Mother Earth // Bellamy Blake

Companion • 22

I woke up to a high pitch squeaking and something sloppy lightly smacking my face. When my eyes opened, it took me a minute to adjust to the sunlight. I was outside, but I wasn't alone.

I sat up even though my head screamed at me not to. I'm glad I did though, because I was amazed at what sat in front me. I never thought I'd see a dog in real life. It's adorable face distracted me from the pain radiating through me. He was massive, probably pushing a hundred and ten pounds with dark eyes.

"Come here boy," I said in a baby voice. He had to be friendly otherwise he probably would've eaten me by now. He timidly stood up and walked even closer to me. His fur was white and thick but it was hard to tell with all the dirt covering him.

I loosely held my hand out for the dog to investigate.

"You're like the size of a bear," I told the creature. He finally started to let me scratch the top of his head. "How did you survive? It's probably because you're not a small dog. You look like you could be scary."

Reading about dogs was my favorite thing to do when I was a child. Every night my mom would teach me about a new breed, it seemed like the different types of the same thing was never ending.

"Okay, I guess I'll name you Bear. Do you like that name?" The dog just started panting when I moved my scratching to behind his ear.

I had no idea how long I was unconscious for. It could've been hours or even days. My head began pounding inside my skull once I felt a sense comfort from the dog. I reached my hand back to behind my head, my hair was crusted into clumps. When I brought it back for me to look at, my fingers had flakes of dried blood covering them.

"Assess, address, advance," I whispered to myself. My mom taught me these steps if I ever found myself in deep shit.

I already figured out my head was screwed. My neck was extremely sore but other than that I was fine injury wise. Next, I had to try and stand. I saw Bear start to slightly wag his tail while I stood up slowly which actually gave me a little more motivation. Now I just had to figure out where the hell I was.

It seemed like the man who attacked me had dragged me pretty far away from where I was. Then I remembered everything that had happened to me. My mind ran wild with not knowing what happened to Monty or why Bellamy hadn't found me.

I checked my pockets only to find three remaining knives. My gun was gone along with the radio. My throat was extremely dry and my stomach was growling so loud that Bear tilted his head at the gurgling. This told me I was definitely out for more than a few hours.

"We're moving on to the second step, Bear. Food and water. I wish you could talk," I spoke to my new friend. He started to walk away from me, making my heart race. I did not want this dog to leave me by myself honestly. Before he got far, Bear had turned to look back at me as if he wanted me to follow him.

"Okay, I'm coming," I grunted as I started to move my legs. He led me through the brush for a few miles and I almost started to cry at the sight of where he took me. It was a pristine creek, flowing with fresh water.

I cupped my hands into the chilled water, drinking as fast as my throat let me. Once I wasn't thirsty anymore, I started to take off my bulky clothing and submerged my body. It wasn't flowing fast and was extremely shallow, so I felt safe laying in it. It helped with my headache, it was already feeling better. Being dehydrated didn't help with my injury either.

I began to gently wash the back of my head, luckily not much skin broke and it was already scabbing. Bear was bouncing back and forth of the width of the small creek, it was really cute to watch I couldn't help the smile on my face.

When he was done with his fun, he came back up to me. I was now sitting on the edge of the water, keeping my feet in it. I decided to start washing Bear off, he looked like he needed a bath more than I did.

Something caught his attention behind me, his head lowered in focus and his panting immediately stopped.

I turned to see what he was staring at and saw a baby boar scavenging the bushes. I couldn't believe that this dog just found me water and food. I pulled out a knife, but it was too late for me to do anything. Bear had already taken off, mangling the small boar while it squealed. It wouldn't have been so loud if the dog would've just let me do it.

When I made it over to Bear and the deceased animal, he was already digging in.

"No!" I screamed at the dog, worried that he'd demolish the entire thing before I could eat any of it. I chose not to engage, one thing my mother always said about dogs is that they'd do anything for food. I wasn't about to get in a fight with something that could shred me to pieces.

Luckily for me, he was full in a few minutes. It left me with quite a bit of meat to work with.

"You already need another bath," I told Bear, his snout was covered in blood. I started to skin and prepare the meat so I could finally eat. Once that was done and roasting over a tiny fire I started, I made Bear get back in the creek to wash away the crime scene on his face.

I felt so much better with food in my stomach, my energy was quickly replenishing. I cut up tiny pieces of meat to see if Bear would take commands from me if I rewarded him.

He caught on fast, every time I called his name he came over to me. I spent a few hours teaching him simple things. I decided it was better for me to rest for some time before beginning my journey back to the drop ship.

After I slept for a bit, I put out the remainder of my fire and filled up the small canteen that somehow stayed strapped to my body. I was feeling good enough to start heading back.

I walked about five miles before Bear began to bark at the sky. I followed his gaze and was instantly shocked at what I saw. The entire Ark was entering the atmosphere, it looked like pieces of it were raining down.

"Huh, step three. I know where our friends will be heading," I said while patting Bear on the head.