Chapter Six

Sand. There is sand in every direction! Sand, sand, sand, SAND! Well…there is sand in almost every direction; I refuse to look that way, though. I do not want to see the smoke on the horizon, which would be worse than even the horrible SAND.

We (Reme, Kendai, Sheath, and me) talked it over during breakfast. We're basing a whole lot of our plan on guesswork, and even more of it on circumstance but that's alright, at least we HAVE a plan! The plan? We strike out in the general distance of the Dark Towers and pick up allies on the way…simply a brilliant plan, I know!

If you could talk back, friend, now is definitely the time to do it…what am I doing? Asking a piece of paper of help! I just get so frustrated though, the sand is hot on my bare feet and it gets everywhere…on the small amount of food we have from my pack, in our clothes, just EVERYWHERE. I hate sand.

The little girl that we saved from the rubble still hasn't awoken, although Kendai woke up just about the same time as all of the rest of us did. That poor little girl though! We had to carry her all days, rotating turns when we could barely stand on our own two feet ourselves…walking.

That's another thing I hate. Endless walking! We walked and walked. All. Day. Long. Right now we are taking refuge in a shallow trench we dug. Digging it was certainly a pleasure. We dug into the hot sand until we reached the sand that was freezing cold and containing some ground water. There wasn't enough water to drink but to lie on that cool, damp sand after a long day of walking in the hot sun felt like the greatest thing in the entire WORLD at that moment!

The stars shine brightly overhead and they simmer and dance throughout the heavens. They make everything seem alright, but everything isn't alright. Everything is about as wrong as it can get.

I'm too tired to get into the rights and wrongs of the world. I'm too tired to do anything at the moment. My hand is moving itself across the paper as if it has a will of its own and it's desperate to write some secret down so the world will not forget it...but there is no secret. I'm not worth anything, maybe I never was.

I remember when all was good in the world, was the dance really only yesterday night? Now I just sit here. There is nothing else to say. And so I listen. I hear the breeze flying over the sand swirling it around making pretty designs everywhere…And there is something else I hear, like music on the wind. What is that? I shall see.

The music was not music. Kind of an oxymoronic statement but that's ok, you won't tell will you? Ha! Listen to me…I'm just nervous.

The music that was not music was…something else. There were people making the 'music' and they are still making this hellish noise that eats you alive, it sucks all of the warm out of a person and right now I am huddled up against Reme hoping that the people making that noise would just leave!

They haven't noticed us yet but that doesn't mean anything…the pit we dug isn't all that deep, someone could stray from the main group any second now and notice us here. They aren't good people or whatever sort of beings they are, I don't know how I know I just do but we must somehow get out of here.

We must escape.

I can still hear the music from here and it gives me the shivers every time I think about our near escape. So this is what happened; we were all crouched done in the hole when suddenly Windal jerked wide awake. I don't know what possessed her but suddenly she gave a wild, wordless scream!

The music that isn't music got louder and heavy foot steps pounded in our direction. Reme jumped to his feet, my pen raised as some sort of weapon. Unfortunately, I had been sitting on Reme's lap and so I came up with him.

The things running toward us looked like people, except their eyes burned red and their skin was so white they looked as if they were the walking dead. My voice mingled with Windal's as I too gave a loud cry.

Kendai and Sheath proceeded to stand as well, makeshift weapons raised they posed to fight. The weird beings that Reme would later tell me were albinos (?) looked down upon us as if we were food. The music stopped abruptly for a second, the moment of silence before the storm.

Windal ran like a mad person out of the pit and up to the albinos. She screeched and yelled and stomped up and down upon the ground. Reme looked at me about this time, and I met his eyes. The scene before us was so comical we would have laughed at another time…if we didn't think that our lives could be in danger.

Suddenly the albinos started backing away. They made some weird noise and I think they might have been laughing. Those weren't human albinos whatever they were!

Then the music that wasn't music got louder and louder and louder until I thought my ear lobes were sure to pop! Reme, Kendai, Sheath, and I ran off in the opposite direction as fast as we could. Windal followed us quite closely behind.

Then, it just stopped. I took my hands from my ears and looked back and the albino things were gone as was the music. Windal stood just behind us and we all turned to look at the little girl. She responded with a large, childish grin and then we all looked back to where the albinos had been.

The music began again a little while ago but we all agree that the things won't bother us anymore; Windal did something odd and scared them away or something. Or so we hope.