Categories > Original > Drama > Samantha Gray
CHAPTER 2 (THE STRANGER)-
Looking at my shadow from the sun, it’s about 7am. I grab my ak47 and head for the green road of leaves. Running through the green, lush forest stirs up some excitement in my head. I honestly can’t wait to kill. The ominous, green waste land turns into red, hot sand. A forest in the middle of the desert, is that where I’ve been since all of this has happened?
Looking up at the hot, bright red sun, I feel like I’ve been in a giant freezer the whole time, so I ditch my coat. In my ragged jeans and t-shirt I walk to what feels like the ends of the Earth. Walking for eternity I think I’m actually tired. Images of it are popping into my head over and over, I need some water, I’m starting to hallucinate. I jump at one last image and drive my head under the muddy water. I honestly don’t care if it’s poisoned with mud as long as it’s some kind of liquid I can put into myself to quench my thirst. I look around with water dripping from my eye lashes seeing one last hallucination, of him, so I drink up. The water tastes like mud, sand, and delicious, succulent shrimp. I must be craving food, in which case I’m going to find whatever I can out here in this waste land of sand.
Looking through the waves of heat I see a blue light over the horizon. Maybe it’s a sign of hope? I walk towards it with faith, slowly making my way to the ominous light before me, which feels like a thousand miles away. It feels like I’m on Mars, watching the blue of Earth rise over the planet. No telling what it could be, for all I know it could be another moon, trying to rise at the wrong part of the day. I wish it would be night already; it would be a much more suitable temperature. I can barely stand this immense heat. Checking my shadow in the golden sand, I see that it’s about 12pm. How long had I been wondering around without food or water? Well, I got the water thing out of the way; now all I need is some nice, hot meat.
Running through the sea of sand, tripping occasionally, I stubble across a scorpion, it might not be much, or what I was looking for, but it was something. I step on the poor thing that never had a chance, and bite into it. As I look up, it’s a sight I hope to never see again, it makes me a minute to take in the sight of the giant scorpion.
Standing, thinking, I don’t have much time to make a move on it. Snapping at me every second I take more time to look at it, I throw my ak47 to the ground as I pull out my machete and stab it twice, so it falls to the ground without that much of a fight. Looking at the blood-ridden scorpion I wheeze knowing something has to be out there bigger than that. Staring into the bright star for a sun I think to cook the giant insect, but with what? Building a fire out of nothing will be a tad bit of a challenge. Looking at my bloody machete, then back at the stabbing beast I chop off the pincher.
Just sinking my teeth into the scorpion I know this is wrong. I might have been in the military, but I still hate the sight of looking at a dead, bloody animal in front of my cold, blood-on-the-inside body. Looking back at the scorpion and it’s baby I just ate makes me feel like the weight of the world is on my shoulders, reminding me of the baby I once had, that’s now gone forever.
Eating I hear a cry, a cry for help? It sounds like someone who just got wounded in the war by close combat, getting stabbed in the chest once, killing the person, and then left to die. I grab my ak47 and bolt over the mound of sand before me, only to see a bigger sight then before; this time, hearing a shriek. Staring up at the humungous creature I knew my worries where going to come true at some point, what better time than now. Shooting the enormous scorpion in the stomach slows it down enough for the person to grab their dull pocket knife.
“Samantha, help! Get behind and stab it while I distract this stupid thing!” says the sandy, creepy person. I can’t help to wonder, ‘How do they know my name, but most of all, do I know their name?’ As I run to get behind this stupid thing, the mysterious young man struggles forward. I stab it, just in time for him to reach the over-sized insect.
I look at him, as he shoots towards me like a bullet forward he greets me, “Samantha! It’s so good to see another survivor!”
“What are you talking about?” I ask him, searching my memories, like a police man looking for clues at a crime scene, finding nothing on the subject.
“You don’t…. remember?”
“No?”
I listen as he explains the whole thing from the pollution, to ten cases, all the way to how he was starving, and how I just saved him from dying. I lay beside him eating some cooked Scorpion, medium-well to perfection. I stop him where he says ten cases.
“Ten cases of what exactly?” It’s my only question right about now.
“Antidote. Once the atmosphere faded to nothing, there was no oxygen. You, Me, and few lucky others, were experiments until now. The lab created our serum to where any human, animal, you name it, can live without oxygen. Some experiments went wrong, but ours didn’t.”
“I don’t understand, so you mean there is no oxygen right now but were breathing like nothing else? Wouldn’t there be nothing in the sort of greenhouse effect and we would freeze?”
