The temperature is dropping insanely fast. my sweat doesn't even get to dry that it freezes. And it's getting colder and colder, i start to think that there are no limits to how low the temperature can go but just keeps going lower. i have my shirt on me and the camel skin, with fur on it, and i'm shivering like mad. Bear also looks a little tensed, he's rotating his arms forward from time to time. But it's completely different what he seems to go through compared to what i'm going through. Opposite poles of the human condition. i should be more like him.
i start following his example, and i also jump from time to time and jog, anything to keep myself warm. But i can't do this all night long, i don't have enough energy. i'd eat that bar right at this moment, without even taking off the wrapping. i want it so much in my frozen ice cube of a stomach, but i'd vomit it out the next second.
"It's very cold now. I say we make a stop if we find some bushes, trees or anything flammable. We make a fire to warm up and continue after."
"Sounds good."
"Good, pay attention for what I said."
"Ok."
After i think, better than two hours of barely walking and mostly freezing, we notice an area that seems forested ahead. We stumbled upon it by pure luck, because it was not visible from further than 100 metres. We get close and notice in fact that it's a camp. A bunch of trees that have around them walls made of branches and sticks. Each tree is surrounded by these wooden walls, with enough space inside to fit 10 people comfortably.
"Something is not right."
i look at Bear.
"Why? Isn't this a Berber camp?"
"Yes it is, but we should see now lit up fires. To sleep in this cold without a fire lit, i haven't seen until now."
Bear starts looking around, still trying to figure out what is happening. We both get closer to the camp, slowly and alert. We slow down even more, and we understood each other through our gazes to be careful and not make any noise while coming closer to the first tree. We get close to the first hut. Pass by the fence of branches. Inside, there is no movement, but, even in this dark, the bodies of the Berbers can be seen on the ground. i walk further but hit with my leg a body already. i look down, it seems to be a man, i push him gently with my leg but he doesn't wake up. He isn't asleep.
i look at Bear and we both get out of the hut and far from it until we decide it's a safe enough distance, then we stop.
"What happened?"
"I don't know, we must get in with a light to figure it out."
"You have a torch?"
"No, you?"
i pull out my phone and press the button, nothing, i keep the button pressed, but it doesn't turn on.
"It's dead."
"Alright, then we'll do some primitive torches. Go and bring me two big straight sticks, solid ones, and some more small sticks and branches and dry leaves."
i look around, see a bush, run to it and look at the branches. i find two that are thicker and longer, break them and hold them in one hand, i also gather some barks and stuff that looks flammable and go back to Bear.
"Here."
"Hold the two torches a little while I finish here, give me the rest."
Bear was working on another bush, ripping leaves with a knife. He looks at me and holds his hand out for me to put a stick in it. He takes the stick, puts it with the head down and starts carving and splitting with his knife the upper end. He cleaves it in many pieces and in those cracks and splits he puts dried leaves. He keeps doing this until no more leaves fit in, then he adds some small sticks and barks and ties it up with a piece of cloth from his blouse. It looks heavily loaded, the top of the torch. He extends his hand to ask for the other stick and repeats the process. We now have two sticks with a wide upper part, made out of leaves, barks, sticks and cloth.
Bear kneels down where he had already gathered a clump of strings and small barks and leaves, he pulls out his knife and flint and starts hitting each other above the clump. The sparks fly and fall on the clump but with no effect. But Bear keeps throwing sparks at it for more than two minutes and with no sign of slowing down. i notice a small bright point, like the smallest of embers lit in that clump. Bear stops, takes it on his palm and starts blowing gently. The lit point keeps growing with each blow, until a flame starts. The clump lights up almost instantly, Bear sets it down and covers it with leaves and dry sticks. The fire is burning at its maximum in no time. Without waiting for him to tell me, i put the top of the torch above the fire. Bear does the same.
