Out of Time

Chapter 2

Months Later

Dani didn't even recognize herself anymore, what little she could see of herself. The nights dipped down colder and colder each night in Weald, the name she'd given her own personal hell. Winter breathed down her neck, threatening her with hypothermia. A chill had settled into her bones, and would not leave.

She'd been lucky enough to find a cave fairly early on that always seemed to be warmer than the outside air. She suspected a hot spring bubbled somewhere in its depths, though she'd never dared to explore to find out.

Even daring to enter the cave had been more a matter of desperation than ingenuity. In fact, she'd thought it an act of lunacy when she ran in there, running from some perceived threat. After all, wolves and bears lived in caves, alongside bats and any number of deadly creatures.

She'd felt like she would die from the dehydration-induced headache before she found a body of water she felt she could risk drinking from. It was a small stream that rushed quickly by, its waters clear and cold. Still, she could just as easily be drinking her death in the form of some infectious agent.

Once she found the cave, she rarely left it, only leaving to refill the reservoir of her backpack at first. But over time, hunger became a persistent entity, tugging at her mind, making her weak, preventing her from sleeping. Drinking lots of water helped, but only for a little while.

Trying to find food took her longer than discovering the cave or looking for safe water. She had no weapons to hunt with, nothing to fish with, and didn't trust that she could identify plant life that she could eat safely. After all, many berries were poisonous, and those that weren't often caused more problems than they solved.

But again, desperation ended up being her savior. On a trip to collect water, she noticed some berries her protesting stomach wouldn't let her resist, and she snatched them up, popping them into her mouth as quickly as she could pick them. After a few minutes, she collected what remained, and brought them back with her to the cave, although she feared that keeping food in the cave would attract animals.

Back at the cave, she ate the berries at a more leisurely pace, contemplating survival. She needed to hunt, but she couldn't eat raw meat. She needed a fire. Determination set in, and for the first time since she'd realized she was lost, she acted instead of reacting. She finished the berries, and went out in search of tools to make a fire.

#

It had taken her a long time to figure out how to start a fire. She'd never learned those types of survival skills. She knew how to shoot a bow because she'd taken archery in college. She could butcher a fish because she'd gone fishing countless times with her grandfather as a child. She could butcher an animal, because she'd dissected enough animals to have a vague idea of what she would need to do. She knew how to start a fire... when she had matches or a lighter.

So it took a while to master the art of starting a fire with nothing but the instruments of Weald. She knew she could start a fire if she could create a spark by striking two stones together, but also knew it was a skill of great patience and luck.

She also remembered something about taking a stick, and twirling it between your hands quickly while, she believed, gently blowing on the pile of tinder around the the stick's edge, which would rest on a stone of some sort. She'd never tried that either, but she would end up trying a little of everything before figuring out a way to cook her food.

#

Winter had arrived by the time she managed to master fire. No snow covered the ground yet, but the days were cold, far too cold for her short-sleeved shirt, yoga pants, and jacket.

She'd found a pointed stick near her stream, and she'd decided she would try her hand at fishing. She'd never fished with a stick, but felt, like with fire, she could master it with enough practice. And with the constant growl of her stomach that no longer seemed appeased by water, she felt motivated.

#

By the time Dani mastered fishing, she'd lost almost every ounce of body fat. Sometimes, she would sit in her cave by the fire, gently running her fingers along her protruding ribs. Where once she'd been big, with persistent body fat that seemed to defy all efforts at weight loss, now she wished she had that insulation. The cold never left her anymore, even when she sat in front of a roaring fire.

She used to complain about her breasts, complaining she could never find bras she liked to fit her 36Js, but now they'd withered away to nothing, and she missed them.

She wanted to go home, but she'd explored as far as she dared in every direction, andfound nothing but more forest. She feltlike the world had ended around her. Sometimes, she would just break down, and cry.    

Author's Note: Okay, I realized this one is kind of short, so I might post an extra chapter this week.  Feel free to hold your breath in anticipation.  ;-)