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Post by patience on Sept 4, 2012 17:57:35 GMT -6
WHOOOOOA!!! What the heck was THAT?? Wonder what has evolved while he was in the Jello tank? Sounds like bad news. Okay. We're waiting on this cliff.....
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Post by freebirde on Sept 4, 2012 18:15:13 GMT -6
It was a she and she had the face of the night stocking manager.
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Post by steve on Sept 4, 2012 18:26:44 GMT -6
PART #0038
OK, you know what? Call me a coward if it makes you feel better, but I ran my a** off the moment that humanoid-ish thing turned towards me. I just remember turning and running, bare feet be d**ned, given that the alternative was going to be much, much worse.
You know that sound you hear when someone is running up on you faster then you're running? Yeah. That happened. Me sputtering out obscenities also happened. Don't ask for the exact transcript on that because I don't remember and, even if I did, it would probably be too embarrassing for me to write down, anyway.
I remember seeing the fire off in the distance, still burning rather significantly but not the bonfire it once was. I had a thought that maybe it would be scared of the fire. Nope.
I heard a loud grunt behind me, as in "right in one of my ears" behind me and I lost it. I remember grabbing the stick with both hands and falling to the ground, hoping against hope that the sudden stop would... I don't know... Really, I don't know. This wasn't one of my finest moments. Seriously, how do you write about being a complete coward without making it sound like you're, you know, a complete f**king coward? I was scared. I was scared out of my mind. A monster was f**king after me. A monster that had just killed a deer with it's own monster-freaking hands. What the H**l was I going to do against a monster that the deer wouldn't be able to do?
When I fell to the ground, I remembered trying to lift the stick up in self defense but I couldn't get it up all the way where I wanted to because it was too long. The back end of the stick got caught on the ground, the other end stabbing into the air at a shallow angle.
I remember hearing a shriek (not my own) and I felt my hands hurt real bad all of a sudden, like a bolt of lightning had passed through the stick. There was a snapping sound and, thinking back on it, what probably happened was that I felt the stick suddenly snap in my hands. I don't know about you, but have you tried to snap a heavy stick before with your bare hands? It hurts your hands, doesn't it? That's what happened.
You see me there, on the ground, still lying on my back, face and body frozen in fear? Yeah, there's your hero for you. Hands shaking, lips quivering, the whole package.
A loud, sudden shriek followed by what sounded like leaves and twigs thrashing about finally broke through my conscious and I snapped upward to see the monster flopping about near the fire... On fire.
On fire? Oh... Oh crap. OH S**T! ON FIRE!
What the...? He's... There he was, on fire. The monster was thrashing all about, on fire. I stumbled sideways about a couple yards in sheer fright and amazement to see this creature fumble and thrash and...
He was holding the side of his neck and...
That's blood. That's blood spraying out of his...
It was. I was so transfixed on the creature that by the time it had finally slumped to the ground and stopped moving, I didn't realize that I had a much larger problem on my hands. The creature's frenzied spasms had spread the fire, both to itself and to the immediate area by knocking through the burning branches and spreading the burning leaves beyond the fire pit.
How the heck was I going to put out those fires? More importantly, could I do it in time before it engulfed the immediate area?
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Post by kaijafon on Sept 4, 2012 21:54:33 GMT -6
i thought the fire was on top of the building??? ok, gotta go and reread.....
thanks!
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Post by patience on Sept 5, 2012 7:06:26 GMT -6
He put the trash cans on top of the building, to catch rainwater, I think.
Sounds like we have barbequed monster for dinner tonight.... ;D
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Post by debralee on Sept 5, 2012 8:29:04 GMT -6
Are there any baked potatoes to go with the barbeque? I do think the guy was a little bit scared. Great reading. Thank you.
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Post by steve on Sept 5, 2012 18:41:13 GMT -6
PART #0039
You might be wondering what you're staring at. Well, not the smoke. You knew it was smoke. I'm talking about the small fires, debris, ruined buildings, burnt...
Oh, wait. You read that part already. I forgot about that.
There wasn't much that I could do. Water was my best option to put out the fire, which I didn't have.
Next option? Sand. Yeah, I know, I know... I hadn't been thinking. I could've used one of the trash cans and filled it with sand. Just like I could've used one of the trash cans and managed to scoop up some of the water still flooding the basement...
