Desert Quest

Prologue: Lost and Found

My ears rang as I slowly staggered along the rocky desert floor, the ringing getting louder and louder.  The lack of food and water started getting to me.  I had gone at least twenty hours without either of them, and in this heat, I felt close to death.

But seventeen was too young to die. 

I staggered onward, hoping against hope that I would make it out of this hell hole alive.  My foot kicked a rock, and dried blood was scraped off immediately.  My scorched skin on my feet ripped open instantaneously, and blood poured out of my foot once again.

Johnny, I thought.  Emily.

I turned around, and saw the vague silhouettes of my two best friends sitting against a tree.  Johnny was closer to death than Emily, but they were both alive, fortunately resting in the shade of a large gum tree. 

I turned and staggered onward, my breathless body travelling ever so slowly.  My breathing came out harder and faster, and I struggled to preserve my breath.  Dirt covered my body, and my shirt had been ripped in several places.  Miraculously, my pants had managed to remain spotless. 

There was a tree to my left, and I leaned on it for support, staggering helplessly past it as I continued the last stage of my trek along the desert floor of Outback Australia.

A bush brushed briskly past my leg, but I paid it no mind.  Over the past week, I had seen things that no kid my age should ever see.  As I walked past the seemingly foreign plant, I paid its touch no mind.

I could hear something familiar in the distance; a constant thump, thump, thump.  It came from behind me, but I didn’t have the strength to turn around.  I slumped helplessly to my knees, my scorched hands rubbing roughly against my thighs as I staggered downward.

It looked like the lack of survival essentials was finally getting to me, and I was slowly dying. 

I helplessly craned my neck too see where the noise was coming from, but all I saw were the swaying leaves and the blinding sun scorching the earth… and me.

“Help,” I whispered aimlessly, my desperate, whispery cries of help dying with every breath I wasted.  “Help,” I said a little louder, putting a foot shakily underneath me. 

I pushed down with my leg, my body raising several inches above the ground before I managed to regain my balance against the tree to my left and put my other foot underneath my hip. 

I walked shakily forward, towards the opening in the trees several metres ahead.  I knew the sound now.  It was a helicopter.  But whether I moved fast enough or not, depended on whether I lived or died here. 

“Help,” I screamed croakily, my voice cracking from the lack of water.  My throat was so dry, I could’ve drunken a whole lake of water. 

I stumbled into the blinding, golden light of the sun, feeling my skin burning ferociously.  I craned my neck, squinting my eyes.  I strained to see anything against the white light of the sun streaming down to earth. 

Suddenly, my arms became lazy, and I could feel myself falling backwards down to earth.  The white light of the sun expanded across the sky as my vision started to fade.  Not into blackness, but into white light.  I could see the final touches of the helicopter, the blades spinning in slow motion as I began to fall and die.  Men dropped immediately from the hovering vehicle, and I felt the rush of wind, seemingly slowly being poured over my body. 

And as I looked up into the whitening sky one more time, I felt the breath being taken from me, and my life, came to an end.