Test Subject 13

**warning strong language

My head hurt , and my skin burned. A rustling in the undergrowth sounded not far from my right hand side, and I could feel the rise and fall of Sasha's shoulders as he breathed.

"What just happened."

My neck ached as I lifted my head. "I don't know."

"I just had the trippiest dream that we turned to dust."

I opened my eyes and surveyed the land around me, it was the same as when I'd last checked except the grasses around us were tall and lush, birds sang around us, ants marched across the ground carrying fresh seeds and sections of grass stems, and dark clouds advanced from the west.

"I don't think it was a dream Sasha."

We were silent then,slightly unnerved by what we think had happened.

"Hey! Hello!!!"

We startled and looked to the distant voice. It was the fucking Piolet! Half jogging across the grassy flat lands.

"What happened?" He asked with a strong  Ugandan accent. "What do you remember?" I asked scrambling up from the ground as he reached us, Sasha following suit.

"I was flying the plane. Then the radio malfunctioned. I started to feel strange, and I thought my arm....I ..I looked and it was gone. Then I open my eyes and I'm here. On the ground. How did this happen?"

I sucked in a painful breath and steady my hands. " I think something happened. We thought you were... we looked into the cockpit and you were gone, then we jumped from the pane. And then we turned to dust, and then.."

"We weren't dust anymore." Sasha finished solemnly.

"How" he asked?

"We don't know. Do you know where we are?"

"Not exactly, we were over Niger nearing the border when I last checked. But the land looks wrong, it looks like it is the rain season."

"I think we were gone for a while" I say. "What do we do now?"

He pulls a compass from his pocket and taps at the cracked glass then looks up at the sun, then back to the half mangled device in his hands. "That way." He points in the direction of the angry looking clouds. "The border should be that way." 

"Thank god you found us Adroa." I say as I dig through the grass looking for my bag. Sasha pulls his out of a bush about 20 yards away .

"I really hope nothing deadly made a home out of this while we were gone." He says, he's joking but I eye my own suspiciously.

********
The Piolet Adora was speaking rapidly to a Wakandan border guard. She was dressed in a beautiful tribal uniform that I wished I could pull off. She glanced occasionally at us and I wondered how much of the truth she was actually getting. She said something to Adora who smiled and placed a hand over his heart saying a few more words before waving us over.

"They are granting us asylum until we can contact our families." Adora announced, "they will bring us to the capital."

Sasha and I released a sigh of relief. I thought I had felt Bucky go. But if I was back was he? I looked to the statuesque guard, she was intently studying what looked like a hologram that appeared from her hand. How the hell did that work. Her gaze snapped to mine and her frown depend and she closed her hand, making whatever she was looking at disappear. 

We were led by another guard to a strange looking aircraft, not quite plane and not quite helicopter. Adora made a sound of utter joy and excitement as we were led abroad.
"Oh I wish I could own such a beautiful plane."