Beyond Our Fate

Chapter 8

Chapter 8

I walked for a couple hours before coming across a clearing in the trees that looked like a decent shelter.

            “Well whatever dad told me about better be close.” I muttered to myself. “I do have to sleep tonight though.”

            I barley slept all night. All throughout the night I heard strange hooting noises and crunching on the lush forest floor. My father’s shop was the artist shop. There he sold one painting called The Jungle. That’s what this place looks like. A jungle, so I think that’s what I’ll call it. While I was thinking, a strange animal came into view. It was black and hairy and standing on 2 legs like a person. In the dark it was quite frightening, so I kept still. After a while I heard it turn and almost hop back into the trees. I exhaled and fell back into my disturbed sleep.

            After getting a total of 4 hours of sleep I set on towards the sun. It was shining exactly on the path. My father’s instructions were more and more ominous. How would he know the sun would lead me to where I wanted to go? I couldn’t let myself linger on that thought; I had to get moving. I walked in that direction until I realized the sun started to move. Ironically, the path forked not 5 more minutes down the road, facing the sun again. So I kept following the road. And the sun.

            I walked for hours. Every time there was a change in the sun’s position, there was also a change in the road. 3 hours after I left my sleeping spot, the jungle cleared out and I saw a massive amount of yellow grainy particles on the ground and in piles bigger than my apartment at home. Zero protection from the sun came along with that. The path was still there so I figured I should keep following. I instantly missed the dense cover of the trees. Curious, I stepped onto the yellow stuff to see what it was. It flowed into my shoes.

            “What is this stuff?” I wondered “It sucks!”

            I took my shoes off cautiously, expecting the yellow stuff to be sharp, but instead found it to be soft, warm and pleasant. I stuffed my flimsy shoes into my pack, and continued on down the path.

             Later, I stopped at what I thought was a pool of water, to find that when I got closer, it was just the same grainy particles as before.

            “I have to stop to rest.” I panted “There has to be some trees soon. Or some water.” I am exhausted. As if answered by a prayer, I saw a lake up ahead, and the end to the yellow grainy torture.

            The lake looked closer than it was. 3 hours later, I was still walking. This was quite frustrating because I was hot, fatigued and uncomfortable. Dusk was beginning to mercy me. I had no choice but to sprint the last couple meters, so I wouldn’t collapse in the yellow stuff, which I now had in every part of my body, and my backpack. The lake looked clean enough to drink, but I decided to use my iodine. The instructions read;

TO USE IODINE

1.      Fill bottle

2.      Drip 2 drops of iodine into bottle

3.      Wait 30 minutes

4.      Drink

            The instructions said to wait 30 minutes, but I had no way of telling time. I figured I would until the sun was completely down before drinking. I spent the time by sitting on a dock. It made me miss the boats that passed by my apartment in Delta. I wonder how my mother and father were doing. Did father move back in? Is Aero still going to classes, or is he moping at home. Or worse, skipping. I wonder what Oasis is doing right now. I hope she stopped crying because I hated it when she cried. Now crying myself, I drank my water, set up a small shelter from fallen birch trees, lit a fire, and looked at my map. Where was I in this world? There were blue masses all over the map, but this lake was too small to be any of them. The vastness made me feel alone and unimportant.

            I woke up at the crack of dawn, to find my pack and supplies strewn all over the place, and multiple sets of tracks. I never took into account that there might be animals in this place. The thought scared me and I decided to start moving. I took a swim in the lake to refresh myself, and it worked. My water bottle held at least 2 more days’ worth of water, which I was happy about. I didn’t know how many more times I would come across lakes or rivers. I was alarmed to find that the scenery looked exactly like the green space on Delta. Delta again! Why do I keep thinking about it! There are trees and bushes and flowers. There were also there weird plants. They had long stalks with brown poufy seed like things on the top. They didn’t look edible so I didn’t take a chance.

            Later on in the day, while still following the sun path, as I called it, the trees started to come in again. In about 30 minutes, I was once again in the dense tree cover.

            I sat down to rest before continuing on to my unknown destination. I looked through my pack. It gave me something to do with my time. While shuffling through various papers that I hadn’t noticed before, I heard a rustling behind me. I was used to animals by now, so the sound wasn’t bothersome to me. The rustling became more frequent and louder. I stood up and peered cautiously into the dense bush behind me. The bag came over my head and I lost consciousness before I could scream.