Be both wait now, with our torches lit and surrounded by the light they give off. But we don't want to enter the camp, we don't want to walk in those people's homes and see them lying dead. And we absolutely don't want to see what killed them. Bear looks at me.
"We must take a rest and heat ourselves at a fire."
He has a point, the fire from the torch is giving me so much heat over my face and my hand that i hold it with, but it's almost nothing, and the rest of the body is even colder now in contrast. If we don't make a fire we'll freeze, but what killed the people from the camp?
"And with…"
"We search each hut and if we don't find any trace of danger, it should mean we're safe."
i walk with Bear towards the first hut where we just were earlier, and let him go in first. He notices the gesture but doesn't seem bothered. The whole area surrounded by branches lights up. The bodies, five in number, two adults, two kids and a young man. Bear checks the ground around then kneels down near a man. He touches the dead man's face and moves his head. There are two marks on his neck, like a vampire bite.
"Snake bites."
That makes more sense.
"They were all bitten, probably in their sleep. The fire is consumed so it was lit when they died, and the fact that the sticks and ambers are cold means they weren't killed tonight."
"So the danger is gone."
"Most probably. But we should check each hut carefully, to see if the snakes are really gone."
Bear gets out to go check the other huts probably. i stay and look at the Berber's bite on the neck. Two small points, both on the artery, exactly like a vampire. i put my hand forward and out of the camel skin. The two points from the snake's bite. i thought it was all a dream. i touch them softly, they are placed in the same way, along the main vein of my arm. The snake told me to follow the land serpent. i don't know what's a land serpent.
i get out of the hut and go check the others. i see a light coming out of one of them, there must be Bear. i go into a different one to check it. i find the same thing, dead people on the ground, men, women, kids. They have the same marks on their necks, legs, arms, wherever the snakes got to bite. No sign of snakes anywhere. i finish checking the last hut and go to the one i see light in. No dead here.
"you find anything?"
"No, just…"
"Yeah. They were all killed in their sleep."
"What do we do?"
"We stay here, make a fire, warm ourselves up and continue our path. We must reach the civilization fast to announce the authorities of what happened."
"Yes."
Bear rearranges the pile of wood from the hole in the middle of the hut and places his torch at the base. On the side i see a stock of wood, cut probably for fire. i take a few sticks and bring them to Bear. He makes sign to not place them on the fire yet, it was weak. i let the sticks down and sit near the fire.
It's better, i start to warm up. my body even starts trembling, now that i feel heat in front of me and it defrosts. i still feel the cold on my back though. i get even closer to the fire. Bear throws three more pieces of wood on it, it grows. i reach forward with my hands. It's pleasant.
We both sit in silence, watching the fire and enjoying it. Bear sighs. i lean on a side to stretch and rest. i look at Bear, i don't want to bother him from his thoughts but maybe he knows.
"The serpent…of land. You know something about it?"
"Serpent of land? Aren't they all, the land types? Or are you talking about the species that strictly don't live near water?"
"i must…if i'd have to follow the land serpent, how would i do that?"
"Ah. I think you're referring to the valley of the snakes."
"Maybe?"
"Yes, it's a serpentine valley, actually a dry riverbed filled with nests of snakes, but when it rains in the mountains, sometimes water comes down through there and it fills. It's an arroyo, or a wash, a stream bed that seasonally fills and flows. Also called flash floods because it can take you by surprise and before you know it, you're taken by the water force and smashed against rocks and trees."
The water serpent, i have to be careful to not be flooded suddenly by it. i must get to the valley of the snakes.
"And in this period, is it raining in the mountains? Can the river form?"
"Depends, I don't know how the rains are right now in the mountain area, usually the clouds stop in the mountains, so I can't figure it out because almost nothing passes through here."
"i want to go through there."
"Through the riverbed?"
"Yes."
"That's where I would've gone too if I were alone, but it's too dangerous for you, especially in your shorts. you can't protect yourself at all."
