My Beautiful Dark Twisted Reality

Lost In The World

I woke up suddenly, with my heart pounding away. The only explanation that came to my mind was the result of some dream I couldn’t remember. For about a minute, I kept my eyes closed and allowed my heart beat to return to normal. When I realized I wasn’t going back to sleep, I decided it was time to get my day started. Nothing prepared me for what I saw when I opened my eyes.

A tree.

In fact, a ton of trees. A forest of them, actually.

This is not the room I’m pretty sure I went to sleep in last night. For starters, I’m not even in a building at the moment. Looking around, all I can see are trees, grass, and dirt.

This has to be the most immersive dream of my life, right? There’s no way I could’ve gotten taken from a house in the middle of the suburbs and dropped into a random forest without waking up.

I had to wake myself up somehow. Grabbing my wrist, I dug my fingernails in as hard as I could without drawing blood.

The pain was real.

This was not a dream.

All right, this is no time to panic. Breathe in, breathe out.

Standing up, I decided to take inventory of the situation. I was fully clothed, with a hoodie, sweat pants, t-shirt, shorts, socks, and shoes on. Digging through my pockets, I found my iPod  and headphones. Of course I wouldn’t be carrying my phone around the one time I really need it.

So, I’m in the middle of some random forest, with no way to contact anyone, fully dressed and unharmed. This is the weirdest kidnapping ever.

First thing I need to do is find out where the I am. From the ground, I can’t make out anything distinctive about this forest. If I climb to the top of a tree, though, I can hopefully find some indicator of civilization.

I found a relatively low hanging branch and began working my way up the tree. It wasn’t particularly hard, since I’d had experience climbing trees for most of my childhood. Starting in my early teens, I’d also become a big fan of parkour, though that only really made me climb things that weren’t trees.

After a couple minutes of climbing, I reached a spot near the top where I could see a good distance in all directions. What I saw didn’t inspire much confidence. Trees in every direction.

Looking closer, I could see that the forest got noticeably thinner in one direction, and a little thicker the in the opposite one. I decided I was more likely to find civilization outside of the forest, so I made a mental note of the direction as I began my descent.

Once I reached the ground, I realized how different the climate was from what I was equipped for. I was dressed for winter, but it felt more like summer. I had to take off my sweats to stop from overheating just by standing there.

Tying the sweats around my waist, I was almost ready to start on leaving the forest. Before I could do that, I needed some music.

Fishing out my iPod and headphones, I decided to play the shuffle game.

Alright iPod, where am I?

“Lost In The World” by Kanye West was its answer.

Real funny, just laugh at my pain.

On that surprisingly appropriate song choice, I started walking.

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Over the next few hours, I had settled into a routine. Walk for about 15 minutes, climb a tree, confirm or correct the direction I was headed in, repeat.

The whole time I was listening to whatever music happened to be playing. While my music was predominantly rap (which my family never tired of making fun of me for) I also had classic and modern rock, some EDM, pop, and even a little bit of soul.

My walk was extremely uneventful, with the only really noteworthy events being what song was playing at the time and occasional changes in direction.

Even the forest was unremarkable. The trees all looked the same to me, just closely packed so that the light that filtered through the trees made it seem like a perpetual twilight had befallen the forest.

I entertained myself by singing along with my songs, doing my best to mimic the voices of Kid Cudi, Daft Punk, Katy Perry, or Otis Redding. As a normal guy trying to imitate people who sounded nothing like me, I fell short. No one was around to judge me, so I didn’t care.

Every once in a while I would catch a glimpse of some birds or a squirrel, but for the most part the wildlife was either avoiding me or just not around. This didn’t bother me, since I didn’t want to encounter a predator, such as bears.

On one of my many trips up the trees of this unnamed forest (I decided to call it the Goddamned Forest) I found something worth celebrating. Very far off in the distance, I could just make out what looked to be the roofs of buildings.

