Thursdays are reserved for an original piece…I take a random photo from various sources and write something spontaneous about it in less than two hours.  Could be fiction or non-fiction…depends on the mood I’m in.  Anything resembling a polished work is by incredible coincidence.

This week I present to you:

The Trail

The silence was the first thing he noticed.

For the last several hours, the buzzing of insects and random birdsong had been a constant companion.  That and the terrified voice in his head driving him onwards.  The sun was slowly heading into the west and he knew that meant nightfall wasn’t too far away.  That was something he didn’t want to experience again. Not here anyway.

This was not where he was supposed to be.  He knew it.  The GPS unit he salvaged from the wreckage had shown that he was supposed to head directly west if he wanted to find people.  It died though…died just like…

No, he didn’t want to think about that anymore.  All he knew was after trying to navigate his way through a densely packed forest he found that he came out facing east.  That made him sit down and cry.  He had lost hours of precious time and there was no way he was going back into the woods again.  One night, huddled for warmth in the pitch black was quite enough, thank you very much. 

So, he headed south, walking through the tall grasses along the razor straight line of trees.  From time to time he would stop and peer upwards, hoping to catch a glimpse of a plane or better yet a helicopter zooming along.  Maybe they’d even be looking for him.  But he was continually disappointed.  Maybe the same thing that caused their motor to suddenly stop was affecting everyone.

Just as he was about to give up hope; dirty, tired, hungry and very, very thirsty, he found the tall grasses fell away at the exact time that the trees to his right did.  Before him was a trail.  Heading west. At first it appeared to be a road, completely straight and seemingly stretching forever.  He looked closer at it though and realized it was way too narrow for cars and it was composed of thousands…no millions of rocks of assorted shapes and colours.  It was like a rainbow had just dropped straight out of the sky and fell into pieces here. 

There was something else odd.  The air in this area seemed to have a slight shimmer to it, as if there was water evaporating.  However there was no water in sight.  Furthermore, he suddenly realized that the closer he got to the edge of the trail, the quieter the sounds around him were, like the volume control on a television set being turned down.

His brain started to tell him to turn around and go back the way he came from, but his stomach shouted it down.  The hunger and exhaustion were getting to him and this road. as disquieting as it was, looked to be a far better sight than the darkness of the forest, that was for sure. 

What does he do next?  That and more questions will be answered soon!

Music Playing While I Wrote: Tony O’Connor – Pisces
Podcast Of The Day: Stuff You Should Know