Between the Dunes

Across vast dunes of burning yellow stands a human shaped figure wrapped in robes to protect them from the sun. The robes cover the person in a blue that mimics the color of water the vast desert desperately craves. The azure hued being looks out from dark lensed goggles across the ocean of sand before them. They look for anything to stick out, but the desert reveals nothing.

“Nothing can live here” the figure thought “Days of traveling and everywhere I look is identical to the day before”

The robed traveler had brought five days worth of food and water on its adventure. They believed by the fifth day they would have found what they sought, but all it sees is unbearable desert. It lifts away hanging blue cloth covering a leather clad flask hanging from the neck of the figure. They grab it and without care open the lid to take a drink. The water falls short of the person's lips and falls to the sand below, or it would have, had the sun not drunk it up in a flash.  The heat and intensity of the sun is so intense that water exposed is no more real than a thought. They look at the water flask and then to the sun above. It isn't even noon yet and the water can't survive the fall to the ground. “I may as well dig a grave and give up now” they are filled with hopelessness, confidence eroding in the heat of the sun like a small rock that's been at the bottom of the river for eternity.

A bright and blinding light blinks and flashes at the corner of their eye, something shining in the distance. They quickly put the water back beneath the azure robe and spin to face in the direction of the light. Rapidly their eyes dart back and forth, desperate to see a change in the sea of sameness that is the great desert.

There was nothing at first, just wind blowing finely rounded sand through the air. It blocks their view like the desert is trying to keep them lost. Then they see it again, a flash where the sun hits something at the right angle sending a beam of light directly at their protected eyes. Hope fills in their chest before they can push it down, the first thing they have seen that wasn't sand in five days. They stumbled down the dune, sliding through the hot sand. All they could think of was seeing what this was. 

“ This could be it” They thought “ if this is something man made then I could be near it”

They moved through the sand toward the light like it was the north star leading them out of the never ending desert. It was no star though, but a simple dirty, brown liquor bottle. It was jutting out of the sand, buried with just the top of it exposed. The bottle was nothing special, a bit worn and filled with sand, but wholly unremarkable. Despite this, the eyes beneath the dark tinted goggles lit up. To them this was a treasure, it was like finding the needle in the haystack. This meant what they had been looking for was closer to reality than before. 

Frantically they looked around, as if to see who dropped the bottle. They saw the same as days before, endless sand, but their hope was back, and their movements filled with vigor. They climbed a large dune to the north of the buried bottle, scrambling up the top like they were running from something at the bottom. At the top the azure robed person cups their hands around their goggles and looks out upon the sand. The sun now above their head, the heat at its peak for the day. This did not deter them, they searched as if the sun meant nothing, as if the heat were insignificant. Then they saw it, a few miles ahead they estimated. A structure, human made, what they had been looking for, a city in the sand.

Recklessly they ran through the sand, slipping and falling more than once.

“Finally, I found it; we were right after all” They thought.

Yet as they approached the structure the life and energy that drove them faded. This was indeed a city, full of sandstone cobbled buildings. Some blending into the dunes it was built between. They would be something to marvel at, they were clearly designed to blend in and be protected from the sand blowing above the dunes. The sight of the city up close should have excited them even more but something was wrong.

“Where are the people” they contemplated “ there was supposed to be people”

The town may have been a picture. Not even the sand shifted, total silence, it stood there motionless and empty. 

The traveler stumbled through the town, looking through the doorways. They see that people have lived here. The homes were furnished, inside hung beautifully hued cloth, they blocked the door ways to rooms which oddly had no beds. It was odd because there were tables and chairs, couches and hammocks. All of them were well kept, like the people all ran when they saw a stranger coming. The azure traveler felt even more alone standing in the abandoned homes. All of this desert to find this place and it was empty. Their search was both a success and a failure.

They sat on the couch of a home and rested for the first time in what felt like forever. The robe lifted for them to take their water flask but when they grasped for it there was none. The place where it hung was empty. Eyes wide with surprise they rushed to their feet and out the door. They stood in the street but in their haste to get here they didn't see which dune they crossed to get here. The water fell from their neck while they scrambled down the dune, and it may have well been lost at the bottom of the ocean, it was gone and they were without water.

The heat somehow felt more oppressive to them with the knowledge they can't fight it with cool water. They began a desperate search through the building looking for water or anything to drink. The buildings that looked like they could be bars had everything a bar should, except things to drink. It had a counter, and plenty of stools. It even had a grand piano and a stage. No water though, and desperation grew in the travelers heart.  As the sun descended the sky towards the west they had searched every building in the town. The temperature was cooling and soon the moon would shine off the sand and a chill would settle in. Though the heat was awful during the day at night it would be so cold that the water in the flask would freeze.

The streets of the city were paved from cut sandstone, it is hard to see from a distance because the sand covers so much. They noticed it as they sat defeated in the middle of what could possibly be the main street. 

“Without water I won't survive tomorrow, I may not survive the night either.” they thought, their feelings a maelstrom of anxiety and fear. They were now doomed to the same death everything faces in the desert. A death of loneliness in the unforgiving sun.

