I sighed and rested my head against his shoulder. “How right you are. But it will be difficult to follow your advice.”
Josh lifted my hand up and pressed a kiss on my palm. “I know, it’s this not-knowing, this expecting-danger-from-any-side-and-at-any-time that’s so unnerving, isn’t it? Once something actually happens, I can easily focus. My priorities are crystal clear, after all.”
“So are mine.” I replied, leaning my head on his shoulder for a quick moment.
We resumed our watch, and were silent for quite a while. It was nice, this sitting side by side, being certain of the others love and concern, facing whatever there was together. Not having to explain anything or say much, just being together.
I slowly relaxed.
That is, I still glanced every now and then toward where we’d seen that light, but I wasn’t as restless as before. Not afraid anymore. Focused. A bit tense. Yes. But not afraid.
During the reminder of our watch, nothing out of the ordinary happened.
When Paul came to take over his watch, we told him of what we’d seen, of course.
At first, he seemed alarmed, but then he, too, agreed that there was no need to alert the others before dawn.
“Let them all sleep for now. I’ll wake you up at five. So that we can pack up camp and set out around six. That way, we ought to be safe.” He said.
He took the night-vision goggles and dismissed us with a smile. “Go get some sleep. I am sure there won’t be anything the matter.”
Again, I couldn’t fall asleep for a while. And, again, Josh held me in his arms and gently nudged me to lay quiet and relax. And eventually I drifted off.
Chapter 4 – others
21st May 2072
“Lia, Lia, wake up!” Alice’s eager voice made me open a sleepy eye before burying my face in my arms again. It was too early! I wanted to sleep some more! But Alice was having none of that. She kept nudging me and telling me to open my eyes and to get up. So, with a heavy sigh, I finally relented.
As soon as I sat up, she wrapped her arms around my neck and snuggled close. I embraced and kissed her, inquiring how she’d slept. As I gazed around, I could see that everyone else was awake and that they had already started to prepare breakfast and pack up our sleeping gear. Alice informed me that she’d slept very well and was now anxious for us to set out quickly, for after all, the sooner we got going the quicker we’d be in Kenya and with Mum and everybody. I hugged her close, kissed her and told her that I loved her very, very much.
When I had brushed my teeth and made sure, that she’d brushed hers too, I combed her hair into a ponytail and told her to bring our bag to be packed in the car.
Josh strode over to us, lifting Alice up in his arms and kissing her, then bending down to plant a kiss on my mouth, too. “Good morning, you two. Are you awake now, Lia? Ready to have breakfast and get going, Alice?”
She nodded eagerly and began explaining him how far she thought we ought to drive today, “You know, if we just drive very fast, Josh, don’t you think that we could make it all the way to Kenya today?”
He chuckled and tickled her chin. “I am afraid not, little tiger. No matter how fast we drive, we won’t be able to get that far in just one day. Sorry to disappoint you.”
When he saw that she was about to pull a face, lips trembling a bit, he added on a cheerful note. “But you know, Alice, we wouldn’t want to hurry too much, anyway. We’ll be passing through some very interesting landscapes and it would be a shame to hurry too much. We might as well enjoy the scenery.”
She looked at him rather incredulous and outraged which made us all, Nin and Yuki had joined us and were listening to what was discussed, laugh out loud.
“I want to go to Mum and Nate. I don’t care about landscapes.” Alice growled. I could see that she was close to crying and patted her back reassuringly.
“It’s okay, tiger. Josh was just trying to be funny, weren’t you?”
He chuckled and hugged Alice close before setting her down so that she could bring her backpack over to Paul and Rob who were loading the car. She gave Josh one stern look of disapproval and marched off, careful to maintain her dignity.
“You’re so cute when you are in a temper, tiger.” I called after her; and she swirled around quickly and smiled. Good. Tempest over.
