Desert Escape - Part I

Desert Escape

Part I

Written by Cassia Sherrill

Time was about to run out.

Viv leans over to feel Henry’s pulse. It was weak. She had to hurry if she was going to have any luck at saving him, but she didn’t know how that would be possible. She had tried everything, but he was still fading fast.

Viv looks up into the sky. It was the only thing that felt familiar in the never-ending desert that they found themselves in. Viv felt like crying and wanted to, but her body had no extra water to produce the tears. It had been days since they ran out of the jug of water they had been sharing.

The sky was a beautiful blue with absolutely no clouds, and the sun was beating down on them in all of its fierceness. The heat was scorching, and Viv had absolutely no clue what to do. She looked over at Henry, and whispered through shaky breath, “I am so sorry, Henry. I tried so hard to keep you alive and save you, but I don’t think I can do it.” She bent over his chest and cried the last bit of water that she had left in her.

With tears stained checks, she looked back up at the sky. She yelled towards the heavens “Why are you taking, Henry? He is the only family I have! He could survive without me. Take me! I cannot survive without him.” Laying her head back down on his chest, she mumbles, “I just can’t…”

In her grief, her mind wandered back to when they were young, and even though she was the older sibling, Henry had always taken care of her. She had always been a mess in basically every area of life while he excelled at everything he tried. He was always willing to help her, whether that was with school, cooking, relationships, etc. She had never been very good at thanking or even acknowledging his help because her pride always stopped her. It sucked that her little brother was always the one picking up her messy pieces and helping her get back on her feet. It didn’t feel great, but now more than anything, she wished he was awake enough to give him the thanks he deserved.

Her remembrance of the past only made her cry more, even though she was surprised that she had any tears left to cry. She looked up from her collapsed position over her brother and checked the phone that Uncle Greg had given them before this all started. It was dead. It had died like a week ago so it literally had been of no help to them. Her anger rose as she thought of her uncle and the dead phone. Greg is literally the reason we are in this mess, and he couldn’t even give us a decent escape phone.

A little over a week ago, Viv and Henry were sitting in their small living room in their Utah home when their Uncle Greg burst into the room. He demanded, “Pack your bags now. We have to leave.”

Viv and Henry looked at each other with concern, and Henry began to ask, “Greg, what is going o-”

“Shut up, boy! Haven’t I told you not to question me? Just go pack a bag, damn it. We’ve got to go.” He pulled out an old flip phone from his jacket pocket and aggressively handed it to Henry. “Here, boy, put this in your bags as your packing.”

He grabbed the phone with a nod. The two teenagers quickly hustled to their shared room and started to pack a few bags when they heard a few car doors slamming outside of their house. A loud commotion quickly arose, and they subtly peeked out of their window to see what was going on. They saw their uncle being held at gunpoint by four men as a fifth man was yelling very close to Greg’s face.

“Shit, Henry. We’ve got to call the cops or something,” Viv whispered as she started to head towards the kitchen.

“Viv, no! We have got to get out of here. Greg doesn’t get spooked easily, and he was clearly spooked when he told us to pack. We can’t waste any time. Grab your bag, and we will go through the backdoor.”

“Dude, we can’t just ignore this. We have to help him!” she harshly whispered back.

“That would be a waste of time,” Henry threw his words at her like daggers. “Grab your bag and let’s go.”

“I am not going until I call the cops!” She started tip-toeing to the kitchen when they heard a bunch of gunshots go off. Both of the teenagers jumped, and Viv started shaking. “Did they kill him?”

“No time to find out!” Henry threw her bag at her and forcefully grabbed her by the wrist. He led her to the backdoor where they discreetly fled for the open plain behind their house. Uncle Greg had just recently relocated them to the border of Utah where the Great Basin Desert joined Utah and Nevada together. Greg’s behavior had always been sketchy so when he moved them to a small, old house so close to the desert they just did not ask questions anymore. The teenagers started running as fast as they could, but the desert-like terrain made it difficult to cover a lot of ground.

“Where the hell are we going to run to?” Viv called out to her brother as they ran. “We are running into a damn desert. There is nothing out here.”

“Let’s try to make it to that gas station that is like a mile down!”

“Henry, that’s like in the opposite-” Viv’s words were cut short by a gunshot piercing the air around them. A second gunshot quickly followed, and she heard it hit Henry’s leg. He yelled in pain and fell into the sand. She looked back to see the five men who had held up their uncle in the distance. She had no time to think as it wouldn’t take the men long to catch up especially if they were in their car. She helped Henry to his feet and yelled, “Can you still run?”

Clearly in pain, Henry whimpered in pain but rose to his feet. “Yeah...I got it.”

She grabbed his arm and placed it around her shoulders. She was smaller than him so there was no way she could carry him, but she could at least give him some support as they ran.