The Jungle

Chapter 12: Transportron

An hour later, Bahati couldn’t breathe. He was squashed between Macbeth and the window. The speed was so fast that it made him nauseous and he couldn’t function. His hands gripped the sides of the car as it accelerated faster than he had ever gone before. “H-h-h-how fast are we going?” he asked.

James chuckled. “Only seventy miles per hour.”

“Seveh...” Bahati trailed off.

“He looks a bit green,” Warren said from the other side of the back seat. “We got a bag or something in case he tries to throw up?”

Juliet sighed. “Look in the glove compartment, James. There should be a trash bag.”

“Why is there a trash bag in your glove compartment?” Macbeth giggled. “You take your cop stuff very seriously, don’t you?”

“This is your car?” Caroline said, a bit shell-shocked.

“Surprised?”

“A little. How did it get to Singapore? And weren’t you on the island for years?”

“Yes,” Juliet replied. “But I was a CIA agent. I have cars all over the globe.”

“Can we just get him the damn trash bag?” Warren asked as Bahati felt the heave of vomit coming on.

James rolled his eyes and handed the bag to Bahati just as the native threw up. Luckily, the vomit landed inside the bag, but it still creeped Macbeth out. She reached for the bag and threw up in it herself.

Bahati needed to vomit again. Macbeth’s vomit smelled of corn like the food she ate. He took the bag back and threw up in it again.

Warren was holding up a thin, glass box with blue slivers of light inside and aiming it at the two of them. “What is that?” Bahati gasped, pointing at it.

“My cell phone,” he chuckled. “I’m taking a video.”

Macbeth growled and shoved the phone away from herself. “You son of a bitch.”

“What is a cell phone?” Bahati asked, reaching for the strange, glass object. Warren let him have it and Bahati traced his fingers gently over its smooth surface. When a finger accidentally touched a blue icon on its surface, a picture of his island from the air popped up. He shrieked and dropped it in fear. What sorcery was this?

James chuckled. “Don’t be afraid of it. It can’t hurt you. Phones are used to speak to people from where you are to where the person you are calling is, even if they’re thousands of miles away.”

“Such a thing is only possible through magic,” Bahati protested.

“I suppose our technology must seem like magic to you, but it’s just clever inventions, really,” Caroline reassured him, reaching into her pocket and pulling out another cell phone. “Here,” she said, handing it to Bahati. “This one’s yours.”

He took the phone from her and handed Warren his own phone back. “Thank you,” Bahati said. “Now how do I use it?”

Warren and Macbeth spent the next half hour teaching Bahati how to use his phone and all of its applications. When he wasn’t looking out the window, he forgot all about the high speed and his nausea disappeared. The only reminder was the throw-up bag tied at Macbeth’s feet. When Juliet finally announced that they were at the airport, he looked up. It was amazing how fast the time had flown.

The group got out of Juliet’s car once she landed it in a spot amongst all of the other cars. They walked through the sliding, glass doors of the building in front of them together. Caroline once again grabbed Bahati’s hand and held it for dear life.