"i know that through that riverbed it would be the best way to get where we want."
"I'm not taking you through there, if you want to go you can go alone. I won't even tell you where it is, I don't want to have you on my conscience. We'll take the path I say, and is less dangerous. We'll reach our destination around tomorrow night."
"i don't think i can make it until this morning even."
i take the torch that i laid down on a rock and hold it so it lights up my bite. Bear lets out a huge sigh.
"Do you feel anything? Are you ok? Any effect?"
"No. i'm fine."
"you got bit now?"
"No. When we were sleeping at the feet of the trees. i felt a bite."
"And you said nothing until now?"
"i didn't checked back then, i thought it was a dream and i didn't felt it until now… i realized about it after i saw those people…i felt something on my arm and i checked and then i discovered it."
"Oh. i think we'll go through the valley of the snakes after all. It's riskier, but it's also much faster. But you'll have to take care. Stay always behind me and let's hope you won't get bitten again."
"When do we leave?"
"Now. Take your torch and watch where you step."
We both get up. i'm getting dizzy suddenly. i stagger a bit and fall back on my ass. Bear sees me.
"Are you ok?"
"Yes, a little dizzy."
It's from the hunger, i feel it eating me inside, this void. i have that chocolate bar in my pocket but… If i don't eat something soon, i'll die. i will definitely die, Oma said it, that thing she used to say about those who don't eat…something about…fuck if i can remember. i have to get quickly to a doctor. The perfusion, is the only thing that could save me, i can't vomit that. Hopefully…
"you ate your bar?"
"Yes. The bar didn't go well either."
"Let's go then, we can't lose time at all."
Bear leans forward and takes his torch from under the fire. i take my torch too. We both put sand on the fire to put it out and leave the camp. Bear looks around and then analyses the sky.
i just now realized, i have the most lit and wonderful sky above me, it's like the ceiling of a planetarium, but so much more, so much brighter and epic. All the stars light up bright and they are so many that i think it's literally impossible to orient yourself by them.
"We're going in that direction."
Bear shows towards a plain dark area, nothing special about it, but one line that unites the earth with the sky and is a blend of both shades of darkness. That line could be the mountains, or could be just my imagination trying to see what Bear sees.
Holding our torches close to our bodies, we pierce through the dark cold desert, heading towards the mountain. We keep a five metres distance between us so that we maximize the light area produced by the torches. The coldness nests again in my bones, i'm shivering. Each gust of wind cuts straight through the camel fur, and through the shirt, and through the meat, and gets right into my heart. my legs are numb, and they don't feel mine anymore, my toes are frostbitten, i'm completely frozen. But just a small area of my body, the one closer to the torch, is not so frozen. So i keep changing the torch from my right hand to my left and back to even out the warmth, or better put, the less freezing. my hands are good though, i hold the torch by the neck, as close as i can have my hand to the warm fire.
Bear isn't holding up well either. i feel like a zombie, numb body, no pain that i can feel right now, and walking without stop. Hours pass.
At one point we stumble upon a tree. It's the only one around and it seems dead. Not bigger than two metres the tree, but it's very rich in branches and leaves, all dried. Bear holds his torch at the base of the crown and i watch how the tree quickly ignites and burns. And this fire extends and envelops the entire tree in seconds. We take a few steps back, both pushed off by the heat wave. i can't stay closer than five metres to the fire, i feel my face melting even from here. But it's pleasant. The warmth comes back into my body, i'm enveloped in it and i don't have to keep turning around like a döner kebab to be evenly warm, because it's that warm.
After five minutes Bear makes me sign to get back on our path. i go after him. i wanted to ask him if we're going to leave the tree like this, but it's alone in the middle of the desert, there is nowhere for the fire to extend. i turn to look after the tree, it looks like a moving ball of fire. A ball that gets smaller and smaller, until it becomes a point. And we keep going for hours and i keep turning, and that minuscule point is still there, sometimes two, sometimes back to one, lighting, burning.
