The Narrator
The night was calm. The smell of the trees and flowers nearby wafted through the air. The air was crisp, and the sky was clear. Kirt sat on a log by the fire, staring into its flames. The flames were leaping as if they were the ones being burnt. The flickering of the campfire reflected off Heinrich's keen eyes, which were focused on the popping flame.
The last lights of the capsules on the bus were turned off, except for those inhabited by Mr. Gallagher and Ms. Seagale. Heinrich rubbed his palms as he continued to stare into the fire and exhaled. Sergio was washing some utensils. Water was burbling down the sink in the kitchen of the cabin opposite from the bus' main door.
A fly came by and sat on Heinrich's right arm as he sat by the fire. Heinrich was too focused on observing the leaping flames of the fire, listening to the cracking and popping of the burning wood that fuelled that fire. The fly was laying eggs while he stared into the fire, thinking of his past. He remembered the night when his parents died due to a fire in their cabin in Wyoming when he was a baby. The firefighters could rescue him, but they failed to save his mother and father. They burned to death. Their cries rang through his ears.
A sharp "thud" startled and frightened Heinrich, who jumped immediately and stood up. His mind returned to the present.
The fly, disturbed by the movement, flew away and flew in desperation towards the fire and got burnt.
Heinrich stood panting and sweating.
Sergio stood in front of Heinrich with a spear stabbed into the ground.
"You've got to be careful. It's a bushmaster," said Sergio.
Kirt looked at where the spear had stabbed into. It was a snake that was coiled to strike Kirt's leg.
"One bite from even a baby snake of this species could kill you," said Sergio as he twirled the snake into a nest with the same spear he had used to stab it, without even taking the spear off.
Kirt had calmed down and said, "Thank you, Sergio. I was just…. just… nevermind".
Sergio wanted to ask Kirt what he was going to say, but looking at Kirt being disturbed, he just said, "I'll throw this away." Sergio took the snake away and disappeared into the forest.
After wishing the girls goodnight, Ms. Seagale walked through the aisle. She thought of the events today and the jokes that she encountered. She smiled as she unlatched and opened her capsule, simultaneously thinking of her day. Something was lying on her bed. She stopped thinking about the day, and quickly pulled that thing which was on her bed.
Mr. Gallagher had just tucked himself in bed and turned his light off. As he lay on his bed, he looked through the window. Mr. Gallagher observed the trees, gently swaying with the movement of the wind. He tossed himself to the other side and was reading the instructions on the capsule door when …
Dok Dok
He heard a knock on his door.
"Who's it?" he asked, in his Irish accent.
"Seagale," replied the person on the other side of the door.
Mr. Gallagher woke up, turned on the lights, and unlatched the door.
Meanwhile, the students from Doha near La Abuela De Princesa Irene enjoyed the calm after a session of heavy rain. Shifaly left her bed and opened the door to the terrace to spend some time alone there. As soon as she opened the door, she felt a cold, wet breeze blow across her face.
She closed the door and walked through the terrace, holding herself tightly. It was chilly, and the smell of rain and mud drifted through the air.
Through the branches of some trees which blocked her view, she could see old Abuela De Princesa Irene holding massive amounts of water back.
Shifaly took a breath, and then looked at the sky, after looking at one of the lights which illuminated the terrace.
After a brief moment of looking at the sky, she looked back. Her heart skipped a beat.
Basura was there. Alone. Unobserved. He moved towards her. She moved back. Fear gripped her. She was vulnerable to any attack Basura could inflict on her. He was athletic and can do anything to her, and no one could witness anything.
Her back hit the railings of the terrace as she moved back. Basura kept inching closer.
"Shifaly… I just wanna say, I'm sorry for hitting you and being angry with you. I want you to forgive me. I know I said many bad words to you, and I pushed you and physically harmed you many times. Please forgive me. I promise I won't do anything like that again." he said.
Shifaly was shocked and relieved by that apology. It was not what she expected. For a while, she didn't know what to say. She then heaved a sigh of relief. Finally, she smiled and said, "It's okay, Basura."
Basura put his head down and prepared to head back to his room when Shifaly called him once again.
"Basura?" she called.
He turned back and saw Shifaly smiling, offering a handshake. He smiled and shook her hand.
Sergio had finished disposing of the snake's corpse, and washing the utensils when he still found Heinrich sitting on the wooden log by the now burning out flame. Heinrich was mildly startled when Sergio tossed some logs into the fire and revived it. Seeing it was Sergio who did it, Heinrich smiled, relieved, at Sergio.
After having done that, Sergio sat beside Heinrich."It's a beautiful night, isn't it," remarked Sergio as he looked at the sky.
"Indeed it is," remarked Kirt, who joined Sergio in observing the sky, sighing.
The breeze gently caressed their faces as it moved through the camp into the forest, ruffling the leaves of the trees as it did so.
"Do you have a family, Sergio?" Heinrich asked as they both looked into the sky.
"I had," said Sergio said as he looked down between his feet.
"I'm sorry…" Heinrich said.
"No. Don't worry," said Sergio."I had a wife: a woman I dearly loved since a young age," he began. He continued, "Her name was Penelope Santa María Hernandez. We met first when I was fishing at my grandfather's house. You know she had such a beautiful face. Look at her face and into her eyes, and all you'd find is happiness. Her smiles and laughs never fail to ring beautifully through your ears. We studied together in high school and married when we both were sixteen. I loved her very much, but she's no more." He smiled with a tinge of grief when he thought of her.
"How did they die?" Heinrich asked with caution.
He sighed. "The day she died, she wanted to go for a trip fishing in the forest. We enjoyed our last moments fishing together. That evening, we began canoeing back to the camp. In the middle of our journey, we noticed that it was stormy and what was a stream had swelled into a river. We tried our best to row the canoe upstream but the water current was too strong that we gave up. Soon we let the water carry us. After three hours, our canoe ran aground. We realized.. we realized we were in La Tierra De Sangre. I told my wife to stay near a tree, while I go look around. She listened. I explored the region around. When I returned to the tree, my wife was not there. I saw drops of scarlet on the forest floor. I first looked around and didn't find her. Then I followed the droplets of scarlet until I heard the sound of crunching: the sound of someone eating crisps. I crept through the forest and — " Sergio took a deep breath. "That being was eating our baby. I looked around to find out where my Penelope was. Then I found her head. Her beheaded head's eyes looked at me. It was those same beautiful eyes, I'd seen since I was small. It was those same eyes but without life. It feasted, with blood dripping like drool from its mouth, on the embryo it pulled out from my wife's stomach, after slitting it. I was stunned by the whole incident that I stood petrified. Angry, when I recovered, I threw a rock at it. It stirred and came near me. I pulled out my rifle and fired at it. It dodged my bullets. Bullets whizzed through the air. When my rifle was empty I pulled out my pistol. Then it began raining. The rain dimmed visibility. The being came near me, but then retreated to the forest, taking with it my wife and my child's embryo."
"Do you know what—," began Heinrich before he was cut off by Mr. Gallagher, who came towards the fire.
"Kirt, I need ya to go into the bus," Mr. Gallagher said. He always spoke with an Irish accent."Sergio, we need to talk" was the last phrase Heinrich heard Mr. Gallagher say to Sergio, before entering the bus. Heinrich wondered and thought about the tale that Sergio narrated to him, as he entered the bus. He couldn't stop imagining the sound of brains being eaten or that of someone's blood being sucked.