The Power of Five Oblivion

dead Frenchmen in the Arabian desert.
    Keep the feet together, Scarlett. And try not to get any more blood on your hands. You’re covered enough already…
    Had this really happened to her? How had her life come to this?
    The body slumped into the grave. Before Richard could do any more work, Scarlett snatched up the spade and began to fill it in. Richard took out a canister of water and drank, his face covered in sweat and grime. At least they still had water. They had been careful, rationing themselves over the course of the journey. They couldn’t be sure what the water situation would be in Dubai. Neither of them said the obvious, even if both of them secretly thought it. Rémy had drunk more than either of them in the last three days. And it had all been wasted.
    Scarlett finished her work. “Do you want to say anything?” she asked.
    “You mean – a prayer?” Richard handed her his canister. “I was never really the religious sort.”
    “Me neither. I used to hate chapel at school.”
    “Let’s get’s back in the car.”
    “Actually, I’ve got something to tell you, Richard.” Scarlett had been waiting for the right moment. “I saw Matt last night.”
    “Matt?” Richard’s face brightened. “He was in the dreamworld?”
    “He called us all together. We were all there. Matt, Pedro, Jamie, Scott…”
    “That’s great news. How is he?”
    Scarlett hesitated. She knew how close Richard was to Matt and how much he’d worried about him – but she was determined not to lie. “I don’t know, Richard. I got the feeling there was something he wasn’t telling me. He was very serious. I thought he was upset about something.”
    “Where is he?”
    “He’s in Brazil. Lohan is with him.”
    Quickly, Scarlett told Richard everything that had happened outside the library. The sun was rising and although the colour of the sky hadn’t changed, it was getting hotter. They needed to set off soon. Without the Land Cruiser’s air-conditioning, they would both melt.
    “We have to get to Antarctica,” she said.
    “Antarctica!” Richard shook his head. “That’s a funny thing to be talking about in the middle of the desert! Right now we must be, what, ten thousand miles away?”
    “Rémy said there were planes flying in and out of Dubai.”
    “That was a while ago. Things may have changed.”
    “We’d better find out. And at least we’ve got money now. We can pay.”
    “You’re right.” Richard nodded. “Maybe that’s where it all ends … this whole thing. On the ice.”
    “I really hope so,” Scarlett said.
    The two of them got back into the car and drove off. The unmarked grave dwindled into the distance behind them. Neither of them looked back.
    Dubai took them by surprise. One moment they were driving through the unremitting emptiness of the desert, the next they were boxed in, with modern streets and buildings appearing all around them, as if the city had been lying in the sand and had leapt up to ambush them. Their first impression, particularly after Cairo, was one of extraordinary cleanliness. There was no war going on here and they had left the sandstorms behind. In fact the sky was a dazzling blue, the shops and offices gleaming – as if they had only just been built. The streets were wide and evenly spaced with what might once have been lawns stretching their entire length. All the grass had died but the earth that remained was neat and symmetrical. The city didn’t seem to have grown. It could have been laid out deliberately, piece by piece.
    And it was completely deserted.
    Richard and Scarlett had driven down half a dozen empty avenues before they saw what should have been obvious from the start. There were cars parked everywhere, many of them very expensive ones… Ferraris, Jaguars, Rolls Royces. But there were no drivers and they were alone on the road. The traffic lights were still working uselessly, blinking from green to yellow to red, but nothing moved. There was nothing to move. Most of the shops had been stripped but they saw fridges, furniture, plasma screen TVs and even grand pianos on display. They were too heavy to carry so they had simply been left behind. As they continued forward, they passed fountains without water and palm trees which, against the odds, had managed to survive. The traffic lights changed and changed again. After a while, they learnt to ignore them.
    All around them, huge hotels, shopping centres and skyscrapers seemed almost to mock