(Part 1)
The moon was high up in the sky, casting a dim light on the trees. After my eyes got used to the darkness, I stopped using my cellphone as a flashlight. There was no signal, neither on the radio nor on the phone, but I still could call an emergency number… should i call it now? I froze as this thought spread poison in my mind, they say if you get lost it’s better that you stay still, and i was hurt, i… … … I can’t leave her… I can’t leave THEM…
Slowly i started to panic, the silence of the forest forced me to listen to the sound of my heartbeat pounding on my chest, like a bomb reaching it’s timer, my timer and theirs. I don’t know where I got the strength to go on but I took a step forward, and then another, and another. The only thing keeping me company was the insects, the moon and my thoughts, trying to convince me that they could be dead already. That I was a fool for trying to search for my friends in the middle of a forest. Many people had died in less conditions than I am right now. Those true crime documentaries my wife loved to watch never taught me nothing? The intrusive thoughts in my mind lead me to one thing: that lady with the weird eyes who stole my wife’s necklace, I couldn’t stop thinking of her eyes. It was even weirder than her being naked in the middle of the night, I never saw anything like that.
My mind was drifting in my thoughts. I had lost too much blood but at least I wasn’t bleeding anymore, my feet were sore, my head was aching, how far am I from the road? I don’t know… It’s been an hour already. I took a deep breath looking at the sky and as I was ready to start walking again I saw a flickering yellow light, far away in the darkness. It took me a few seconds to realize it was going up the hill, i couldn’t feel the pain on my feet anymore, this sight lit the hope inside me again, i started to sprint towards the light cutting myself several times on thorns and sharp leaves of the low vegetation and tree branches that were whipping my face as i rushed in. It could be them, it could be my wife, it MUST be!
That adrenaline burst kept me going but I was starting to feel fatigued, my lungs couldn’t take much longer, I didn’t know if I had stepped on thorns or my feet were screaming for me to stop. Please, please, just a little longer! I HAD to stop or I would faint, my throat was dry and my lungs burning, I started to feel my head and my eyes pumping from the pressure, my vision darkened as I was wheezing for air with the hands on my knees, but I noticed something: rocks. Not regular rocks, PLACED rocks that were forming a kind of path. This… path was old, the rocks were sinking deep in the soil, some of them missing, but that could mean that I was near civilization.
I looked around to see if I still could see that light but couldn’t… I regained my breath and moved on forward, the path was starting to widen and look more preserved, but still, it looked like one of those century-old-roads that we saw on the itinerary… But how come? We never saw markings on the map that said that there was a city or a village in here… village! That ‘s it! That’s what they were trying to say back there in the gas station! This feeling cleared my mind a little bit. I was feeling like a detective but then I remembered that their next message was a call for help followed by screams. I must be careful, whoever lives in this village is not very fond of tourists. Before I went any further I picked up the radio to turn it on, but to my surprise it was already on. But… after all this time, not a single interference or contact… what if… no. I refuse to believe that, and besides, crying would only be a waste of time. And water.
When a cloud cleared the way from the moon, I could see the entrance of the village clearly, all those little wattle and daub houses with wooden doors and windows scattered on the worn out cobblestone streets, some of them were with the door and window wide open, and others completely closed. I stood there, watching to see if there was any movement. Nothing. Not an entrance sign, not an arch, not a light, not an animal, not a soul. The city was desert, the only sound coming from it was something clanking in a well, could be a bucket. My mouth was dry, just the thought of drinking some water seemed to dry it even more. Damn it.
I began to walk to the well, slowly, the night was still silent, but now I couldn’t even hear the insects preying on my blood, all I could hear was that: clank…..clank…..clank…. It was a bad spot. The well was in the middle of this village, anyone could see me if they tried, but I was dying to get some water… maybe not the best choice of words but you got the message.
As i reached the well i grabbed the rope and looked down, i couldn’t see the end of it but fuck it, i had to try. I untangled the rope from the hook and started to lower the bucket, it took me a few minutes because I was trying to make less noise than possible. Finally the bucket reached the water. I’m not dying from thirst, not today, I thought to myself as I tried to raise the bucket again, but it was stuck. After a few tries it got loose from whatever was holding it back, i frantically started to pull the bucket, i had to get out of the open as quickly as possible, when i grabbed the bucket i scooped a little bit of water with my hands and drank it, i wasn’t expecting fine branded bottled water, of course, but it could have tested better, I’ve never drank water directly from a well before, but it was not bad, the smell was a little bit sweet and the minerals left an metallic taste on it. I couldn’t waste more time and I had to get out of the open so I decided to enter one of those houses. The worst that could happen is someone was asleep there, but I’ll be quiet.
I entered one house whose door was already open and sat beside the door. I took a quick peek on the streets to see if someone had seen me entering, but it was still desert. Then i looked around the house, it was tiny, it had a little bench or maybe an bed, made of wood and leather with a cloth dropped on top, a wooden table with a candle and some tools on top and a precarious little wardrobe, i didn’t noticed at first but there was a stench coming from the bench, an ocher smell coming from a clay pot, i didn’t even wanted to know what would it be.
I tried my best to ignore the stench while thinking on my next move, but where is everyone? Someone LIVES here i know that, or else this village would be much more destroyed. I resisted the urge to take off my shoes but I knew that if I took them off it would be worse to put them on, then I proceeded to check my cellphone to see if it had any signal… still nothing, the battery was half the capacity and I still had more than half the night until dawn. I took the radio and changed the frequency to see if there was some static on the other side but without success I changed back to the original frequency where me and my friends were communicating and instinctively pressed the button and asked: Is someone there? And to my surprise, from outside, somewhere in those houses I heard something that made my spine shiver: my own voice.