The desert swept long, hard, and wide into what had once been Ethiopia, but had long since become but one of many Administrative Regions, or ARs, all subject to a single Earth government. Not that the local inhabitants cared, or paid much attention to such abstractions. They lived as they always had, subject to God and the rule of nature.
There was no sign of movement save from distant clouds of dust raised by the seasonal Khamsin and the high, hopeful circles made by a solitary white backed vulture. A hungry vulture that hoped to feed off the weak or the dead.
The river bed, dry until the October rains sent water flooding along its course, ran roughly north to south and offered the only cover for twenty miles in any direction.
It certainly beat the hell out of no cover, but was far
