OTHERBORN: THE CREVASSE

EPISODE ONE, PART FOUR

It's now the next morning and there's a little moisture on the insides of the bag and it tastes...bitter plants. Poisonous? I really don't know.

I mop scant condensation up from rocks and squeeze moisture out of the pants flap, into my mouth. Then, I patrol the edges of the crevasse.

I return, legs scraped, scratched and bleeding, butt bare, the piece of pants shoved back into the hole with a yellow lid collecting mere drops.

My boot lace now opens, because my knots don't hold long...so one boot flops off all the time as I walk.

At length, with an additional piece of now-missing pant leg tied around my head for a sweat band...I return to survey the wreck.

Dead Guy smells bad. He'll soon smell lots worse.

I use a piece of metal strip edging from the outside of the vehicle as a stick to poke into holes to find snakes and prod things to see if they're alive.

I test-climb parts of the crevasse cliff face that look like they might be doable, but keep sliding, and...I wipe out. Back to the bottom again. I can't get very far.

I keep looking up to see where I am. I sight along the endless shrunk canyon and think how far from any life of a human we'd driven. All looks the same!

I shout "Hello", every once in a while, but my voice still grows hoarser; and I just keep tap-tapping my strip-metal stick.

* * *

Finally, seven...eight days in, I am able to scale to a point I get higher up.

"Impossible!" I'm shouting. Nearly every side is too sheer to climb.

I inch around. From here you can see down the whole canyon. Both sides, and both ways. It's a split in the world. Breathtaking really!

I find a view of the spot that's my sleep-sitting-up shelter. There's one lone bush sticking out of a crack above "Camp." And I realize from the air, I'd be largely invisible...except for the sunlight, on my one single Bush Man.

Weak and dizzy, I climb down again, taking care not to fall. Back to the shelter.

"There it is!"I whirl...listen.
"Where IS that sound?" The rustling again. My head is now foggy. Maybe the man from the truck wasn't actually dead?

Maybe he was just leaning! "Oh, God!" He leaned half out of the window...

I race back again, hobbling sideways...check where he was...Can't see! I can't tell.

I scramble back up to him, frantic, in case it's a rescue...I inspect him...
A cloud of flies unleashes, escaped when I poke him. I yelp, then fall back down a part of the slope.

Gagging, determined, I quickly regroup. I climb up.
"Brolan, you stink really bad, man!" I drag the soldier fully out on the cliffside, then, as is practical...I examine his pockets and take the man's boot. "Too large on me." And lace..."Thanks! This will be good!"

I look—alert—keeping an eye on the tilt of the truck. Reach...glove compartment...find: a torchlight, the insurance, and a gun? Plus Brolan's full name and rank, or something. It's ruined and blurred from the man's juices in death. Maybe not real name, if he's got a Forces truck. He could be Spec Ops, like me...Or like...I nearly...will be. Should never tell Angie. I think about this, too...
I get bad twinges about Angie.

* * *

Brolan's body needs dragging down a few feet more to be buried.

Once he lands, I sort him all out, collect loads of rocks, and place them around him.

I feel like I'm fainting. No words to say, I wipe my brow with my respect. I sacrifice, most unwillingly, my metal scrap to put the guy's dog tags onto. "I guess that is from your truck."

I shrug and wedge the strip in the rocks for a marker and tell him, "Good luck, Dude." Then, quasi-salute. Never got that down precisely. Embarrassed, I go.

Back at my shelter, resting, I chat more with Brush Man. He looks at how much blood is all down my legs now.

"You don't worry!" I scowl and look at them too. "Well, it just looks bad, maybe."

~~~/
This was a really short chapter, while we ready "In the Wastelands Alone", and then we begin rotating the stories (the various character introductions with the main storyline).

Wastelands is Otherborn's truly Wattpad adventure, spearheaded by Yandel (but we know he's secretly the amazing word master, Gideon Easton for real in the land of WP). Such a treat!

We thought you might like to meet Cornelius first before he becomes our truly bad, "Custer"... Hard to believe he's the same guy you'll meet in the future, I know... (but don't say we didn't warn you fully. Prepare to time jump!)

See you next chapter in one or the other story, real soon...