The River

Chapter 19

The brutal rays of the sun have conquered the desert, Laura’s body was laid still under the direct sunlight. Logan has fallen asleep on her corpse, he stayed awake all night and mourned her loss. Logan’s tears had made a small river on his cheeks and now its dried mark was visible.

The warmth woke Logan up. He ate some food and sat beside Laura’s body. There was no time to mourn anymore, but he could not leave his beloved behind.

Logan gathered all his stuff and put some of Laura’s in his bag, including her sword. Then he grabbed Laura and put her on his shoulders and started walking. She was a small person, but as time passed by, it felt as if she was getting heavier.

Logan carried her all day and slept that night hugging her. He continued the same thing for the second day. His food was almost at its end, he did not have enough energy to carry Laura anymore.

The warmth had made laura’s body smell. On the second night, Logan dug a hole with his dagger and let her beloved in it. He could not let go of her. Pouring soil on her, meant goodbye and he was not ready to say goodbye.

Logan knew that she killed herself to save him, or at least give him a little more time to live. His food would end tomorrow and if he couldn’t find food fast enough, he would die of starvation too. This thought did not annoy him that much, he did not like the world without Laura.

This was the last night of them together, Logan laid beside Laura that night in the hole and ignored the smell. He kissed and hugged her with tearful eyes all night, The next day he said his last goodbye and poured sand and soil on her distorted body. She was now under the earth, resting forever, and leaving Logan alone on this doomed journey.

Logan walked slowly that day, his last bite of food finished in the evening. There was nothing on the horizon, his only hope of living was the water in the river now. After a day walking without food, his body could not bear the walk anymore and he fell down on the hot sand of the desert.

He dreamed about Laura, she was wearing a fancy dress, he has never seen her more beautiful. She came to Logan and kneeled in front of him. Logan wanted to say something but she put her finger on his lips and stopped her, then she kissed him and stood up. She took him by the hand and helped him get up. Logan stood up, Laura was not there anymore, he was alone in the desert again.

He started walking, the sun was dim, he looked at the sky, there were dark clouds in the sky covering the sun. it started to rain. Logan was amazed, he had never seen or heard anything like this. He could not even imagine water pouring from the sky. All of his body was wet, he woke up in cold sweat. He was laying under the sun and all of his body was wet.

Logan stood up and started to walk, his body was sweating too much. He couldn't bear it anymore, he took off his shirt. Suddenly he realized the river is not there anymore, his sweat formed a flow of water, the river was streaming out of his body now.

Logan woke up, he wasn’t sure if he was dreaming or awake anymore. He walked for some time, then felt thirsty and started drinking water from the river. Suddenly something caught his eyes, in the distance something was visible, he grabbed his stuff and ran toward it, he was advancing faster than he imagined. It was the city with tall buildings from the page of that book in Ubara’s library. He continued running toward the city, he might have been able to find some food over there. Suddenly the ground under his feet started to shape a hole and Logan fell inside the hole into the darkness. Laura’s corpse was there at the end of the hole, Logan tried to catch her but she flew away.

Logan screamed and tried to catch Laura but he woke up in the desert alone. It was afternoon but the sun was still burning the world. Logan stood up and grabbed his bag, he walked for a bit and the thirst made him stop, he leaned over the river and started to drink from it, but the river wouldn’t let him drink water. Wherever he would lean over to drink water, the river would just change its path and didn’t let Logan drink out of it. He threw his bag on the ground and started to scream from thirst, he woke up from his own scream.

Logan really was thirsty and his body was wet with sweat under the evening sun, he leaned over the river and drank some water then stood up and resumed his journey. Finally, after a while walking in the desert he saw something on the horizon. It was the shape of a human. He shook his hand in the air and ran toward the human, as he got closer realized that it was a centaur, maybe Hector, he ran faster toward him, but it was not Hector, it was a centaur with big wings, and had Laura’s face, Logan stood still for a moment then the centaur grabbed Laura’s sword out of her side sword-cover and put it in Logan’s heart, Logan screamed and made himself wake up.

