A man named Paul Le Roux is desperately searching for an abandoned French fort in the Sahara desert, his strength nearly depleted after days without water or food. Just as he's on the brink of collapse, he finds the fort, hoping to find the well and...
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EMPTY FORT IN THE SAHARA DESERT
A lone figure stumbles on through the mighty Sahara desert. He looks like he will collapse at any moment, never to get up again. The vultures have already noticed and are starting to circle lazily above him. It is a strong man because he has broad shoulders, a narrow waist and long, powerful legs, but today he has almost no strength left in his body. His lips are badly chapped, full of blisters and in places, thin trickles of blood are already running down his chin, but he doesn't even notice because he now has just one goal in mind and that is to find a certain place he is looking for in time.
His strength is already dangerously low, and the terrible thirst is driving him insane. If he doesn't reach his goal in the next half hour, it's over for him. He has to concentrate hard to still be able to think soberly and simply propel his body forward regardless of his discomfort. Every step he takes through the loose desert sand taps the last of his strength even faster. Paul Le Roux has already been in the Sahara for two days without any water and food, where the terrible heat and dry air tries to suck every last drop of moisture from his body.
Paul looks up again and then finally sees what he had been so desperately looking for. The empty, abandoned fort's watchtower just sticks out above the nearest dune in front of him. When he stumbles over the last dune and reaches the top, the abandoned fort lies before him in all its glory. From here, he can already see a bunch of vultures sitting quite calmly on the walls. Only one of the two steel gates of the fort's entrance is still visible, and it hangs askew on one hinge that still mercifully holds it. So it is easy to enter the fort through the open gate. Paul finally reaches the fort and then stumbles-falls through the gate into the parade ground. Most of the vultures inside the parade ground take fright and fly away, screeching when they notice the sudden intruder. The French fort looks terrible because over the years, mother nature and Arab tribes, who sometimes spend the night here, have gradually begun to break down the fort.
The wooden paneling on the inside of the parade ground, leading up to the ramparts, has been smashed apart and most has already rotted. You would therefore be risking your life if you dared try to climb up to the top of the fort's walls with it. Although the walls are mainly built with large stones, there are several places where some of the stones are missing or even parts of the walls that have collapsed or are about to collapse. The desert sand has also penetrated the fort everywhere. Inside the parade ground already lies a thick layer of sand and as Paul moves through the fort's rooms, there is sand and dust everywhere that has sifted and accumulated through the fort's broken windows. Hardly any of the rooms' wooden doors are left because the Arabs who spent the night there used them for firewood for cooking and for warmth during the cold desert nights.
Paul knows the history of the fort in question very well. French forts were usually built on top of an oasis because in the desert water means life and with enough water inside a fort you can survive long sieges from outside that want to besiege and conquer the fort. Over time, however, the well water dried up and there was no longer enough water available for the thirsty troops in the fort and the fort was then evacuated and simply left to nature. Paul's goal now is to get to the well as soon as possible. He already feels drunk in his head, and his body urgently needs water now. The well of forts usually comes before the kitchen, and the kitchen is also the central part of the fort. It is therefore also the last to be able to be seized during skirmishes.
