Oasis: Chapter 1

Chapter 1

Beginnings

Kari knew she was in trouble.

The nature of the trouble, she still didn't know.

It was just a sinking feeling, a barely constrained dread.

And she was a lone in a desert.

That was the weirdest part-there was no sun. Just a bright haze that filtered through what passed for clouds in this...place.

Kari fought the urge to panic.

Where was Tony?

Her husband was nowhere to be seen from her vantage point, which was really just a bare rock outcropping she had scaled easily from the desert sand below.

Easily, because gravity here was strange, too light.

There was just a dun, sandy color dotted with the burnt red ocher of the rocks. The shriveled, dried shrubs were sparse and the same color as the sand and the cracked earth.

Earth! She was not on Earth, Kari suddenly realized.

.......

Nights in the desert were supposed to be cold, but here it wasn't.

Not as hot as the day had been, but nowhere near what she expected. It was warm enough still that she could sleep comfortably-if she could sleep at all.

And sleep wasn't coming easily to Kari.

She had no fire to comfort her. There were dried out branches and bushes here and there to burn if she needed to. But unless whe needed to cook something, htere was no real reason for a fire.

She hada a lighter-she smoked after all-but there was no obvious food to be found in her viscinity anyway.

She had seen small lizard-things darting between rocks an bushes.

Not familiar with desert fauna, Kari didn't know what they might be, or if they were poisonous. Or how she would even catch one if she grew hungry enough.

Kari dozed on and off, but couldn't get any real rest.

Where are you, Tony??

It seemed more concerning to her than even the fact that she was somehow on an alien planet.

She wasn't ready for the implications of that, so she just concentrated on survival for the time being.

Water was Kari's biggest concern.

She had none with her-why would she? The last bit of normal memory was drifting off to sleep two nights ago, safe in her bed next to her childhood sweetheart, Tony Devin.

Kari had seen the oasis as she had walked aimlessly yesterday, before she realized she needed to just rest due to the heat and lack of water.

She should be searching at night, she suddenly realized. The heat was much less, and there were stars giving enough light to see by.

Kari got up, a little shakily.

Not good with directions (or did that even mean anything on an alietn world?), she started walking towards where she thought she had seen the little patch of greenery the day before.

It would take maybe a half hour or so to reach the area, she figured, although distance and even time seemed hard to judge in this place.

The little lizard-things scurried out of her way, but she realized they were heading in the same direction too. That was a good sign. They knew where the water was.

There were two large boulders, tall and thin, that were somewhat taller than she was, at the entrance to the small green plot of obviously man-made plot of greenery that surrounded the small pool of clear water.

MAN made? Kari was dubious. Were there men here, or something...else?

Since Kari had zero survival skills, she should have known this could easily be a trap, but she wasn't thinking along those lines. She was just thirsty!

She knelt at the pool and dunked her cupped hand in the cool water, drinking up as much as it too to satiate her thirst.

.......