Alright! You win! I hadn't thought of the consequences! G*d... You know, it's not everyday you sign up for some wacky experiment and then wake up G*d knows how many years or decades or centuries or whenever later to find your entire world upside down, alright?! Cut me some slack! For all I know, maybe I'm not on the same f**king planet or something! Maybe I'm in an alternate dimension. Who knows?! I just got attacked by... By... I don't know what the f**k that thing over there is...
I did what I could - I took off my poncho and started beating on all the small fires burning around the main bonfire. Yes, you read that correctly - That's me, buck naked, trying to stamp out the flames as best as I can with the only piece of clothing I've got. Take a picture, it'll last longer.
I was fortunate - A lot of the small fires managed to burn themselves out. So maybe I had a small part in that with all the stamping out but I hadn't done a thing right yet since I had crawled out of that gel chamber so why start giving myself credit now?
The small fires were out - Smouldering? Yes, but no longer burning. Heck, I even smothered the fire out on the creature for no other reason then to... Knowing my luck, it would burst into flames like gasoline and burn the whole f**king place down. Or it'd come back to life and run after me, fur ablaze.
The poncho had physically made it through the entire ordeal mostly unscathed but the smell... Yeah, I really didn't need to smell like I had just smoked eight packs of cigarettes in a row. It was time to make another poncho. It was time to feed the main fire before it burnt itself out completely. It was time to find shoes (It wasn't a form of expression - My feet really were killing me). Time to eat. Time to drink. Time...
I looked upwards and saw only lengthening shadows. I felt only hunger. I was also thirsty. I was filthy. And who knows what the heck was going to come out of the forest when all the lights went out.
He who hesitates is lost... Or maybe just overwhelmed. I couldn't afford to be both. I began walking away from the fire. I had a deer to drag back to the fire.
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Post by kaijafon on Sept 5, 2012 22:51:30 GMT -6
there'll be venison for dinner tonight! (I thought he was yelling at ME there at first, I kept looking for the man no longer in the poncho! what? it woulda made my day!
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Post by steve on Sept 6, 2012 12:44:38 GMT -6
PART #0040
Do you know how heavy a deer is? Seriously, walk up to a dead, normal-sized deer and try to drag it. Go ahead, try. I'll wait.
Is there no justice in this G*d forsaken world?!! Does everything have to be so f**king difficult?!! Can't there be one activity that I can perform that doesn't involve me getting so frustrated that I swear a blue streak a mile long?
OK, you know... I'm not a hunter. Maybe all deer feel like they weigh nine tons or maybe it's the fact that I'm doing this with no shoes on or maybe it's the fact that I'm not a f**king bodybuilder or the fact that I'm half-an-hour away from the needle going from "starved" to "f**king starved" and "thirsty" to "f**king thirsty"...
I eventually worked out a system where I heaved and pulled, much like a single rower rowing a boat. I'd pull one section of the deer a little bit, then I pull the other section of the deer a little bit. It was messy, it smelled bad... Ugh. I had thoughts of cooking the monster instead but who knows what the heck made up that monster? Maybe it had poison for blood or something.
In hindsight, I was amazed that I didn't see a monster or some other forest predator try to fetch the deer carcass in all my time. Maybe they felt sorry for me. Maybe they took one whiff of the deer and decided against it. Maybe they took one whiff of me and decided against it.
By the time I got the deer back to the campfire, the campfire had all but gone out. Some more dried leaves and twigs solved that problem back into a blaze but there was no question that it was now dusk. How many more hours of sunlight? I gave myself two more hours before the moon was brighter then the sun but did it really matter anymore?
I needed a knife. I needed a grill (I already had the fire - Score one for me). Just the thought of eating the deer... Yeah. Usually, I don't eat things that have the physical capacity of staring back at you. When you're that hungry, though, waiting for a fast food delivery guy isn't an option anymore.
Scissors would be adequate because scissors was all I had. I wrapped one of my hands in a piece of my old poncho so that I wouldn't cut myself and then I just started... Sawing. Yeah. I'm not going to describe the sounds but think "Civil War doctor who doesn't know what the H**l he's doing" and that's close enough.
Dusk had begun to turn into evening by the time I managed to hack off a piece of deer that didn't look entirely gross. Needless to say, one of my arms, part of my torso and the forearm from my other arm was covered in deer blood by the time I was done. Yes, I looked like a freakin' serial killer five seconds after the slaughter. Did I care at that point? No.
