The Promise of Civilization

Kaleb was sitting in one of the college common areas at a round table across from an elegant looking man of Spanish decent, which gave him a noble bearing. The Spanish man was Anthony, Kaleb's best friend. While Kaleb had the look of a computer programmer, skinny and pale with messy hair and basic clothes, people were always shocked to hear that Anthony was also in the same field of study. He was well groomed and dressed with a naturally smooth complexion that could have made girls jealous, and often did. Anthony's entire persona could be summed up in one word, smooth, from his looks and bearing to the way he talked, he radiated eloquence.

He and Kaleb had their laptops out in front of them as they chatted about their latest update for their app they had released a few months ago. Though Anthony could sense Kaleb's obvious distraction, as he kept glancing past Anthony toward another table across the room. After the next glance Anthony couldn't take it anymore.

"What are you looking at?" He asked turning around.

It was close to 9 in the morning and he and Kaleb had decided to meet up before their classes. This meant that the room wasn't too crowded, as it would only fill up at lunch and in the afternoon. There was only one person sitting in the direction that Anthony was now facing and, as he saw this, a sly smile immediately spread across his face.

"Soooo, Kaleb," Anthony said as he turned back to his friend, his eyes showing nothing but mischief. "Remember that bet you lost last week?"

Kaleb's eyes widened as he quickly put together what his scheming friend had in mind.

"You're joking right?" Kaleb said in disbelief.

"Oh, Kaleb," Anthony said with all the drama of an actor in a Shakespeare play. "It is only for your welfare that I must make you do this. Know that, as your brother, your suffering brings me no joy. Your current struggles are in the hope of a brighter future."

Kaleb stared at his friend, currently holding a dramatic pose, with a blank expression. Kaleb then stood up without a word and began to walk across the room.

"Good luck!" Anthony called to Kaleb as he walked toward the solitary figure he had been staring at.

She was sitting alone with a notebook open in front of her, but her attention was on her phone. She was a brunette with long wavy hair, her face was angular and her make up was understated giving her a very classic beauty look. At the moment she was chewing on the end of her glasses that she held in her hand and was so focused on her phone, in the other, that she didn't notice Kaleb walking up to her.

"Excuse me." Kaleb said quite calm for the situation he had been placed in.

She looked up at him with surprise and pulled the end of her glasses out of her mouth with an almost guilty expression, which Kaleb found adorable.

"Er, sorry, can I help you with something?" She asked putting her phone down on the table.

"Yeah, actually, I thought you were really cute, so my friend cashed in a bet to get me to come over here and talk to you. So, I'm wondering if you want to grab dinner sometime?" Kaleb announced straightforwardly.

She paused for a moment before looking Kaleb up and down.

"You're kind of odd, aren't you? Like really uninhibited." She said with a warm smile. "That's a rather refreshing quality to have, so sure, why not? I'm Stephanie, by the way. Let me give you my phone number." She said tearing off a corner of her notebook page.

"I'm Kaleb," he said returning her smile with a rare one of his own.

The world suddenly became very bright to Kaleb. It kept getting brighter and brighter until all Kaleb could see was white. He opened his eyes to squint at the sun, just rising over the dunes.

'Damn,' he thought as his mind stayed wandering through his dreamed memories for a moment. Ameri and him hadn't talked much longer after Kaleb had been patched up. Though, he had finally given his answer as to why he had been wandering the desert, amnesia.

He claimed he simply didn't remember anything before the chase with the Dune Trap. It wasn't Kaleb's first choice of an excuse, but it allowed him to not talk about his past, or his lacking physique, knowledge and skill. It also gave him a reason to stick with Ameri for awhile. Ameri had allowed him to go to sleep shortly after, to allow him to recover from his injuries.

Kaleb started to sit up, 'Damn!' he thought much more forcefully, with his teeth clenched. All the adrenaline was gone this morning, the shock had worn off too. Kaleb felt like he had been beaten with a bat. His sunburnt skin was itching all over and was already peeling in some places. His muscles ached, from being used so hard after his sedentary lifestyle. Not to mention he was bruised all over from his various impacts with the ground and Dune Trap.

Surprisingly, the only places that seemed relatively free from pain were his leg, where he had been cut, and his scraped left side, the areas where the Mumbi ointment had been applied. They seemed to itch, like the rest of his burnt skin, but the itch was much deeper. The wounds themselves had all closed up and there were only scabs, that were already flaking at the sides.

"Really feeling it this morning, aren't you?"

Kaleb looked over to see Ameri's cheerful face. He was currently cranking on a lever that was raising one of the spears out of the ground. He tied it off with quick practiced movements and continued, "You need to get up and move around. We've got a lot of ground to cover today."

"Where are we going?" Kaleb asked with a grunt as he finished bringing himself upright.

"To the bazaar! We need to get this Dune Trap there while it's still fresh, that way it will sell for more. Then you can take some time to recover your strength." Ameri assumed that whatever event had robbed Kaleb of his memory was also the cause of his seemingly malnourished state. He thought that if Kaleb could rest and have proper meals he would regain his previous strength that, in reality, he never truly had. Kaleb, in turn, was fine with these assumptions which could only help his story's validity.

'Finally,' Kaleb thought, 'time to get back to civilization.'