The Woods

Her POV

I woke up in the forest and my head was pounding. How the hell did I get here? The last thing I remembered, I was at the bar talking to that creepy lady. I looked down and saw that I was wearing strange clothing. Definitely not the jeans and tee I went out in yesterday. I now had on black pants, similar to leggings but made out of a weird material, a light long sleeved top covered by a leather corset, and simple black boots. I could definitely rock this look, but I felt like I was dressed up for Halloween. To complete the ensemble, I had on fingerless gloves and a cloak.

I felt around my new clothes and found some pockets. Inside were some odd coins, a few daggers, flint and a striker, and some cord. My phone and money were gone and I cursed that woman for robbing me. But how did she do it? I only remember having the one drink and why were my clothes different? The whole thing was not adding up. And how did I end up in the woods? I felt like a boulder dropped in my stomach… did she drug me and sell me to some sick Hunger Games reality?

I needed to find some people and figure out where I was. I glanced around me trying to determine if there were any clear signs of which way I should go. The woods were so quiet and seemed to be untouched by people. I strained my ears hoping to hear the sounds of traffic or voices but I heard nothing. I found the sun and decided to head in its direction. At least then it would be hard to get turned around.

After a few hours of walking through the underbrush, I finally found a trail. I looked both ways down it and decided to continue to following the sun to the left. The trail was small, and it was pretty obvious it wasn’t used often. It surprised me, back home a place like this would have been crawling with hikers.

I wandered down the trail for hours without coming across another person. Despite my movement, I was growing cold and realized night was quickly approaching.  As far as I could tell, I was nowhere near a trail head and would have to make camp if I was going to survive the night.

I knew it wouldn’t be safe to camp too close to the trail so I turned left and walked for about ten minutes. When I decided to stop, I bent down and broke a bunch of the branches of a nearby bush. Now I could wander around this area and still know which way the trail was.

I started gathering large branches and looked for edible mushrooms or plants while I did so. While I found several, none of them were familiar to me. I was not about to eat mysterious mushrooms while alone in the woods.

I leaned my sticks up against a fallen tree and filled the gap with dry leaves. The leaves would help keep me warm and mask some of my scent. Hopefully, nothing would come prowling in the night. However, being eaten by a mountain lion was sounding better than another day of walking with no destination.

As the sun went down, I sat on my fallen tree and thought about how I got here. The last thing I could remember was meeting the weird woman at the bar. It was like I said “Mr. Right here I come” and poof, in the woods. Could the woman have been legit?

I couldn’t help but think about the idea of meeting this amazing soulmate she promised me. I barely had time for a boyfriend because I loved my career and the few guys I had dated where pretty much awful.

Oh no, I never thought about all the loop holes in the deal. I never guaranteed my soulmate would actually appear in this year and even if he did, it could just be in passing or in such a short time there would never be any way for us to really interact. The woman did say she would introduce us, but that could have been metaphorical.

I was legitimately starting to panic and it was ridiculous. There was no way anything that woman said was real. I was just getting myself worked up over some crazy, twisted scam.

I decided the best thing to do before my mind got too far out of control was to climb in my little shelter and just go to sleep. I had a feeling it would be a long night and early morning. Despite my best efforts I couldn’t help thinking of prince charming and white knights as I fell asleep.

***

As soon as the sun peaked over the horizon, I was awake and I felt like shit. My stomach was growling and my limbs were numb from the cold and sleeping on the ground. I always hated sleeping in quick shelters. The ground was hard and I always felt like bugs were crawling all over me.

The fear of bugs and my constant swatting had earned me the name of Twitchy in boot camp. I honestly appreciated the name. Being considered a twitch meant most of the guys left me alone, but there was always one that liked to mess with me. He would leave little plastic spiders in my bed or drop them on my head so that I would squeal. Thinking back, mike never seemed to do it when the sergeants were around. How convenient. With all the harassment, he wasn’t my favorite squad member, but I had to admit, his good humor was contagious. Mike was always laughing and making jokes. I smiled at the memory before I was hit with the saddness. After bootcamp, he enrolled to be a paratrooper and was lost in the line of duty three years later. I should have gone to his funeral. 

I was pulled out of my melancholy thoughts when my stomach growled. I really had to pee and my lack of food was starting to take its toll on my head. I really hated shitting in the woods. I found some soft leaves and sent up a silent prayer that they weren’t poisonous. The last thing I needed right now was a rash down there.

My next priority was food and water. I wasn’t going to make it much further if I didn’t find a water source or something to eat. I quickly headed back to the trail and tried to keep a better eye out for anything edible.

As I walked, I couldn’t help but take in the beauty of the woods around me. Dew covered the grass and rays of early morning sunlight peaked through the trees. And it was just so quiet.  I could hear the wind blowing through the leaves and every little snap of the underbrush. Squirrels, chipmunks, and birds were scurrying all around me. For a second I thought about trying to catch something to eat but that was likely going to be a waste of time. I didn’t even have a proper knife to clean an animal.

After about two hours of walking, I heard it and my heart rate soared. The trail had started converging with a little stream and I could hear the water flowing. It was very shallow but perfectly clear. My dehydrated mind went crazy, without considering the consequences I started shoveling that sweet elixir into my mouth.  Feeling so much better, I sat back on the side of the stream and let the sun warm my face. It wasn’t long before my stomach started growling again and I reluctantly started moving.

“Oye there lass!”

I jumped and swung around at the voice. A few meters away were two men! They were dressed like old school knights but I didn’t really care. After waking up with no memory in the woods I would take what I could get.

I quickly waved my arm and shouted, “…”

Nothing came out.

I watched as the man on the left took me in. His eyes moved all over my body and he nudged his friend in the side. My stomach dropped. I went from feeling like these two could be my saviors to fearing them and they were moving closer.

 “Oy lass, no need to be running off. We don’t mean ye any harm.” The look on the man’s face said otherwise. He was average height and build, but he was dirty. His hair was greasy, his face unwashed, and his clothes looked like they hadn’t been washed in days.

I tried yelling again, but I still couldn’t speak. Looking at the men I panicked. I turned and I ran. I sprinted as fast as I could being fueled solely by the flight instinct. But I wasn’t fast enough.