The Blood Trails

Chapter 4 - The Desert

Now logically since he was going through a hot desert Peter decided it was best not to wear any sort of warm clothing.  So between getting rushed out of Soulwick and previous night’s feast he went with a more practical attire, white shorts and a tan t-shirt.  He also considered creating some sort of tunic with one of his ligher-colored sweaters if the sun is too much.  The Fields of Browene, being a very large desert, is the only natural barrier that keeps the colony of Harmenage out of reach from th the backwards, criminal people of Lor.

Unlike most natural deserts the Fields of Browene is completely different; it gets hotter in this desert than most deserts ever explored across the worlds. The gigantic forest on one side and the mountains on the other act as massive blockades that block out most all moisture.  Peter remembered his textbooks saying upwards of 1.3-2.0 degrees Jolte (a sort of variation of Fahrenheit were 100° is approximately 1.0°) during the day, this desert is one of the most deadly places known in the entire galaxy.  And he had to cross part of it, maybe even all.

Peter waved off the obvious risk of going through the middle of such a deadly place and begun to walk, the map said help was on its way—he should be in no danger. Though hot the sun appeared to be setting and wasn’t as intense as a full day. He hoped that he didn’t  run into any of the problems that made this desert legendary such as its boiling heat and mud-rain.  Luckily it took most a day to get out of the forest and the desert wasn’t particularly hot at the moment—lack of heat in the desert meant two things—an oncoming storm or the setting of the sun.  Peter had an inclination to hope it was for the setting of the sun.  He felt confident in his conclusion when he saw the sun drooping down after a few hours as the large trees in the far distances finally faded away into a dusty horizon.

But just as the temperatures started to drop to reasonable cool amounts Peter ran into a confusing problem, a massive muddy river. He didn’t remember the river mentioned in any class, how could a river even manage fluidity in the desert?  He could feel the heat of the gushy brown water as it cruised onward through the desert, directly across his eastward path. This rigid hot river stretched about fifty feet wide and was obviously way too hot and thick to wade across. He would never be able to cross a river like this and highly doubted anyone would be kind enough to build a bridge across it, but the map still showed that he must cross so there has be a way for him to get to the other side. Stumbled, with nothing else to do he decided to set up camp at the edge of the river and try to figure out how he would get across.

This was the first time he got to use the new gadgets he collected over the years. He fumbled through his pocket until he found the small cube with the red and black coded on one sides. Once he had it in his hand he smiled, yes the cube was one of the best inventions of the late 26th century, the Verx.  Peter pressed on the black side scrolled through the menu for the tent mentioned earlier.  Just like the map faded into the cube when he hit select a tent expanded and faded into existence. He smiled, it worked, he opened the fresh zipper and went inside.

 The tent smelt like fresh palm trees and had a nicely set up cot, blankets, various cooking tools and a small stack of wood inside it. It was a standard overnight supply tent, and fairly cheap too at only 89.99 Feds. He climbed in and pulled out the wood, it had gotten surprisingly chilly outside in such a short time and with no jacket on he decided it best to make a fire.

Once the sun was down Peter had a roaring fire burning as the temperatures dropped from a hot fairly not 1° evening to a well below .4° night in less than an hour.  He glanced towards the river and started thinking of how to get across. Maybe a rope, he did have one, or should he try swimming across despite how dangerous it looked?  While staring at the river he noticed something odd, flow of the sludge started to slow.  It was actually starting to freeze over like ice on a river from the temperatures outside. Within another hour the river's movement had completely stopped and temperatures dropped even lower to a chilly .2°.