Groaning, I reach up to rub my head, and immediately pull my left hand back with a wince of pain. Cracking an eye open, I notice my hand is stained with blood. That’s when I notice a warm liquid dripping down my forehead; likely the blood.
What the hell happened?
The fact that my head is bleeding and the implications that follow catch up to me as I panic, my eyes shooting open to scan my surroundings. A dark forest greets my vision.
How’d I end up here? I live out in the middle of bumfuck nowhere, sure; but nowhere near a forest.
Attempting to clamber up to my feet proves to be a mistake, as when I put my weight on my right arm to try and get up, it lights up in pain and gives out beneath me entirely. Letting out a yell of pure agony, I grip my right arm and try to keep it as still as possible. Through teary eyes, I look at my arm and see that it’s broken.
Panic sets in just like the cold air that I was now becoming vaguely aware of. Patting my pockets, my heart rate spikes as I notice my phone isn’t in my pocket. Not only that, but my keys and wallet are missing too. Did someone mug me and leave me for dead or something?
That still wouldn’t make much sense. I don’t have time to dwell on this now; I gotta get out of here. Using my left arm this time, I bring myself to my feet and get a better look at my surroundings. Nothing but forest for miles in every direction… can’t see any stars through the trees… sticking my finger into my mouth and wetting it, I hold it in the air to see which way the wind is blowing.
Once I have that, I follow the direction the wind is blowing. No particular reason, but honestly I don’t have anything else to go on. I try to keep my arm in a position where it won’t hurt, but no matter what I try it ends up hurting a little bit. I ended up settling on using my shirt as a half assed sling, having it half folded up on the right side.
lets see… lost in a cold, dark forest, head trauma, broken arm, no way to call for help... fucking brilliant. Don’t even know how I got here.
Any little noise I hear causes me to dart my head to look in that direction. Call me paranoid, but I feel like I’m being stalked. I mean, wouldn’t you? Besides, paranoia is probably the only thing I have going for me. Keeps my head on a swivel.
I end up walking for god only knows how long. However, I hear something besides myself or the occasional owl. This comes in the form of leaves crunching under somethings weight, followed by a… a cluck? There are chickens out here? Wait… a chicken… maybe there’s a farm nearby or something! I change my direction and walk towards the sound of the chicken. I hear the chicken cluck again and pick up my pace. Maybe if I scare it, it’ll head back home or something...
What I see past a set of bushes causes my blood to freeze. What is in front of me shouldn’t exist, yet here it is. A chicken dragon looking hybrid thing, with red eyes and fucking pointed teeth! I immediately turn tail, booking it away from the would be chicken. I hear a squawk and hear the damn thing chasing after me. I run as fast as I can, my arm hurting from the shaky movement. As I hear the thing gaining on me, I put on an extra burst of speed, not wanting to get eaten alive by the small impossibility of a nightmare.
Eventually I no longer hear the little demon hellspawn chasing after me, so I chance it and stop for a moment to catch my breath; I end up collapsing with my back against a tree, gulping down lungfuls of air. I’m not out of shape, I just haven’t had to run in a long while; an administrative job will do that to ya. I feel dizzy, my head spinning in circles while my stomach is doing jumping jacks, and my arm is trying to gnaw itself off just from the pain. Quickly leaning over to the side, I empty my stomach contents onto the ground next to me and fall over next to it, spitting out what little vomit remains.
I lay there for a good while, just writhing in agony. What finally gets me to stop is hearing some more leaf crunching; much more heavy this time, almost as if the ground is shaking with each step of whatever is approaching. Clearly not fit for anything at the moment, I quickly panic and look around. I find a tree branch and quickly climb it, nearly falling off a few times since I was in such a hurry.
What I soon see nearly stops my heart. A fucking giant lion scorpion hybrid thing with wings! I keep as quiet as I can, watching the beast. It walks up to my pile of vomit, and gives it a sniff before recoiling back in what I assume to be disgust. It lifts its head and continues to sniff around. It looks around and gets visibly frustrated, as it starts to thrash about, putting dents in fucking trees.
Boy am I glad I didn’t try running from that thing…
It eventually stalks off, and I wait for what feels like forever with bated breath before I work up the courage and strength to get down from my position in the tree.
I need to get out of here… NOW.
I book it in the opposite direction the big cat beast went, praying to whatever god that may be watching over me that I get out of this alive. I don’t care if I end up crippled for the rest of my life, I just don’t want to die here.
However, it would seem the devil is watching over me instead, as running turned out to be a HUGE mistake. I now have an entire pack of wolves chasing after me; what’s more, is that they are made of god damned wood! Wooden wolves! I can’t be insane, this pain is far to real. Tears in my eyes, snot running from my nose, I’m full on crying; I know very well I’m probably going to die here. As I’m running, I can’t help but start thinking back to better times; Birthdays, parties, holidays. This turns up to be my downfall however, as I end up tripping over a root while I wasn’t paying attention. I hit the ground with a heavy thud, and flip onto my back in a painful roll. I quickly bring my head around to look at my impending doom: a whole group of at least 12 wooden wolves, one of which is pouncing straight at me. I bring up my broken arm, because let’s face it, it’s already useless, if I lose it, it wouldn’t be that big of a burden on me. The wolf lands on my gut, knocking the wind out of me and clawing the fuck out of my abdomen, and latches onto my arm with its wooden fangs, and violently starts trying to tear it off. I scream out in pain and terror. Using my good arm, I try to hold my broken arm in front of me and beat off the wooden wolf, but it’s completely useless. I’m likely concussed, weak, tired, and in a panicked and frenzied state. Desperation kicks in and I try everything and anything to stay alive, but it’s no use as the rest of the wolves pounce on me, each one latching onto me with a death grip, each wanting to have a piece of me.
The one tugging at my broken arm ends up finally tearing it off, causing me to let out another scream of pure unadulterated agony. I see my life flash before my eyes right before I see my very last sight. One of the wolves faces diving right for my jugular.
And with that, the human fell limp and silent, the Timber Wolves continuing to tear him limb from limb.
