Dry grains of sand entered inside his nose when he inhaled.

Coughing, Roderick gained some consciousness only to realize how sweaty he had become under the scorching sun. Burning sand grains had been glued to his sweat leaking face. He was lucky to not get blisters because his face had been on the land not less hot than a frying pan.

Air wasn’t merciful either.

Breathing the hot wind made him cough for more than a minute. And the worst was yet to come because this was just a late morning. He could not even guess how hotter the day was going to be since it already was the hottest place he had ever been to.

Other than sun a few inches above the east horizon, he saw barren land with cracks and no sign of life around. After turning around, Roderick saw a jeep few hundred feet away from him.

Without losing any time, he began to run towards the car. He did not want to live in this desert. As soon as he got there, he threw himself inside the jeep to sit on the burning seat.

He saw a bunch of guns near under his feet and a key attached to the keyhole.

He twisted it, but the jeep didn’t roar at all. When his eyes fell on the analog fuel indicator, then he got to know about the empty tank.

Few droplets of fuel had fallen on the guns, so he reckoned somebody had stolen diesel from the jeep when he was unconscious.

Roderick went on from being annoyed about the fuel to not caring about it at all when he got to know he had not a single droplet of water with him.

Should I leave the jeep's shade or walk in this hell to search for water? Thieves had come here, so someone else might come here. Roderick couldn’t make his mind of what was the wisest decision.

He chose the second option but couldn’t keep hold of it. He decided to leave with those guns.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

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