Walking On the Moon cont.

This is the 2nd chapter from an earlier post (see: http://malwai.blogspot.com/2007/09/walking-on-moon.html ). I wasn't going to finish it but Amanda insisted. You'll be able to tell when the fiction starts. Again, no editing. Gimme slack.

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Lisa stretched out her arms as she gently sat up. "We should go," she said.

"With all respect I think that is a good idea," I responded. Kel was still lying aimlessly on the ground, trapped in the silent essence of the night. He was lost in a cosmic vision of reminiscence, loved ones back home. He prayed for nothing more than for experience this night with them, and his wishes showed strong upon his face.

But I was annoyed, because I didn't see his day dreaming as a practical way to spend the time. Experience told me that things like this get saved for when all is said and done, at least it seemed.

When we were finally off, we had no trouble getting through the thick woods because the trail was well defined. This led to a high level of confidence between Kel and Lisa. "This isn't too bad," Kel said with optimism. Lisa agreed, and I bit my tongue.

They weren't being rational. There was no way, in anyone's mind, that our situation was a good one. And once the forest ended and the desert began, I knew that I was right. I hoped to God that they felt like idiots, because there clearly was no way we were going to make it back without trouble. Trouble was now something that was very real.

"Aw, man! Where in the hell are the footprints?" Kel said as he looked around, noticing slowly that all of the marks he had made in the sand had blown over.

"Dust in the wind," I said sarcastically. I pointed to where I thought was north-west and said "That way." Thinking that now was my time to show these amateurs what type of condition we were really in. I was going to guide them home with tricks like following the stars and relying on my photographic memory of landscape.

But even the hills were indistinguishable as we walked along the sand. They all looked the same now, with the sun down and the moon seemingly further. My headlamp was doing a horrible job of giving me light. I could see 4, maybe 5 feet in front of me without a problem. But anything more than that was a complete black out. The same went for Kel, and worse for Lisa because he flashlight had died. Due to her not having a spare set of batteries, which I found to be utterly ridiculous, we placed her in the middle of the line. I was in front with my headlamp, and Lisa was in the middle with the guiding light from Kel behind her.

I tripped over a log. "Oh shit," I said as I stood up. I stood up and faced Lisa and Kel while continuing to walk backwards up the trail. "Be careful."

As Lisa stepped over the obstacle, I slowly turned around, adjusting the brightness of my headlamp. I heard a crunch under my left foot.

I stopped again, but it was too late. My right foot had already placed itself over the cliff, sending me tumbling downward of 100 feet.

And there I laid, motionless, with my headlamp pointing downward at my side, and my friends staring blankly down the cliff.

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I'll continue working on this later.