With Him

Chapter 5:

Chapter 5:

As we walked I couldn't seem to fathom how hot it could get.

I thought it would stop at 80. Then at least 90. It didn't even stop at 100.

"My head," I whined as the sun burned the top of my scalp. "How hot is it now?" Brad checked his watch.

"106," he announced, panting slightly. Sweat was clear on his chest and even I had started to form pit stains. Do you even know how embarrassing that is?

"Why the hell is the desert so hot," Hazel shouted into the sky. "My God, Girl, how do you still look fabulous?" I placed a hand on my hip and used the other to fan my face.

"Are you joking? I feel disgusting and probably look it." I swallowed what little saliva was left in my mouth. "What time is it?"

"4:37," Brad replied. "Couple hours still the sun goes down."

"Finally," I shouted. "The Lord has spoken." I coughed. My throat was so dry.

"Have some water," Brad tried to persuade me but I shook my head.

"I can't. This needs to last a while. We should all get only one gulp a day and I'm saving mine," I said, wiping some sweat from my neck.

"You still need to drink," Brad panted as we continued to walk.

"No," I replied. "We only have what we're carrying." He sighed.

"I'd put an arm around you, but I don't want to get anymore hotter," Brad admitted. I laughed and shook my head.

"Don't worry. I won't take it to heart, Big Guy." I patted his stomach and continued forward. We all walked in silence for a while more before stopping for a break.

"Why is the desert so hot," Hazel cried again. "I feel like I'm melting."

"I believe it, witch." Hazel whacked Kenny for his comment, but I didn't have the strength to laugh at the two. They were always bickering, I was sure I could laugh sometime else.

"Jazzy," Brad said. "Lay back."

"But it's hot on the floor," I complained.

"Trust me," he told me and I sighed before lying back on the floor. I turned to him and he smiled at me.

"Okay, now look at the sky." I did as I was told and looked at the sky.

"I don't see anything."

"I see stuff."

"Like what?"

"I see the blue of the ocean. I see the blue of your eyes." He looked over at me and grinned as I blushed at his comment. "It's all about how you look at things. Try again." I glanced back up at the sky and thought.

"I see the blue of my dress back home." Brad sighed and I had a feeling I did it wrong, but he didn't comment. "And I see the blue of the berries that one time we went hiking." Brad laughed.

"I remember that time. Didn't Hazel get poison ivy?" I nodded as we laughed together.

"Remember the little creek," Brad asked me, turning on his side. "We would always go in the morning and just sit'n'listen." I smiled and nodded. "And around the creek were tiny flowers. Like the size of quarters. There was this one flower. I gave it to you."

"I remember that," I reminisced. "It was so pretty."

"The blue reminds me of that flower." We fall into silence before I speak up.

"Yeah," I said. "I had fun that trip."

"Hey," Brad said, turning my chin so I looked at him. "We'll have fun this trip, don't worry." I laughed maliciously.

"Brad we're stuck in the middle of the desert with only the amount of food we can carry with everything else." He sighed.

"I know." He flopped down on his back. "But it'll get better." I shook my head and turned my head to face him.

"How d'you know?" He smiled.

"Because we're all together." Our break lasted for a couple more minutes before we got up to continue our interminable hiking. The sand scraped against the bottoms of our shoes and the sweat poured down our faces, but we didn't stop for the rest of the way. We would complain and we would gasp for breath, but none of us reached for the water. We couldn't.

Finally, when my legs were shaking and Hazel could no longer talk for fear it would dry what little saliva was left in her mouth—if there was any—the sun began to set.

"Thank God," I heard Kenny grumble under his breath, other than that, we continued on in silence. None of us wanted to interupt the silence of the situation because we were too concentrated on trying to walk, and if we talked we would stop walking and probably never start again.

When the sun reached the peak of a mountain in the distance we stopped simultaneously and shaded our eyes as the darkness slowly began to overwhelm us. We watched quietly as the light left us, and I realized suddenly how desperately I wanted the sun to guide us, for it was my only light in the situation.

I glanced at Hazel and it showed that she came to the same realization. She bit her bottom lip as the light faded away.

We all spared a glance at one another before I raised my shirt up, wiped my brow, and began to lead the way for our night journey.

The next 8 hours seemed to last forever. It was literally our personal hell as we followed the tire tracks our RV had made. It seemed that it went on forever in both directions and it made me want to fall to my knees, but I didn't.

"Brad," I whispered, my lips cracking. 

"Yeah, Sweety?" He called me a pet name and I couldn't help but smile despite the situation. Brad was the most comforting person to be in this situation with.

"Remember how when we were younger and asked if we got stranded anywhere who would we take?" He nodded and I looked off into the distance. "I picked you guys." He laughed, which turned into a cough.

"That game seems so sick now." I nodded in agreement and looked at my rough and dry skin.

"Why does life suck," I whispered.

"Hear, hear!" I heard Hazel whisper lamely. I smiled lazily at her.

"Life doesn't suck," Brad said. "Only moments, but when you think about it, you were born for a reason. Whether it's to live a sucky life or a happy one, but people get a little bit of both. The happy always outweighs that suck though, even if there are more sucky moments."

"How come?" He sighs as we look to what must be the west, because that's where the light is starting to shine.

"Because happiness is stronger than suckiness." I laughed slightly at how childish that sentence sounded, but he was right.

Happiness was stronger than suckiness, that's what kept everyone sane, but people didn't realize that which is why tons of people went insane. 

Maybe that was why on this trip, we're all slowly losing our sanity.