When I read books about hot desert sand, blazing sun, and no water, I hardly believed such a thing could exist anywhere.
Unfortunately for us, we were now seeing the desert firsthand.
"Why would the vice-president be trying to kill us?!" I yelled at the girl, feeling betrayed by her, as I should have.
"I'm sorry!" She cowered and I stepped back, somewhat calmly waiting for my answer.
"He doesn't want you and your friends interfering with his plan..." She said, bowed down to us for some reason.
I took a moment to think and felt my heart drop when I realized his real plan.
***
Imode enters her main office, looking at the stack of paperwork, she sighed. She set it aside and could see someone sitting behind it, sitting in her chair.
"Vice-President Moraco?!" She screamed, to which he began laughing.
"Yes, yes, it's me. No need to sound the alarms." He said, standing up and touching Imode's shoulder. "What do you say... letting me take over for some time?" He proposed his idea, upfront and without any cover behind it.
"And that would be for...?" Imode asked, feeling a bit suspicious.
"Just to calm the population down a bit, you know?" He answered as a smug look creased his mature face, his blond beard fluctuated with the look.
"I'll have to deny that request," Imode said, turning around. "According to Instructor Miko, Cal and Kayla were taken. So this was your doing... wasn't it?" She asked, preparing to leave if need be.
"Why yes. It was." He admitted without a shred of guilt. "If I'm correct, they should be dead right about now. The desert is a... unforgiving place, especially with those Special Pathogens running around." He chuckled along to his words.
Imode turned and began leaving, ready to report him, feeling wrath and anger for the sudden news of Cal and Kayla's abduction. She believed deep inside of her, that they would survive... they always did.
"Where are you going?" Moraco asked, a clicking sound becoming audible.
Imode reached for the handle but turned around to look at Moraco. He had taken off his shirt. Imode felt more determined to leave, and so she grabbed the door handle, only to feel something cold touch her back.
With no warning, a silenced gunshot went off, sending a bullet through Imode.
She fell straight to the ground, her movement ceasing. Moraco slowly grabbed a towel and wiped the excess blood off of his bare chest and face.
"Nicely done," Moraco said, with his low voice, to the person in the corner of the room, standing in the shadows.
***
All of the scenery blended together. Hills of sand, hills of sand, and then once again, hills of sand. The scenery was the same everywhere, with the occasional cactus in view.
Our feet were tired, but we could not rest. Or could we?
"We... should wait until nightfall. It's a lot cooler then..." Kayla suggested, with mouth parched and lips chapped.
"No. That's not an option. That's when they will move through the sand." The girl responded, passing a flask of water to Kayla.
"Are you serious? They move through the sand?" I asked, not completely convinced.
"I'm sure you've seen that huge Pathogen during one of your tests, yet you are not convinced of a mole-like one?" She asked, her helmet visor still covering her eyes, which we had not seen yet.
"I suppose that makes sense..." I finally concluded, realizing that she might be onto something there.
***
Nightfall came a lot earlier than I expected. We found a cactus and cut it down, cutting the little spikes from it and using it to sit down on something other than sand. My pockets were full of sand at this point.
We cut open some more cactuses and tried our hardest to drink what remained inside of them. Eventually... a slight rumbling sound.
"One is coming. Stay calm." The girl said, standing completely still.
We followed her lead and didn't move, the thing below us passed us completely.
"We can talk." She said, "just no moving."
"They can't hear us?" Kayla asked, looking around us.
"Well... not necessarily. They hear vibrations when we take a step, they cannot hear us speaking unless they emerge from the ground, which they do often to look for prey."
Right as she said that, one emerged from the sand not too far away with a popping sound. It was ugly... a scrunched-up face with no eyes to be seen, sharp teeth with whiskers, and tendrils coming out of its neck.
It looked around in circles, as if it could see, but was also making a slight clicking sound with its tongue.
We stood still, at least most of the time.
It stayed emerged for minutes while we shook from standing still.
Kayla opened her mouth and silently sneezed. The thing didn't notice.
I slowly crouched down to stop myself from shaking, but I slipped on the sand, sending myself onto my back with a puff of sand flying around me.
The thing turned its head quickly and darted under the sand. Only re-emerging below me, sending me into the air. The impact with the sand took the air out of me and I lay silently trying to breathe.
Kayla almost yelled my name but stayed silent. The Girl lifted up her gun and shoot the thing in its head. It ceased movement and fell limp, bleeding all over the yellowish sand.
***
Eating that mole thing kind of felt wrong. We DID cook it, but we had to beware of more.
"So the infection really can spread to animals," Kayla concluded, looking at the dimly lit fire.
A... dimly lit fire.
Like the one, Kayla and I used to make when we explored outside of the fences of our hometown... if only now were a good time to celebrate our arrival back into the wilderness.
I stayed away from the fire since in the morning it would be really hot anyway.
Yet my thoughts drifted back home, what is going on... is... Imode okay? Does she know of the Vice-President's ideas?