The Mammoth Book of Apocalyptic SF - Mike Ashley [250]
He looked eastwards where the stars were already brilliant.
Something was different, an unfamiliar celestial body, faint, haloed in white.
Were his eyes failing at last? No -everything else was as sharp and bright as usual, the stars, the planets, the orbiters that his ancestors had sent into space thousands of years in the past. But now there was a new thing in the heavens.
Nearby he heard the cough of a fanged leopard. He whistled for Jade and the two retreated indoors.
After three nights Kuri realized that the new star was a comet. Each night it was bigger, at first a hazy patch of bright light, then round like a tiny sun, surrounded by a white corona. On the third night he saw the tail, spreading out, spangled by the stars, then lost among them. He had little knowledge of such things, whether this one had been predicted by astronomers or was a new visitor to the sky. Was it hurtling towards the Earth on a path of destruction or would it pass him by? Were there any wise men left alive to solve this riddle? Or was he the last human stargazer to see and wonder?
The next morning he donned loose trousers and went to saddle up his reluctant dromedary. She had been free for so many weeks that, apart from coming to him for titbits, she had decided to ignore him. She had also elected to forget her name, "Beast" (short for "The Beast Who Spits") because that was what she did best.
Each time Kuri approached her she lumbered off to a safe distance, then stopped and stared superciliously. Jade was no use in this situation. When she perceived Kuri's difficulty she tried to help but the dromedary spat with supreme accuracy and, when the adapt approached snarling, lashed out dangerously.
In the end guile and persistence won but not before the cool of the morning had been burned away. By then Kuri was gasping painfully and his sweat-soaked trousers clung to his legs. Determination burned through his pounding headache. The work could not wait. Grumbling, the dromedary knelt and he climbed up. Jade yowled piteously but he told her he would be back for supper; she was to catch some fish and watch out for crocodiles.
Once started, Beast trundled down the familiar road and Kuri rested, even slept a little, huddled under a blanket and with his hat jammed on his head. When he opened his eyes again the lake had disappeared behind the hills. The air shimmered. Even the sound of the dromedary's footsteps was stifled. Her rancid smell enveloped him like a filthy cloak. He flapped his hat at the flies hustled around his eyes. He reached for a water pouch, draining it in a few gulps. They passed a troop of baboons, lolling in the shade of a rock, too idle to pester him for food. The only living things in the sun were two basking mambas, coiled like black ropes.
They reached the city by early afternoon, descending from the barren hills to a sudden oasis, a ring of green foliage and coloured blossoms, its walls. To Kuri it was simply "The City", the only one he had ever seen, although he knew that it was one of many and that once it had had a name. The gateway was in the form of a rearing elephant, one foot raised. But there was no malice in the gate. It recognized the visitor and trumpeted a fanfare of welcome. He and the dromedary passed easily beneath the archway of its legs. Kuri did not so much as glance at the massive stone foot poised above him ready to crush any intruder.
As always the city was full of life. Birds fluted and chirruped from every tree. Jewelled carp flashed in the shaded pools and streams. Butterflies drifted on the air like floating blossoms. On the paving there were black-eyed snakes and amber scorpions. Baboons, jumping from the trees, noisily demanded attention. He glimpsed wandering smallbuck at each turn of the way.
But there were no other humans, ever.
Kuri steered his animal between a towering basalt jackal