Astra wasn't sure where she was, but she had a hard time opening her eyes. It took all of the strength within her to finally open them, allowing light to pierce the inside of her corneas. It felt like a thousand tiny needles were jabbing into her brain all at once, but she refused to give herself relief, forcing her eyes to remain open, glued on the softly lit skies above. It looked like it was morning or maybe it was evening, but either way, the sun was not fully up in the sky. It was warm here—too warm for the spring, causing sweat to drip down her forehead.
Her body was against the base of a cliff inside of a deep canyon. The sandstone walls looked like God himself had painted the rocks in vibrant shades of red, orange, white, and tan. Her legs were stretched out in front of her, slightly spread apart as her back leaned upon the smooth walls that seemed to reach to the sky.
She was sitting at a dead end with one path in front of her that split into two paths just a hundred yards away. Though she was in a wider area, she could tell that some areas of the paths in front of her became narrower. Thick, swirling, purple-grey clouds loomed ominously over her head while a burst of lightning cracked in the distance and flooded everything around her in white light. She could smell the electricity in the humid air. The storm's anger screamed from the heavens and threw its fist down onto the ground.
Her muscles felt like ground meat, with every infinitesimal movement causing her body to beg her to stay still. A loud ringing screamed in her ears, overpowering all the noises around her. The ground appeared to be moving the same way that maggots writhed inside of a corpse. With thick humidity lingering in the air, her lungs weighed heavily in her chest, while her hair stuck uncomfortably to her head.
What happened to her? The muscles in her throat tightened. She tried to remember but her mind was trapped in an eternal fog, with every thought slipping away into the milky atmosphere.
Slowly, her lips parted. She attempted to take in a deep breath, but her lungs felt like a balloon refusing to fully inflate. A sharp pain radiated from the wound inside of her jaw. How did she get that and why was it so hard to breathe?
She lifted her arm as if it was made of cracking porcelain and shut her eyes as she ran her bleeding hand down her side. Her eyelids tensed as her fingers dipped into a gash on her thigh. The warm, soft fat left her fingertips sticky with blood.
She needed to call someone. She needed to get help. Her fingers slipped in the pockets of her jacket and her pants. Where was her phone? She looked around her. Nothing. It was gone.
Her mind raced as reality shattered the fragility of her mind. Every fiber inside her screamed she needed to hide but she couldn't grasp why. She wasn't sure how she became injured or how she got there but what worried her more was the feeling she was being watched, which came over her like waves of the ocean, drowning her mind with horrible delusions of who was near.
A low growl of thunder in the distance gave a warning that a storm was approaching. There was nothing worse than being lost somewhere in the middle of bad weather.
"I need to get up... get up... please get up..." These words were repeated like a mantra, as a pathetic attempt to encourage herself to move somewhere safe.
Her jaw tensed underneath her lips. She hoped that when she opened her eyes, she would be home in her bed. But as her eyelids split, the dark pits of her cornea forced her once again to see she was in an unfamiliar land.
How did she get here? Was someone cruel enough to kidnap her and leave her stranded in the middle of nowhere? Who or what hurt her?
"This can't be real," she whispered as she looked down the paths and inhaled the musky air into her lungs. Her fingers dug into the warm ground. "This has to be a nightmare."
She examined the wound on her hip before taking off her jacket and wrapping it around her waist. The gash could have easily used a few stitches, and it needed to be cleaned. Her split skin looked like open lips coated in blood. Would this lead to an infection?
She touched the cut tenderly, watching blood seep out. Pulling off her scarf, she wrapped it around the wound on her leg to at least keep as much dirt out of it as she could.
There was an odd scent that reminded her of decay. It lingered in the air and punched the inside of her curling nose. Her head snapped back and forth. She expected to see something rotting near to her, but there was nothing in sight, only churning dirt. Why was the dirt moving like this and where was that smell coming from? Was she near the food of a dangerous predator? Would it come back to finish its meal only to find its next victim waiting to be crushed within its muscular jaws?
