Chapter 30
The taxi landed near the entrance of the resort. It was a large compound, surrounded in part by a high, wooden fence. A metal fence picked up where the wooden one left off. This apparently marked the boundary of the reserve. No animals were immediately visible, though in the distance, it looked like there was a herd of something moving across the Savannah. The group got out, grabbed their bags, and approached the gates. As they walked towards the entrance, a man stepped out from a booth at the gate and greeted them.
"Hello! Welcome to the Mahouqpabu Natural Reserve!" He leaned back inside the booth and pushed a button that opened the gate. They stepped into the compound and looked around. Straight in front of them was the biggest of the three buildings, apparently the main one where they would check in, eat, and relax. The other two buildings appeared to be exactly the same. Apparently the dormitory style rooms that were advertised.
They entered the main building and looked around the lobby. Everything appeared to be made from local materials and put together by hand. There was a large, steel fire pit in the middle of the dining room, a necessity for the atmosphere of the place. Thomas was fascinated by the furniture and went to see how it was constructed. Darin, meanwhile, was checking in and getting the keys to their rooms. Lyla and Vera noticed a shop off to the left of the lobby that was selling colorful clothes in the local style and fashion, and wandered off to look at them. Doug just stood there, looking around nonchalantly, bored out of his mind. It wasn't that he didn't want to be there. To the contrary, he was very interested in the environment and was looking forward to the safari. However, he found the whole setup ridiculous. It was obvious that they were in a modern resort, otherwise they wouldn't be checking in at all, they would be pitching a tent in the middle of the Savannah. Instead they were at a hotel that was pretending to be more in touch with nature than it actually was. The part that bothered him most about all of it was how his companions were eating it all up. Or so it seemed. Moments later, Thomas walked back after examining the furniture.
"It's fake," he announced, "the whole lot of it, all made of synthetic fabrics. To top it off, the wood is oak! Oak! Why would they make furniture that's supposed to be made of authentic, local materials out of oak?"
"How do you know it was oak?" Doug asked, amazed at this talent he didn't know Thomas possessed.
"I got stuck in shop class in high school, the year before they completely removed it from the curriculum. It was the only elective that was still open, so I took it. I actually learned quite a bit, and can tell several different kinds of woods apart. I could build some furniture, too, if I ever had to."
"Weird."
"It's not that weird," Thomas protested. Just then, Vera and Lyla came back from the shop looking very disappointed.
"The clothes were all fake!" Vera muttered.
"All of the tags said 'Made in China' on them." Lyla added.
"Looks like I was wrong about you guys," Doug said, smiling. "I knew that most of the stuff here wouldn't be authentic and thought you all were getting taken in, but you proved me wrong."
"Like that's hard to do," Vera said, smirking. Darin walked over, announced that they had successfully checked in, and led the way towards the building where their rooms were. The rooms were much the same as the lobby: fake authentic furniture, fake authentic blankets, and fake authentic décor. These rooms, however, were much smaller than the ones at their previous hotel, containing only two double beds each. Darin had planned accordingly, and obtained three rooms. The girls went into their room and the guys were left in the hallway trying to decide who would get to stay alone.
"I think I should," Darin said, "I have to do all the planning, and I'm sure neither of you will want to listen to me making calls all the time."
"Oh bull," Doug said, "that's not a good enough reason for you to get your own room. I say we decide with a game of rock paper scissors."
"What?" Darin asked, confused.
"You don't know what rock paper scissors is?" Doug said, amazed.
"I've never heard of it. What is it, some sort of primitive game you guys played back before you had electronics?"
"You severely underestimate the time we came from," Doug replied coolly. "It was just a game that was common in our time as a quick way to decide who would do something, kind of like drawing straws."
"Drawing straws?"
Doug sighed. He debated mentally whether it would be worth it to try and teach Darin how to play the game. It seemed like a lot of work to go through just to figure out who would get to have their own room. He thought for a bit and decided to teach him anyway. They might need it again in the future. Five minutes later, the game was done: Thomas had won, and would get the room alone. Darin was surprisingly amused by the game and didn't seem to mind at all that he had lost.
