Far Horizons: Tales of Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror. Issue #19 October 2015 | Page 14

of our camp!”
“For the years I’ve run this community, has
anyone ever spoiled our peace?” Christine was enraged, her finger pointing in the man’s face. “I’ve told
you before, Jacque. I didn’t get to run this community
by foolishness and arguments. I follow the gods, and
they have never steered me wrong. This woman is not
an outsider. She is a friend escaping her own torments.
She has known the hell of being a slave as well.”
“A slave? Ha! I have never seen a slave before
that wasn’t black.” Jacque eyed Bana up and down
with judgmental eyes. “I don’t know exactly who you
are, or what you are, but you shouldn’t be welcomed
on this island. This island is a place of refuge for
Africans.”
“This island is a place of refuge for anyone
coming in peace!” Christine pushed the man on his
chest. “Her name is Bana, and she stays.”
The big man cocked back a fist.
“If you hit me, our family and my zombies
will stand for me.” Christine pressed her hand against
the man’s fist. “Bana stays. She is my guest.”
ered.

Jacque bit his lip. His fist trembled and low-

Christine offered a smile and turned to Bana.
“Come. I promise that no one else will give you trouble.”
Christine and Bana walked past Jacque. The
zombies sunk back into the depths of the jungle.
Christine walked Bana around the camp, introducing her to people. Some eyed her with suspicion,
while others seemed to honor Christine’s guest. Many
couldn’t communicate with her, only knowing French.
The songs around the campfires were beautiful. The words, the elegance of the dancing, and the
sonorous compositions of voices brought a powerful
feeling to Bana’s heart.

Bana was suddenly transported to her childhood, when her people lived in peace. She remembered people swimming freely in the waters, living
peacefully among the island, playing their own instruments, singing their own songs. She remembered
people being happy.
Then, the Spanish invaded. Foreign friends revealed mongrel natures—dogs tore the limbs of Taino,
gunpowder burning their faces and chests, swords
gutting them, women stolen from their lovers.
Bana wept. Those painful, demonic images of
the past would forever be implanted in her mind.
Maybe in the comfort of people Bana strangely related to, she could let the hurt out. These people
were from another time and culture, yet they were
joined together by some mysterious rift in the ocean, a
hole through the fabric of space and time.
Bana tried to figure out the moment she
must have left the real world, the time where things
had suddenly changed. From the first night she was
forced to take the wheel, she had noticed the sky
had changed, that the stars were not the same stars.
Christine had remarked that the stars above them in
this dimension were the precious loa, the gods of the
Ewe, staring down upon them. Those stars were the
hidden stars of a protected realm beyond the sights of
all evildoers, looking down upon their people, keeping
them safe.
***
The zombies roamed through the thick, lush
jungle, overlooking the land.
The lives of the undead men were quite different before they had come here. One had been a Navy
captain in the British Army, commanding a fleet that
stood against the Spanish Armada. Another had been
a slaver who narrowly escaping a mutiny aboard the
Amistad. There were former Spanish soldiers, a few
merchants, and other unfortunate men from many different centuries and time periods. They had all traveled
through some interdimensional rift over the waters

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