A stick was good enough to jab the piece of meat on and I stuck the f**ker right into the flame, not even over it - Straight into the flames. I was ordering this thing burnt to a crisp because the last thing I needed was to catch some strange disease by eating it raw or undercooked.
Dinner time was fast approaching and not a moment too soon. I was freakin' starved.
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Post by rvm45 on Sept 6, 2012 16:41:43 GMT -6
Steve, Steve..... Please, we're civilized here. It's " The War Between The States" or " The War of Northern Aggression". There was nothing "Civil" about it. A War of Sucession is Not a Civil War. Story is going Great though! .....RVM45
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Post by patience on Sept 6, 2012 18:24:08 GMT -6
He need water worse than he needs food. If he eats without anything to drink after it, he will REALLY be thirsty, since it requires water to digest food. He'll figure that out, though. Hope he finds a drink that doesn't give him Montezuma's Revenge...
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Post by steve on Sept 7, 2012 12:21:50 GMT -6
PART #0041
The picture wasn't a pretty sight. I'm naked, part of me is smeared with blood, the part of me that isn't smeared in blood is sweaty and dirty and grimy, the whole place smells of dead deer and dead... Humanoid thing, and dead things tend to attract a large amount of flies relatively quickly. Roasting a piece of dead deer meat over an open flame is the final paint stroke in this masterpiece.
By the time I felt comfortable with the amount of charred surface area on the deer meat, I could see stars poking through the darkening blue sky above.
There were no forks, knives, plates or garnish. Dig in. Three minutes into eating, I wish I had thought ahead and ordered a bottle of wine for the meal. Or any other drink for that matter. Just another bad grade to give me in the School of Hard Knocks when it came to surviving in the wilderness.
The deer meat tasted like... Well, meat. Charred meat. I had no doubt that, like most events that had transpired today, I had been doing it all wrong. I'd find out tomorrow if I had done it REALLY wrong if I died of something.
I rather surprised myself by eating the whole damn thing and then managing to pry off another disgusting looking chunk of deer meat and roasting that, too. I guess that when you're starved, civility evaporates and you do whatever works. Like sitting out in a forest, buck naked, eating.
What the heck was I going to do? Seriously... I couldn't live like this: Naked, scavenging for food like a caveman, smelling like the inside of Satan's jockstrap. There had to be a better way. I needed priorities. Focus.
There were no typewriters, pens, pencils or even quills available. There was, however, plenty of deer blood to go around. And the outside of those building windows were just begging for some graffiti. Dipping one of my fingers into the many places where deer blood was still fresh in the deer, I began writing out my to-do list on one of the windows: Water. Shoes. Clothes. Food.
'Weapon,' I thought instinctively, looking over at the dead humanoid monster thing now mostly obscured by distance and shadow.
I finished writing and started yawning. The stars were out. I was tired. Was I full? No, but I wasn't starving anymore. Good enough.
Tomorrow, hopefully, would be a better day. How could it get any worse?
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Post by kaijafon on Sept 7, 2012 15:11:19 GMT -6
NOOOO!! NEVER ask that!!! LOL! I'm kinda surprised he did not drink any of the deer blood. He must have been a liberal. LOL!
(I don't drink it either)
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Post by steve on Sept 8, 2012 9:30:46 GMT -6
PART #0042
So, how was your evening? 'Cause my evening sucked. It sucked hard.
Yeah, I'm still alive. Look at me, though - My face tells it all. Red eyes, puffy eye bags, eyelids that can hardly open halfway, wrinkles in places I've never had wrinkles before, slightly pale (Trust me - I FEEL more pale then I probably look). I've got a headache, not head-splitting but close enough. I'm sore as s**t. Marathons beyond fifty feet need not apply.
I hardly slept last night. Maybe an hour or two at most. It's hard to sleep when, well... Look around you. There was nothing to sleep on. No bed. No sleeping bag. I sure as heck wasn't going to sleep on the ground. I eventually ripped down the remainder of that banner and slept on that - I might as well, considering it was going to be my next poncho once I woke up.
I felt safer sleeping indoors in the building than outdoors, which meant the fire was going to go out. OK. I had a book of matches and a bunsen burner lighter that... Well, if I ever needed to light a gas flame, I could use but was otherwise worthless.
