The Frozen Desert by Moein Mansoori Fard (free e books to read online TXT) 📕

Waiters and some people are serving the breakfast to the rest of the people. Some of them are eating their breakfast while sitting on the ground, some other at the table. I sit on a chair which is near the place that Nina lay. I put my knapsack on the other chair to keep it for Nina and she can stay close to me. The waiters are in rush to provide breakfast for all the people. Since I am at a distance of the counter, I take my breakfast later. The breakfast is the selfsame last night meal.

As I put the first spoon of the meal in my mouth, suddenly, my eyes meet Nina’s eyes and I find her awake. She gazed at me. I go toward her, lift and sit her quickly on a chair next to me, which thanks to my knapsack it is not occupied yet.. She rubs her eyes, makes no complaint and sits there calmly.

Stay here till I bring your breakfast.

But she replies me just with her look and then quickly forces her way through the crowd and disappears. I remain in wonder for a while and put my knapsack on her chair again and then I watch the people.

After a short time, I turn my head and I see Nina while she is looking at me with her washed face and is carrying a small tray in her hands. She puts the tray on the table and waits I take my knapsack off her chair. Then she sits on the chair fast and nimbly. She smiles and begins to eat her meal. She uses the spoon regularly and carefully and eats her meal calmly. This kind of dining whets my appetite.

As I finish my meal gradually, suddenly I see Yatilan passing through the crowd like a snake and coming toward me. His face seems a little angry. Nina also stops dining because of my sudden look and she looks at the same direction. Yatilan stops between me and Nina, then he bends toward Nina and before starts talking with me, he tells her:

Excuse me dear Nina.

Nina smiles and continues eating her meal. Yatilan turns to me and says slowly:

Karisan has business with you.

Then throws Nina a meaningful look. I realize his purpose without explanation. So I tell her:

My dear, go to auntie when you finished your meal. I should go to uncle Karisan. Okey?

She shakes her head while eating her meal. I take my knapsack and go along with yatilan. He forces our way ahead of me. We go toward Karisan’s room. Yatilan enters without knocking and waits until I enter too.

Karisan is sitting on the table and is playing with his feet. Some patients lay on their pad on the ground. They used blankets instead of the green cover. Their numbers are more than Karisan’s room capacity. There is no equipment in this room. Except two patients who are awake, the rest are asleep. Once in a while, a moan can be heard from them, but it seems their malady is not acute. Two patients are asleep in a corner with no motion, while entirely are covered by their blankets. They even don’t groan and their breasts don’t move. Yatilan closes the door and stands near the table. Karisan’s face is calm and cool and he ponders. As we enter, Karisan turns toward us and stops playing with his feet. Then he says:

You can begin, Yatilan.

Then he offers me a chair to sit. I thank him by shaking my head.

I’ve assign armed guards in front of each window. People are afraid.

Karisan’s eyes are still locked into the table.

Bad news is spread among the people. It is said that they see black shadows through the windows. People complain. They don’t want to leave here.

Karisan, without lifting his head, says:

What about the nomads?

Yatilan replies:

The group which we sent out haven’t come back yet. They went to check the migrants’ condition. The migrants who are newcomers say that the black shadows were chasing them.

So the serious danger has not happened yet?

Not yet.

I interfere:

Do they have any other purpose unless the slaughter?

Yatilan shrugs:

Nobody knows what the nomads are doing here. If they aimed to the slaughter, they would do this now.

No one has ever seen such a behavior of them, it’s really strange!

We are inspecting all the people. Maybe we find something strange.

Karisan looks at Yatilan inquisitively and ask him:

Is there any spy in the shelter?

There’s no telling. There was no news of the nomads for a long time. They were turning to a legend. Few people could remember them. But now, fear has surrounded everywhere, everybody; even the red-eyed who have never heard their name.

I say:

I mean whether nomads have entered here

Probably.

Did the man who was wounded by the nomads say anything?

Karisan inserts his fingers into each other and says:

They were coming that nomads attacked them. They kill all people of the group. This one managed to escape.

I ask in wonder:

He escaped or they let him be alive?

Yatilan takes a deep breath and says:

Probably they left him alive. No one has ever been able to save his life from the nomads.

Karisan leans on his chair and says:

They wanted to parade their presence; that is, warning.

I shake my head and say:

So they don’t attack now. This time, they seem to have a different purpose.

Yatilan sits on a chair. He says:

What should we do? What should we tell the people?

Karisan says:

For the time being, we must wait and see what they want to do. Don’t make decision instead of people. They know what they should do.

Suddenly, an event reminds me of the sunrise:

By the way, I must tell something about the nomads.

All of a sudden the door is beaten and Rakovan comes in:

The group returned. Just one of them is alive, the rest are dead.

