A Foreign Land

A Chapter by CoreyJames

The introduction of the first character. He has no name and knows of no past.

It's dark. I look to see the sky and all of its twinkling stars. The moon projects it's lunar light onto the ground below me. As I lie there, I notice that the place I am in is barren of life. The ground appeared to once have had an ocean flowing over it, maybe years and years ago. I stood to find out that I was in a very large crater, this struck me as odd, I seemed to be in the center of it.

As I climbed out of the deep crater, I saw a man at the top. He didn't appear to be moving. But he was holding something, and it looked as if he was holding towards me. “Hello!” I exclaimed, hoping to get a response from the man. But something was off. I approached him to find out that the man wasn't more of a man than he was a statue. When I got closer I saw that he was not in fact
alive. The man looked to be a dirt formation that took an extremely close resemblance to a person, he looked to be a warrior, he had his own sword and armor and a look of horrifying fear in his face. In his hand he extended a black steel sword. But unlike the man, the sword was real. I climbed out of the crater to see thousands upon thousands of men, just like the first, with looks of fear in their dirty eyes. I took the sword from the grasp of the man. And as I took it from his early grip and the sword fit so perfectly into my hand, it must have been mine. The sword kind of spoke to me in a metaphorical way. But the man I took it from, the man decayed entirely. It scared me, if a simple pull can destroy these men, then this place must have been barren of any life form, or force of nature for that matter. A cold burst of air followed me taking the sword, it gave me the sense that this was real. And as the wind moved in, it demolished all of the other “mud men” in the valley returning them to the earth that they came from in an instantaneous burst.

That is when the feeling of loneliness set in, while the mud army didn't really provide me with a sense of security. They were the only thing here. And now, I was in an area of flat barren land that extended farther than my curiosity. I knew that I was alive, but that was the extent of my knowledge. When I looked down I saw I was wearing the same armor as the mud men, besides from it not being made of dirt, of course. I also glanced at the sword for a little while longer to see that it had some writing on it. Sadly, it was in some foreign language so I had no chance of reading it.

With no destination in mind (besides from NOT HERE) I simply set forth into the direction that saw the light coming to bring dawn, shortly followed by day.

My feet met the ground in their repetitious way, a long left stride, followed by a long right stride. And repeat, over, and over again. I began to cruise through the wasteland of mystery and death. And only had a single thought on my mind. One that had a shiver of similarity to thoughts of mine that I had before, but couldn't remember, “Look for the light.” While the metaphorical phrase met little to some. It brought me towards a literal direction in life. I let out a small laugh.

Days and nights passed as I trotted off towards the east. And to no one’s surprise, I began to get thirsty. Heat drove me to remove all my gear, besides my shirt, pants, and sword. I didn't know why I didn't drop the sword. It was a heavy sword. (Not like the weight of a house, but like the weight of the extra load of groceries you picked up because two trips are for the weak). It did have some importance I guess, I mean it , may be the only clue to my past, but mile after mile it appeared to be a lot more of a lucrative option to just drop it. But I refused to. I didn't know if it was the lack of water, or my determination for the truth. But I kept the damned thing. For some reason.

In all honesty, I wasn't doing well physically , or mentally.

The walking gave me a sense of purpose though. I hoped to find different land then the hell I was in. My feet became so well acquainted with the ground, it might as well have been a part of it.

As more and more hot days and cold nights passed, the chances of getting out seemed slimmer and slimmer, but I had hope. Hope, hope that there was something else out there. Anything else, and one day, I looked into the distance. While heat waves distorted my view, I saw a lake. I ran with excitement in my feet. Sadly, when I reached the destination I learned it was a simple mirage. My sadness at that current moment could be compared to no one. I started to get weaker.

I fell to the ground, and lied there for a few hours. I hoped for death. The pain hurt. I knew of I died, that this craving for water and food would stop. But I knew that it would get a lot worse before I starved to death. I considered chopping my own foot off and eating it. That seemed fully rational, it looked to be either death or self mutilation, and thankfully neither happened.

