Lost and Confused

Chapter 2

Author's Note

I know that in Years Lost it was 2017 and it is going to stay that way until further notice. Sorry if this is going to confuse your brains but that's just how it is.

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Madyline Pov

I wake up and scream. Where am I? I'm in a forest that's where I am. This is definitely not the place I was. Everything here smells earthy, which is how a forest should smell. I need to get a feel of my surroundings. I climb the nearest tree.

"Judging by the sun it is afternoon. The season is either late spring early summer. I count at least three possible sites for a small clearing" I say out loud. Talking to myself helps to clear my mind.

I climb down the tree looking on the ground for any animal tracks.

"What the hell am I wearing?! It feels like I'm in my knickers, which these are obviously not!"

Feeling around my body I find I don't have any weapons on me! And don't even get me started on my hair!

Ignoring my fashion dilemma, I find fresh deer tracks leading north northwest. First, I need to find something to use as a weapon. I'm able to find a sturdy but malleable stick and rock to make it at least a little sharp.

I start to follow the tracks through the forest. I listen for the crunch of sticks and leaves breaking on the ground; for the sound of water. I try to be as silent as possible. Finally after a good two hours, the doe and her fawn get in my sights. The family is stopping for a cook drink of water coming from a small spring. I silently approach them from behind; adjust my weapon so I can wound each one at the same time and throw. The deer fall on the ground neither of them dead but where the wounds are, the animals would die a slow death. I don't look in either of their eyes when I break the necks of each.

"Thank you for giving your lives so that I may survive. Your bodies will be used to the fullest extent. May you be at peace with God in heaven" I pray over the deer's carcasses.

I use a sharp rock from the spring to skin and dissect the venison. I put the pelts and empty stomachs on a sun soaked boulder by the stream. I clean the organs in the spring making sure all the blood and other bodily fluids go down the connecting stream. When I was five I would have shuddered at the idea of what I'm doing now. But thanks to everyone at the Institute, Will and Jem, I'm able to stay calm and collected at the task.

I go to the boulder and see that the stomachs are dry enough to put water from the spring in them. Using a hyoid bone as a needle, a vertebra and part of intestine, I'm able to make a stopper and handle for each stomach pouch. Once that's done I search the area for kindling and firewood.

By nightfall I have a fire going. I put a big piece of the meat on a stick ant hold it over the fire. I have the rest of the venison wrapped up in the pelt I'm not using as a bed; I'll dry the rest of it tomorrow morning.

Two days later

I've been at the same spot for two days, killed a buck and doe, stocking up all the supplies I'll need to get out of this forest and then some. None of the extra weight will slow me down. I leave the spring, retracing the steps I took to get there.

Getting to the spot, in which I woke up suddenly, a strange sensation goes all the way through my body making me shiver.

"If I head north and mke camp at nightfall I should be able to leave the forest tomorrow. I'll figure the rest out when I leave. For now I just need to focus on surviving and getting out of this damn forest."