Water. The most majestic liquid ever to topple over a cliff in its crystal like glory and settle in bottles to satisfy clawing thirst.
Water. A liquid that fills all the seas in roles of waves and is home to thousands apon thousands of Gods sea creatures.
Water. Clear, cold, pure to the parched and dry lips of man and women alike.
Water. I needed it, and fast.
My head felt heavy with desperation, as my feet dragged my sac like body across the cracked earth. My thirst was like a heaving, living thing in my throat, moaning, scratching, clawing. My shoulders hunched towards the sun baked sand.
Hot. So hot.
How long had I been out here in the heat and sand of the desert? There was nothing all around, just a blurry skyline that did nothing of help. I did not care to make a sound of help, for it would awaken and anger the creature in my throat. It's claws will seemingly tear at the tissue, howl for something, anything, for its undying thirst.
What had gone wrong?
What?
My mind flashed back to the scene, recalling it all.
Wind lashed and battled against my body as I lowered myself out of the helicopters door.
"Pilot, I see nothing."
The voice of Pilot Gareth came gruff and muffled through my head piece: "Are you sure, Captain? The ropes are dangerously shaky. I repeat, dangerously shaky."
My eyes scanned the baron sand, searching for a sign of human life. It was my fifth mission as a captain, but the first in a helicopter, above a desert, searching for two missing people. The wind shook the ropes that hung me to the helicopter. My fear had dissolved into eagerness to find the missing people.
"Fly higher, Gareth. I cannot see towards six o'clock."
"Ok Captain."
I clutched my harness as the helicopters blades spun faster, and we shifted and moved through the air to face the opposite direction. The goggles that protected my eyes clouded my vision slightly, yet it did not delay my frantic search for any out-of-place figure amidst the golden sand dunes and ground. Spotting something dark against the yellow, I yelled into my headpiece, my stomach lurching in excitement.
"Pilot, over there, one o'clock."
"I see it, Captain, I see it!"
My heart bounded. Had we found the missing people, or aldeast, one of them?
There was a crackle in the headpiece, and a silent pause.
"It appears to be a ... a cactus, Captain."
My heart sunk into the depths of frustration.
"A cactus? Are you sure?"
"Yes, Captain."
I gripped the ropes to pull myself up, giving into the fact that the two people were not in the desert.
"We tried our best, Pilot. But we have to head back. They aren't anywhere."
"Ok, Captain."
The helicopter lurched, and in a split second, my hands had tugged at the rope unintentionally, and they swung off the hooks.
It took seconds for me too realize that the helicopter was not falling, but me, and as this fact hit me, my mouth opened into a scream that was snatched by the wind, and my arms flayed.
I toppled through the air, the ropes trailing behind, my eyes tightly shut, my gut lurching and churning in peculiar ways.
And I fainted, just as my body connected with the ground, and pain crept into my consciousness.
Why had the helicopter not yet come back for me? What had happened?
YOU ARE READING
The Two Missing People
General FictionThis story is about a man, know as Captain Wollus, or Wol for short, who gets stranded in a desert while searching for two missing people. The helicopter which he took to the desert is no-where to be seen, and as he waits to be rescued, he does not...
