Footprints

There were two sets. One a little larger than the other, and they were close to each other, the footprints of two people walking side by side. They stretched backwards towards the long part of the beach. Dave couldn’t see where they might’ve started. He could however, see where they were headed. They led towards the rocky point at the end of the beach. He started to follow their temporary path. Hurriedly, as the anxiety that came lifted up in him like slowly like the incoming tide that threatened to steal the path from him.

Dave was almost jogging by the time he came to rocks. Walking on the sand had been easy on his feet, but now the hard rocks and sharp remains of shellfish slowed his pace. There wasn’t a track to follow anymore, but he knew they must be here. This is where the footprints had led, and he knew they were fresh, their outlines still sharp. He scrambled up the lowest, least steep slope of the outcrop. He was excited. He let his guard down, the steady, straight trail of footprints had given him hope. This would be the first time Dave had seen another person in almost a week. He felt he was going mad, maybe he already was. He looked back, no, the footprints were really there.

He came over the top of the rocks and looked down on a smaller section of sandy beach, maybe only twenty metres long, a wall of rocks again at the end of the sand. To his left, away from the water and near a cliff he saw a couple kissing, their arms wrapped around each other. It almost embarrassed Dave to interrupt them, he felt like he was intruding, but the excitement of seeing other people was too much “Hey!” he shouted happily “Hello. Hi.”

The couple broke apart and turned around to face him. Dave instantly regretted his mistake. Their eyes were the same empty, dead, glowing yellow as the others a few weeks earlier. How was he going to get away without a car to speed off in this time? He was panicked and frozen; he didn’t even begin to run away. The couple saw him, after half a second of recognition they were rushing towards him. Dave never had a chance.