Yatilan gets up so fast so that his leg catches the edge of the table and his face crumples:

Where is he now?

Again, door opens and two waiters carry a man on their shoulders who is wounded by a knife which is inserted in his leg. His body trembles and his face is pallid:

As we turned our head, they appeared from behind. It’s not known how many they are. They killed all.

Karisan shows the bed to the waiters and then says:

Zairas and Yatilan, you two go and prepare the foodstuffs.

Yatilan looks at Karisan in wonder:

What do you mean?

We had better leave here.

Yatilan confirms karisan’s words by closing his eyes and wants me to follow him. I give my knapsack to Rakovan before I go out.

We must ration the foodstuffs.

People wouldn’t leave here in this condition.

Doesn’t matter. We can’t do anything.

I go follow him. We stop in front of the store. It is next to the clinic, right under the stairways. Yatilan enters store before me. A soft and warm breeze touches my face gently. This breeze is a rather strange in such a room which has not any entrance for it. Yatilan doesn’t notice it at all and goes toward a manhole. He opens it and then disappears into it.

This is a rather large store but is like a corridor. The broken chairs are put in a corner. In the other side, the cabinets have covered the wall. Some gunny are hung from the ceiling and between them the wires and cables can be seen. I enter the manhole after him and go down through it.

Then I see him busy with lighting some candles somewhere on the wall. When all of the candles are lighted, I notice the difference between here and upper floors. The remnants of concrete walls which are destroyed by lapse of time, are gathered below the walls. Now, the soft breeze blows faster, so that a howl-like sound can be heard. Yatilan takes the list off the wall, then, while he changes his place searching for light, says:

This is the list of foodstuffs which is remained for us. Those items which have been crossed out are out of stock. Indeed, it’s not necessary you look at it since the only foodstuffs in stock are just these boxes and…

Then he gives me the list and waits. The effects of the four classical elements can be seen all over the list and just the same 200 boxes of canned foods, as he said, is not crossed out on the list.

I approach the light to see the writings well. I made no mistake: 200 boxes are placed on each other on a corner. Yatilan is waiting for my reply while has lifted one of his eyebrows.

My eyes move from his face to the other parts of the store and I see about one hundred little yellow plants which are placed in small vases. I ask Yatilan, without I stop looking at them:

The yellow plant?

He strokes his beard:

Yea, we were going to run a farm here. We could supply foodstuffs for the shelter.

Is there any good soil and water around the shelter?

We planned to sow wheat, corn and some fruit trees. Yea, there is still good soil. These plants don’t need much water. It is possible to irrigate the whole farm with about twenty liters of water. We found a pipe line of water which isn’t certain from where it carries the water to here. At least it is good for farming.

“Life” shelter has very large farms. There, we had hot bread every day. The yellow plant accepts any kind of graft. We even tried fruit trees. It was excellent. So, this water comes from the well which is near the shelter?

No, we thought the pipe line passes over there, but it seems its way has been changed. The well is obsolete and useless. Which one would give better result, graft the yellow plant to the wheat or to the corn?

How deep is the well? Both are good, we used wheat more. We could grow and harvest pomegranates.

A smile appears on his lips:

I think it’s about four meters deep. Why? We can save our world with this plant. I want to try the fruits.

I shake my head:

I was about to fall into it. Orange is very good for graft to the yellow plant.

I prepared a plug for it but I got no occasion to fix it on the well. Come with me.

We go toward two vases on a corner of the room.

I grafted them last week. One to the apple, one to the orange.

The grafted branches of the orange have turned into the color and appearance of the plant.

The orange graft is ready to take to the outside under the direct sunshine, but the apple graft isn’t ready yet.

The color of the apple branches has changed a little, but their appearance is yet the same as original form. I confirm his words:

Yea, if you put it under the sunshine now, it wouldn’t grow anymore. Don’t water it again. Its leaves are losing their colors.

I touch its leaves:

They become thin. If you put it under sunshine when it grew enough, this would be ok.

He presses his lips, shakes her head and says:

Sure. Now let’s have a look at foodstuffs.

I lean on a chair, whose one leg is broken, to the wall and sit on it:

Two hundreds of twenty-can packs which equals four thousands can.

Yatilan wrinkles his brow and says:

We have foodstuffs almost for ten days. There is just a problem.

He takes one of the cans and points to its expiration date:

They will be expired five days ahead.

Why you didn’t order foodstuffs sooner?

It was appointed they send us some yellow plants and seeds with foodstuffs, but nothing happened.

Well, what to do now?

I go to call for some guys to take the foodstuffs out.

Then he goes up the ladder. I put the list aside and open one of the packs. The number of