Free The Fallen by Jack Ziebell Page B

had brought with them.  On the horizon, where Dire Dawa should be, they could see smoke.  They stopped, feet either side of their bikes, panting from the heat.
    “Looks bad,” said Asefa, “You want to go on? I feel I’ve seen enough death for one day.”
    “We have to, where the hell else are we going to go?  Maybe the people are OK there, we have to look.  At least we should be able to find a phone or radio to call HQ in Addis or London.”
    Asefa nodded.  “Yeah, HQ.  I’m not comfortable about going to the authorities here either; for all we know they caused this somehow.”
    They set off towards the town, but they weren’t peddling as fast as they had been. 
     
     
     

Chapter 19
     
     
    The shrieks, groans and violent coughing coming out of the smoke were getting closer.  Marius looked concerned.  “Brian, wait here, I’m going to see if I can find a boat.”
    Despite the past few minutes of crying and self-pitying gibberish, Brian had pulled himself back together.  “Fuck that, I’m coming with you.”
    They jogged along the riverbank, until they came to a shallow inlet.  Floating a short way out was a small fifteen-foot knockabout, the kind a kid learns to sail in. 
    “Come on,” said Marius as he dived in.  Brian followed and swam head down towards the boat.  When he thought he’d made it close to the boat he paused to look up and get his bearings.  Marius was already hanging on the side of the craft and struggling with a deranged looking teenage boy who must have been lying inside.  The boy had a maniacal grin and vacant stare and flailed wildly at Marius who was trying to pull himself into the boat whilst defending his face and trying not to capsize them both.  The boy must have lost his balance because he flew over Marius head first into the water.  He did not come back up.  Marius managed to clamber over the side and held his hand out to Brian.
    Brian splashed over to the small craft and was just about to kick himself up when he felt something grab his ankle and hold him under.  The boy must have sunk to the bottom, but the water was not too deep.  He kicked but the hand did not let go.  Suddenly the grip loosened and he was free.  Spluttering to the surface he grabbed for Marius who pulled him aboard.
    On the shore three more people had crawled, snake like on their stomachs, to the waters edge.  Two were drinking, with their heads down to the river, the third was looking straight at them screaming. 
    They floated in the boat for some time, just staring at the shore.
    “Did you see those people, did you see those fucking people.” said Brian, “They’ve lost their fucking minds.”
    Marius began inspecting the rigging.  “Who knows what the swathe did to them; given them dementia; lobotomised their humanity; wiped their memory banks like a credit card on a magnet?  I’d love we take a closer look but I think they might rip my face off like a fucking chimpanzee, yah?”
    “What now?”
    “Now I think we need to get somewhere pretty fucking safe, before,”
    “Before what?”
    “Before they become more awake .  Look at the people on the shore.”
    More people had started to appear including some who were badly burned.  They could smell the water and howled for it, crawling closer.
    “They are not walking, not standing,” said Brian
    “Not yet anyway.  That boy in the boat, he didn’t know what he was doing, he was just grabbing at me.  He was a big lad, he could have pried my hands off the boat or hit me in the face with the ore, but he just couldn’t figure that out.  Those people burning in the city, they could feel pain but they just couldn’t figure out what was causing it or how to stop it.  That mean’s their nerves aren’t shot but their minds are.  For now.”
    “You mean they could get better?”
    “Who knows? People recover from amnesia, well some don’t, but some do.  But dementia, nobody recovers from that, it’s a one-way trip.