Rescue on the road

"Blake, since you are at it, pray for a lift please?" Shannon pleaded, suddenly placing all her instinctive faith in Blake.

Jared too, nodded nervously in agreement to this.

"Let's walk on the far side of the road in case they find out that we've escaped and come following us," Carminda advised.

So the group continued on by walking on the sandy side of the road, very close to the ditch.

Suddenly, Shannon started thinking about snakes and scorpions which might be around them.

"Oh Lord! Keep the snakes and scorpions away!" she shrieked out of pure desperation.

The others were surprised at her sudden use of a religious utterance, but they all felt somehow reassured and a bit more relaxed. She had echoed their own sentiments, by expressing her fears and her faith, both in one sentence.

After a few more minutes of walking, a large truck came along, moving in the same direction as they were and since neither one of Blake or Jared could recognize it, they decided to take a chance and ask for a lift.

The truck stopped and two middle-aged men with heavy scents of liquor on the breath, looked carefully at the desperate party of four.

Blake quickly explained that they were being held on a farm against their will and that their lives were in danger now, because they had escaped.

The occupants of the truck look at each other and then shook their heads in unison.

"Sorry," the one in the driver's seat responded.

"We can't take chances."

"The world is not safe anymore," he continued and then drove off with a greater speed than that with which he had approached the group of hitch hikers.

Feeling discouraged, the group moved back to the side of the road, near the ditch and continued to walk in silence again.

After about five minutes of walking, Shannon began to whisper words of encouragement to herself, yet she continued to feel desperate.

Blake remembered to pray again and he walked beside Shannon to keep her as calm as he possibly could.

***

Laura awoke to find that the two days which she was given to make up her mind about Monique were over. Edward, her abductor, told her that they were officially on their way now. They were leaving.

"Where are we going to?" Laura begged to know.

"You'll soon find out but, I promise you that you will be very happy as soon as you do find out," Edward Hendricks replied. Laura could not believe that, in their brief acquaintance, the man could have grown so obsessed about her.

Perhaps he has seen pictures of me in magazines before, she reasoned to herself. He will simply have to wake up and "smell the coffee" though, she told herself resignedly.

Her abductors had brought her fresh clothes every day for the past four days of her stay, in a lodge in Midrand. She discovered her location later.

So, she was freshly bathed and dressed when her captors left with her, out of the hotel and walked towards a waiting Mercedes Benz sedan, which seemed to be a new model.

This happened while, on the outskirts of the farm, Blake and his fleeing companions walked for what seemed like an hour, before they heard another vehicle approach.

The group stood still, then crouched close together near the side of the road, out of view. There they waited with baited breath.

Jared did not recognize the approaching sound as one of the farm vehicle's engines.

It did not appear to belong to the farm, so he waved it off by standing in the middle of the road.

To their surprise, the Landrover approaching them did stop and to their immense relief, its occupants were not from the farm.

Immediately though, they realized that the only people inside the vehicle seemed to be an elderly couple and the woman appeared either unconscious, or fast asleep.

Jared and his group gaped in surprise at the old man who seemed startled, but he did not drive on.

Carminda took charge of the situation though and asked him whether everything was alright.

"I'm rushing off to the nearest hospital, because I need help for my wife. She collapsed and I could not get her to regain consciousness. I desperately need help," the old man appealed to them for help, but his eyes were as wary as an eagle's at the same time.

Carminda could see that he was ready to speed away to his intended destination at the slightest spark of alarm, so she decided to approach him calmly.

"I know how to do CPR. If you'll allow me, I can try my best?" she asked.

The old man first studied her carefully and then let her into the vehicle without further ado.

Carminda successfully helped the old lady to start breathing steadily by using CPR. The patient then began to moan about something which they could not understand. So, Carminda told the old man firmly that his wife was regaining consciousness.

He sighed with great relief at first and then he looked at the rest of the group with concern.

Jared began to experience a sense of panic at the thought of their captors catching up with them and he could barely breathe as he explained to the old man, "We've been held captive for four days and we desperately need to see and save our own families. Please give us a lift to wherever you're going to, Sir? Would you please consider helping us?"

The old man studied the group again, taking in their obviously desperate state, then he made a decision.

"Hop in then. I'll take you there."

Everyone scurried into the vehicle and the old man introduced himself as he got ready to drive off, "I am Jim Anderson. I've been living here for nearly twenty years. My wife's name is Lucy."

"We are all from Pretoria," Blake responded.

"Escaping the bush and crazy farm people is not what we do daily. So, this is very frightening," he explained.

The old man seemed to believe him.

They drove on in silence for about forty-five minutes, before they turned in at Wilgers hospital in Pretoria east, because it was the nearest one. The old lady had meanwhile fallen into a comfortable slumber.

Everyone in the vehicle was immensely relieved that they had reached the hospital.

The old man still looked at them with mixed feelings of relief and fear. He did not disguise this very well.