Safe Haven (title so far)

Latest Date:

Monday, 2014-11-19.

Story:

As soon as I re-materialize my knees buckle involuntarily. I pull myself up to find myself in some sort of desert I’ve never seen before. Directly ahead of me is a strange path made of stones which are dull beige color with streaks of white as if the rocks have been cut by someone. Looking back now from where I came, there’s a stone wall the same texture as the path that I can just barely see the top of. 2 feet above me I can see the peak of something has the shape of an abstract church window, It has a weird vibe to it. I feel it tugging at me as though its calling for me, but every time I step closer to it, nausea swirls around in my head. Encased in the edges are intricate white and gray gems, flashing light as if someone left their flicker on in their car. The jewels from the weird church window thing seem almost familiar to me, but I can't place a finger on where I would've seen them. As far as I know I don’t actually remember anything of my past whatsoever, it's an unnerving thought, I don't even remember my name. For all I know I could be named Bob. Bob's adventure in an enclosed desert full of church windows that make you want to hurl! Sounds like fun. I try not to dwell on memory loss, I tell myself I have plenty of other things to worry about, like food! I could totally go for some food right now, and some cool milk. My stomach snarls at me. I guess I have to divert my mind from all the problems I have right now and try to figure out where I am and what to do.

I drain myself of physical strength the farther I roam, nothing changes on the path and I’m starting to wonder if it will lead anywhere.

Sand is slowly becoming my worst nightmare it’s everywhere and it’s easily carried by the wind into my eyes. I didn’t believe mirages even real until now. I’m sure I’ve never been so thirsty in my life. The heat makes me sweat the little water I have in me. If I don’t find water quickly I’ll go mentally insane and I can’t predict what I’ll do after that. I walk for a while longer, but my feet are regretting being part of my body and every step feels like I’m trudging through mud.

Nightfall will take place soon so I decide to rest and grope at the sand, wishing it was a nice meal with a big fat water bottle as a side. Staring around at the sandy nothingness, the depressing thoughts I’ve been trying so hard to fight back, crawl to the front of my mind. Besides the thoughts of food and water, I find on of the saddest thoughts is I don’t even remember what I look like, actually I don’t know anything about me as a whole. It’s like walking around in someone else's body but not having the memories that should be attached to it. I claw at any memories that might show of family or friends, but I come up with nothing. Hek, what was I doing coming out of a portal covered in white gemstones which love to blind me? Whoever sent me here clearly loves watching people suffer, Watching, maybe I’m being watched and this all some test. But what’s the test? I have no decisions to make and zero chance of survival. Maybe this is the sender’s idea of punishment. Did I do something to deserve dying in the middle of no where? I don’t know if I was sent here, what if I was tricked or something into wanting to come here. That’s an uncomfortable thought, choosing to come here. I’ll be naturally buried by sandstorms when I die and any family I have may eventually stumble upon my body if I don’t turn into sand myself.

I lay down a couple feet from the path not wanting to stray from it. I pull my shirt over my face to avoid the flying sand. Luckily, through all my hunger pains, sleep finds me. I sleep for a few hours, when I open my eyes to find the sky has been shrouded in darkness, my hunger pains seem to have subsided a bit which is odd. The desert has become silent, its an awkward feeling because the sandstorm has been raging non-stop since I came to this sandy region. Several small grains of sand in little groups start to sparkle as if they are reflecting a light source, but there is no great enough light source to reflect from, since the moon isn't out. I walk over to the nearest sparkling pile, and sift my hand through it. As soon as I do, it glows even more and starts rising and falling slowly like it's breathing. My gut pulls at me to back up, so I do. All the small piles of glowing sand has now meshed into three piles of light. I see a spike peek through the top of the all three piles at the same time. I straggle backwards until my feet find the path. Each of the little hills start to take the form a creature I've never seen before. The back's of each of these creatures, looks like the shell of a tortoise with spikes going down the middle and sides of it. The head seems to change from a snake to a rhino to a wolf. Finally each of the monsters fully solidifies into seemingly flesh and bone of the same beige color of the sand. Each of them rest upon a separate animal face. I'm blown away by the sight of them, in the chest and head there are the same jewels that made me queasy by the abstract-church-window-thing.