It was night time, Logan could not see anything on the horizon, the moon and the stars were shining in the sky, but there was nothing on the ground. Logan stood up and started walking with his stuff, suddenly he remembered about Laura’s sword, it was still in the bag and made him feel better. After a while he felt the earth-shaking, it was something like an earthquake, suddenly the earth opened up and the stone-man from his dreams came out of the ground. Logan looked around, there was nothing he could do, Logan realized he was dreaming again, so he let the stone-man get close to him, it grabbed Logan by the waist and pulled him up, then tightened its stone hands, there was a pain in Logan’s chest, he started screaming but he wouldn’t wake up. Maybe it was not a dream anymore, the pain felt real, then the stone-man threw him on the ground, Logan rolled several times, he could feel his bones breaking. Logan stood up, grabbed his dagger in one hand, and Laura's sword in the other, and with all his power attacked the stone-man, both of his weapons broke the moment they touched the stone man’s body. Then it punched Logan hard in the face, he started bleeding from his nose and his eyes. There was blood in his eyes and he could not see anything, but he could hear the stone man’s footsteps getting close and then putting his foot on Logan’s body and pushing it hard, Logan screamed in pain and woke up.

It was almost noon, everything seemed normal, Logan could feel a lot of pain in his chest, he stood up with a lot of difficulties, after some steps he fell on the ground, he checked his bag, there was nothing left to eat, he could not stand up, then he decided to crawl on the ground. As he was crawling the sands in the desert started to cover him, he pushed them away several times, but eventually, he got covered with sand all over his body. There was no air breath anymore, he was in his grave and still alive, he tried hard to get out of it, but it seemed useless, Logan surrendered to his death and closed his eyes.

He opened his eyes again. It was almost dark in the desert. He felt so hungry, he could feel his body had been shrunk from days before. There was nothing he could do about this. He drank some water and looked around. There was nothing visible on the horizon. He gathered his stuff and started walking again.

He walked until it was too dark and he was too tired, but he wasn’t sure if he could wake up from the dreams anymore if he was not already dreaming, of course, so he kept walking in the dark until he fell on the ground.

Logan did not try to stand up again, he closed his eyes and thought about Laura and fell asleep fast.

Logan opened his eyes, it was morning, Laura was with him, she came to him and started to kiss him, then she started to lick his face, Logan tried to stop her but it was impossible. Her tongue felt so rough on his face.

Logan opened his eyes again, there was a big animal on top of his head licking his face. It was a camel. One of the few creatures left on earth who had no problem living in a desert-like this.

Logan pulled himself back, the camel stopped licking him and looked at Logan with amazement. Logan looked around, there were no other camels around. He thought of killing the camel and eating him. But he was too tired even to grab his dagger. Logan tried to stand but fell down again.

The camel came close to him again and leaned with his long neck. Logan took the camel’s neck with his hand and pulled himself on the back of the camel while grabbing his bag.

Logan opened his eyes and saw himself being carried by the camel through the desert. He looked around, the river was not too far, he closed his eyes and fell asleep again.

Logan saw himself in a vast field, there was a tree near him. The tree was dead, he walked toward the tree, the ground under his feet disappeared and he started to fall, he hit the ground and opened his eyes. The camel was standing beside him. He felt a pain in his head and neck. Logan looked around there was no trace of the river, he had no idea how long he had been on the back of the camel. The camel leaned again, Logan grabbed his neck and pulled himself up. He was unconscious right after the camel started walking again.

Logan was alone in a dark place. There was no ground under his feet. There was nothing around him, it was a different nothingness than the desert. There was no ground, no sun, no light. But he could see his own body clearly.

A stream of water started to flow beside him. He could fly around the water shaking his hands like wings, it was flowing in the air, he started to fly toward the source of the stream, he flew for a while, then saw a dot from far away. He flew faster, it was an old woman, she was flying toward him too. They stopped and looked at each other for some time.

Logan opened his eyes again and felt off the back of the camel. He dropped on his hands and his head stayed safe this time. Logan turned around, the camel was going away, he wanted to call him but couldn’t.

Then he saw an old woman on top of his head, she was looking at him curiously. Logan closed his eyes and it was dark again.