After Fate Fell

23 • ELLA

1 year, 3 months, and 14 days after it all
•ELLA•
It's been hours since we landed here in Norfolk, and Five and I are getting restless and nervous. What is preventing Six and John from contacting us? Why did they go to Paradise? None of it makes any sense.
We sit quietly at a travel center, maps and pamphlets surrounding us on all the walls and tables. We've been here for at least an hour, because we thought we could find a map of the world, so that we could figure out where we should book our next plane ride.
I know Legacy said it's on the west coast of Africa, but Africa is a huge continent, so that doesn't really give us a good picture of where we're supposed to go.
She also said that there's more sand there than on a regular beach, which intrigues me. What does this mean? That the beaches reach further inland here? Or just sand? Does she mean that it's a desert? I don't know my geography well enough to know where the deserts are in west coast Africa. Does the Sahara reach the coast? I can't remember.
The last thing she said was that there are no people there. I guess that would be expected if it was a desert, because who likes to live in such a dry wasteland? So I'm leaning toward the fact that it's a desert, because if it was huge beaches, I'm pretty sure people would flock there.
But it would be nice if we could get a world map. But I guess this is the Norfolk/Virginia Beach Travel Center, so most of the maps are just the cities and the surrounding counties in Virginia. Tourist attractions. Nobody wants a world map here. I wish I had a computer or something so I could look up a picture of west coast Africa. Instead, we're just stuck here, in a travel center, in eastern Virginia, while our friends have been silent for almost twelve hours, and we're completely in the dark about what's going on.

//

"Ella, we should probably go," Five tells me, putting his hand on my shoulder. Is he...trying to comfort me? This is the first time I've seen this emotion in Five, and I'm actually proud of him more than I am surprised. He's changed so much over this year.

"Go where though? Paradise? China? Somewhere in Africa? I don't know where to go Five, and it's driving me crazy. Why aren't they answering us?" I am so annoyed, so tired of trotting all over the globe for all different reasons and then being left unknowing of what the next step is. And the thing is, I actually do know the next step we have to take, which is to go find whatever is causing this depletion of energy within Legacy and within all of us, but the issue is, I need all of us, and all I have at the moment is Five.

"I don't know either. We have to keep moving just to stay sane," he says. This actually surprises me, the way he says it. Because for a year, we've been in the same place, going nowhere, with nothing to do. But the moment I decided to leave that mountainside, I've been moving nonstop. I've traveled somewhere upwards of thirty thousand miles in just a few days. And so keeping moving is the only thing that has kept me sane over these few days, because I've always been moving toward something important, something that needs to be done.
So now, I know where we have to go.

"Okay, lets go back to the airport," I tell him.

"Where are we going?" He asks, his face lighting up. Although this isn't exactly a fun adventure, I can tell he's just as happy to be moving as I am.

"Western Africa. The Sahara, presumably."

"I thought you'd say that. Well I'm ready! Question though: are there even any airports in the Sahara?" he asks me.

"I guess we'll find out," I tell him as we make our way back to the airport.

//

Once back at the airport, we look at the listing of flights. Plenty of national flights, San Diego, Pittsburgh, Cheyenne. Also lots of European flights, Madrid Spain, Cardiff Wales, Gomel Belarus, but what's missing is most any other place on earth. Africa, Asia, even South America, the choices are very few.
We scan the listings, and the only flight departing to anywhere in Africa over the next 3 days is Francistown Botswana. I don't even think that's anywhere near the Sahara, but what other choice do we have? I don't know what to do.

"I think there's an Internet cafe in here. I saw it on the way in," Five tells me. "Maybe we can figure this out better with a computer."

"Good idea," I tell him. "Show me the way."

I'm so glad he thought of this because I don't have any idea how to handle all of this honestly. We land in Botswana, then what? How do we get all the way to the Sahara? None of it fits together at all.

The cafe isn't very crowded, just a few other people hunched over computers, working silently. Five and I sit down at adjacent computers and start working.

"So you want to go to the Sahara?" Five asks me.

"Yes," I tell him, and he begins typing away at his computer. I start working as well. It just dawned on me, it would probably be closer to book a plane to somewhere in Southern Europe and then just take a second flight from there. From the map of the African continent that's on my screen, I can see that Botswana is very far south, far away from the great Saharan Desert.
I look up the flight listing again, and see that there's a flight departing at 8:50 tonight to Istanbul Turkey. Then I decide to check with that Madrid flight as well, because that may be shorter.

"Istanbul or Madrid?" I ask Five.

"Neither," he says, and I look up, confused.

"Why?" I ask.

"Because we're not going to the Sahara."