Buried alive

As the darkness closed in I couldn’t help but wonder What was it worth? This life, this being? Why are we incarnated into these mortal vessels and forced to endure this world? All of this death and the sense that you don’t belong. What of this world and all of its beings? What are we to do with this life and experience of this? I guess I will find out soon enough. Dirt walls surrounded me, I had been kidnapped, thrown around, and bruised. Thrown into a hole in the, earth god knows where. I looked up at them and yelled to let me out, screamed for help but no one came to my rescue. They laughed at me as I tried to claw my way out, kicking, jumping, and scratching. I probably looked like an animal in a trap, helpless against the tomb they had built for me to die in and be trapped inside forever.

 They had dug the hole deep enough so that I couldn’t climb out. When they threw me in I had broken an ankle while landing. They started shoveling after I stopped struggling, I tried to brush the dirt off of my body but they just threw more on top of me. It had started to pile up on the ground beneath me, a timer telling me of my impending demise. It piled up on my feet and legs, I stood up on my good leg to gain more time. The dirt kept piling up agonizingly slowly. It was soon up to my waist. I tried to pull myself out, but I was stuck. My broken ankle ached and pain sprang through my foot and up through my leg. As the dirt piled up to my chest I tried to brush it away from my body, shoving it to the side so that I could continue to breathe a little longer. I continued to dig as much as I could. Eventually I started to be completely covered. I started to choke on the soil entering my lungs, I could barely move because of the pressure of the heavy dirt on me. My tears made mud stick to my face, more dirt piled on top of me.

I pushed dirt off of my face the best I could but there was always more. I couldn’t step on top of it, my feet just sunk into the earth. I tried using my hands to pull my body out but they sunk in too, and the weight of the dirt on my body was too heavy to lift. It had been hours since they started, their shovels only held a small amount of dirt. They were almost as exhausted as I was.  My breathing became heavy and labored, I barely had my head uncovered. I felt the grit in my teeth, and tasted the bland, musty flavor of the dirt going into my mouth. I couldn’t move more than an inch with any part of my body, the dirt was packed so heavily. Dirt stuck to my head and face from the nervous sweat I was emitting. I coughed more from the soil in my lungs, and more rained down from above. My eyes hurt from the grit and sand in the dirt, I tried to keep the dirt out of them but it was everywhere. I could feel the bugs crawling on me, all over my body underneath the dirt. Ants bit me as I struggled to unearth more of my head, I flinched at the sensation.

They had almost completely covered me, a few more shovels full of dirt and I would be suffocated. I felt more pressure as more dirt piled onto me. Another shovel full fell on my face, I spit out some dirt and inhaled some. I started coughing profusely, the dirt again entering my lungs. I tried to wiggle my arms and legs to try to get out, it was no use. The dirt pulled loose was quickly filled in by more. I yelled again, my voice was hoarse both from screaming so much earlier and the dirt in my throat and lungs. They scoffed at my efforts. They knew they weren’t getting caught, not today at least. My eyes watered from my coughing and the dirt scratching them. I kept struggling, grasping at straws to stay alive. I shook some dirt off of my head.

 I looked up at the sky for the last time, it was so beautiful. The stars shone so brightly, we must have been pretty far out of town and away from everyone else in this world. I breathed in some fresh air, dirt was the only smell. I looked up again and got more dirt thrown in my face, I didn’t care at this point. I shook it off again and looked up at the stars, I saw the big dipper. I’m not much of an astronomer so that’s the only constellation that I recognized. I saw the north star, and a few more bright stars. Maybe they were planets, the sky was lovely tonight. Maybe in other circumstances I would get a telescope and look at them, but not tonight. Tonight was my last night, decided by the men shoveling dirt onto me. A tear fell, then another. Soon enough I was crying, asking myself why this was happening.

It was too late for that now. I coughed and sputtered as things started to go dim. The dirt had covered my eyes; it was all around my head. I tried to shake it off but not much fell. I couldn’t see or hear anything. I struggled again, trying to free myself but I lost hope very soon this time. It wouldn’t work, it hadn’t so far and I was exhausted. I said my last goodbyes to the world and was covered completely by the soil they threw. I couldn’t breathe, I struggled for air but there was only dirt. More and more dirt. I inhaled more and more of it and coughed. Tears fell from my eyes into the dirt. My chest felt so compressed, my lungs felt like they were shrinking. Every time I tried to suck in air my chest felt like there was a vacuum in it, trying to pull something in but there was nothing. I started to feel lightheaded and dizzy. The lack of oxygen would cause me to lose consciousness soon, I cried and coughed and tried so hard to gasp in any air that I could. There was nothing but dirt all around me, for all of eternity there would be nothing but dirt. I slowly fainted, and that was the last of my life. All ended for a sick joke that I didn’t even understand.

Original work by P.H.