24. Silence

The taste of mud fills my mouth. I’m coughing from aspirating mud, and whatever else is lying on the ground. It’s cold and damp, but my entire body feels like it’s burning up. My heart is racing so bad I can hear the thumbing in my ears. My mind seems fuzzy, and I try to make out my surroundings, but my vision still seems blurry. I try to grip on to something in front of me to get myself up, a tree or something like it, I can’t exactly tell.

The pain is ripping through my entire body, but I know I can’t stay here. Trying to push myself up further only results in me slipping on wet leaves on the ground, banging my head against something. Again, I find myself crashing down. Pain and burning intensifying by the moment, I try to breathe through it.

But no matter how hard I try, my vision keeps on blurring up or going black, and my body is unable to move. I feel myself starting to shiver, from the cold ground beneath me, mud covering my skin, the little clothes I had on are torn from the