Chapter 5: Sandstorm

Chapter 5 - Sandstorm Out in the sky which had sparse clouds and much sunlight, there was a sudden flash of light followed by the strange sight of what seemed to be an egg two times the size of an adult male falling through the sky at an increasingly fast speed.

BOOM!!

The object finally collided with the ground, forming a huge crater a few meters deep.

Shhhhhh....

The lid of the egg-shaped pod opened up to reveal a confused and slightly disoriented Kieran who fell down the moment he took a step out due to his lack of balance.

Normally, he was only supposed to wake up a few minutes after the landing of the pod but the knockout gas seemed to have limited effect on Kieran as he had woken up in the pod a few seconds before the collision with the ground. Luckily, the pod seemed to be designed such that the impact of collision wouldn't affect the occupant.

Regaining his balance, Kieran stood up and felt a gust of hot air hit his face. Looking around him, he saw a stretch of endless white sand with blue flames burning in different spots in the distance.

'A desert!'

Kieran was rather surprised, he had heard of the few remaining deserts; one of the few places that hadn't been affected by the human technological expansion, but he never thought he would be standing on one, but one strange thing he had never heard was the blue flames burning in the distance but he wasn't knowledgeable enough on the matter to conclude.

His brows furrowed and his eyes narrowed as his surprise turned into confusion.

'I was supposed to be taken to a military boot camp, why the hell am I in the desert then?' his frown deepening.

'Unless the camp is...' Kieran eliminated that thought as he looked around and couldn't see any structure in the distance.

"What am I to do now!" he spoke out loud with his increasing frustration.

«landing successful»

«Host awake»

«processing mission in a few seconds.... »

«please wait»

A cold metallic voice resounded in the silence of the desert, causing Kieran's head to snap towards the source: the pod.

Slowly, he walked towards it; the moment he touched it, the voice rang out once again, causing him to take his hand back in surprise.

«mission processed»

«Host is to reach base in forty-eight hours»

«Host is expected to do this with the aid of the navigator»

At the mention of a navigator, Kieran looked around and found something looking like a watch in a compartment at the lower left side of the pod.

Putting the watch on, an arrow appeared along with a countdown.

After putting the navigator on the metallic voice resounded once again like it had been waiting for him to complete that step.

«Host is to survive forty-eight hours with the navigator and a survival kit»

«Good luck»

The pod repeated the 'mission' one last time with some more detail before becoming silent again.

Clack!

Another hidden compartment was revealed and Kieran found the mentioned survival kit.

It was a typical survival kit with a dagger, dried rations, some bandages, and disinfectant which was meant to be used to perform emergency first aid in the cases of minor injuries.

'it's like some kind of test.' Kieran had never heard of a test like this just to get into military boot camp, but that was the least of his worries.

The rations he had could only last for roughly a day, he had to get to the base mentioned.

Looking at the pod and the great expanse of white sand in front of him one last time, Kieran started to move in the direction the arrow on the navigator pointed.

THE SCARLET MANSION

Richard and the group of friends could all be seen standing with their heads facing downward; a lot of them could be seen trembling in fear as Lord Scarlet, Richard's father, looked down on them.

Richard's father was a man who looked to be in his early thirties; he, like his son, shared the characteristic red hair and eyes of the Scarlet family.

Viscount Hawkins had heard about the fight in the abandoned building; to say he was disappointed was an understatement; he was even more pissed at the fact that his son lost to the commoner.

"You can leave; I'll have a word with your parents later." The group of boys walked out of the hall with shaky legs and sweat on their heads.

With all the boys gone, Lord Hawkins stared at his son Richard who remained present.

"Kneel!" his icy voice could be heard throughout the room.

Richard, not daring to disrespect his father, did as he was told, with veins popping in his head.

'All this because if one commoner', he thought, his face filled with resentment.

"You acted poorly, staining the reputation of the Scarlet family"

"But most importantly, you lost! And to a filthy commoner at that!"

Richard bent his head lower at that, his fists tightening as a wave of shame washed over him.

"If only you were like your sister", the lord sighed.

The mention of his sister made his body tremble.

"I've decided! You'll be going to the origin boot camp; after a proper remodeling there, maybe they'll consider recruiting you."

Richard's head shot up at the mention of Origin boot camp. There was little to no information about that boot camp, even among the nobles, but no rumor of them was good.

'He wants to send me to that hell of a place. Hmph! I don't even want to be recruited by those bloody bastards.