Josh had already told Nin, Yuki, Rob and Winter about the lights we’d seen last night. They had all decided that we shouldn’t worry too much. As a precaution we would set out as soon as possible. Within another quarter of an hour was Rob’s verdict. That meant that we could eat just a quick breakfast
Yuki looked decidedly scared. She came to me. “I wish we could all travel together. I don’t like this being separated from you. Even if Rob and Josh make sure that the cars stay close to each other and we would be able to react instantly to anything that might happen. I still feel uneasy.”
“I. If you want …” I began; but she cut me short.
“No, I didn’t mean to change the seating arrangements. It’s perfectly clear that Alice, you and Josh must be in one car. And that Paul will therefore travel with you. It’s just that all this talking of those lights you saw last night made me really uneasy and I’d feel safer if …” her voice trailed off and she smiled a bit forlorn at me and Nin. I gave her a hug and reassured her that we’d be close, that nothing could possibly happen, that …
“Oh, stop it, Lia!” She exclaimed. “I am not a baby. You know full well that you can’t guarantee anything like that. We don’t know what awaits us. We just have to face things as they happen. I will be alright. I’ll brace up, you’ll see. It’s just some kind of morning nervousness, if you like.”
“I love you, best of my friends.” I hugged her close and the way she clung to me for a moment showed me more than words that she was far from being okay. She let go first, gave me a lopsided smile and whispered, “T’is okay. Am fine.” Then she strode over toward the cars and I followed her, not all too happy and concerned for her well-being.
Paul and Rob were to be today’s first drivers and they had already discussed the driving arrangements. Paul would lead our little convey, Rob would follow, with strict instructions of never leaving more than a distance of thirty metres between the two cars.
“We ought to get to a little village soon. We’ll make sure to stay close, drive through it quickly and hopefully not get lost.” Paul told us.
“Why should we get lost?” Josh inquired teasingly. “After all, haven’t you said that all we have to do is follow that tarmac road all the way up to Ethiopia?”
“Theoretically yes, but who knows whether there will be any signs indicating the way. I mean, there will be junctions, diversions and the like. You know full well that it can’t be that easy.”
Josh shrugged his shoulders and grinned.
Nin punched him playfully in the side and remarked. “He’s just teasing you, Paul. Of course, it won’t be that easy. But if it is anything like in Kenya, the main road running through a small village will be the one that was tarmacked, every other road will be a dirt track. So, we really just have to follow the tarmac roads, haven’t we? It might get more complicated once we reach bigger settlements.”
Everybody agreed with this and we settled in the cars. Doors were closed and, after one last look at this temporary camp, we started going.
The sun had just risen, it was short after 6:30 and now that it was daylight, we could finally see where we were. I guessed that we must be approaching a village or settlement, because there were previously cultivated fields on both sides of the road. They were rapidly being overgrown with wild shrubs and grasses. Everything looked untidy, very dry and we didn’t see far. It would take just one rain season and the boost of growth it would carry with it to bring back wilderness where only some weeks ago fields had been.
We saw several groups of camels and cows, once a little herd of goats was just about to run across the road. We scattered them nicely, some of them running backwards,
others quickly trying to cross the road before we’d be upon them. They looked well fed and fit, but some definitely limped and one had a nasty wound on its hind leg.
Alice was excited to see them roam free. She told us that she didn’t like the idea that so many innocent, that’s how she put it, animals had had to die because their human owners had been killed. Josh, who was studying the map, lifted his head at this and smiled affectionately at her.
I was happy that we certainly wouldn’t meet the scenes we’d seen back in April in Switzerland, when the killings had just happened and when we’d encountered many dying or dead animals, decaying carcasses, with all the horrible smell that went with it. Here, we’d either see dried up carcasses, skeletons and bones or life animals that had made it to the safety of the bush, no rotting carcasses of anything.
