Birds circled overhead. Great big vultures, their spread wings blotted out the sun.

They hovered in the air, like a tornado of feather and wandering death.

Each step I took felt like an endless torment. The heat, a hell I’d had never know before. My skin cracked and mouth so dry I’d forgotten how to swallow.

The desert stretched on forever, ever the same no matter how far I walked. The horizon shimmered, a wavy deception. A far off siren made of rock and hope, beckoning a hand.

But there was nothing except dirt, sun and the birds. As they circled high above. Waiting for their meal.