As it was, Paul drove on as fast as he could and we all sat in mutual silence, keeping our fingers crossed that we would make it without an encounter with any Nemesis.
Alice had fallen asleep shortly after Metema and I was glad about it. No need for her to live through those nerve-racking minutes and hours of racing along roads we didn’t know and an enemy following behind who may or may not be aware of us. Once or twice, I was on the brink of asking a question about Abdella and Serag because I was wondering where they might be by now. Had they really managed to get to that Nemesis base in Gondar? And even if, then what? Had they taken along only the Pathogen or also some of the other weapons we had left in the plane back in Gedarif? How would they spread that Pathogen? By Crash-landing the plane into the Nemesis base? Would the heat of the impact and following explosions destroy the effectiveness of the poison? Or, would they try to destroy the base without getting hurt or killed? And how? Ah, well, it was kind of useless wondering about it. I would never know. All we could hope for was that they succeeded in some way.
Josh kept tracing our way on his map. About every half an hour, he announced how much further until that junction where we were to start heading south toward Lake Tana. His last reading had been “another eighty kilometres, then we’ll be there” when the cars in front of us suddenly slowed down and came to a halt. We looked at each other questioningly and my heart seemed to leap into my throat. Alice still slept. Good.
“I’ll go and inquire.” Josh quickly said and slid out of the car. Walking at a brisk pace, he passed Rob’s car and kept going. He was back within a minute.
“One of the cars got a flat tire. Thank God not one of the big pick-ups. We have to change the wheel. Quickly. You can wait here, I’ll go and help.” With this, he was gone again.
Paul turned around and shot me an inquiring look. “You okay?”
“I guess. Why?”
“Because you have been so quiet since we came through Metema. Don’t worry. We’ll make it.”
I rolled my eyes at him. Really. There was no need to treat me like an idiot.
“Oh yeah?” I hissed. “Let’s just hope that those Nemesis following behind had a couple of flats, too. Do you think I am stupid, or what?” I pressed my lips together, furiously biting back a blistering comment on men’s inability to cope with any kind of emergency in an appropriate way. I mean, did I need to be told lies? Was I unable to face the truth? Had I not proven before that I could face it?
“Sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.” Paul tilted his head and a small smile stole over his face. “I keep forgetting that you are a tough one, too, Lia . Okay. So I hope they are quick, because twenty kilometres is not a safe distance, not as far as I am concerned.”
“Do you think they will catch up with us?”
“They could. I guess. It all depends on whether they saw us, I mean our dust column, and whether they want to come and investigate. I have been thinking whether they might mistake us for that bunch of Nemesis we encountered down in that village. They had vehicles. They were just coming through there. They weren’t based there. So, if they were heading here, too, those other Nemesis should think we were them. And that might be the difference between making it undetected or not. Am I making sense?”
“Yes. I understand what you mean. But wouldn’t they communicate over those radios you captured. And if they didn’t get any answer from us, wouldn’t they become very suspicious about the whole thing?”
“Maybe. But that’s assuming they know we’re around. That anyone is around here. From what I understood back there, in that village, was that the Nemesis thought they were alone. They were totally surprised to see us. Had they expected enemy contact they would never have walked around so carelessly. From what Idris and his people said, their existence seems to have gone completely unnoticed. So, all in all, no reason why these Nemesis people following behind us should think we were anything else than fellow Nemesis.”
I wasn’t utterly convinced. But before I could say so, Josh was back. “It’s alright. We fixed that tire. No problem there. Now let’s get going. Goytom said that we’ll soon reach a stretch of road with many serpentines. There, we won’t be able to keep up this speed. The distance to these Nemesis following behind will further shorten.”
Sure enough, after a few minutes the terrain became steeper and the road wound up the slopes in bends and curves. Steadily up-hill the serpentines took us over the mountains. The scenery was different, too. Breath-taking. Whereas since Metema we’d been driving through rather open bushy vegetation with the occasional home-steads scattered along the road, now there suddenly were a lot more trees and a lot less signs of human settlement. We drove like through a huge forest.
At some point I turned around to look back where we had come from. There! I could see cars in the far distance. Now they disappeared behind a bend. They seemed far too close for comfort!
“Look!” Was all I could choke.
Josh craned his neck to see where I was pointing and I heard him sharply inhale when he saw the cars, too.
“Gosh, Paul, step on that pedal. They seem to be just a few kilometres behind. Shoot!”
“Hey, I am driving as fast as I dare. If only those serpentines would stop.”
I didn’t dare look back anymore. I hadn’t the stomach for it. My heart was thumping hard in my chest.
Please. Not this close to home!
We simply had to escape. And unnoticed. We couldn’t afford a chase all through Ethiopia.
Paul was muttering to himself as he drove along as fast as he could. Ahead, the road seemed to disappear behind a huge boulder that lay beside the road and blocked the view to what lay in behind it. Coming around the bend, we saw that the zigzag of the road only intensified. Our convoy had to slow down quite bit to safely negotiate those corners. It seemed so slow. The Nemesis behind would catch up.
