I examine the crossbow carefully, it was made of black wood like plastic and looked very strong. I start digging through the old fallen leaves, searching for any crossbow bolts or where the crossbow came from. I yelp when I hit something soft and fleshy, I jump back starring at it, it was the face of a man, I could easily see he had been shot, several times by the look of it. I carefully roll the man over, taking his quiver of crossbow bolts.
"Im sorry you had to die this way" I whisper to the man even though I know he cant hear me, I get up carefully and out the quiver on my back, grabbing the crossbow, I have to use a tree for support when I almost fall over. I look around as I stumble farther into the forest, I hear chattering and chirping, I guess they were normal noises in the forest, it was actually quite calming.
I stumble as far into the forest as I can before I get to exhausted, I keep going only to end up slipping and face planting right in a stream, I sit up quickly spluttering and coughing up water as I wipe my face. When I finally cough up all the water I start drinking from the stream, small sips at a time, like I thought the water would kill me, which it might possibly do. I pick up the crossbow and start washing blood off it before examining it more. I pulls out a bolt and load it, aiming at a nearby tree and shooting. The bolt hits right where I had aimed, man did this crossbow have some power.
I watch a fuzzy little creature, I think its called a squirrel, come up to the stream to drink. I didn't even think as I silently pulled a bolt out and loaded it, aiming at the squirrel and firing. I see blood splatter on the ground, the stream running red for a short time before I pick the squirrel up and stare at it. I just look at the squirrel, the bolt have gone through its skull, I hope it had had a quick death. I lay the squirrel dine and start searching my pockets for a knife, I sigh when I cant find one so I start searching the ground fir a sharp rock. I find one when I accidentally cut myself on it, I pick it up and use it to skin the squirrel, by the time I skinned it I was to hungry and just ate the bloody meat raw, not caring what could happen because of it.
After choking down the squirrel and practically drowning myself in the stream I get up and wander through the forest, following the stream as I go sense it was my only water source so far. I smile slightly when I find the perfect place for a shelter, a cave in a rock cliff near the stream, it was perfect. I start creating a pile of leaves up against the back wall so I would at least some what have a bed. Boredom soon takes over and I start talking to myself, sounding like some crazy person, I don't know what it was but it was like something was effecting me, though it could just be mind thinking that.
"How could they just leave me here" I hiss to myself "I should have shot each one of them" I growl.
I think it was the silence that was driving me insane because sometimes I spent days talking to myself like that as I skinned squirrels or cleaned my crossbow and bolts. This silent forest was getting to me, the chattering and squawking of the native animals wasn't helping my sanity.
Some nights I just sat in my cave starring at the wall, thinking about the battle, sometimes I even thought I heard gunshots and grenades, screaming and explosions, but I'm sure a I was just imagining it. I never let my curiosity take over to go see if the war sounds wee real, I wasn't even sure what I would do if they were.
I sat by the stream starring into its shallow water and watching the reflection if a bird hop from branch to branch, it was always the same bird, every morning it would come out of its nest and mock me, it chattered at me and pelted me with acorns, sometimes making pine needles rain down on my head. But in a way I relied on that bird, it had saved my life once when a wolf pack thought they had found easy game, it didn't seem like an ordinary wolf pack though, the wolves were at least twice the size of what I had heard wolves were supposed to be, and they had unusual coloring, the lead wolf had black fir but its markings were odd, resembling the bones that were beneath its pelt.
I fought those wolves for a whole day, loosing several crossbow bolts during the fight, but it was worth it when they fled, leaving me alive and staying away from my cave. That night I slept well knowing I had saved my own life.
