It was a fun vacation, he thought as the three if them piled into the car. It was time to return to reality. They had a long journey ahead of them and they were anxious to be done with it, to be able to sleep in their own beds for the first time in two weeks.
-- -- -- -- -- --
He could feel the immense heat burning into his flesh. Where is everyone? He thought. He tried to get out of the heat, but he was trapped. There was a scream, but he couldn't make out where it was coming from. It sounded like someone familiar was being tortured. He wanted to make the torture stop, but he was unable to move.
The heat disappeared, but he could still feel the searing pain all over his body. He was being lifted by something, but he was too out of it too try and figure out what it was, or where it was taking him.
Something bit him in the crease of his elbow and soon everything went dark.
-- -- -- -- -- --
He could finally open his eyes, but nothing seemed right. He was on a ship in the middle of the ocean, wearing an eye patch and pirate hat.
The wind hit him in the face, burning his eyes and his lungs when he tried to breathe in the air.
Mist from the water reached up and hit the air around him. He tried to feel it, but when he moved towards it, it pulled back, refusing to satisfy him with it's cool touch.
The sun beating down on him was fire on his skin. He could feel the burning rays as he tried relentlessly to immerse himself in the water. He closed his eyes in his frustration, and when he opened them again, the scene changed.
He was now in the middle of a scorching desert, pulling a handcart that sheltered all of his belongings. His family trudged on beside him. He looked around, searching for the two members missing from his party. He turned to his wife, tears streaking in the dirt on her face. He tried to ask her what had happened, seeing a burning pile from the corner of his eye, but there seemed to be something blocking his speech.
road, lying in a pool of red liquid. To his left was the overturned car, entrapping his other son. He
could hear the screaming again. It was coming from the car. He ran towards it. He had to try and
save him from suffering the same fate as the now lifeless body in the street. When he finally reached
it, it burst into flame and everything went black.
As soon as it was detached, his ability to breath became painful and barely there. The machines that he hadn't notices were attached to him started screaming.
-- -- -- -- -- --
The massive pain began to return. Something changed. He was no longer in a fog, pain-free state. He forced his eyes open. In front of him was a nurse, maliciously holding a needle to his IV line. "He's trying to kill me!" He thought, "Why is no one trying to stop the?"
He Couldn't remember when it was, or what had happened since his camping trip in the redwoods.
He searched for a familiar face, but all he could see were the distorted faces of the monstrous nurses.
Just then, his beautiful wife walked into the room. He tried to reach out to her, but as soon as he raised his arm, he saw his blackened skin. He wanted to ask what was happening, but something was blocking his speech.
He glanced down and there was what seemed to be a snake in his mouth. He bit down on it hard, bitting it in half.
-- -- -- -- -- --
They all sat around the campfire, all of them trying to keep warm in the unseasonably cool weather. He scanned the circle of family surrounding him. He didn't want to leave them. He loved his grandchildren very much, and with them living so far away, he hardly ever got to see them.
His sons, Hunter and Scott, sat next to him, roasting marshmallows.
"You're going to burn that," he informed Hunter
"I know, that's the way I like it," Hunter replied as he pulled out the flame-covered marshmallow.
He looked into the fire, mesmerized by the way it seemed to move on its own. It then started to change. Morphing back into another memory. A more recent, painful one.
He was standing in front of his burning expedition, trying to get the door open, ignoring the feeling of the flesh being burned off his hands and feet. He had to save him. He couldn't loose them both.
-- -- -- -- -- --
"Honey? Are you awake?" His wife asked him, pulling him away from his memories.
He looked up at her. He was still unable to talk, but there was no need to, she already knew what he wanted to ask.
"You were in a car accident, Scott fell asleep and the car rolled," she said, tears overflowing from her eyes. "No one else survived." He had to turn away; he was unable to bear the pain of remembering anymore. This would always be the reality he would wake up to. There would be no way to forget the pain of his loss.
