Distorted Chambers In The Realm Of Dreams - Chapter 2

Jagged Desert Of Desolation

The desert was covered with a molten lava and fumes of fire leapt up from the ground and distorted the distant road ahead. Short, sharp peaks of jagged rock formations bolted out from the dry, cracked canyon we were traveling through. We were in an old car, trying to drive it through the desolation as the ground rumbled outside and shook the vehicle. It seemed we were still alive, but wondered if we were already melted along with the rest of the world. The conversation went in an odd way. Comparing the car to some metaphor of willpower that only holds together because of the engine rather than having a tank-like outer shell. The roads and the mountain terrain surrounded us in a landscape of Hell.

The glass of the windows seemed to turn into outward vents of steam and I could see the ground rising up ahead. There were streams of lava unrelentingly pouring out of pulsating hills of an angry earthquake. I wasn't sure if I was in shock or if I was succumbed by the heat. I didn't feel any discomfort outside of what I was seeing.

I was in the back seat and looked out of the front window and wondered why the car wasn't stopping. Surely this would be a bad situation to keep going on in this Venusian environment, but also stopping would prove fatal if the car was our only means of survival and protection. I thought it curious that no comments were made about these being the worst driving conditions ever. I wondered even more as to why we were driving in these horrid lands. I questioned my family's sanity and sat back with my eyes tightly closed and felt a cool, soft air against my face.

The car came to a stop. The lava seemed dried up and long crusted over as we stepped out of the car. There was a store just beyond a few swirling fumes of underground pressure. We walked over the tarred surface and went in to ask if they had any ice cold water. They did. It came from an underground stream nearby. A stream that was an iceberg that had been carved out by the lava. And re-cooled by an overcast sky of acid rain clouds. We believed we were somewhere in Arizona, but I'm certain we were nearer to Venus than we were to Phoenix. But it was all the same anyway.

In those days chance meetings were swift but remembered. Yet no certainty, no real knowledge of what the future might bring. It was as if we lived in a state of waiting. Traveling was what we did, and what we dreamed. We were always on the move.