Fifteen kilometers away from the capital of Namibia, Windhoek, in the southwest corner, there is a village far away from the hustle and bustle and closer to the original state.
It has a very beautiful name - Bergland Village.
This is a village full of singing and dancing.
Five kilometers away from the west of Beglan Village is the Beglan River, the mother river that supports several nearby villages.
Every morning, many young people get up early and walk on foot carrying earthen jars to get water from this river.
Because in the local culture, the river water in the early morning is like morning dew. The river water at that time is the cleanest and sweetest.
And among these countless water collectors, Osas is one of them.
Osas's original name was Umu Wilwin Enyel Twainwe Uwen Muben Osas, but for convenience, people in the village would just call him Osas.
Every morning before the sun rises, Osas will carry the earthen jar and go to the river five kilometers away to fetch water. Before each fetching water, Osas's mother will carefully put two pieces of water in his pocket. Flapjacks serve as snacks on the go.
This kind of pancake is carefully selected by Mother Osas and selects the best deep soil.
The soil is sterilized by burning it and then sieved to remove most of the impurities, eventually forming a fine, dense and loose soil.
Finally, the soil will be mixed with water to make a slurry, and then butter and salt will be added to the mud, stirred evenly, formed into round cakes, and exposed in the sun.
After drying, it becomes pancakes that can be used as snacks.
Of course, this fragrant pancake can only be used as a snack. If you eat too much, your belly will become swollen and your body will become weaker and weaker.
However, there is a vast and dense forest on the east side of the village. When the villagers of Bergland are hungry, they go to the nearby woods to pick wild fruits, and when they are thirsty, they go to the river to drink water.
When his stomach starts to growl in the evening, Osas will call his childhood playmate Ido, and the two of them go to the woods to eat meat together.
In the woods that nurtured the entire village, Osas and Ido developed good skills since childhood. Not only could they distinguish a variety of wild fruits and fungi, but they could also occasionally catch a few mice or bats to eat meat.
The entire Bergland village lives happily in such an environment without any disputes with the world.
But just a few days ago, Osas suddenly heard from his playmates that a villager who had returned from Windhoek suddenly fell ill on the night of his return. He kept vomiting and couldn't even eat food.
However, Osas did not care about this. After all, as a Namibian, Osas knew early on that many people in the village were destined to live long, and the person who contracted the disease was one of them.
However, the real nightmare arrived without any warning...
In the evening, Osas rested all day and walked towards the east end of the village until the sun was about to set. Ido would meet him there every day, and the two of them went to the woods to look for food.
However, when Osas arrived at the east end of the village, he did not see Ido.
"Hey, is this guy late?"
Osas was a little surprised. The other party was younger than him, and he was just growing up. Every time he went to the woods to eat meat, he was more active than himself. Such lateness rarely happened.
Osas didn't pay attention, but sat leisurely at the end of the village, waiting silently.
But until the sun had set and the sky turned from blue to indigo, Ido didn't wait.
"What on earth is this guy doing?"
Osas was a little annoyed. When night fell, although mice and birds could be caught, wild fruits would be hard to find. Thinking of this, he simply walked in the direction of Ida's house.
Ido's home was not far from the village, and soon a house made of clay appeared in front of Osas.
The door was not closed. Osas walked directly to the door and was about to knock on the door, but he heard a violent sound of vomiting coming from inside the room.
The sound came from the back room. Osas quickly ran in, only to see Ido standing helplessly in front of the bed, while his mother was lying sideways on the bed, facing a face placed in front of the bed. Pen vomited vigorously.
"vomit!"
Like a fountain, a stream of black filth spurted out of her mouth. Although most of it was spitted into the basin, a lot still splashed out and splashed all over the bed.
A special fishy smell floated over from the direction of the bed, just like the smell of blood and internal organs of small animals every time Osas dissected them.
Osas subconsciously covered his mouth and nose.
"Osas, why are you here?"
At this time, Ido happened to turn around and see Osas, but his mood seemed a little low.
"Ido, what happened when we went to the woods..."
Osas asked at a loss.
"As you can see, my mother is sick and I have to take care of her." Ido shook his head and rejected Osas without hesitation.
"All right… "
Seeing this, Osas didn't know what to say. He took one last look at Ido's mother. At this time, the woman was still retching, spewing out dark brown mucus from time to time, as if she wanted to vomit her entire internal organs. Come out normally...
Not only that, in Osas's eyes, her mother's eyes had already turned bright red due to congestion, and two lines of dark red blood could even be faintly seen flowing down her cheeks, which was very weird and terrifying...
For some reason, Osas suddenly felt panicked. He hurriedly ran out of the room and returned home before he had time to say hello to Ido.
Originally, Osas thought this was just a minor incident, but when he got up the next day, he found that the atmosphere in the entire village had become tense.
Not only Ido's family, but more than a dozen families in the village have suffered from similar symptoms. The symptoms of these people are very similar to Ido's mother. They all have high fever, vomiting constantly, and some people also have bleeding from both eyes. symptom.
And that terrifying appearance was like a curse from hell.
The appearance of these diseases immediately caused panic in the villagers. Everyone understood that this was a sign of the emergence of the plague.
As a result, there were no longer idle villagers in the village. Some people simply left the village and went to nearby towns to avoid the plague.
However, families like Osas did not have the ability to leave the village, so Osas's mother could only close the door tightly to prevent the plague from entering the home through the door.
On this day, Osas just went to the river at ten o'clock in the morning to get the necessary water for the whole day, and stayed behind closed doors when he came back.
This response is the only way officially promoted by Namibia to deal with all plagues.
But this method doesn't seem to be that effective for the Osas family...
Time comes on the third day.
When Osas woke up from his sleep after a restless night, he only heard a moan coming from outside the room.
The moans came from the mother's room, with a painful breath, and at the same time, there was an intermittent sound of retching.
After hearing this voice, Osas's heart tightened, and he quickly got out of bed and walked towards his mother's room. However, after taking only two steps, he felt severe muscle soreness all over his body.
Not only that, Osas's head also became dizzy and he had a splitting headache.
However, Osas didn't care about this. He quickly ran to his mother's room, only to see his mother curled up on the bed with a large puddle of dark brown vomit beside her.
As Osas came in, mother slowly opened her eyes.
But at this time, the mother's eyes were blood red, and there was faint blood flowing down...
Seeing this scene, Osas's heart sank. He quickly ran out of the room and wanted to go to the village chief's house to seek help.
But just as he walked out of the door, Osas stepped down.
At this time, on the whole road of the village, looking all the way, more than a dozen villagers fell on the road, and the road in the village was actually covered with dark brown vomit. In just one night, the village of Beglan deteriorated uncontrollably. stand up.
The air was filled with a strong fishy stench. At this time, Osas finally understood that the smell of blood and internal organs was the smell of death...