I woke up the next morning, to see that the hot air still burned me, the hunger still swept over me, and the blade still captivating my mind with all sorts of questions. In that brief second I decided that finding out why I was here, why this blade is here, and just a big number of why’s and how’s and who’s became my sole purpose to live. I decided that if death really wanted me, it would have to work for it. Because I was bound to live.

I looked at the pale blue sky, it was beautiful. I began to walk again. I looked up towards the sky not only for inspiration, but my neck was sore from looking at the ground. I felt as if I looked at the ground anymore, I would be stuck looking at it for the rest of my miserable life.

Hours passed. My legs wobbled. And I felt weird. Like, you know when you say a word so many times it begins to sound weird and foreign. I felt like that in my legs. I had walked so long that my legs began to transform into the equivalent of jello pudding. But that was a terrible explanation, and now I'm hungry. I craved that gelatin substance that bounced and brought laughs.

I felt loopy and began to say “jello pudding” over and over again till it was a weird and foreign word. I did that for hours. It seemed like a great idea, if I craved jello pudding, like I do. And simply make jello pudding a foreign word, then I don't crave it anymore, right? These were the questions that boggled my mind as dehydration set in.

Then suddenly, after exhausting my vocabulary of anything related to food. I stumbled onto the ground. But I felt some forms of soft but slightly prickly objects brushing up against the right side of my face. I turned to look at it. IT WAS GRASS! If someone looked at me in this moment, they would see me look as if I was a kid discovering a new world. But to me, that grass was a sign of life. And with the hunger of a black hole I devoured the grass. It tasted like…. Like….. Well… It's grass, there isn't much to explain there. I stood up with adrenaline that filed my body with excitement. The grass was soft. But something was off. I felt as if I was being watched. A feeling of darkness surrounded me. I shrugged it off as fear of the unknown, seeing that I just found more foreign land, it seemed rational.

But when I kept walking in this Savannah, a new area covered with grass and the occasional tree. I believed I saw men in trees, they looked to be like skeletons, skeletons that were taking over and given a black aura among them. I was seeing false lakes, and now false people (at least to my knowledge.) I took refuge under a tree, the night was cold, but it was better than the desert. I sat upon a tree on a high hill. I had a view of hundreds of miles. This was what appeared to be the only hill. And it made me feel as if it somehow mattered.

I woke up the next day, It felt mildly cold outside. Colder than the night before, this seemed impossible to me with the sun overhead. That was the least of my worries though, I needed water. And I needed it really bad. I walked into that could 10 o’clock air and began to crawl. I couldn't use my legs. I was just too weak. I mustered all of my energy, I tried with all of my strength, but even then, it didn't seem to be enough.

After a while, I couldn't use my arms. I sat in that savannah for a while. Every now and then, I'd give my best attempt to walk. I usually failed. But after a couple hours, I used the sword as a crutch and began to move. “I'm not going to DIE” I whimpered as loud as I could. The cold air continued to grow around me as I saw another object on the horizon. At first it was blurry, but eventually after starring at it for long enough I began to make out some of the figures.

I saw three people. All in white coats, they were walking towards me. Half of me thought they were another mirage. But the other half of me didn't much care if it was a mirage or not, it was something, and I had to look towards it. It was the only hope that my miserable self had.

The objects got closer, I noticed that I was descending the hill I was on at a fast rate. And of course, I fell. But that was when the three people in the cloaks approached me. And one of them spoke, and my ears were privileged to hear a sound come out that should be used to sing Angels to sleep “Oh dear, you look like you need some help,” She worryingly spoke, “ Sit up, I have some water.” She handed me a flask, and I drunk from it like a baby to a bottle. The woman removed her hood to reveal her dark red hair “Well hello! My name is Ashley, or just Ash” the other men removed their hoods. They both had brown hair, but one had black eyes, while the other had red . The one with the black eyes spoke “I’m Travis, and this here is my twin robot brother Clyde” Ash knew that I was confused “It's a very long and complicated story that involves Travis being such a narcissist that he made a clone of himself” Travis yelled “Not true!”
Clyde let out a robotic tone “I was created to be a perfect representation of my master and lovely brother Tra…” Travis hit his bro in the face. Then re-explained himself “Not ENTIRELY true” Ash and I laughed, she began to try and comfort me “ We’re Rangers, but you probably guessed that by our bright white uniforms that make us look like the K.K.K, their just about as white as your hair” Ash continued on, “And our funky weapons, but that's a very, very, very long story.” I laughed, these guys seemed pretty cool. And Ash was …… pretty…… um… Yeah. So I tried to make conversation, but my voice came out so raspy that it was almost unrecognizable “So, you from round here?” Ash let out a hollering laugh. “ I've seen Clyde flirt better than that, and he's a robot.” I blushed a bit, that wasn't what I was aiming for at all. And she added on to her statement “Oh, let up. I'm kidding!, in all seriousness though do you not know where or who you are?”
I nodded, I was confused. The only thing I seemed to know was the language.

