United

This is a story I wrote a few months ago and has been sitting on my desktop helplessly since, so I thought I'd do something with it. Please let me know what you think in the comments below.

I raced across the dry landscape, scorching everything in my path. I had to get to him. My soul burned for him, it had been years since I’d had him, I needed him. My plan was simple enough. Get from the west to him. He was in the air, coming my way, but I couldn’t wait.

I travelled pretty much as-the-crow-flies, I held no sentiment for who was in my path, I would destroy any man, woman or child who stepped in my way, I would tear my way through the bush, I would leave a trail of destruction. I just had to get to him.

My path began far east of the continent, close to South America, but now I was flying. Hurtling towards the rich east coast of Australia. Below me was nothing but turbulent ocean. Why had she started this again? I thought she was over this.

The swirling waves and dark, hateful cyclone pushed me on towards her.

We had had our troubles, but all we needed was each other. He was flying to get to me, I was speeding towards him. We could finally be united, with him I was safe. My problems drifted away. He was my equal and opposite. He knew what I needed.

Scarlett was uncontrollable without me. No-one understands her needs like I do. She had become utterly obsessive, she was dangerous. I was her cold shower, I could give her the perspective to end her mad escapades.

I loved him, I always will.

She would never listen. I could never be what she wanted me to be. I tried to make her happy but she was forever blinded by delusion. I had tirelessly fought my instincts, it was my duty to help. For some reason, this time it felt different, like this time something big would happen.

This time I knew it would be different. He refused to admit it before, this time he was going to tell me. He would save me, take me away from here and we could be happy forever.

My journey ploughed on, the scattered ashes of my past were behind me. None of it mattered. Everything to sustain me was laid out before me, I merely had to step forward to accept it. My Walt, coming for me. He could save me, he could take me away from this baron place.

I don’t know where this side of her had come from. She used to be controllable, helpful, such a warm person. Then it snapped, she broke away and became a menace. I was the only one able to manage her, but I had my own life to lead, I didn’t want to be stuck with her my entire life. I feared she longed for exactly that.

Everyone knew we were meant to come together, apart we were dangerous; together we could relax and just be with each other.

My journey continued. I raced past nameless towns, their inhabitants were worthless when Walt flashed into my memory. As I left these small clustered communities my journey was lonelier, the open countryside was laid bare before me. I found these periods difficult to cross, I longed for company. Without Walt, my desperation grew.

The lights of the East Coast glinted on the horizon, as if the stars had migrated from the cloud-filled sky to inhabit the Earth. The tiny packets of light burst towards my eye, just how Scarlett’s smile used to. The sharp spark she used to possess had dulled to the generic glow of life. Once beautiful, she’d dulled with over-familiarity and had become ugly, a pain, something to despise and fight against.

Through everything, Walt had always returned to me. Society feared me, shrunk back from me, but Walt never gave up. The desolate land around me reminded me of the pointlessness of life here. If only I could be up there with him, all would be well.

We were both equals and opposite, created together and we would end together, too. Drawn together but continually pushed apart.

The lights of Brisbane flitted below me. They were now gone. I gazed to my right. The North. Directly up there was the beauty of Indonesia and the technological wonder of Japan, but my path was not destined there this time I was heading into the wild. On my left, the South. The swirling Southern Ocean and the majestic Antarctic, nor was my journey ever destined for there. I shall never see the towering icebergs or the tenacious life that holds on there. Here I was, gliding over a dead land. Water rarely fell here and when it did – as it was right now – the droplets blasted the dusty ground, it was unable to drink them down and flash floods were a common after the rain. I could already see the water pooling, drowning the wind-bent shrubs below inches of water.

The thought of Scarlett re-entered my head. Her smog slowly encapsulated me, I needed to snuff her out and free myself. I didn’t need her, I had life away from her. I should have been somewhere else. It shouldn’t have ever been my responsibility to tend to her.

He would soon be here, I could feel it in the air. I surged forward, keen to embrace him. As I rushed forward there must have been a menace in my eye, they panicked and ran from me, afraid. As if their old friend had turned into something alien, something fearful. Unfazed, I continued. None of them mattered anyway.

Her daunting size loomed into view, it was obvious why she was treated  with such trepidation. Spread across kilometres of scrubland, she incinerated everything in her path, sparing neither man, nor beast. She would have eventually burnt herself out, but I couldn’t wait for that day. I had to end it.

As I neared, I could feel her warmth – the glow that everyone once loved – drifting up towards me, it warmed me through and I begun to despise my role in this. I wished there could have been another way, she was a gorgeous spectacle to behold. But this was the only solution.

His colossal power and girth blackened the sky, darkening my vision, but I illuminated my own path. He came to rectify me and drag me away. The sooner I got to him, the sooner I could be safe.

He cascaded down upon me, the sweet affection I expected was replaced with a cruel, cold attack; washing out my love. He tore through me, he spared me no sympathy. The pain blinded me, a thick fog clouded my vision, but we both knew it was necessary to unite us.

I had to do it, I couldn’t let her continue as she was. She had torn through so many people already. It pained me to snuff her out so quickly.

I drifted upward, I had transformed in such a brief moment to be like him. My silky appearance rose up, towards him. As I drew closer I felt secure, the madness of the past weeks was gone. In a few minutes we’d be together.

Gazing down, my task was complete. The silver trails of her rose up towards me, soon fading to nothing.

 ---

The two natural forces came together in an epic clash. The cyclone swept over the bush fire that man had fought for weeks and snuffed it out in an instant. The drowned path behind the storm showed the fury of the rain, it had pounded the dusty ground and gushed through towns and villages. It rushed away cars, roofs and livelihoods and dumped them unceremoniously downstream. The blackened path to the west was equally squalid, huge swathes of land had been scarred by the flames, scouring homes, farmland and scrubs for any trace of life.

These landscapes were now calm in their destruction, comparably tranquil when placed next to the wing of smoke billowing up from the point where nature collided with itself.

I hope you liked it.

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