Survivors

Chapter One - Travelling

Chapter One - Travelling

I stopped for a moment, just for a moment. Letting my bag drop from my shoulders gave me such a relief. Not only had a physical weight been removed from me but some sort of one in my mind had also disappeared. I sighed to myself; it had been a long hard day of walking upon the dusty but sizzling tarmac roads. Circling my shoulders I looked skywards, the sun had just gone past the very middle of the sky and I had to squint so that my eyes didn’t sizzle into dust immediately.

Other than the sun, there was nothing but an extremely pale blue sky that could easily be mistaken for white. No planes, no birds, no clouds. Nothing.

Already any hint of moisture that had been on my face had been evaporated and I could feel my throat slowly constricting as the sunlight sucked out all of my moisture.

I had to find some shade.

Grabbing one strap of the bag I tugged it over to a nearby object. There was a dark area of the road just next to it, and I hoped that it would be cooler than the other parts. Those other parts would cook me in an instant if I were to sit on them. Just standing still made the heat travel through the soles of my shoes.

These shoes had walked quite a distance and were breaking, tearing and definitely had their fair share of mud caked on them. That mud was now cracking in this blistering weather, causing the footwear to become even more distressed. Eventually, if I didn’t find a replacement pair, would just simply fall off my feet.

I reached the object, a silver thing that was once completely smooth but was now turning a reddish brown in certain places, and those places were flaking. I released my hold upon the back pack and it slumped down, dead like. Gazing at the car again I was knew that it would be best to avoid the rusted places, I did not want to get tetanus; it would surely result in my prompt ending.

Gradually I lowered myself down so I was sitting beside my old rucksack, torn in various places and stitched, rather badly, in others. I leaned against the stationary car and sighed in satisfaction, it was cool.

I rolled my head to the side to look at my back pack. My stomach constricted and I knew that I really needed something to eat unfortunately for me, I had none in there. Just some water, if the sun hasn’t stolen that as well.

I looked further up, the fields surrounding the motorway, were brown. Endless brown visible up until several distant hills. Those, too, were brown.  There were no trees, bushes or anything to break up the repeatedly drab landscape.

Nothing.

You’d think with rains that caused floods only last week this place would be fertile.

But no… it doesn’t work like that anymore.

Without looking I opened the bag and dug my hands into the depths were a small flask was, I ripped it out and took a swig, washing away my pessimistic thoughts. I gagged slightly; I always hated the taste of lukewarm water.

Already the shadows were being lengthened and the sky was becoming a blood red colour.

“Red in the morning Shepard’s warning. Red at night; Shepard’s delight...” I mumbled to myself before taking another swig of stale water. I wasn’t a Shepard and the fact that tomorrow it would properly be sunny didn’t leave me feeling delighted. I longed for it to rain. I would love a bit of drizzle. I would be thankful just for a second of spitting, anything to be rid of this sun.

The temperature was dropping radically fast. England was now like a desert during these days. You're roasting during the day and freezing during the night.