The rain woke me up, which wasn't all that hard to do. I heard the rain pelt against the windows. So much for the fire, anyway. I was smart enough to walk up the staircase and onto the roof of the building. It was enough of a rain where, if I had a bar of soap, I could've taken a shower. I just stood there and scrubbed myself with my hands, for whatever that was worth. Probably not much.
I cupped my hands and tried to catch some rain to drink. Cripes, if you can't trust rain water what type of water can you trust? It's the water that falls from the sky. I never thought that it might be acid rain or anything like that. It tasted like water. I drank as much as I could. I knew, though, that I'd have to figure out a way to sterilize water. The wastebaskets were doing their job and, once there was daylight, I'd have to do mine.
Remember that strange tower that I told you about off in the distance? I remember looking at it and it was glowing, shimmering and ever so slowly changing color. I didn't know whether I should be scared or thankful of it. I was too tired to make a decision. Eventually, I went back downstairs to my "bed."
Daylight finally arrived. I didn't feel sick. Charring the deer meat must have worked.
When I walked outside, though, I immediately noticed something peculiar: The dead deer and the Monster thing was gone.
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Post by debralee on Sept 8, 2012 22:02:26 GMT -6
Now he is living high. Food, water and kind of a shower. What more could a guy want? Clothes and shoes would be nice. Hey, who took the food?
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Post by steve on Sept 9, 2012 10:31:28 GMT -6
PART #0043
The dead deer and the equally dead (at least, I was pretty sure that it was dead) Monster Thing was gone. Going back into the forest, though, virtually naked, was not a good idea.
First thing was first: Poncho.
Making a poncho for the second time was easier then the first. I had kept the waist cord from the first one and, in what seemed like 'no time,' I was back amongst the modest once more. About time.
My limited expedition into the wild yesterday had taught me one valuable lesson - Shoes. I needed shoes.
I'm not a shoesmith or a tailor or a cobbler or whatever the heck they call people who make shoes. I'm sure there's some antiquated 'Olde English' name for them. That's what you get when you've only got a high school diploma.
It took me a little while to figure out how to make a shoe from my smoke-smelling, discarded, first poncho. I'll save you the hour or so of swearing, measuring, swearing some more, measuring some more, finally getting the courage to start cutting and then back to the swearing. In short, I figured out that the basic show had a bottom (for you foot, obviously), a forward flap (to cover your toes), two side flaps and a back flap (to keep the back of the shoe tight). Holes would be poked into the flaps to thread a string through and keep the shoe tight (sort of like every other shoe).
Shoe #1 fit well enough. Debris and small twigs might get in between the foot and the bottom of the shoe but at least I wasn't walking barefoot on the forest floor anymore. Shoe #2 was a little tighter but still good enough. They were better then wearing tissue boxes on your feet but fell far short of actual hiking shoes or just shoes in general.
Clothes. Shoes. Two items off of my list written in blood (not mine, the deer's) on the window from yesterday.
Water. The next item on my list.
Walking in shoes made of plastic-y material had a disadvantage - The constant crinkling sound meant that the only living beings I would ever sneak up on were the ones who were deaf. So, I crinkled my way up to the roof of the building to see what I had caught from the passing rain during the night before.
To my disappointment, the amount of water I had captured barely managed to fill half a wastebasket. That sucked.
What sucked worse was that I had no way of boiling the water to make it safe to drink.
Clothes were nice, shoes were definitely nice (I could already feel the soles of my feet relaxing) but, without water and food, I knew I'd be nothing more then a well-dressed skeleton.
It was time to scavenge... For food, for something resembling a pot to boil water in... For answers. I looked towards the strange tower in the distance. In the sunlight, it didn't seem to pulsate in weird colors like it had before.
A part of me knew that I'd have to travel to that tower at some point. Food and water, though, would have to come first. I climbed down from the roof of the building with the water. I had work to do.
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Post by steve on Sept 10, 2012 15:05:53 GMT -6
PART #0044
The water wasn't going anywhere. I set it down inside the building while I tended to my next task outside.
I didn't need an ax to gather enough wood for a fire; The forest floor had been plentiful for enough of that. The difference from yesterday was that I would take the wood inside so that it would remain dry. It's not like the lobby was going to get dirtier.
When you snap branches, you usually tend to break them over your knee. I forgot, though, that a large part of that equation was that most people wear pants for that activity. I wasn't. Ouch. Lesson learned. I found a concrete corner to act as the "knee" instead. It was good enough.
