Chapter 1

- PRESENT -

Wheeze.

I exhaled. Consciousness hit me like a well-trained punch. Instantly, my brain was awake, yet everything was dark, it felt as though my body was covered in a heavy blanket, restricting my movements and filling every crevice. I couldn't even feel myself breathing… No, I wasn't breathing.

That's not good.

I tried to inhale through my nose but my chest was far too compacted… Something was blocking me on all sides.

I attempted to open my mouth slightly and instantly the substance began filling it.

Sand, I was encased in a tomb of sand.

Sand filled every crevice of my body, even ones I didn't know existed.

I slammed my mouth shut to prevent one of my last crevices from being filled and to stop myself from choking any more than I already was.

My oxygen-deprived brain shifted into DEFCON 5 as I began attempting to struggle through the sand.

My feet were stuck firmly in place, but my arms were able to move just slightly. I dug through the gritty sand in panicked silence.

Thank god, I'm right-side up.

Only a few seconds had passed, but every second of helpless struggle felt like an eternity, watching the oxygen I had left in the tank tick away.

I'm making progress, each jerk of my arm gives me a little bit more leeway.

I slowly but surely moved my arms upwards, but with each passing moment, my strength waned thinner.

I felt as though the darkness was going to retake me as the adrenaline surging through me faded.

Wind. I could feel the wind on the tip of my finger.

My arm was barely bent 45 degrees upwards which means… I'm not that deep. I can make it out.

Revived with a second wind, I quickly used my freed hand to grab at the loose ground and leverage myself up. With each pull, the sand around my body loosened.

BWAAAAA.

I inhaled deeper than I had in my entire life. I wasn't free, but my arms had loosened the surface enough for me to break my head through.

Covered in sand and looking straight up, I opened my eyes for the first time, freeing myself of the fresh dark hell I had found myself in.

A sky littered with gemstones.

I don't know what desert I found myself stranded in… But that sky was unlike anything I had ever seen before, no, it was similar to pictures I've seen of the milky way at night, but amplified to an unimaginable degree.

The night sky was the darkest black I've ever seen, split down the middle by an unimaginable purple galaxy. The past moment of panic escaped me as I stared at the sky in awe.

It was one of those moments that just seems to stretch on and on, the incredible sight entrancing me in a daze.

Pss Pss Pss

The deathly silence of the desert was cut by the sound of sliding sand, and a soft panting, coming from not all that far away.

My moment of awe had ended and with it returned the tangle of emotions that I had temporarily suppressed.

As I heard the sound of soft steps on the sand slowly inch closer, I began to quietly continue digging myself out of my sandy tomb. It seemed that, whatever it was, it hadn't yet noticed me, at least, that's what I hoped.

It was only once my neck had been excavated from the sand that I could begin to glimpse what it was.

A dog, well, something more akin to a desert coyote was limping past, nearly 400 meters away. Its white fur was matted against its skin, and its left hind leg was entirely missing, a non-negligible trail of blood was leaking from the blackened wound.

I heaved a sigh of relief as I continued to dig myself out, I think I should be safe for now.

I continued to watch the coyote as I continued my dig. Thankfully, the more movement I afforded, the easier the excavation became. It would only be a few minutes before I was fully out.

Briririring. The noise of my phone shutting down buzzed from my partially submerged pocket.

The Coyote's head swung towards me, its emerald green eyes brimming with desperation and… An unnerving hint of intelligence. For a moment, our eyes locked and the world froze. I couldn't move a muscle.

Grrr. The animal let out a low growl that cleansed my stun.

Without delay, I frantically resumed my fervent digging, clammy and sand-coated hands tearing away at the sand as fast as I possibly could.

At the same time, the dog launched itself into as much of a 3 legged sprint as it could muster towards me.

My vision alternated between the encasement of my legs and the approaching dog. Even with its lost leg, the dog couldn't be more than 20 seconds away, moving with a surprisingly strong gait considering its status.

When I looked back down at my progress, my heart froze. The hole I was digging myself out of was beginning to refill with sand, as the piles I had dug away relapsed back down.

I wasn't going to be able to dig anymore, the walls were too steep.

I was going to have to pull myself all the way out.

Did I have time to do that and still evade the coyote? It was nearly upon me at this point. No, I had to get out now, even if I managed to dodge with my upper body, it would be back on me from behind in seconds.

I shot my glance up, it was just meters away. Now or never.

The coyote hurled itself towards me, jaw spread wide with an intimidating set of teeth. Holding my hands tightly against the sand, I waited for the last moment before we made contact, and shoved the sand backward with my entire strength.

I did it. I did it!! My body was able to slide forward and out of the sand, sending me skittering across the desert floor. But more importantly, the mutt flew over my head by just a hair's breadth-

Chomp.

A searing pain spread through me as something bit into my shoulder.

Reflexively, I jolted my body, dislodging the bite before it could lodge itself any deeper.

What? I spun my head around to look at the new assailant. I was instantly met with another face full of coyote teeth. I barely had time to throw my arm in between it and my face before the feeling of enamel entering flesh struck me again.

This time the coyote bit hard, unwilling to let go. How the hell did that thing attack me again that fast?

Pain mixed with adrenaline as I swatted at my arm, desperately attempting to attack the crazed coyote. The coyote bit down harder, ruby-red blood dribbling down the side of my arm.

"Jesus christ- Get off of me!" I rasped out as I tangled with the animal.

Kicking and scratching and pulling. I looked at the gnawing dog frantically, searching for a way to make it let go.

An image of the animal's wounded leg popped into my mind. Instinctively, I kneed upwards towards it as hard as I could.

My knee made contact with its bloody leg wound.

EIP!

The dog cried out in pain as it lost its bite on me. Without its vice grip, it was launched into the sand, cradling its injury.

It glared at me with an aura of malice and fear.

You little... You attacked me first, then have the gall to give me that look when you get hurt? It's my turn to go on the offense.

I jolted towards the white-haired coyote, not giving it a moment to prepare.

It twitched backward, making a small just to create space before jumping back again, but this time it…?

Launched itself backward?

The coyote sprung off of the loose sand as if it had been double bounced on a trampoline. It flew quite a ways away, landing much more gracefully than I expected on the uneven terrain.

The animal took one last glance at me and scurried away, cutting its losses.

I was dumbfounded, staring at the spot it launched itself from, there was no way that it could possibly have launched itself like that from this sort of sand.

I could barely jump without my feet sinking into it. I approached the launch zone and kneeled down before touching the sand. T

o my surprise, the sand felt rubbery and elastic to the touch. Out of nowhere, it crumbled, the feeling faded back into the same coarse sand that littered the rest of the desert.

…

What?

Astonished at the sciency-defying sand, I stumbled back and landed hard on my ass.

In the distance, I could see the semblance of light peeking at the horizon and illuminating the desert and what the cover of darkness had hidden prior.

Lying directly ahead of me, countless miles away, was a mountain with a size comparable to anything in the Rockies, a mountain that was made up entirely of sand.

The memories that I hadn't even had time to recollect surfaced.

Oh.

Oh.

It worked.

It really worked. Our project worked. It really worked.

Caked in sand and blood, lost in an unfamiliar desert in a new world, I couldn't stop smiling.