"I just need more practice," Thomas heard him saying as they entered their room, the door closing behind them. "You'll see, next time I am going to kick the scissor's--" Thomas laughed and went down the hall toward his room. Once he was inside, he threw his bags down, sat on the bed, and looked around. They weren't going on the safari till tomorrow, so they basically had the whole day to do whatever they wanted. The girls had already decided they wanted to rest after all the travel, and Thomas assumed Doug and Darin would go find something heavy to keep them occupied. He was once again left alone. His backpack suddenly caught his eye, and he dug through it, finding the notebook Doug had given him days before. He opened it to a fresh page, found a pen, and began doodling.
As he drew idly, he reflected on the events that had led up to this point. It had been an incredible ride so far, but the future was not as he had hoped. Sure, the technology had progressed, but it seemed that people's attitudes and society as a whole had hardly changed at all. It left him with some of the same feelings of emptiness and unhappiness that made him take this journey to begin with. But at least he had found one very bright spot so far...
His train of thought was suddenly derailed by a knock at his door. He grumbled and got up, expecting to find someone annoying on the other side. As he opened it, however, he was pleasantly surprised to see Lyla standing there instead.
"I heard that you won the extra room for yourself," she said as she entered, "and I thought I'd just drop by to say, you know, hello." She smiled, and Thomas, awkward as ever, finally produced a response.
"Well, I'm very glad you did." He closed the door and turned to face her. She grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him towards her. After a long kiss, she looked in his eyes for a while.
"Hi," she said, grinning from ear to ear.
"That's quite a hello," Thomas said, smiling back. They stood, staring each other in the eye.
"I better get going," Lyla said at last, "I just told Vera I was going to look around and would be back in about five minutes, I don't want her to get suspicious."
"Do you have to go?" Thomas said, not wanting the moment to end there. "I mean, do we really have to keep this secret?"
"No, no, I don't want to keep it secret, I just don't think the time is right to tell them now, you know? It's too soon. I think that Darin might have an inkling that something is going on but he doesn't seem sure of what he suspects yet."
"I guess you're right," Thomas said after a long pause, "we'd better just keep it under the radar for now." Lyla kissed him again.
"Don't worry," she said, "it won't be much longer." She turned and left. Thomas fell back on the bed and laid there for a while, staring up at the ceiling. He finally sat back up and got out his notebook to doodle some more. This time, however, he was thinking much happier thoughts. After what seemed like an eternity, he glanced at the clock. It was still early in the evening. He felt somewhat hungry and decided to go and search for food. Fortunately, this hotel did not have an elevator to contend with. He exited the dorm where the rooms were located and walked towards the main building.
The sun was setting and stars were beginning to appear in the sky abov
e. As he looked off in the distance, he spotted what first appeared to be a shooting star. Thomas, however, wasn't sure that it really was a shooting star after all. Instead of moving on a straight trajectory, it seemed to be traveling erratically, moving back and forth across the sky. As he stared, trying to figure out what it was, it suddenly disappeared. Thomas was puzzled but not too worried. He resumed walking to the main building, dismissing the strange sight as merely a robot or some other future anomaly he didn't know about yet. He finally arrived, and, after a brief search, found a restaurant. He didn't see anyone from the group, but that was fine with him. He preferred to dine alone tonight.
The restaurant, unlike everything else in the hotel, didn't even make an attempt to appear authentic. It would've been excessively hard for them to even try, given that they specialized in Italian cuisine. Thomas ordered mostacholi al forno, a small salad, and thoroughly enjoyed every bite of it. If there was one thing that was right about this whole journey, Thomas thought, it was the food. As he left, he quickly passed by a rack brochures advertising the details of the safari that they were going to be taking tomorrow. Thomas stopped, backed up, and grabbed one. As he walked out the front door, he turned it open to the first page, and stopped dead in his tracks.
"No way," he said struggling to close his gaping jaw and failing. He looked up, and in the distance, the same object he had earlier mistaken for a shooting star was visible again.
"No way..." he breathed.