I was so excited I literally screamed out of joy, nearly falling out of my perch in my excitement. I caught myself before I could fall, then decided to continue celebrating on the ground, where I could cause less pain to myself.

With a new found purpose, I set off towards this civilization.

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Joy and excitement can only take you so far.

I came to this conclusion after I realized I hadn’t eaten or drank anything all day. My iPod said it was a little after 11, and I had started at some time near 7.

I needed to find food or water, but I had no experience with survival situations, so I didn’t know how to find either, or how to tell if it would be safe for human consumption. If I found something that looked moderately safe to eat, I’d go for it. As it stood, I hadn’t seen a single berry, fruit, or drop of running water. Hunting was out, since I had nothing to hunt with and my aforementioned lack of experience.

I was getting closer to the buildings I had seen, but it was slow going. I frequently found that I had been walking parallel to them when I climbed the trees to judge my progress, and fatigue was starting to set in.

I decided it was time to take a break, so I unceremoniously dumped myself by the nearest tree and took my headphones out. It took my ears a few minutes to adjust to the quiet of the forest after having my music blasting for almost 5 hours straight.

Leaning back, I heard a quiet but constant sound from somewhere in the forest. It was kinda like the sound of running water...

Wait.

My eyes shot open, almost unwilling to believe if what I suspected was true. I had to find the source of this sound. I wanted it to be true, but I wasn’t ruling out the possibility of hallucinations at the moment.

Slowly getting up, I cupped my hand around my ear to try to find out where the sound was coming from. Taking a few steps in each direction, I eventually decided it was coming from behind and to the left of the tree I had been leaning on.

I kept my hand to my ear as I cautiously approached the sound. It wasn’t much, but I could notice it was getting louder each step I took.every few steps I took.

Not long after, I was rewarded with the greatest thing to happen to me all day.

A stream.

The water was running, and it was more than a little trickle. It was a couple feet wide and looked to be a few inches deep.

Walking up to it, I put my hand in, which was greeted by the cool and totally real sensation of water running past it. Next, I cupped my hands and brought them up to my mouth. My mouth confirmed what my hand had reported, so I kneeled down to the water and drank in large gulps.

Never have I been so happy to drink regular water, but my circumstances were a little more extreme than anything I had previously encountered. The water didn’t seem to be dangerous, but I probably wouldn’t have noticed until much later, anyways.

Now that I’d taken care of the most pressing need, I decided to investigate my new discovery. I wanted to see where this stream went, so I climbed up yet another tree. Keeping view of the stream most of the way up, then a mental image of it once I lost sight of it, I found out that the stream was pointed almost directly towards the building I had seen earlier. This was great news for me, since it would most likely eliminate the need to climb trees as frequently as I had been.

While my rest had been cut short, I felt that it was worth sacrificing some rest to discover a source of water that doubled as my guide to civilization and, hopefully, getting home.

With a renewed vigor, I continued my trek towards whoever lived in those buildings, replacing my headphones in my ears and turning the music back on. Maybe I can get some answers to all the questions I’d had since waking up.

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I followed the stream for the next hour, only taking to the trees once to confirm that I was still headed towards the buildings after a few curves in the stream. As I was getting closer, I decided that I was going towards a town or village, since the building didn’t seem all that tall and weren’t very densely packed.

What was densely packed were the trees in the Goddamned Forest. I had to go around a lot of them while following the stream (or was it a creek?) if I wanted to keep my feet dry. It was a minor inconvenience compared to being dropped in the middle of nowhere with no explanation and no clues as to what had happened between yesterday and this morning.

While I was never thirsty following the stream, I still hadn’t eaten anything. This was starting to weigh on me, as I was only used to skipping one meal a day at the most. When the most filling food you’ve had by 3 in the afternoon is air, you tend to be a little less than satisfied with your day.

The music was still playing, but my battery was under 15%, so the end was near for my only companion on this journey. However, that was the most eventful thing that had happened to me since I found the stream.

