Lonely Travelers
By Vanya
"Good evening my friend, you want drink, maybe some food?"
I shrugged, "Yeah, why not." I'd been walking for a while and it was already pitch black. All the bars were pretty much the same and this place seemed as good as any. I pulled up a stool and ordered a bottle of the local beer and scanned a menu.
Gili Air was the name of the island, a tiny place, I'd already walked the whole coastline in slightly over an hour. Getting here had been chaotic though. First there was the early morning bus ride across mainland Bali, followed by a long stop off at the ferry port. The crossing was fine, but rather than stopping at a port on the island we had to jump across to a smaller boat to take us the rest of the way. And I mean jump, there was no walkway, no mooring, each passenger had to leap from the large boat to the smaller one while a deckhand held the rope. Health and safety clearly did not exist in this part of the world, which in all honesty I found refreshing. In the previous weeks I'd been working on a conservation project, the organiser of which gleefully told me how she'd lied on the risk assessment forms back home, telling them that every boat had life jackets for all and were equipped to deal with fire. In reality we'd happily go out on the boats in the evening with a case of beer and drink until it was gone. If there was a fire we would have jumped overboard without a life jacket and swam for it. And yet nobody drowned.
Even arriving on the island had been problematic. Once I stepped onto the beach I was informed that I wouldn't be able to get into my hotel until the next day and so had spent the night on a floor that was kindly offered to me. But now everything was fine, I had a room, nothing fancy, a bit of privacy and a bed, but it was all I needed. For the first time in a long while I felt relaxed and free. I sipped my beer and scanned the bar, it was full of happy couples and smiling groups, and then there was me, just one lonely traveller. But that was when he arrived. What first struck me was that he was unusually dressed. I'd been in South East Asia for just over two weeks and had seen all sorts of weird and wonderful clothing styles, but what was unusual here was that he was dressed normally, but not for this part of the world. He wore brown suit trousers and a pale blue shirt and looked like he'd just walked out of an office building, not a hotel on a tropical island. The only abnormality in his outfit was the trainers. The stranger strode up from the beach path and took a seat at the bar. He signalled the barman and purchased an arack attack, a particularly potent local cocktail. He glanced up and down the bar, noticing me and nodded in my direction.
"Brave choice." I commented, having put away a large quantity of arack in the earlier weeks and come off a little worse for wear on more than one occasion.
"Thank you, I like to live dangerously. Care to join me?"
"Yeah, go for it." Another drink was ordered and I slid down the bar to the empty stool next to him.
"Cheers!" he said was we clinked glasses and drank our drinks, a second round was quickly ordered.
"So," the stranger enquired, "What brings you out here?"
"I've just graduated, so I thought I'd see try to the world before I get stuck with a career. I came out here to work on a conservation project, I've just spent the last two weeks out watching dolphins and monkeys. And now that's done I thought I'd do some travelling. I came out here to learn to SCUBA dive."
The stranger smiled, "Seeing the world and saving it too, I like your thinking. Are you on your own?"
I nodded, "There was a group working on the project, six of us, but I was the only one who stayed on and kept travelling, the rest had to get back for uni and stuff. What about yourself, you here with anyone?"
"Well," he paused for a moment, "No, right now I'm on my own. I've travelled with a lot of people, but something always happens, they go home, or want to stay where they are, or they can't go just on...." His voice trailed off.
I signalled the barman for a fresh pair of drinks. When they came I raised my glass, "To lonely travellers."
The stranger's spirits lifted as he too brought his drink up a large grin spread across his face, "Lonely travellers."
As I drank my latest drink a thought occurred to me, "I'm sorry," I said, "I never asked you your name."
"I'm the Doctor." he replied, stretching out his arm.
"The Doctor?" I enquired as I shook his hand.
"The Doctor."
"Not Doctor something, just the Doctor?"
"Just the Doctor."
"And what brings you to Gili, just the Doctor?"
His eyes darted round the bar, and then he indicated for me to come in closer. In a hushed voice he said, "What if I were to tell you I was looking for sea monsters?"
I contemplated the question, "It's hard to say. I'd laugh if you were obviously joking, otherwise I'd think you were just a little bit crazy."
"And rightly so, who believes in sea monsters anyway?"
