Dawn of the Epoch

Chapter LXIV - Kiubo Falls

Hunter awoke early. It would be hours before the sun rose. His mind swam through a torrent of thoughts. Where were Ghaelvord and Malacoda? When would they recover from their injuries? Would they die? Were they killed? If not, then how could they be killed? What would their next move be? What will my next move be? One thing Hunter knew was that they needed to get out of Kiubo Falls. They needed to meet and regroup. They needed to formulate a plan. Staying in Kiubo would only endanger themselves and the denizens of the lodge. Malacoda could be leading an army here as they slept. With that thought, Hunter woke his colleagues.

They groggily dressed and met on the porch of the lodge. A brief survey revealed that the lodge was the only form of civilization in the vicinity. No town or locals resided here. Also, no public transportation was available.

“What are we going to do?” Hunter asked the group.

“We should get out of here as soon as possible.” Hongo said.

“Agreed.” Replied Tiyana. She went on, “I think what Hunter meant was ‘What are we going to do in the big picture?’”

“Ghaelvord and Malacoda will heal. It will take more than that to put them down permanently.” Virgil interjected.

“How long do we have?” Hongo asked.

“Probably a few days, but possibly a few hours. I cannot say for sure how debilitating their injuries were.” Came the reply.

“Do we go back and hit them while they are down?” Hunter asked with excitement tainted by exhaustion.

“No. We do not. You saw their army. They will entrench and fortify the compound. We cannot go back, at least for now.” Virgil replied.

Tiyana spoke up, “We did not leave empty-handed. We got some sense of his plans. We have valuable information. We need to leverage what we learned.”

“Yes.” Virgil replied.

“But how?” Hunter asked.

Tiyana went on, “First, we get maps. He said that he would take a ship through the Suez. Now, he may have been lying, but we know that his ship is in Mozambique, possibly somewhere in the Nacala port. We know that he has the government in his pocket. We know that his target is France. We can look at the geography and see if we can reason out his next move.”

“Deductive reasoning?” Hunter asked rhetorically.

Tiyana went on, “Right, we have a lot of premises to work with. We may crack this thing wide open.”

Hunter responded, “We don’t have a lot of time dear. He’s got enough of those ghouls to fill up a ship. I think the only thing holding him back was that he was doing more training or he was still planning.”

Hunter and Tiyana looked at Virgil and Hongo to chime in and break the deadlock over action or inaction.

Hongo spoke up, “We can go to Mozambique. There we must deal with the government and the various roadblocks that they will have set up. We may not even get through customs. We can go back to the digsite. There we could take Tiyana’s recommendation and look for clues as to Ghaelvord’s plan. We can go to the Suez and try to spot the ship as it crosses the canal. We can also attempt to return to Ghaelvord’s compound where we may all die. We can also explore other routes that Ghaelvord may take. He might have lied, of course, about everything. Have I left any options out?”

“No.” Hunter said. “That’s about where we are.”

All three looked to Virgil, their guide, coach, and mentor. He said nothing for a few moments.

Virgil equivocated, “I have already interfered more than I should. Ultimately, these decisions are yours to make. They all have some merit, though some more than others. At the present time, however, our decision should be to leave this place with all due haste.”

“I think we can all agree on that.” Hunter said. “There must be some way out of here other than that road. Maybe I’ll go wake the employees here and see what they can tell me.”

After a series of awkward encounters with staff members of the lodge who were upset and confused at being sought out and woken up in the middle of the night, Hunter found a manager who spoke passable English. The lodge had an airstrip. Visitors could fly to the lodge on light aircraft. For the right price with the right promises and the sufficient number of American credit cards, the manager woke up a pilot and chartered an immediate flight.