An Unforgiving Desert – Chapter 18

I take a deep breath, my hand hovering over the pulsing sand. This is crazy. I’m crazy. But what choice do we have?

“Skylar, are you sure about this?” Kalvin’s voice is tight with concern.

I shoot him a grin that I hope looks more confident than I feel. “Nope. But when has that ever stopped me?”

Before I can second-guess myself, I plunge my hand into the sand. The effect is immediate and overwhelming.

Images flood my mind, so vivid and real that I can barely distinguish them from reality. I gasp, my body going rigid.

“Skylar?” Kalvin’s voice sounds distant, muffled. “What’s happening?”

I try to focus, to make sense of the barrage of information. “I… I think it’s showing me things. The sand, I mean. It’s like a history lesson on fast-forward.”

The images start to slow, becoming more distinct. I see a town, similar to the ones on the outskirts of the Novato Desert. People are going about their daily lives, oblivious to the danger lurking beneath their feet.

“There’s a town,” I narrate to Kalvin, my voice shaky. “It looks recent. Maybe a few decades ago? The people seem happy, but…”

As I watch, the sand begins to move. Slowly at first, then with increasing speed. Buildings start to sink, people run screaming. It’s like watching a nightmare unfold in real-time.

“Oh god,” I choke out. “The sand, it’s… it’s swallowing everything. The whole town, just… gone.”

Kalvin’s hand on my shoulder grounds me, reminding me that I’m not actually there. “It’s okay, Skylar. You’re here with me. You’re safe.”

He crowds in closer as the wind rips at the parachute.

I nod, trying to steady my breathing. The images shift, moving backward in time.

Now I see another settlement, this one smaller and more primitive. The people here are clearly struggling against the harsh desert environment. They’ve built walls to keep the sand at bay, but it’s a losing battle.

“There’s another town,” I tell Kalvin. “Older this time. They’re trying to fight the sand, but… it’s not working.”

I watch as the sand rises like a tidal wave, crashing over the walls and burying the town in minutes. The screams of the people echo in my head, and I have to remind myself that this happened long ago. There’s nothing I can do to help them now.

The scenes continue to shift, each one moving further back in time. I see failed expedition after failed expedition, each one ending in tragedy. The sand is relentless, unstoppable.

“So many people,” I murmur. “They all tried to tame this place, and they all failed.”

But then something changes. The images start moving even faster, blurring together in a dizzying whirl of color and motion. When they finally slow again, what I see takes my breath away.

“Holy shit,” I breathe.

“What? What is it?” Kalvin asks, his grip on my shoulder tightening.

I blink, trying to process what I’m seeing. “It’s… it’s not a desert. It’s a jungle. A fucking jungle, Kalvin.”

Where there was once endless sand, now there are towering trees, lush vegetation, and a riot of colorful life. The air seems thick and humid, nothing like the dry heat of the desert.

“That’s impossible,” Kalvin says. “There are no jungles on Sonoma. Never have been.”

“I know,” I reply, my mind reeling. “But I’m telling you, that’s what I’m seeing. It’s like… like the sand is showing me its memories. But how can it remember something that never existed?”

As I watch, fascinated, I notice something else. There are animals here too, but they’re different from any I’ve seen before. They move through the jungle with ease, like they were made for it. I can’t even describe what they are. They walk on two legs like humans, but…

“There are strange animals,” I tell Kalvin.

I try to focus on one of the animals, to get a better look, but as soon as I do, everything changes. The jungle vanishes, replaced by a blinding white light. I feel a surge of… something. Anger? Fear? It’s difficult to tell.

Pain shoots through my arm, and I yank my hand out of the sand with a yelp. “Fuck!”

Kalvin grabs my hand, examining it closely. “Are you okay? What happened?”

I shake my head, trying to clear it. My fingertips are red and blistered, like I’ve touched something hot. “I don’t know. It’s like… like it didn’t want me to see anymore.”

We sit in silence for a moment, the wind howling around our makeshift shelter. My mind is racing, trying to make sense of everything I’ve seen.

“So,” Kalvin says finally, “what the hell just happened?”

