The small screen that fuzzed in and out of static was about the only thing that worked in the whole desert. Belinda lay on her stomach behind a sand stone figure that was close to the ground. It provided shelter from the sand storm though it wasn't the most comfortable position.
"Damn this worthless contraption!" She hissed dropping it onto the sand. A rather large gust of wind obstructed her view and sand made its way into her eyes, nose, ears and mouth.
Squinting, she tightened the scarf that covered her face and began pushed sand out from under her, trying to make a pit close to the stone she lay against. The sand left gravity behind almost the moment she pushed it away.
This was what life was like... It had been for many a year now. Wars had broken out so long ago and no body quite remembered how the governments, territories and history had been lost. All anyone knew was the now... the endless deserts, both hot and cold, and the lifeless water that covered most every where that wasn't desert.
Once the storm died down a bit Belinda grabbed her radio and set off to find a more fitting shelter for when the storm started up again. She came upon a small cave that seemed fitting enough. Using a lantern she checked the place for beasts that may have resided there. To her luck there were none except a few spiders and a bat or two that scattered when the light fell upon it.
"Now... how about a fire..." Said Belinda to herself as she dug around her many pockets until she found some drift wood she had picked up illegally from s shore line she had encountered a few days before. It was drift wood, smooth, brittle and still somewhat waterlogged, but it burned. Leaning back on the wall she dozed... She could tell it had been a long time since she had slept when the wall seemed oddly softer than the stone floor...
Belinda jumped awake, the moment she opened her eyes the cold bit at her skin. Her chapped lips itched and her eyes were dry. Everything was dark except the moonlit sand that blew about savagely at the mouth of the cave....
"Great god!" She shouted jumping to her feet. Dark! It wasn't supposed to be dark... with out that fire she'd surely freeze to death! The small lighters flame that flickered where her fire had been on the verge of going out. She tossed the last of the drift wood onto it, blowing on it for a second. The embers strengthened and lit the bit of wood.
Grabbing the battery powered lantern from the floor she ran over to the wall and flipped it on.
"I need weeds, plants... anything that'll burn..." Belinda murmured to herself pulling at the first loose bit that looked like dried up moss. When she pulled a large chunk, rectangularly shaped, came from the wall with it. She was perplexed.
"What in gods hell is this?" Again, loosing her train of thought she rushed to the fire that had once been blown to an embers glow, blew on it and threw the oddly shaped plant onto it. Immediately it caught, bits of of it charing immediately and rose with the heat.
"Oh my god!" Belinda grabbed the bit of charred paper from the air.
"Paper... It's paper... It... that was a book?" Belinda looked down at the destroyed but of text.
Throwing that piece down she stood and walked over to the wall where she had pulled the book. Grabbing at the lantern once more she examined the cave wall more closely. What she found was amazing and unheard of. Covering the entire wall, no, entire cave! Were rows and rows, shelves and shelves of books....
To be continued...
 Pressure Sensative · Wed Oct 24, 2007 @ 01:03am · 0 Comments |
