All Alone.

"How big is this damn forest?" Jack's thoughts echoed in his head like his footsteps through the forest. Every little stick he snapped bounced off every tree in the area and came back for him. Golden slivers of sunlight could be seen through the dense canopy of leaves overhead. Soft green moss covered the ground, except for a few patches of dirt here and there. All the trees where immensely tall, but their trunks weren't quite as thick. Aside from the steady chirping of crickets in the background, and the occasional rustling of a small animal scampering across the forest floor, there was little sound to be heard. A thick fog covered most of the forest, and it seemed as the farther Jack went one way, the fog thickened. If he walked the other way a while, it got thinner and thinner. Jake had been wandering aimlessly for almost five hours it seemed. It was almost pitch black when he woke up, but it was lighter now.

Jack just kept walking, determined to reach the edge of this damned forest, no matter how thick the fog got. "Aren't most of these damn things supposed to be cut down? How the hell's this one so big?" he asked himself, not for the first time.

Jack was equipped with things needed for survival, but he didn't understand what was happening at all. He had fallen asleep the night earlier next to his campfire. It wasn't there when he got up, not even any smoldering twigs. Nothing. He had a compass, but it screwed up and pointed in all directions so he just went where he was pretty sure the highway and his car should be. Nothing was there either. It was like it had all just vanished. It seemed as if he had been sleepwalking, but Jack had never sleepwalked in his life, he was sure of it.

Four hours went by after that. Just walking, no idea where he was going.

He felt a chill crawl down his spine. Something was watching him, he could feel it. Its eyes penetrating him, ripping him apart from the inside. He knew it was a hideous creature, he just couldn't see it.

He started running. His legs kicking up dust and pebbles as he went by. He could have sworn he passed some little people staring at him as he sprinted through the forest. His legs were aching, his throat burning. He heard a Scotsman calling him to dinner. He was starving after all. But he couldn't stop now, the man with eight arms was coming!

He was gaining on him. Jack turned back for a quick look. The man with eight arms was right behind him! Two arms reached out and almost grabbed him while the other six kept him running. One arm grabbed hold of Jack's leg, but it moved with it as he ran.

Jack saw the man's face. Bald, completely black eyes and his teeth, they were razor sharp, teeth like a cheetah uses to rip it prey to shreds. His face was scrunched up, full of anger and hatred as a third arm made its way around Jack's other leg.

BAM! Everything went black, pitch black.

Jack was falling, falling through nothing. Going slow as a feather, stuck falling in a black vacuum, never ending. Like he was in deep space, only he was breathing. He couldn't move, he could only see darkness as he fell to a non-existing death. He started to see stars pass him by. Small, yellow stars, light years away. He saw little white stars, turning into a fiery little orb and expanding, engulfing the stars around it until vanishing completely.

He looked directly in front of him and saw it. Earth. Growing smaller and smaller as he moved away from it. Space shuttles passed him by, going to far off planets and leaving him behind. He saw the sun, the great fire ball that heated the whole solar system. He felt himself burning and freezing at the same time.

Then, quick as it all started, it disappeared. He was laying on something soft. He dared to open his eyes. The same forest from before met him. Only this time it was much darker, it seemed to be approaching dusk. The soft sound of a breeze and the gentle song of a bird reminded him he wasn't being hunted, watched or chased. He was all alone. Completely alone, in this hell-hole of a forest. His head felt so hot. He put a hand to it. It was wet. He brought his hand down to his face to see it covered in blood, his blood.

He tried to lift his head, but he couldn't. His head throbbed like someone used it as a punching bag. A migraine started to develop. It was immensely painful, but he managed to raise his head for a second. A large dark brown spot was on the tree directly in front of him. Drowsiness started to take over. He tried to fight it, but when you're tired you just can't do too much about it. He drifted back to sleep almost instantly.

