by S. S. Segran
“Worth a shot.” Marshall pulled the boat into a shallow cove and the group hopped out, being careful not to tip over the bobbing vessel.
Dead stalks crunched and crumbled beneath Aari’s shoes like brittle bones. The desolate, pallid acres of farmland stretched far and wide, shaded by groves of acacias. This is so sad, he thought, readjusting his grip on the parchment. This is someone’s life, just taken away from them by a psychopathic—
A brief burst of light threw him into Lucius’s memories.
The grizzled Egyptian captain had grounded his boat onto the tip of the island flanked by the two arms of the Nile, but neither Lucius nor Carmel had stepped off.
“I am truly sorry,” the captain said. “But no amount of pleading will change my mind. This was the deal I made with your friend in the legion. This is where your ride ends.”
Lucius reached into his leather bag and produced a small satchel. He opened it and showed the captain a few blue gems. “Will this do?”
The captain’s eyes widened and he smiled knowingly. “Sapphire?”
Lucius nodded.
“Yes, it will do.” The captain reached for the gems but Lucius held his hand out of reach.
“I will give you half now and the rest when we reach our destination,” the Roman growled. “I want your word that you will take us to the safest place you know, far from the Empire’s reach.”
“On my honor, I will get you to safety.”
“And where is that?”
The captain sat down heavily, making the boat rock. Lucius quickly crouched down to regain his balance. “I ask again,” he said. “Where will you take us?”
“The safest place I know,” the captain sniffed, “is at the foot of the white mountain that touches the sky. It rests about ten days’ journey on foot, east of an immense lake where this river begins. All we have to do is follow it all the way to its source.”
Lucius searched his eyes, suspicious. “That cannot be. No one has ever seen the source of the Nile.”
The captain smiled wryly. “That is what you think, foreigner. My father once took me there, many years ago. I still know the way, but I must warn you that the journey will not be easy. We will have to hike around the treacherous parts of the river, which means leaving the boat and carrying your belongings over difficult terrain. Once we find safe river passage, we will have to build ourselves a raft to reach the lake. Are you prepared for the task ahead?”
Lucius turned to Carmel, who gave him a firm nod. He faced the captain and with steel in his voice, said, “Yes.”
The shorter man held out an open palm and Lucius passed him half the gemstones.
As evening fell, they set up camp at the tip of the island, rolling out their mats and starting a fire while the captain regaled them with anecdotes. Lucius looked around, munching on a dinner of bread, lentils and dates. The rich, fertile dark soils of the Nile banks teemed with healthy crops of wheat and barley that whispered as a light wind rustled them. The quiet peace of the arid subtropical land welcomed the weary travelers with open arms.
Wow, Aari thought, observing the vivid memory. This breeze, these sounds… they’ve already happened. I’m actually reliving the past.
He blinked, and found his vision had gone completely black. Uh… A swell of panic started to grow when the void refused to leave. Why can’t I see anything? What happened? Oh God, what’s going on?
There was a yell and suddenly the darkness disappeared like eyes opening. Lucius bolted upright, heart hammering, and realized instantly that they’d been invaded. Men in bright tunics rummaged through their bags around the dying campfire, but the moment Carmel had sounded the alarm, they drew sword-like sickles from their scabbards. Lucius rolled out of the way just as one of the thieves swung at him, then leapt at the man. They fell onto the dirt, fighting for control of the weapon until Lucius ripped it from him. A cry from the other side of the campfire made him look up. The thief kicked him off and scrambled away into the fields.
The captain was pinned to the ground, struggling against another thief who had the tip of a blade to his throat. Lucius hurdled over the fire toward them but wasn’t fast enough—the bandit ended the captain’s life with a quick flick of the wrist. Lucius screamed. As the thief whirled around, the Roman drove the blade into him. The man slumped to his knees, then toppled face-first into the dirt.
Lucius staggered back, nearly falling into the fire. He stared at his trembling hands. A rush of guilt and horror flooded him. He feverishly tried to wipe off the specks of blood that stained his fingertips, then looked down at the dead thief, and beyond him, the lifeless captain. Hopelessness threw itself into the tumult of his emotions.
