Wings over nowhere

A light tickle to my nose woke me from the deep sleep I was finally getting. Or did it? I opened my eyes to darkness, the kind of darkness you need for a new baby to fall asleep. Or me, since I never grew out of needing complete darkness to fall asleep. But right now, I am in pitch black, eyes open and seemingly experiencing some version of sleep paralysis. I could wiggle my body and feel my extremities, but I could not move them. It was silent, too. Not even an auxiliary sound from a nearby electronic device or an overburdened laptop fan. When I fell asleep in my room last night, both noises irritated me in my overtired state. But now, no light and no sound, just a faint tickle on my nose. I couldn’t feel my blankets either and I always fall asleep with my sheet tucked over my comforter all the way up to my chin. Surprisingly, despite all of this, I wasn’t cold and I was a persistently cold person.

​ I wiggled my body, shaking myself from my shoulders down to my toes. I was constricted but not by a heavy object. No, it was more like I was a mummy, before the resin dried on the linen bandages. I flared my nostrils, hoping to brush into the tickling again. Instead, a sliver of light made its way onto my face. My eyes were not prepared for it so I squinted, blinked and then opened them wide. I was peering out of a small horizontal opening, framed with rigid edges. Everything was red, at least from what I could see. It was a sandy, rusty red, like you’d see flying over Nevada or Arizona. The red seemed to go on forever though my peripheral vision was obstructed.

​The opening got smaller, as fine hairs closed in from the top and bottom, filling it out. The tickling was back and it spanned my whole face. It was soft, like putting your face inside a ripped open pillow filled with down. The light touch moved around my face, and I felt the panic start. It was very real and another sign I wasn’t dreaming. Or, if it was, I’d be waking up soon. I opened my mouth to scream and a high-pitched, long-winded wail came from my lips, a noise I have never heard before.

​My confinement loosened slightly and the view of red returned. I screamed again for as long as my lungs allowed. And then, it released me and I dropped to the sandy ground. The wind from its flapping wings blew my hair across my face as it ascended into the dark sky. It flew upward quickly, its wingspan as wide as an SUV is long and covered in long white feathers. It was a human-sized bird with big talons and a triangular beak. It resembled a bald eagle, just ten times larger. It had been holding me within its wings, wrapping me up like it was protecting me or saving me for dinner.

​I watched it fly off into the distance, shrinking into the dark night sky and I was alone. Now sitting up, I made my way to my feet, brushing red sand off my butt and legs. Looking down, I noticed I was wearing the same clothes as yesterday, before I went to bed. I looked all around me, I was outside and there was no sun or light fixture but I could see the ground under my feet and the horizon in front of me. There was a persistent breeze that blew sand at me, so I turned around. I pulled the black tresses from my mouth and decided to move in the opposite direction of the giant eagle on my quest to find out where I am.

​I moved forward though all directions looked the same, vast and dusty with red and orange tones. A very faint sound, like running water, broke through the nothingness. I walked faster and the noise got louder. It also got colder. My short sleeves and jeans weren’t going to suffice in sub 40 temperatures. Maybe I should head back in the direction of the bird.

​I decided I’d walk a few steps and, if it keeps getting colder, I’ll turn around. The magnitude of everything else was too much right now, all I could do was focus on the present and finding someone or something useful. I trekked forward, the cold air prickling my cheeks and nose. It is getting colder and the landscape in front of me remains unchanged. I could feel the indecision weighing me down, exacerbated by the cold temperatures. Should I go back the direction I started in? It was warmer though I’d be walking against the wind and getting pelted by the sand. In the direction I am walking, the temperatures are dropping but the sound of running water is promising.

​While the cold is a powerful deterrent, my gut is telling me to move towards the water. Though I didn’t feel hungry or thirsty now, I’d eventually need to eat and drink something. I continued along and not only was it getting colder, it was also getting darker. However, the water was close by. The noise of the moving water was loud but faded into the nothingness at the same time. It had to be just feet away but I had limited visibility in front of me.

​As I stepped forward my right foot did not find solid ground, instead I stepped into a ditch and my ankle rolled, bringing me down to the ground. I lay on my back, cold and sandy and lost. As I rolled to my side, I could feel the edges of the ditch I was stuck in and reached up and overthe side closest to me to stabilize myself. The tip of my middle finger felt something different than the sand. I reached for it; it was pointy and slender like a stick. I got to my feet and moved in the direction of the stick. To the left of me, there was a soft glow not far past the ditch I fell in.

​I moved towards it to discover a giant nest sat atop a large crater – wooden sticks, long pieces of metal and other objects I can’t identify are wrapped in a circle, creating a dome at least ten feet around. There was an opening slightly shorter than me and inside I could see the soft glow. I ducked down and entered the dome. Insidewas lit by a small, brass lantern and around it was a collection of small piles of miscellaneous objects. I walked up to the closest pile and reached down. There was a child’s navy blue rainboot, a coarse wooden hairbrush, fuzzy pink earmuffs and a few white feathers. The feathers belonged to the giant eagle who held me. I moved to the next pile to discover a red-haired troll doll covered in sand, a keyring with a Honda key on it and a plastic badge holder connected to a bright green lanyard. All the items were covered in a thin coat of rusty sand. I took the plastic badge holder over to the lantern and brushed it off. There was a card inside and on it was a picture of a dark-haired man wearing glasses and a navy-blue button-down shirt. Above it read “Nautilus Inc.” and below it was his name and the words “Project Mars.”