After about half an hour, we came to that village Paul had mentioned earlier. It was very small and even though there were no street signs, we couldn’t miss the way, as that road was the only tarmacked road in the village, just as Nin had guessed. We drove through the village at quite a speed and didn’t encounter anybody, nor did we see signs of recent human presence. A storm or flash-flood must have happened pretty recently, though, because some of the houses looked as if they had been damaged and partly swept away by water. Thankfully, the main road was okay, probably because it was a bit elevated, and we could pass without delay or trouble.
There had been a tense silence in the car while we passed through that village. After all, what would we encounter? Would we pass gruesome remains of the great dying? Or survivors? Or Nemesis? And then what? But nothing happened and we cruised through this little settlement easily and soon saw it disappear in the distance behind us. Paul remarked how gloomy this all was, this passing through utterly deserted human settlements, knowing that whoever had lived here, must have died. We all heartily agreed.
We drove on for as fast as was feasible and came through several other small villages. The landscape didn’t change much, either, neither did the vegetation. We drove through a vast savanna like plane, the vegetation comprised mostly of grass, interspersed with low-growing shrubs and bushes and occasional taller trees standing out. Everything was really dry, the grass was yellow and the leaves of the bushes and trees had all dried up. Only some acacia trees were still carrying greenish leaves, what with their long roots they had obviously managed to reach water deep down in the ground. The entire landscape seemed to be awaiting the rain season, which, as Paul informed us, ought to begin in June. In the far distance to the East, hills and mountains were discernible. But otherwise, the landscape was too monotone and dry to afford much entertainment for the eyes. After a few minutes of staring outside, one felt drowsy to the point of nodding off. It wasn’t too hot yet, but from the look of the vegetation it would soon be scorching hot. The sky was clear and incredibly clear and blue.
We drove on mostly in silence, everybody wrapped in his or her thoughts, and busy observing the passing landscape. Alice busied herself with trying to see as many animals as she could, stray farm animals or birds. Whenever we passed near higher tree, there were plenty of birds, lots of Marabous, and crows. Once, we passed a single tree not too far away from the road, in whose branches more than a dozen vultures were sitting. Josh shot Alice an anxious glance but she didn’t really understand the implications. Not even when shortly afterwards we passed three houses. And we never said anything. Of course, there were also smaller, more harmless birds to be seen. Like flocks of weaverbirds, and those funny bright-yellow starlets we’d already seen back in Gedarif, and pigeons, lots of pigeons. Once, when we passed a group of higher trees, I thought I had glimpsed a Turaco, but I wasn’t sure. And we also saw several species of birds of prey. Of course, Alice wanted to know the names of all the birds she saw. And she was heavily disappointed when we could name but a few and were rather sketchy on most of the rest. We had no bird field guide with us and, though many of the birds looked similar to species we knew from Kenya, we’d still need a proper field guide to correctly identify them. But, as I explained to Alice, wasn’t it enough to just see them and acknowledge their beauty? She looked rather dubious at this, which made Paul laugh, but eventually, she reluctantly agreed.
Apart from the occasional goats, cattle and camels, we saw no other bigger mammals. There were sometimes entire packs of dogs to be seen, mostly in villages. And once we passed by a few house on the roadside where about twenty cats had assembled.
We never stopped anywhere, but Paul kept on driving at a steady speed of about sixty kilometres an hour, sometimes more, sometimes less. Rob and the others kept a close distance to our car and our convoy moved along speedily. After about three hours of driving, we had covered more than one hundred kilometres by now, we came to a little climb and on top, Paul stopped the car at the side of the road. Rob pulled up next to him and we all got out to have a look and to stretch our legs. The heat was intense outside. Even though it wasn’t eleven o’clock yet.
Yuki brought some bottles of water and we all gladly drank a few sips.
Then we got our binoculars and field glasses out and everyone except Alice trained their binoculars and field glasses toward where we’d come from. Only Paul was looking the other way, scanning what lay ahead of us. He informed us, that in another thirty to forty kilometres we should hit that border town called Metema and would then cross over into Ethiopia. If all went well, he mused, we would spend the next night close to Lake Tana.