Images of eternal possibilities flashed inside her mind. Her sanity begged for mercy, only to once again receive another reel of images playing mercilessly; taunting her soul.
The ground shook and a large rock the size of her head tumbled from the heavens and crashed only fifteen feet away from her. Upon impact, it split into three pieces. That could have been her skull. She imagined how it would have looked, cracked open like an egg as blood seeped onto the ground below it. Would she have remained alive for a few seconds as shattered pieces of her bone surrounded her, or would she have died with the stone's impact? No, this was not just thunder that she was hearing. The land she was on was angry and waking from its slumber.
She touched her chest and felt her precious heart attempt to burst through, as if it could also run and hide. Just as her heart was trapped within her body, she was trapped within these cliff walls. Where should she go? What should she do?
If she called for help, she could attract the wrong attention. She trusted neither man nor beast. Both were unpredictable and dangerous.
The squirming ground drew her attention. Black and brown speckled dirt reached onto her shoes as though it was trying to crawl on top of her, before tumbling back down onto the ground below. With every burst of lightning, the mud became more active and seemed to emit a foul aroma. What kind of hell is this?
Thinking back to the classes she had taken in school, she tried to remember if they ever covered anything like this. No. She had never heard of moving dirt unless there were bugs involved and it didn't look like that was the case. How is this even possible?
Her eyes absorbed the terrain around her. Slithering up the sides of the cliffs, clear roots pulsated with dark red liquid connected to something that appeared to be a thorned plant. These plants alone were a sight she had never seen before. Like long tentacles extending out of a thick white base, they moved their arm-like vines slowly from side to side as though they were in search of something. Thick, white, crimson tipped thorns seemed to grip onto anything they touched.
She gazed at the red roots before studying the branches of the plant. Questions pounded her mind. What was it in search of? How was it able to move on its own? Why did the thorns look like the ends had been painted by the blood of its victims?
Her eyes traced the side of the cliff wall, following the roots of this flora. The ends of the roots were clear, while the closer to the bulk of the plant they were, the more filled with a bright red substance they seemed to become. Was it blood that she was looking at? Was it a sort of sap or naturally occurring liquid?
Her heart sank. Her eyes begged for the sight she looked at to be nothing more than a lie told by her anxiety ridden mind. Clinging to the side of a cliff, one of the smaller bushes had wrapped its branches around what appeared to be a massive bat, but she wasn't sure since she could only see the tip of one of its wings. The plant tightened its grip even further and as it did so, more of the roots filled with liquid. Like a spider to its prey, these living plants drained their victims of their life source, slowly drinking away at a substance more precious than gold.
Her eyes scanned the looming walls of the canyon. Though she knew they were not moving, it felt as if they were closing in on her. She was a prisoner to this land with no way to defend herself. A wild beast was not the only danger in this area. She suspected getting too close to one of those plants could lead to an excruciating death. What if one of them captured her the way it captured the last animal? The thought of this sent an icy shiver down her spine. This must be how bugs felt when they flew into a spider's web.
Where was she? She doubted she was still New York. It was far too hot for that and the terrain didn't fit with everything she knew about the state. Perhaps she was in Arizona? No. She had never heard of any plants that moved like that in the States. Maybe she was somewhere in Australia or China? She had heard those countries had many natural wonders as well as strange plants that were unheard of to most of those who lived in the United States.
She had never been in an area so far from civilization before and had minimal training on survival skills. Though her father would go hunting and fishing, she always refused to join him, telling him that she thought it took too much time. The only survival skills she had was basic knowledge, like how to build a small fire using kindle, wood, and newspaper, and what plants were edible in the smoky mountains.
"What did he teach me?" she muttered. "The rule of three."
Her teeth ground together as another burst of lightning caused the canyon to explode in white light. The clouds growled with rage, challenging the shaking world below it to a fight. Small rocks fell from the cliff side like hail. The sharp pebbles bounced off her skin, leaving tiny cuts and bruises. This was not a safe area.
