Our expedition team ventured into a desert wilderness to investigate rare mineral resources when we were suddenly struck by extreme heat that reached 158 °F.

I nearly passed out from dehydration and quickly reached into my backpack for the electrolyte water I had prepared in advance.

Just as I was about to drink it, I realized the bottle was half-filled with urine.

When I turned around, I saw Ben Murphy, my wife’s childhood friend, gulping down my electrolyte water.

As I was about to confront him, Amy Garner, my wife, grabbed my sleeve and said, “Don’t be mad. I gave Ben your electrolyte water. He’s almost dehydrated. You can make do with this for now.”

My vision started to blur. Clutching the half-empty bottle of urine, I asked through gritted teeth, “I’m dehydrated. Instead of letting me rehydrate properly, you want me to drink this? Are you trying to kill me?”

Amy was upset.

“Don’t be ridiculous! Ben doesn’t work out daily like you do. He can’t handle this heat. Wasn’t it right to give him the electrolyte water? Besides, urine can hydrate you, too! Don’t be picky at a time like this.”

Seeing how unreasonable she was being, I sent a distress signal with my location just before losing consciousness.

[Severely dehydrated, near death. Expedition mission suspended. Request immediate rescue. Also reporting a robber in the team. Notify the police immediately.]

My wife, Amy Garner, snatched the satellite phone out of my hand and tried to make another call to cancel the rescue request and stop them from filing a report.

However, when she found out it required my iris scan, she roughly pried at my eyelids.

“Roy, was that really necessary? It’s just a bottle of water! You’d call in a rescue team and cry robbery over that? If this delays the rare resource survey, can you take responsibility for that?”

Summoning what little strength I had left, I clamped down hard on Amy’s wrist and kept my eyes tightly shut.

Waves of dizziness from dehydration crashed over me. My stomach was burning as if it were on fire. Every breath was like a blade cutting down my throat.

I tried to ease my thirst by licking the blood beading on my cracked lips, but it was no use.

I had just wasted even more of my strength because of Amy. I did not know how much longer I could hold on.

Ben Murphy took a long gulp of the electrolyte water. He squinted his eyes in pleasure and let out a satisfied sigh.

“Sorry, Roy. Amy only meant well. I was severely dehydrated. What if I died out here in the desert?”

Then, he poured more water out and splashed it over his face, his hands, and even the back of his neck.

“The electrolyte water is really very hydrating! Lucky you brought some, Roy, or I wouldn’t have had any to drink.”

My fingers dug hard into the seat. I wanted nothing more than to skin Ben alive at that moment.

I had prepared that water specifically for emergencies. Before we set out, I had suggested we bring extra, but Ben had protested. He brushed it off as pseudoscience and claimed regular water worked just as well.

So, I had been the only one to pack electrolyte water.

But when I needed it the most to stay alive, he was wasting it on purpose.

Amy turned toward Ben in concern. She pressed her hand to his forehead and to his neck.

“You don’t need to apologize. You’ve been kind enough. You even left him other water supplies. If he refuses to drink them, that’s on him!”

She tossed the bottle of urine at me.

“Come on, Roy. Stop pretending to be so weak! You think I don’t know about your years of special forces training? You’re not as fragile as you’re pretending to be. If you were really dehydrated, you’d be gulping down anything with moisture in it, even if it’s as disgusting as urine. Ben isn’t as strong as you. Of course, I’m taking better care of him. Why are you picking on him?”

Ben handing me his urine was not kindness. It was pure humiliation!

My throat burned so badly that I could not waste another word on either of them.

I struggled to reach into my pack for dehydration meds, which I hoped might stabilize my condition.

However, the moment I pulled out an oral rehydration packet, Amy slapped me and ripped it from my hand.

“You had this the whole time and didn’t share it? Were you trying to make Ben suffer? How could you be so cruel?”

‘I was cruel?’ I thought as anger and despair boiled inside me.

When we first hit the uninhabited stretch of desert and the heat spiked, they had been too afraid of sunstroke to step out of the car and do the work.

I braved the searing heat—nearly 160 °F—to scout potential resource sites and collect samples and data.

That was how I ended up dehydrated.

Yet, my own wife took away every single thing that might keep me alive, as if my survival meant nothing to her.

I lunged at Ben and punched him.

“You have no right to touch my supplies! You’re out of this team!”

Amy, wedged between us, shrieked as she yanked open the car door behind me and kicked me out.

“Just because you’re the captain doesn’t mean you can do that, Roy!”

The others in the car, startled by the fight, finally spoke up.

However, they were on her side.

“Captain Garner, we all work together! You shouldn’t resort to violence.”

“If you’ve got enough energy to hit someone, you clearly aren’t that dehydrated. Did you really have to snatch things from Ben?”

‘Unbelievable!’ I thought.

I was just taking back my own things. How was I snatching anything away from him?

Unfortunately, I could not even argue.

The sand beneath me was searing, as if I had been tossed into a frying pan.

My vision blurred. My throat was so parched that it felt like it was bleeding.