Carmel cried out behind him. He spun around. The five remaining thieves circled the young woman like ravenous vultures, each trying to make a grab for the knapsacks she’d collected. One of them lunged at her and managed to get a hold of a bag—the one that contained her box of seeds. As he tried to yank it away, Lucius saw an awful fury in Carmel’s eyes. She threw her hands out and the thief catapulted backward like a missile, soaring through the air and landing in the river with an unceremonious splash.
There were a few seconds of dead silence. Carmel fixed a cold stare on the rest of the thieves and they immediately took off toward the other end of the island, shouting hysterically. Lucius stumbled over to her but the memory was shoved out of the way by reality.
Aari wheezed out a gasp. He was on the ground, and his friends knelt over him in concern. Marshall gently hoisted him up. “Hey, champ,” he said, brushing the teenager off. “Take it easy. You were gone for a while.”
“Lucius killed a man,” Aari sputtered, a hand on his throat. “Oh, God, I feel like I’m gonna be sick.”
“What happened?” Mariah murmured.
“They were camped out on the tip of the island and some men tried to steal their stuff. They fought back, the captain got killed, and Lucius—he… he…” Aari mimed the scene. “From what he was feeling, I think it’s the first time he’s ever killed someone.”
“Hence this spot being an emotional geo-marker,” Tegan said, nodding to herself. “That’s dark. And Carmel still had the seeds?”
“Yeah,” Aari said, “and she threw a dude into the river to save the box. But I still need to find out where they went. I think I have an idea, but just in case they didn’t follow the captain’s directions…”
Kody thumped him on the back. “Down the rabbit hole you go.”
At the next flash, Aari faced a volcanic mountain with a distinctive collapsed side. Then Lucius turned around to gaze at another majestic peak in the distance, surrounded by savannah.
I knew it, Aari thought. ‘The white mountain that touches the sky.’ That’s what the captain said. Despite still feeling nauseous, he smiled to himself. Hello, Kilimanjaro.
47
“Kilimanjaro. Like, Mount Kilimanjaro?”
Aari exhaled noisily as he rolled up the letter. “Yeah, Teegs. That one.”
Tegan stared up as the darkening sky bled from fire to twilight blue. These seeds are really making us work, she thought. It’s almost insane. But if it hadn’t been for the highway bandits, we wouldn’t have found a boat and it probably would’ve taken us longer to find the exact location of Lucius’s geo-marker. Or we could have missed it entirely.
“If we drive around the clock,” Dominique said, poring over the map, “I think we’ll make it there in about two days. But if my pilot friend outside of the city is willing to help, we could get there in seven or eight hours.”
“We’ll see him tomorrow,” Marshall decided, “but right now we need to call it a day. It’s past sunset and I don’t think it’s a good idea to walk around these parts at night.”
“Are we gonna camp out here?” Kody asked, snapping off a short wheat stalk and wiggling it under Tegan’s nose until she sneezed.
I figure it’d be safer than wandering into the city,” Marshall said, “since we don’t know what it’s
really like.”
“I’m not sure it’s much safer out here,” Mariah whispered, her back to them as she stared out at the acres of dead crops. The silhouettes assimilated so well into the backdrop that Tegan didn’t realize what they were until they moved—human forms clinging to the peripheries of the fields and lurking between trees like restless spirits.
“Uh, yeah, I’m not comfortable with this, either,” Kody said. “There are people just chilling out there, watching us. It’s very Shaun of the Dead.”
Aari shrugged. “What are they gonna do, watch us to death? And anyway, I think we can defend ourselves if we have to. Or maybe it’s nothing at all and they’re just curious as to why a bunch of people are hanging out in these fields.”
Tegan looked toward the city, contemplative. “If there are still cars going back and forth, then it can’t be too bad in there, can it?”
“But why put yourselves at risk?” Dominique asked.
“We’re exposed here, totally out in the open,” Mariah said. “If we can find a motel or something, then at least we’d be in a closed space with essentially no risk of getting infected.”