He takes enough time to explain how our bodies are somehow heat and cold resistant, that I start to understand. I run through the whole thing over, asking once more of how we breathe Carbon-monoxide, or as he calls it simply, CO. As I run over how we can’t feel heat or cold, and we can’t get burnt, I light a fire on the hot, orange sand of the desert. I assume that we are fire-proof, I run through the small fire, feeling nothing. A chill running down my brittle spine, I realize that I’m close to invincible. Although I don’t quite understand how we still have water, I lean back, and forget about it all.
“Can we… work together?” he asks in a shy voice, expecting a no.
“What’s your name?”
“Oh yea sorry, my name is Jonathan.” He says to me as I invite him to come along with on the long journey before us. As we start down the sandy slopes I start to gain some memory, I look at the ominous light before us as I remember the testing in the cold lab. I stand, motionless, as Jonathan looks over. I see myself to a seat in the red river of sand, staring at the blue light, remembering. My head starts to throb as the memories flow into my head.
It’s a dark, winter night, cold as can be. I walk into the lab, IV coming out of my arm. I look over at the tall, but somehow large doctor; he gives me a look, telling me to calm down. As I sit still on the frigid lab table, he sticks a syringe into my arm without warning. Jumping, I reach to slap him but then notice that somehow I got strapped in. His name tag reads Nelson, but nothing else. He walks across the room to get something: a pair of glasses, a pair of gloves, and another syringe.
“Samantha! What’s wrong!” faintly comes out of nowhere.
“Huh …What?” I say as a headache hits me like no other. He stares at me without a single motion, not knowing what I just experienced. “Sorry… had a little… day dream.” I can’t help but wonder what’s going on. Am I just remembering, or is it something much worse? I look at the blue light, this time, it is much closer than the eternity away I thought it was originally at. Looking at the dark, ashy sky, I walk on. Jonathan shakes his head as I look at him.
“I think we need to get somewhere safe fast.” He says in a nervous tone.
Without thinking I spilt out, “Sure.”
He pulls out a map, while trying to explain to me where the nearest city is. “It’s a long way till the next town of Chilop, from the looks of it, walking will take three days.” We proceed on the long walk, slowly but surely. I look up to the orangey sky, wondering how much time we just wasted. Now it’s time to walk.
Looking at my shadow from the sun, it’s about 7am. I grab my ak47 and head for the green road of leaves. Running through the green, lush forest stirs up some excitement in my head. I honestly can’t wait to kill. The ominous, green waste land turns into red, hot sand. A forest in the middle of the desert, is that where I’ve been since all of this has happened?
Looking up at the hot, bright red sun, I feel like I’ve been in a giant freezer the whole time, so I ditch my coat. In my ragged jeans and t-shirt I walk to what feels like the ends of the Earth. Walking for eternity I think I’m actually tired. Images of it are popping into my head over and over, I need some water, I’m starting to hallucinate. I jump at one last image and drive my head under the muddy water. I honestly don’t care if it’s poisoned with mud as long as it’s some kind of liquid I can put into myself to quench my thirst. I look around with water dripping from my eye lashes seeing one last hallucination, of him, so I drink up. The water tastes like mud, sand, and delicious, succulent shrimp. I must be craving food, in which case I’m going to find whatever I can out here in this waste land of sand.
Looking through the waves of heat I see a blue light over the horizon. Maybe it’s a sign of hope? I walk towards it with faith, slowly making my way to the ominous light before me, which feels like a thousand miles away. It feels like I’m on Mars, watching the blue of Earth rise over the planet. No telling what it could be, for all I know it could be another moon, trying to rise at the wrong part of the day. I wish it would be night already; it would be a much more suitable temperature. I can barely stand this immense heat. Checking my shadow in the golden sand, I see that it’s about 12pm. How long had I been wondering around without food or water? Well, I got the water thing out of the way; now all I need is some nice, hot meat.
Running through the sea of sand, tripping occasionally, I stubble across a scorpion, it might not be much, or what I was looking for, but it was something. I step on the poor thing that never had a chance, and bite into it. As I look up, it’s a sight I hope to never see again, it makes me a minute to take in the sight of the giant scorpion.
Standing, thinking, I don’t have much time to make a move on it. Snapping at me every second I take more time to look at it, I throw my ak47 to the ground as I pull out my machete and stab it twice, so it falls to the ground without that much of a fight. Looking at the blood-ridden scorpion I wheeze knowing something has to be out there bigger than that. Staring into the bright star for a sun I think to cook the giant insect, but with what? Building a fire out of nothing will be a tad bit of a challenge. Looking at my bloody machete, then back at the stabbing beast I chop off the pincher.
