Flickering orange flames dance in my vision. It is all consuming in the seemingly endless darkness that surrounds everything else. I can almost feel the heat against my face, so hot that I think my skin might blister. The light is getting so bright that I desperately want to shrink away from the sheer glare of it, sink into the darkness that is so teasingly close. I can't move a muscle.
I open my eyes and take in a deep, gasping breath. There is no fire. There is no all consuming heat threatening to kill me. The light is coming from the sun, extremely large and pale against the endless mid-blue of the sky around it.
After a few more deep breaths, I struggle to sit up, pushing against the floor beneath me which turns out to be surprisingly warm. The sight that awaits me is no less surprising.
There is nothing. No life to be seen no matter which direction I look. A desert of dark sand is all that I can see. It stretches out for miles, rising and falling in gentle waves. Its striking colour causes something to flicker in my mind. It seems so familiar somehow, but I have never seen it before.
I rise to my feet, shaking with the strain it puts on my legs. I take a hesitant step forward, my shoe sinking slightly into the soft sand. Slowly, I increase my pace, covering more ground as time goes by.
Time does go by. I don't know how long I walk for, how far I travel. I am wandering mindlessly, not thinking about anything but the rhythm my feet are moving in.
Something feels wrong, though. There is something missing here, something important. I can't think what though. What else is there but this mindless trek?
Soon a gnawing feeling starts in my stomach, and my throat feels unbearable dry. I need something, but I can't think what. A strange weakness sets itself into my limbs, making it more and more difficult for me to move easily.
The light is dimming as its bright source dips lower and lower, until it seems to sit against the floor, exhausted from keeping itself up all day. When it reaches that point, its decent speeds up, until it disappears completely, taking with it all traces of the warmth it had been providing.
I shiver in the thin shirt that covers my back, tucking my hands under my armpits. I don't know why I am doing this, but it seems like the right thing to do in this situation.
I spot something in the distance, a faint shape against the dusky horizon. I quickened my lagging pace again, struggling to keep upright on my numb feet. As the object gets closer, I slump in disappointment.
It isn't overly small, but it isn't overly large either. Sitting in the middle of nowhere is a boulder. Its sides are smooth and it is slightly irregular in shape, but it is a big rock nonetheless. When I reach it, I run my hand over it, feeling the bumps in the surface. It isn't anything special, but it is something. It's the first different thing I have seen so far.
I don't know why, but finding another object out here other than myself seems extremely significant to me. It eases the fear that had been building without me noticing.
I sit down on the floor, leaning my shoulder against the boulder. I'm feeling a lot of things that I couldn't work out.
I am one person in one place, and that was how it has always been. There has never been anything else. So why do I feel so alone, so uneasy?
Glancing up to the now-dark sky, I study the single star that has taken its predecessors place. It is alone like me, a single being in an eternity of space.
Unlike me, it seems to belong there, emitting its pale glow on the land below. It has a purpose, so maybe I do too. I can't think what, though. Can't think at all, actually. The weakness that I felt earlier has increased until it is a constant battle to keep my head up.
This doesn't seem like something that would happen if I am destined to walk forever, so something must be out there. I might not be the only person in this desolate place.
With this thought in my mind, I push to my feet and carry on, taking one last look back at the rock that has helped to ease my fears and put things right in my head.
When it is out of sight, I feel a strange twang of loss and panic. I feel completely lost. I am completely lost. I have worked out that I have a purpose now, but without anything to turn back to if I go stuck along the way, my unease threatens to consume me. I force it back down and gazed up at the star, deciding to follow the direction it seems to be going.
I carry on moving, even when I stop feeling my toes and fingers. I creep further and further forward, towards the fate that I know is arriving but know nothing about. I put one foot in front of the other until my eyes are drooping with weariness, causing me to stumble and fall to the floor on my hands and knees. The soft sand breaks my fall, feeling awfully inviting against my palms. I can't go much further. The pain in my stomach feels like a bad omen to me, that things are about to get bad.
With a sigh, I roll over onto my side and rest my forehead on the floor. My eyes droop until they are closed and I let the darkness take over.
I don't know how long I stayed like that for before lifting my head up. The bright light in the sky is back again, outshining the single star that lurks somewhere around it.
In the distance, I see another shape. I push down the sudden hope rising in me, remembering what the last thing I had found was. It is however, a landmark to aim for, so I put my feet beneath me and push myself up and forward.
As I get closer, the shape gets larger. It seems to rise from the floor, gaining width as well as height. In a matter of minutes, it is so tall that I have to crane my neck to see it all.
That isn't all, though. There is a flickering light at the bottom of this...mountain. Along with it drifts the first sound I have ever heard other than my own harsh breathing and dull footsteps; there are voices. Something tells me that with voices come people. There are more people like me. I am not alone.
One day of aimless drifting has brought me here. The light in the sky has pointed me in this direction. It has brought me to civilisation.
Hope.
** hello. I'm July Heverschoff and I'm new to this so please let me know what you think about my writing, don't be shy to give me tips on things. And I hope you like what you read. I put my all into this. ❤️**
