The Red River

The man, leaning with both arms over the side of the hovercraft, said to the three-legged alien, "We'll pass the night in Zareb's clearing. It's late."

"That's ominous," the alien snorted and went on looking at the red river.

The man rested his chin on his crossed arms and shifted his gaze from the big blowers underneath the hovercraft. The river went from crimson to ruby as the two suns turned orange in the evening.

The red and yellow forest, somber and dull, stood motionless on each side of the stream. At the foot of tall trees, trunkless plants rose from the mud on the bank, in bunches of leaves, that hung over the swirl of eddies. In the still air every leaf, every branch, every tendril of creeper, and every petal of flowers seemed to have been bewitched into a trance. Nothing moved on the red river but the heavy blowers of the hovercraft, upsetting the calm river - as the alien moved his hands on the control panel of the craft. The churned-up water frothed alongside with a murmur.

The man, turning his back on the setting suns, remembered when he first came to this strange planet, ten years ago. The aliens had surrendered almost without a fight - accepting their fate perhaps. Despite their large brain size, they lacked the technology. The man heard the repeated feeble call of a bird, reminding him that the planet had more birds, and flying insects, than other creatures. The neckless three-eyed alien enjoyed a full 360-degree view as he controlled the hovercraft, sipped coffee from his mug, and looked at the river - at the same time. The water gurgled aloud. Suddenly the long straight reach seemed to pivot on its center, the forests swung in a semicircle, and the slanting beams of sunset touched the broadside of the craft with a fiery glow, throwing the slender and distorted shadows on the streaked glitter of the river. The man turned to look ahead. The alien had altered the course of the craft at right angles to the stream, and it was headed now toward a gap in the fringing bushes of the bank. It glided through, brushing the overhanging twigs, and disappeared from the river like some amphibious creature leaving the water for its lair in the forests. The narrow creek was like a ditch: tortuous, fabulously deep - filled with gloom under the thin strip of pure and shining orange of the sky. Huge trees soared up, invisible behind the curtains of creepers. Here and there, near the glistening darkness of the water, a twisted root of some tall tree showed amongst the tracery of small ferns, black and dull, writhing and motionless, like a snake near its prey. The short grunts of the alien echoed loudly between the thick and somber walls of vegetation. The darkness was mysterious and invincible in the impenetrable forests. The creek broadened, opening out into a wide sweep of motionless water. The forests receded from the marshy bank, leaving a level strip of bright red, reedy grass to frame the reflected color of the sky. A fleecy orange cloud drifted high above, trailing the delicate coloring of its image under the floating leaves and the blossoms of the river flowers. A small house, straddled on high piles, appeared black in the distance. Near it, two tall trees, that seemed to have come out of the forests in the background, leaned slightly over the ragged roof, with a suggestion of sad tenderness and care in the droop of their leafy and soaring heads. The alien, pointing with one of his three arms, said, "Zareb is inside. I can see his hovercraft hidden behind the piles." The alien would have preferred to spend the night somewhere else than in this ghostly place. Moreover, he disliked Zareb, first as an invader, and also because he who repairs a ruined house and lives in it, declares that he is not afraid to live amongst the spirits that haunt the places abandoned by all. Such a man can disturb the course of events by his actions or words. The alien knew that the invaders don't care for such things, being unbelievers and in league with the evil spirits, who lead them unharmed through the invisible dangers of the skies. The aliens hated flying in planes - frightened by blood-sucking flying birds. The invaders never listened to their warnings. But what is there to be done? The big craft glided on swiftly, noiselessly, and smoothly, towards Zareb's clearing, till, in a great rattling of logs, they stopped below the house. The alien shouted, "Zareb! Zareb!" But nobody came.

The man began to climb the ladder to the platform before the house. The alien said sulkily, "I will eat in my cabin, and sleep there."

"Pass my bag and the basket," said the man. He knelt on the edge of the platform to receive the bag.

Then the hovercraft shoved off, and the man, standing up, confronted Zareb, who had come out through the low door of his hut. He was a young and powerful man with a broad chest and muscular arms. He had nothing on but his shorts. His head was bare. His big, soft eyes stared at the man, but his voice and demeanor were composed as he asked, without any words of greeting "Do you have the medkit, Nolan?"

"Yes," said the visitor in a mild tone. "Yes. Why? Is anybody sick?"

"Come and see," replied Zareb, in a worried manner, and turning short round, passed again through the small doorway.

The man, dropping his bag, followed him. In the dim light of the place, he made out on a couch a woman stretched on her back under a sheet of cloth. She lay still, as if dead; but her big eyes, wide open, glittered in the gloom, staring upwards at the slender rafters, motionless and unseeing. She had a high fever. Her cheeks were sunk slightly, her lips were partly open, and on her young face, there was the ominous and fixed expression - of the unconscious who are going to die. The two men stood looking down at her in silence.