As the group debated, Tegan mulled to herself. Then she placed two fingers to her lips and whistled sharply to halt their deliberation. “I think it’d be better if we found a place to stay the night. Like Mariah said, four walls is better security than an open field.”
Marshall seemed uncomfortable. “Are you sure about this?”
Tegan looked back at the forms creeping in the shadows of the fields. “Positive.”
They got into the boat, some reluctantly. Marshall steered them across the river until they reached the mainland and tied their vessel alongside large freighters had been docked by the shore. There were no signs of life as the group walked the streets of the straggly but seemingly empty city of Khartoum, all on high alert. Tegan kept a hand on the full-faced mask strapped to her leg.
“Motel at one o’clock,” Marshall said.
Aari looked skeptical. “You really think anyone will be running it?”
“Only one way to find out.”
They cautiously entered the stout building’s lifeless lobby. “This doesn’t look too bad,” Kody said, craning his head around. “It’s like one of those boutique backpacker hostels you see in budget travel magazines.”
“It needs to be decent,” Marshall said. “Khartoum’s a hub for tourists. At least, it was until all this happened.”
A man in a perfectly-pressed suit with a short gray afro greeted them with a wave from behind the marble reception desk. “Ahlan wa sahlan!” When his gaze drifted past Dominique to the Americans, he added, “Oh, welcome!”
Dominique flashed him a smile, motioning behind her back for the teenagers to move to the far end of the lobby, away from the man. “Good evening. Do you have two rooms available for a night?”
“Every room I have is available.”
“Ah. Sorry to hear about that. How are your rates?”
As Marshall discreetly took out cash from his bag, the receptionist passed Dominique two keys and took a proper look at the group. “What are you doing out here? And my God, it looks like all of you fell into a mud bank!”
“It’s a long story,” Dominique said politely, then made a show of looking around the austere lobby. “Business isn’t that great, is it?”
The man laughed a little. “It’s very bad. No one has booked a room in two weeks.”
“Then why do you keep the place open?”
“Because it’s all I have left in this half-dead city.”
A teenager, dressed as impeccably as the man, walked out through a doorway behind him. “What? I don’t count for anything?”
The man gave the boy a gentle tap on the back. “Tsk, Atif. You know what I mean.”
The teenager greeted the guests and went to peek out through the glass doors of the main entrance, biting his fingernail. “Did you see anything on your way in?” he asked.
“If you’re asking about people,” Tegan said, “we saw no one.”
The boy bumped his head against the glass. “It’s the damn disease. I bet if you walk into any of the houses around here, you’ll find old people on the floor, dead.”
“Atif!” the receptionist snapped. “We do not worry our guests like that!”
“I’m sorry, Uncle, but it’s true!” The boy turned to the group. “And sometimes, you can hear screaming outside. I went to see what it was a few days ago and… and a man was bleeding out of his face. He was so sick with the other disease. And he—”
The receptionist exchanged rapid, angry words in Arabic with his nephew. The teenager’s face darkened and he stormed back through the doorway he’d entered from.
The man sighed. “I apologize about that. My nephew has been agitated lately with all that’s going on.” He handed them their keycards. “Your rooms are on the second floor. And don’t worry, you’ll be safe in here. We lock the doors at night.”
The group rode up in an old elevator in silence, then muttered goodnights as they parted ways toward their neighboring rooms, the girls and Dominique taking the first door and the boys with Marshall taking the second. Tegan dove into the shower the moment they dropped their bags, only too eager to wipe the grime off her body. When she reemerged, clean and fresh, Mariah ran past her into the bathroom, yelling, “You always take too long in the shower!”
“I have a legitimate excuse this time!” Tegan yelled back.
Dominique heated a cup of instant noodles in the microwave. “This is dinner,” she said remorsefully.
“I’ll take anything right now,” Tegan said. “I’m famished.”
The clock hadn’t even struck nine by the time Dominique and Mariah had fallen asleep. As Tegan lay in the dark, playing a game of Snake on her phone while it charged, she heard a muffled curse outside her room. Curious, she peered out the door. Kody leaned against the wall between their rooms, rubbing his elbow.
