Impending Inevitability

Earth crunched beneath the weight of heavy boots trekking across once plentiful fields. Dust billowed into the air. Everything here was different. Photographs, the few that were left, portrayed this land as green and flourishing but the decimation was clear. She grimaced. There was nothing ugly about the desert itself. It was merely the harsh truth, the landscape a perfect picture of continuing destruction. Ever growing sandy plains represented nothing more than death.

Searing hot sand covered her back as she plummeted to the ground. At least the gravity was unchanging. Borden, her scavenging partner, tapped against the glass of her helmet.

"Are you alive?"

"Are any of us?" She sighed heavily as she pushed herself upright. These days it was unsafe to travel outside of the oasis without protection. The heavy suits were light- colored, mildly heat resistant, and provided sufficient coverage from the sun though stepping into one felt foreboding and disgusting. Unfortunately they were necessary for the role they provided in the community. Borden had proven to have one talent regarding his strength, so it was Lilah's responsibility to identify and collect edibleplants. If they were lucky they could snatch a few scorpions or a snake. Mostly cacti and weeds.

"Here. Carry this." She flung a small cactus in his direction. He ducked, slipping in the loose sand. Desert dust plumed in all directions, completely engulfing him. Borden huffed before quickly hopping back to his feet and hoisting it onto his shoulder. Lilah wiped the dust from her face cover, shielding her eyes from a glaring light shining directly into them. She squinted in an attempt to identify the source to no avail. Where was it coming from? She stuck her hand out in the general direction, recklessly skimming the surface blindly at the base of the cactus stump until it met something. A pointy cactus needle sank through her glove and deep into the side of her hand ushering a wince. She jerked away causing the needle to disconnect from it's parent plant. In a last stitch effort to find the object she raked her fingers through the dirt when they finally grasped a solid object.

"What is that?"

Borden startled the young woman. She had completely forgotten about him. He narrowed his eyes at her attempting to get a better look at the thing. As a first reaction, she let go of it, allowing whatever it was to slide down her arm and into her sleeve where it was safely out of sight. The Elders considered stray pieces of the past debris and Bordenwould confiscate it. A burning pain bloomed near her elbow as it stuck to her skin, but she did her best to remain stoic.

"A cactus needle, make yourself useful and bring me your tweezers." He grunted in his manly "don't tell me what to do" style before rummaging through his pack. She hadn't lied. The needle happened to be the most urgent matter at hand. She giggled at her own joke earning a concerned look from her partner.

Borden not-so-gently yanked the cactus needle from her pinky where it had lodged itself. "It's about time we head back. I think the heat is getting to you."

Pointing out they had only been active for an hour would delay satisfying her curiosity, so she kept her mouth shut and followed Borden back to camp.

The walk back always seemed twice as long and by the time the two reached the edge their muscles were beginning to feel it. Fatigue lingered in the air precariously threatening to take them down at any moment and trudging through the thick foliage was no easy feat. Dust morphed into a thick layer of moss, caking the bottom of their boots the closer they traveled to center. It was calming, the squish of their steps, the subtle pull as they took the next one.

Squish...squish...squish…

Plop.

"Did you hear that?" Before she could confirm a plumpslimy toad leaped across their path. Lilah's arm shot out almost involuntarily, capturing the vibrant green creature before it could land opposite them. "Lilah! He could be poisonous!" She stared back at Borden puzzled.

"...but now I have a frog."

"You could have died."

"Frog." She repeated, holding it up towards him. He glared at her for a moment longer provoking the deepest eye roll she could muster. "What!? I could die!?" She gasped exaggeratedly, quickly transitioning to a blank expression. "Imagine that."

"You are so reckless. I have never met anyone with less regard for their life."

"You take everything too seriously." She petted the toad, the amphibian returning a low croak. "You could put in all this work and still die tomorrow. The human race is finite and we are well on our way out."

Borden decided he had nothing left to say, choosing to charge ahead. He was right. So much so that Lilah was certain his real task was to keep her from dying due to constantly ignoring her survival instincts. She just could not see the point in wasting a single hour fretting whether or not you were going to die when you were only surviving in the first place. Borden was older. Perhaps he had hope, something from before to hold on to.

Lilah returned her small friend to the bottom layer as they broke the tree line to the beach and waved as he hopped away.

"Good job, Team 2." Will, a leader of sorts, came to collect the cactus and a few other plants they had gathered before running off to the medical tent where most of them would be utilized. Lilah brushed off the mediocre 'go team' and jogged away to her own tent. Tent was a loose translation, Fort being much closer to reality. Four sticks about as tall as she held up a large piece of discarded fabric assumed to have been the sail of a ship once. It was sufficient.

A welcomed breeze rushed across her face as she stripped off the protection suit and collapsed to the floor. She was exhausted and an incessant itching had developed in her upper forearm. She groaned loudly, willing her sore muscles to scratch it. This proved to be a bad idea. The sensation of ripping away skin shot down her arm as something fell with a tiny metallic tink.

She had almost forgotten the object she found. It was a silver necklace with a small heart pendant dangling from it. That explained the burning. The ornate jewelry piqued her curiosity, but bliss was short-lived as she soon heard Will calling for Evening Meeting. She tossed the necklace to her makeshift side table and stumbled out of her sleeping quarters to find Will with the other five elders who were impatiently waiting for village members to congregate.

"We have some problems to address this sundown."

Fantastic.

Members huddled round The Elders to hear. "Many of us are not pulling our weight, particularly the younger of us." Will sent a glance in her direction as if to warn her something awful was coming next.

Here itcomes.

"Lilah, it's come to our attention you've been acting rather recklessly." Mitchell, another elder, began. "You caught a frog earlier without firstexamining to see if it was poisonous?"

"Technically, he was a toad." I also didn't know my partner was a snitch.

"Yes. Well what would happen if you were to drop dead?"

" I'd be dead."

"That's one less person to provide for the village. You're supposed to be assigned a breeding companion soon. What of our population?" She outwardly cringed. "You have duties and responsibilities. I see you have a burn, have you been treated?" She glanced down at her arm. He was right. There was a nasty heart shaped burn on the inside of her forearm. Nearly gagging at the hypocrisy she stood and retreated back to her domain. She was done for the day. Lilah unlatched the square hatch she had cut in the ceiling long ago, huffing and returning to the floor. Dark was coming on quickly and the night sky would be here soon. Whenever she had a rough day it was soothing to watch it swirl and twinkle. Remembering her charming find she crawled to her side table to retrieve it. She spun it, finding a latch on the side. It opened to display a small picture of a young man and woman. Though she did not understand it she found the sentiment endearing. There was something timeless there. Lilah twirled the pendant, scrutinizing the couple as she fumed. As if they had the right to reprimand her for not caring. The Elders were just as much at fault as the younger, if not more. She was born into this too late. Their scientists warned them for decades before humanity arrived at a moment in time where there was nothing more than staving off extinction by the day. They had chances. They had eighty years of chances. Still an entire species had been reduced to scavenging for scraps of whatever they had not taken to begin with. Many more species were cut down and destroyed at their hands. Civilization was humanity's futile attempt to separate ourselves from the wild when we were the savages. This couple had hopes of being remembered, cherished by their descendants. Though time ravaged most things they had sped up the process. It filled her with a festering contempt that these strangers would not have that simple wish. Lilah clutched the silver heart to her chest, content with her lack of delusion, and closed her eyes with the knowledge that few things were infinite and the villagers would not be one of them.