Trip in a desert

[Elvinos2003]

Day two
The corsair woke up in sweat after a nightmare. In her nightmare, she saw an execution. It was not an execution of an unknown person but someone she knew. Her heart was compressed when she saw the head rolling on the ground. Suddenly gained by a willing to vomit, Nina unzipped the tent, walked a bit away and vomited. The woman glared for some seconds at the ground trying to breathe normally. The images of her nightmare were clear. After some minutes to focus on now, Nina redressed her position and walked toward her ship to get a bag of ration. Arrived at the gladiator entrance, the Corsair entered in the ship. Her first action was to turn on the radio device. It was again the same channel. The Canal Uno. It was about farming and it was something she did not pay attention to. Suddenly, the radio began to be messy. There was noise as if the signal was getting weaker due to an interference caused by an object or but during that day, it was just a cloudy sky. Her imagination forced her to believe it could be someone trying to reach her. Unsure, she turned it off, grabbed the bag and left the ship heading to the tent. She carefully put the ration bag at the empty space of the tent, unzipped it, grabbed a plastic bag containing dried meat, opened it, dived her right hand to finally grab a piece of meat and ate it. It was surprisingly good. The woman got out of the tent, sat nearby and looked at the horizon.

While she was eating and looking at the horizon of the landscape, a thought hit her. She imagined how wonderful it would be to do ‘camping’ with someone. ’’*sigh* Traudel… I wonder how are you today…’’ Still looking at the infinite horizon and thinking about what to do, a little sensation on her right knee caught her attention. It was an insect, a scorpion. She froze on place. Scorpions are a venomous insect and on Planet Crete, the species can thread the life of a man. Depending on the morphology, it can take two strikes to kill an adult and one to children. The scorpion was black, six legs, two little claws and a big tail, a sign that the insect was venomous. It was walking toward her belly. The Corsair brought her right hand before the scorpion as an invitation to embark. Trying to calm down a bit, Nina breathed deeply and once the insect in the palm of her hand, it stopped moving and changed direction toward her shoulder. Nina panicked, put down the plastic bag containing the dried meat, brought her left hand toward the scorpion to block its way but it climbed on the left hand. The woman stood up fast, ran to find a place where to bring the scorpion. While she was running, the scorpion was moving. It made the race hard for Nina and after five minutes, she found a spot where she could drop the insect. In her hand, the scorpion tried to be on her arm but before, Nina was bringing her right arm on which the scorpion was behind and she did a violent movement as if she was smashing and the scorpion followed the movement. When it was on the ground, Nina smashed it with her boots violently. She hated scorpions. After she calmed down, she returned to her camp zone. The plastic bag was still there. She sat again, grabbed the bag and restarted eating.

The night was coming and the clouds let place to stars. Nina Rodriguez was lying on the ground, her hands behind her head as a pillow. ’’*sigh* Second day in this desert. Living like this, is it better than- Whatever. At least, there’s no one around to bore me.’’ The night was silent. The only one making noise was the Corsair when she talked openly. ’’If I stay here for a month, will you consider me dead, Traudel? Or… will you be stressed again because you have no news from me? Believe me, I’d like to be with you. But I can’t. Not only because Cesar wants me to be outside of Rheinland. There’s also the fact that I felt something… Maybe it would be better if we didn’t meet during that day?’’ She freed her left arm, raised it toward the sky. ’’We can’t change the past… I need to face it. I got softened because of you and your little protege, Frieda. Why are people like you in the Military? You are both too kind for this… And, your kindness, it changed me. Being at your sides is dangerous…’’ Hours passed and it was getting late. Nina stood up, walked toward her tent and entered inside. She zipped the entrance and laid in the sleeping bag. The woman closed her eyes and fell asleep.

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