(Prologue)
I stumble through the brush. Trees snap their branches on me and thorns jab at my heels, but I just keep on running. Sprinting at full speed; it's practically what I'm born to do. I try not to panic. I simply allow my nervous rush of anxiety to flow through me and then I exhale it out.
It's behind me now. All that fear that belonged to me. It's gone and I don't want it back. So I don't stop running. I can't let anything catch me. The air that I breathed fresh only hours earlier - moments earlier - fills with a poisonous flavor that I cannot avoid. I wish I didn't know, didn't learn what really happened the day I arrived in this mysterious, never ending, lifeless forest. I wish that I didn't question the food that arrived in my hands each morning or wonder why I constantly needed to train in the trees and prepare for a fight.
I glimpse a camera and stop. They watch me. I know they do. I remove a handcrafted, carefully and precisely sharpened stake of wood that I so often used as one of my knives and I launch it directly at the lens. Goodbye spy camera; freedom, I'm on my way. I grab another stake and once again I run through this nothingness of a forest. The fact that I took the time to make my own weapons and built my stamina in a way that I could run for eternity, it disgusts me. Someone forced me into it. With their "encouraging" steps along the way and just enough to keep me alive and going, they built my life up inside this place and formed my fate.
I must stay alive so that no one else suffers this eternal torture like I did. I need to find the criminal minds that brought me into this life and destroy them so that I can be free, and so that no one else becomes contained. I wish I could slow down and enjoy a meal at a nice table, but that is not possible here. I hear a gunshot blast by my ear and I go faster. I run like there is no tomorrow, because if they catch me, then that will surely be my fate.
* * *
(Chapter 1)
I yawn as the morning sunlight glistens upon my face. I reach out for my soft and silky pillow but feel nothing but a blanket of coziness. It must have fallen off the bed again. I think. I stretch out my arms and feel my warm covers. But something doesn't feel right... not right at all. I pull up at what should be light blue sheets and find myself yanking up roots of... moss. MOSS!? That can't be right!!! When was there moss in my room!? I begin to panic. My eyes slightly open into the bright light above me and I roll off of the surface I slept on. Except there is no ground below me like there should be. I fall into branches and whack my head on too many hard, bruising pieces of wood to count.
I don't remember falling asleep now that I think about it. I do remember carrying my backpack, maybe from school, but nothing else registers in my mind.
Miraculously I grope around and manage to catch some kind of branch attached to the tree that doesn't snap with my weight dangling from it hopelessly. I glance below me and find a maze of intertwining branches covering any view of the forest floor. Great! Now I'm stuck with climbing all the way to the ground with an arm that feels wretched right out of its socket! I can't complain long though because I'm just lucky to still be alive after that. I don't believe I remember living near a bunch of trees like these but then again I don't really remember anything at this point. I don't want to trust my jumbled up brain anyways.
After what could easily amount to hours I find my feet touching a pleasant grassy surface. I can't climb trees and I'm mighty afraid of heights. If I didn't hurt so much I would think I might be dreaming. There is no way I could suffer through something that gruesome! I barely can look at a spider much less force my way down a humongous tree. As I search my surroundings I discover my backpack slammed into a pile of dirt. GO FIGURE! After I've fumbled it onto my back I consider risking the rest of my nerves and climbing back up the tree to get a view of what I'm in at this point, but I think better of it. There is no way I would get all the way to the top much less anywhere else on the giant jungle of a tree. Plus I keep getting a nervous feeling in my stomach about the thought of a dangerous animal pouncing on me while I'm too far into the branches to escape. I decide to stay on foot and search for a source of water. That's what seems logical. In school, if I listened more, I would have probably learned some key points in social studies or science but that's just a bunch of work to do. I wish now that I knew more about creating a refuge in the wild. I did read those "STRANDED ON AN ISLAND!" types of books but I can't even tell where I am or what I can do to stay alive. Luckily, however I got here; I did keep a strong supply of everything in my backpack which decided to come with me I suppose. Almost conveniently I find a large bag of beef jerky in my bag along with chips and an orange. How am I supposed to savor my food when I eat so much for each meal?! I suppose I'm going to need to find something fast or I will soon starve to death. My stomach suddenly lurches and I can't help but reach into the bag of jerky and nibble on a piece. I frown at my weak will and begin a light jog in the best direction I can think of. I just wish now that I would keep a convenient compass with me or something. Looks like I'm going to be doing a lot of wishing in the next few days and not a lot more than that.
