FFM 2015: Restart

Seven days in the empty desert and I still haven’t found anything to drink.

The previous times there was always a cache of water at the abandoned shed on day two, but this time someone got to it first. I do my best to learn the patterns and avoid the inherent pitfalls ahead, but there are variables I cannot predict, and sometimes I just get dealt a bad hand.

I stumble and fall for the hundredth time today and discover that I am unable to get up. Death by dehydration. This one’s a first.

Lying facedown on the hard-packed ground, I hear footsteps approaching from behind and weakly turn my head to look up. There is a silhouette of a man against the sun. My nemesis, friend, and eternal rival in this god forsaken game.

I have been expecting him.

“Sayonara, Bill.”He says, and lifts a rock above his head.

I have enough time to cry out “Nononnonotyet—“ before everything goes dark.

The world resets, and I wake up in the middle of the desert with a dry mouth and the ghost of headache where the rock caved in my skull. I don’t waste any time, two days out there is a water cache with my name on it, and I’ll be damned if I let him get to it first.

This time things will be different.

But then, I always say that.