She needed shelter but there was none; only the open walls of the canyon mockingly standing around her as another roll of thunder slammed against the clouds. She needed water but she was surrounded by dusty walls and dirt ground.
Her soul curled. She felt as if a thousand invisible eyes were watching her, admiring her weakness and laughing at her confusion. Gripping her head with her palms, she tried to think back to the last thing she could remember before she woke up here, but her memories cowered in the shadows of her subconscious.
A drop of sweat crawled down her face, leaving a small trail of moisture on her skin. She massaged her temples, hoping she could coax the memories out of their hiding. But they refused to come.
Another roll of thunder howled from the heavens and a streak of lightning cracked across the blackening sky. The ground around her rumbled, throwing another massive stone from the cliff above. It shattered upon impact, its sharp pieces flying through the air like bullets.
Her body begged to stay, but she had to move. She had no choice. Mother nature was angry and wanted the world to experience her wrath.
Her body felt as if it was weighed down by rocks. There was a deep pressure between her shoulder blades from a pulled muscle which throbbed as a constant reminder. Her muscles begged her not to move, aching all the way to her bones but she knew what she needed to do. She pushed her body off the ground and stumbled down the rock-strewn path. Wincing, she felt her feet complain from carrying the burdening weight. Why did her body have to hurt so much?
There was a lump in her throat that she just couldn't swallow while her tongue felt like it was resting on raw meat. Even the smallest noise made her twitch and her heart flutter. She wasn't sure what was worse, her imagination or the potential reality of who or what was out here. What kind of animals would live in a place like this? Were there dangerous men who roamed these narrow paths? She imagined a rock falling from the cliff and pinning her to the ground and then wondered what it would feel like to slowly starve to death. She took a slow breath in and wished that her head would stop spinning like an out of control merry-go-round.
With every step, Astra felt more lost. Instead of feeling like she was going towards a destination, she felt like she was wandering deeper into nothingness. With the exception of rubble, the paths were empty and devoid of life. There were no bugs or animals, and with the exception of the brewing storm, not even noise. On the odd occasion she would come across one of those awful plants, but they were never close enough to reach her.
Where would this unmarked trail lead her to? Would it lead her to a person who could help or towards someone or something capable of doing unimaginable things? How could she tell the difference between who could and couldn't be trusted?
By the smoothness of the rocks on the lower section of the canyon, it was clear that at one point, water had softened the edges. Though there was no sign of the precious liquid anywhere, she had hoped that she would come across a water source. The best circumstance would be that she could get out of this wretched place and find a river. Where there is water, there are eventually people. Though she knew there were people on Earth that were evil, she had to take the risk and find someone that could help her get back home.
She looked at the top of the canyon. Its sharp edges looked like razor blades cutting into the sky. What part of the world was she in? How long had she been unconscious for? It must have been a significant amount of time. What happened to her during her journey? She shuddered. Whatever journey she took was not a pleasant one and that was clear by the gash on her leg.
What happened? She needed to think. She remembered her father texting her and her stepping out of her apartment. But then what? Why wouldn't her mind allow her to see the last moments before she became unconscious? She searched her mind but only found darkness. It was as if someone had scooped the memory out and placed it in another body.
A deep tension pushed behind her eyes, throbbing with such vigor she was surprised her cranium didn't crack open to relieve the pressure. Damn this migraine. Maybe when the pain subsided her memories would return but until then she was left a victim to her imagination.
A strong wind pulled at her sweat-drenched hair, slapping it across her face like a whip. Rapidly, she blinked away the blur from her eyes to get a better look at what laid before her on this barren trail. It was twice as wide as the trail she had been walking down for quite some time with walls that seemed more jagged than smooth. The sky appeared to be a lot darker than it was when she first woke up. Was it because the storm clouds were thickening or was it from the sun setting? She assumed both.
