I looked up… only to see the blazing sun. It's been 3 days walking through the desert, the hot air filling our lungs. I'm tired and dehydrated, sweating out any of the water I had left. I don't know how I got here, just that I've been walking in what seems like circles. I came to the desert to find the tomb of a dead civilization, but there was nothing.
“Do you have any left?” asked my partner
“No” I replied, I don't know his name just that he isn't from here. He came to the desert for the same reason I did. We came in on the same plane, I remember seeing him with a group of people, what happened to them?
A week earlier I was sitting at the LAX airport, I had just gotten into the best program for historians. We sat around waiting for our plane to start boarding,
“When is the plane supposed to get here?” asked Steph, she was my best friend, she had beautiful black hair and big blue eyes. I've known her since kindergarten and we were as close as could be, but she moved away when we went to high school. She moved to the city and went to an expensive private school. I guess we just grew apart.
“Hello, I said. Did you see that?” the man said to me, I had dozed off for a bit when we sat down to get some rest? It was dark now, the sun was setting and the air was ice cold, so cold you could see your breath in the air.
“No, I wasn't paying attention”
“There’s someone over there,” he says as he points to the distance, I look over to see nothing, not a thing but sand.
“You're just seeing things, get some sleep, we’ve been walking forever now,” what if he was right, what if someone was out there…

The next morning I wake up, same as yesterday, the bright orange sun, burning the yellow sand. I look around to see where we are, the middle of nowhere. Out of the corner, I see something dash by. I get shivers down my spine, what was that? As I slowly stand up I see my partner still sleeping on the ground. That's weird, he usually wakes up before me. I shrug it off and go to look for something to eat or drink. There's a little tree in the distance. As I start to walk towards it, I hear the sounds of animals in the distance. Up and over the hill there are small plants and little fish in the pond by the tree.
In the distance, I see a girl, probably my age, sitting at the edge of the pond. As I stare for a little longer, I know her. I’ve seen that face before.
“Steph?” I whisper as everything goes black.