A Heartwarming Epiphany in the African Dream

Gregory's head hurt. He shook it, trying to clear the fog, and then frowned at the hand on his shoulder.

"Gregory!" Hannah's voice was sharp and insistent. "We have to go."

Gregory looked up from where he lay in the sand and blinked blearily at her. She had a scarf wrapped around her face, leaving only her eyes visible. "Huh?" he asked. "Go where?" His vision cleared a little, and he was able to see that she wasn't alone; two men stood behind her, both wearing light desert fatigues and carrying AK-47s. One of them gave him a stern look as he nudged Gregory with his rifle butt.

"You're just going to have to wake up," Hannah said irritably, pulling down the scarf so she could speak more clearly. "I don't know how you managed to pass out in this heat, but we don't have time for it now." She reached down and helped Gregory to his feet. He swayed unsteadily for a moment before catching his balance.

"What are we doing here?" Gregory asked, still rubbing at his eyes as he tried to focus on the group of people around him. The sunlight was blinding after lying in the shade under the rocky ledge they'd been resting under, but he could make out enough details to know that they weren't in California anymore.

"We're working on our film," Hannah told him impatiently, "we've been here for days now." She started walking toward their dusty SUV with the armed men at her side; Gregory followed along behind them, trying to make sense of what was going on.

Hannah was right; they had been filming in Africa for a few days now, but this wasn't the African landscape they'd imagined when they started writing the script last year. This place seemed ... ancient somehow, with its steep-walled canyons and towering monoliths carved with indecipherable symbols. And yet there were also signs of modern civilization; there were carvings in some of the rocks that looked like advertising logos that Gregory recognized from back home in California. At first he thought there might be some sort of time travel involved, but by now he'd seen enough strange things happen during their journey through Africa that he'd given up questioning anything that happened anymore. The carvings didn't really make sense anyway - if there had ever been roads leading out into these canyons thousands of years ago, they were long gone now. They hadn't seen anything move faster than a slow walk since they arrived here - not even insects or birds - and Gregory suspected there wouldn't be enough light in this place to support either one except during midday hours when they were already resting under shade nearby anyway.

Gregory's headache eased slightly as they approached their SUV; he stopped at the tailgate while Hannah and the two armed men ran ahead to get into position inside the vehicle's air-conditioned cab before opening its doors for him to climb inside as well. Their driver waited patiently for them to clamber into their seats before slowly backing up and turning around so that they could leave this desolate place behind them once again. Gregory sat in silence as he watched through tinted windows as the rocky walls receded behind them until all traces of it disappeared into a haze of heat waves shimmering above sand and stone alike. He turned away from the window when Hannah shifted beside him impatiently; she pulled out her laptop computer from underneath her seat and flipped it open without even looking at Gregory as she waited for him to set up his own equipment nearby so that they could review what they had filmed earlier today before packing everything away again before nightfall so they could hit the road again early tomorrow morning before sunrise arrived with another scorching day waiting for them outside the SUV's doors.