Just sinking my teeth into the scorpion I know this is wrong. I might have been in the military, but I still hate the sight of looking at a dead, bloody animal in front of my cold, blood-on-the-inside body. Looking back at the scorpion and it’s baby I just ate makes me feel like the weight of the world is on my shoulders, reminding me of the baby I once had, that’s now gone forever.
Eating I hear a cry, a cry for help? It sounds like someone who just got wounded in the war by close combat, getting stabbed in the chest once, killing the person, and then left to die. I grab my ak47 and bolt over the mound of sand before me, only to see a bigger sight then before; this time, hearing a shriek. Staring up at the humungous creature I knew my worries where going to come true at some point, what better time than now. Shooting the enormous scorpion in the stomach slows it down enough for the person to grab their dull pocket knife.
“Samantha, help! Get behind and stab it while I distract this stupid thing!” says the sandy, creepy person. I can’t help to wonder, ‘How do they know my name, but most of all, do I know their name?’ As I run to get behind this stupid thing, the mysterious young man struggles forward. I stab it, just in time for him to reach the over-sized insect.
I look at him, as he shoots towards me like a bullet forward he greets me, “Samantha! It’s so good to see another survivor!”
“What are you talking about?” I ask him, searching my memories, like a police man looking for clues at a crime scene, finding nothing on the subject.
“You don’t…. remember?”
“No?”
I listen as he explains the whole thing from the pollution, to ten cases, all the way to how he was starving, and how I just saved him from dying. I lay beside him eating some cooked Scorpion, medium-well to perfection. I stop him where he says ten cases.
“Ten cases of what exactly?” It’s my only question right about now.
“Antidote. Once the atmosphere faded to nothing, there was no oxygen. You, Me, and few lucky others, were experiments until now. The lab created our serum to where any human, animal, you name it, can live without oxygen. Some experiments went wrong, but ours didn’t.”
“I don’t understand, so you mean there is no oxygen right now but were breathing like nothing else? Wouldn’t there be nothing in the sort of greenhouse effect and we would freeze?”
He takes enough time to explain how our bodies are somehow heat and cold resistant, that I start to understand. I run through the whole thing over, asking once more of how we breathe Carbon-monoxide, or as he calls it simply, CO. As I run over how we can’t feel heat or cold, and we can’t get burnt, I light a fire on the hot, orange sand of the desert. I assume that we are fire-proof, I run through the small fire, feeling nothing. A chill running down my brittle spine, I realize that I’m close to invincible. Although I don’t quite understand how we still have water, I lean back, and forget about it all.
“Can we… work together?” he asks in a shy voice, expecting a no.
“What’s your name?”
“Oh yea sorry, my name is Jonathan.” He says to me as I invite him to come along with on the long journey before us. As we start down the sandy slopes I start to gain some memory, I look at the ominous light before us as I remember the testing in the cold lab. I stand, motionless, as Jonathan looks over. I see myself to a seat in the red river of sand, staring at the blue light, remembering. My head starts to throb as the memories flow into my head.
It’s a dark, winter night, cold as can be. I walk into the lab, IV coming out of my arm. I look over at the tall, but somehow large doctor; he gives me a look, telling me to calm down. As I sit still on the frigid lab table, he sticks a syringe into my arm without warning. Jumping, I reach to slap him but then notice that somehow I got strapped in. His name tag reads Nelson, but nothing else. He walks across the room to get something: a pair of glasses, a pair of gloves, and another syringe.
“Samantha! What’s wrong!” faintly comes out of nowhere.
“Huh …What?” I say as a headache hits me like no other. He stares at me without a single motion, not knowing what I just experienced. “Sorry… had a little… day dream.” I can’t help but wonder what’s going on. Am I just remembering, or is it something much worse? I look at the blue light, this time, it is much closer than the eternity away I thought it was originally at. Looking at the dark, ashy sky, I walk on. Jonathan shakes his head as I look at him.
“I think we need to get somewhere safe fast.” He says in a nervous tone.
Without thinking I spilt out, “Sure.”
He pulls out a map, while trying to explain to me where the nearest city is. “It’s a long way till the next town of Chilop, from the looks of it, walking will take three days.” We proceed on the long walk, slowly but surely. I look up to the orangey sky, wondering how much time we just wasted. Now it’s time to walk.
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