What will I do? Willy thought. If I don’t get away from here it will get me and those people won’t do anything to save me. Through his mind raced things he had heard about crocodiles and how fast they could run. They are very fast for a short distance, he remembered but could not recall whether it was fifty metres or a hundred. He tensed and nerved himself to start the sprint of his life
Mr Dragovisic called loudly, “Zoltan, take the dog away. It is attracting the creature. This is disturbing our dinner. Carter, throw something at the beast to scare it away.”
To Willy’s enormous relief he heard Zoltan drag the snarling, barking dog back up the lawn and around the side of the house. Carter threw several large clods of earth from the garden at the crocodile. One of these burst close to the crocodile, showering it with sand. It raised its head up and hissed and opened its jaws wider. Willy got ready to run.
Then he heard Mr Dragovisic calling on everyone to move back up to the table. “We can watch it from there,” he said.
This might be my chance, Willy thought. Knowing that Zoltan was gone he risked a peek and saw the backs of the people as they strolled back up the lawn. A few were glancing back from time to time but their focus was the croc, not him. But should he run or crawl?
Willy remembered reading or hearing that a crocodile could outrun a horse for fifty metres. But if you can keep ahead for a hundred metres you are safe, he thought. But was it true? And can I outrun that monster? he worried. He decided that zig-zagging was probably the best tactic.
But crawling seemed the safer option. I will run if I have to but if I don’t go now they will all settle at the table and look back this way and Zoltan will come back, he thought.
So he cautiously lowered himself to his hands and knees and then slid out onto the lawn on his belly. As he did he kept looking at the crocodile. To his dismay, he saw that it was watching him and its head swivelled to follow his progress. To his horror, the reptile raised its head and looked to be preparing to run. For a few heartbeats, Willy froze but then he decided he must get further away.
Fear now lent him strength and he dragged himself diagonally off to the left. And he needed the fear to help him move for as he did shards of pain lanced through him from his injured left arm. These were so severe that he almost blacked out and had to bite his lip to keep from groaning aloud. The agony was so intense that he had to nerve himself to make each move. The effort left him sweating and trembling within seconds.
I hope I don’t pass out, he thought in panic.
The idea that he might faint and then be grabbed and dragged unconscious into that black water sent new stabs of terror through him. So he kept on crawling and using all his willpower to do it.
Along the base of the fence was a row of longer grass that the mower had missed. It wasn’t much cover but it was better than none so Willy used it, keeping as low as he could.
On reaching the fence he glanced back over his left shoulder—and almost wet himself. The crocodile has raised itself up on its forelegs to keep him in sight and even as he watched it took a couple of steps in his direction.
Now Willy really moved. Ignoring the searing pains from his injuries and using his elbows and toes he pushed and dragged himself along the fence using a desperate version of the caterpillar or kitten crawl. At every second he expected to hear a voice cry out in alarm but apart from a babble of chatter about the crocodile’s behaviour there was nothing to indicate he had been seen.
Suddenly he found himself at the end of the fence—or rather at a corner of it. Off to his right ran a mowed strip about two metres wide with the fence on the right and long grass and bush on the left. After one last anxious glance back towards the crocodile, Willy almost scuttled around the corner.
He did not stop or even look back but kept on crawling. Instead he shifted his awareness to his right. This is the side of the house Zoltan dragged the dog to, he thought. He could still clearly see the diners at the table and the two servants but there was no sign of Zoltan.
Willy crawled another ten metres then had to stop as the dust he was stirring up was tickling his throat and threatening to make him cough.
I’m going to sneeze! he thought.
In desperation, he pushed up with his thumb on the base of his nose until the pain made his eyes water. It hurt but he did not sneeze. Once again, he thanked his cadet instructors for teaching such a useful little skill.
After a short pause to glance over his shoulder Willy resumed crawling. There was no sign of the crocodile behind him and now he was moving out of the arc of the floodlights and was in a semi-shadow beside the house.
Do I crawl off into the long grass and get out of here or do I try to save this girl? he wondered.
To his right, only ten metres away across the side lawn, was a lighted window. Even as Willy wondered what to do next he saw the girl. She came into view carrying some plates and placed them down at a sink. Then a man dressed as a chef appeared and made some comment to her. Willy could not hear what was said but it was obvious that the chef was ordering her to do something. She moved out of sight then reappeared carrying a tray loaded with covered plates. She went out of sight towards the back patio.
I will save her if I can, Willy decided. But how?
It was obvious to Willy that any attempt would involve enormous risk. Zoltan is there; and there are dogs, he thought. And all of that presumed he could get inside the fence. Is it electrified? he wondered.
By crawling a few more pain-wracked metres he was able to roll on his back and look up at a section of fence that was lit better by lights coming through the side windows. He saw that the bottom four metres was ordinary heavy gauge chain link wire netting. After seeing the dog jump against it he was sure that wasn’t electrified or alarmed. But above that was barbed wire and what looked like ribbons of flat black tape. Then he noted glass insulators securing the tape to the steel fence posts.
That looks like electrical stuff, he thought.
After crawling a few more metres, Willy stopped and studied the house. He saw that it was a long, low building and that it was larger than he had originally thought. Next to the kitchen windows were two smaller windows.
Toilets or bathrooms? Willy wondered.
Then there was a side door and several more windows. These, like the kitchen window, were covered by insect mesh and security screens. The front half of the house appeared to be in darkness.
Parked beside the house was a work vehicle, a light truck with tools and boxes in the tray. Seeing that made Willy wonder what the front gate must be like. That area was all in darkness and even as he looked it got suddenly darker as the floodlights at the back were turned off.
To see if there was any change to the fence, or perhaps a gate, Willy slowly and painfully crawled on along the mowed strip. After a few painful minutes of crawling he was level with the next corner of the house. As he reached it and looked along the side furthest from the river he sighed with satisfaction. There was a front gate and a driveway which circled in through quite a pleasant looking garden to an obvious front door to the house. Two brown SUV type 4WDs were parked at the front.
Willy rolled on his back to again study the fence. He saw that it was still about four metres high and topped with razor wire and electrical tape.
So how do I get in? Willy wondered. Or should I just try to save myself?
Having decided that the wire meshing was not electrified he crawled over and gingerly touched it with the back of his hand. Nothing happened.
Not electrified, he told himself, sighing with relief.
Thoughts