Adila hissed, "and don't cause such a racket! You don't have to worry about her; she's one of the good ones."
"Who are you?" the lioness asked Hermann as she stared uneasily at the weapon he was carrying. "How do you know my sister and my niece?"
"I'll be asking the questions, not you," Hermann replied, not willing to let himself trust what he had just heard from Adila until he knew at least a bit more. "Tell me, how badly do you want to get out of here?"
"You're the ones who have to get out of here, not me! Vitani, Adila, you and whoever that is"—she shot a glance at Hermann—"have got to go back to wherever you came from and stay there. If any of us see you, we're not supposed to let you leave alive."
I guess that answers the question of whose pride she's in, Hermann thought to himself. "Answer me!" he said in a louder voice than before. "Do you or do you not want to escape from this place?"
"Yes, of course I do, who would want to stay in the Outlands?" the lioness said nervously, looking around to make sure nobody else was eavesdropping.
"And are you in Zira's pride because you want to be, or because of what she'll do to you if you try and split?"
"The second one…almost nobody follows her by their own free choice. But what is it to—
Hermann held his hand up, now sufficiently satisfied that he wasn't being misled, even though he could not dismiss all of his doubts entirely. "Good, that's all I need to know," he said. "Go and find whoever else you can and be back right here with them in one hour, not a minute later. We'll be here waiting for you; if you're late in returning, my offer is invalid."
"You haven't made an offer yet. You haven't even told me who you are!"
"All good things to those who wait. I can help you and the rest of your family members get out safely, but only if you follow every one of my words down to the last detail…and talking of which, that hour I've given you is ticking away as I speak."
Had only Hermann been present for this exchange, the lioness he had been conversing with surely would have never believed him and his intentionally-vague proposals of assistance, but the fact that he had Adila and Vitani along with him—two immediate relatives who she trusted, even though she thought them dead until now—was enough to convince her of Hermann's own trustworthiness, if only for the time being. She bounded off the rock and set out to find the rest of her family.
"Why do you have to be like that?" Vitani asked Hermann with a scowl as her aunt ran off into the distance. "You talked to her like she's no better than Zira."
"Trust me, Vitani, that wasn't even close to what it would sound like if I were talking to Zira. We're not having a conversation between friends; it's an undercover operation to try and save your family. The pleasantries can all come later."
"Let him do the talking," Adila concurred. "We can't afford to mess this up."
30 minutes later
Hermann checked his watch. "Half an hour gone," he said, "thirty more minutes to go. If they're not back by then, we'll head for home."
"That won't be necessary," Adila said from where she was sitting on top of the rock, "look, they're already on their way." Coming towards the waiting three was a group of ten lionesses, nine of whom were led by the one Hermann had first spoken with. As they got closer and closer, Hermann kept an eye out for any signs of danger, especially the possibility that Zira had slipped herself into the approaching group, but he saw no torn ears or other immediate causes for alarm. True, there were still flocks of screeching vultures, the occasional animal skeleton on the ground, and gathering distant thunderheads, but in these parts, such sights were no more out of the ordinary than the green trees and herds of antelope back in Simba's lands. Hermann had to keep reminding himself of that fact every time one of the large, black-and-white birds flew overhead, even though he knew full well that they presented absolutely zero danger: he and his companions were alive—for the moment, at least—and the buzzards only ate the dead.
"Stop!" Hermann commanded once the approaching group was sufficiently close to hear him, but still far enough away to give him just a bit of a safety buffer, about ten yards or so. "That's close enough. Is this everybody?" he asked.
"Yes, we're all here as promised, except three others who definitely wouldn't be interested in coming."
"Why not?"
"They're Zira's seconds-in-command. Right now, the four of them together are out patrolling the far border, so there's not much chance of them showing up even if they did want to come."
That makes fourteen total, with ten on our side potentially, Hermann thought. "Right, all of you pay attention; I'm only going to say this once. My name is Hermann Wolfgang Sterlitz, but you probably know me better as the 'damned German,' the one your pride leader Zira wants dead…yes, I've heard it all, probably even more than you have. Don't ask me how I know what I know—we haven't got any time for that. All I need to find out is whether or not you—every one of you here in front of me—are willing to accept an offer. I am here on behalf of Kopa's family as their designated Deputy of Security to tell you that we understand your predicament, and to promise you protection, amnesty, and a comfortable life in our lands…if you agree to my conditions, that is."
"A comfortable life in whose lands…yours? We can't go to Germany, we'd be found out!"
"You're not going to go to Germany. I meant Simba's lands, not my apartment in Stuttgart. And as far as your being found out, there are ways I can make sure you live through whatever happens. But you still haven't answered my question: do you want to get away from Zira and live out the rest of your lives in peace, or don't you?"
"Yes, we'd do anything to get out of here. Whatever you're asking, we'll do it if it means getting out."
"I'll have you swear to that, on pain of death."
"Can't you tell us what we're swearing to first? And why do you have Adila and Vitani with you? Please, we all want to know."
Hermann was reluctant to divulge his plan in its entirety, but he saw no other option available to him. Reluctantly, he told the assembled group of lionesses how Vitani had escaped the day after her mother's attempt on Kopa's life, and how Adila had done the same just to survive (and had nearly not succeeded). He spoke about how he knew of Zira's plans to finish what she had started, and why he had come here of all places at Vitani's urgent request, so that only those who truly deserved his rifle shots would actually get them. Finally, he laid out his entire plan to get rid of Zira and rescue the remaining members of her pride at once, giving special attention to the part in which he would fire for effect and only for effect. "We're good marksmen, myself especially. You'll be in no danger of getting hit," he said, explaining how the lionesses were to fall over one by one as they were sent in to attack and the gunshots—intentional misses—rang out from above, "and Zira won't be in any danger of surviving. That is, of course, unless you give us even the slightest reason to doubt your allegiance; in that case, it'll be a field day…no mercy, no more missing on purpose. When I said I'll have you swear on pain of death, I meant every word."
"Then I swear, on pain of death, you will have no reason to doubt us."
"And the rest of you? Say it." The rest of the group repeated their leader's words to Hermann's satisfaction.
"There's just one thing I don't understand," one lioness asked. "How will you be able to tell us from the others? Even that torn ear Zira has is pretty hard to spot at night."
"We'll have flashlights to help light things up a bit, but try and think of something you can do set yourselves apart in a discreet way, a subtle mark of some sort that we can use to identify you. When are you all supposed to move out?"
"Four days. We'll be at Pride Rock three days later, at nightfall."
"Is that what they call that place? You know, I've never thought to ask what it was called…anyway, we will expect you in one week then. Between now and when you leave, you've got enough time to think of something. Don't forget, say absolutely nothing to anyone, not even a word. As far as the rest of the world is concerned, this conversation never happened, and you never saw a single one of us. If anyone else finds out what just happened here, you may as well spend the time until you leave pondering the true meaning of the phrase 'silent as the grave'. Do I make myself perfectly clear?"
"Inescapably, Mr. Sterlitz. We can't thank you enough for this; we won't disappoint you." The lionesses behind the one speaking showed no signs of disagreement; above all else, they were worried about keeping their excitement and anticipation—not just from seeing Vitani and Adila alive and well, but from being promised a better life in a few short days—unknown to all but themselves.
"Thank me when it's over," Hermann said. "We're out of here."