2 Shouldering the storms

I walked for about ten kilometers in the direction I assumed to be East. Feeling like I was groping in the dark searching for something that I couldn't even put my finger on. It felt like I was trapped in a vast expanse of sandy wilderness. It was an uneventful walk. The sky was clear, still, I couldn't help but feel the chill in the wind now and then. I encountered nor animal nor plant in the distance that I walked. I was afraid I would get lost if I wandered any further than that, so I reluctantly turned around to retrace my steps back to the shelter.

Since the beginning of my predicament, I never wandered too far from the wrecked plane in the hope that somehow it could be tracked and they would start investigating whether there were any survivors, but I grew hopeless as days became weeks, somehow I never lost hope, thinking it was just a matter of time before I was found.

I was too deep in thought to notice the approaching sandstorm. It's funny how we tend to lose ourselves in the rising sun and ignore the gathering storm on the west. It was so massive it looked like the whole sand around the vast expanse of sand was on the move. I knew that I wouldn't be able to withstand the might of that storm. I had no choice but to turn tail and run for it, and that's exactly what I did. I always walked around with a scarf around my neck, so I just put it over the lower part of my face to cover my nose and mouth to protect myself from the storm that was catching up with me.

No matter how fast I ran, the storm was like a bloodhound and I felt like I was the unfortunate prey. I was running as fast as I could, but I knew I was going to be buried deep beneath the sand in no time at all. I felt like calling out to the Gods I never believed in, the ancestors that I never really gave a fuck about. I was mad at myself when my mind caught my heart screaming prayer to God I always viewed as a myth. I never really feared death, but I was not willing to die in isolation, to be erased in those wastelands as if I was wished out of existence by some powerful deity. The day seemed to darken as the storm caught up. The sand became overwhelming, but I couldn't give up just yet. I ran with my eyes closed, I knew I might survive the brunt of the storm if I could hold on until it thinned out. I felt like my foot stepped in a hole. I fell forward in the sand. I knew I was done for...