Getting on the aircraft, he settled himself in a corner and waited to see in which direction the aircraft would go.
'I hope it's to Kenya, because Uganda doesn't have direct flights to New York, and I really want to go home now.'
________________________________
- 28 hours since leaving New York -
'And of fucking course it's Uganda, Ugh fucking Bast'
When the aircraft landed at the western border, Arthur wanted to cry.
Walking out of the vehicle, he quickly started searching through the guard hut, looking for a water gourd and some kind of map or compass.
Finding two bottles of water but no map, Arthur looked at the setting sun and thought about leaving right now on foot toward the border, quickly calculating in his head the time it would take him to reach the nearest Ugandan city on foot.
'The nearest city with an airport should be Kisoro. It will take me 3 to 4 hours on foot. With the night arriving soon, I'd best sleep here until tomorrow morning.'
And so Arthur went back to the biggest hut and laid down in the biggest straw bed of the little village, not caring about where the Dora Milaje in charge would sleep.
'She's a big bad soldier, she'll manage I'm sure.'
He muttered, before rolling himself inside the, probably vibranium-infused, covers and falling asleep almost immediately.
__
Waking up from a good night's sleep was as much of a blessing as it was a curse. Waking up feeling good about himself was, of course, a blessing, but getting up being twice as hard as usual was the obvious curse.
Still, for the first time, Arthur could feel all the improvements that Bast's blessing had given him, without feeling pain all over his body.
'And what a great feeling it is to feel like I could do everything, like my only limitation is myself.'
It was, of course, euphoria talking, not his rational mind. But, quickly enough, Arthur refocused on what was in his immediate future, coming back home before he missed his date.
'That would be hell.'
Getting up and quickly washing himself, Arthur looked at the sun, identified which way was west and started walking toward it.
Half an hour later, he joined what seemed to be a national road in this country, red dirt tracks, with a sign indicating the nearest city, Kisoro. Below the city sign was an estimated distance: 15 kilometers.
Based on his new walking speed, it would only take him an hour at best to reach his goal.
__
Kisoro was a picturesque town and district located in southwestern Uganda, nestled at the foot of the majestic volcanoes of the Virunga range.
The contrast between his recent memory of Wakandian architecture and what he saw in front of him reaffirmed in his mind that, for all the wrongs of Killmonger, he was right about a lot of things.
When Wakanda chose to close itself off and to focus on internal development, they essentially abandoned the rest of their continent, their own neighbours, to what was to be one of the greatest crimes against humanity in its entire history.
Are they solely responsible for this tragedy? Of course not. They didn't enslave people, didn't massacre entire villages and ethnic groups, but they still turned their backs on people they could have helped.
And that's the most important part. They didn't ignore it because they were powerless to stop it. No, they ignored it even though they could have stopped it because it would bring trouble.
The, probably, most advanced country on Earth in terms of armaments, technology and renewable energy essentials said:
"Stopping a crime against humanity is not worth it if even one of our people dies for it."
What a joke of an ideology, Arthur thought as he looked at the desolate city in front of him.
Still, he shook his head and started looking at the road signs for one indicating the airport.
An hour later, he was on a plane heading to the only international airport in the country, Entebbe Airport, the previous capital. The flight would last another hour.
__
Entebbe Airport was closer to JFK Airport than he would have thought beforehand. Still looking at the departing flights, he sighed to himself when he noticed not one of them was going to the United States. A lot were headed to Paris and London, some to Asian cities and others to African cities.
13:00 — AF 825 — PARIS CDG — AIR FRANCE — GATE A5 — CHECK-IN OPEN
Seeing a flight leaving in 1 hour, he immediately started going toward the corresponding gate.
Blatantly walking onto the plane and sitting in a first-class seat, he started reading a Paris guidebook he stole at the airport for the first few hours before going back to sleep for the rest of the 9-hour flight to Paris Charles de Gaulle Airport.
- 51 hours since leaving New York -
When the plane made contact with the tarmac of Paris, Arthur immediately woke up, looking through the window to watch the sun set over what he assumed to be Paris in the distance.
Coming down from the plane, he still chose to follow his trusted strategy of hitching a ride with an unsuspecting lone traveller going to the city centre.
Paris was breathtaking, in a completely different way than Wakanda was. Paris didn't need modernity to catch the eye. Its Haussmannian architecture was simply pleasing and soft to the eye. Every few streets stood old buildings, almost all conserved and in good condition, made of white stone. They seemed to radiate elegance and simplicity in a way modern architecture never could.
And so Arthur fell in love with the French city. He originally only planned to stay here the night before catching a flight for New York the next morning.
But his stress and tension started to lessen when faced with such beauty.
He arrived in Paris at 10 o'clock in the evening, and after sleeping on the plane for 6 hours, he was full of energy, relishing the chance to see the nightlife of Paris. He quickly climbed up onto a roof and started doing parkour over the old buildings of the city.
During the night, he visited several historical monuments, the Eiffel Tower, Montmartre, the Grand Palais, the Invalides, and he even sneaked into the Louvre for a nighttime visit to one of the greatest museums on Earth.
His ability and recent power-up allowed him almost free rein in the city of love.
He also stole quite a bit of money from some upscale apartments. By the end of the night, he had a bag filled with almost 50,000 euros.
Seeing the sun rise above the city, he chose to come down from the roofs and go eat breakfast at a café. He, for the first time in almost 3 days, deactivated his ability.
'SHOW'
After sitting down at a table on the terrace of a café in front of the Eiffel Tower, he looked around for a few minutes before a waiter approached him to take his order.
"Bonjour monsieur, que puis-je vous servir ?"
"Sorry, I'm English and unfortunately don't understand French yet."
The waiter smiled at him before switching to a heavily French-accented English.
"No problem, what would you like for breakfast, sir?"
"A coffee and a croissant, please."
Nodding, the waiter replied before leaving.
"Of course, I will bring it to you shortly."
A short time later, his order was brought to him. He quickly ate his breakfast before wondering about what he would do on his second day in Paris. Looking at the Eiffel Tower, he slowly grinned and said:
"I have a great idea."
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