Blazen

The sign

Josh had been gone for a while, and I was going to go get him, but I figured he needed time to cool off. And I knew if I showed my face to him anytime soon, he'd probably remember why he's mad and beat the crap out of me.
I sighed. I had spent the whole day trying to figure out how we'd gotten here. All I could remember was leaving high school for spring break, and then waking up here. There was a gap in my memory. I remembered school, then waking up in the desert next to Josh. It was weird. Like, something went missing from my memory. Or was removed...
I had just finished the thought when the ground started to shake. I tried standing upright but ended up falling anyway. Then I heard it. The cracking, popping, hissing sound. It was the sound of rocks splitting, and earth cracking. That's when I saw it. The crack, about twenty feet from me. It was wider than I was tall, so over six feet, and it was growing. I started backing up. The crack kept opening wider, and it started creeping along the ground. I started to freak out. Then it was quiet...the calm before the storm. The dried up earth exploded open into a gaping hole. It raced along the ground towards me. I tried to run but it opened beneath me, and swallowed me up. "OH SHIT!!!" I screamed as I felt myself falling down into the crack. But as I fell, I hit the edge, then started sliding in. I tried grabbing onto the edge of the crack. But there was nothing to hold onto. I was hanging by my fingers, clinging to the edge. The ground was still shaking and I was losing my grip. My arms ached. I tried grabbing onto a protruding root that was exposed by the crack, and got a foot hold on some little rocks cemented in the cracks wall. I could hear the crack splitting through the ground. And I watched as it continued down the horizon, spreading the black abyss about 3 miles through the desert. I saw dust shoot up from where the crack spread. Then it disappeared over a sand dune. Still shooken up, I caught my breath and licked my chapped lips. I couldn't hold on forever, but I couldn't pull myself up. I had no choice. "JOSH! JOSH! HELP ME!!!" JOSSSSHHHH!!!! HELP!!" I heard my voice echo. "JOSH!" The desert bounced his name back at me. "JOSH GODAMMIT HELP ME!!" But I didn't hear anything other than my breathing, and the root starting to slip from the loose soil. "oh fuck," I thought to myself. Josh was too far away. He'd never hear me. And even if he did, he'd never be able to run back here in time. I closed my eyes. And started saying my last words. "I, Thomas Penn, hadn't really started living my life yet. It was cut short by a travesty, out in the desert, with an asshole classmate. I had not lived my life to its fullest, and I regret that now. Life really is short, we just never realize-"
"What the fuck are you doing?"
I opened my eyes and looked up. There was Josh, out of breath and dirty, bending down to help pull me up. "Grab my hand, C'mon!"
I reached out for his hand and the root slipped even further down. It freaked me out and I wanted to get out even more.
"Dude, come on! Don't be a pussy! Grab my hand! Hurry!" Josh yelled at me.
I stretched my arm out and met his and grabbed on and pushed myself up the edge, with him pulling me up.
At the top, I collapsed. I had nearly died. Josh exhaled and dropped down in the sand next to me.
"I swear to god Penn, if we get out of here...you owe me. Big time." Josh said in a threatening voice.
But I didn't take him serious, in fact, I smiled. And busted out laughing. I couldn't help it. We had both nearly died, and that was somehow funny to me. I started laughing harder, and I even saw Josh crack a smile. Maybe it was the heat getting to us, or the dehydration, but we both started laughing. Josh sat up and punched my arm.
"Dude get up," he said, still laughing a little.
I didn't move. I just covered my face with my hands and kept laughing.
"Dude, no, seriously GET UP!" Josh said again, now completely serious.
I looked up at him. He was staring ahead at something. I sat up and saw what he saw and was equally surprised. The sun was setting, and the sky was Ruby red. The sun had flares spiraling off it, and standing up, you could see the miles of sand split by the crack.
"Shit," I said quietly.
Josh tapped my shoulder and pointed to something else. It was a sign, buried almost to the top in sand. I squinted my eyes and tried to read it in the last of the light.
"Hollywood." Josh and I read aloud at the same time. Josh looked at me.
"It's the Hollywood sign, dude...what the hell? Are we in Hollywood?" Josh asked me.
I shook my head, "No, can't be. Isn't that sign up on a hill..?" But then I realized what Josh had already realized. I looked around. The hills of sand, as tall as building, burnt, shriveled plants that looked like Palm trees, and smaller hills of sand the size of cars. I blinked. We were in Hollywood.
"Oh shit man, oh shit!!! WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED HERE!?" Josh said panicking.
I sat down again and just started at the Hollywood sign. I didn't know what to say.
The sun was half way down. It would be dark soon, so I knew we needed to set up camp for the night.
"C'mon," I said to Josh as I started walking to the sign, "it's gonna get dark soon, and we don't know what's out here. We can camp in the exposed part of the O."
Josh just looked at me. His face was streaked with sweat and dirt. I'm sure I looked the same. He nodded and started following me.
"What are we going to do?" Josh asked.
I didn't stop walking, or turn around, I just sighed, "well, at least we know where we are. And there has to be more people so... I don't know. We'll figure it out in the morning."
"Alright," Josh said quietly.
I liked this. Me being the leader, large and in charge. Brave and strong... But the truth is, I was as scared as him. Especially when I heard the screaming that made him and I both jump.