The Frozen Desert by Moein Mansoori Fard (early reader chapter books txt) 📖

is full of wrinkles and his skin is wizen. The same anxiety can be seen in his eyes. When he approaches the young woman, I also see inconvenience in his eyes. The young woman keeps still when she hears his voice and while stares at him says:

You are still here? I thought you…

Then she begins to cry. The elderly man’s eyes also fill with tears and tear drops roll slowly down his cheeks.

I’m really so sorry for all the things that happened to you. I never forgive myself.

The young woman says between her harrowing sobs:

Thanks god I see you alive. You can’t believe how much I have suffered till now.

Don’t worry. I swear I’ll never leave you alone anymore.

Then he turns toward us and says:

I never forget the favor you did to my daughter. If you weren’t here it wasn’t known what would happene to my lady.

Then he gives a little bow to us and sits on his knees near the young woman. He embraces her although she feels pain. Vorarin comes to me lest disturb them. He says in whisper close to my ear:

We should go now.

 

He throws his knapsack on his shoulders and signs me with his hand to be ready to go. Then he goes toward them and says:

We have to go. I just wanted to say you must give her one of these pills each day to she feels better. Don’t forget this at all. Its effect appears just in continuous use.

I set the umbrella over their heads and then we go. All of a sudden, after some steps, hearing the voice of the elderly man makes us to return.

Sorry!

Vorarin waits for the man to speak:

Can you help me take her to the “Dawn” shelter?

The young woman objects and says:

No, I’m fine. I’m sure I would be better with the pills these two gentlemen gave me. We should go to the “Ray” shelter.

But my lady you aren’t in good condition, we must…

You know the condition. We’ve to go to the “Ray” shelter.

The elderly man keeps quiet. They seem too exhausted, as though they need help. Their silence expresses this to me.

Well, our ways are the same to somewhere. I think we can go along with each other.

As I guessed, they were expecting this suggestion, so the elderly man immediately says:

Thanks. Really thank you!

Then the man lifts the young woman up. Vorarin takes off the umbrella and gives it to me. Then he helps the man to lift the young woman off the ground. They move her like a war wounded person whose legs are hurt. I go toward them and join them. I hold the umbrella over the young woman’s head.

Once in a while, the young woman’s groan breaks the silence, but we go ahead and watch the landscapes. Occasionally, they talk to each other that I can’t hear anything but a whisper. According to the map which I have reviewed it, we must follow a road to reach our destination, and the number of the people who are ahead of us make it easy to find the way.

An old road appears across the sands and shows its cracks and asks for help, as though it tries to save itself from sinking into the sands. The blackness of the road which has turned to a light gray by lapse of time, comes into view, and it tally with the map I have. The sands have created the valleys and the low height hills in our way, as they wished.

The wind sweeps the sands off the road, but this is an ineffectual attempt and sands cover the road again. In the left side of the road, there is a row of poles which are hung with cables like the crippled hands. Some of them are broken from their waists by lapse of time. After a rather short time we stop by the sudden groan.

Ouch!... I should press on my stomach by hand. This way I feel better and I feel less pain. Thanks for your help but Kabirad helps me.

Vorarin leaves her hesitated. Then he takes the umbrella and stands near them. The direction of sunshine is so that the shadow of the umbrella falls on them and on Vorarin himself. I perforce spread a kerchief on my head and pour some water on it.

We pass the hills one after the other until we reach a wide region. The road continues like a river as well but it is hard to find out it is a road, and only a small part of it can be seen. The wind has arranged and unified the wide part of this region. Like an untroubled sea, there is no hill and is steady. I wish there was a real sea instead of the sea of sands, and I could dive into it, but instead, there is a sun which has caused steady drip of sweat from our faces. My clothes is stuck thoroughly to my body and my feet slide in my shoes.

I wonder why no one speaks. Maybe none of us is in no mood for talk. I am so distressed that just my eyes look around for a refuge. After a period of time walking, almost about two hours by sun movement and the time of sunset, suddenly Vorarin stops and says:

Do you know how many degree is it now?

I wipe the sweat off my face and I say unawares:

It’s enough to make me crazy.

It’s forty seven degrees centigrade while two hours left to sunset.

Vorarin shakes his shoes to empty them of sands. Then he says:

I’m tired, I need some rest. You seem so. Of course it is most because of the sunshine. It’s too oppressive.