He awoke as it seemed, several hours later. No birds singing. No animals rustling. Complete silence. It was a good time to sleep, the sky showed it to be night time, the moon high in the sky, but Jack wasn't tired. He'd been asleep probably half the day, and that wasn't good for his well being. The more time he spent on the ground sleeping, the more time who knows what could come out and kill him on the spot. He wasn't about to let that happen. Scanning the area, he saw a few branches on the ground that looked big enough to sharpen to a spear. He had brought a pocket knife with him to go camping, they were just too useful to not bring. He also brought a flare gun and three flares for situations, well, like this.

"I'm such a dumbass", he said loud enough it echoed through the forest. He heard some whistling sounds that sounded like animal calls. His hand went through his backpack he had pulled off. As he was about to pull out the flare gun, he heard a sound that really sent a chill down his spine. A wolf's howl. He tried to pull the flare gun out. His hand wouldn't let him. After a minute or two he tried again and got the thing out. Bushes rustled in the distance and he knew now it was fight or die. No one can outrun a wolf, the damn things just go too fast. Footsteps and heavy breathing neared him as he hastily cut a point on the straightest branch within reach. He also loaded the flare gun. Growling seemed to come from about three or four feet in front of him, and he clumsily lit a road flare and held it up. The creature in front of him was demented. It looked like a wolf, but it was wooden. He only now heard it creaked with every step it took. Even its teeth were wooden, but its eyes stared back at him with a yellow glow. It's wooden lips curled back, showing almost an abnormal looking set of teeth, and they weren't aligned right. They were jagged, smooth and kind of looked like wooden pegs sharpened at the tip.

It kept and walking slowly towards him, and as it did two other similar devil spawn exited the bushes and came beside the first one. Jack couldn't move, he was frozen in fear in front of these demonic beings. One stopped right in front of him, about two feet between Jack and a painful, slow death. The wolf crouched down and prepared to pounce on him. Out of instinct Jack slammed his eyes shut and raised the flare gun and pulled the trigger. A blinding light came and faded in an instant. A ear piercing whistle only lasted as long as well. Jack smelled burning wood and heard the wolf whimpering in pain. He opened his eye. To his surprise, the wolf was on fire. A wolf, on fire. The flare should have gone into the wolf like a bullet, not set it on fire. He didn't have much time to think though, because one of the other two leaped at him. He only had time to hold up his spear in front of him before he was knocked to the ground. He wasn't being clawed in to or eaten, and as soon as he got up he could see why. The wolf was impaled on the spear, it went through one end and was sticking out the other end. He only had time to glance up and see the last wolf disappear into the forest before he felt a burning sensation in his leg. He looked down and saw his left pant leg torn and covered in blood. Pulling it back, he saw a large claw mark, though it was hard to tell with all the blood. To add to that, he looked and saw blood on the paw on the left hind leg of the wolf that got impaled.

"One of those goddamn things scratched me. SOMEBODY HELP ME!" He shouted into the forest. The only thing that greeted him back was his own voice. Alone.

His face warmed up for the first time in hours as the early morning sun danced around on the ground through the openings in the leaves in the forest canopy. He was starving now, not hallucinating like he did yesterday. All he had in the way of food was a half empty bag of beef jerky, two matchbox sized packs of raisins and four oatmeal bars. In five minutes he ate all but two pieces of jerky, which he put in his pocket for later. He also drank half his canteen, which he had to save, he was an idiot and only brought six water purifying tablets, and it took two to make a pot of water drinkable. "It could be worse", Jack thought, "I could be lying dead, half eaten by a bunch of-". He stopped mid-thought when some odd looking footprints met his sight. They definitely weren't human. They were round, a perfect circle, and they were in two rows, but it looked like something with four legs made them. "It'll all go to hell if I run into this thing and it's as hungry as I am". He followed them. The fog wasn't so thick now, so it was easy to see where he was going and where the tracks headed.

The fog got thinner and thinner as he followed the footprints. He wasn't too good with nature, but by how deep the prints were and by how clear they were he assumed they must be fresh, which meant that thing might be near. Eventually the fog was just completely gone, and Jack could see everything. The forest was now covered in flowers of all colors. Jack couldn't identify any of them though. Animals also started scampering around, mostly small ones like rabbits and squirrels.

