Extract from

Dr Benjamin King’s Blog:

Heroes and villains

   

 

 

 

 

WHEN I was little, I wanted to be a superhero.

I guess that’s no big surprise. I mean, most little boys do. Girls as well, of course.

But, for me, it was different. Or, at least, it felt different.

I didn’t really understand what was happening that afternoon in a hotel room in Lagos. But I knew bad men were hurting my family. And, I knew that superheroes – Batman, Superman, Iron Man, whichever – saved good people from bad people.

It’s sad, I suppose, that even at such a young age, you realise that the world is made up of heroes and villains.

Of course, no superhero came bursting through the windows to strike down General Abuku and his evil henchmen. I could do nothing but stand there and watch helplessly as they raped and murdered my mother and sister.

It makes the perfect superhero origin story, doesn’t it? Bruce Wayne, eat your heart out!

I spent hours dressing up as one superhero or another as a child, fantasising about being the one who would swoop in and save the day.

But adulthood strips such nonsensical notions from the mind, grounding one in reality. Sadly, on my travels around the world with my dad, I have seen more evil. A limbless man, the victim of a landmine tragedy, begging on the streets of Phnom Penh. An elderly woman dying on the pavement following a mugging in Cape Town. A young woman overdosing in the apartment next to ours in New York City.

After each of these occasions and many more, a part of me daydreamed about donning a mask and cape and swooping in to save the day.

Yet, I was helpless to do anything except donate money to the limbless man, give a report to un-caring police about the mugging, and attempt futile CPR on that woman in New York.

And now, here I am again. Standing here, on the summit of Sarisariñama, helpless and useless as I watch friends and colleagues die around me.

Three are dead already. Another seven are in critical condition. Everyone else is suffering from the strange illness to one extent or another, showing symptoms of vomiting, diarrhoea or angry skin ‘irritations,’ as Nadia puts it.

Everyone except Nathan Raine and yours truly.

At least, not yet.

Yet, what am I doing? Am I flying the dying out to safety? Am I using my superpowers to heal the sick? Am I shrewdly searching for some magical cure?

No.

I’m playing doctors and nurses with Nadia (not in the way Raine would like).

One of Nadia’s many qualifications is a degree in applied-medicine, her first choice after switching from theoretical physics before utilising that knowledge as an osteoarchaeologist. Such a background made her the logical choice to oversee the expedition’s first aid team, even if her bedside manner is somewhat lacking. But, I think even she would admit that she is well and truly out of her depths amid such a major medical emergency.

We need help.

And we need it fast.

I hope to update you soon.