Lost In Africa

This is about my last summer vacation. I went to South Africa for a short trip but things went very wrong. I, Shrenil Kanoria, am going to share my adventurous but horrifying experience with you all.

         

   (Day 1)

            It was the 19th of April, my bags were packed, and I was ready to leave. I reached the airport and I immediately went to the counter where I got my tickets. After security checking, I finally reached the terminal. Then we all passengers were told head towards the airplane. After getting seated, the safety instructions were given and then the airplane departed from the airport and headed towards Pretoria (Capital City of South Africa). We had a very comfortable journey. After departing from the airport, we reached the airport of Pretoria. There I met my guide. His name was Thanelo Remartado. He said to me, "Are you Mr. Shrenil Kanoria?". I was first shocked that a native African could speak English so fluently. Then he said, "Hello! Sir are you okay?". Then I immediately replied, "Yes, I am Mr. Kanoria, and you are Mr. Thanelo Remartado, right?". He replied, "Yes.".We then went to the resort, where I spent the rest of the day.

             When I went to a restaurant nearby for the dinner, I heard 2 men speaking about hunting. First I thought they were just joking, but then I saw the first man passing the second man a pistol. I was lucky that they did not see me watching them, but now this matter could be serious. I didn't want to get into these matters so I ignored this and I went to sleep.

              (Day 2)

              The next day when I woke up, I saw myself in a dark room. It was looking like it wasn't cleaned for months. When I stepped out of the bed, I felt something sticky touching my legs. When I looked down, I saw red blood. I was horrified and then I also saw a dead body who had a camera in his neck. Seeing all this, I fainted.

               After several hours passed, I restored my senses, and when I looked around, the two men who I had seen the last night were speaking with me. As they were speaking the native language, I could not communicate with them. Then they seemed frustrated and from their expressions, I could make out that they were really in a disastrous situation. When I checked out the surroundings, I found out that there were no guards, terrorists, and they didn't even possess any weapons.

               Then another person entered the room and he looked like a British gentleman. As soon as he entered the room he pointed out to me and asked me who was I. I straight away told him that I was a tourist and I had been kidnapped from the resort. He said, "Okay, so you are Mr. Kanoria. It is a pleasure meeting you. I got to hear from these two that you heard what these two had planned." I said, "Yes". I said this as I thought that the British person might be a good person, but I was wrong. He gave an evil laugh and said that these two were just my slaves and I used them just to convey this message to-. Suddenly he gave a pause. I then asked him to whom, he left the room and he just locked us three in the room. Now I was really terrified, as something very very bad was going to take place (according to me).

(Day 2) [CONTINUED]

       After about an hour, when the Britisher left, two men came and they were in a hurry. As soon as they entered the room, where we were locked, they loaded their guns and they both shot all of us on our heads!"Ahh!!", I screamed and I woke up from this nightmare. 

       I touched my face to make sure if I was Shrenil only and when I looked around, the hotel room also looked similar. The only change I noticed was that a letter was kept on the table.

       It said, "As you know our plan, you need to leave Africa, or..." and then there was a knock on the door. So I kept the letter on the table and opened the door. When I looked around I saw nobody but when I looked down, there was a pistol kept below. I was shocked! 

       I was about to call the police, but then I started thinking smartly. "Why would anybody give an ordinary man, like me, a pistol?", I thought. 

       Then I rushed to the door, picked up the gun, and kept in the drawer. Then I continued to read the letter. It further stated, "or collect the gun, which would be kept near the door, and then fire it from your room window. You would be given 10,000 dollars for this, but there are some conditions.

Firstly, you will have to do some more tasks. After completing this task, you will receive letters like this, in which further instructions would be given. Also for every task, you complete, you would be given 2000 dollars. 

Second condition is that you need to keep your mouth shut. If any police or other people ask you about your tasks or about us, just tell them that you don't know about us. We are always keeping a watch on you, so don't try to act smart." 

     Now, reading this I knew that I could earn a lot of money, but by doing something really wrong and this was also pretty risky. I had to think about this over the night. So I had my dinner and went to sleep.

       (Day 3)

BOOM!!! A bomb had exploded in our hotel and I saw myself dead. What? I woke up from my dream and I was extremely scared. Every night I had nightmares like these. But why? These were some of the questions arousing in my mind and all of them were related to a common thing. It was the letter, I had received.  

      I got up from my bed and then I took the letter and tore it in pieces. I didn't know what was going on in my mind. I think I was going crazy!! Then I went ahead and informed the police about the blackmailing letter, the gun and everything else.  

       The next second, there was a loud knock at my room door. When I opened the door, I saw the police at my door. Then they started the investigation and they asked me several questions and I answered them fluently. Then I handed over the gun to them, and then they left.                                           

       As soon as the police left, there was another knock on the door. I was really scared to open the door, as they already warned me that I should not speak to anyone about this matter. So, when I opened the door, there was my guide, Mr, Remartado. He said to me," Sir, why didn't you come yesterday for traveling?". I straight away told him about the letter and the gun and the police. Hearing all this he laughed and said that the local people prank foreigners like this only and that I was the target. He also said that the gun I received was a dummy and there was nothing to worry about.      

      

  I was relieved after hearing this and I went with the guide to visit the tourist spots there and this is how I spent my last few days of vacation there. But then what was the discussion between the two men about hunting? On my second last day, when I asked my guide about this, he seemed terrified and then took a U-turn. When I asked him where were we going, he didn't respond. The driver took U-turn and started to increase the speed vigorously and he started overspeeding! I was so scared, because of which I couldn't utter a word to argue with him. 

[I was scared as I hate extreme pace and speed. This is why I am also scared of rides like roller coasters ]   

    While seating in such a fast ride, something flashed into my eyes. The light seemed to be like a camera flashlight. When I recovered my sight, I saw that the driver opened the door and dived out of the car! When I looked through the windshield, I saw the car was about to crash into the building ahead!!! I closed my eyes when the car was about to crash.

     When I opened my eyes, I was in bed. When I looked around, the place looked like a hospital. Then I saw that my left hand was fractured. Seeing me awake, a policeman and doctor entered the room. The doctor said, "Thank God! There are many few people in the world, who don't get hurt badly, after such a severe accident." Then the policeman continued and said, "And the person who was acting to be my guide was caught." Then I asked him that, what did he mean by acting to be my guide. He said, "The guide you had hired, his company, in which we worked, was shut down weeks ago and the criminal took advantage".

        I was so terrified to hear this, as I had spent these days with a criminal! When I asked the policeman about how the police knew that we were in that particular area. He said that it was because of the police cam that I was safe and the criminal was caught. I was then understood, that the flashlight I saw was of the police cam. I thanked the police and the doctor for saving my life and after getting discharged, I paid the hospital bills and took the first flight to India.

        After having such a torturing and disastrous experience, I decided that I won't go to Africa again at any cost. This is how my journey ends and I am now safe in my house. I hope that none of you should have an experience like this.