I’m on the run. My breaths come in short, feeble gasps as I stumble over tree roots and my face is bombarded by vines hanging from trees. My vision is blurry – I’m squinting at shapes in the distance, bracing myself for the inevitable fall. And I’m sweating. The jungle is hot, humid, and unfriendly.
The heat. It’s getting to me, and I frantically shuffle along because I’m out of breath, looking for a river, a stream, anything. I need water before I fall unconscious. And I’m already getting delirious.
As the shapes in front of me start to waver and the black creeps in from the corner of my eyes, I make one last mad dash to something moving straight ahead. Could it be? Sounds of a stream fill the air, so loud they ring my ears like the bells of a watchtower. I tell myself to keep going forward, just ten more steps. Nine, eight, seven, six, five, four…and then the darkness takes over.
I wake up with strange sounds around me. It’s nightmarish – screams, cries, a cacophony of noise. Delirious, I try to sit up, move a limb, blink my eyes. But I can’t. There’s a force on my chest, and it’s heavy, almost crushing, and I start to panic while struggling in vain to get up. I need to make it to that water.
Then I feel it. First, the sensation is similar to being out in the sun for too long. Next, it grows stronger, a heat that envelopes my face, neck, and entire body. I try to scream, but words don’t come out. By now, my mind is yelling in top-decibel form, trying to get even a small utterance out from my lips.
The fire comes quick, and I brace for the impact. In a moment of clarity, my vision returns and I see everything around me – the dense trees, the soil on the ground, the river behind me.
And suddenly, I sit up, back in the bedroom in my apartment. The jungle melts away around me and fills with my posters and furniture. I glance over at my table – there’s a bottle of water, gleaming with beads of water from the coolness inside. I make a lunge for it and down it. A quick glance at my thermometer and my fever’s still hot. I slowly get up and head into the bathroom for a cold shower.
—
On the run at randomtidbitsofthought.wordpress.com.
