“Lynn and Alex have the same nightmare. Waking sounds tangle with the dream. It’s something familiar, almost expected, but horrible. For an instant it’s quiet, and they hold their breath, not knowing the other is awake. Then the screams come again and the hammering sound of the dog barking in the house. Their guard’s voice is unmistakable, but mangled and distorted. They spring from bed, leaving the net like a burst cell.

“Pulling back the curtains, their eyes and minds struggle to make sense of the flying shadows and silhouettes they see. Two men with machetes. One man running like a calf between them. Chopped and chopped again, Abdul screams anew, hideous and instinctive. He flees around the side of the house, out of view.

“ ‘He says they’re killing me. They’re killing me; they’re killing me, that’s what he keeps saying. Oh, God …’ ”

Corin Cummings brings to life Dar es Salaam in Night Support, the first in the Wind River Press novella series. Entranced by the idea of Africa, Lynn, an aid worker, and Alex, a writer, find their ideals, their relationship, and eventually their lives tested by the realities of a world that is as harsh as it is beautiful.