The Hunting by Stephen Leather

Author:Stephen Leather [Leather, Stephen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781529345216
Google: m1k8zQEACAAJ
Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
Published: 2021-02-04T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 28

Something buzzed by Sal’s ear and he swatted it away. ‘I fucking hate insects,’ he muttered. ‘What time is it do you think?’

Abdullah frowned. ‘Six. Seven maybe? No way of knowing.’

Sal crawled out of their makeshift bed, keeping low to avoid the thicker tree roots, then winced as he straightened up. His knees cracked and his right arm had gone numb. He waved it around, trying to restore the circulation. Abdullah joined him, grunting. ‘I’m fucking starving,’ he said.

‘I know,’ said Sal. ‘But what the fuck can we do?’

‘There has to be something to eat, right? There are birds and animals so they must eat something.’

‘Berries maybe,’ said Sal, looking around. ‘Insects.’

‘Insects?’

‘Flies. Spiders. Beetles. It’s all protein.’

Abdullah laughed harshly. ‘I’ll be fucked if I’m gonna eat a bug. Anyway, are bugs halal?’

‘An imam once told me that most insects are forbidden but that grasshoppers are halal.’

‘Fuck me, I ain’t gonna eat no grasshopper. What about potatoes and carrots and shit? They grow in the ground, right?’

‘On farms, yeah, not in the forest.’ Sal looked up through the trees. Dawn was breaking and there was a reddish tinge to the sky to their left. He pointed at the reddening sky. ‘So the sun rises in the east, right? And sets in the west?’

‘Sure.’ Abdullah stood up, shivering. ‘I am so fucking cold.’

Sal got to his feet. ‘When they flew us here, did we fly north or south?’

‘How the fuck would I know that?’

‘We can work it out, can’t we? It was afternoon so the sun was going down which means it would be going to the west. So if we could remember if it was on the right or the left of the helicopter then we’d know if they flew us north or south.’

‘Why the fuck does that matter, bruv?’

‘We need a plan, right? And the best plan as I see it is to get to a road or something. Then get help.’

‘Help?’ said Abdullah. ‘Who’s going to help us?’

‘Anyone. Everyone. We haven’t done anything wrong, have we? Not here. Not in this country. They’ve got cops here and the cops will help us.’

‘And we tell them what? We’re fucking ISIS fighters, bruv, they’ll put us in Guantanamo Bay in orange jumpsuits.’

Sal shook his head. ‘No, bruv. We tell them we were working for an NGO in Syria and we were kidnapped by that nutter. There’s no way they can prove we were with ISIS.’

‘Do you think?’

‘He’s hunting us like we’re animals. He’s the fucking criminal here and they’ll see that. How the fuck else did we end up in the woods?’

Abdullah nodded. ‘Yeah, okay, that makes sense.’

‘Course it does. So we don’t wanna be heading back towards the house because that’s where the guy is. We need a road and we need to find someone with a phone.’

‘I didn’t see any roads when we flew here, did you?’

‘No bruv, I didn’t,’ said Sal. He took the radio from his pocket and looked at it. There was a stubby flexible aerial and two knobs.

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