Gaia's messenguer.

The infinite desert, part 2.

Without stopping to look at the Sun, he began to feel the pockets of his clothing one by one, in his left front pocket he found some coins, keys and his wallet, in the left back pocket, the transit book that he normally used to write down all kinds of things, from mathematical calculations that he did at work, telephone numbers, addresses and even thoughts and poems that he himself wrote from time to time, he recognized a belt of synthetic material surrounding his waist where he also carried the 07 knife with its sheath, stuck His safety glasses with a sporty design and red lenses hung from the collar of the black T-shirt he wore under his overalls. In his right breast pocket he carried a hard pack of cigarettes and a new plastic lighter.

-Oh! At least I brought cigarettes.

He thought while there was the pack, lighting a cigarette, he stood up, picking up his axe, and began to walk looking for a high point in those dunes to locate himself or locate a cell signal.

-If the Sun rises in the West... mmm; Or will it be in the East? Devils! I have never been completely sure of that, however, the cardinal point that interests me is the North, that is; Reynosa was always on the right and Monterrey on the left, if the Sun is rising there, Reynosa must be there and if I'm wrong then it must be Monterrey, or any of the towns that are before reaching that city or somewhere on the border with Texas, and this must be the Burgos desert, which I never thought was so big, and so desert, and I must have entered it for about 10 kilometers or so, the logic is that if I ran more or less from one in the afternoon at a speed of 10 to 15 kilometers per hour, walking, falling and running until dawn, then I must have run about 15 hours, but; Once again, shave me! I had never been able to run for more than 1 hour straight and at least my average speed was about 5 or 6 kilometers per hour; Let them shave me again! “Him,” he said while he counted and recounted with his fingers. -75 kilometers! That is too much for me, I think that not even the Olympic walking champions can do it, although it is possible that I have moved around in a circle and it is not that far away, whatever, it is better to look for the North, since the South It is surely further away.

He said while adjusting his safety glasses and starting the road heading towards the supposed North, turning off his cell phone, a morning breeze ran over the dunes of that desolate desert landscape helping him to withstand the rays of the Sun, achieving an average temperature that at times was that walk was pleasant, he walked for about 2 more hours and turned on the cell phone again, the device carried out its signal search protocol, discouraging him once again when he saw the no service command appear, he noticed the battery indicator that showed only 2 lines , indicating that he only had 1 or 2 days of continuous use left, he checked the time on his cell phone, which read 6:35 p.m., and turning it off, he began to calculate times.

-When I started pumping sludge to the well, the cell phone showed 12 noon, between the time I started pumping, the sludge came to the surface, the Caudaloso got out of control, the burner turned on and then the fire and the time it took to escape the fire and get here.

-I estimate that at most about 4 hours have passed and now it turns out that it has just dawned, I have been walking for about 2 hours and it dawned more or less 2 hours ago, that is, at dawn the cell phone must have marked 16 hours, that is, the accident in the well and everything else, lasted about 4 hours; Devils! I've already made myself balls; Either I was ahead in time or I was behind, or my cell phone was deprogrammed when it was wet, and traveling or moving in time is mathematically improbable and logically impossible, but I couldn't have missed escaping from the fire in the mosque since noon. until dawn, that is: 15 hours on the road! Without resting, without eating, without drinking water and what is worse; No smoking! According to these values ​​of elapsed time and distance, I should be about 70 or 75 kilometers from any known part around the derrick, or the road and not in this beggarly desert, I repeat... I had never walked so far! Get shaved if I know what's happening.

And so, pondering his own conclusions, he continued that strange and unexpected walk, the Sun reached the point where his body no longer projected a shadow, he felt his face and his hand burning, which was already teeming with whitish secretions and was burning with sweat and contact with the sand, he turned on his cell phone again without finding a signal, it indicated 7:30 p.m., he turned to the sky trying to understand what was happening, he turned off the cell phone and continued walking while a slight pain in his heels began to afflict him, in the increasingly distant horizon, everywhere I looked there was only sand.

He was already beginning to feel thirsty and annoyed by that burning Sun, and its reflections so annoying that at times they dazzled him, that if it were not for the protection of the red lenses of his safety glasses they would have already left him blind, suddenly he seemed to see water in the distance, but already accustomed to the mirages seen on the roads and paths of that area, he did not lose the slow and controlled pace he was leading, aware that if he did not take advantage of his energy he could fall dehydrated, the blue overalls of anti-slip fabric The flame he wore stuck to his body as if trying to drink the sweat that was dripping off him.

He walked for a while longer and sat down to rest on the sand in the full sun, taking off one of the safety boots he was wearing with difficulty. A blister began to mockingly appear on one of his heels, while he tried in vain to swallow saliva and soak. His lips already split, the Sun fell about 3 quarters of the sky, beginning its descent towards that unknown horizon that flanked him, the cold breeze coming from the supposed North cooled him a little, encouraging him to continue, he put on his boot carefully because his chest was burning. Back of his hand burned and the blister on his heel, and sitting up he thought:

-To give it, Juanito, this doesn’t seem like a good place to die.

The Sun continued to go down while he continued walking, who amusingly saw it as if it were a race with the finish line, a race that he would obviously lose, in the distance he managed to distinguish a dark line