The Foretold

The Foretold- Chapter 3

Chapter Three

I looked over at Daniel but he wore the same confused expression as me. But then he looked horrified. He turned his head and looked at the direction we had come from. If you squinted hard you could almost see a little black smudge on the horizon. It was obviously the source of Daniel’s anxiety. He grabbed my hand a pulled me behind him with a new urgency. “What’s wrong?” I demanded.

“We have a bit of a problem,” he admitted.

            “What problem?”

            “I’ll tell you later. Maybe. But right now we gotta move.”

Every minute or so he would look behind us. As if we were being watched. Well, for all I know, we were. We kept moving like this for up to two hours at a time. I know, it may not sound bad but in the desert it’s almost unbearable, even when it was raining.   We stopped for water for time to time, Daniel suggested it because I didn’t want to be the one that slowed us down. But every time we stopped I chugged a whole bunch of water but Daniel hardly took a sip.  By evening the blob had disappeared entirely. But what stunk about that night was the fact that there were no caves around us this time so we had to sleep out in the open much to my, and Daniel’s, displeasure.  But when I lay down and look up, the sky is full of stars. I’ve never seen so many stars in my lifetime. I grew up in Chicago so I didn’t go stargazing that much and when I did all I see are a few stars and a helicopter or two. But tonight the night sky seemed endless, so full of possibilities. I sighed a deep, contented sigh then rolled over on my side so I was facing an endless desert floor. Somehow it didn’t seem as welcoming as the starry sky, which seemed odd. I would figure that something on the Earth that I had grown up on would seem a lot better then an endless abyss, looming over me. But then it didn’t seem so weird. Why should we fear what we don’t know about? Why can’t we embrace it? Discover its secrets, its mysteries? What have we got to lose? But one thought about Daniel and I had to rethink that last part. With the people we love in our lives we had everything to lose. One false move in an unknown place and you could be dead, or worse. I decided to forget about it tonight. I needed my sleep; something told me it would be a hard day tomorrow.

                                                *      *       *

I woke with the evening sun bright overhead. I stretched and yawned but when I turned around my heart stopped. Daniel was gone. His backpack sitting by my feet, but that’s not the only thing left behind. I saw a set of paw prints, and from their size it had to be a huge animal. So here I was, stuck in the middle of the desert, with a giant animal probably not far, also, my guide was missing. And when I looked around I saw the black smudge, looming ever closer. But I didn’t want to get up. I just wanted to sit here and bawl. But I couldn’t give up. Not here, not now. Not after everything Daniel gave me, including my life, I wasn’t going to let it go to waste, so I made myself get up and get a bar from the backpack before I swung it onto my back. I made myself eat the bar, mechanically taking bite after bite of the bland food. But after that I felt like I had more energy. I stopped from time to time to rest and have a drink. I walked toward the setting sun, East, I hope. By nightfall I couldn’t see hardly a foot in front of my face so I found a small cavern to rest for the night. Thank God for caves, I thought. I woke up to the sound of something, only I couldn’t figure out what it was. But then, if I listened very carefully, I could hear deep heavy breathing. But, thing was, it wasn’t mine.

I think this is going pretty well: three updates in one day! beat that! :3 haahahaha. i laugh at myself. soo please comment!!!!!!!