Chasing Life|| 《ON HOLD》○

Chapter 2

I woke up to a loud screeching noise. It was still misty and cold and surprisingly I had made it through the chilling rain of the night before. It was cool though the showers seemed to have stopped. Sitting up I noticed that the clothes that I was wearing were still wet.

 I removed my jacket, jeans and t-shirt and spread them on the ground until I was only wearing my chemise and boxer shorts. I realized that I was still wearing my boots. I sat down on the ground and tugged at my soggy socks. 

My toes were pruny from the prolonged soaking it had undergone at the river and later in the rain. I held the boots upside down letting a little river gushing out. I was beginning to freeze so I decided to build a fire.

In minutes, due to the courtesy of the brochures, I was able get a fire going. I collected more firewood and piled it up right next to it in case of refills. Sitting on the ground close to the fire as safely as possible, I tried to warm myself up. The sweet after-smell of the rain and the smoke of the firewood made me take a deep breath to savor it.

 I stared into the fire till my eyes watered and I thought about the previous night. I felt tired. But something told me that if I slept again I might not wake up again unless I made a shelter to protect myself and eventually search for some food to prevent starvation. 

My limbs ached pitifully. Due to the excitement of the chase yesterday I was distracted from it but now as I tried to relax it hit me with a renewed force.

With the sheer force of my will, I pushed myself up and began to collect branches.

After a while, I paused and admired my work it looked close to the picture in the card. Hoping it was big enough for me I tried to enter it. As I crawled in, my backside managed to knock down the entire structure causing me to grit my teeth and try again. 

During the course of my hard work of repeated trial and error and a whole lot of cursing, another problem made its presence known to me. Mosquitoes.

They stung, making me pause every five minutes to give that area of skin a good little scratch before resuming my engineering efforts.

Soon, my jacket dried and I draped it protectively around me. But my feet were cold. The jeans would not dry fast. So I decided to smear mud on my legs as one of my brochures said that the mud would prevent mosquitoes from biting as it would mask the smell of blood.

 'Fascinating,' I thought 'such a simple solution.' As I did that my growling stomach made its presence known. This reminded me that I was also running out of water. I decided to go back to the river to collect the water. The greatest challenge is finding food.

My brochure said, "Do not eat any fruit that you may encounter and only eat the provisions that you have with you provided by your guide as many of the fruits may be poisonous to humans."

I rummaged through my bag to see if I had any so-called 'provisions'. It wasn't there. But however I did find something else. My diary.

I tucked back into the inner pockets of my bag. I had to find something to eat and then doze off in the comfort of my new make shift home. So I decided to go exploring.

I also decided to take my stuff with me as that way I could at least survive if I got lost deep into the jungle. I started to carefully take note of the surroundings and the way I was going.

 I looked from left to right and decided to let the fates decide what was going to happen to the formidable wreck that I had wasted so much of energy on. I strolled along the riverbank thinking there could be people who are like me, living near the river. Moreover, I reckoned, riversides are fertile and hence may host food. 

With that in mind, I trudged on for hours getting gradually weakened by the exertion my muscles now faced. The quest for food is a necessity. I had no idea when I had last eaten. I had woken up on the river dazed. Without a single idea of how I had eve-

My idle reverie is rudely interrupted by a familiar sound.

Screech! Screech!

An overwhelming urge to hurl something at it itched my palm severely.

That little menace is back. 

********

i had only gotten till here and then i was on my to...ahem... acheive greater heights...ahem... 

sorry i cudnt say that with a straight face... 

if its any good i may revisit my ideas for this book if u have stumbled upon this beauty, i highly recommend another book i have written and i've committed to more deeply and wholly...

A Vigilante's Kiss

stay happy, stay safe!

laters ppl!