Cabin Fever

Chapter-1- Getting Lost is a Bitch

I looked around the dark forest surrounding me, swallowing down my anxious thoughts. The cold breeze blowing around me wasn't helping as a shiver ran down my spine, reminding me of the situation I had caught myself into. What was I doing here in the middle of nowhere?  I groaned internally and started walking through the trees to my left, ignoring the gut-wrenching feeling of dread that passed through me. 

I was lost. 

It was dark, cold, and I wanted to kill myself for fucking up my whole situation. I went on a trip to the mountains with a couple of friends of mine to hang out and have a couple of drinks and get away from the constant pressure society put on our shoulders. We wanted to relax, so we grabbed a cooler, stole some beers and piled into Vance's old pick up truck and gave our town the bird on our way out. We had no real destination, just knew there was an old camping spot Olsen visited before his parents decided to break it off and fuck up his life.

Long story short, we hopped out of the truck, grabbed the cooler and walked into the woods until we thought it was far enough away and started a bonfire. Now that probably sounds reckless and dumb, but we were enjoying ourselves. No one knew about the consequences, I sure as hell would have stayed at home if I knew what was gonna happen. We popped open a few beers, drank and laughed at nothing as we messed around, ignoring how the sky slowly darkened over time. 

My phone was long dead by now, making me want to kick myself for forgetting the small portable box of energy to charge the electronic as I trudged through the underbrush in the forest. I was cold, lost, and in a shit mood as I noted the sky getting even darker. I have no form of communication to anyone, and worse yet I was lost. Lost in a giant ass forest with no skills whatsoever in navigation. Hell, I could barely remember which ways the compass pointed. If you gave me one, I guarantee I would throw it in your face and tell you to stop making me think of dumb shit, I would "never need something so useless"

... Now that has come back to bite me in the ass.

"Fuck," I mumbled, softly hugging my freezing arms around my chest in a desperate show to get warm, clearly failing. I should have never given Jaxon my hoodie, that ass was probably all bundled up enjoying my only other layer of clothing.

I wanted to be angry at him, blame my lost ass on him forcing me to go into the woods alone, but I can't. This was all on me. Hugging my arms closer I clenched my jaw tightly to prevent my teeth from chattering so much, hating the noise as I walked through the cold dark trees, my footsteps the only noise besides the wind to comfort me. Fuck comfort, I was creeped out. 

My eyes kept darting around my surroundings, snapping towards a movement, living or not. I was acting like some paranoid freak plagued by their own imagination of creatures coming to get them, except I had a possibility to get caught. Who the hell knew what kind of feral animals prowled around in the dark, waiting to tear a lost dumbass such as myself to shreds? Call me dumb but I just don't care for nature, I mean what kind of animals even lived here? I'm a real dumbass.

Letting out a shaky breath I tried to rub my arms for more warmth trying to ignore the cold. My legs felt numb and heavy, making it harder to keep walking through the dark forest. I made to take another step, only to fall forward onto my face. Coughing slightly, I glared back at the rather large root my foot caught on, spitting out the bits of dirt and moss in my mouth. Pushing up off the ground, I brushed off the debris best as I could, only to hiss in pain and fall back down as my foot was still caught in the root of the tree. 

I sat back up to pull it out, and growled in frustration. What the hell was I doing here, in the middle of the god damn woods lost and separated from my friends? I felt the all too familiar stinging sensation behind my eyes as I walked faster blindly through the trees, pushing past branches angrily as my vision became blurred. I'm not gonna cry I'm not gonna cry I'm not gonna-

fuck.

Droplets of water streamed down my cheeks as I shoved past a rather large branch, losing my footing again only to tumble down the steep slope of a hill I had failed to notice. Gasping I closed my eyes tightly, screaming as my back hit a sharp, jagged rock in the hillside sending a shock of white-hot pain through my side. I clenched my jaw in pain as my body got tossed around the hill painfully, biting my lip every time my injured side hit the forest ground. My heart was beating rapidly, almost wanting to rip out of my chest as I kept tumbling down the steep hill. I tried my best to tell which way was up and which way was down, but I was interrupted with a sharp pain hitting me in the back of my skull, shooting throughout my body as I went rigid, eyes wide and staring up at the starry night sky, finally coming to stop as my head spun from the rolling. 

Black and blue dots clouded my vision as the darkness seemed to close in around me, the forest and all of its foliage disappearing as my vision slowly faded.