We storm through the desert sweating like a pig. The cancerous sun, the cankerous heat and the cantankerous cold are heart haunting. Everything in this forsaken place is either wicked and warped or blasted and burned. There is no siren call of the sea here. There is just a vast, mournful pain of emptiness where anything sentient resents anything else that’s alive.

I feel a light tap on my shoulder and gaze to my right.

“Hey, want some water?” Jadiel asks slowing down to some extent.

“No thanks,” i lip.

“You sure?” he counters holding the blimp luminous bottle out.

I nod.

To be honest i just want to cram the water down my mouth. My body is literally drowning in thirst right now. My throat itself has the sensation that a reticulated python is trying to squeeze the life out of it. I wonder if they feel the same agony im feeling.

I jerk my head to the left. Luis is awfully silent. His body and clothes is drenched with sweat. He has something with wearing singlet’s obviously.  Probably just showing off those muscular tanned arm muscles to the boys. He was damn gorgeous though, his light brown eyes, and those outlines of his abs, like damn he was hot whether i like to admit it or not. I nudge him slightly causing him to look at me suddenly.

“You okay?” i ask.

“Yeah, you?” he chuckles.

“Yeah.” I smile.

“Thanks for you’re concern,” he smirks.

I roll my eyes. Dick.

“Come on it was a joke,” he snorts.

“what was a joke?” Jadiel asks.

Luis and I glance at him.

“Nothing,” we both chortle.

Jadiel stares at us with a stern look and then smiles.

I scan my surroundings as i hear a small sound.  Okay Elena don’t freak, It’s probably just an animal crawling along the hot sand. Ugh but the way the natures laws out here have overthrown the desert, it freaks me out. It’s an orgy of wanton violence between its denizens, all of whom have been disfigured and crippled by their attempts to live here.

I feel like death is following me everywhere right now. I can smell it. It’s ungodly and it’s as virulent as the heat itself.

What’s so dangerous about this place? So much for their being trees, water and food. I exchange looks with Jadiel.

“So.. Where is the food and everything?” i ask.

“When we get to the line there is a forest,” Jadiel replies.

“Where is the forest here? Its just desert dry shit,” i giggle.

“You’ll see,” Jadiel says his arm brushing against mine lightly.

I sigh and keep walking.

As we walk further into the desert, sweating non-stop, my skin feels like it’s been stabbed by a million sun spears and scraped by sandpaper. My tongue is cloven to the roof of my mouth. It’s like there’s a dry, leathery in-sole wagging away at the back of my throat.

All of the sudden the wind picks up uncontrollably, making the sand burn my feet raw. I grind my teeth from the stinging pain.

I leer my eyes over at Jadiel and Luis. They both are grinding there teeth as well.

“We are here,” Jadiel grins.

A line of sticks are scatted along the golden sand randomly.

“Finally,” Luis complains.

I squint my eyes and see a bubbled like wall. What is this? I lift one foot up slightly after the other and walk into it.

I suddenly appear in a dark gloomy forest, skyscraper tall trees dispersed all around me. It’s so beautiful. The wind is no long a death threatening disease, it’s a light breeze making the trees sway making it sound like a lullaby, soothing and warm.
“It’s so beautiful, don’t you agree?” i smile turning around to see the others.
Nothing is behind me. Just brown bark along the forest ground.

“Jadiel? Luis?” i shout.

Where are they?

“Challenge two,” a voice says out of the blue.

It sounds so familiar. Wait.. That’s the voice that i heard when i woke up from that room. I run through the darkness of the forest, trees banging into me.

“Jadiel where are you?!” i scream hoping for him to shout back.

“Luis?!”

He should of told me what was going to happen. What else is going to happen out here? I could have prepared myself for this shit.

I groan and suddenly i hear a small crack in the distance. Is it Jadiel or Luis? My heart begins to race. I grab the knife out of my black belt and grip it tightly. Breathe Elena breathe. I walk towards the sound slowly not blinking once. A tall figure appears around  8 metres away. I can’t see what it is, it’s too far away.

It suddenly starts scattering  towards me..