I couldn’t see anything. No moving cars, not dust rising up in the air betraying the passing of vehicles. Nothing. It felt eerie. I had expected something. Some kind of sign that other humans were out there. For, that others were there, we’d clearly seen last night with those funny lights going on and off. Where were these people? Had anyone noticed our presence or were they, whoever they were, oblivious to us being in the area? And, which option was to be preferred?
I wasn’t the only one to feel uneasy. Winter set down her binoculars, nudged Rob in the side and asked anxiously. “Do you think we are being followed? There is quite a stretch of road we can’t see from here. They could be there, couldn’t they?”
“Or anywhere else, for that matter.” Rob smiled down at her indulgently. “Don’t panic, Flo. Yes, we don’t see anything. And, yes, this can mean a lot. But that people are out there is absolutely certain. As far as I am concerned, I just don’t want them hot on our heels without us noticing. Everything else we can and will deal with. As and when it happens.”
“My sentiments exactly.” Josh agreed. I glanced up at him to see how he’d meant this. He winked at me, put his arms around me and held me tight.
“And where do you think you are going, little tiger?”
Paul’s voice made us all turn around.
Alice had ventured away from us and was standing on a big rock about twenty metres from us at the edge of the little hill. She was peering intently toward something out of our sight and was utterly oblivious to Paul’s question.
I wriggled free from Josh’s embrace and quickly strode over to her.
“Hey, Alice, what are you doing? Be careful, you might take a tumble and fall.”
Yuki had followed me, too, the others were watching from a distance.
Still, Alice wouldn’t look our way. Strange. What the hell was this about?
When I had almost reached her, she finally turned her head and whispered, her eyes bright with excitement, “Lia, I think there was somebody, a child, watching us. It disappeared down this path. Look! That path is leading over there toward these rocks.”
“What!” I exclaimed incredulously.
Alice gestured for me to see. And sure enough, as I climbed onto that rock she was standing on and peered down I could see a little footpath leading away from it. Over to some rocks and dense shrubs maybe fifty metres away. And even my unexperienced eye could discern that this path had been walked on, frequently and recently.
Meanwhile, Yuki, Josh and Paul had reached us and inqui
red what we were looking at. Alice explained what she’d seen and everybody looked pretty much flabbergasted, especially after having discovered the path. Josh and Paul began climbing down to it, which prompted the other three to join us in a rush.
Alice retold her story and clearly enjoyed seeing their astonishment. Nin rushed over to have a closer look while Rob scanned the wider surroundings with his binoculars, a worried expression on his face. I grabbed my binoculars and started to scan the area carefully, too.
Winter joined me and gently nudged me in the side. “Do you really think there was somebody close by?”
“Alice says so. And I see no reason why we should doubt her.” I replied curtly.
“I didn’t mean to imply that she might tell lies or fabricate a story.” Winter went on, a little peeved herself. “Maybe I didn’t put it quite right. What I meant was rather whether it might be really possible that we should meet other people? So soon.”
“Oh, sorry. I misunderstood. As to your question, we’ll see, won’t we? No need to speculate.” While I was talking, I was still scanning our surroundings with my binoculars. I wasn’t really paying attention to what Winter said or the others did. Too intent I was on making sure we wouldn’t suddenly be ambushed out of the blue. I had no doubt, none whatsoever, that Alice had really seen a child, or a very small person, run away. That meant that others must be present and must by now have been alerted to our presence. It could only be a matter of time before someone would show up. Friend or Foe?
In the end, Rob spotted the group.
“Over there.” he calmly pointed out. “Look, over there several people are standing, watching us.”
“What!!” Winter exclaimed.
I trained my binoculars toward where he was pointing. Sure enough, there were about fifteen people standing. Maybe one hundred metres away. They were standing a bit to the right of that path near a grove of low, dry bushes and trees, next to some big boulders.
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