"Has she been long ill?" asked the visitor.

"I have not slept for five nights," answered Zareb, in a calculated tone. "At first she heard voices calling her from the red river and struggled against me who held her. But since today, she hears nothing. She sees nothing. She doesn't even look at me!" He remained silent for a minute, then asked softly "Nolan, will she die?"

"I fear so," said the man, sorrowfully.

He had known Zareb years ago, during the invasion - in times of danger, when a friend is truly needed. But he had been away for years. He liked Zareb as he knew how to trust a partner and how to fight without fear by the side of a friend. He liked him not so much perhaps as a man likes his dog but still, he liked him well enough to not shoot him on sight - a task for which he had been hired and paid generously in coin. He had thought about Zareb and his fascination with the long-haired woman of his dreams. He knew he feared nothing but losing her.

Nolan came out of the hut in time to see the colors of the double sunset and the stealthy shadows that, rising like a black and impalpable vapor above the treetops, spread over the sky, ruining the glow of floating clouds and the red brilliance of departing daylight. He stood still. Unwilling to reach for his gun.

In a few moments, all the stars came out above the intense blackness of the sky and the still water gleamed with thousands of reflected lights - that resembled an oval patch of night sky flung down into the hopeless night. The man ate out of his basket, collecting a few sticks that lay about the platform, made a small fire, not for warmth, but to keep off the flying insects. He wrapped himself in a blanket and sat with his back against the wall of the house.

Zareb came through the doorway with noiseless steps and squatted down by the fire. The man moved his outstretched legs a little. "I gave her the injection," said Zareb in a low voice, anticipating the expected question. "She breathes and burns as if with a great fire. I taught her to fight, we've fought five times in three years!" He paused for a moment, then asked in a quiet, incurious tone "Nolan. . . will she die?"

The man moved his shoulders uneasily and muttered hesitantly, "If that is her fate."

"No, Nolan," said Zareb, calmly. "If that is my fate. I hear, I see, I wait. I remember . . . Nolan, do you remember the old days? Do you remember my brother?"

"Yes," said the man. Zareb rose abruptly and went in. The man, sitting still outside, could hear the voice in the hut. Zareb said: "Talk to me! Say something!" Complete silence followed. "Rubiana!" he cried. After that cry, there was a deep sigh.

Zareb came out and sat in his old place. They sat in silence before the fire.

There was no sound within the house, there was no sound near them. But far away on the water, they could hear the music playing in the cabin of the craft.

Then the music died out too. The noise ceased. It was as though there had been nothing left in the world but the glitter of stars streaming, ceaseless and vain, through the black stillness of the night.

The man gazed straight before him into the darkness with wide-open eyes. The fear and fascination, the inspiration and the wonder of death, unavoidable, and unseen, soothed the unrest of his mind and stirred the most indistinct, the most intimate of his thoughts. The evil suspicion, the fears that lurk in our hearts, flowed out into the stillness around him, like the impenetrable mask of life's unfairness.

In his heart, he felt a disturbance. His life felt like a battlefield of ghosts, terrible and charming, struggling to possess his helpless heart. An unquiet and mysterious land of now-impossible desires and fears. A sad murmur rose in the night - as if the red river was whispering into his ear the wisdom of its indifference. Vague sounds floated in the air around him, shaping themselves slowly into words. And at last, the words flowed gently in a stream of soft sentences. He stirred like a man waking up and changed his position slightly.

Zareb was speaking in a low and dreamy tone ". . . who can I tell but an old friend? I must talk about love and gore. You, Nolan, know what war is, and you have seen me seek death as other men seek life! A written word may be wrong. But what the eye has seen is truth and remains in the mind!"

"I remember," said the hitman, quietly.

Zareb went on with mournful composure: "I'll tell you how I fell in love. I've nobody but you. I want to say this before my love leaves me and before the suns rise. I need to tell you what happened before you make your decision."

A sigh, short and faint, marked an almost imperceptible pause, and then his words flowed.

"After the invasion was over and you went away, I and my brother joined the elite corps. The Emperor sent his son, Neo, to rule the planet. You know how we loved to fight. Neo liked our courage. It was a time of peace. We explored the planet. We drank and fought with others. Our bellies were full and weapons got rusty. People from other planets came as visitors to see the red planet with red rivers. They brought news, too. Brought lies and truth mixed together. We heard from them about you also. Some said you'd become a hitman. And I was glad to hear, I thought whatever makes him happy. But I forgot my place when I saw her. The one who is dying in the house now."

