I Saw the Lights Go Out

Slipping into the Night, Love

Hi

Dan had seriously underestimated how long it would take him to travel twenty kilometres to the city. Dan was a fast runner, he had to be if he wanted to survive, and twenty kilometres wasn't the furthest he'd had to travel in his lifetime. Obviously he knew he couldn't have ran the whole way there, and had estimated that it would take him a day to reach the city. However, he had not taken into account the fact that he had been tied to a pole for the past week and a bit, severely beaten, and also hadn't had a good meal for the whole time he'd been incarcerated.

If Dan didn't already hate himself before, he definitely did now.

Dan had to stop running after about a mile, slowing down to a complete stop so that he could catch his breath and rest his wounds. From then on, he'd proceeded at a steady - limping - walk. Of all the pain, Dan thought that his left shoulder was worst. The cut he'd had on his arm from before had re-opened, though it was smaller now than before, it was still pretty deep and blood was staining his whole arm red. His shoulder blades were next, the cuts and bruises there ached badly from all of the running Dan had done.

Then it was the heat. Dan had completely forgotten that they were technically in the middle of a desert, and though it wasn't ridiculously hot, it was still hot, and with no breeze, the heat seemed worse than usual.

Dan's eyes drooped as he watched his own feet move one in front of the other. It was almost a robotic movement by now, left foot, right foot, left foot. You get the picture? Dan could feel his heart beating against his chest painfully, the blood rushing in his ears and breath coming in short and quick bursts. He'd been walking like this for a good six hours now, and Dan would say he'd only managed roughly five miles. That wasn't even half of the way.

The sun had reached it's highest point about two hours ago, and soon it would be dark. Dan wasn't sure if he was glad for the cool night time air, or nervous for what could be out here in the desert at night.

Dan wished he'd been able to bring more than a small knife.

Dan almost seemed to sink back into consciousness as he realized that he'd stopped walking sometime during his internal rant, and was just stood in the centre of a dilapidated old road, in the middle of the desert, staring at his shoes like a crazy person.

Dan sighed and pushed his fringe back out of his eyes, the sweat on his palms managing to slick back his hair. Dan squinted into the distance, mentally cursing the sun and this whole fucking situation. Dan decided he hated sunlight.

A low burning sensation his his neck and back told him that he was probably badly sun burnt, and he hoped that his skin wasn't peeling or blistering.

Dan staggered on.

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Another six hours later, and the sun was just beginning to set, the charming mix of pastels slowly fading into a purple-y black colour made Dan wish he could just sit and appreciate it, but he couldn't. He had a choice to make.

A) find shelter and camp out there for the night, inevitably delaying his arrival time back home, but also getting some well needed rest,

Or,

B) continue walking and hope nothing will jump out at him.

Dan weighed up his options, and decided that he really wanted to arrive home as soon as possible, and walking in the sweltering heat for another day really did not seem very inviting.

So Dan continued walking. And walking. And walking. The pastels eventually disappeared from the sky, giving in to the dark veil of night time, the never ending blackness only disturbed by the twinkling white stars. There was no moon that night, just Dan, the road, and the faraway stars guiding him towards his one time home.

Dan had never seen the appeal in stars; back home, Pj had loved them. Dan remembered how he used to sit on the watch tower every night and just look, occasionally, Dan would catch a glimpse of a notebook that Pj was carrying while he passed as they changed shifts, but he'd never actually seen what was in it. Pj had always been a mystery to Dan, he was always on the ball and quick, inventing new creative weapons every day and animatedly telling Dan ever night time before he was due on watch duty. He was always so alive and loud and completely crazy. But then the night would fall and he'd get this look in his eyes, the glowing pale green would almost seem to dim along with the sky, and he'd go quiet, retreating within himself.

Dan looked up to see that night time had completely fallen now, there was no thin orange line on the horizon, no sun to guide Dan's way, just him and the stars. Millions and billions of burning rocks and dust, already gone out. San found it sad that the stars he could see were all already gone, they were billions of light years away in more ways than distance. Dan pitied them, he pitied the stars and their burning souls. Nobody notices them until they're already dead, its a lot like life he supposes. Nobody notices until you're dead, nobody cares about you because they couldn't see how brightly you burned, until it was too late, and your flame had already gone out.

Dan hated this world, he hated the war and he hated the part he'd been given in it. But he had to play it, he had to play it because if he didn't, then somebody else would have to, and Dan couldn't burden anyone else with that.

Heeeyyy, soooo sorry for this filler chapter. I got a little carried away with the metaphors and the deep existential crisis bullshit haha. Sorry again, the next chapter will be better I promise! Gah, I hate filler chapters, but sometimes they just have to be done! I'll upload on saturday since this one is so short, see ya then!