After hours of continuous walk, the shade of the mountain is clear now, don't know if that line i saw back then was the mountain, but this time i am sure, as the mountain looks so big and is so close to us. Don't know how close we are, but it seems that the sky will soon be meeting the sun and i'll see then. Bear stops to eat another bar and drink another mouthful of water, i too fake drink, and we continue.
The point is still there, i don't know if i see it, or just want it to be there but it's not dark anymore to make it so visible. The sky turns dark blue, then orange, then light blue. The sun is up, and slowly rising and already burning my eyes. The torches are long put off, but we still carry them with us, because we don't know if we're going to catch another night here, even though i won't survive another one. The air starts warming up, up again to the level of unbearable. i'll die from the heat, that's sure…
We're very close to the mountain, but we make another halt and i take off the camel skin and put the shirt over my head, then the skin back over me. Bear does the same with the shirt that's over his blouse and we keep going. i'm melting. The sun is going up faster and faster until it burns like a motherfucker. The mountain seems to be at a kilometre's distance or so, Bear started already changing direction to the right to get to our point of climbing. We're going around the depression that seems to go straight through the mountain and keep walking in a close to parallel direction with the mountain.
"We can't go through there?"
"No. At the end of that depression is a huge wall that can't be climbed without equipment, and on the sides, there isn't one point that's a little easier to climb."
"Ok."
"The valley of the snakes is right ahead, you'll see, it won't take any longer."
"And after the valley…where do we arrive at?"
"After the valley we get on the mountain, we'll reach a portion that we'll have to climb and then we're going to arrive up on the mountain on a commerce route. That route is very populated, there are always to be found people with camels or on motorcycles that circulate that route. From there we'll arrive in no time to civilization. Maybe we even stumble upon a bus or a fast transit vehicle."
"Good."
We keep walking in silence. After another hour we stop again to drink water. In this pause i see near my foot the sand moving, and out of the sand comes a small reptile, and this reptile looks at me and goes up on its back limbs and points with its finger forward, towards the mountain. i look in the direction it pointed at, from this distance it seems to be a lower part of the mountain that goes up. i look at my foot, the reptile is gone, i caught just a glimpse of the sand moving as it was submerging and swimming in this yellow sea. i look at Bear and point myself to the same spot.
"That's where we should go?"
"Yes. There where you see that low point, there starts the riverbed, the valley of the snakes, and it goes up on the mountain to an area where the water gathers from rains. The sky seems to say that we won't have any unpleasant surprises."
"But what if it happens?"
"The riverbed to get filled and water to come over us?"
i nod my head.
"We don't have much to do, just run towards the side of the riverbed fast and try to climb the interior walls as high as we can. Once we get to a high point, we have to find a very wide and sturdy tree and sit down in between the tree and the water that will fall over us, and hold the tree with our hands and legs surrounding its bark. So if the water gets to us still, we will be pushed against the tree and held there in place. And maybe we have luck and the tree won't fall with us."
"Maybe we have luck and the water doesn't come for us."
"Yes, but the water is not the greatest danger we can stumble upon. This is the valley of the snakes after all."
In less than ten minutes we arrive at the base of the riverbed. It really looks like a river was once flowing through here, a river in shape of a snake climbing up the mountain, to the very peak. We start climbing it.
"you stay behind me and don't wander off at all. If you see a snake you tell me and stay behind my back no matter how I'd move, understood?"
"Yes."
Around us, the walls get taller and taller as the riverbed gets deeper and deeper, but we still climb. At the base of the lateral walls i see sometimes a snake coming out from a hole and slithering along the wall's edge until it finds another hole to go down it. The walls that bound the riverbed, where they aren't continued up by the rocks of the mountain, have heights of over 6-7 metres. How are we supposed to climb 7 metres up in case the water comes after us? And that if we're lucky and won't have to climb the rocks above those 7 metres of wall too.