When me and Ash were talking the robot man and his bro took a seat. Ash acknowledged my ignorance of where I was and tried to explain as she pulled up a map. “You see, we came from the City of Cane, in the West. You are currently in the Khali desert. You might want to come with us to Able. We were heading back that way, it's in the East and it holds the Ranger headquarters, they should be able to help you find your way.” Travis chuckled in the background. “Oh the puns.” Ash took a glance at my sword, “May I see your sword? If it's not a problem” I gladly unsheathed it and spoke to her in a raspy voice that was still dehydrated, “This is my sword, by any chance do you know what this says? It appears to be some foreign language.” I noticed the air began to chill again. In the corners of my eye I could swear I saw those shadow men again. Ash called to Travis “ Hey you know those ancient language and history classes I took you called stupid?” Travis responded “ My Clyde speaks all the languages he needs to speak, why learn dead languages?” Ash showed him my sword. Travis tried to make a comment “ Well two years of your life, all for one situation” Ash had a smile on her face. She began to decipher what was written on the sword. As she mouthed the words out her smile faded. She dropped the sword and unsheathed her own. It was a sword that also functioned as a crossbow. Travis and Clyde dropped their draws in unison as Ash drew her sword on me. Travis ran between us “Wait! We were just giving this guy some water, why the hell are we trying to kill him now?” Ash pulled Travis in close and whispered. Travis then had a look of shock as he saw me. He stood still “You can't believe that, that's a legend! A children's tale used to scare us at night” Ash stood still also, with a determined look in her face. She was going to kill me. Then a cold air came through again. It gave us all goosebumps. And I saw fear enter the faces of Travis and Ash. I turned around, half expecting to be killed. But behind me were the shadow men from earlier, except now there were easily 100 of them. They bore swords and all had red eyes that looked as if pure evil has possessed them. “Possessed” Ash let out. I dropped to my knees, the possessed ran towards me. But they didn't attack, they focused on the three rangers behind me. I saw that they were losing. I had no idea why I was living. I picked up my sword and tried to run to them.

But as I made it to Travis, his robot bro was forced to watch as the possessed took his head off of his shoulders.

Clyde let out a robotic whimper “YOU KILLED MY BROTHER!” He made a suicide charge for me but was stopped by the possessed. Ash was pinned down by the shadow men. The men were about to give her the same treatment they gave Travis. With the rest of the strength in me I took my sword and plunged it into the enemy, it began to glow white. The Rangers failed in killing a single person. But with one swoop I killed three, they dissipated into the air. Ash looked at me, to remember my face, “I'll kill you” and then abruptly passed out. The dark men looked at me, not with fear but with surprise. They brought up their sword against mine. And I saw their leader, a horseman with green eyes.

I started the attack and made more progress than my pals behind me. I sliced through the enemy like butter. And to a moment, I felt as if I was doing something right. The combat felt familiar to me, even with this unfamiliar enemy. The enemy was surrounding me, and even as I killed easily thirty of the deathly figures they kept coming at me, like some type of horde.

But one of the possessed cut me, and then

Nothing….

I Blacked out…..

I woke up in that field with the business end of my sword in the green eyed man.

Many dead possessed surrounded me in a circle, there were only around eight of them now. They looked at the horseman. I plunged the sword deeper and as he let out his last whimper, the other possessed vanished as well.

I lay in a field of greenery, with so much bloodshed around me

Who am I?

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