Barren Land

At first, I am in a cracked, dry barren, hot, dusty canyon under an orange scorched sky. There is so little light, I can barely see. I sense that someone else is in this barren chasm and we're both trying to find our way out. I want to work together, but I begin to think what I am seeing is only a mirror, because the person seems to mouth everything I’m saying. I turned my attention away from her. I tried to climb from one cliff to another to find some escape, some sign that would point me to safety. Scrapes, bruises, cuts, filth created grooves all over my body. As if that wasn't enough the ground began to shake and move. The land cracked open to reveal its unfathomable depths.

"Run for your life!" I screamed.

I tried to make it to higher ground, so I wouldn’t be swallowed up by the earthquake. Finally, I reached some corner that look like it was a cave, a small hole to escape. Only it wasn't a hole. It was only a passage and as soon as I entered it, I found myself back where I started. It was an unending maze to which I was the rat.

Finally I heard a whisper. "Come here,” they said, "I have found a way out."

I thought it was another trick, but when I came upon the passage I felt a cool breeze of air embrace me. I was so desperate for that environment, hope trembled through my body. There was a way out of this madness! I squeezed through the breach in the cliff and escaped that cursed land.

When I straightened up, I was in a cave filled with yellow pollen. The earthquakes had stopped. Where had I been led? I turned around to look where I had come, but I saw not the person who spoke to me. Yet I wasn't immediately concerned. I was just extremely grateful not to be in that hot, dry barren land anymore. Yellow was pleasant. There was more light, and flowers grew in this land. There were hot fissures like in the other, but moisture seemed to fill these pockets, not just heat, which explains why plant life was so abundant.

I saw some archways along the cave side and wondered if it was a doorway into another chamber? When I drew closer I heard something breathing and grunting. I slowed my step. Something moved off to the far left deep in the hollow and hid against the shadows, rocks, and branches.

"Are you okay?" I asked. "How long have you been here? Do you know the way out? I am not going to hurt you." I kept up the conversation as I walked toward the short old creature who was crouched behind the threshold. I held out my hands so that he knew I was no threat.

He wasn’t human. If he straightened he seemed he would stand about almost five feet tall. He had matted hair, only wore a loincloth, warts covered his body, and he had a long nose and pointed ears. Some may have called him a goblin or troll. I didn’t know what his intentions were, but I wasn’t afraid. I kept inching toward it, but it only scared him more.

He lunged at me at the last second to bite me. I jumped back. My curiosity turned to fear. What if I was more like dinner to this creature than a friend? So, to be safe, I gave him his distance. He seemed completely terrified. Could possibly these walls be made out of some mineral that slows the brain cells down? He kept a close eye on me, as I did him, while I searched for a way out.

There were only two exits to this place, the way I had come in and where the creature now crouched. He had to know something. Yet if he did, why was he still here? Maybe he had nowhere else to go? All I knew was this place was growing as wearisome as the last one. The yellow over time became a poison that sickened me. The moisture smothered and suffocated me. Instead of this place providing drink by the promise of trickles falling down the cave walls, I was sweating continuously, dehydrating more than I could replenish. This crazy creature was raking on my last nerve, making me more paranoid every minute. At least in the last place I didn't have to keep looking over my shoulder to see if I was going to be attacked.

Which reminds me, who was the voice that spoke to me? Was it the person who seem to be a mirror image of me climbing the opposite cliff? Was it, truly, only me or did I leave somebody behind? I decided to go check before leaving this place for good. I walked back toward the opening and saw no one. The dry heat was so overwhelming I thought my skin would disintegrate right off my bones. It made me wonder how I survived there for as long as I did.

I turned around and there behind me the creature stood. He startled me. His eyes seemed dazed and feral. I decided I had no time to lose. The advantage was he stepped away from the other exit to the cave. Should I run and risk his instinct to chase after me? Or should I walk calmly toward the threshold and hope he didn't block me again?

I walked a few steps past him, holding my breath. He screeched behind me! I spared a look over my shoulder as my pace quickened. He raised his hands over his head as if to attack. I ran around the flowers and moss, the rocks, the fissures. He had excellent speed. I kept reminding myself not to fear, not to be afraid, but this being obviously wanted to injure me, and I had to made a dash for his haven.

Toward the arches I ran. He screeched even louder. I could hear his breath and grunts as he drew closer to my back. I dove through the opening, praying that this wasn't his den, but in fact, a chamber to get away from him. It was all or nothing.

When I opened my eyes, I, indeed, was somewhere else. I stood up and shook the soil off of my clothes. There crouched the creature on the other side of the arches, peering at me from the shadows and rock. I asked him to come with me, but decided he didn't understand anything but that I was a meal.

He hunched back down on his hind legs and began snickering at me. What did he know? Had he been here before? It never dawned on me to wonder why he stayed at the threshold. He obviously knew of this place. What was more frightening here that made him live in that sweat hole all of his life?

I turned to peer into the darkness and there before me was a noise I never was alerted to before. A humming that could only be described as . . .

I looked up and there attached to every space along the ceiling and walls were thousands of bee hives. My breath left my body and I lost all sound. I had no time to figure out where another passage was. I didn't know if I even had time to stand there. But my senses returned for a second. If I didn't bother them, they wouldn't bother me. But what if just by being here, smelling my scent, I posed a threat? Oh My God! I had pollen on me from the chase of the last chamber I escaped! Bees gravitate to pollen! They must not have been able to get to the next room because of the fissures. They must be starved and understandably pissed off!