He stopped and whispered, "O Life!" then went on speaking a little louder: "Nolan, there's no worse enemy and no better friend than a brother. A brother knows, and in that knowledge is strength for good or evil. I loved my brother. I really did. I told him that I was in love. He told me: 'Tell her then and wait for her answer. She is close to Neo and he may take it as an act of rebellion!' . . . I waited! . . . Nolan, she was clever, she was a lady. I loitered on the way to the swimming pools in the daytime, and when the suns had fallen behind the forest I crept along the hedges of the courtyard. Unseeing, we spoke to one another through the scent of flowers and nobody knew anything. The time passed . . . and there were whispers. I began to think of taking her with me. I take what I want - like you. There is a time when we should forget loyalty and respect. Might and authority are given to the rulers, but nobody owns love and strength and courage. My brother said, 'I am with you if you want this' And I answered, 'Let's do it then. I don't want to live without her.' Our time came when Neo went to the mouth of the river to fish in the night. There were hundreds of crafts, and on the land, between the water and the forest, camps were erected for the guests. The smoke from barbeques spread like mist of the evening, and they ate joyfully. When the shift ended, my brother came to me and said, 'Tonight!' I prepared my weapons, and when the time came our hovercraft took its place in hundreds of crafts. The lights blazed on the water, but behind the boats it was darkness. When the shouting began and the excitement made them mad we dropped out. We floated back to the shore that was dark. We waited outside the big camp. She came. She came running along the shore, rapid and leaving no trace, like a leaf driven by the wind into the sea. My brother said, 'Go. Take her. Carry her into our craft.' I lifted her in my arms. She panted. Her heart was beating against mine. I said, 'I am here to take you with me. We are the rebels now!' 'It is right,' said my brother. 'We'll protect you until we die.' I said, 'Let's move now.' When we reached the craft I began to think of Neo's men. 'We should move up the red river, and take another branch back to the sea' my brother said. I knew we could not fight hundreds of trained soldiers. We moved upstream making as little noise as possible while we passed by the creek where Neo and others were fishing. The crafts floated, clustered together, in the light of torches, under a black roof of smoke as men talked loud. Men who boasted, and praised, and jeered. Men who were our friends in the morning were our enemies now. We passed them quietly. She sat in the cabin - silent as she is now, unseeing as she is now - and I had no regret at what I was leaving because I could hear her breathing close to me as I can hear her now."

He paused, listened with his ear turned to the doorway, then shook his head and went on:

"My brother wanted to challenge Neo's men. I begged him to be silent. Could I not hear her breathing? I knew the guards will not be stoppable. My brother loved me. He moved the craft with little noise. He only said, 'There is half a man in you. Now the other half is in that woman. I can wait. When you are a whole man again, you will come back with me here to shout defiance. We are sons of a brave mother.' I kept silent. I wanted to be with her in a safe place - beyond Neo's reach. My love for her made me love my own life for the first time. I was frightened of death for the first time. I wanted to go to a place where death was not known if only I could escape. We even breathed carefully. We moved swiftly and flew in clear channels. We skirted the black coast. We skirted the towns and posts. We didn't talk. Only once I whispered, 'Sleep, Rubiana, if you can.' I heard the sweetness of her voice, but I never turned my head. The suns rose but we went on. We flew in the light and heat. I never looked back, but I knew that my brother's eyes were looking in all directions. There was no better pilot than my brother. Many times, together, we had won races in that craft. There was no braver or stronger man than my brother. He did not speak. Soon it was midday and the heat was unbearable. Then I thought of her and said, 'Let us rest!' . . . 'Good!' he answered."

