Chapter 2

For some inexplicable reason, a black market trade had sprung up fairly recently which meant the death knell for Forest Gorillas. Bizarrely, the discerning word had grown a passion for ashtrays made from the black skin of dried gorilla hands. Each would fetch more than a month's wages for the bush tribes so the incentive to find and slaughter the endangered species was high. Added to this strange fad was the ancient Chinese medicinal belief that dried and powdered gorilla testicles bestowed on the taker, a libido of super-human proportions. All complete bullshit, but none the less, fatal to the population of forest primates.

But trapping and slaughtering such a shy an elusive creature held many dangers. Not least of all from the animal it's self. A fully-grown male weighed more than twice his human counterpart and had the strength to separate a man's head from his shoulders with little more effort than it takes to pull apart a ripe fruit. An enraged gorilla was something you stayed away from if you didn't want to feel your ribs buckle the wrong way as a thick hairy forearm rearranged internal organs. Added to the physical damage a gorilla can impart was the environment they lived in. The forest was inhospitable, offering injury at every step to the unwary, even a small nick could fester very quickly and most things that bit carried some form of venom.

But the most feared enemy of the poacher was man himself. Poaching has been a way of life for generations. For many, it is the only way they can feed their families, but the world had taken note of the dwindling numbers of creatures. World Wildlife Funds and various organisations were taking a personal interest. Television cameras had invaded even the lowliest villages. Along with the advent of television came the white man with his diseases and lack of morals. The forest tribes had little immunity to the common cold or measles and other afflictions that plagued the camera crews. The effect was devastating which meant modern medicine was needed. This brought more white men and no fewer problems to a people who had lived isolated and successfully for millennia without intervention from the outside world.

Along with disease, television and medicine came corruption that a new market opportunity offered to the less scrupulous. The hidden market thrived with money changing hands for all manner of illicit goods. In a few short years, the forest peoples had been poisoned, brutalised and sold into a kind of slavery that was no less catastrophic to their way of life than those who had come to their lands two hundred years before in search of human flesh to carry away in wooden ships to the Americas.

Rene DuPont was just one of those shadowy characters that dealt in anything for a profit. Originally from Belgium, he had managed to stay in the country when independence was finally granted and the European thrown out. He managed to stay because he was useful to the local peoples, getting them things they had no hope of obtaining, through a network of theft and appropriation. In most cases, it was simple items like aluminium pots or weapons that he provided. But, drugs had also been his stock in trade.

He was a two-way conduit, smuggling stuff in and out. Whoever had the cash got the goods, whatever it was. Right now, he had an order to fill. One of his connections in the animal trade wanted two baby gorillas; they were destined to star in a Hollywood film. While he had his men out in the field, they might as well turn a little profit with the harvesting of some adult body parts.

So it was that a party of six poachers set out to the remoter parts along the Lualaba river basin where pockets of gorillas were known to be. They left Kalemie on the shore of Lake Tanganyika on a weeklong trek that would take them to the remotest parts. They were heavily armed, not only to kill their chosen quarry, but also as protection, against the Hutu rebels who still roamed the country in small guerrilla groups.

They came upon the family group accidentally. Gorillas are quiet, secretive and shy, as well becoming increasingly rare through habitat depredation and the wars. So, finding them is something of a chancy business. It was only a warning huff from one of the outlaying guards that alerted the poachers. They spread out making a circle around the unseen guard, but also encircling the family group who were on the ground raiding a termite mound.

In a coordinated surprise attack, they burst through the protective forest and shot two females and a younger male. The rest of the family group had reacted faster, heading into the canopy and away from danger quicker than it took to think. Left in the small clearing that the termites had created were the three killed gorillas, two yearlings and a human who had developed a rudimentary fur covering to help her keep warm during the cold nights.

At first, she and the poachers were at an impasse, neither side moved from shock. She; totally caught unaware by the attack, they, at finding the now legendary ghost woman. A large branch accurately thrown from the protection of the upper canopy broke the stalemate as it bounced off of a poachers shoulder. Before she had time to react, a rifle butt connected with her jaw; blackness descended. Quickly and with ruthless efficiency, the two females had their hands lopped off. The male's genitalia and hands were added to a bloody sack for carrying. The yearlings, which had clung to their mothers, were snatched up and subdued with a sack over their heads. The naked girl was unceremoniously dragged by one arm out of the clearing and away from the scene of murder.

The men hadn't bothered with a bivouac where they had travelled lightly and quickly, but now, in view of the haul, they needed to stop and secure the two young gorillas and the woman for transportation. It was going to take nearly a week to retrace their route back to Rene and payday.

Around a small stone-encircled fire that night, they discussed what was to be done with the woman. Four of them were for giving her to Rene, their main source of money, but two of them thought they should hold her for sale to the highest bidder. Keep her safely hidden so that no one could steal her away. The argument went on, distracting them from keeping an adequate watch over their captives.

She made the mistake of a small sound; she had regained consciousness some time ago and slipped her bounds, but in the near total darkness, punctuated only by the thin light from the fire, she had brushed against a small sapling. She had nearly got to the youngsters, still with sacking tied over their heads, but she might as well have screamed in the stillness of the night, the small sound was enough to alert the poachers.

They grabbed her shouting unintelligible noises at her and then dragged her to the fireside where she could be watched.

She knew little about fire except that it was to be frightened of and avoided at all costs. She knew nothing of man, apart from some very distant memories. She knew nothing of speech, it had not been necessary to learn, only the few huffs and grunts of the forest gorillas, which had few nuances. She was frightened into submission, too afraid to fight, run or anything else by way of self-preservation. Now that she was captive to these strange creatures, they wouldn't even have needed to tie her hands, so total was her submissiveness to captivity.

Eventually, sleep overcame her, propped up against a tree; she dozed fitfully, dreaming of the family group she had just been wrenched from. Her sleep was disturbed before she could really get into it. The morning sun broke through the canopy. The men rose and prepared a breakfast of fruits and dried meat jerky.

She was passed a tin cup of something steaming and brown. She sniffed at it and recoiled from the acrid smell of the African bush tea. When she was given some of the dried meat, she looked at it, then, at her captive; she didn't know what to do with the hard strip of jerky.

He said something. Unintelligible noises to her. He tried again in a different language, but with no more success. He signalled that she should eat the food using signs. She bit into the hard strip then spat it out in disgust. He shrugged and returned to his own breakfast leaving her to eat the fruit.

Pretty soon, they broke camp and began the journey back to the village. A rope tied through her wrist restraints pulled her along. Progress was not very good; a combination of carrying the two young apes and having to blaze a trail through dense undergrowth served to limit effective forward motion. Somewhere near noon, they stopped to rest and eat. The sun at its zenith, although diluted by the canopy, still managed to push the temperature up to unbearable levels.