In the list of unlikliest things that could possibly happen, running into an old friend from home when you are in some foreign country is not ranked very highly. “It’s a small world!” people say and wonder at how amzing it is that people who have the same tastes as each other end up in the same place at the same time. But when you are in that foreign country in the middle of a desert, at night and sleeping in a very small tent, then the odds of it happening tend to lengthen. So when John was wakened from his sleep by a voice that he couldn’t immediately place, but was sure he knew, this was one of those moments.
The desert in question was the Australian Outback. John had come out for a walk in the bush to get away from all the things about other people that annoyed him, for a little while. His purpose had been to avoid running into any people who might continue to annoy him and so he was justifiably entitled to be a bit pissed off by this voice in the night. Waking from his sleep, John set his mind to trying to work out what the voice had said, when the voice spoke again.
“John, get up. We need to get out of here now!”
This seemed such an unlikely thing to say that John blinked hard in the darkness and wondered whether he was really blinking or whether he was blinking in the middle of some preposterous dream. As he was oing this the tent pole fell on his head.
“Ow”
“Come on, we have to move. Get your gear on and come.”
“Wait a min…”
“There’s no time. I’ll explain everything soon, but right now there is no time for talking. We have to leave.”
Somewhat groggily John pulled himself out of the tent, threw on a sweater against the cold and turned to face his unwelcome guest. He immediately realised where he’d heard the voice before. Standing there in the light of the full moon was none other than Styggie Garnet.
“Styggie! Why.. How come..”
“There’s no time,” said Styggie, “let’s go. This way, quick!” Styggie turned and started running into the bush.
“What?” John, left with no choice if he wanted to find out what was going on, followed. It wasn’t as if anyone was going to steal his stuff out here. Wondering vaguely whether he’d be able to find his way back himself, he started running though the scrubby bushes in the wake of Styggie.
Styggie was setting a good pace, and he appeared to be heading for a rocky outcrop in the distance. John, a fit man who was a regular morning runner, caught him and fell into pace as best he could considering the rough terrain they were crossing. The light of the moon ewas just enough to prevent a collision with anything large, but the roots of bushes and animal holes and scrapes were impossible to see. This appeared not to worry Styggie, who wasn’t much of an athlete and John was impressed by how well he was managing to run considering his rather bulky frame.
“Styggie!” panted John. “What the hell is going on?”
If John could talk as they ran through the night it was clear that Styggie couldn’t. He waved an arm at John in what was presumably a response and kept running. the rocky outcrop was getting closer, and they would be there in a few moments, so john decided to wait until then, hoping that it was their destination. He couldn’t imagine Styggie running much further. As far as John could tell from the gasping coming from his old friend, Styggie had very littl petrol left in his tank.