Section B: Narrative Text

1

“There, in those trees!” Delia shouted above the engine. Mark banked the plane steeply and they swept low over the flat-topped trees. Below them a pride of lions was sprawled near an antelope carcass. Mark took a compass bearing on a big forked acacia tree, and they set their route back to camp.

2

They packed their truck with camping gear, food and water. Delia then drove off alone in the direction of the lions. Mark watched until she was lost in the wavering heat mirage. Several hours later he flew along the course she had taken, searching for the white speck of the truck below. He finally spotted it, crawling like a beetle through the bush. Satisfied she was going the right way, Mark flew to the trees where they had seen the lions earlier that morning but they had gone. He started making slow turns over the area, hoping to find the pride.

3

Delia arrived at the acacia tree and began driving the truck back and forth along a relatively smooth section of ground to make a landing strip. Then she walked down it with a spade, filling in holes and knocking down humps of clay and the longer grass. When she had finished, she turned to walk back to the truck, three hundred metres away.

4

Then, glancing up, she saw the lions. They were strung out in a line between her and the truck, the nearest one not more than fifty metres away. She stood rooted to the ground as they began to walk slowly and deliberately towards her, watching her every move. She could hear the plane turning lazy circles in the sky less than a kilometre away, but she had no way to signal to Mark. She began to back away, but then she realised that, by retreating, she was inviting the lions’ pursuit, so she forced herself to stand still. The lions kept pressing forward, and when they closed to thirty metres, her fear reached a primal level. She raised the spade and from deep inside her came a sound so primitive it could have come from a Neanderthal woman. “HAARRAUGGH!”

5

As if on command, the lions stopped and slowly sat down on their haunches in a long line, their heads and necks craned forward, watching the young woman who stood before them brandishing her weapon. Delia was terrified that if she moved, they would come closer. Yet she had to get past them to the safety of the truck. Slowly she took one step, then two, then began moving sideways past the lions, holding her spade at waist level, her eyes fixed on the pride. They tracked her like radar, their heads slowly turning as she worked her way past them.

6

She had flanked the pride and begun backing away when one lioness abruptly stood up and stalked quickly towards her, head low. Resisting an overpowering urge to run, Delia stomped the ground, screamed, and waved the spade high above her head. The lioness stopped, one forepaw poised above the ground. Delia stood still. The lioness sat down. Again Delia backed towards the truck, and again the lioness followed. She yelled and slammed the spade on the ground, and the lioness sat. Once more the predator and her prey played the game to the same conclusion. But now Delia was nearing the truck. When she was ten metres away, she threw the spade towards the lioness and ran for the truck. the lioness leaped for the spade and was sniffing it when Delia jerked open the door and scrambled to safety. For several minutes she lay on the seat, trembling.

7

The sound of the plane grew louder, and the plane glided in for a landing, the lions watching it intently from nearby. Mark taxied next to the truck and cut the engine. “Great! You’ve found the lions,” he said cheerfully.