"Hang on there, I didn't say that I didn't believe. There's been for too many strange occurrences in the world for me to dismiss something like completely. I'm a scientist, I go with the evidence. So, are you looking for monsters?"
"Yes. No. Well, monsters maybe isn't the best term, what I'm looking for are known as Sea Devils."
I snorted with laughter, "Sea Devils, much more PC than 'monsters'."
"Not my choice, but that's what people called them first time I met them and it kind of stuck. These creatures are old, very old. They are one of a number of reptilian species that ruled the Earth while man was still swinging through the trees, but they went into hibernation to avoid a natural disaster. They survived but in the process they lost the planet. The problem is within recent years isolated pockets of them have began to wake up, and when they do things can get ugly."
"So why are you looking for them?"
"To make sure it doesn't turn into a conflict, you lot may have superior numbers but they have more advanced technology and some pretty nasty pets. I'll negotiate a truce, keep them asleep if I have to, but I can't let this end in violence, not again."
"So this has happened before then?"
"Three times, a group of reptile men were discovered in caves near Wenley Moor, a few years later a colony of Sea Devils awoke and once near this undersea base.......
"Undersea base? We have those now?"
"..... Come to think of it, just twice."
I nodded along with what he was saying, interesting details, but there were times when he seemed to be making the whole thing up. Just because the Earth moved and hostile aliens roamed the streets it didn't mean that you believe everyone who claims to have see aliens or monsters. But still, he was by far the most interesting person I'd met out here so I thought I'd play along for a bit longer.
"So what did you do about it?"
"I tried to reach a peaceful compromise, but the military got involved and they blew up the cave system and the Silurian's, those were the cave dwelling reptile men by the way, they blew up the Silurian base. The Sea Devils were being manipulated into war by a hostile third party, and I was forced to take action......"
His voice trailed off. But there was something in his words, a sadness, a deep regret. In that moment I knew it was true, everything he was saying, it had to be.
"I'm sorry." What more was there to say? So much had been loaded on me at once it was impossible to know how to react to what was going on.
"Not to worry, I know what I'm dealing with now. I know where they are when they're due to wake up, and best of all there's no military out here, I'm completely on my own."
"And that's a good thing?"
"This time yes it is. There's a time and a place for everything, the military have helped save the world many times, but this time the situation needs a more diplomatic touch."
"Makes sense. So when is this all going to happen?"
The Doctor glanced down at his watch, "About 24 hours."
"You're early."
"Lets just say getting here isn't an exact science."
"And then your whole plan seems to consist of walking into wherever they're hiding and just doing your thing?"
"Pretty much yes."
"Can I come?"
"Are you sure you really want to?"
"Absolutely. The whole reason I came out here in the first place was for a chance to do something new and different. You can't just tell me that there's a previously undiscovered colony of, what was it, Sea Devils somewhere near this island and not expect me take an interest. The world is changing, we're just starting to learn the truth about these strange and unexplained creatures and I want to be a part of it, to be on the forefront of an exciting new discovery. What we're dealing with would have been dismissed years ago as the paranormal, the unexplained, but now I believe we're dealing with the future of science and understanding. The genome's been mapped, this is the next big breakthrough."
By the end of my little speech I found myself on my feet with all the bar patrons staring at me, the numerous arack attacks were clearly going to my head. Slightly embarrassed I took my seat again in silence. After a moments pause the Doctor, in a slightly amused voice said, "So that's a 'yes' then?"
I nodded, "Yes, yes it is."
And so the deal was done. And after that we talked. The Doctor told me stories of his past adventures, it seemed every time aliens or monsters appeared on Earth he was there in the middle of it. He'd been part of the most recent encounters, and there were so many more that never reached the public, who new that the London underground had been attacked by yetis?
As the evening went on the effects of the alcohol and the events of the day began to catch up with me and I was forced to make my excuses. In the black of the night I walked down the beach with the Doctor while he continued to tell stories of the monsters he's fought. Just as he was reaching the end of his encounter with the Loch Ness monster we arrived back at my hotel.
"Well it was nice to meet you," I said, "But I must say good night, busy day tomorrow, SCUBA lessons and monster hunting."
"Good night," replied the Doctor, but as he turned to leave he turned round and smiled, "Thank you for volunteering."
"Thanks for letting me."
End.