I watched, peered, and strained to find another opening from where my feet had planted. Yet, what if I just stepped into another dangerous situation? I shook my head. I couldn’t stay here! I was tired and weary and wanted to just give up. I saw a light, dim, but definitely a light in the corridor straight ahead on the other side of the chamber. There were no hives on the floor, if I could just, maybe, make a run for it, then I would be okay.

I took one little step. Then another. In my mind I was running, but I was really only tiptoeing, so as not to alert the bees to my presence.

Four steps. Five steps. The humming continued all around me.

Sporadic bees would fly down from the hives and hover around me to check me out. When I didn't seem to pose a threat or lunch, they just went about their business. I began to relax by this - a little. But my next step became fatal. I accidentally stepped on a bee flying right under my foot.

Its cry gave a split-second silence to the chamber. The humming changed. Instead of relaxed it was more intense, focused. I knew I had killed one of its own and it was not about to let me live.

I ran as fast as I could toward the other side of the chamber, stomping on other bees as they dove toward me. Hearing their fallen cries made me cringe. This only whipped the hives into a more violent frenzy. I apologized over and over as I sped toward the corridor to some other place. I knew the hive family wouldn't forgive me. I just prayed they couldn’t follow me into the next chamber and that nothing menacing was awaiting me there.

I jumped through the archway and a big boulder fell into place as a mechanism activated. I stopped. This is a maze! What are these chambers? That mechanism was not natural.

I called out into the darkness, "Who's there? What do you want? Why have you brought me here?"

No answer.

"I have made it through three of your environments, why can't we be friends? Why do you insist on this charade?”

I thought I heard someone whisper back. I was encouraged, until I saw what made that sound. I stood in another cave room filled with thousands of slithering snakes. They were coming out of the walls, covering each other on the ground, and edging toward my body.

That's okay I reassured myself. I wasn't afraid of snakes. This place won’t bother me. As if a challenge to my captor, the intensity increased. A yellow anaconda swam over its cousins darting right for me. I knew, then, if I stood there much longer I would be strangled or swallowed whole.

Without examining the room I headed for the opposite end. I ran and ran on top of the snakes ignoring the pain and fear that rose in my veins making my nose bleed as the anaconda gave chase.

I whipped behind a false chamber wall seen only as I came upon it, and I passed to the next place. As before, none of the menace from the previous chamber could enter the new one. I stopped to catch my breath. I didn't want to go any further. With my hands on my knees bending over in the dark, slowing the rhythm of my heartbeat, my senses began to process my environment. The cool soil earth below my feet, plain gray cave rock around me. This place seemed safe. It was a cool, dry, normal cave. Maybe I could stay here? Maybe this place would be okay? But I knew whoever was taunting me wasn't going to allow that. So I put my hand to my chest to get above my breath before whatever came next started. As if in answer, the cave started collapsing. The ground shook and rocks started falling on top of me.

I seriously thought about just letting the cave-in kill me. I didn't want to die. I needed rest, food, water, medical attention, a friend, but none of that was going to happen. I can’t do this anymore, my body screamed.

Boulders slammed on top of one another choking the passageway. My body decided it wanted to live after all. With my arms over my head, I ducked and narrowly escaped to the next room. Always there was a next room. I closed my dirt caked eyes as tears stung them. My body was afire from all the scrapes and cuts.

Please let this be home. I thought. Please let this be my final room.

I opened my eyes and to my horror I was back in the dry cracked barren land where I started.

That was it? This was my life? Being chased to death? Never knowing the way out? Never escaping? Never feeling the freedom of this bondage?

I sank to my knees. I cried. I was so exhausted. I wanted to go home. My body collapsed as the dry air and heat evaporated my tears. I fell unconscious upon the cliff.

When I finally opened my eyes I saw the nightmare still existed around me.

I stayed for as long as I could before I found myself longing for that yellow moist chamber and cooler air that held the creature. I stayed there for as long as I could before I ran into the next chamber and the next. Three times I repeated this cycle. Each ending landed me back to the desert chasms and sunburnt sky. I tried to find a different route, another passage. I searched every nook and cranny I could reach and squeeze through, but there was no safety. There was never escape.

When I returned back to the barren land on my final loop, I decided to die. If I was going to die, let me die here. No more running. No more being afraid. I lied down upon the cliff. The sandstorm beat over my body. The ground tumbled and rumbled.

"Take me," my cracked throat croaked. "I have no more will left in me." I was a broken spirit.

The eruptions became more violent, but still I would not budge.

My cliff started sinking into the earth. I felt myself falling into the abyss.

I heard a voice shout, "Run! There is still a way!"

"You won't trick me again," I answered in a voice barely above a whisper. "I'm staying here. There is no other way. I've tried to be friendly. I've tried to show love. I've tried to not harm anything. I've even tried to make contact with you, and you always remained silent. I'm tired of being chased. I'm tired of having the daylights startled out of me. I'm just done. You wanted me; now you have me. Just finish me and get it over with."

Silence.

I cried. My eyes stung. The ground at my back felt so comforting. I closed my eyes welcoming death. Finally, freedom.

I awoke.