More and more animals kept going about as he followed the prints, after a while they led to a clearing. A few deer where walking about and Jack was starting to get hungry, and he didn't have much food left. He got down low and held his spear in one hand, his pocket knife in the other. The deer really didn't seem to care about him being there, even when  he got close enough to touch one. It just looked at him when he patted its head, and just went back to looking around. Jack seized the moment, took advantage of its ignorance. Screams of pain and cries for help came from its mouth when Jack stabbed it in the back with his spear. He slowly brought it down to the ground while it still struggled, bleeding to death. He thrust the knife into its neck, and the shouting and screaming stopped. Its breathing stopped. Its heart stopped. He killed it. He had never killed something that big before, let alone so close up.

The stars were bright in the night sky. Jack couldn't tell, but it had to be somewhere between midnight and three in the morning, maybe. The moon provided a little bit of light, but almost everything except in the clearing was impossible to see. A circle of light surrounded Jack, emanating from a burning pile of sticks and broken branches. Fires weren't so easy to start, so thankfully a box of matches was in Jack's backpack. He had spent all day since morning skinning the deer and trying to do something with the hide. He ended up just tossing it on the fire, it burned nicely; all the blood had dried out. Even though he skinned and gutted a whole deer, he only ate the legs, everything else kind of got covered in dirt because he didn't have a place to put the corpse. There was a stump not too far away from where he was, but he didn't feel like dragging the deer over there.

The meat was juicy, but kind of bland. He hadn't become hungry enough for it to taste good, but since he did have a lot left, he had to make it last. He cooked it all and stuffed whatever he didn't eat carelessly into his pack.

Embers occasionally flew up as the crackling fire died down. By now the sky was a nice soft indigo and the moon was lower on the horizon. The stars were starting to disappear too. Feeling tired after his semi big meal, Jack decided it was a good time to go to bed. The ground wasn't very inviting or comforting, but using his backpack as a pillow made it a little better. Unfortunately, he left his sleeping bag in the forest, so all he had on was a t-shirt and his jeans. His sneakers were in good condition, but he was starting to wish he had worn boots instead.

A cool breeze swept throughout the clearing, making Jack shiver. He didn't pack any spare blankets. He would just have to tough it until he found someone to help him. Oddly enough, even though it was freezing Jack fell asleep pretty quickly. All kinds of whistling and calling could be heard as Jack slept, his breathing becoming heavy, a tell-tale sign of something sleeping, beside the fact he wasn't moving.

He could hear the voices in front of him, and he was running as fast as he could just to keep up. It seemed that as soon as he got close to the voices, they moved farther away. "Didn't I pass this damn tree already?", it seemed he was almost going in circles, the same trees kept popping into view. His breathing became heavy panting as he ran full speed. He had to jump over a log or duck beneath a branch once in a while, but he was getting closer, he just knew it. The voices seemed close, just feet away, when Jack crouched down behind a bush. Catching his breath, he looked between the leaves of the bush. People. People were standing around talking in a little clearing. They all had guns, rifles and shotguns like they were hunting. He jumped out behind the bushes and ran into the clearing. Exhaustion swept over him and he collapsed in the middle of the clearing. One of the men ran over to him. "Hey buddy, are you alright?", the man asked. Jack just looked at him, a look of both joy and exhaustion on his face.

Jack shot open his eyes, and the light was blinding. Something tickled his nose, and he looked at it. Some demonic creature was sitting on his nose! He reached for his nose, and a beautiful little butterfly flew off into the sky. The light wasn't so blinding now, Jack slowly sat up and looked around him, now it seemed about noon. The fire from last night sat charred next to him and deer walked around almost as if the bones of their friend weren't sitting on the grass near Jake. Birds chirped in the forest while dew covered the grass, making it slippery. The sun was high in the sky, it must have been noon. Jake smelled something, something rancid, so he looked down. His grey shirt was covered in sweat, he hates when he wakes up sweaty like that. The deer corpse near the burnt out fire also started to smell so Jack decided to keep moving.

