14

A Chapter by Bob

The next part in their journey, as they later described it was their worst, their lowest. Before then they thought that the drive through towns were the worst. This was a possibility but they never thought that it would actually happen and after being on the road so long and having gone through all those things they thought it was only a myth.

They were on a desert road, cactuses on each side and huge mountains on the horizon. It was a wonderful sight, something they’d only seen on movies but after a day’s driving it seemed never-ending. John kept on driving right through the night and only stopped at noon the next, not by choice. He pressed his foot down on the accelerator but to no avail, he turned off the road and onto the dirt road. They waited in the smouldering hot sun for any sign of life. Turns out this planet they so happily stumbled upon was deserted. They wanted to move before night came but the nighttime they dreaded was actually a big help. The night cooled down the desert and brought great relief to the two travellers. Relief that didn’t last long as they weren’t that high on supplies. Jim snacked (By snack I mean devour) on the road a lot. They needed to find something to eat and definitely needed to conserve the two Pepsi bottles full of water that they had. John collected dried up roots, twigs, branches and sagebrush then started a fire at the entrance of what he hoped was a rabbit hole. His assumption was correct as he quickly smoked one out. As it ran out John swung at it with a rock but missed, hunger had made Jim far more accurate and he clubbed the rabbit before it could get away. They had a rabbit, a rat and many desert insects. They sat and tried to muster the courage to put any of those things in their mouths. “Eventually you gonna have to eat, so just do it Johnny.” The sub was right but both of them seemed resigned to waiting until they were hungry enough to do it. The sun was coming up over the mountain and they could not face another day in this place without eating anything. They made a fire and baked the rat and rabbit on the ash, as they skinned it and roasted them over hot coals. They ate some of it but definitely needed to come at this from a different angle, because forcing anymore of that down would just end in them puking it all up. They dug a hole, lined it with leaves, making sure to cover the coals below and poured most of their water in. They added the other ingredients to the rabbit/rat stew and just when the sun changed from hot to super nova, they ate all of it. Jim left a note on the truck’s window saying Need gas. Please help. We went to go find other life forms please do not steal this beauty or cause her physical harm. Thank you.

They walked deep into the desert and hid under the shade of big rocks when they were on a break. They walked and walked and I can go on for hours because that is how it felt, walking in the hot desert sun. “Hey Johnny aren’t we supposed to see a patch of really green grass with a little pond and palm tree by now.” All three of them wished they could see a mirage, anything other than sand, rocks and sun. The sun was going down again but the coming of the cool wasn’t that much of a relief this time. Both of them would not be able to do any hunting tonight and with that last bit of resolve, pushing them on the hallucinations came.

First, two large men looking like Native Americans, by the long hair skin colour and paint (This is why John was sure it was a hallucination). The men gave the two dying (it was more fainting than dying) men water and helped them up. They were carrying wood and when they gestured to them to follow John and Jim did so. It was all hazy until it became perfectly clear. They just needed that water and power nap because when John woke up they were in a tent. He woke Jim up, got out and found whole lot of tents some lined up others scattered. Just past the one that they were in, they saw a fire and headed towards it. “Welcome Palefaces.” They were three or four men dressed like the Indians in those old westerns and the others were all dressed as casually as any schmo you’ll see in the big city. There was a fire in the in middle and everyone sat around it, not in a perfect circle but close enough. They stood on the outside watching the old man in fur tell stories around a fire while his two loin clothed assistants acted out his tales, he spoke about their way of living, commandments. He spoke about many other things John didn’t get because he was having a serious conversation with the sub trying to get a foothold on what the hell was going on here. A friendly boy filled them in when there was an intermission. He found out that this was kind of like their Christmas. They belonged to an old tribe that’s people didn’t much subscribe to the teachings of their elders which explains the plain clothed people but once a year they go all out. They set up tents in the wilderness, camp out and one of the older men tells tales and reminds them of the old scripture. According to the old man, the two palefaces was part of the tribe for tonight so when they got back they were in the inner circle. They were literally in the inner circle, a group of young men and women sat in circle closely around the fire. One of the assistants brought a wooden bowl filled with liquid and they passed it on for everyone around the fire to drink. “First Holy communion for Indians Johnny, drink up.” There was a hint of familiarity in the taste although it tasted disgusting. By the smile on Jim’s face John knew exactly what that familiar taste was. When the bowl came around again the two greedy travellers indulged some more. The flames from the fire touched the sky and it set fire to the stars, the sky looked like the stars had exploded. The drink was having a scary effect on John but the old man’s voice brought him back. “In the beginning of world was a bear that owned fire” and in the fire was just that, John saw the distinct figure of a bear with a fire. The story went on like that and at certain points in the story, his assistants would help him out. “Bear and his people went into forest to find acorns,” and the assistant threw acorns into the fire making the smoke change into the figures of the story now. “Man walking by picked up stick and fed fire in North, East, West and South,” and they threw sticks in the different directions. “The fire enjoyed this and changed colours, hissing and dancing.” They threw a powder into the fire that made it turn blue, orange, bright yellow and even purple. “A long time later Bear came back and fire was angry.” They threw a black powder this time and it turned into a bonfire for a minute. “And now fire belongs to man,” the old man took a stick from the fire and held it up like a torch. He told one maybe two more stories after that, stories that got played out by the stars but it was too overwhelming and John became lost in all of the splendour. After all that, he never made his way back to the living. He floated around until he lost consciousness. They woke up in the back of the truck. “Last night was crazy man, how’d we get back here Johnny.” “No idea, if you are talking about that crazy fire then to be honest I’m starting to think last night was a dream.” “Caused by dehydration?” Jim asked “Yeah but that doesn’t explain why my clothes smell like fire, why both of us had the same dream and the fact that I clearly remember blacking out deep in the desert not in the back of the truck.” John answered. “What difference does it make man. We had an awesome time with a tribe we don’t know, drank some killer juice and woke up somewhere else, so all in all sounds pretty good to me.” Said Jim “Sounds good to me.” Added John They sat in silence waiting for a miracle and one came not too long after. A car came up on the horizon and the two waved frantically. The car didn’t slow down and kept going. Another car came and did the same thing. “Do we look like psycho killers?” John told Jim and they all laughed. They didn’t bother to waved to the next car but lucky for them the third time was a charm. “I got a call about a broken down truck. That you guys?” A plump man said sticking his head out the window of his tow truck. “We didn’t call but we sure could use your help man.” The man hooked up the rust bucket and they were on their way. “Aint we lucky huh bud.” “You think they helped us out.” Asked Jim “I don’t even know if they exist.” Said John and It was a question they never found the answer to.

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