"Come to think about it.. the forest doesn't feel chilly," - I tried distracting myself with some thoughts, not like there was anyone here I could talk to, left to myself. Maybe I will eventually make myself a Wilson to talk to, probably not.. there aren't any volleyballs growing on the trees. Thinking about anything but what happened less than an hour ago was calming my mind. Best reaction a human can get when facing fear, well, for me at least, is to ignore it, think about anything else...yep, distraction is the best cure for a damaged mind. - "The air is warm, its still somewhere around noon probably, or it would be getting quite a bit darker already. I won't freeze to death, the ground feels rather warm... too bad that I don't know the geography of this place.. I don't even know what season it is right now"

The all mighty providence didn't leave me even a minute to think without new distractions. Stinging sensation on my skin made me reflectively slap that spot, only to reveal a small swelling on my forearm, as well as a buzzing noise near my ear. A sigh escaped my lips, the old enemy found me again.. mosquitoes, those tiny bastards that feast on blood, those itch inducing vampires, oh I hated them. For one- it was the only creature I'd rather not be in this world.

"At least they are not five meters tall... that would be fearsome." - A giant buzzing bloodsucker, anything but that thank you. However something ticked in my head the next moment and smile appeared on my face. Even though I hated them, I knew one thing about them - if it's really dry- they have nowhere to breed. Meaning there is a puddle somewhere, meaning water, meaning that I won't die in the next week at least...from natural causes like starvation. Being assaulted was still something to watch out for though.

OK, I was heading in the direction of some water source, hoping that it's not a swamp, as that would be disappointing. Something occurred to me.. even though I was walking for at least an hour or so, the sunlight level didn't change much - it even became brighter. Even in the shadows of the trees I could feel the heat. Where the sun reached the underbrush - the patches of moss dried out, turning turquoise-greyish and becoming brittle. They cracked under my feet as I stepped on them.

My feet hurt, occasional poking from a stick I didn't notice, or even stepping on the local equivalent of a fir-cone, it was a bit of damage. Feet that were usually protected by footwear weren't hard enough to withstand the elements. I remembered a show where one of the hosts was always walking bare-foot, even in some of the colder regions. Well, I was not like that guy, so my feet were just too soft, and right now burning from pain.

"I should have walked far enough" - the problem with walking through the woods is that I couldn't tell if I was heading in the same direction. In reality I probably made a curve rather than a straight line. I just hoped that I won't make a full circle eventually, the thought of stumbling into those creatures made me shiver. I tried being quiet, but for someone who isn't a pro survivalist or a hunter, well probably the only time I wasn't noticeable was splattered in the bushes, holding my breath and trying not to move. Right now - every time I moved, I created sound, probably, hard to tell yourself. There was no animals around. Of course some birds were prancing around in the top of the trees, nothing else though. Quite a pickle if you ask me.

I sat down on a little patch of dry moss, which creaked and broke down into dust. My fingers immediately started scratching the fresh mosquito bites, however I forced myself to stop. It was hard to do, as itching starts to irritate your mind quite fast, but I didn't want to scratch my skin off. Dirt and mosquito bites equals infected wounds, and with no way to wash or disinfect those- well I doubt that it would be pretty, an inflamed wound oozing pus wasn't something I would be able to deal with at the moment.

Finally I looked around and watched the new environment. Right about time huh? Well I had a lot on my mind, still feeling like shit after seeing someone killed before me. I had no time to sulk tho, no self-pity, nothing like that - it helped me stay sane tho. I had too much things on my mind other than what happened that I could bury those unnecessary emotions a lot deeper.

As I stretched my feet, that were barely covered over the knees with the sack-pants, I relaxed and looked around. If you think about it - the location was strange. The trees that look like pine, and smell like it too - had leaves. Moss was growing everywhere, however patches of grass were not rare. Young saplings that clumped together into tiny forests, bushes with long leaves that looked like strands of paper and occasionally wild vines were coiling around the stems of trees. It was something else entirely. I could tell that it was not some sort of flat-lands, in the distance I could make out drops in altitude and even some hills. More than that - there were large gray stones that poked out from the moss. Boulder sized ones even.

"Just where the fuck am I?" - I couldn't keep the question from escaping my lips. I wouldn't be surprised if by some magical force I was made to talk in a completely different language. I was talking as per usual, in the same old boring tongue. Well - nothing surprising, not all amazing fantasy stories are good. Someone has to experience the shitty ones why not me?

Hit by a car and strait into another world, or a mutant monkey habitat... both possibilities sucked, the mosquito sucked too.. literally. A slap of my hand left a small spot of blood on my skin. Got it..

I unwrapped my scarce belongings and took a good look at the broken glass. It was murky, but solid, the pieces were around half a thumb long and rather different in size, around half of them were sharp enough to cut something. At least I have some sort of a semblance of a knife, which means nothing is yet completely lost. I had a crude, but a tool, that was more than starting with only bare hands... though if I found a few rocks I could smash them on one another to get a stone flake that would be as sharp..goddammit.