The pile of twigs and branches grew until it was large enough. There was no reason to stock up for a proverbial winter; I was hopeful that these accommodations would be temporary until I found an upgrade somewhere. One branch felt and looked particularly sturdy, being straight enough with a pointed end to resemble a spear. My search for a weapon had ended, all other branches need not apply.
I needed a metal pot, preferably with a lid. Nothing too big, nothing too small. My vision was to make a large fire and put a metal stand onto it so that the pot could be placed over the fire.
How many office kitchens have such a beast lurking within? I found metal forks, knives (all of the non-sharp variety), spoons & ceramic mugs of varying degrees of fragility (one literally crumbling in my hands). There were a few plastic cups but the ravages of time looked as though they had aged the cups to the edge of crumbling. Wasn't plastic supposed to last forever? Apparently, not in this future.
It was time to explore. Explore the forest for food, for other buildings, for... 'For answers,' I thought instinctively to myself as I grabbed my spear-stick and walked cautiously away from the building. This forest used to be an industrial park that had other buildings. Other buildings that might have what I needed.
A thought crossed my mind as I reminded myself that this forest was once a well-groomed, perfectly respectable industrial park: My car was parked in the parking lot at this building. Did my car still exist here? It didn't involve food, water or any other essential but finding my car suddenly became essential for me.
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Post by kaijafon on Sept 10, 2012 19:07:52 GMT -6
car...... yeah, I think I would be looking for my car too. lol!
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Post by patience on Sept 11, 2012 14:10:55 GMT -6
Wonder how long it has been? He may find a rusty spot on crumbled pavement.
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Post by steve on Sept 11, 2012 16:41:54 GMT -6
PART #0045
Curiosity kills the cat, so they say. I was hoping that it would, at least, temporarily spare me.
A part of me still thought that this was all a prank. Isn't that foolish? Of course it is - Who would go through all this trouble just to fool me into thinking I was on another planet or 100 years in the future or... Or whatever. Maybe it was all a part of some psychological reflex to not dwell on the realities of my situation - I couldn't possibly be experiencing this, it was all just a bad dream, a holographic simulation... Maybe I was in a friggin' coma or something.
Of course it wasn't a prank or a hoax or a simulation. The setting was too big, too detailed... The trees looked and felt like real trees... What the heck had I killed a day ago if not for some sort of Monster thing ("Did you really kill it? How do you know?" My conscious replied skeptically).
Would they have gone through all the trouble to have simulated my car? Would my car even be here after... Who knows how many years?
I thought hard as to where my car would be in relation to the building. The building had only one parking lot - On the left side of the building. I remember walking a distance to enter the building because the visitor spots were already full. I remember the parking lot being modestly filled.
There was no pavement or asphalt. Overhead parking lot lights? I didn't see any arou...
Oh, wait. There was one. Rusted and brown, perfectly blended in with the trees. Vegetation had wrapped multiple layers around the rusted hulk and no one would have ever noticed that it was more than just a dead tree without a closer inspection.
Car frames? I didn't see any. What might have been a parking lot was now a parking lot for trees and some modest forest floor vegetation. Discouraged and disgusted that I had wasted even a modest amount of time on such a useless endeavor, I turned back around so that I could concentrate on two priorities that actually mattered to my survival: Food and a way for boiling water.
Then it dawned on me.
Turning around and looking upwards, I saw something... Something weird that I had never seen before...
I saw the rusted frame of a car sitting about 60 feet in the air, massive tree branches strung through the frame as though the car was some odd Christmas tree ornament.
A further inspection of the surrounding forest revealed several such frames in several such trees, each one tossed and turned by mechanics known only to nature itself.
I needed to find food. I needed a way to boil water. I began to walk away, determined to accomplish both before sunset.
But I also needed to come back and satisfy my curiosity.
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Post by steve on Sept 11, 2012 16:47:36 GMT -6
Hi. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has commented on my story so far. Your comments have given me great motivation and I can not thank you enough for them.
I would also like to tell you of an impending intermission to my story. I have an upcoming obligation that will make it unlikely for me to continue the story for a brief period. While I may have the ability to write more entries, I will most likely not be able to post them.
The time period for this intermission is slated for Late September through Early October.
There is a slight chance that there may be no interruption of story at all but the chance for interruption is too great not to give advance notice.
