Road Rage by Paul Tomlinson

Author:Paul Tomlinson [Tomlinson, Paul]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Paul Tomlinson
Published: 2021-05-15T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Thirty

“What do we know about the Badlands?” I asked.

“The clue’s in the name,” Harmony said.

“The section we will be travelling through is predominantly swamp,” Floyd said.

“Hence ‘swamp road’,” Harmony said.

“Aside from the obvious,” I said, staring at Harmony, “what else can you tell us?”

“It is essentially a flooded forest with areas of more open ground,” Floyd said. “Slow-moving water and wet soil. Temperatures can reach thirty-eight degrees centigrade and humidity levels are very high. This results in low-lying mist and patches of thicker fog.”

“Fog makes my hair frizz,” Harmony said. Her hair was almost as short as mine – I don’t think either of us needed to worry about frizz.

“This is a wetland habitat,” Floyd said. “The trees are a variety of cypress, there is trailing moss and several types of thorny shrub. Invertebrate life includes spiders, mosquitoes, and leeches.”

“My three favourite types,” I said.

“Scientific data is lacking but there are anecdotal reports of water-dwelling snakes and crocodiles.”

“Hence Badlands,” Harmony said.

“Will you stop that,” I said. But she was right. In the stories we hear as children, swamps are always home to the nastiest creatures. Our real-life one seemed intent on living up to this reputation.

“The area has not been officially surveyed, so maps are almost non-existent,” Floyd said. “A perpetual layer of fog means that satellite photographs aren’t particularly useful.”

“There would be more data if anyone actually wanted to go there,” Harmony said.

“The absence of reliable mapping means that navigation is difficult,” Floyd said. “Atmospheric disturbances, which may or may not be the result of weapons used there during the conflict, mean that accurate positioning using satellite signals is impossible and other technologies are also unreliable.”

“Are you reading that?” Harmony asked.

“Much of the terrain looks similar, meaning it is easy to become disoriented,” Floyd said. Or read. “Experienced guides can recognise semi-permanent features in the environment to use as waymarkers.”

“I’ll take the first shower,” I said. “Then we’ll go and look for this Kumar.”

“Kumar Dhenuka,” Floyd said.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.