The Vial

Chapter Three - The Awakening

A/N: This chapter is dedicated to fictionfanatic because she's gonna become my pet zombie after her's bites her because she hugged it one too many times. <3                   

Ryan

The first thing I noticed was that it was dark. The second was that I was trapped in a box.

I didn’t wonder where I was. I didn’t care. Well that’s not true. I did care, but only because there was nothing to eat where I was.

I reached up and pushed on the top of the box. It didn’t move. There was something keeping it closed. I didn’t want to be in the box though. I needed to get out of it. I needed to get out and eat. I was so hungry. It was the only thing I thought about.

Reaching up blindly I began to scratch against the top of the box. Something fell off the box and landed on my chest.

I picked it up and rubbed it between my fingers. Some part of me buried deep said wood shaving, but the part of me in control didn’t care what it was. All I cared about was that this could be my way out of the box.

I continued to scratch. I scratched at the box for what felt like an eternity. Eventually my fingers felt something cold and squishy. It was very different from what I had been dealing with. That other part of me whispered dirt, but the only thing I recognized from the thought was that it meant I was getting closer to getting out. And getting out meant getting food.

The thought of food drove me into a frenzy. I tried to shove my arm through the tiny hole in the box, but I was stopped before my elbow was even out. I continued to try and push my way out, but after minutes of this not working I realized if I wanted food I’d have to find another way. As I pulled my arm back into the box, the squishy stuff followed it in and almost buried me.

A panicked thought came to me, suffocating, but then it went away and I was curious. I move the squishy stuff away from my eyes and looked at the hole. There was a little space directly above the hole that had been filled with the squishy stuff only moments before.

I pushed my arm through the hole again. It got stuck at the elbow again, but when I pushed, the part of the box around the hole broke off. With excitement I brought my hand back in and pushed on the box again. It didn’t break though.

I was confused. Why didn’t it break? Then I realized that the part that broke didn’t have squishy stuff on it. I reached my arm out of the hole again and pulled some squishy stuff into the box with me. Then I tried hitting the box again.

I was delighted when I heard the snap of the box breaking. I did the process again, and then a third time. By the third time the hole was big enough to get through. Sitting up, I reached up to the seemingly solid wall of squishy stuff. As soon as I touched it, bits and pieces of it fell down, getting in my eyes, nose, and mouth. It didn’t bother me though.

I was too excited. I felt so close to getting out of here and getting food. I started clawing at the squishy stuff and it began to fall down around me. I didn’t have to dig far, only about five feet, and it was easy compared to the scratching.

It was still dark when I finally broke free of the squishy stuff, but it was definitely brighter than the total darkness I had been trapped in before. I pulled myself out of the hole I had dug.

When I was out, I tried to stand, but I just collapsed. I tried again with the same result. I looked at my legs, trying to discover why I kept falling. It seemed ok, but then I tore the pant leg off. There was thread running down the side of my right leg. Stitches, that other part of me whispered.