"Tsk, it hot!"
A single voice could be heard, breaking the eerie silence of this forsaken land, Alex cursed as he kept running forward, trying to make as much distance as possible with the group behind him.
One hour had passed since he started moving, no daring to stop unless he ran out of stamina and needed to slow down to catch his breath, and even then he wouldn't stay still and continue walking for a few min before running and repeated this vicious circle over and over again.
After getting tired again, he slowed his speed until he was walking, slowing don his breathing, taking one of the water pouches from his waist and placing it in his mouth, he took a few sips of water, just enough to moisten his throat and calm the thirst, not daring to spend his scarce water for no reason.
Placing the pouch back in his belt, he looked straight to the Rock like mountain in front of him, it was the biggest thing in the area so he used as his point of reference, to avoid getting lost or run in circles, since everything in this damn place look that same.
"But still, it's been a while since I felt the weather of the desert, how long has it been? 4, 5 years?"
The feeling of his skin drying and his body barely sweating despite running for so long under the sun, the temperature not less that 100 degrees reminded him of his old home.
He was born and raised in the Nevada, and latter moved to Arizona as his parents tried to find better jobs, they needed to send money back home to his grandparents, who were too old to work anymore.
For as long as he could remember the weather never bother him.
"I mean, there were days hot enough to wish the sun just disappeared, but I take that anytime while still be able to get out of a shower and feel clean for more that 1 hour, go to the east side of the country, just take one step outside and instantly get cover in a layer of sweat, all year around, just plain torture….. we also don't have mosquitos"
While reminiscing about his childhood memories, he continue to advance for another 2 hours, glancing back every once in a while, as if to make sure nothing was following him.
"Even if I knew already, it really is far"
Noticing the distance between him and the rock like mountain was still the same even after running for over 3 hours he let a sight, dejected as he knew it won't be a shot trip.
"I remember watching some survival documentaries where they would say if you saw something extremely far away and try to move toward it, always think it would take 3 times longer that what it looked, appearances were deceiving and your vision would play trick to your judgement".
But that was not his biggest problem now, he been running for almost three hours now, without counting the amount of times he stopped to recover some energy before sprinting back in order to gain as much distance as possible from the rest.
"At this rate I will collapse from a heat stroke"
No matter how trained a person is, you could only run without stopping for two hours, maybe three if you had food and water on you, and that is in a regular environment, not a desert.
If you ever encounter yourself in a desert without any transportation, the most ideal solution was to find cover, wait until either dawn or dusk, temperature are the best around that time before moving.
You wouldn't be running either, specially in the middle of the day, a normal person loose around 100 calories per mile while running, without counting the amount of water lost through sweat, walking would be the most preferable solution as it will save your strength and resources, but he couldn't afford to slow down until now.
"It won't matter how much distance I gained if I kick the bucket because of a heat stroke"
Thinking about his situation, he began to look around while moving, trying to find a place he could hide from the sun.
Walking for another 20 minutes with out any luck, fatigue beginning to build in his body, he caught sight of a huge arrowhead shape rock a few meters in front of him, getting closer, he noticed the sized was enormous, easily 100 feet long, but what caught Alex attention was the end of the it, the arrow shaped part of the rock became a natural roof, blocking the sun, just what he needed.
Excited, he kicked off toward the arrowhead part and got under the shade, feeling the relief of not longer having the sun on your body, he collapsed on the ground completely exhausted, enjoying the cold floor for a few minutes before sitting, he grabbed his water pouch and placed in his mouth, drinking a few sips of water.
Satiating his thirst, he turned and grabbed a few pieces of dried meat from his leather bag, begin eating them while looking at how far he was from his goal.
"Its hard to chew and had no flavor, who eat this before battle? "complaining about the food quality, that needed a major culinary improvement, or simply some salt and he be happy with it.
"But still it weird to find nothing even after running this far"
On his way here, Alex couldn't help but wonder why they had so little food and water, it wasn't near enough to fight an enemy, and return to whichever city they they had marched from, the out come of a battle is not usually decided in one fight, most tend to take multiple days to decide the outcome, with out counting the time it takes to bury the dead and break up camp before returning back home.
The only logical explanation is having a supply line behind you, constantly supplying the army as they fight.
Assuming this was the most logical possibility he began to focus on the ground around him as he moved, looking for any traces that proven his theory and since they were dressed in medieval armor and carrying sword and spear as weapon he could assume the supplies where transported by either a cart or wagon pulled by animals, so he begin searching for anything that looked like hooves or wheels, but so far he has found nothing.
"Could it really not be one?"
Thinking about it, we were suddenly teleported to a random place, given armor and weapons, as if literally telling us to fight, but most of the ones that came never held a weapon before, much less gotten in a fight so they would useless in combat, even he realized after looking at their reactions while tourt-.... while punishing that guy.
Even if you just wanted to bolster your numbers then the amount of food and water was minimal ,we would died even if we survive the war, so why bother getting us here instead of raising your own troops and training them.
The more he thought about it, the more confused he became so after a few more minutes, struggling to find an answer he let out a sight and raised his head in defeat.
"I don't have enough information to make any assumption" dropping the topic for another day and finishing the rest of the dry meat he laid on the ground for another 30 min before getting ready to continue his journey.
Just before stepping out of the shade Alex gave one last look at the direction he came from, before turning and going on his way.
"There is one think that comes to mind that could explain why we were placed there, as well the lack of food and water..... but, there is no way right?
Convincing himself there was no way it was possible he began to speed up, he lost already a lot of time resting so wanted to gain more distance as fast as possible, burying his thoughts deep inside his mind.