Upside Down

Chapter Three

I collapsed against a large, strudy oak tree. I had been walking hours. How many? I had no idea.

The sun was setting in the West. Unfortuantely, that was my only sense of direction.

My stomach let out a loud growl. Hunger was quickly setting in on me. My mouth felt pretty dry too.

I took a moment to analyze my surroundings. It was kind of hard to do in the coming darkness, but I managed to see just fine anyway. I was located in a dense forest. I was completely isolated from any form of society, and to top it all off, the red and yellow leaves on the ground didn't help. How was I expected to walk on them in the darkness without tripping and falling?

I guess you could have called me a complainer at first. After a while, I grew used to the feeling of being isloated, hungry, and thristy.

My eyelids began to grow heavy as the moments passed. I honestly didn't want to fall asleep in unknown territory. Who knew what kind of predators were lurking there, searching for any chance of food?

However, the power of sleep was too powerful to fight off. The battle between me and rest lasted for only a few minutes. I laid myself down on the cold ground and let myself drift off into a somehwat peaceful slumber.

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I awoke in what seemed to be the middle of the night. It was still dark in the forest.

My head was pounding with a terrible headache. I sat up and placed my head in between my knees, It seemed like an hour before my head returned to normal. It was so easy to lose track of time in the forest.

I heard a rustling sound in the bushes and quickly snapped to attention. I knew it could only be an animal or if I was really lucky, a human. Hopefully, if it was a human, it wouldn't want to kill me every chance it got.

I braced myself and hoped for the best. I did something I didn't normally do. I prayed.

I was baptized as a baby along with Alan. It was only because the priest insisted that we both be baptized together. My parents didn't want to feel the wrath of God, so naturally, they had me baptized.

A dark figure crawled out from the brush. It was too dark to see the figure clearly, but I could see that it took the shape of a human. I wasn't about to hold my breath just yet.

The figure halted in front of me. It seemed to be about my height. If not, they were a little taller than me.

The human spoke to me in a soft, male voice. "Who are you?"