Necropolis (54 page)

The fury of the thunder lit up the blackness of the night, which had abolished the boundary between sky and sea. The lightning flashes were like electric vipers sinking their teeth into the water. With each flash, the threatening clouds could be seen. The waves were mountain ranges of water hitting the cliffs of our fortress.

Those terrifying lights suggested a battle, but what battle? The final one, Armageddon, as Jessica sometimes thought, or a more conventional one, fought with missiles and nuclear warheads? None of us knew, but our little island, lonely and drifting, made me think that all of that had happened in another time, and that the horror was over now, and that the world as we had known it was already a distant, forgotten planet.

 

 

Santiago Gamboa was born in Bogotá, Colombia. His debut novel,
Páginas de vuelta
(1995), established him as one of the most innovative voices in Colombian literature. He has since published seven novels and two collections of short stories. His journalism appears regularly in
El Tiempo
(Colombia) and
Cromos
, and he is a regular contributor to Radio France International. Previously Colombia's cultural attaché in New Delhi, he currently lives in Rome.