'All of this is happening because of that commoner, Kieran' His eyes reddened at the cause of his predicament.

"You'll be leaving tomorrow" his father ordered.

Richard didn't want any of this, but he couldn't refute his father's decision. With a rough nod, he stood up and walked out of the hall, leaving lord Hawkins alone with his thoughts.

The wind howled loudly as grains of white sand flowed in its direction, which slowly led to a mini sand storm. Deep in this sandstorm, a lonely figure could be seen struggling against the wind, which continued to push him back.

Kieran's face was wrapped with a thick scarf with a slight space at the location of his eyes so he could determine which direction to move in; it had only been 5 hours since he landed in this strange desert.

After walking a considerable distance in the direction given by the device, he still hadn't seen any trace of activity which could betray the presence of a camp, still, he hadn't lost hope, if he was to be killed, he didn't think anyone had to go through this stress to do it, which meant that there was a camp further ahead in the specified direction.

Besides he was given forty-eight hours and only five had passed, what worried him was the rations provided, the rations were only enough to last a day, and if he decided to be stringent, it would only last a few more hours, normally, this wouldn't be enough to make him worried a fast wasn't that much of a deal but coupled with the harsh temperature and the rate at which he lost water, it was deadly.

Looking at his remaining water reserve, his face darkened, he might be later forced to drink his urine.

After walking for a few more hours, the sky started to darken; feeling the goosebumps on his arms and the shiver that ran through him, he noticed the sharp temperature change. He knew about the extreme weather changes in the desert, and thus, he knew it wasn't this extreme. Something about this desert seemed off; he had seen some of the vegetation, and they varied vastly from what he had been taught in school.

Rubbing his shoulders due to the temperature which had suddenly dropped lower, Kieran snapped out of his thoughts and continued moving forward, this time, to find a suitable place for the night.

A few minutes later, he saw something different from the plain and cast sand that had occupied his vision for the past hours; in the distance was what faintly looked like a gathering of rocks.

He was currently too far to see what it was clearly, but chose to move in that direction regardless; it was better than the plain white sand, which offered no cover for the cold wind that had started to pick up.

Picking up his pace, he rushed towards the faint figure in the distance. As the figure gradually became closer, the intensity of the wind also changed, becoming harsher, whipping grains up grains of sand, reducing his visibility; Kieran paused to adjust the scarf tied around his head. Having done that, he continued his march in the direction of what he hoped to be at least a cluster of huge rocks.

Steadily, the wind increased in intensity and was slowly starting to show signs of becoming an actual sand storm, unlike the one that appeared earlier during the day.

'Fuck!'

Seeing the increasingly worsening conditions, Kieran sped up once more, but the cold reduced his speed, and the sand carried by the heavy wind reduced his visibility to a few meters; having to move against the wind didn't help either.

Despite having memorized the general direction, Kieran only grew more worried.

RUMBLE!!! BANG

Lightning flashes shone brightly through the veil of sand, followed by the low rumble and explosive blast of thunder.

Things were starting to get bad, the storm had once again increased in intensity as his already poor vision worsened, the sheer force of the wind pushing him back, threatening to lift him off his feet, with each step he took, he felt his life flash before his eyes, terrifying him and worse, he felt like the storm hadn't reached its peak yet.

Luckily, after struggling for so long he estimated to be just a few meters short of the cluster of rocks.

Feeling the force of the wind hitting him reduce, he felt more reassured by this thought. With his determination back up along with a rush of adrenaline, he managed to make that final push and reach the cluster of rocks.

He immediately felt the wind reduce, turning his back and resting on the huge rock which was strangely curved like a small cave. The rock was enough to block the wind from more than one direction but not enough to protect him fully from the effects of the storm; he slid down slowly onto the sand, coughing rigorously.

COUGH!! COUGH!!! COUGH!!

Calming down, he wiped the sweat off his face despite the extremely cold temperature. Gazing at the silvery moon, which seemed ethereal, he noticed something that made him start to sweat once more, and his facial muscles contracted in surprise.

The moon seemed to be about to split into two.

Kieran watched with an increasingly surprised and cautious expression as he watched the moon slowly split into two smaller individual moons.

Tearing his gaze away, Kieran curled up his knees and arms to better resist the storm, which had no intention of stopping anytime soon.

He had to accept it; coupled with the strange vegetation and over-the-top weather changes, the sight of the moon splitting had confirmed his speculations.

He wasn't on Earth anymore....