On an odyssey over an apple — Part 3

A travelers short story inspired by his journeys

That’s when it hit me. I left my apples inside the bus. My hands were full because I’d never leave my rucksack unattended, after a coining experience.

I was despondent. After all the closed village was still kilometres away along the ramshackle road. Now I had no more food, and I was dead tired.

In this area, it was impossible to pitch a tent. Moreover, my back was aching, thanks to the condition of the road which was straining me paired with the great suspension of the bus.

After some unsuccessful attempts to remedy the pain with some interesting stretching, rolling and bending exercises, I finally decided to throw something in for suppressing the pain.

Then I decided to follow the road. That was easier said than done in this enormous height of almost 4000 meters. I had yet no chance to adapt my body to the altitude. So I dragged myself laboriously forward, close to exhaustion.

After minutes or maybe hours of walking, without the feeling of moving forward, I was overcome by a kind of dizziness, which considerably affected my vision. In front of me stretched a steep dark wall of granite, which swallowed the dim ray of light into the darkness on which I seemed to be moving forward.

As an almost impermeable layer of clouds had pushed itself in front of the stars, I staggered almost blindly into the unknown. Only the moon remained. My pale yellow companion, which flickered like a torch between veils of clouds.

In the low bushes that had overgrown an area near the road, a shadow seemed to stare at me. I paused, watching the spots for any movement. My impaired perception seemed to me to be merely a prank.

Just as I turned away, I saw several spots lighting up out in the corner of my eye. I noticed my heart beating faster and louder. A sudden loud creaking sound was the starting shot of my sprint.

For an observer, this vigorously wavering me, which could hardly run in a straight line, must have looked extremely funny. Something unrecognisable rushed towards me. While I was running it felt as if a gigantic wall was falling down on me.

I only saw the darkness of black in which I kept running. Jerkily I stopped like my anchor hit the ground. Something seemed to pull me, to drag me, it sucked me in, like into a tunnel.

This is the third part of a short story I started to write 3 years ago. I recently found it on a flash drive and decided to adapt it on work on it again. 24th post for the ILLUMINATION 30-day writing challenge by Dr Mehmet Yildiz described in this article.