I was walking home from a particularly difficult day of school when it happened. It was cloudy and there were people everywhere. Except that they weren’t people. It was a faceless crowd of bodies, people coming and going from their everyday lives. Until I heard someone run up behind me and whisper, “run,” in my ear. I whipped around and saw a figure in a dark trench coat running around the corner. Disregarding him as crazy I continued walking. That’s when they struck, in their own way.

Two men walked up on either side of me, a big man on the left and shorter man with glasses on the right. The shorter man says, “Jack Reid? We have some questions to ask you.” The bigger man then steered me into a café.

After taking a drink of coffee the man started asking me questions. The last thing I remember is his big hooked nose, his large glasses, and bright green eyes. Then I woke up.

The first thing I noticed was the searing bright light and the intense heat. The next thing that struck me was the thirst clawing at my throat. Once my eyes adjusted to the harsh sun I noticed the barren wasteland I was trapped in. Nothing. Nothing for miles, except for a blur of a possible building in the distance.

I started walking to the only thing I could see, the building, not knowing it was the very place I had escaped from. My first thought after beginning my trek was water. “I need water,” I kept saying over and over to myself.

Shortly after noon, judging by the sun blazing overhead, I saw a flicker of movement ahead. When I looked more closely it was nothing. Once again I saw movement out of the corner of my eye, this time to the right. My curiosity urged me towards it, but again it was nothing after a second look. This time when I was movement I ran towards it and found what looked like a gopher hole. I stood up and discovered I had now lost my only reference point, the building. The gophers and the hope of their water source had distracted me from my only real hope.

Now truly lost with the sun setting I decided to stay put and sleep. That night all I dreamt of was swimming in my grandparent’s pool and sleeping in my bed. I woke up sometime in the middle of the night freezing. I was wearing only the thin gray pants and long sleeve shirt I had found myself in. There was a deep throbbing in my head; the dehydration was getting to me. I also felt the pain of sunburn stinging my skin and the sticky dryness in the back of my thrat. It was then that I realized I wouldn’t survive another day of the heat without water. After what felt like an eternity of lying awake I heard a low buzzing. It got louder and louder until I saw the lights of a helicopter fly right over my head. Sleep overcame me while listening to the drone of the helicopter’s blades.

Just as the sky began to brighten I awoke and set off knowing I wouldn’t live to see another day without finding water. I found a cactus and split it open with a rock and chewed on the pulp inside. It tasted terrible but I received enough water to cool my throat and tongue.

I stumbled along still tasting the water when I tripped over a rock. I looked up directly into the eyes of a banana yellow polar bear. It looks at me for what seemed like an eternity as I awaited my demise. Then it turned around and lumbered about 20 feet and looked back at me. Reluctantly I got up and followed. Every so often the bear would turn around and glance back to make sure I was following.

I followed the bear for some time until it didn’t wait for me any longer. It ran off without me. Once again I was alone. Figuring it was the best course of action I continued to follow the bear’s tracks to an interesting sight. His tracks suddenly split. They then appeared to turn into the footprints of a man. One led to what looked to be the same building I was walking towards in the first place. The other prints led to an oasis with huge banana trees with bananas bigger than me hanging from the topmost branches. The only thing left was to decide which path to take.