At Dusk

6

"Hey wake up they are gone," Dylan shakes me awake.

I open my eyes getting blinded by the sun that has snuck through the canapes just enough to let us know it's day. I sit there for a moment trying to remember what is going on and when I do I just groan. I rub my eyes to wake myself up before untying our bags from the tree. I look to my left to see Dylan smiling at me which makes me smile. I know I can trust him even though I don't know him that well and I know I said I only wanted to be friends with him but I might have been lying, to him, to myself, to both of us.

"We should wake the others," I suggest trying to wipe the smile off my face.

We clamber down the trees and we wake up the others which they are not happy about. We start to walk again and after a few minutes, we find our way back to the trail we were on before. We walk and walk and walk, getting more and more tired the further we go. We start to lose hope as our feet ache from blisters, our legs feel like they are going to fall off and we are so exhausted from lack of sleep. I try to keep spirits high but it's hard when I'm down myself. I'm scared of what will happen if we don't find a town, how long will we go before giving up. Food is going to run out soon and the water won't last long either. I'm terrified that we will push ourselves too hard and be left with nothing.

I push out all the negative thinking and replace it with my talk with Dylan. It instantly puts a smile back on my face knowing I have him by my side always. It's so comforting and it makes everything else seem easier.

"Are you okay?" Weston asks me as the trees start to thin out more and more.

"You know what," I smile, "I'm actually really good, I didn't think I would or even could be but I am."

"Good," he smiles back pulling me into a side hug, "Because I don't know what I would do without you, I'm so glad I have you in my life."

"I'm so glad I have you in my life too," I grin holding his hand and leaning my head on his shoulder as we walk.

Soon all the trees are behind us only to be replaced by miles upon miles of sand. I just want to scream or break down and cry or both but I can't, I have to stay strong, this was my idea and we are going to make it.

"Great a fucking desert," Oliver sighs sitting down in the sand and so do the others.

"Just think about it this way, we are one step closer to finding a better place," I mention trying to cheer them up but it doesn't help.

"Yeah, but how many steps are there going to be?" Hayes replies looking up at me and I sigh sitting down beside them.

They are right this sucks and it's my fault, I had to come up with this plan to run away and try to find a better place that probably doesn't even exist. I was so stupid, I never really thought about what would happen if we didn't find this town. We are going to die in the middle of nowhere and no one will ever know. No one will tell our story. No one will even know we existed and it's all because of me. In a few days, dehydration and starvation will kick in. We will start to hallucinate and slowly pass away and it's because I couldn't hold my own and I ran away from my problems.

After sulking for a while we decide that we might as well continue so we start our journey through the harsh terrain and I tie my bandana around my face to protect it from sand and dust. By the time night falls all we can see is sand for miles. My thoughts remain sad and terrified that there is nothing more out there.

"Come on guys, we have traveled to far for us to give up now, there has to be something out there and we will find it," Dylan yells at us while making a fire, "You have to stop being so fucking negative and torturing yourselves with the what if's because we are going to make it and one day we will tell our children and grandchildren about this and you are going to want to tell them that you believed it the whole time, so suck it up."