‘What do you want Leila and me to do?’ Twenny asked.
I could think of a few things where Leila was concerned.
‘Stay out of sight until we return.’
‘We can do that, right?’ Twenny said to Leila. She gave him a hesitant nod.
Good luck with that, I thought. I repeated our intentions to Boink, Ayesha and Ryder and then asked the captain if he was up to taking the watch with Cassidy. He said he was. I didn’t want to disturb Peanut with details. He was making like a frog, hopping around, chasing a couple of them across the ground and into the trash heap.
‘Take the scope,’ said West, handing it over. ‘You might be able to see something useful when you get to higher ground.’
Rutherford and I went to the steps behind the hardwood table and started climbing through thick, wet palm fronds and elephant grass. Ten minutes later we were still climbing and the earth became a chalky limestone wall. Still no sign of human life. The wall had steps cut into it, which zigzagged ever higher. After a climb of over a hundred meters, we came to the lip, and a knoll covered in a close-cropped variety of grass opened out, surrounded by scrub. The presence of a manicured area the size of a couple of basketball courts somehow made the stillness all the more eerie. Folks had to manage this patch of turf — a kind of assembly area, I figured — keep it maintained. I looked back down at the river below, our landing hidden by the tree canopy. It was possible that no one saw us arrive, but I doubted that. The river, a dark brown snake coiling through the green of the rainforest, could be seen for some distance in both directions and I was relieved to find that it was clear of boats filled with soldiers, a point I further confirmed with the scope.
I heard an animal sound — a grunt. It came from the rainforest, which began where the grass ended. An adolescent pig appeared out of the darkness beneath the canopy, at the boundary line with the grass. Its arrival was a surprise, at least to us. The pig, however, looked our way as if we were expected. It then turned and waddled back in the direction it had come from, stopped, glanced back over its shoulder and eyeballed us as if to say, ‘You coming, or what?’ and moved off at a canter.
‘Hmm, ham,’ I said. ‘With luck, we’ll find cheese.’
We followed the pig. The path split into quite a few tributaries that threaded the rainforest dripping with rainwater, the dense canopy snuffng out much of the ambient light. Eventually, the trail thickened up, the tributaries rejoining, and exited the forest at the edge of a large banana plantation that opened out on either side of what was now a small road. The trees were hung with drooping purple sacks pregnant with flowers. More pigs wandered among the ordered rows and our guide trotted off to join them. I counted a dozen chickens scratching at the earth here and there. Rutherford and I stuck to the road and pushed on. Next came two large fields where rows of vegetables grew, bisected by the road. I could identify immature tomatoes, but the other plants were a mystery. Pigs were here too, digging up and eating whatever was interesting them. They were like kids causing mischief while the grown-ups were out. This was obviously a well-organized village with a sizeable population doing a good job of feeding itself. But where was this sizeable population? If an armed force had come through here and taken the villagers, they’d have pilfered the animals. I was mentally basting a couple of those chickens myself. No, something else was going on around here and I didn’t like whatever it was.
Rutherford nudged me in the arm and gestured ahead. A roof thatched with dry grass beckoned through a gap in the trees. We headed for it along the path, looking for people but seeing no one. A monkey of some variety sat on a low bough and ate a snack between its hands, took a few fdgeting steps in our direction, stopped, nibbled some more, squealed and scampered up into the higher boughs. The thatched roof belonged to a large single hut. I heard flies buzzing and birds calling but still no human sounds.
The hut was open, the door wide. The M4 in my arms was on safety with a full mag loaded. I put my head around the corner. There was no porridge on the table, but I went in anyway. Rows of well-used shovels, rakes and other implements were neatly stacked against one wall. It was some kind of work barn. Most of the space was given over to furniture making. Half a dozen chairs were under construction, along with a few tables and beds. Benches were equipped with various woodworking tools, all of them manually rather than electrically powered — saws, drills, chisels and so forth. Checking down the far end of the barn, we found a potter’s wheel, a lump of white clay sitting on the wheel, too dry to be made into anything. On the wall behind the wheel were tiers of shelves lined with jugs, cups and bowls, all made from the white clay. There was a regular industry going on here. The village probably traded furniture and pots with other villages on the river. Interesting, but not as interesting as knowing where the hell everyone had gone off to.
Rutherford waited for me at the doorway. ‘This place is creeping me out.’
‘Keep an eye peeled for bears, Goldilocks,’ I said.
I took a couple of steps and stopped. I’d just caught a whiff of something familiar and unpleasant. Another few paces and I became enveloped by it: the smell of blood and feces and death. It hung between the bushes as if from a rope. My palms started sweating. The road curved around behind a small stand of banana trees and I saw a couple of dark brown feet lying on the trail. Opening out the angle, I saw that they were attached to a body curled in the fetal position, turned away from me.
I signaled Rutherford that I was going in for a closer look. He nodded, rubbing the stock on his M4 like he was hoping a genie might spring forth.
The body was that of an African male somewhere in his twenties. He was wearing dark green shorts and a loose dark blue shirt. Blood had seeped from his nostrils, eyes and ear holes. His shorts were also stiff with dried black blood. The man had bled out. His palms and kneecaps were white, the color of the mud in the area, which suggested that he’d probably crawled here to die.
‘Could that be Ebola?’ Rutherford asked, taking several steps backward just in case. I did likewise for the same reason.
This should have been a bustling village, but the place was a ghost town and the animals were running amok. All the buildings that we could see were intact. Something like Ebola, the hemorrhagic fever found in these parts, could explain what we’d found. If it was the virus, and depending on how long ago the first villager started displaying symptoms, it might already have killed almost everyone here, burned through the place the way fire moves through dry grass. Ebola was extremely contagious and had a mortality rate that made bubonic plague look like a head cold. It was so lethal that some countries had considered using it as a weapon of mass destruction, which was why I knew a little about it. There would be a radio somewhere in the village, but we wouldn’t be able to get to it. Shit. It might as well have been on the moon.
I wondered if the guy on the ground was still hot with virus, and whether any of the flies that had landed on me when I was in the vicinity of the body had virus on its fly feet. I sneezed involuntarily.
‘Christ, skipper,’ said Rutherford, taking a step away from me. ‘You got pretty close to that poor sod.’
‘I don’t think the bug works that fast.’ I hope.
‘You sure?’
‘Yep.’ Nope.
He relaxed a little and we retraced our steps ten meters or so. I scoped the village with the sight and counted four more bodies lying out in the open. One of them moved an arm. Ebola turned internal organs to rotting mush. If that’s what we had here, I pitied the survivors still in that village. Depending on a range of factors, including the size of the village’s population, there’d probably be several, but going in to help was way too risky. And there wasn’t much we could do anyway, unless the cure involved a makeover, courtesy of Leila’s little white case.