Zareb went on in an even, low voice. "We ran our hovercraft on a little bay close to a long tongue of land that seemed to block our way- a long wooded cape. My brother knew that place. Beyond the cape, the river ran through the jungle. We ate our food and then we lay down to sleep on the soft sand in the shade of our craft. As I closed my eyes, I heard her cry of alarm. We leaped up. The suns were halfway down the sky already, and coming in sight, in the opening of the bay, we saw a white craft. We knew they were Neo's private guards. They were searching the shore and they saw us. I felt my heart become weak. Rubiana sat on the sand and covered her face. There was no escape. My brother laughed. He had his gun but there were only twelve rounds. He spoke to me quickly: 'Run with her along the path. I'll stop them, and it's certain death for some. Run with her. On the other side, you'll find a house and a craft. I'm right behind you. I am a great runner, and before they can come up we'll be gone.' He jumped out of the craft to run toward the trees. The white hovercraft was coming. I ran with her. As we rushed along the path I heard shots. My brother fired again and again. Then it was silent behind us. Before I heard my brother fire another shot I saw the bank, and I saw the water - the red water. We crossed a grassy clearing and ran down to the water. I saw a hut and a hovercraft. I heard another shot. I thought, 'That is his last bullet.' We rushed down to the craft. A man came running from the hut, but I leaped on him, and we rolled together in the mud. Then I got up, and he lay still at my feet. I don't know whether I had killed him or not. We jumped on the craft. I heard yells behind me, and I saw my brother run across the glade. Many men were chasing him. I turned the engines on. When I looked back I saw that my brother had fallen. He fell and was up again, but the men were closing fast. He shouted, 'I am coming!' The men were close to him. I could see many men. Then I looked at her. Nolan, I moved the craft! I drove it into the deep water. She was kneeling forward looking at me, and I said, 'Grab something quick,' while I crashed the water. Nolan, I heard him cry. I heard him cry my name twice; and I heard voices shouting, 'Shoot! Kill!' I never turned back. I heard him calling my name again, as when life is going out together with the voice and I never turned my head. My name! My brother! Three times he called but I was too afraid of death. Was she not there in that craft? And could I not find a place with her where death is unknown!"

Nolan sat up. Zareb rose and stood, an indistinct and silent figure above the dying embers of the fire.

Over the water, a mist drifting and low had crept, erasing slowly the glittering images of the stars. And now a great expanse of vapor covered the land: it flowed cold and gray in the darkness, eddied in noiseless whirls round the treetrunks and about the platform of the house, which seemed to float on a restless and impalpable illusion of a sea. Far away the tops of the trees stood outlined on the sky, like a melancholy shore, a deceptive, pitiless coast. Like death itself.

Zareb's voice vibrated loudly in the profound peace. "I had her there! I had her! To protect her I faced hundreds of Neo's men. But she was with me for three years and now…" His words went out ringing into the empty distances. He paused and seemed to listen to them dying away very far beyond help and beyond recall. Then he said quietly "Nolan, I loved my brother."

A breath of wind made him shiver.

High above the silent mist, the leaves of the trees rattled together with a mournful sound.

Nolan stretched his legs. His chin rested on his chest, and he murmured sadly without lifting his head, "We all love our brothers."

Zareb burst out with intense whispering violence "What did I care who died? I wanted peace in my own heart." He seemed to hear a stir in the house, listened, then stepped in quickly.

The man stood up now. The morning breeze touched his face. The stars were receding fast. After a chill gust of wind, there were a few seconds of perfect calm and absolute silence.

Then from behind the wavy line of trees, a column of golden light shot up into the sky and spread over the semicircle of the horizon.

The suns were rising. The mist lifted, broke into patches, vanished into thin flying wreaths, and the water became visible.

Flocks of birds flew toward the suns, and appeared dazzlingly brilliant for a moment, then soaring higher, became dark specks before vanishing into the sky as if they had left the planet.

Nolan, standing gazing upwards, heard in the hut a confused noise of distracted words ending with a loud groan. Suddenly Zareb stumbled out with outstretched hands, shivered, and stood still for some time with fixed eyes.

Then he said, "She burns no more."

Before his face, the suns had steadily risen above the tree-tops. The breeze was refreshing now - the rays of light danced on the rippling water. The forests came out of the shadows of the morning, became distinct as if they had rushed nearer to stop short of the red water.

The whisper of unconscious life grew louder, saying things in an incomprehensible tongue about sorrow, shame, death, and love. Zareb's eyes wandered slowly, then stared at the rising suns.

"I can see nothing," Zareb said to himself. "There is nothing to see."

Nolan moved to the edge of the platform and signaled the alien with his hand. A shout came faintly and the alien began to hover towards the house of the friend of ghosts.

"I am here to take you with me. I will wait all morning," said the man, looking away to the craft. "But I won't force you."

"No, Nolan," said Zareb, softly. "I can't stay here. I see no light and no peace. But I see the death for many. We are sons of a brave mother and I left him to die. I have to go back."

"You can have my guns if you like," said Nolan.

He drew a long breath and went on in a dreamy tone: "In a little while I shall see clear enough to strike back. But she is dead now, and . . . now . . ." He flung his arms wide open, let them fall along his body, then stood still with unmoved face and stony eyes, staring at the suns.

The man got down into the hovercraft. The alien got ready for the long journey ahead. Zareb had not moved. He stood alone, his eyes failing to find something to see - except an endless fight.

The man, leaning with both arms over the roof of the cabin, waited for Zareb. 'It's impossible to hurt our friends without shame,' Nolan reminded himself as he thought of returning the bounty on Zareb's head.

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This story was published on medium.com first.