prompt: write a creative short story
please kindly give me your ideas = w =
my writing:
"Help! Anyone here?"
Joshua ran helplessly around the burning Jeep, screaming, but he barely heard himself because of the sheer wind and openness. Behind him was a deep blue sky and golden sand stretching to horizon.
"Help! Anyone here?" he went hysterical.
It was Sahara, the mighty desert. Joshua was a soldier and also a desert driver on mission to ship medicine from Egypt to Libya across the vast waterless expanses but the car crashed and burst after 34 hours of driving. Radio equipment, medicine, food, water and every other thing were all burnt in the burst. He managed to get out before the flame licked the cockpit and right after he jumped out, fire reached the engine.
"No! No! No!" he ran desperately around the Jeep. The toxic smoke was blown towards him, choking him to tears.
He kneeled down on the sand, burying his face in hands: "OH, good lord, how can I get the hell out of here?"
He remembered the time he kissed Jenny goodbye, he promised to come back safely. He looked up into the sky and tried to figure out the situation. He knew that the worst thing had happened-he had to walk out of here, by himself. He searched his pockets, there being only a map and a small knife. He sighed a deep sigh. He was never a truly brave man and the only reason why he was enlisted and dispatched to the mission was the non-optional obligation rendered by the war. However, there were no chance to back off but face up to the reality.
In the North lay the hostile Soudkaf; the East and South was home to dangerous nomads, leaving one way to survive-to the West, going back home. However, though being only 34 hours of driving, it might be a 4 days' walk, a mission to tame the changeable and angry Sahara.
It was a trek across 5 dunes, a great journey covering hundreds of miles. Once lost halfway, there would be no going back. On thinking this, he shivered
Under the penetrating sun rays, Joshua's skin was severely burnt, red dots scattering over his neck and face. Since it would be a harsh and long campaign, losing water and energy too soon was not a smart choice, so he decided to go by night and rest by day.
He sat at the back of a dune which shielded the fierce sunlight. Facing the boundless desert, he felt desperate isolation and emptiness, literally, nothing. On the horizon, the sky was blue and purple with only small strips of clouds yearning for water but ending up being vaporized. Mountains of sand was glittering silently yet hiding its might deep underneath, leaving silver sands blown to the air and forming ripples on the ground, as if it were a golden lake lying at the heart of the Death Valley. Complete silence suffocated him with occasional sounds of wind creeping into his eardrums.
Finally came dusk. The sky was burning red, clouds were dancing with rosy veils, and the sun began to draw back its power and withdrew to the west, which pointed to the way home. Joshua hesitated. He looked into the fading sun.
"Am I gonna do this?" there was a little gobbling in his head, talking him to stay and wait for miracle: "Can I?"
Finally, he bit his parched lips and murmur: "Coward, what have you got to lose?"
He stood up to embark on the journey. The extreme dryness sucked away his sweat and tears.
When black curtain of night gradually sealed the sky, he accelerated his speed because from the depth of his heart, he was afraid of darkness and loneliness, which had been haunting him since childhood. He also knew that lingering for one more minute meant one minute closer to death. At night, the temperature dropped exponentially, freezing everything around. He was shaking like a horrified lamp and lips became purple. His legs got so numb that he felt nothing on them.
"Damn legs! Move! Move!" he shook his legs frequently to keep walking. Slowly, he found it difficult to catch his breath forcing him to pause. The minute he halted walking, he realized how exhausted he was. He fell down on his knees, locking his arms around his neck.
"For god's sake," tears burst out from his eye lips: "someone help me out here."
There was no answer. Only the steel-like sand tune, towering high above, looked at him, silently.
He sobbed quietly, and after a while, he stood up again, wiping his face and clenching his fists. He knew better than anyone: the only way out is by walking out of here. Summoning all gut in his heart, he went on his broad strides to cross the mighty Sahara. He climbed the 500 feet of dunes without physical assistance, poking his hands in the sand and hulling himself up. His fingers were badly worn out, blood emerging from nails.