Regular story submissions will resume after that period in early October. Thank you.
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Post by kaijafon on Sept 11, 2012 17:34:42 GMT -6
thank you! I love how you had the trees 'carry the cars' up in the air as they grew!!! nice touch! I'll try to remember when you are gone and not fill the pages with whining and begging and tears for moar If I forget to tell you, BE SAFE!!!
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Post by bunyip on Sept 12, 2012 3:13:58 GMT -6
In the words of the 2 old geezers from the Muppets....
"More, More, Triffic"
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Post by freebirde on Sept 12, 2012 3:33:41 GMT -6
I've seen trees growing through cars, but I have never seen them lift anything farther than it takes to tip it over.
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Post by steve on Sept 12, 2012 18:49:04 GMT -6
PART #0046
You know those berries that the deer was eating before it was killed by the Humanoid Monster Thing?
Yeah... They're an acquired taste... A taste I don't think I would acquire even if I ate the darn things for a hundred years. I was initially nervous that the berries were poisonous or something but, after eating five of them and not feeling dizzy or woozy or sick or anything other then the fact that they tasted sort of 'Eh,' I decided that they would be the food of Very Last Resort.
You know those other buildings that the industrial park had before it magically turned into a giant overgrown forest?
Yeah... Well, I haven't found all of the buildings yet. In fact, I only found three of them and the three that I found made the one building I wobbled out of look like a five-star hotel. One building was hardly a building but more a collection of rubble with a set of doors almost mocking people to try and enter it. Another building looked as though the back end and the top two floors had collapsed in on itself. Will the other buildings be any better? Probably not.
I decided to walk back to the building, determined to strip it apart if necessary to make a decent enough apparatus for boiling water. Heck, it couldn't have been that hard - A metal container, something to put over the metal container to seal it and then something to stand that metal container over an open flame. Also, I'd probably need something to hold the...
At first, I thought it was just rustling leaves, the wind blowing against the trees. My mind was distracted; I was trying to prioritize so that I could live.
Boy, was I wrong.
What saved me was the fact that I was practically at the entrance to the building, arm's reach to the front doors. In hindsight, it probably didn't even realize the concept of doors and thought I had unwittingly walked myself against a rather opaque-looking wall.
There it was - Charging at me.
It was huge. It was quick. It looked mean.
Instincts took over. I bolted through the front doors, closing them behind me.
POW!
The front doors shook violently and, in my opinion, were slightly bent inwards as a result of the impact. I stumbled backwards, my stick-spear ready for... For what? How could I fight that?
CRASH!
One of it's arms had figured out that the mysterious opaque substance in front of it (known to you and me as "glass") was breakable. I was too far away to feel the spray of glass splinters but heard a throaty, deep yelping sound that faded briefly in distance.
The thing had obviously cut itself while breaking the glass. How severely it was bleeding was beyond me.
What compelled me to move forward enough to actually look out the broken pane will always remain a mystery. Curiosity? Rage that I had been once again targeted?
Just beyond the steps, I saw... "It," prancing about madly in the immediate area, wet dark fur adorning one of his arms. It saw me and proceeded to run up towards the shattered pane of glass.
Something took over in me, something a bit too scary to describe. It wasn't courage - Courage is about making a conscious choice about something. It wasn't bravery - I hadn't thought about the odds or the consequences of my actions.
No, it was anger. It was anger that caused me to yell out like a raving lunatic, lunging that stick-spear of mine at that... Whatever it was. I can't even begin to describe the blow-by-blow. how many times did I stab it? I can't recall. Really, I can't. I just remember just repeatedly thrusting that spear into the Thing's face over and over again.
In the end, I think I was lucky. It never tried to enter the building through the broken window. It just stood there, at the broken window, letting me strike it with all of my might.
I didn't kill it. It... I'm pretty sure I struck it once really good in the head. I remember it howling and jumping back, then just wobble-running away.
Silence. Silence except for my own hysterical panting. I can't remember when I finally noticed my hands shaking, a death grip on that stupid stick-spear of mine. I can't remember when I noticed tears running down my cheeks.
I had lived. I had lived because I was lucky. Out in the open, I would've been a dead man. The end.
Twice now, I had lived through circumstance and not skill or reason. I still had the mind of a survivor, of a scrounger and scavenger. If I was going to live, I needed to start developing the mind of a fighter, a warrior... Of a hunter.
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