“They’ll have to pass through here, too, you know, Lia.” Josh said. “This will slow them down just as it does us now. So, in the end, they will hardly be able to catch up with us. And from what I can discern on these maps, we will soon reach a little town called Seraba and thereafter the road will be straight and easy to cruise along on.”
“How far until that village?” Paul wanted to know in a tight voice.
“Ten kilometres; max.” Josh replied, all the while tracing the way we were to go with his finger on the map. Then he looked up and turned around to nod at me encouragingly. With a glance at Alice, he said. “Alice’s still sleeping? She must have been exhausted.”
“It’s better that way. She would only be freaked out by this ride. I hope she’ll sleep all the way to Lake Tana.”
“We’ll make it, Lia. Don’t you worry that much.”
I just rolled my eyes at him, but when he smiled at me, I relented and smiled back, ducking my head.
The terrain had become mountainous by now and Paul was concentrating hard to drive as fast as he dared.
But Josh had been right. In about another fifteen minutes there appeared signs that we were fast approaching a bigger settlement. And then we passed through that village Josh said was Seraba. Sure enough, it proved to be the end of these serpentines. The town itself was as empty and deserted as Metema had been. We drove through at a high speed. When we left the settlement, the road stretched ahead in front of us relatively straight and disappeared behind a couple of tall trees in the far distance.
Paul stepped on the pedal without having to be told. Our entire convoy of cars just flew along. A glance at the speedometer told me that we were driving at way over a hundred km/h now.
“You won’t make us go any faster by this; you know, Lia.” Josh’s voice gently awoke me to the fact that I was rocking back and forth. I blushed and grinned at him.
“Caught again. I am sorry. I am just so anxious.”
He shook his head. “We’ll be alright.”
I was ready to believe him. Not because I wanted to, but because I needed to.
We
drove on in silence, Paul going as fast as he dared. We came through several small villages and saw that this must have been a very densely populated area with a lot of agriculture. A patchwork of fields and hamlets on both sides of the road. The road crossed over several riverbeds. Most were dry but for a trickle of water. During the rain-season it would certainly be another picture. Most of the hamlets had fences made of some kind of plant. It looked like a straight growing euphoria. But I couldn’t be sure. It looked neat and very different from what I knew from Kenya. And again, everything was eerily empty. What had clearly been a very busy and populated area with lots of farming now lay bare and empty, the fields deserted, some cattle, cows, sheep and goats, roaming about, but no evidence whatsoever of recent human presence. Utterly depressing and devastating. Of course, it might be that survivors were there, but hid from view, not knowing who we were. We’d have done the same. Still. To drive through hardly populated areas and find nobody was one thing, this eerily empty land here was quite something else.
“How far until that junction you mentioned?” Paul asked.
“We should be there within some minutes now.” Josh replied, tracing a route on the map with his finger. “Another 5 kilometres max. There in front, these houses, that must be Azezo.”
Sure enough, within minutes we were approaching a settlement.
The cars in front suddenly slowed down and I was just about to comment on how crazy this was, when there came a very sharp bend in the road. The road kind of veered to the right only to head back to its original course right again. Queer way of constructing a road. And about fifty metres later we hit a T-junction and took the road heading to the right, down south.
“Wow, so far so good.” Paul commented. He looked relieved and grinned at Josh, who was still tracing a route on his map.
“We seem to have hit a highway. See how wide the road is and how well tended. That must have been a major transport axis. We’ll be able to cruise along real fast now.” Paul was clearly very pleased.
The road wasn’t straight, we were still within that village or little town, but he was right, it was a much bigger road than the one we’d come along. We were cruising around some bends and on the right side there was a dense hedge, when the cars in front suddenly slowed down and then turned in a gate that opened up in the hedge.
“What the heck!” Paul exclaimed, but followed the other cars.
We found ourselves in a court-yard like structure, well shielded from the road. We parked the car alongside the others behind a long one-storey building. Several other buildings stood nearby, the whole thing looked like a school or something.
Paul and Josh got out of the car; Josh shot me an enquiring look, but Alice was still sleeping and I didn’t want to wake her up. It was better that they went to inquired why we had stopped here. So I just shook my head and pointed a Alice.
“We’ll be back in a minute.” Josh said. “But I’ll leave the door open so that you won’t be too hot in here, okay?”
“Thanks.”
I could see that everyone else had also gotten out of their cars and gathered around the big truck. Yuki came over to us, but Nin, Winter and Rob joined the others.
“What do you think they are doing?” Yuki asked.
“No idea. But I can’t say that I like it.” I replied.
“Has Alice been sleeping the whole way?” She inquired while getting in the front seat.
“Yeah, she’s been sleeping for quite a while. After having a crying fit because she was scared. It’s better for her that way.” I gently caressed Alice’s hair; she was still fast asleep.
“Rob suggested before that we should try to get a plane somewhere here, a small one, and fly as far south as we dared. Nin was all for it, but I don’t know.”
“And where would we get a plane, pray?”
“Rob said he didn’t know for sure, but in view of the fact that this was a major hub and also a tourist destination, he figured there ought to be an airport of some kind, either at this or the southern end of Lake Tana, or both.”
