Upon my arrival at the side of the road, I noticed something odd about the way the signs in the town were. They were all rusted and corroded such that they were illegible, and yet that wasn’t even the strangest thing about this whole place. The barren landscape bore a resemblance to a desert without any signs of greens dulled by the sun. All buildings were reduced to mere rubble as I passed by them. Only the signs seemed to be standing.
Far off in the distance, I could see mountains that towered over the land. The eyes of the divine watching over everyone, except I was the only one there. The wind blew into my eyes and stung like needles, my feet crunching on the cold hard ground, and only my scarf to prevent my mouth from being filled with sand. I stopped and knelt down only to feel an overwhelming presence of nothing. As an absence of something suddenly became a presence. Sensing my solitude, the oppression of silence continues. Clad in only a plain white shirt and dirty grey trousers, with a jacket over my shoulders, I clenched my hair as madness ensued. Suddenly, the wind stopped, and the sound of silence only got louder.
Time itself seemed to be entirely non-existent. Frozen, encapsulated in this very moment, the world ceased to move. Every single fiber of my being protested in moving too, but just to see if reality was still intact I turned around. Only a wasteland as far as the eye can see. The moon was gone, yet the sun was also nowhere to be seen. Walking 1,000 paces in a single direction felt like I had traveled no distance at all, and was at the same place I started; only I grew more tired.
Where was I headed? I do not know, yet what I knew was that I could not stop. The direction that I walked in was meaningless, but any direction was better than walking backwards. My footsteps would be covered by the wind-blown sand, and any trace of my being would be gone. Wandering aimlessly, thinking almost nothing, expect how I must continue, I ventured forward.
Already, days or weeks ago-it is futile to speak of the time- my body was tired; my mind equally so. The past pained me to even think about it, all that time walking somewhere and nowhere. Sleep consisted of me collapsing to the floor and immediately slipping away. I knew my body was cold and sore, yet I did not bother to even drape my jacket over myself as I slept.
My sleep was the only time of peace. The dreams I had were variably pleasant, however, I would be unable to recall them when in my waking state. They seemed like a fond memory, hazed, and blurred by the harsh winds and waves of time. I could only recall my constant attempt to keep walking.
Night and day were essentially the same, only the temperature dropped during, what I assume, is the night. I missed the warmth of the sun, the glimmer of moonlight, and the stars that bejeweled the night sky. Though now, it seemed like that was an impossibility, a figment of my imagination. That there could be such a thing was untrue.
The signs were arrows and words distorted beyond comprehension. The arrows were aimless and all the signs pointed in various different ways. The dome of dark grey skies cast a drab color onto everything. The signs that were bent, knocked on the ground, and broken made my doubt greater.
The dilapidated buildings disappeared behind me as I trudged along, but the signs continued. Soon, unbeknownst to me, even the signs were gone. Moving ahead, slowly, with deliberation, I could not look back. No return was possible.
It felt like an eternity, that I was heading towards nowhere, but it was only a matter of time before I gave out. I had not a single clue what would happen if I just quit, and stayed where I was. My throat felt fuzzy, dry, and my mouth only opened slightly ajar, with my lips cracked.
I wondered if anyone else was here. I had no way of knowing if there were any people, much less an ounce of life.
My feet weighed down and my body gave up. Sprawled on the ground I could taste the sand in my mouth, tasteless and rough. My mind was screaming at me to get up and continue, but my body had ceased to listen. All the while, my ears could only hear the sound of my heavy breathing. I knew it was pointless to try and get up, despite wanting to so badly. There was no pleasure in lying down, yet no pain. My mind ran through instances where I would see in the distance even a sliver of light or that I would see someone approaching me, offering me help. I held onto that scene for dear life. It never did happen. My last moments were not of disappointment. I was still grasping onto my vision as my mind slipped away into an eternal slumber. [link] [comments]
from Short Stories
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