Boredom was setting in. Well, it was always there, but now it was more intense than before. The monotony of seeing tree after tree after tree, with an occasional bush thrown in for some variety, didn’t do much to make the endless walking any more exciting. I was getting tired of singing too, since it was putting a slight strain on my voice from all the songs I’d been joining in on.

I was getting closer to the town, though (I settled on town because it sounded more modern than village). That was more than enough motivation for me, since I really didn’t like being alone, lost, and hungry for the better part of a day.

I sat down to take my first break since finding the stream to plan out what I’d do once I actually got to this town. I was probably a complete stranger to whoever I was going to meet, they likely wouldn’t believe that I had randomly woken up in this forest this morning, and they might not be willing to help me even if they did believe me. Overall, my situation looked pretty bleak even with making it to this town.

Getting help from the locals seemed like the least of my problems, however. I’d much rather be stuck in a community that’s far removed from home than in the middle of a forest that’s far removed from home.

I was confident I could reach the town before it got dark tonight, based on my extremely rough estimates of how fast I was moving and how away the town looked to me. Judging distances may not be my strong suit, but I’m at least capable of knowing when I’m moving towards or away from something, and I was definitely moving towards this town.

With all of my heavy thinking done for now, I took 30 minutes to rest before I was going to get up again.

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Oh, valiant iPod, your death may have been sudden, if unexpected, but I will make sure it was not in vain. I’ll make it to the town in your memory, and soon you will be reunited with a charger!

A little overdramatic, but I was somewhat saddened by the loss of my primary source of entertainment for the day. Now it was just me, the stream, and the voices in my head narrating my thoughts.

Am I not good enough for you? Are you more attached to a machine than your own conscious?

Shut up. I didn’t ask for your opinion.

Anyways, I had made a lot of progress in the hour since I got up from my last break and the half hour since I lost my iPod. The town didn’t look like it was farther than an hour away, and the slight thinning of the trees seemed to confirm that I was getting closer. It was hard to tell what time of day it was, since I couldn’t see the sun and my only timekeeper was in a coma.

The stream continued to point me in the same direction of the town, and was still as refreshing as when I first found it. My only real complaint at the moment was that I still hadn’t eaten, which was causing my stomach to growl loudly and frequently.

My lower body was also protesting against the abuses it believed I was giving it out by forcing it to walk for so long. I ignored the pain, rationalizing that people had walked further in worse situations, so I could handle this.

On one of my routine trips up a tree, I realized just how close to this town I was. From my estimate, I couldn’t have been more than two miles from it. This got me thinking about what I would say once I got to the town. I hadn’t spent much time thinking about how I’d convince anyone to help - or even believe - my story.

I continued walking and rehearsing my story in my head. I was just as confused about how I got in this forest as whoever I talked to would be - unless this was a common occurrence that I had just become the most recent victim of. That would piss me off more than any other explanation for my situation.

I decided to keep it short and relatively simple.

“Hi, my name’s Sean Wilson and this morning I woke up in the middle of that forest right over there. Once I realized I wasn’t in Kansas anymore, I found my way into this town. So, is there any way you could help me get back to Overland Park, Kansas?”

Definitely not the most eloquent speech I’ve ever heard, but it would hopefully get my point across. If I had to rely on my natural charm, then I was probably screwed.

I was so caught up in my internal musings that I almost didn’t notice when I left the forest. The first thing that caught me was the sunlight. It was right in my eyes, when I wasn’t expecting it, too. After recovering from my temporary partial blindness, I looked around to see where the town was.

I couldn’t see it from where I was standing, but I did see one house on a hill not far from the stream I had been following. Actually, house isn’t a very accurate term for the structure. It looked more like a cottage to me. It was smaller than a house, with a lot of birdhouses on or around it and a roof that appeared to be made out of bushes and grass.

This was as good a place to start as any. With a few butterflies in my stomach, I walked up the dirt road to the first civilization I’d seen all day.