“Can you see anything on the maps Josh was studying before?” I liked the idea that we might fly out of here. Away from these Nemesis that were following behind. It would be risky, sure, but definitely worth a try.
Yuki picked up the map and, after turning it this way and that to get her bearing, she confirmed that there was indeed an airport just around the corner and at least another big one at the southern end of Lake Tana in the city called Bahir Dar.
However, before we could further discuss this point, the others came all back in hurry. They crowded around our car and Josh explained what had been decided.
“Idris, Brhane and also Goytom and Degu think that we should have a look where the Nemesis following behind will go. From this compound, that is from its outer edge, we’ll have a good view at the junction we just passed. Should some or all the Nemesis drive down here, we could ambush them perfectly from here. It’s been decided that Paul, Goytom and Mekonnen will hide in the bushes over there.” Josh pointed in the general direction we’d come from. “We, in turn, will get ready for a fight, should it be necessary. And some of us should take shelter with the children in one of the houses nearby. Sort of as the third line of defence.”
“But that’s crazy!” Yuki exclaimed. “How can we seriously contemplate engaging in a fight?”
Nin took her hands and made her look at him. “It’s not crazy, Yuki. We must know where these Nemesis go. We can’t drive on not knowing what is happening behind us. There’s no time now to discuss. We need to hurry. So, please go with Lia and the other women and children and hide. It’ll be all right, I promise.”
Yuki looked as if she would either start crying or yell. But Nin had already turned around and was helping Paul and Rob unloading the weapons, so she just shot me an utterly unhappy glance and hissed. “Really!”
“It seems crazy, Yuki, I give you that, but it also makes sense.” I commented while getting out of the car with Alice in my arms. “Come on, lead the way, Alice is quite heavy. I’ll wake her up once we’re in this shelter.”
Still deeply unhappy, but with no other option, Yuki grabbed two guns from the car and headed for a one-storey-building a bit behind the others, where Tigist, Melat, Mahlet and all the children were heading. Mahlet and Tigist carried guns as well.
Josh followed us and made sure we were safely inside, then he looked at me pleadingly, but before he could say anything, I nudged him on and said. “Just give me a hug and a kiss. I understand what you need to do. We’ll be safe in here, don’t you worry.”
He hugged me tight and pressed a fervent kiss on my lips. Then he was gone. Nin, too, quickly embraced and kissed Yuki, then strode over to where Rob and Winter had already positioned themselves.
Paul looked over at us, but mostly at Mahlet. He seemed to dispute something with himself, but thought better in the end. Because he shook his head and, with one last glance at Mahlet, strolled away
We hid in the house and I woke up Alice. She needed to understand what was going on. She yawned and stretched and complained that I had woken her up earlier. When she realized that we were in a building, she got scared and inquired in a wining voice what was happening. I briefly told her. She looked about to cry, when Nulu and Safia came over and took her by her hands, pulling her over to where all the children had gathered.
But I motioned for her to stay on a minute. “Listen Alice, this is important, very important. We are in that town, where the road we have to take and the road leading up north to that other Nemesis base split. We need to know where the Nemesis following behind, will go. That’s why we stopped here. Paul, Goytom and Mekonnen are positioned furthest toward the road, then come all the rest and we are staying here in this house. You needn’t be afraid. But you must stay silent. All of you. Understood?”
I held her by her arms and bade her look at me.
She looked confused and scared, but she made an effort and pulled herself together.
“Okay, Lia, I understand.” She eventually croaked and I pulled her tight and kissed her on her cheek.
“That’s a girl! Thanks Alice! Now go over to Safia and Nulu and don’t forget that you are all to be silent.”
She nodded and moved over to the children. Tigist had motioned for them to all sit in a corner of the building, behind a low desk. Yuki and Melat joined the children, whereas Tigist, Mahlet and I took up respective positions that would allow us to effectively defend ourselves should need be.
I was very nervous but also absolutely focussed. There was a job that needed doing and I would do it. I positioned myself in such a way that I could see Josh and everybody, while remaining invisible from the road. Mekonnen, Paul and Goytom I couldn’t make out. They had gone to the far end of the compound and were positioned there somewhere.
We didn’t have to wait for long. About twenty endless minutes, then Josh raised his arm and looked back at me. I silently nodded that I had understood and motioned inside for everybody to remain absolutely silent now. I couldn’t see the road or what was happening over there by that crucial junction. And the longer it took, the tenser I got.
However, just as I was about to lose my nerves, Josh sat up and waved over at us. He even got up and so did the others.
I quickly informed Yuki that the coast was clear and that they could all come out and headed for the door. Everybody gathered again by the cars. Nin, Winter and Josh were simply beaming with joy.
“They just passed the junction and headed northward. A convoy of ten vehicles, three of them trucks. With many people, all in black outfits. Really!” Josh embraced me, he had been tense too, tense as hell.
Now Paul, Goytom and Mekonnen came back, running.
“Let’s get going. Fast!” Paul shouted. “Get into the cars, we need to be on our way as soon as possible.”
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