Sand Red

3

Our journey began on the twenty first of July, the Sun an hour in the sky and the temperature 37 degrees Celsius. We progressed rapidly, heading due East for the camp to trade water with before altering course for the Northeastern plain. All in all, it was a three hundred and eighty six kilometer journey.

Though there were only thirteen of us, we moved like a small army, kicking up dust until the sunlight scattered through the brown like a blizzard. The car ground up behind and I pushed past it in the dust, looking for Od and Yul. They were far ahead, posted as scouts, to alert the rest of us of danger when it came, their rifles glinting in the sun.

'Hiya!' I called as I approached them. I didn't want to accidentally be shot.

One of them raised an arm in greeting.

I jogged up to them. Their hair stuck up, dry and matted, thick with sediment and they had makeshift masks on to protect their faces from sand and sun.

'There.' Yul of them handed me a third rifle, grinning. He had saved it for me. Jordan hadn't assigned me to scout duty owing to my failure to raise the alarm the previous day. I smiled at him, then checked the barrel of the gun. Once I had looked it over satisfactorily, I marched to my post a little way ahead of them. 

The camp moved frustratingly slow and we inched along, keeping a sharp lookout for any movement in the red sands beyond. The sun climbed higher and higher in the sky until it burned my shoulders from noon's overhead even through my jacket. My hair held the heat, making me feel like I was stuck under an impenetrable cloud of fire. The Redthorn crackled as it was crushed under our feet. All around, the sand flowed with a sea of thorny red.

The Redthorn originated on a meteor that landed in the Kazakh desert. It hadn't been discovered until it had transformed the lands around the site to a thorny grassland. It seemed impossible owing to the fiery nature of a meteor's landing, but somehow, it had survived to grow. In the few hundred years since its introduction, it had spread rapidly, invading ecosystems and choking native species, until the entirety of Eurasia was covered in an alien sea of red.

Sweat pooled at my brow as the sun beat above our heads and the air shimmered in the desert mirage. A thousand years ago, this land had been the cold desert of the Arctic Circle. Fine white sand of solid water called snow used to cover the surface. Cold sand in this burning wasteland was hard to imagine. I had never seen it, at any rate. The last snow disappeared long before my birth.

A movement flitted against the thorn. My rifle whipped upright and I tensed.

'Yul!' I called back. 'There's something over there.'

In a moment the twins were alert and their guns ready. 

Od frantically flashed our signal mirror back towards the campers, and the hum of the car stopped in a heartbeat. Seconds later, a red-clad figure lifted itself from the thorn to sprint to my left, behind a pile of rubble.

'Who goes there!' Yul called.

There was no reply.

'Beware, we're armed!'

I nodded to him. We advanced in sync. The desert burned around us. Then the winds shifted, softly, imperceptibly and my senses perked up in alarm seconds before an arrow buried itself in the earth at my feet. Od was immediately by my side. He looked me over to see that I was unhurt before raising his gun. He tread softly forward and I followed, eyes heap of brown rubble. We approached the archer's cover, quiet as cats. Then a blur of red slammed into his side and he fell, his rifle landing with a plop in the sand a few feet away. The archer was atop him, an arrow pressed to his head.

'Put your weapons down,' she commanded. Od's eyes met mine. His eyes were wide in fear. I dropped my rifle and Yul did the same. She indicated we were to put our hands up.