Insurrection

Chapter 2

I can taste the rubber in my mouth.

What rubber?

...

Right.

My lower jaw feels numb as I weakly separate it from my steering wheel.

What the hell even happened?

My head hurts so much I can barely think...

It takes me a few seconds to notice that the roof of my car is absent, letting the harsh cold rain soak everything inside, including me.

I... I think I crashed my car...

I swerved off the road...

It was an adrenal haze, a mix of exhaustion and panic that I was going to...

To...

Hit something...

It looked like an animal, but I'm not even sure if that description was right...

I could only really see a silhouette.

Then a body.

A head-

And then I noticed and barely drifted out of the way as to not hit it.

It becomes even more hazy when I remember hitting a guardrail, toppling over it and rolling down a rocky hill into a tight forest...

I at least remember hitting the steering wheel hard after the airbag had popped, making my ears ring and drowning me in darkness and moisture...

My aching jaw reminds me about my now current predicament.

Luckily, it seems my car has been lodged between some trees upright, so I can at least climb out comfortably.

As comfortable as this can possibly get...

The rain makes everything so slippery, and it doesn't seem like it is stopping any time soon.

I look over and see that the car is a little above the ground, but not too much.

One small step and-

More pain.

I blink, now finding myself on the ground.

Shit... I must've hit my head pretty hard, I'm blinking in and out of existence...

I lift myself from the ground, my body only aching more.

All the way to a standing position.

Shaky.

Cold.

Wet.

Hurting like a motherfucker.

Goddamn it, get yourself together here!!

I briefly think about retrieving anything from the car, but decide not to...

Everything inside is probably either gone, destroyed or waterlogged.

Fuck.

Can anything get worse...?

Well... I sure hope not.

Looking around, the most I can do is...

Walk.

Trudge.

Aimlessly looking around and making distance.

To only god knows where.

I try to push despair out of my mind, only trying to find a hope and not question the possibility of it.

Only trying to push myself a little further than I last thought I did.

Trying to give myself something to look forward to, knowing that it probably...

Doesn't even exist...

Or I can't achieve it like this-

My knees buckle.

I kneel and just stare at the ground.

It's not that I'm weak...

It's just that I'm so...

So close...

To just giving up.

I...

I don't want to...

It's an inner battle that I just...

I wanna say it's a stalemate...

I really do.

...

What am I moping around for?

I stand back up, trying to act oblivious to the thoughts that just occurred.

This is survival... Damn it! This is a chance at life!

I could've died in that crash!

It could've been over there and then!

Something...

Maybe something wants me to keep going...

And hell, by all means-

"I'M GONNA DO IT!!"

...

My voice echoes.

Loud and clear, I had just announced myself to this forest.

It strangely... Feels good.

Like I broke some chains holding me back.

Well... It's something.

I walk.

And walk.

Then I start to trudge.

Feels like hours pass by.

The forest only gets darker.

That's right... The midnight shift...

More time passes by...

It only gets darker and darker and-

I trip.

I land on something sharp.

A stick?

A branch?

A tree root??

I can't tell...

All I know is...

It's pitch black.

And... Silent.

The rain stopped.

But the wilderness around me...

And the uncertainty of the dark...

It surrounds me, invading my senses-

Until I can only make myself smaller and curl up on the ground-

And I start to drift to sleep...

The encroaching darkness becomes more personal as it blends together into something incomprehensible and-