Behind Amy’s back, Ben shot me a taunting look.

“Maybe I should just return everything to Roy. I don’t mind. As part of the national expedition team, I’m willing to sacrifice myself for the mission.”

Amy slammed the car door shut and sealed most of the blistering heat outside.

“Don’t say that! I won’t let anything happen to you.”

I was left to roast under the desert sun.

I cried out. My throat was so dry that each word felt like shards of glass cutting into it. “That’s rich coming from someone who doesn’t even care if his teammates die! Is this a joke to you?”

Amy rolled the window down and fixed me with a vicious glare.

“Stop insulting Ben! We’re childhood friends! I know exactly what kind of person he is.”

Childhood friends?

That was the same excuse Amy had used when she bent the rules to slip Ben into the expedition team.

Like a fool, I had believed her.

Since when did being a “childhood friend” justify favoring him so much that she would rather let her own husband die?

A ringing filled my ears. I could feel my thoughts slipping away.

Pure survival instinct made me grab for the car window, and I tried to haul myself up.

Amy, however, rolled the window up. My hand was caught between the glass and the frame.

A bolt of pain ripped out a stifled groan from me.

Through the glass, the others watched my misery as if it were entertaining.

“I have to hand it to him. That’s such good acting! The captain should’ve been an actor instead.”

Amy kept rolling the window up.

“Since you love faking dehydration so much, you can stay out there and see what real heatstroke feels like. I don’t buy for a second that a man with special forces training can’t handle this a little more than the rest of us.”

I could not even yell out a plea for help. The pain sent a jolt through me, and I did not want to risk breaking a bone, so I yanked my hand free.

Then I crawled into the sliver of shade cast by the SUV.

However, there was no relief.

The scorching heat was cooking me alive. The fear of death wrapped itself suffocatingly around me.

Laughter from inside the car drifted away.

Just as I was about to black out, something slammed across my face.

“You probably don’t know this, but Amy has wanted a divorce for a long time.”

Hatred bubbled up behind my clouded eyes.

Ben was grinning like a man who had just won a bet.

“But you see, divorce means splitting assets. Widowhood works better for her.”

He tipped the electrolyte water out onto the sand.

“That’s why I’d rather waste this away than give you a drop!”

Instinct kicked in, and I tried to lick the damp sand where the water had soaked in, but I could not even manage that.

Ben sneered and leaned in close.

“The sun’s about to go down. The temperature will drop, and there are plenty of predators out here.”

He pulled out a pocket knife and slashed at my arm with force.

“We’ll come collect your body in the morning.”

Blood oozed out freely from the cut.

Blinded by rage, I summoned the last of my strength and lunged upward. I slammed my head into his chest and sent him stumbling backward into the sand.

The metallic taste of blood flooded my mouth. It moistened my throat a little.

“This is murder, Ben!” I croaked. My throat was ragged and raw.

Hearing the commotion, Amy and the others rushed out of the vehicle and dragged me away from him.

Ben, who seemed shocked, pointed at the blood-stained knife on the ground.

“I was only trying to offer him some water. He lunged at me with a knife! He said he’d use the smell of blood to attract predators so we’d all get ripped apart!”

He lied shamelessly. I wanted nothing more than to smash that poisonous mouth of his to a pulp.

Amy, holding Ben up, kicked me in anger.

“What the hell is wrong with you, Roy? Just because we opposed you abusing your power as captain, you want us all dead? Ben even endured his thirst and tried to share the electrolyte water with you. You clearly don’t deserve it!”

I tried to speak, but all that came out was a broken, guttural rasp.

“He was the one…”

Before I could finish my sentence, Amy cut me off with a look of pure disgust.

“You’re the one who deserves to die out here in this desert!”

Her venomous words pierced straight through me.

One of the crew members spat at me.

“We thought you were just jealous because Amy showed Ben a little extra attention. We never thought you’d be twisted enough to try to kill us all!”

“What cursed luck to end up on a team with a monster like you!”

These were the teammates I had treated with honesty and respect, yet not one of them would even give me the benefit of the doubt at this moment.

A strangled, broken sound escaped my throat as I dragged my bleeding arm toward them.

I was trying to show them that it was I who was injured.

None of them saw it, or maybe they just chose not to see.

They were all trying to comfort Ben.

“It’s okay. We have your back. When the expedition is over, we’ll report him to the higher-ups.”

“A report isn’t enough. We should have this trash thrown straight into jail!”

Amy snorted. “Let’s see if he even makes it out of the no-man’s land alive.”

With every cruel word they uttered, something inside me grew colder and quieter.

The sun slid lower, and the desert finally cooled.

I was still bleeding. At night, predators might tear me apart.

There was no way I would survive the night.

Ben watched me with malice.

Amy’s gaze was cold.

“If you get on your knees and apologize to Ben, and if by some miracle you’re still alive at dawn, we might consider taking you with us.”

I stared at Amy in silence. At that moment, she seemed like a complete stranger.

But Amy was supposed to be my wife. She was the woman who had weathered countless expeditions with me.