I take a deep breath, organizing my thoughts. “I’m not sure.” I blink and attempt to focus, but my brain is foggy as shit and my eyes are like sandpaper. “Okay, so, the sand… it showed me things. Like a history of this place, but backwards. I saw all these towns and expeditions that tried to settle here, but the sand always won. It just… swallowed them up.”

Kalvin nods slowly. “Okay, that tracks with what we know about the Novato. But what about the jungle? You said there were animals?”

“Yeah,” I reply, still struggling to believe it myself. “It was like nothing I’ve ever seen before. The jungle was so alive, and the animals… they were so strange. They were… Just fucking weird.”

“Sounds like Rio,” he says with a snort.

“Yeah… No…” How would a sand entity here know anything about a planet several systems away? Maybe it was Laguna. There are jungles on Laguna.

“Yeah, no,” Kalvin repeats. “Sonoma has never had jungles. It’s always been an arid planet. Forests, yes. Jungles, no. Unless we’re talking about thousands of years ago?”

I shrug, wincing as the movement aggravates my burned fingers. “Possibly? I’m telling you what I saw. And the sand… it didn’t like me seeing it. That’s when it pushed me out.”

Kalvin is quiet for a moment, processing. “So what does this mean? Is the sand… alive? Sentient?”

“I think so. I mean, it has to be, right? How else could it show me all that? And it definitely has opinions. It didn’t want me to see that last part.”

“But why?” Kalvin asks. “Why show you anything at all?”

I shake my head. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s trying to communicate? To warn us?”

“Warn us about what?”

“I’m not sure,” I admit. I wince at the pain in my body. Literally everything hurts. “But I got the feeling that whatever happened to turn that jungle into this desert… it wasn’t natural. And maybe it’s not permanent.”

Kalvin raises an eyebrow. “You think the sand wants to be a jungle again?”

I laugh, but it’s a hollow sound. “God, I don’t know. Maybe? I’m losing my mind. Dehydration and all that.”

But even as I say it, I know it’s not true. What I experienced was real. The sand is alive, and it has a story to tell. A story that, for some reason, it chose to share with me.

“So what do we do now?” Kalvin asks.

I listen to the raging sandstorm, then look down at my blistered hand. “We keep going. We find those rocks, we get to safety, and then… then we figure out what the hell is really going on here.”

Kalvin nods, a determined look on his face. “Okay. I’m with you.”

I smile at him, grateful for his steady presence. “Thanks. I know this is crazy, but…”

“Hey,” he cuts me off, “after everything we’ve been through, a little sentient sand isn’t going to scare me off. Besides, someone’s got to keep you from doing anything too reckless.”

I roll my eyes. “Please. You love my recklessness.”

He grins. “Maybe a little.”

We lapse into silence, each lost in our thoughts. The storm continues to rage outside our little shelter, but somehow it feels less threatening now. The sand isn’t our enemy. It’s… something else. Something I don’t quite understand yet.

My mind keeps going back to that last image. The lush jungle, teeming with life. Those strange animals. What happened to them? And why does the sand remember?

I look down at my hand, the burns already starting to fade. Whatever’s going on here, I have a feeling we’ve only scratched the surface. And as terrifying as that is, a part of me can’t wait to dig deeper.

After all, I didn’t become a pilot just to play it safe. I wanted adventure, mystery, the unknown. Well, I’ve certainly got that now. In spades.

I catch Kalvin’s eye and see a mix of fear and excitement that probably mirrors my expression. “Ready to face a sentient desert?” I ask, only half-joking.

He shakes his head, but he’s smiling. “With you? Always.” He sighs. “And if it’s sentient, then it could help us find our way out of here.”

I grab the backpack. “You want me to ask it for help?” My hand aches with the burns I’ve been nursing, but I’d give my left arm for a way out of this. (Not my right arm. Just the left.)

“We can both try,” he insists, but I can tell, he’s at his limits. He just doesn’t want to seem like a freeloader.

“No problem. I’ll try.”

I stick my hand in the sand, but nothing happens. Is it gone? I think so.

“Let’s go, and we can try along the way.”

I take a deep breath, steeling myself for whatever comes next. The storm is starting to die down a bit, enough for us to get moving.

We have to find the rocks and signal for help.

Whatever this is with the sand, it’ll have to wait for another day…

Hopefully, a day when I’m still alive.