South

The further I walked into the southern heat, the more intense my life became. I spent three months hiding from the scorching sun underground. I had initially found my way into a mountainous cave and followed into the inky depths along some dimly lit moss. The moss provided a source of water, and food. It also attracted small groupings of fish which lapped about the small puddles I would stumble into. The fish tasted like pure distilled life. Raw or cooked. I melted into a happy, warm, satiated nap after my first taste. I could have lived in that cave forever. I realized that I could allow my worries to escape me and just survive. There was nothing to fight. I was often damp and cold, and my clothes never dried. But I was alive, and fed. Unfortunately, after a few months of not speaking out loud to another human person I began losing my mind. I began having visions of large fish in a variety of unnatural colors swimming above my head. Of glowing moss, and blue skies. Of large, very large, whisps of colorful smoke billowing from my small campfire. I knew after that dream that I needed to see the sun again.  

I crawled out of that hole and adjusted to the light. I seemed to have waited out the summer heat and found myself in the warm beginnings of fall. I left the cave and made my way down the road. I had packed with me my camping supplies, my gun which had begun corroding in the damp cave, and plenty of dried fish meat. I lacked fresh water, but the grey clouds pacing past the sky told me rain would come soon. A few miles down the road I found a sign. “Zzyzx Rd.” was all that was on it in sun-bleached lettering. I had passed the dilapidated remains of a small resort-style town but there was nothing to read or eat so I didn’t waste energy there.  

I carried on but not for long. Somewhere along the road I came up on another run down town. This one was marked by some stacks of painted rocks. Pastel faded pinks, purples, and oranges looked like chalk against the gray orange sands. I hummed a tune that I heard on the TV when I was visiting Mike. Someone hummed back. I whipped around, my heart dropped into my stomach and I could feel my pulse in my face. Behind me was a small creature. I had never seen anything like it. It had no tail, no ears, no fur. It looked like human skin was stretched out over the body of a rodent, and as if it were twice or three times the size. It hummed a very human like tone. I knelt down to its level cautiously and offered a scrap of my fish toward it.  

It stood on its hind legs and I could see it likely was human at one point. Or it’s ancestors were. Soon more of the same damaged genetic messes came flocking around me. Humans with legs fused into a fish-tail. Humans with their flesh half gone. Humans who's arms were little more than nubs, or who’s jaw slacked without any musculature to hold it closed. I questioned the intelligence level of these creatures. “Hello, my name is-” One pounced onto my bag, gripping it firmly between its long toe-nails and teeth. It lacked arms entirely. I fell from the weight of it and looked up. I stared down it’s narrow throat and screamed. I freed myself from the bag and picked up the gun. It was not loaded and jammed immediately. I should have paid better attention to Mike’s instructions! Damn! I bashed the creature over the head and shouted. “Can any of you understand me?” Unfortunately if anyone had responded I couldn’t tell. I tried to grab my bag but it was already being stolen away by two other creatures. I cut my losses there and started running.  

I ran until I tasted blood in my mouth and couldn’t see or hear the humming creatures anymore.