She Bleeds for Us: The Galactic Consortium 3

Chapter 8

Jake was in the copilot seat, Abioya driving. Jake wasn't sure if they were still in Chad or over the border into Niger. The whole region was mostly desert and this particular road, though the word road was rather loosely associated with the track they were currently on, was new. There was no border gate or landmark.

All he knew was that to his right, to the north, was southern Libya and when the road started to turn south it would be Algeria on his right and they would headed for Mali.

This was true saharan desert and their stops were few and far between. They had camped outside one village last night, unloaded in the morning. They wouldn't see the next village until almost nightfall.

The village were they had spent the night had been peaceful but the villagers had been full of warnings about the next stretch. Their tribe straddled the border and a rival tribe was seizing villages a few miles north.

Jake didn't know what to make of any of it. Tribal warfare seemed so distant from his life back home in America or his new life amongst the Consortium. And they had driven all day without seeing a single human being.

Then three people were coming over the next dune at a run. Libya was an Arab state but this far south most of the tribes were saharan and indistinguishable to Jake from the Africans of Niger or the West Coast. They wore long robes and head coverings, but is was as much to keep the sun off as for religious reasons.

At the lead was a man. Behind him came a woman and the third runner was a head and half shorter and Jake could not make out their gender. They running heedless and didn't seem to have spotted the truck coming their way.

Abioya slowed down and looked at Jake, concern on his face.

Jake leaned forward and watched the spot where the people had come from. A battered jeep appeared at the top of the dune. Four men were in the jeep and one leaned over the windshield, a long gun in his hand. Jake's anxiety peaked. "Crap!"

"What now?" Abioya asked.

"We help them?" Jake said.

"We don't know who is who."

"We know who is armed and who isn't."

"True. How?"

Jake looked at the running figures and up at the top of the dune again. The man with the gun was leaning over, pointing at their truck and talking to the driver.

"Do a U-ey," Jake said.

Abioya's eyebrows scrunched.

Jake fought to find a proper word for what he meant. "Just a big U," he gestured with his hand in a wide arc around the running people.

Abioya's face lit up and he gunned the accelerator. The people froze as the truck raced past them and began to circle around.

The force of the acceleration sent a napping Chatura spilling out of his bunk with a startled grunt. "What the hell?" He sputtered.

Jake glanced back to see that he was okay, but there was no time to explain.

Abioya's wide circle brought them back, this time between the people on the ground and those in the jeep. Jake threw the door open and started yelling at the people to come to the truck. He was reasonably sure the truck could handle being shot at, since it was designed for off world hazards. Reasonably.

Unfortunately what he was shouting wasn't being translated because of the distance and the people simply cowered and watched them, unsure what to do. There was a muffled ping. The men in the jeep had shot at them.