Tegan smirked. “Spatial awareness woes?”
Kody nodded, wincing. “It’s like my body keeps forgetting that I’ve grown and have longer limbs now so I need more space to move. It’s a chronic problem.” He continued down the hallway and as she followed, said, “Look at us, black sweats and t-shirt. We’re twinning!”
Tegan wasn’t amused. “Don’t ever use that word again.”
“Grump.”
“How are the others?”
“Squeaky clean. Marshall’s out like a light. I think being nearly eaten by a crocodile does that to a person. It’s a good thing we had you, Teegs, or he’d probably be gone.”
“I don’t like his near brushes with death,” Tegan muttered.
“Me neither.”
Tegan noticed a tightness in his face. “Kody? What’s wrong?”
He shoved his hands deep into his pockets. “Aari’s doing some timeline thingamajig on his laptop where he keeps track of the spread of the disease. Teegs… three days ago, we saw that twenty-five thousand people had died globally. We’re past a million and a half now.”
Tegan turned away, fighting the bile rising in her throat. Kody ran his hand up and down her back. “I know,” he said. “I know.”
“Does…” Tegan used the wall to steady herself. “Does Aari have a projection for how long it would take to…?”
“Wipe us out? No. He slammed his laptop shut before he could get that far, but he did say that if the virus spreads at its current rate, a billion people will be dead in thirty days.”
“Kody…”
“I know.”
Despondently, they headed to the elevator. Kody pressed the button a few times but nothing happened. “Guess it’s the stairs for us.”
“Where are you going, anyway?” Tegan asked.
“The drain in the shower is plugged. I’m hoping the receptionist can fix it.”
They reached the main floor, turning past the lobby filled with empty chairs and divans, and headed to the reception on the left. Tegan, busy admiring some of
the antique furniture, stopped short when Kody balled the back of her shirt in his fist. She turned to protest but he clamped his free hand over her mouth, eyes glued directly ahead at the reception counter. When Tegan finally saw it, she let out a quiet whimper.
Crouched like an animal on the countertop with his back to them was Atif, the motel owner’s nephew. His suit was bedraggled, half of it hanging off his shoulder. The sides of his white collar were inked red. His rough, ragged breathing grew louder with each lungful of air. He shrieked at the wall in front of him, hitting his head with his hands. Tegan’s eyes slowly drifted to the ground. A body lay on the floor, only the legs clad in dress pants visible, the rest hidden behind the counter. A stream of slick blood steadily grew, coating the tiled floor.
Kody eased his hand from Tegan’s mouth but didn’t loosen the grip on her shirt. He tugged, pulling her with him. They backed away as quietly as possible through the maze of chairs and sofas. Tegan couldn’t take her eyes off Atif. When he turned his head to look down at the body behind the counter, she saw crimson trails dripping from his ears and nose.
The pair neared the stairs, and as they turned to make a break for it, they collided with one of the divans. The scrape of furniture against the floor demolished the silence like the klaxon of a foghorn. Tegan flinched, her heart in her throat. Slowly, they looked toward the reception.
Atif’s head swiveled until his bloodshot gaze found the pair, then he turned his body around. The front of his suit jacket was shredded and stained as if he’d been in a fight. An unearthly scream ripped from his throat and he flew off the counter toward them.
Tegan vaulted over the divan and sprinted for the stairs. As she ran up, she realized that hers were the only footsteps she could hear. Without a second thought she hurtled back toward the lobby and found Kody on the floor, thrashing as he tried to push Atif off him. The sick boy grabbed Kody around the neck and slammed his head into the ground over and over.
Tegan spotted a fire extinguisher and ripped it off the wall. Screeching, she swung at Atif with all her might, driving the cylinder against his head. The boy was thrown off Kody and slid across the floor. As he struggled up, Tegan bellowed and hurled the extinguisher at him, nailing him in the face. Atif fell back and didn’t get up. His fingers twitched every few moments, but as quickly as the attack began, it was over.
