Bloodied Hands

Bloodied Hands

Chapter two: Waking and Walking

The universe was black and colourless; nothing was there except for the inky black darkness that stretched out infinitely. There was still conscious but a lack of the senses, Alex just drifted through the darkness not even feeling his body. A warm glow began in his mind and spread out wards and he began to feel the various limbs of his body, but he was incapable of moving them. The first sense to approach his conscious was touch, and with it he could feel the grass below him, and unfortunately a rock that was jabbing into his back. Hearing returned next and with it he was approached by the sounds of the wind whistling through the trees and distant birds singing their songs. Smell returned and he was greeted by the smell of fresh un-polluted air and fragrant flowers. Next on the list to return was taste and with it came the flavour of saliva. Then finally vision returned and Alex looked forward to greeting it again. The centre of his vision became a light, which expanded and momentarily blinded Alex.  After a second his eyes adjusted and he got his first view of where he was.

He was situated on the side of a hill, but at a point that was flat and hidden behind a tree. Beyond the tree he could see a large forest that stretched out from the base of the hill and wrapped around the hill. Beyond the forest he could make out a small town with yellow thatch roofing, he could see dots moving around the town but couldn’t discern any details of the inhabitants. To the right there was a large mountain off in the distance, it was hard to tell from such a distance but there looked like there was a structure on the side. Off to the left the forest continued to stretch out for a long distance before reaching an end.

“Well, where the fuck am I?” Alex questioned himself out loud. He gazed out at the world before turning around to see what was behind him. On the small flat part of the hill he stood was a small spring feeding into a rock basin before draining away into a small stream. Also what made Alex grin was that his large container had been left there, as well as some hiking bag that looked modified with extra pockets and external slings.

Rubbing his hands together he walked up to his container, flipped the catches off, and lifting the lid. Alex grinned again when he noticed that everything was still in place, from his balisong knife (butterfly knife) to his sniper. Although on top of his kit was a small folded piece of paper, Alex opened it and read:

Dear Alex

I hope the transportation didn’t leave you to rough and that you are well, you are going to need your strength for your first test. This first test is about survival in the wilderness and I need you to start from this location and move north-east towards large city with a very unique skyline. The travel will take many days and will require you to fend for yourself and collect your own food, water and shelter. One thing though AVOID all contact with the citizens of this country and stay out of all settlements until you reach the before mentioned city. Good luck, a compass has been left for you and I hope you do like the bag, I’m sure it will be useful. Remember look for the small business on the western side called “Wagon Wash”.

         -Eclipse

‘Well great’ thought Alex, ‘now I’ve got a long walk ahead of me’. And with that Alex gave a sigh and sat on a rock next to the spring. Cupping his hands he scooped some water up and took a quick drink of the life sustaining substance. With another sigh he wandered over to his container and the bag, now he had the difficult job of choosing what he wanted to bring with. He began by choosing the essentials and placing them in the bag. He soon realised that there was always room to pack with, and before you know it everything had been packed into the bag, even the things that shouldn’t have even been able to fit in the bag.

With a raised eyebrow, he stood back and looked at the bag. Despite it being full of all manner of equipment, the bag barely even looked full. When he lifted it up he found it to be extremely light for something that should have weighed many times his own weight. Opening it up he could see the items he placed inside and when he removed something they seemed to rise up to fill the space, and then when he placed it inside they moved away to make space. Mind boggled, Alex stared at the bag as his brain started to hurt trying to comprehend it.

With a final shrug he decided not to question it, it did provide him with a convenience after all. He then put on some better clothing for the trip, which consisted of some hiking boots, crag hopper trousers’, t-shirt and black hooded jacket.  Hefting the bag up onto his back he pulled out a compass and aligned himself up with north east and began the first steps of his journey.

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The sun was nearing the horizon and it wouldn’t be long till it started getting dark. Alex took this as a cue to get a camp set up. Placing the bag down against a tree he began collecting firewood and organising it into a small campfire. Once the fire was lit and the fire well supplemented with fuel, Alex went over to his bag. Next to get was some food and so he needed to hunt. Opening up his bag to retrieve his bow and arrows, he found them to be at the top of the bag. Again he gave the bag a look and hesitated when pulling out his bow.