“Where did you come from? Who.. What are you?” I inquire, hoping that maybe they can talk and I can stall them from killing me. I get no answer except a grunt from the rhino-tortoise. As if that was their queue the snake-toise and wolf-toise start to hiss, growl in an 'I'm going to kill you now' fashion. I know how to take a hint, I start running frantically straying from the path.

I soon realize that running wasn't a smart move, the spike-shelled-rhino is tailing me with the wolf and snake right behind it. The spike-shelled-rhino can run faster than a mad man. I'm bulldozed to the side, as the beastly rhino whips his head at me, his horn strikes the middle of my spine, sucking the oxygen out of my lungs. I've never been hit by a car, but I bet this feels worse. I'm knocked onto my side, and all I can feel is the pain, until my sense turn off and I'm blanketed with darkness.

              

Chapter

2

Latest Date:

2014-11-28.

I had an interesting dream while I was taking a vacation from consciousness, I owned a pet rock that followed me everywhere and I fed it pickles. I don't often remember my dreams at all, maybe getting hit really hard by a crested tortoise rhino, helps you remember those weird dreams you actually had no interest in remembering. I'm no longer in a desert, I'm boxed with light blue plastered walls. The lighting is dim, thanks to the single light bulb hanging from the center of the ceiling. My head throbs, and my back aches as though my skin has been sliced straight down the back. I struggle trying to ignore the pain while I take in my surroundings, I'm in some hospital or infirmary I'm guessing.

IV packets are hanging on a rack by the side of the bed, feeding my veins who knows what drugs. By the rack I can see a screen displaying how well my heart is doing. I finger the button panel by my bed which controls the beds position. I seem to remember playing with one of them before, which is probably a good thing because that's the first thing I've remembered about my past life before the desert, other than common knowledge. That could be a bad thing though, because that may mean I've been in a hospital several times before, maybe I have some condition. I do also remember what people look like in general, but no one particularly, I'm sure if my mom walked in through the door straight across from me 10 feet, I wouldn't recognize her. That is if I have a mom.

I hear a little tap at the door, and a short woman with a light blue nurse outfit and hat enters, her blonde bangs covering the side of her face. She's holding a tray of low quality food in her hands, I try to peak out the door but she closes it with her foot before I get the chance to.

“Good morning.” she says gingerly, smiling at me through her dark brown eyes.

“Hi...” I croak, it hurts to talk, I still feel the knock of the rhino-tortoise stealing the air from my lungs. She says nothing else, as she steps towards me and places the plate on my stomach.

“Eat.” she insists, giving me a look that infers or else. I don't need to be told twice, I'm starved. Low-quality infirmary food still tastes great to me because I'm famished and I don't remember the last time I tasted something other than sand.  “Do you remember anything about family, friends, or any information about the safe haven?” she hesitates when she says the last two words, as though she's letting me in on a secret. How does she know I lost my memory? What's the safe haven?

“Uh... no, what's the safe haven?” I struggle to ask.

“Never mind” she replies as if she regrets ever asking me. “We've given you a serum, it should help with the memory loss, that's all you need to know right now. I'll be in to check on you later.” She heads for the door.

“No, please! Tell me where I am.” I whisper. She doesn't respond, she opens the door and exits, leaving me clueless.

Hours pass as I fiddle my thumbs, read a few magazines which I have no clue what they're talking about. Questions bounce along my head, like how did I get here, why didn't I remember anything in the first place, will my memories come back? That's the scariest thought, what if I never get my memories back, do I even have memories? My legs have recently started to ache along with my spine and head, but thanks to the painkillers, the sharpness of it has dulled. I don't think I could walk but I'm sick and tired of sitting around. There's a bell on the rack now which I didn't see before, I grab it, at least it's something to play with. I start tapping the top of it, then clasping my hand over it so it stops vibrating. There's a knock at the door.

“I'm not changing or anything, just you know lying on my bed.” I mutter. A head peaks in, the same nurse as before, she has an exasperated look clearly showing on her face.

“Can I help you?” she offers as nicely as she can muster, which isn't very much, I can just see the happiness glow off of her. Not.

“I want to get out of here. Can you help me with that? Or maybe you could tell me how I got here?” I hiss.

