Chapter One: A Broken Highway

This is the first chapter of my story where we’ll be introduced to the main character.

Tune in next week for Chapter Two: (Title Pending)

EDIT: Sorry about the no paragraph breaks, the stupid thing keeps doing it and I dunno how to fix it…Once I figureout how though I’ll come back and edit the chapter. Sorry for the inconvenience. I wouldn’t even be posting it but then I’d be out of 5$ so yeah…

  

       

Chapter One: A Broken Highway

         Uri had been walking for a while now, but only just realized where he was. He felt as though his body had been pulled through an opening not quite large enough and tripped, falling to the ground below him. It was hard, rough, and unpleasant to touch. He opened his eyes but shut them almost immediately for the sun was bright. Uri opened them again, more slowly this time; one before the other and the sunlight flooded his vision. At first there was nothing but light, then, slowly, as his eyes adjusted, he could begin to make out where he was.         Below him the ground was black, though something about it wasn’t natural; the surface was rough and cracked, glistening in the daylight. It wasn’t dirt, it was asphalt; Uri was standing in the middle of the road. The surface had dulled with age, covered in dust; faint yellow lines could be made out running down the middle. Uri followed them with his eyes, down the road, over all the hills and up behind the distant horizon. It was like a black ribbon stretched out over a sea of reds, oranges, and yellows, for on either side of the road a barren desert ran on as far as he could see.         The ground was red, loose, sending up swirls of dust whenever the wind blew. Here and there small tufts of brown grass could be seen poking up through the thirsty ground. The warm colors of the dirt complimented greatly with the coolness of the sky, an empty blue pallet stretched out overhead like a sheet, the sun, white and bright, shone directly above, beating Uri’s body with waves of heat.          Uri wasn’t sure what he was doing, but then, he did. It was like a distant memory, one that you weren’t entirely sure existed, but it was there all the same. He distinctly recalled someone telling what to do, giving him instructions. He couldn’t place a face on the person, or a voice for that matter, perhaps they didn’t even exist. Whether or not they were real though, they had told him what to do.         “Go find yourself.” They had said. “Down the broken highway through the desert, across the great crevice and into the city.”        Uri assumed that’s what he was doing there, it made sense, all he has to do is go find himself. But then, he’s right here, right? Uri felt himself in reassurance, yeah, he was definitely here. Uri turned around, behind the same scene greeted his eyes, a run-down road, and a barren desert. He must have been walking for some time. But where had he walked from? Why couldn’t he remember anything about himself?        Then something caught his eye. There on the ground beside his foot was a rock, Uri wouldn’t have noticed it hadn’t it been in the middle of the rode, but more important than the rock was what was under it, a piece of paper. Uri picked it up and read: Uri, I can’t tell you who I am; it would only complicate things more, but believe me when I say “You can trust me.” You’ll probably have forgotten most things by the time you read this, that’s why I’m writing, so you’ll have something to remind you in case you forget before you find yourself. Just keep walking towards the setting sun. and remember:                                        Trust me         Uri read, and reread the note, analyzing every word of it. He thought recognized this handwriting, and he thought he knew who this person was, but he couldn’t remember. The line “You’ll probably have forgotten most things. . .” stuck out in his mind. He was forgetting things? Like what? And was he going to forget more? Uri began to get worried. How much already had he forgotten? What would he do if he woke up one morning not knowing anything? Uri shook his head and placed the note in his pocket. It had said to follow the setting sun, Uri looked up the sun was moving behind him. So he turned himself around and started walking.           It had been hours now and nothing, as far as Uri could tell, had changed. Every time Uri had reached the horizon he could only see what he had left behind him. Every now and then the occasional shrub could be seen, its branches black and bare, and once in a while a cloud would hang overhead for a few moments before dissipating in the desert sky’s heat but otherwise the landscape had remained the same barren dustbowl it had been when Uri awoke. The sun was beginning to dip down in front of him, and the blue of the sky began to make its steady transition to the oranges hues of twilight, then into the deep purples of a sunless sky before submitting to the cold blackness of night. The stars filled the emptiness though, in a bright shower of sparkling the sprinkled the sky. Above him a full silver moon bathed the desert in its pale grey light, giving everything a monotone sense of being.        Uri stopped and sat on the side of the road, looking ahead at the endless stretch of highway laid out before him. He took a drink from a water pouch which he had on him. He must have known he would need it before he started to forget. He had also brought food with him and proceeded to take out a piece of bread when something landed with a soft “tick” beside him.         Uri turned and looked behind him, there, on the road beside him was a bird. Just your ordinary, every-day looking sparrow, it hopped from one foot to the other and chirped softly. Uri smiled and broke of a piece of bread, glad to see something alive in this wasteland. He tossed the bread to the bird which snatched them up and flew off towards the setting sun, where Uri was headed.         This gave Uri hope; perhaps this road did lead to somewhere after all. He stood and was going to start walking again, but his legs shook and his knees buckled. Uri hadn’t realized how tired he was. He supposed he could start again in the morning, granted he wasn’t going to have a very comfortable night, his back would definitely be sore tomorrow, but then, where else could he sleep?         So he lay down on the road, very uncomfortable but too tired to really care, and stared up at the night sky, at the stars, twinkling up above, wondering how much he would remember tomorrow, and of his new friend, whoever they were. And as he thought of all these things he could feel his eyes closing and his mind letting go, drifting off into that peaceful nothing that is sleep.         And then Uri woke up.