After one night of trekking, Joshua climbed three dunes and a half but the biggest tasks still lied in front of him. He had exhausted all his energy. Tiredness, hunger and dehydration were persecuting his physical condition. He often fainted. Images in his eyes became blurred. Crawling beneath the sun, he bit his hands and pressed his stomach, trying to stifle his infirmity.
"I'm gonna die here. God, please take me quickly," his eyes closed, however, for the first time, all the good old days surfaced in his mind, Jenny, George, and Michal, the lovely cottages lining up on the way home and the exquisite Christmas dinner. Memories, like a rapid movie, pictures flashing before his eyes.
"Jenny, I miss you." As if it was hallucination, he heard Jenny's voice talking besides his ears: "I miss you too. Come back to me, baby. Come back safe."
"I'll come back. Wait for me, honey," the desire to get out reclaimed his mind.
"Jenny, I wanna eat somethin. I'm so hungry."
It was early dawn, desert insects were hastily finishing their desert hullabaloo and heading home-deep into the sand. A few yards away, a snow cricket was hopping. To Joshua, it was like the last straw. He plunged himself towards the cricket, waving his hands to smash the insect. He got it. When looked closely, it was still chirping, its palpus trembling, the six legs waving in the air. Joshua felt repulsive but he managed to put it in his mouth and chew it as if it were French brunch.
"Damn, it would taste better if I had any chili."
The cricket actually made Joshua feel better, emotionally actually. It empowered him to utilize his wilderness skills and courage to turn this seemingly lifeless desert into a collection of hidden cuisine. He searched for any creatures under rocks and sand. Suddenly, a crocodile-like figure came into sight. It was a lizard, a big one, 2-feet-long, with a blue tongue flicking out of its mouth. Under the shadow, it looked like a giant dragon. Instead of fear, Joshua felt hope.
"This is my only chance to live," he looked into the animal, "Joshua, go get it."
He crept to a high place and dove off to it. Unfortunately, he failed. The lizard was agile so when it detected any ominous sign, it ran away fast.
"No!" Joshua screamed and dashed, "No!"
He run after the lizard like running for life. He could hear his heart pounding loudly and heavily. Every step he made forward was stinging his body. His eyes were burning red, eyebrows more prominent, cheeks hollow, skin scorched. He could smell the sand melting in the heat and felt the calorie burning every minute. He jumped for another time, hopping like a tiger in dire need of food. He caught the lizard's tail, but the wild animal was no easy meal. It turned around and bit his finger, making his thumb to bleed. He felt no pain and instead, he lift the lizard, used the other hand to grab its head and gathered all energy left to break its backbone. The creature immediately went quiet. He tore away the rough skin and started biting, worrying the flesh and drinking the blood. At this moment, he no longer felt like a human being, but a wolf hunting on Sahara.
"Mom, where are you?" he recalled his childhood memories where his mother would always cook roasted chicken and make v cheese apple pies for him after school, while lying in front of him, was a skeleton of a desert lizard.
He waited in a shady place and watched the sun track the sky and decided to go on further, to home. Gradually he was no longer strong enough to walk so he crawled with his hands and feet. Sometimes winds blew up the sand, hitting on his face; sometimes, the extreme temperature and arid air tore his skin apart. He was no longer an energetic young man but a skinny creature wrapped in worn-out clothes.
"Do it, pal!" he raised his eye lips, smirking. His nails were ripped off on the way, bloods sometimes seeping out. He stuck his fingers in the sand and used his legs to heave himself up.
"You're gonna go home."
"You're gonna live, for another 100 years."
He made it to the top of one dune, feeble and dazed.
Suddenly, before his eyes emerged an image of plain savannah, a palm-lined oasis. The trees were swaying against the setting sun, slowly and elegantly. Small bushes were growing everywhere, turning the lifeless land into land of hope and dreams. A small brook was bubbling in the middle, sending water to a small rippling pond. A line of grazing camels were wandering about and their masters-a bunch of Muslim businessmen were sitting and talking besides.
Joshua could not recall any oasis on his way home.
The scenery shifted. He saw Jenny walk buoyantly towards him with the sleeping baby in her arms, kiss him on his forehead and stroke his hair.
He closed his eyes smiling, resting pleasantly and listening to a gentle whisper: "Dream a good dream."
