Dangers of the Desert

Rumble! Rumble!

The desert sand starts shaking, and soft rumbles can be heard coming from deep underground. Jack and Rielle start looking all around until both of their gazes focus on the ground.

"What's happening!?" Jack asks Rielle, who is very knowledgeable about the desert and all kinds of phenomena.

"Sandworms are probably rising, so we need to move fast, or else we'll be eaten by hundreds of human-sized worms."

"Alright, let's get moving then. I don't want to die."

Jack stands up in a flash and tries to take off in a run, but Rielle grabs his wrist, stopping him from running away.

"What are you doing? You said we needed to leave, so why are you holding me back?" he asks, anger and fear laced in his words.

"What do you mean?! We need to grab our stuff before we leave, dumbass. If we leave this stuff here, we'll die for sure because this camp has allllll the water and food."

Jack grits his teeth.

"Fine! Let's hurry."

Both of them rush around their campsite, grabbing everything in sight. The tent, canteens, food packets, and more are sloppily stuffed inside each of their backpacks, making them seem more full than before.

Right as they finish grabbing their things, a few feet from Rielle's legs, the sand starts to sink, creating a small hole. The hole gets deeper and deeper until small, razor-sharp teeth are revealed.

"They're here."

Jack starts to run as fast as he possibly can, with Rielle right behind him.

He looks back at the camp, and to his horror, it's been completely engulfed by flat-looking worms that are close to being two meters long, with a large circular maw laced with thousands of razor-sharp teeth that can swallow a human whole. The worms start to form a wave and chase after Rielle and Jack.

They move a little faster than the worms, but that won't last long because Jack and Rielle don't have infinite stamina, while the worms have the stamina of hundreds.

After running at full speed for a little over half an hour, both Rielle and Jack start to slow down, allowing the worms to catch up at an alarming speed.

"We're done for now. Aww man, I don't want to die. Please. Please. Watts, I don't want to die." Jack prayed internally, desperate to survive.

Jack turned to look at Rielle, who was not doing well. Her breathing was labored, her face pale, and sweat dripped from her. Her speed was also decreasing fast.

"Jack, I think—huff—I'm going to—huff—pass out."

"Hold on just a little longer. I know that we will make it out of this."

She nods at his words and tries her hardest to keep her speed at a constant pace.

After another five minutes, the worms had closed the distance to only a couple of meters, and Jack and Rielle simultaneously thought they were going to die—until a massive earthquake shook the desert. The worms stopped in their tracks, not moving a muscle, while both Rielle and Jack lost balance and fell over from the shock of the quake.

RUUUMMBBBLLLEE!!!

A sound so loud it felt like Jack's brain got jumbled up inside his head. The earthquake picked up, and the rumbling grew stronger. It felt as if the earth would split from the shaking.

The desert started to sink where the worms were, and they desperately tried to escape. The hole that was forming was probably around ten meters across and deep enough that if you jumped in, both of your legs would break from the impact.

"What is happening? Am I really going to die?"

Jack was starting to get even more scared because of the unknown hole that was being created. Sweat rolled from his forehead to his chin before dripping onto the ground.

It felt as if he could feel and see everything. He didn't know if it had anything to do with the fear of death being so overwhelming that it was the only emotion he could feel at the moment.

Soon enough, teeth started to poke out of the hole. The teeth were so large that one of the worms looked like a branch compared to the trunk of a tree. More and more teeth started to appear, making it impossible to count them all.

After minutes of the earthquake, the sand shot up in an eruption, and emerging from it was a sandworm so large it could eat multiple huts in Jack's village side by side—whole. It had leathery yellow skin with lots of bumps and mounds covering it. The massive sandworm was hundreds of meters long, and minutes passed without the tail being seen.

Jack stared at the massive sandworm, terror taking complete control of his body, not letting him move a single inch from where he sat.

It took him a couple of seconds to regain his composure and lower the terror that had taken over his body.

The giant worm took another minute to fully pass by us leaving a gaping hole in the desert right in front on both of them.

With a sigh of relief Jack then looked at Rielle, whose mouth had been left wide open from the sight of the massive sandworm eating what Jack thought to be its kin.

"Rielle! Rielle! RIELLE!!"

Jack had to call out to her three times before she finally heard him. She looked at Jack, but her eyes weren't filled with fear like he had expected.

They were sparkling with excitement!

Rielle's open mouth slowly turned into a bright smile. It grew bigger and bigger until she burst into laughter.

She laughed for a long time until Jack got up and grabbed her shoulders, shaking her to snap her out of whatever had come over her.

"Rielle, what happened to you? Why were you looking at me like that?"

"What do you mean?"

"You looked at me really weirdly—like you were excited about seeing that massive worm."

"Jack, do you even know what that worm was?"

"No... should I?"

Jack was very confused because of how strange Rielle is acting. He's never seen her like this before. He also has no idea what that massive worm could be.

"That was the ruler of the sandworms. The Sandworm King, Goliath!!"