Heat. The enemy. The pain. The stinging caress that left Rosemary's white, baggy tee-shirt drenched in foul smelling sweat, adhesive to her dark skin, the feeling of sweat...
Sweat.
A hatred, an extreme annoyance, grew at the feeling of this cooling process, this disgusting, overwhelming sensation all over her skin until it left her chilled, cold in little waves like death creeping its hands all over her. Yet, the coolness would soon lose to the sun's direct, glaring fire, soaking into her flesh, intense heat, fires of hell...
Rose took one small sip of the water from the water bottle she had scavenged from a house miles and miles and miles away from this point. She had less than a swallow left to it, but continued to take micro-sips from it whenever the sun got too powerful for her, in need of that moisture to keep her dry tongue from shriveling up and falling out. Now that she was thinking about it, she hadn't spoken more than a word since she split up with Roberto and his girlfriend, Marie, back in some small town near the border of Pennsylvania. Her throat felt tight. She cleared it, swallowing nothing, and hummed once. A single note, then spoke aloud,
"The rain in Spain falls neatly on the plane."
Her voice was foreign, a strange, unnatural sound out here in this desert stretch of roadway, a place were silence was broken by nothing but the pitch of birds crying somewhere safe in the distance, safe from this.. this disaster, this nightmare.
In a rush of emotions, Rosemary felt the sudden helplessness and despair she had been plagued with for the last few days alone, alone in the silence and insanity of loneliness, lonely, alone, fear, insanity. She wasn't crazy yet. No, no. Rosemary was still there, together with a plan, at least for now. As soon as these feelings came they drained from her, dried up in the intense sun, evaporated. She wiped her face, the heat causing her skin to itch with the burn she knew was there.
Her legs ached as she continued onward, keeping her head ducked slightly to avoid the brightness in the sky. She didn't want to think now of the unlikelihood of finding help out in this desert. She didn't want to think of the possibility of dying here along this highway, dropping dead in the sand where no one would find her, gone without a trace. Without a trace. Just like her mother..
Jesus Christ! Rosemary mentally declared, clearing her head of all these unhelpful, negative thoughts. Thinking about her mother wasn't going to help. She had ruled her dead, too, back in Florida. Most of her town was gone. There was no way. No way to escape, no way to avoid... But it wasn't sensible why her mother's body was not around...
"Shit!"
Rose cried out as she tripped over her own exhausted, mindless footsteps. She threw her hands up in front of her to catch herself from going face-first into the sand, the water bottle, still uncapped, hitting the ground, leaving little dots of darker soil where the water now soaked in.
"God damn it!"
She shouted, leaning up on her elbows, eyes stinging with the desire to produce tears yet none came, just the sensation of crying, dry sobs as she choked on her terror and anguish.
"Damn it..." She swore again, picking up the empty bottle. Little droplets clung to the ridges in the bottle, and she stuck her tongue in desperately in want of the water, trying to fight off the sobs that shivered up her throat. Little did it wet her mouth, and she threw it back down into the sand, sitting there in the crests beside the road, covering her face and trying to not cry anymore, trying to think of a positive outcome. She was alone. She had no more water. She was in the desert, miles from any place she could get water. She would not die without trying to survive. She would fight back.
She stood up, brushed the sand from her thighs and knees and hands, her high-waisted shorts light and clinging stickily to her legs. She continued to walk onward, refusing to give up, refusing to quit, refusing to die.
Although the sun had moved a few inches in the sky, the heat was still unbearable to this lone woman as she trudged, kicking up sand with her dragging feet, heavy in their ankle-high boots. The bag on her hip was burning her, hotter than the air around her, growing heavier and heavier as if the contents were doubling with each drag of her feet. She suddenly wished for a hat, as her scalp was burning, too, the kind of burn that is partly icy in pain. Her mind was mainly blank, mostly to the exhaustion of walking that she had endured for so long. Thoughts were becoming more and more incoherent. Hope was fading with her energy, panic and fear growing as her hunger and thirst did.
She periodically thought about simply laying down and awaiting oncoming death. Her tiredness made it very tempting, almost like mysterious seduction, like the mystery of after death inviting her to discover it. She did stop once, standing stock stiff and staring ahead with impassive, tired eyes, yet something inside her clicked the gears to continued on, continue on and on and on through the sand, hot grains flickering up like fire tips to hit her skin.
Time was soon not even a concern, lost with many things to her mind besides basic comprehension. She wanted nothing more at this moment but to get out of this direct light and get a bit of water. Out of the sun. Into some shade. It would be nice.
Sand, sun, summer fun...
What was that.. shape in the distance?
Rosemary suddenly was revived, straightening and squinting her eyes to see the rectangle against the shimmer, hot air. All senses were heightened as if hope filled them.
A bus.
A bus!
Soon she was running flat out as if she had been resting all day along. Her shoes clunked oddly on her sweaty feet as she made for the bus, keeping her fingers crossed that there was water inside, just grateful for the opportunity for shade.
She approached the bus and peered through the doors. Empty. She looked around, not seeing anyone. It must've been abandoned. She didn't think anymore on this, just wanting to be inside. She pried the doors open, feeling the interior ten times hotter than the exterior, but it didn't matter because the entire aisle of the bus was dark and that's just where she wanted to be. She climbed the steps on her hands and knees, laying down in the shadows and panting, feeling and aching pain in every part of her sun-baked body. Shade, no more goddamn sun...
Water.
It sent a signal through her that made her lean up, looking around on the bus. A watch on the steering wheel, a shower in the back... She crawled on her knees to the front, looking at the watch. 2:46 PM. She also noticed that the bus was completely empty of gasoline, yet that was not much concern for the moment.
"Now where am I going to find some water..?" She wondered aloud, wanting the replace the ever-consuming silence with something. She decided to go to the back of the bus, standing by supporting herself on a seat, examining the shower. It was raw in its installment, but there was no telling how long this bus had been here, although the scent of water still lingered. She bet it still worked...
She cranked the cold water over, a sputtering of the shower head, then heavenly bliss rained down upon her, and she squeaked with happiness, opening her mouth and stripping her shirt, so overcome with this joy that the coldness of the water almost made her skin throb, feeling as if sizzling from being so hot.
"Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you." She continued to chant as she ran her hands over her face and head, just so damned happy that she found this bus.
RPG