The blazing sun had now hidden itself behind the dune on the west of town and a steady cold crept through the air. Weariness wore heavy on the traveler's shoulders, or an onset of heavy depression from acceptance of their current circumstances. 

“I haven’t slept in so long” even their thoughts are sluggish from exhaustion “no point in looking around, I'll just lay here for a bit...” they lay their head on the pack they carried upon their back. Settling in the middle of the abandoned street to rest for their last hours.

Sleep seemed to come easy to them, the hard street did not bother them. There were no shortages of discomforts in the desert so sleeping there was nothing to the traveler. As they slept the sun fully escaped the dry sky of the desert. The moon's light shines off the sand, there is never truly darkness in the desert, but the heat is now gone, replaced by an inescapable cold. Their beautiful robes lay on the street, creased and covered in sand, but they sleep peacefully on the ground. Until it begins to rumble and noise fills the air. 

The noise comes from the homes that line the street. A sound of stone scraping stone, loud and oppressive. They jump up from the ground looking around frantically at the homes around them. Five lonely days in the desert and the only sound they had heard was the wind blowing and their feet hitting sand. The sounds were almost alien in the silent desert, what was even more alien was the sound of people talking.

People began filtering out of the homes dressed in fine cloth robes much like the traveler, all in vibrant colors. Purples, blues, bright crimson and green like the grass of the old world before the desert. The homes all lit up with the warm glow of flames and warmth escaped from the doorways to the dark street outside. The traveler ran to the first person they saw, a short, purple robed person.

“Where have all of you been? What is this!?” they spoke in a desperate way, so starved for human interaction after days of isolation.

“Umm we have been in our sleep holes, why?” The voice was delicate of a young woman, though her face was hidden beneath the robes she wore.

“No one believed anyone still lived here. I knew I wasn't crazy!” the young woman may as well not have been there, the traveler didn't listen to her words. They were caught in the moment of happiness, or skepticism maybe both. 

“Wait..” She said while taking a small step back “Are you from outside the Great Desert? We haven't seen anyone from outside in years. The desert kills everyone.” Her voice was filled with the same skepticism as the travelers. The traveler looks around at the people walking around the street now. They carry gas lanterns and bring out of their homes large barrels with holes in the center of them. They flip a switch on the side and a flame begins dancing inside of them, sending out a warm red and yellow light onto the sides of buildings and the street before them. Within moments the silent desert city is filled with life, filled with laughter and small talk, and music coming from the bars and from some homes.

“This is amazing” the traveler had to choke back tears at seeing so much life when their life was so close to the end just moments before. 

The woman helped the traveler down the road to a large building with wondrous music streaming from its door. They spoke of how they have survived here, and the world outside of the desert. The world outside is dying, most of the western land was a part of the Great Desert now. Like a growing cancer on the world the desert spreads as water and life flee from it and the sun burns it away. There were stories of a city in the sands where people have survived in this barren land but many thought it was a myth. That is why the traveler came here, their home was being abandoned and they truly believed life can survive deep in the sands. That is what they told the woman.

The woman told the traveler that they sleep in holes dug deep beneath their homes to escape the heat in the day. Under the sands that have a grand reservoir of water, kept cool under the earth, and a large deposit of natural gas to heat their city in the cold night when they come out. They eat the mushrooms and insects that live with them underground, and reuse cloth that they brought with them years before when they made their home. 

Their conversation stopped as they entered the bar. It was the same one the traveler searched hours before but now it seemed so different. Bursting with life and noise. A person in a yellow robe played the piano masterfully in a nice jaunty toon that had people dancing around it. People were around tables playing poker and drinking from little glasses that you serve whisky in. Smoke from cigarettes and pipes clouded the air. Back at home the traveler wouldn't have liked the smoke but it filled their head with memories of home. All of it reminded them of their home, the poker and music. All the life that slowly faded as the water did. Here the water flowed with reckless abandon. Massive barrels with taps sat near a stairway down that the traveler had not seen before. They knew this was water because the liquor was kept in the same brown bottle he saw in the sand before. Their thirst had been pushed to the back of their mind from all of the new discoveries but now it was all they could think of.

The lady in purple led the traveler to a bar stool and ordered a glass of water for them both. They sat there and laughed at stories of their childhood. So much seemed so similar yet so different. Life here was new and strange compared to the life of desperation at the edge of the desert. The lives of the city's people were still very human, full of happiness and sadness. Life here wasn't perfect but they survived and they found joy in the everyday. The bartender set down a tall glass of cool water in front of the stranger, condensation dripping off the side of the glass. They looked at the glass with joy and a hint of disbelief, they hadn't had a real glass of water since they left home days before. With a smile they removed the azure cloth hood from their head and took a long sip of the cool water. As it ran down their throat easing the dryness and pain of it, the traveler was filled with more memories of their home. What lay beyond the desert flashed through the travelers mind and they did not care. They set the glass down and chuckled, they had found their new home.