Finding Simba - 5. Find Ch 5

Somewhere in South Africa

As the days and weeks continued to pass by, I was now often too tired to eat, and only drank water to keep my fluids up, as some days it would get quite warm. Some days when it was too unbearable, I would strip down to my underwear and just sit down in the water, just to keep cool.

According to my wall calendar, I have been detained for seven weeks now, and my food supplies are starting to get a little low. I have not heard of my captor for over three weeks now, and I was eating just one can of food a day, just to stretch out my food supplies for as long as possible, with all the pasta now gone and very little rice left now.

I was spending most of my time just lying on my bed staring up at the small hole in the cave roof, or else sleeping, and I was not sure if I had been keeping up to date with my calendar markings.

I must have been asleep for some time, as I could hear echoes in my mind, and as I looked up towards the roof, I could see a shadow, sliding down a rope inside the cave, and then some more echoes, voices that seem to be coming from all around me.

Was I dreaming? On the other hand, maybe I have died and I am in Heaven?

I was not really sure of anything now, it was just one long terrible nightmare, and right now, it was just a dream.

I felt a mosquito or something sting me in the arm, and I tried to swat it away, but I was to dizzy and my eyesight was blurred, as I started to get very sleepy again.

Elands Bay, South Africa

Nathan had decided to accept the police officers assistance to search the railway tunnel that runs for a distance of just one kilometre, which was built nearly two centuries ago, and has been used by the main freight railway line for the past twenty years.

With a fellow police officer and some locals, the team of six men and three women, all with torches, carefully inspected every metre of that railway tunnel. In that search, they came across a solid steel door that has a heavy-duty modern padlock attached to the sliding bolt.

Meanwhile, Jabali and a few other locals were searching along the top of the hill that the railway tunnel goes into, and it was Jabali who spotted the small mound of rocks that hides a deep hole that is only about a metre wide. Beside the hole, he found some thin rope roughly coiled up, and there are signs that someone had been around this area a number of times.

“Boss, I have found a deep hole that is well hidden and there is some rope near it, it looks very deep and I can not really see anything down there,” Jabali said into his UHF radio to Nathan. “That is good, we have found a very solid looking locked door, about halfway along the tunnel on the southern side,” Nathan responded.

“I’m heading back to the vehicle to grab the ropes, to see if I can climb down,” Jabali suggested, “Drive the vehicle up there, and use it as an anchor, we will see if we can gain access from this way,” Nathan said in reply.

Before Jabali could get the vehicle to near the hole, the Police Sergeant had managed to jimmy the padlock and get the door unbolted and open, and he and Nathan headed down what looked like a mining tunnel. They came across yet another solid door, this time it was just bolted shut.

Moments later, Nathan was at his nephew’s bedside, crying and talking to Jacob, telling him that he was safe now, and that he was going to be ok, as a paramedic arrived and started to check Jacob over.

“He is alive, but badly malnourished, we need to get him to hospital as quickly as possible,” the Paramedic stated, “The nearest private hospital please, it doesn’t matter what it costs to get him better again,” Nathan said as he tried to wipe his tears away.

Adelaide, Australia

I was not sure where I was at first when I woke up, and as I looked around, I could see that my arm was attached to some tubes and monitors, one which was sounding a intermittent peeping sound, and I realised that I was in Hospital somewhere.

“Oh my dearest boy, you are finally awake, I am so pleased that you are going to be alright,” my mother said to me. “Where am I Mum?” I asked. “You are in hospital, home in Adelaide, Australia. Your Uncle arranged a Medivac for you back home, once the doctors in Cape Town had stabilised your condition.

Only then did he bother to call us, to let us know that you have been kidnapped and missing for nearly two months,” Mum said to me.

I learnt that I had been in a coma for nearly three weeks before I woke up in Hospital in Adelaide, and I was there for another two weeks, before I was allowed to go home, with Mum fussing over me all the time. Only then did I get to see my good friends, Chris Harding and Will Hammond.

They filled me in with everything that has been happening since I have been away, and they were so pleased that I had returned, safe and recovering from my ordeal. It took me another three months before I was recovered from my ordeal, although I was still getting the occasional nightmare, where I would wake up in a sweat, but I was told that it would eventually disappear with time.

Australia - Evening Television News

“Tonight, we bring you some news of an event that took place nearly two months ago, but has only just now come to light. As most Australian’s are aware, for many years now we have been following the incredible story of a teenager, who has climbed all of Australia’s highest peaks in each state and territory, as well as many well known peaks around the world.

Now aged twenty one, Jacob Simba Blackwood, was on his way to his family’s African home at the foot of Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania, when he was abducted outside his hotel in Cape Town, South Africa, and he was taken to a secluded place on the west coast, where he was kept in a deep cave, for weeks at a time.

Although he was well looked after, with regular supplies of food, a plentiful supply of fresh spring water within the cave; he only had a small hole in the roof of the cave as his only source of sunlight, during the middle of the day.

With a matter of pure luck and some clever know how, Jacob was able to alert his Uncle, a Major in the Australian Army of his predicament and for a few weeks Major Blackwood searched a lot of the South African countryside, with just a few clues, before they managed to locate the cave where Jacob was being detained.

We are happy to report that after spending some time in hospital, Jacob is now at home still recovering from his ordeal, with the assistance of his family and close friends. All of us at this television station wish Jacob a speedy recovering.”

The End