The bolter

01 questions

An eerie ringing woke her up. She wasn't sure how long she was asleep, didn't even know when she fell asleep. Where was she? Who was she?

Slowly standing up and looking around, she saw that she was standing in a large open field, surrounded by four walls. Near one of the corners, there was a small forest, and right next to it was a stream.

As she took in her surroundings, a small dog ran up and started jumping at her legs. "Hey puppy," she said, caught off guard by her own voice.

Aside from the dog, there was a couple farm animals grazing around, revealing that this place was habitable.

As she started walking around, the dog followed her. A million questions filled her head at the same time. "How did I get here? Why am I here? Is there food? Can I leave? Am I alone?"

The ringing got louder as her thoughts continued. The dog patiently sat in front of her, tilting his head with the same confusion she had.

She noticed a gap in the walls, a long corridor leading out. Walking towards it, she felt a deep unease with every step. Suddenly a strong wave of nausea came upon her and she quickly backed away.

As she continued exploring, she discovered a strange out of place concrete slab in the middle of the field. It had a crack down the middle, as if it were able to open, but she saw no way to open it.

Figuring that she wasn't going to be able to leave any time soon, she dusted off her pants and got to work.

It felt too cruel to kill any of the cows or pigs or chickens, after all they were her only companions. So when she sae fish in the stream, she snapped a branch off one of the trees, sharpened it, and started spearing the fish.

As the sky grew darker, she started a fire on the concrete, as to not catch fire to the whole place. While she was staring to scale the fish, a sharp screeching sound came from the gap in the walls.

The walls where closing.

She thought nothing of it at first, but soon started worrying that maybe she had missed her chance of escaping. Again as her thoughts spiraled, the same ringing came back.

Shaking her head, she decided to ignore her own thoughts and started eating. She shared her food with the dog she had ultimately named Bark, after his ironic lack of barking. He quickly gobbled up his share and happily wagged his tail in appreciation.

As the fire died out, she began to lay down. Bark gently cuddling beside her while she stared at the sky, noticing the obvious lack of stars. "Where are the stars?" She thought to himself, only this time the ringing disappeared. And in the blink of an eye thousands of stars appeared.

It was so sudden she figured she had imagined it, but after rubbing her eyes, the stars were still shining.

Bark shifted beside her, his head resting on her arm. She glanced down at him, his dark eyes reflecting the scattered light. "You seeing this, boy?" she whispered. He huffed in response, his tail giving a lazy wag.

Tomorrow, she told herself. She'd figure something out tomorrow. She couldn't run from whatever this place was, but she could survive it. For now, that would have to be enough.

Tomorrow came and the cycle repeated. The doors reopened, but after trying to leave again, the nausea returned.

So instead of exploring, she figured she would try to build some sort of shelter. Without any tools it was hard to get any sort of building materials, but she was able to build a teepee like structure that was big enough for her and Bark to lie in.

The animals, as far as she could tell, took care of themselves. The cow grazed lazily near the stream, the pigs rooted around in the dirt, and the chickens wandered freely, pecking at invisible morsels.

That left just herself and Bark to feed.

There wasn't any signs of any fruit, vegetable, or grain, so they were stuck with the all fish diet until the foreseeable future.

As days passed, the routine solidified. The doors opened. The walls loomed. She fished. She fed Bark. She rebuilt her fire when the wind knocked it out. She tinkered with her shelter, trying to make it sturdier, warmer.

Each day ended the same way—with Bark curled against her side and the weight of unanswered questions pressing down on her. And yet, she kept moving. Kept trying. Because what else was there to do?

A/N

Oh we're so back 😝 short ahh chapter. Its like 1 am but i had motivation