Out of Time

Chapter 1

Damn it all to hell! Dani had hiked this same trail maybe a thousand times before, but she hadn't seen a single blue square trail marker in what felt like hours. And though a career as an English professor didn't make her an expert in anything but Old English literature, she could swear she'd never seen some of these species of trees before in her life.

She checked her phone. No signal, which was strange in and of itself. She'd always been able to get signal in Umstead Park before. Sometimes it was only 1x, but it was still signal. Now, she had none. It said a half an hour had gone by since the last time she'd checked.

A while ago, she'd decided she would simply start walking in a single direction. She was bound to find civilization eventually. After all, Umstead Park was surrounded on all sides by I-70, I-40, and I-540, not to mention RDU airport. If she just kept walking, she would certainly reach something paved.

#

The forest had slowly dimmed by shades for the last little while now. Dani, at first, didn't notice the gradual change, or the change in temperature, but she did now. Unclipping the chest strap, and swinging her hydration backpack around, she pulled out the medium-weight workout jacket she'd worn that morning when a chill still held in the air. She slipped it on again now, awkwardly juggling the backpack as she tried to fit her arms into the sleeves without placing the light grey bag on the ground, where it would stain.

Within moments, she had the jacket zipped up, and the pack clipped securely to her back. She looked up, expecting to see a dark sky, and storm clouds brewing. Navy sky hovered overhead, but no storm clouds waited in the distance signaling a wet trek back to town. Instead, pink hues tinged the sky, signaling something all the more terrifying to Dani.

"It can't be. Impossible," she mumbled to herself. Dani whipped out her phone, and checked the time. 2:09 p.m. Far too early for sunset in North Carolina, even on the shortest of days. And yet she looked up from her display, the evidence staring her in the face, mocking her with its merry colors.

And for the first time since she realized she was lost, terror hollowed out her insides.

#

Eventually, the colors fled the sky, leaving only darkness. Dani tried to keep walking, though she seemed to remember something about it always being best when lost in the woods to keep in a single location, that it made it easier for Search and Rescue to find you that way.

But even her stubbornness could hold out only so long. She found a relatively dry spot against a tree, using the tree to help her stiff bones and muscles inch toward the ground. She groaned when she finally sat down, her pack uncomfortable where it rested between her and the tree. She unclipped it, and laid it on her lap, stretching out her legs and leaning against the tree with another groan.

Everything hurt. Even breathing hurt. She leaned down, and loosened her shoes, letting her poor, abused toes get some air time. Her feet throbbed in time with her heartbeat, as if begging her never to step on them again. She hurt so bad that the hard ground and harder tree felt blissful, even comfortable.

With the cool air making her nose feel numb, and not even caring how her body seemed to have taken on a pervasive chill from walking in the cold for so long, she drifted into sleep.

#

If Dani had thought everything hurt last night, it was far worse in the morning. Sleeping in a sitting position against a tree had aggravated an old back injury from an auto accident, and she shrieked as she tried to move, feeling as if her back would break in half.

"Come on, Dani. Just get up." She held her back with one hand, and rolled over, slowly inching into what would be all fours, if both hands were on the ground. Then, she slowly got on her knees, again using the tree. When she got to her feet, she let out a sigh of relief, even though her back felt like it was just a slight movement away from making her shriek again.

Then she remembered her pack sat on the ground next to where she'd slept. "Fucking goddamn shit!" She let out another sigh, wondering what it would take to actually reach the bag.

Remembering times she'd had to do similar things in the past, she placed one hand on the tree, stretched out one leg so that her leg and back stayed in line with each other, and reached out with her other arm for the strap of the pack. She reached it, and slowly made her way back to upright, clutching the pack to her chest as she slowly leaned against the tree.

This just wasn't her day.

Dani had a breakfast standing against the tree—a FiberOne Oats & Chocolate bar, and a few sips of her water. Just enough to get the chewy bar down her throat, but nothing more. She didn't know how long she'd be out here, and she didn't want to run out too soon.

Of course, she'd only brought the one bar with her. She rarely went on hikes for longer than a couple of hours, and the bar only had a hundred and forty calories, hardly enough to tide her over considering she hadn't eaten since eight yesterday morning. The bar was only intended to tide her over, and keep her from crashing near the end of the hike.

Her stomach gnawed at her, begging to be taken care of, but considering the eighty-something pounds of body fat she persistently carried around, she could skip a few meals without much difficulty, especially when she had no choice in the matter.

She took a deep breath, and a tentative step in thedirection she'dbeen heading when she fell asleep last night. After a couple of steps, the pain in her back started to ease, and sheconvinced herself she would reach a road in no time at all.    

Author's Note: As promised, the first chapter of Out of Time.  Enjoy!  Here's to hoping we'll be seeing much more of each other. ;-)