Hello, this week on The Writer’s Mess Weekly Friday Picture Prompt Challenge, I decided to take a stunningly lovely picture of a canyon and twist it into something dark and sad. Follow Evan, an inexperienced hiker who took a weekend trip without knowing all the fact, and learns that water in the dessert is both a blessing and a curse.
Evan looked up at the smooth rock walls of the canyon, the blue gray of the storm building above, and thought it was a pretty nice place to die.
He didn’t want to die, but he was practical and knew he chances of getting rescued were low at this point. He had been trapped in this canyon for four days, after being flushed in during a flash flood. At the time he had considered himself lucky for not having drowned, after all, he had found the bodies of the three of other guys he went hiking with already.
The food and water from their packs had kept him going, and he thought that he could make it to a spot where he could climb out before his rations were gone, or he would be found.
Hope ran out about three hours after the water had, but he knew he still had at least another day before he died of dehydration.
Then the thunder started.
At first he thought it was a chopper, but as it grew louder, and the sky grew darker, he realized it wouldn’t be the dehydration that killed him.
He had barely managed to stay afloat the first time, in the best shape of his life. Now, four days later he was tired, starving, and thirsty. He wouldn’t have the strength to keep his head above water, and as the first drop of rain hit his cracked tongue, he knew that this was God being merciful.
Anne McSommers' Writing Nook 