Green Desert - Chapter 6.3.3 - Irézí

More of the people were standing up, going to the helicopter, but still one body lay motionless. I ran toward him.

“There is definitely one casualty. An older man.” I stopped several meters away. He lay on his back, coated in dust, bloody cloths bunched on his fat gut, a piece of metal lodged in his brain. Dead. I swallowed hard.

“It appears he was hit by at least two pieces of flying shrapnel. He tried to perform first aid on his stomach wound, but the piece in his head killed him suddenly.” His pale face shone under the ochre sand. Ghostly in the shadows of the trees.

I had no smile for this.

I turned away from the body, avoiding the camera’s gaze. Nıléké zoomed for a closeup of the dead man. My throat spasmed. My stomach convulsed. But I clenched my jaw, held my throat tight. I couldn’t puke now. I had work to do.

The helicopter lay on its side, its tail twisted upwards, its landing runners bent and mangled. More death awaited me. I started forwards.

When I was fifteen meters away, three men appeared before me––two in suits and ties, one in nothing but shorts. The two “businessmen” from earlier. The taller of them nodded a greeting. The young man in shorts just stared, his mouth slightly open.

I nodded and kept striding towards them, towards the terrible view into the bloody cockpit.