The Empty City

A tale of a lost traveller

Dr Carrington limped ungracefully as he moved through the valley. Not four hours ago he had gained conciousness after his plane, an old british dual prop airframe usuallly reserved for mai service, came in low as it tried to glide into the valley on no power. They had been traveling from Dar es Salaam to Jordan when the had lost engine power somwhere over Egypt and as they decended they found themselves over a vast dry and flat valley amoungst the sands, Tall buttes and flat toped sand stone monoliths shooting up from the valley floor. the ground seemed flat so the pilot attempted to come in and land but the left wing clipped a butte and the steel bird slammed hard into the floor. the two pilots sucumbing to their injuries shortly after and the wreckage cathing fire, The good doctor had no choice but to set out in search of help.

Miraculously he only sustained a few broken bones in his foot which whilst causing him pain, didn’t prohibit his locomotion to much and for this he was thankful, for as he moved slowly through the valley he soon became to realise that if he did not find help soon he would be forced to take shelter in the small cracks in some of the large limestone buttes. He was aware of Bedouin herders that travelled in valleys like this and set up camps due to the flat ground here so his chances of survival, whilst slim, were better then nothing. The sun was setting behind him drawing long shadows in front of him. night was coming and he would have to find shelter soon. a large mesa towered out of the ground in front of him that had a vertical crack in it, at least there he could make a fire and be safe from the night winds. he approached quickly as he estimated he only had a few more hours of day light left. The crack was about ten meters high and two wide and seemed to snake its way into the mesa. The doctor couldn’t help himself, the curiosity of what lay further down the crack enthralled him and after all there may be a spring or the something that he could use to make his situation a little brighter. He ignored the pain from his foot and followed the snaking path. It twisted wildly and at some points perplexingly it seemed like it should of twisted back onto itself but he never found himself in a part of the trail he had previously walked. He braced himself against the wall to take the weight off his foot for a moment when a curious sight caught his eye. On the trail ahead of him appeared to be a sort of stone tablet, jutting out of the ground. He limped over to investigate. It was perhaps as large as a tombstone and covered in markings he had never seen before. certain that this was evidence of human habitation further ahead he pushed the pain out of his mind and marched on, curious at what lay ahead

Continued in part two…