"Stop."
We both stop. i lean on a side to see what's happening, and three metres in front of Bear, a snake comes out of the ground. It's long, it still hasn't got out of the hole completely, but it comes towards us. Bear goes fast, keeping his body back and hits the snake's head with the torch. He hits it again and pins the snake's head to the ground. He waits for the snake to wrap itself around the stick and then throws it with the snake as far as he can. The snake, disoriented, slithers away in the opposite direction. We keep climbing.
The terrain turned from an easy slope to a hell of a climb, full of rocks and ground that makes climbing in my shoes a horrible experience. The inclination is getting more aggressive and we have to keep our weight forward and help with our hands in some places. To our left and right i see the snakes, slithering at the walls' base, stuck to the walls, not paying attention to us at all. But they look like they hurry to get ahead of us. Bear notices too the snakes that keep going up.
"I think the snakes will block our path further up. I don't understand what's going on. The snakes usually are not animals that can communicate or coordinate in actions, not this well for sure. And still they seem to be working together to ambush us."
The waves of snakes pass us and the two of us are the only ones left on the valley, for now. We stop.
"I think these are the same snakes that attacked the huts. Otherwise, I can't explain myself how all those people have bite marks and no other wounds, no indication of a struggle. As if the snakes attacked all at the same time. But even so, I can't explain how do these snakes…evolved so they can communicate. I don't understand how they could communicate."
"Maybe they developed a method, or just know what to do by following the moves and intentions of the other snakes."
"Possibly, but what is happening now seems more than just following the boss. There is no other snake around us. They are all waiting for us up there."
i remember the snake that bit me. He was talking with me, probably the way they talk now between themselves. And i had to listen to him and i understood him.
"Let's keep going. We'll see what we find up there."
We both keep climbing the riverbed, Bear in front and me behind. After we get past an area which i barely was able to climb, we arrive on another area which is less inclined. Another depression that continues up the mountain. The depression is even wider, but by the interior walls i realize is still a riverbed. In front of us i see a bifurcation, the riverbed splits in other two equally wide riverbeds. The left one leads to the top of the mountain and the right one goes a bit to the side.
Ahead of us i see the snakes starting to come out. They seem aggressive and they're coming towards us fast enough. We stop and both turn around. Behind was already waiting for us a wall of snakes that we wouldn't be able to go around. We're stuck.
We can't run back, we'd lose control and break our necks while falling, and upwards there's a wave of snakes that's coming right for us. Bear isn't moving at all, it seems he's thinking, but i don't know what, he may be frozen with fear. i am not scared though, i have already been bitten, and i don't know why but i'm under the impression that there isn't much more they can do to me now.
"What are we doing?"
"I don't know. If we run towards the side, they'll reach us before we even get to climb a metre. We have to fight them."
i know what i have to do. i have to listen to them.
"Wait, i am already bitten, let me get forward and stay behind me. i also have an idea that could work."
Bear doesn't think twice at my proposal and goes behind me. The snakes behind us don't push up forward, they just form this wall to make sure we won't escape. The snakes coming down for us, they keep coming, fast and in a ready to fight manner. Ahead of them is the viper with horns that bit me. The same golden viper, shiny but small, especially compared to the other snakes he's leading.
The viper stops right in front of me and rises on his tail. He's at the same height as me. Just standing on his tail, balancing slightly left and right as if to hold his balance. i stay still in front of him, watching straight into his eyes.
"i'm listening."
"What?"
"Oh, i'm not talking with you."
Bear is tensed, moving closer to the side wall of the riverbed, looking constantly forwards and backwards. He doesn't know what to do, but he's ready to climb as fast as he can if everything goes nuts.
"Tell me, now that i followed the land serpent, what should i do next?"
The viper keeps dancing in front of me, untouched by my words. i move the camel skin away and extend my arm forward, towards the snake, with the wound to be seen. i close my eyes.