“No and no, you'll need to stay for at least three more days.” she doesn't care if I'm bored I can tell that much. Anger pulls at my chest, my cheeks flame with red, I know I can't stand another three days without answers.

“Let me out.” I say as intimidatingly as I can. “I feel fine.” Even as I say that I know it's a lie, my everything hurts, but I'll go out of my mind if I don't find something to do.

“Hush. I'll get the doctor.” she rushes out and slams the door before I can say anything else. I slide my feet over the side of the bed, trying to feel if I have enough strength in my legs to stand. I'm interrupted by a knock at the door, again I want to say that I'm not changing or anything, but I decide otherwise on it. I convince myself that they are really trying to help me. The doctor swings the door open with a reluctant look on his face. He looks to be in his sixties, gray hair, wrinkles, he has thick rimmed glasses resting on his nose. He has a mole on his neck, that is a little too prominent.

“Hello, how are you?” He inquires. I pause to calm myself before answering.

“How am I? Well I think it says I'm living on there I think that's good, right?” I point to the heart-rate display screen, not waiting for an answer. “I think I'm good enough to at least hear what's going on.”  The doctor looks at me, knowingly, which annoys me, is it really something I shouldn't know?

“Let's talk about your memory.” He says politely.

“Let's,” I grin, finally someone to have a conversation with.

“I can not tell you why your memory is gone, but I know that it is very common here, and you have nothing to worry about.” The old man assures me. “A brain has clusters of special neurons for holding memories, for you these neurons were separated, during your journey here. Some of the knowledge you had before that happened remains with you, but several clusters of your memory neurons aren't close enough to each other for your brain to produce your memories.”

“When will that happen?” I ask quickly, wanting to siphon as much information as I can out of this guy.

He looks unsure, which is a first, a little unsettling and almost just as much annoying as his knowing look. “Hard to say, each individual we've tested has been different so far.” he speaks as though all his patients are lab rats.

“What would you say is the average time it took for the others to fully recover?” Please say a couple days, I think to myself.

“A week and a half, but like I said before everyone is different whether its sooner or longer, you could be either.”

“Am I well enough to explore at least?” I surrender to the fact that I'm not going anywhere without permission.

“I'm sorry, but I can't allow that. You must recover,” the doc admits.

“Sedate me doctor,” I resign.

*   *   *

Four days later, there is a knock at the door which awakens me. Four boring days of nothing other than twiddling my thumbs, sleeping and hard thinking. I've come to just accept the fact that I'm not going to get any information about how I came to sit in this prison, but I can't help myself being a little hopeful when I hear the knock. Whoever it is, doesn't wait for an answer, they open the door with speed.

“Excuse me! I could have been changing!” I tease. It's a red-headed woman, with a stubborn look to her, shes wearing a white uniform which looks official and giving her an intimidating head start.

“Don't be a sassy sally, I'm a bringer of good news.” She challenges me. I almost laugh, my name could be sally and we both wouldn't have a clue, but I'm pretty sure I'm not a sally. I don't think it suits me. I don't say anything, waiting for her to spill the beans. “The doctor informed me that you are able to get out of that bed today, if you can muster the strength.”

I almost scream for joy. “What are we waiting... I mean, I think I have the strength.” Not wanting to find out what happens when I take the form of sassy sally. She looks like she could take the rhino-tortoise creature single handedly in a fight head on.

“I don't like a whiner, I don't want to hear a peep out of you,” she scoffs. I don't know whether I should say something submissive like 'yes mam!' or not. Yet again, she doesn't wait for an answer, she walks towards the door and escapes my view for a few seconds. She unfolds a self pushable wheelchair, then rolls it to the end of the bed, then leaves. I don't get any help and she expects me to quickly follow her. Man, I love this place! I straggle to the end of my bed, then slowly lower my body into the now fully extended wheel chair. Luckily the pain from my back has vanished in the last four days, but my legs still hurt as much as ever. Unsurely but gladly, I roll myself out of the room, then with some trouble turn the corner, my front wheel making a skid mark across the wall. I'm finally free of that horrible holding cell, as I inch down the hall, I'm happy to see people bustling about but grieve for all the other people in the so many holding cells I see.

Tell me if you like it so far :D