It was the day, the day she would discover what her ancestors already knew. As she opened
her eyes to the dusty and humid air of the desert, she felt free. She looked around, seeing only
green electric trees, and no houses, only rivers. Wherever there was no river, there would be sand.
“3 days. 3 days in this beautiful, unknown place. 3 days.”
The sand felt different; it wasn’t golden brown like those on beaches; neither was it soft. It
was just black, and hard. There never seemed to be day; everything was black and dull. Electronic
mice were everywhere. As she took her phone out of her pocket, she began to search for her
destination. On her screen, the exact image appeared once again, the one she had been drawing.
Terrified, she threw her phone to the ground. It cracked and out flew the batteries. One source of
communication, down.
Exhausted, Anyan came to a halt, and after a tiring seven hour search for a bed, she gave up
and lay down, shivering. As she lay down, a twig dug into her arm and blood poured out. Too
tired to do anything, she let it be, and fell into a deep sleep.
Anyan woke up to the smell of blood, and the feeling of several toy mice licking her. To her
surprise, as she arose from her position and saw a huge hole in the ground, enough to fit two
people of her size. As she looked around, she realized what had happened: her scar was now
supper for the mice.
What she didn’t remember seeing last night however, was this huge hole in the middle of the
ground. Ignoring it, she realized; make up time! She took her Maybelline compact powder out, and
applied her third layer. As she admired herself in her mirror, she didn’t notice that she was sitting
half way into the hole. As she took out her dark pink shade of lipstick to apply, she slipped in the
hole, and down she went, down the deep, dark hole.
She landed in a pit of softness, and moving her flashlight, the light shone on the lush, brown
sand, and on top of it she sat, comfortable as ever. Slowly moving the torchlight up, she saw a
lamp. After a tedious search for the switch, she turned it on, and saw the most wondrous sight of
her life.
Around her lay millions and millions of pieces of shiny jewelry, worth the combination of
the richest treasures and gold. Fascinated, she walked in, deeper and deeper, and discovered a
door. On it, lay a trackpad, and above it, the words ‘Draw the secret pattern, if you are one of us.’
Confused, she drew a circle and hoped it would work. ‘Error’ was all it showed on the screen, and
so she started to play around. She drew a treasure box, some jewelry, necklaces; but none of them
worked. Leaning on the wall, she found a twig, and with it, she started drawing the figure in the
sand. That’s when it struck her. “That’s it! The secret pattern!” Screaming in joy, she ran to the
trackpad, and with her trembling fingers, drew in the logo.
The door swung open, and all around her lay cacti, camels, and lots of eremologists, all
speaking the patois of this desert. Each one was doing their work, so, taking a jeep, she went
desert driving. The ups and downs of the sand dunes felt so good inside a car, and after a relaxing
20 Mars Minutes, she returned.
Then, she was given her own personal camel and she headed off to explore the desert. Panting
* * *
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