After not too long he made it to the opposite edge of the clearing. The footprints he found earlier went straight through the clearing, leading to the other edge and out. Jack decided it was probably in his best interest to follow the, so he did just that. After a while he came to the edge of the forest. "Thank god I finally made it out of that damn thing", he thought to himself. He walked straight a little bit. He was in a meadow, with rolling hills going on seemingly almost forever, save some mountains and other forests way off on the horizon. The grass was green, the most brilliant hue of green grass could be. It was somewhat tall grass, and even flowed in the slight breeze passing by. A pond was a short distance away. Jack ran fast as he could to it. It was beautiful. The water was the clearest he's ever seen. It was clearer than bottled water, it that was even possible. He wouldn't need the purifying tablets for this water. Water splashed all over him as he dipped first his canteen in the water, then his whole face. It felt completely refreshing. He hadn't had a shower in days. He usually takes one every day.

Once his canteen was full and he was soaking wet he got up and continued walking through the meadow. The grass got thinner as he headed for the horizon. The mountains and hills in the distance seemed blurry at this distance. The heat from the sun made Jack thankful for at least being alive, but It was not to last.

After a few minutes he felt something wet hit his shoulder, followed by a "Oh shit, raining now? Come on it was nice out!". He looked up to the sky. A giant group of grey storm clouds blotted out the sun. Jack looked at the puzzled. They weren't there a few minutes ago. The pile also seemed to be growing slowly larger. He really couldn't tell, but he thought he saw a little green blob almost pushing the clouds into the pile, though he dismissed it as hallucinogenic bullshit. Did that deer he ate eat some kind of mushroom or something? The thought was abruptly stopped when thunder came so loud it almost knocked him down. He looked around disparately for some shelter. The only place he could go was the forest, and god knows he's not going back in there. He just trudged on, holding his backpack over his head to try to keep at least a little dry.

Tall grass led to short grass, short grass led to fields of mud, fields of mud led to tall grass. The cycle went like that for miles. The rain constantly pounded down as he made his crusade to find someone to help him. Hours passed before the rain finally let down, although it stayed a soft drizzle afterwards. His throat burned, his legs ached, his shoes felt like lead weights. He started seeing splotches of colors all over, he had pushed himself too hard. A dirt road with a wooden fence on one side came into view. Jack used his last ounce of energy to make it to that road. The rain picked up again and it became almost impossible to hear anything. The rain came down so hard it felt like a thousand pins were constantly pricking his legs as he crawled down the road. He listened. Something could be heard just barely over the rain. Voices, barely audible, though they sounded like they were shouting, straining to be heard over the storm. His ears weren't playing tricks on him, he was hearing actual voices! Maybe he would finally be saved! The voices sounded far away. Every muscle in his body burned, every bone ached, but he managed to get up to his feet and follow the voices. He stood still and leaned on the fence post. Two figures could be seen, they looked almost nothing more than blobs through the rain. The rain came down so fast and consistently it made everything blurry. One figure seemed almost like it was orange, maybe red? The other one seemed violet or purple. Or was it black? He couldn't really tell though, they were a good distance away.

"I think we best go. There ain't no reason to stay in this downpour.", the reddish orange one said. The other one didn't say anything, they just suddenly took off at a speed not humanly possible. Jack tried reaching out to them, to let them know he was there. His throat burned so much he could barely breathe, and only a strained cough came out when he tried to speak. Of course his efforts were of no use, they didn't stop, didn't come back, they just kept going. Jack's hopes of being found were shattered as the only things that could help him ran off down the road away from him, quickly becoming nothing more than a couple dots in the distance, before fading away entirely.

Having no hope left, Jack just let himself collapse carelessly on the dirt road. He couldn't remember the last time he cried, or the last time something actually mattered enough to cry over, but lying on the ground, he began to cry, almost as much as when his parent had died. He was soon to follow them. Pushing those thoughts away, he lied on his back in the middle of the road, staring into the bright blue sky above. Somehow, the whole pile of clouds disappeared, as if they were never there. Jack decided he would rest. He'd follow the road again in the morning. Being too tired to really focus on anything, he just looked around at the road, the fence, the sky.

"Just who the hell puts a fence on only one side of a road anyway?"