Location: 23°19'36.84"S. 70°34'57.90"W.
Blackness. Nothingness. Like a void that filled everything. It was hard for one to tell whether the events that happened before were just a dream, or reality. This was wrong, nothing could've possibly made the landscape do that, right? But if it was a dream, why was everything black now? After what seemed like mere minutes, which could've easily been the space of a couple of weeks, somthing did emerge from the endless darkness. A faint, very faint, light- too blurry to make an exact justification as to what was in front, but it was getting clearer. Soon, the light; now a dark beige colour, had filled the view.
Sand?
Where was this place? Then, from the left side, a small swell of water ran through, before being pulled out again. Sounds were now coming through. First, the sounds of water breaking- waves crashing, then, the faint noise of the wind. This was a beach wasn't it?
As Ida adjusted to the new surroundings, the thought had onlt just started to sink in: Where was everyone else? The answer was plain and simple, putting 2 and 2 together it was clear she had to find them quick. Trying to stand up, she collapsed back down, either due to a wound or because of how long it had been since she last saw anything.
Cliffs surrounded the tiny beach, about 700 feet (240 meters) long and barely 10 feet (3 meters) from cliff to the sea, that is unless the tide was high. These cliffs weren't too high, though varied immensly, some were over 5 times her height, others were only half her height. Unusually, these cliffs were of a light beige colour, indicating that this might be a fairly brittle rock. In confirmination, there indeed was a part of the cliff that looked to have recently collapsed, with a small river creating a small chine behind said land fall.
Looking up the chine, it was only now she had realised how cloudy the sky really was, there was no longer a patch of sky that was even remotely clear. Though there was at least some light passing through, it felt like it was always fading. There was no point in staying on this beach, though in some regards she was thankful that she landed on a beach and not some cave or anything dangerous.
Though at first uneasy, she was able to walk about half-way up the steep chine before making a tangent out of it. From here the view out to the ocean was vast, and across the land was, for some reason, a rust-coloured mountain. It wasn't pointy like Clawtooth, it was more rounded, with only one 'peak' and the rest being lower. Deciding not to go higher to get a better view, she went back down onto the plains, where she could see clearly that there was a pass between the rusty mountain and the steep beige hills she was on, though there was kind of a angle so there was no way to tell how far the rusty mountain actually was.
Usually, there would be some way of telling where home was if she wasn't too far; a river of some kind or something else. However with none of that, going in land was really the only option, since sticking to the coast would end up to the steep mountains in the distance. For about 2 miles, nothing on the horizon changed, and it felt like she was going no where, though upon turning back there would be some indication of movement. So with that she decided to go more to the left, so that she would skim just past the beige hills. There was a bit of a climb, however she made sure not to push her body too much as to pull any muscles.
The view had started to progress more, where it was no longer possible to see where she'd started, it was easy to see that the rusty mountain was too far away to walk to, yet alone climb up. In the distance however, there seemed to be more water, but as it was too far inland to be connected to the sea, it had to have been a lake. With only one direction to find out for certain that it was a lake, Ida went up the hills further, making sure not to directly climb to the summit. At the higest point she'd allow herself to climb, the view opened up to a vast plain of red, white, and beige sand with hill-ish mountains in the far distance, and the lake was definitely big. However, it was still not possible to tell whether or not if the lake was connected to the sea, as the rusty mountain was blocking that part.
If it was connected, it wasn't going to be safe to drink, though if it wasn't connected, how it got there in the first place would be the next question, as it would be completely surrounded by this desert. Going back down to this large desert plain was going to be one of the many challenges in Ida's journy back home, as it was all downhill- steep of course. Luckily, the sand helped cushion any struggle going downhill, and was actually easier than first thought. While the rusty mountain would be impossible to climb, and the lake being potentially salty, there were some more rusty-coloured mountains out near the horizon.
Across the desert she went, looking back every now and then to see how far from the rusty mountain and beige hills she was. Soon, the beige sand she had been walking through blended into the rust colour she kept seeing. Whether it contain a certian material or if it was even sand or not did not metter to her. Though still worrying about how the rest of her family were coming along, letting that stop her from travelling would be a waste.
Eventually, the rusty hills that used to be so far had now approched closer. Looking back, the rusty mountain and beige hills were still quite large for their distance. I say rusty hills, as the rusty mountains were still quite far away, and these hills were one of the only things protruding from the plains. Upon closer inspection, the rusty mountains were in fact more of a dark-brownish-red colour, and the sands in front of her slowly faded to said colour. There was more desert to walk across.
When the mountains did arrive, they seemed daunting to pass, however, with push comes to shove, every mountain has some kind of river system. Sure enough, there was one that went straight through, albeit with a sertain angle and wasn't as straight due to the terrain. On the plus side, it was a shallow slope to walk up, which was fine for Ida. At the top, it was expected to find a slope going back down, to her surprise, it was flat- with some small hills hare and there. Through the hills she walked, or in between the hills. There was indeed a downward slope, but ti was so shallow it might as well be flat and then, at the far distance, there was more rust-coloured land.
Whatever desert this was, it was certainly big for one.
Past more rust mountains and rust plains, and going around some white-ish hills, layed for some reason a large downward slope that seemed to have no end. With the only safe way down being an alluvial fan, she walked down and changed direction to be parallel to said slopes, now recognisable to be a scarp and vale land feature. In the far, very far distance, layed more mountains. Thinking twice about the reucurrance of mountains, though indeed they were different, the light from the clouds definitely were starting to fade now, night was approaching thus. If she could make it to the mountains before then, then perhaps there would be some way of telling how much further the desert was, that and there might be shelter.
A long, long journey persued, sands turned to stone and back, each of different colours of red, white, beige, purple-ish black, and all sorts of other colours between. A small, brown-ish hill in the plains, just in front of the mountains she wanted to get to, had also started to loom closer, and while it was indeed openign to nightfall, it was still hot enough to see the ground shimmer. For a moment, Ida thought she had seen an apatosaur heading toward the same small lone hill, but the terrain and the shimmering made it possible that it was just an illusion.
But it would always come back, again and again, each time lasting longer. Might it be a member of the family? Or just a lone wanderer. And who ever it was could see her too, as the apatosaur had started to change to the direction of the hill. It was settled, they would meet eachother at the top of this hill despite not knowing who they were from a distance. As the hill concealed them from seeing each other, both Ida and the apatosaur were determined to see who they were more so. Though the hill was steep and the chance of slipping on the rocks was high, it didn't matter. If this apatosaur was as determined to see her as much as she of it, then it had to be some member of the family, it had to be.
Audio Message #1: Subject Member #4: Member #4, also known as Ida, seems to be in near-perfect condition with only a few bruises. She's still able to travel long distances over short periods of times. Chances of survival seem to be relatively high as of now, however fresh water will need to be aquired soon. Overall I have high hopes for Member #4 until further notice. End of Message.
A/N: As I said in the Winter Special of "Henry's Long Adventure", Christmas and New Years is very busy for my family, so unfortunately I couldn't write at the time, but I knew I could write this weekend, so I did! Right now there's not too much danger where Ida is, for now at least. I hope you enjoyed the chapter and the story so far.
Next chapter: Desolate Wastelands
Fun Facts: I've been using Google Earth to plan out the routes taken by each member of the family for each chapter. I might make an album showing off all of the journey or maybe make a subreddit or idk. Though linking it is gonna be tough.
