The sun began its daily ritual of bringing about the dawn of a new day. Ever since the events of the previous night however, Jake had not moved from his hiding place, and was still curled up in a futile attempt to keep himself warm. Somehow he managed to get some sleep but for the most part the intense cold and the fear from the creature he saw gave him a restless night. There was no way he was going to continue on with the glow stick acting as beacon for anything else that might be out here. Jake couldn’t even bring himself to use his flashlight as a slightly less obvious alternative. So there he stayed cold, frightened, and miserable, and not moving from his spot until the sun was bright enough to clearly light up the landscape.
That morning as Jake finally managed to bring himself to move and continue along the rocky landscape his thoughts naturally turned towards what had spooked him previous night. He wanted to believe that it was a dream of some kind, but it had been too real for him to simply disregard as that. The monster’s horrible roar was still firmly imprinted on his brain. Jake tried to think of all sorts of theories that would logically explain what kind of creature it was and out of all them there was only one he kept coming back to...
It was a dragon.
Of course Jake found the idea of it being a dragon to be ludicrous and yet it was the only thing that he could come up with that seemed to fit with the vague outline of what he saw.
There’s gotta be another explanation, he thought to himself as he continued to climb over the rocky terrain that lay before him, but for the life of him he couldn’t think of one.
Climbing up onto one of the boulders nearby to get view of what lay before him, he was greeted by yet more desert, rocks, and the other mountain peak that he could see in the far off distance.
Maybe I should’ve asked it for a lift.
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Jake violently shook the now empty flask above his parched mouth to extract as much water as possible from it. It was now the next day and progress had slowed down considerably. He would continue to travel during the morning until it got too hot for him to bare. Finding some shade, he would wait until it was twilight before moving off again. He had even managed to again, try and cover more ground during the night deciding to be as quiet as possible and using his flashlight instead of the other glow stick.
But there was no end of the desert in sight. Jake had seen nothing that could or would help or rescue him as he plodded along. No planes, no helicopters, no animals, not even any insects or arachnids for him to try and catch for sustenance. Although he loathed them he knew he couldn’t afford to let his phobia make him pass up any opportunities that presented themselves.
Angrily, Jake cursed and hurled the now empty flask at a nearby boulder. The desert was giving him nothing but taking everything. His skin was dry and burnt from the sun, and his lips were cracked and parched from the lack of moisture he could find anywhere. His spirits were declining rapidly as he was struggling to fight of the depression that was bearing down upon him.
Leaning back against the rocky wall that was shading him Jake closed his eyes and his thoughts turned towards his family and friends. As his father and brother had died in car accident while he was just a baby, because of this his mother coddled him while he was growing up. Naturally she was against him leaving home to go out working in the middle of a desert at a top secret and undisclosed military base. Even as Jake tried to explain to her that it was only for research and development, she seemed to be convinced that it would be too dangerous for him. But what drew him towards the offer were the machines, in particular the fighter jets and the chance to work with them and Jake could not ignore the opportunity.
Jake fought back tears as he wondered if he’ll even make it out alive.
As the sun had eventually sunk enough for Jake to venture out again, he looked over at his discarded flask and flashed back to something he saw on a Man Vs Wild episode, causing him to groan depressingly. He'd just thought of a way he could get some more fluid to put in it.
Jake cringed as he looked down at the yellow and foul smelling fluid that was now in his flask. Still he knew that desperate times called for desperate measures and that tomorrow morning, he would have to man up and do what was necessary. Once again he continued to travel during the dark after the sun had gone down and was surprised to see that his flashlight still had some power left in it.
There had been no more signs of any giant flying monsters looking for him at night and Jake was convincing himself that he must have hallucinated the entire event somehow. That still didn’t stop him from becoming brave enough to start singing again or use the other glow stick.
Later on, morning broke open across the sky signaling the beginning of a new day. Inside an indent, Jake was brought awake from the light that was now shining in his eyes. The flashlight had finally given up sometime during the night and still not being able to bring himself to crack the other glow stick, he instead opted to find comfortable place to try and get some sleep. Now that morning had arrived, Jake’s attention turned towards the kit and the dreaded flask contained within it.
Maybe I should go and see where I ended up first
Pulling himself up he walked over to a ledge to get a better view of the landscape, he was surprised that he was a lot further he thought. The mountain peak that he spotted 2 days ago was now only a couple of kilometers away from where he stood.
Guess I better reward myself.
Groaning as he took the flask out and as he was about to take his first reluctant swig, he stopped and stared at disbelief at what was roping its way around the base of the mountain. Jake rubbed his eyes and then continued to gawk at it. It was the most beautiful thing he'd seen since waking up in the desert. It looked like it was stream.
Forgetting all about the flask, he quickly set about making his over to the mountain that was across from him, keeping his eyes on it as much as possible like it would disappear as soon as he looked away.
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Jake started to laugh as maniacally as his dry throat would allow him to. Staggering over to the stream he dunked his head under the water and greedily drank to quench his thirst. From the other mountains, he mostly stumbled along in a daze to the stream mainly fueled by his desperation to get to the only source of water had seen in days.
Now his prospects looked infinitely better. Not only did he have a permanent source of water but he could follow the stream to find his way towards civilization and use it to keep himself cool during the day. There was also some dry vegetation around the water source such as grass and bushes that he could use for fire.
For the next few days Jake continued to head upstream, finding what cover he could during noon and resting during the night. Food was still a concern though as Jake had long since finished the energy bar from the kit and he was now on the lookout for anything that seemed edible. He managed to catch some scorpions which he kept in his kit after detailing them to cook them at night over the fire.
They still tasted awful.
It wasn’t until the fourth day of traveling upstream that Jake finally spotted something that to him resembled a paradise. It was a town, and surrounding it were hundreds of trees. Quickly making his way towards it, it seemed to him that his ordeal had finally come to an end.