Red Flags

The sky is clear and calm, the sun bright and beaming. A man emerges from the distance, tall and athletic. He seems to have been walking for some time. Takes a sip of his water and wipes the sweat from his forehead. He looks into the distance, contemplating which direction he should be heading.

“That has to be North” he whispers to himself.

He looks down and is blinded by a shimmering light coming from the ground. He shades his eyes from the blinding light and digs down into the sand. He picks up a small heart shaped locket.

“What the *%#@” he says to himself as he puts the locket into his pocket.

After a mile he finally sees his trailer in the distance.

“I thought I would never make it” he whispers.

Opens the trailer door, “Samantha!?” he yells out.

“Hey” a voice replies from the other room. “That took a lot longer than I expected, I was getting worried” she says.

“Yeah, I got a little confused which direction I was heading”

John empties out his pockets onto the counter, pulls out the locket and places it down, he pulls a gun from behind his back, checks that it is not loaded, and puts it down gently on the counter.

“Any luck” says Samantha.

“Nothing" John picks up the heart shaped locket, “but I found this necklace."

Samantha gets up from the couch, takes the locket from him and examines it. “This stone in the middle”. She seems puzzled.

She opens the locket, on one side there is a distorted image, on the other side there is an inscription.

Samantha reads it out loud “Find Peace”.

John looks at Samantha “What do you think?"

Samantha places the locket back on to the counter. “I’m not sure. It’s getting late, are you hungry?”

John nods his head as he responds, “No babe I’m good, I’m going to get some sleep”. He heads over to the bed and lies down.

The sun begins to rise, and shine, through the back window of the trailer. John stretches and turns to Samantha who is still sound asleep. He smiles at how peaceful she seems. He sits up, puts his jeans on, walks to the front of the trailer and begins his morning ritual. He lays his palms flat on the floor and begins to do a pushup. He proceeds to count with every upward motion. “One Hundred” he finally says softly.

Samantha wakes up as John rolls over to begin his sit up routine. She brushes her hand through his hair.

“I don’t know how you manage to still do these workouts every morning”

“Well,” as he breathes heavily “Not everyone has a perfect body like you Sam."

Samantha looks down at the locket. “Where did you say you found this?”

John replies “It was just buried down in the sand; the shimmer caught my eye.”

Samantha examines the necklace, “Don’t you find it odd that it was just buried all the way out here in the middle of nowhere?”

John still breathing heavy

“Of course, but don’t think too deep into it, who knows how long it’s been there for.”

“It’s just so clean and shiny” she replies.

John finishes his routine and begins to bathe himself with a bucket of water and a cloth. He turns to Samantha .

“I’m going to head out in a few minutes to search for some more food and water, we're getting real low on supplies."

Samantha puts down the locket and turns to John, “I think I’ll join you today.”

John looks at Sam puzzled “You're going to leave? Are you sure? He asks. “It’s going to be a long walk, it could take the whole day.” He adds.

“I need to get out of this trailer I’m losing my mind, plus two minds are better than one.” She replies. John reaches for his hunting knife and loads his gun. “Okay let’s do this.”

The temperature reaches above 110 degrees as John grabs Samantha’s hand.

Samantha asks “How much further, it’s been 4 hours”

She stops for a breather.

John points into the distance towards a red shirt tied around a stick. “That’s the flag! I planted it yesterday.” he shouts.

They continue for another mile before Samantha collapses. John rushes over and picks her up.

“Are you okay?” Samantha looks up at him, her lips cracking, she nods her head side to side motioning no.

John helps Sam to sit up, handing her his water, he tilts her head back as she takes small sips from his canister.

“I don’t know if I’m going to make it” Samantha says.

“Yes, you will, you’re just dehydrated” he replies.

“You see that red flag over there?

That is the last flag I planted. There’s a dried-up river bed, there has to be water there” he continues.

Samantha finds the energy to climb down the small bed of rocks. They make their way to an area of the dry river where John points out a small green patch of clover like flowers. “I found these yesterday, I didn’t have time to start digging, so I put the flags up to mark a path back."

He reaches for a stick he left on the side of the dry river and begins to dig. As he gets deeper the dirt starts to turn to mud. He looks over to Samantha in shock.

She begins to smile

“Keep digging John, keep digging” she says in excitement.

John digs faster until finally they can see water coming up through the ground. He quickly grabs for a rag and soaks it in the water. He reaches over to Sam and tells her to open her mouth. He then begins to ring the water into her mouth and onto her head.

Samantha hugs John “YOU DID IT!” she yells in excitement.

John throws himself to the floor tired but excited. They both take a minute to relax and take in the moment. John and Sam fill the containers they brought with them, and finally begin their journey back.

Once back, Samantha heads into the trailer while John works on filtering the water.

“Freshen up, by the time you’re done we should have some clean water” John says

Samantha enters the trailer.

“John!”

Sam yells from inside the trailer “John! The locket!” she continues.

“What?” John replies.

“The locket! It’s missing, I put it on the counter and it’s not here”.

John walks into the trailer

“That’s impossible Sam, it’s not like someone broke in and stole it. There has been no sign of civilization in over 6 months. You definitely misplaced it, keep looking” he says.

Samantha walks into the room “Well then this might be the first sign” Sam hands John and empty picture frame. “Our wedding picture is missing?" he asks. “Well, whoever or whatever it is, knows where we live and what we look like” Sam explains.

John looks at Sam with confusion as she looks back in distress.