I feel it is not his words and it is just for giving them time to rest. I am also tired and agree him to sit on the sands. The man and the young woman, satisfied and thankful, also sit on the pad which Kabirad spreads on the ground. I put my knapsack on the ground and as I look around I say:

As far as I see, there is no sign of walls or houses. We’ll make camp here for a while and then rest. I can’t walk anymore. And what is more, here we must separate. Our way is toward right hand.

Vorarin pulls out his tent of his knapsack and says:

No need to your tents. Mine is four person-tent. This way we’ll waste less time to make camp. It’s easy job, I’ll make it soon.

So, both me and Kabirad, return our tents into the knapsacks. During making camp by Vorarin, I spread the pad on the ground and then empty sands of my shoes. I say:

We should find a remedy for the sands. I have an idea but I haven’t things to do this.

From inside the tent, which is being ready quickly, Vorarin says:

I also have a remedy for it. Simply you should wear these plastic bags on your feet and tie them with some strings.

The young woman and Kabirad show their approvals by shaking their heads. Kabirad goes to help Vorarin. The young woman stares at the work I am doing, once in a while she ponders.

Well, the tent is ready. Come in before the sun roasts you.

The howling wind passes by the tent entrance, as if it brings someone’s death news and laments in their absence. The tent dances with the wind slowly. Two sides of the tent is like a troubled water and the waves move the tent slowly. This is not a good sign at all. I am really worry about it and when it stops blowing, I become more worry. I should not leap before looking and not to leap in the dark. This exactly expresses and reminds me something. I remember a book in which was written:

“It is possible to capture a country with a few armies and endless ammunition, and with the same meaning, there is another way in which it is possible to capture a country just with one shot. There are so many differences between them but both of them express the same thing; that is, the success! Therefor everything must be considered so that it would be a help one day.”

Vorarin, I go roaming around and back soon. Get some rest.

I take my mono scope binocular which I have made it of some pieces of aluminum, and then wend my way. I go ahead through the sands in which my feet sink ankle high. I go on my way untill I see the tent in a view of three-quarter of its real size. I stand on the top of a hill and put the binocular on my right eye.

I should find our thoroughfare. According to the map, I must see a wide road here. But everywhere is covered by sands like the snow, although this view has its own beauty. The sun has lost its power now, although it still makes me sweat. Its light hasn’t turned to red yet and it still shines powerfully. There is no mountain to hide the sun behind. It has to change its shift with the moon in the vast horizon.

Here, the road divides in two which will separate the way of four of us. The straight route is the way me and Vorarine should go on and the left is the way they should go. Some people seem like the scarecrows which they have to walk over there.

They seem a rather faded. Some of them are sitting on the ground and some other are going out of sight behind a hill. In their way nothing can be seen but the sands. The road on the left is buried under the sands completely, yet it appears again behind the hill, because a man is mounting a signpost on the hill to show the way.

Through the binocular, I can read the writing on the signpost, but it is just an arrow which shows the direction that we should go through it. The road has come out of a vast border and shows its size. The road which had only two routes, now has twelve thoroughfares.

I spend a length of time to find a specific thing which may effect on our future, but I get no result. In the last second when I back to the tent, suddenly I see a ceiling which is mounted on two walls and half of it is collapsed. Its color is same as the sands and it is the only reason that I could see it. That’s it. It is not far from me, maybe about half an hour walking.

I look through my binocular for the last time to be sure. All of a sudden, on that side, near the signpost, a group of people run away to other side. The clamor of some people can be heard through the wind blow. All of them are in motion to get away from there. Their feet sink in the sands as in a marsh. It is like some hands come out from the sands and take their feet. I move my binocular looking for someone or something caused this, but I can’t see anything but the people.

Suddenly all the people freeze in place! I also lie on the sands spontaneously. My eyes are in motion to find the reason of the chaos. All of a sudden I see a man in black behind a hill who moves toward the people slowly.

The nomads!!!

Behind some other hills, a number of the nomads, more than ten, appear like the zombies. They move toward the people slowly. Each of them has a weapon in his hand and goes at the people like a viper to its prey.

When they besiege the people, one of them goes between the people and looks at the faces who are trembling. There is a danger in ambush. I must back to the tent as soon as possible. I recede creeping lest someone sees me. I am sure if I stay, I would