"What are you doing?!"
i feel something piercing through the already existing wounds on the arm's vein. That substance doesn't flow much, it stops and i open my eyes. The viper retracts his fangs from my arm and wraps around it. The viper turns towards the huge wave of snakes that got ten times bigger meanwhile and extends towards them. my hand, as if pulled by some invisible strings, is up and pointed at the snakes.
"Ni."
i hear that voice with an echo, is coming from the viper? From me? It's odd…i heard it, i felt it through vibrations, through my arm, up to my head where it was translated, and then through my feet into the ground where the waves propagated towards the other snakes. At hearing this word all the snakes make a lane in front of us, a passageway, leaving some of the snakes behind to keep guarding the left part of the bifurcation. The passage made by snakes continues on the right riverbed.
Bear looks at me, i wave to him.
"We must go where the snakes are showing us."
Bear can't believe his eyes, he doesn't understand what i'm saying, but he's following me closely as i start walking on the passage made by snakes. It's strange, to walk with my hand extended forward, a snake wrapped around it, and hundreds of others standing on the sides, as if saluting us. The snakes that form a wall to the left and right of us stand tall, like their boss stood in front of me. But for them, being much bigger, seems to be easier to stay at our height, but they still balance slightly left and right, making a synchronised dance as if trying to enchant us.
It's not wide, the space in the passage, i think two metres between the walls of snakes, and because we didn't want to stay close to the snakes, me and Bear were walking in one line right in the middle of the passageway, he behind me and me leading.
We keep walking along the passage, past the bifurcation, and follow the path that keeps expanding in front of us. From the other side of the riverbed, that we couldn't climb because of the wall of snakes protecting it, starts flowing violently a stream of water. It's coming from up, from the mountain and flows in brutal waves, the water drops that smash against the rocks fall far enough to reach even us raining on us.
In front of us, not very far away, i see the passage of snakes ending, but we never get to the end. On the sides, behind the walls formed by standing snakes, i see other snakes slithering forward, as if they went from the end of the passage to the front to complete it and keep it going up, to make it never ending.
For more than an hour we keep walking, without stop for fear of what snakes would do to us if we do. And the snakes kept forming the passage ahead of us, without stop too from the fear of the viper on my hand. Viper that keeps standing on my hand, for his own reasons.
After we get to a more inclined terrain, ahead of us comes a cave that passes right through the mountain and seems to have an exit right on the other side. The point of light seems big, so we won't have to walk much through that cave to get on the other side.
The water flowing on the riverbed we avoided can still be heard even from here. We detoured a lot because it, but with this cave we'll pass on the other side of the mountain and quickly arrive to civilization.
"I haven't seen this cave until now, but taking into consideration where it seems we are, it should lead us to where we need to go."
Bear wasn't that scared of the huge mass of snakes surrounding us anymore. At the entrance of the cave, on one side and the other, two vipers with horns, guardians of the cave, were waiting for us. The boss viper gets off my hand and slithers to the front of the cave. Bear looks at me.
"Thank your new friends and let's go, your wound doesn't look too good, it's turning black."
i look at my arm, i'm still bleeding a little, the wound hasn't healed from the last bite. And the veins around it are turning indeed black. Bear goes into the cave and sits down leaning against the wall. i also go to the entrance of the cave and look at the viper.
"Thanks."
"you are on the right path, but you don't have much time left. Try to hold on a little bit more. Live."
i wave in sign of goodbye and go to Bear that the instant he sees me jumps up on his feet.
"Let's go."
"Don't you want to take a pause?"
"No. We don't have much longer."
Both of us start walking towards the other end of the cave. The cave is pretty bright at the beginning, but as we deepen inside, it gets darker until it's almost pitch black. But you can still notice stuff, rocks or other obstacles along the way, with the help of the light at the other end. Light that seems bigger than the one behind us, but much further. At least is cool here.