Where would she rest? Her body was about to give out at any moment. There was not a shelter in sight—not a cave, a hole, or a rock covering. There was nothing more than a path surrounded by steep walls.
She spat on the ground. Damn this place and damn whoever did this to her. She screamed at the top of her lungs until her voice cracked and throat ached. To give up seemed like the easiest thing to do but she couldn't. Not yet at least. With curled fingers, she walked as fast as she could, hoping she could find some sort of shelter in a place that didn't seem to have any.
The clouds raised their fists in a fit of rage and growled as they rammed into each other, building up in the sky as if it was a competition for who could reach the highest. It was a heavenly war where none would win, but the tears of those who lost would pour from the sky until there was nothing left with the exception of the memory shown on muddy ground.
When her feet cried out they could go no more, she caught sight of a deep hole in the ground with a thick jutting rock that protruded from the cliff above it. It was a wider area of the path that opened up almost in the shape of an egg. The hole in the ground looked almost unnatural and out of place, since this was the only hole that she had come across so far. It was as if someone had dug it out just underneath the rock above. Was this the shelter she was searching for? Had fate finally shown her mercy?
She stopped in her tracks. What if something else had found this shelter and made it their home? Would a hungry mountain lion live there? What if it was lurking in the shadows waiting for its next victim to approach? Her mind traveled to a rhumba of rattlesnakes, coiling and slithering over one another as they flashed their sharp fangs at anyone who came near. One bite from one of those would kill her within two days. She couldn't imagine how painful it would be to experience a bite that lead to a slow, grueling death.
An explosion of light illuminated everything around her and within an instant, the ground rumbled with such strength her teeth chattered beneath the folds of her lips. She wearily looked at the jutting rock wondering what the chances were of it breaking, but the sound of approaching rain interrupted her thoughts. There was no time to think of the endless possibilities and live in the 'what if.'
Astra limped over to the dark hole. Her stomach tensed until she peered inside. Nothing. There were no snakes or scorpions crawling about. Though it was large enough for a mountain lion, there was nothing inside with the exception of a yellow, foul smelling algae with a distinct scent that reminded her of old rotten eggs. Her nose curled and her pounding migraine begged her not to add something else that would antagonize it. She had no choice. She needed to take the risk.
Hesitantly, she crawled into the musky safe haven and laid down on her side, curling up in the fetal position. Would the scent that permeated within this place make her migraine worse? She rested her head on the soft ground and hoped that would not be the case. The putrid smell trapped in this shelter was so strong she felt like she could taste it.
Thunder rattled the ground beneath her as the sound of pouring rain exploded over the top of the rock. The harsh winds howled like an angry beast through the canyon. Shivering, she could feel the temperature rapidly dropping as a mist from the rain billowed onto her face. It was good she made it to the shelter in time but there was still the risk some other animal might look for one. What would she do if something came into the shelter with her still inside?
Cupping her fingers, Astra reached out of the shelter and allowed the rain to fill her hands. She drank this liquid until she felt as though her stomach would burst. There was no telling when the next opportunity to get water would come. If only there was something around to help her gather this precious liquid for her future travels, her chances of survival would increase. But there was nothing.
She winced as she touched the cloth that wrapped tightly around the gash on her thigh. The muscle that lingered beneath her wound throbbed like someone had taken a meat mallet to it. Turning her body ever so slightly, she groaned as her muscles begged her to stop moving. Her body couldn't come to an agreement on what was a comfortable position since each one involved certain muscles to bear her crushing weight.
She needed sleep. Her body longed for it as her sanity beseeched her to escape into an unconscious state. She needed a few hours of relief from the uncertainty that had become her life. But though she yearned for sweet release, Astra's mind screamed for her to stay awake. Falling asleep would mean letting down her guard. Even a moment of weakness could lead to danger or an anguishing death. This inner battle inside her, with her mind against the will of her body, went on for what seemed like hours. Exhaustion pulsated through every ounce of her inner being until finally her mind could no longer fight against the need of her body.