With his bow at hand and arrows in a quiver on his back, Alex stalked into the forest.

It wasn’t long until he came across a small clearing, in the centre of which was a small collection of rabbits feeding on the grass and plants. There was about ten milling about, one of which was a small white bunny that looked as if it was in charge. Alex didn’t know much about rabbits but he was sure that they didn’t spend so much time out in the open. Alex just reasoned that the rabbits just weren’t used to predators and thusly would make this much easier. Drawing an arrow and nocking it on the string, he stood up and pulled back on the string bringing his hand under his chin and aiming down the sight. With a slight exhale he released the string sending the arrow whistling through the air and hitting the bulls-eye, right through the rabbit’s eye. The other rabbits froze in shock and Alex took the opportunity to fire a second arrow and score a second hit. The rabbits finally reacting sprinted out of the clearing and into the forest. The white rabbit turned at the edge and gave Alex a glare before turning and sprinting away.

Alex wandered over and bent over the first rabbit before recovering his arrow, as he picked up the rabbit he heard rustlings from outside the clearing. Sprinting over to the other side of the clearing he lay down behind a tree.

A timid female voice faintly came across the clearing, “oh dear what’s the matter? Where are we going? Has something bad happened?”. This was then followed by the rustlings of the bushes as she entered the clearing, the tone of her voice then became shaken and frightened. “Oh my, oh dear. What did this? Who did this? I feel sick. We’re going to have to take him to his family. Who would do this?” the female voice broke into sobs and he heard the sound of her moving into the centre of the clearing and then moving away out of the clearing.

When the sounds of the sobs died down Alex leaned out from the tree and saw that the second dead rabbit had been taken by the girl. He felt sorry for traumatizing the girl but there was little he could do. With a shrug Alex began his walk to his camp; it was going to be cooked rabbit for dinner.

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The next day Alex woke up behind a tree that was off to the side of his camp, he had slept there in case it rained. Alex identified what had woken him up, two voices talking over by his campfire, fortunately the tree blocked the view and so they hadn’t seen him, but this also meant he couldn’t see them. Staying completely still he held onto his bag, ready to run if he needed to, in the meantime he would listen in on them.

“So you’re saying Angel came to you and lead you to a clearing with a dead rabbit with an arrow though its eye.” said a female voice that sounded like it belonged to someone very smart who read a lot of books.

“Yes. Except there was another rabbit missing meaning whatever mean creature killed that one, took the other one away” again it was that timid voice from yesterday.

“Seems you were very close to whatever it was yesterday, as this campfire would support”

“Could it still be here?”

“It looks like it has already left”

“Oh ok, can we go now”

“Sure there’s no need to be here any longer. We’ll just have to wait and see if this repeats” finished the smarter sounding one, to which both began moving away. Wanting a look at the speakers Alex risked being seen and looked out from behind the tree. All he saw was a fleeting glimpse of two colours: lavender and yellow, as they disappeared into the bushes.

With a sigh of relief Alex hefted up the bag and slung it on his back. Bending down he also picked up his combat knife in its sheaf, he had used it yesterday to skin the rabbit and cut slices of meat. Strapping the sheaf to his leg Alex began his next day of his journey and wandered off into the forest, before promptly realising he was walking the wrong way and turning around

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The next two days went by without any mishaps and he hadn’t run into any more locals, not even having a view of the two others from the first day. It had been a long walk but it was finally coming to an end. Crossing over a hill he got his first view of the target city, the city was large and had a tall skyline that reminded Alex of the skyline that Manhattan had. He camped out and predicted to be arriving at the western edge of the city by nightfall tomorrow.

So there he was walking towards the western edge of the city, he kept to the wooded areas in the dark so as to avoid being seen by any locals. When he finally got close enough to the treeline by a road the sight he saw made his jaw drop, and he definitely heard the thud of it hitting the ground.