Lost in the desert
St. Mark’s School, Gordon Lee, Fiction: Group 4
O
asis. Oasis.
The word just kept repeating inside the man’s head. He was thirsty. He needed water
as soon as possible. He felt like he was dying, and the truth is, he probably really was.
He was originally an archaeologist, here to dig up dinosaurs. He was in the dig site
when the sandstorm came. It was silent, it was shift and it struck mercilessly. There was no time
to run away, there was no time to react. He just stumbled into the nearest hiding place he could
find, and he hid there. He closed his eyes, and waited for what seemed like an eternity.
Then when he finally opened his eyes, there was nothing but sand. No sign of the dig site. No
sign of his friends. No sign of his camp. Nothing but desert. A vast landscape of nothing but sand,
spreading out in every direction. There was no indication of any kind of direction, there was no
indication of anything.
He walked and walked. He just kept walking. But he may just as well have stood still for no
matter how long he walked, in which direction he walked, there was still nothing but desert.
From the gusts of gentle wind, even his previous footsteps had been covered, leaving not even an
indication of where he came from. The sun was draining both water and motivation from him, as
he walked slower and slower, until he just collapsed on the sand, exhausted. When he woke, he
felt even worse than he had before, but he continued walking. And he walked for 2 days.
He was on the verge of death, when he saw the first sign of change. It was a patch of
greenness, a piece of hope and survival.
At that time, the image of his daughter flashed in front of him. He promised her that this
would be his final field visit. He was going to retire, and he was going to spend the remaining
time with his family, whom he had neglected. ‘No, not now, not here.’
‘An Oasis! I must get there!’
With his last bit of strength, he stood up. He limped weakly as fast as he can towards the
green heaven that he seeks.
The oasis was in sight! It is so real, so clear! Then like a puff of smoke, it vanished. It had
been nothing but a mirage. A false hope, a misleading beacon.
He collapsed in desperation.
‘What now?’ He thought in desperation.
‘A mirage is an optical illusion. An optical illusion cannot be created without a source. So if
there is a mirage, the real oasis must be somewhere close.’
He looked around. There was no sign to tell him where to go. He could either be walking
towards the oasis, or walking away from it.
‘If I do nothing, I will never see my daughter again!’ He kept walking in that random direction.
Not long afterwards, the oasis reappeared in the horizon. He blinked his eyes: could it be
another mirage?
It turned out that luck was with him this time around. It was an oasis. It was abandoned, there
was not much left there. But there was more than enough for him.
For the first time in the few days, he could see hope.
For the first time, he found a path. The road ahead was old, was in disrepair, and it was not
