1 - Death

One - Death

  He was on his knees, defeated and exhausted.  The room was so blinding from its white-blue light that it made the approaching figure seem like only a blur.
  "I'll find you."  Said the blur.  "Nothing will stop me."
  He closed his eyes and saw her face.  Would I ever see her again?  
  The blur took a step closer.  
  He moved a trembling hand and felt cold polished steel under his palm.  Am I wrong?  Is this the only way?  But the answer was clear, the blur had left him no other choice.
  He mustered all of his remaining strength and pushed.  His eyes opened and every muscle tensed as a cold shock went through him.
  "I'll find you!"  The blur shouted as heavy static and burning white light filled the room.
  His eyes forced shut and he saw her face again.  And then there was nothing.


  His name was Rickard.  Rickard didn't know exactly how he knew the name, only that he vaguely remembered seeing it somewhere.  He repeated the name in his mind over and over again.  It seemed to be the only thing keeping him sane as he slowly crawled, endlessly, to nowhere.  My name is Rickard.
  His throat burned, his body ached, and his eyes were too dry for tears.  But the pain didn't matter, he would just come back and it would all start again.  He tried not to think of it, to think of what was coming soon.  Instead, he said his name in his head and continued to crawl.  He went three more feet and died.

  He gasped for air as his body brought him back to life.  The sun had gone down and the chill made him shiver.  He always had more strength when he came back, but never enough to stand.  So he knelt and looked about.  Still nothing, just more hills, yellow grass, and a few big boulders here and there.  The choice had been made a long time ago in which direction he would go and he couldn't change that now, he had gone too far, died too many times.
  At first, he was able to crawl fairly fast.  After four days his head began to hurt and his body started to ache.  Two more days and he was back to the slow crawl.  It did no good to just stop and wait for death, he did that the first few dozen times, but stopped as soon as he realized just how far the slow crawl would take him in the final days.  Eventually all of his strength was gone and he had to give up.
  His eyes were slowly closing when he saw something moving towards his face.  It took a moment to focus and realize what the creature was, a mouse.  He wondered how he knew that this creature was called a mouse.  He didn't seem to know anything else, other than his name.  That wasn't true, he had seen a few other animals during his voyage to nowhere.  A few other rodents, something that reminded him of a deer, and other animals he couldn't remember.  But no people, never any people.  The mouse was long gone when he died.

  Time was always a blur.  Days seemed like weeks, and weeks like years.  How long have I been doing this?  He couldn't remember where he started.  Why is this happening to me?  There were no answers.  The only option was to keep crawling and hope that one day he would find some food and water.  Or if he could find someone else, someone to help him find out who he was and what was happening to him.  But for now, it was more crawling.
  Once again his strength was leaving him and he could barely move.  He turned to lay on his back and looked up at the hot yellow sun in the sky.  He let his heavy eyes close and prepared himself for another end.  A loud shriek sounded above and his eyes opened to see a bird soaring through the sky.  A bird?  He couldn't remember seeing a bird before.  He liked the sound it made and focused to hear it again.  The bird didn't make another shriek, but he heard something else.  Water.  A stream or maybe a river.  He jumped up on his feet and a sharp pain made him stumbled back down.  A rush of excitement and adrenaline overcame him.  He stood up again, clinching his jaw, and began to run.  His legs were heavy but they kept moving.  Water.  It made sense, in the past few days the grass had been getting greener and there were more trees.  The stream seemed to appear out of nowhere.  He tripped on a rock and his ankle twisted.  The quick surge of second strength gone, he could barely move.  It didn't matter though, he had water.  This will be the last time.  He closed his eyes and his body went limp.  His mouth formed a small smile.
  My name is Rickard.