"..starting in an unknown place with nothing but your bare fists.. huh?" - A certain game came to mind, though I doubt that punching trees or hiding underground would be a valid course of action. I would just be left with bleeding knuckles, don't know about the sleeping underground part, but probably not a great idea either. Plus as far as I could see - the physics of this world were completely normal, if you discount the noon that seemed to last forever. Not like I was gullible enough to believe that another world had the same number of hours in a day, and yes I say another world already. This was rather obvious to anyone in the least familiar with video games, or anime, or manga, or light novels, or anything from the internet..

"I am like Robinson Crusoe, but on a lot bigger scale.. he had a dog at least.. and a whole ship somewhere in the distance... what do I have? A broken bottle of aspirin or some shit.. not enough fabric to even make a pair of socks.. and a sack smaller than my ball-sack.. thank you! Well..I have some amazing information somewhere in my head.. if it was only possible to access it without relying on the random pop-ups..." - I was grumpy, the first sign that I was getting hungry. Not like it was a bad thing, too far from starvation still, being hungry can be a good thing, motivating you to move. Well, that is how I tried calming myself.

As I started to fold the "inventory" back into the pieces of cloth, my hand grabbed a bit of dry moss and stashed it into one of the more dry pieces of fabric. It could prove to be a good enough tinder in case I was able to come with a way to start a fire. And speaking of starting a fire, I finally stood up and headed to a nearby bush. The plant was dead and had no green parts, it had been dried by the sun, and that was just perfect. I broke a few sticks from the stem, tied my belongings to them and continued walking.

No, it's not a weapon, but did you think you could just take a few sticks, rub them together and voila - fire? Nope, well... not in my theory loving brain. In order to make fire sticks, you would have to find some sort of soft wood, preferably straight. Get rid of the bark and leave those sticks to dry on the sun for a few days or so. Even that time I didn't have, so dry wood and some tinder could mean a lot for me.

Did I say I hate mosquitoes? They keep coming for a bite of my blood.. well - not like they keep sucking for a long time.. once they feel that something is off- they fly right off. Yep - mosquitoes hate the post-chemo blood. If they could tell their friends that my blood was not as good as I smelled - so that they could stop biting me to try it, would be great. There were just a fuck-ton of them around, so even one bite per fucker - meant a lot of bites..

I saw a bit of a clearing up ahead, finally - water. Ye-no.. It was more of a pond than a lake. It was not deep - maximum waist deep, on the first glance.. what's more it was all covered in vegetation, and the smell - well, wasn't quite pleasant. In short- the lake looked like a tiny marsh, with water that you rather not drink, unless you want some diarrhea or whatever. What's more - as expected, it was a breeding point for the mosquitoes, so there were literally thousands of them.

"There is fish in the pond, that's a deal breaker. Going too far away from this place wouldn't be smart. Food is food, and there is nothing else in those woods that would come close to me.." - I continued with my thoughts while circling the pond. Even though it seemed small - there had to be some source of water which fed it. Of course it could be an underground spring or other source, or even rainwater, but that wouldn't help me - right? If there is a chance that there is a different source of water- I had to look for it. What I noticed- the mosquitoes suddenly disappeared, that made me wonder if I just stumbled upon something amazing without even realizing it.

First thing that seemed off- was a short purplish bush, with leaves that looked like that of a maple tree and it smelled of moss. I mean - literally it smelled the same as a piece of moss that i crushed in my fingers. Completely bizarre, but I had to make sure. So off I go back to the mosquito city, only to find myself surrounded by the buggers once more, and back to the bush. You say its obvious, but I had to make sure once more. So I took a small branch of that bush that I broke off, and returned to the place where mosquitoes were in abundance. To my satisfaction - they avoided me. Some potent bug repellent that branch was, they avoided me for good. Best feeling ever, maybe worth making into a paste and rubbing on my skin, or burning in a fire to scare the bugs away - good plan- lets do it straight away...not.

The plant was new, it could scare the flying atrocities away, but that was the only thing that I knew about it. What if it burns the skin, or melts your eyes out as you burn it? Even back home there were some dangerous plants. I had to be cautious of everything and anything, even more in this world. Back home I knew at least some of the plants, here- nothing. So I ripped a leaf from the plant and rubbed it on my skin. Oh, I just did the opposite of what I was warning myself? Don't think so. I applied the leaves only to a small area, and if some reaction would occur within a few hours, then it could potentially be harmful to me, if no - then I had the best anti-mosquito remedy that also didn't smell like shit.

As I proceed past the bush, I could notice some more of them all around. Purplish spots here and there, for some reason the plants preferred this location to the other side of the pond-lake. Why became apparent only after a few minutes of walking around. At the foot of the hill that was leading to the pond- was a tiny stream of water. I almost cried in delight - it was a freshwater spring.

Well.. to be honest, the find was good, but not lifesaving. Of course the water from the lake could not be drunk as is, but it's not like I would die from thirst if I wouldn't find the spring. So it wasn't a necessity, but just a novelty. I didn't care though, my hands brought the cold water to my face and I tasted it. Amazing if you ask me, drinking for the first time in this place, I could feel my body screaming with joy, I was like a dry sponge which was put into a bowl of water.

I sat down on the ground near the spring and let the flowing water wash away the blood from my feet. It was finally getting a bit cooler in here, seems like the sun finally decided to move along and stop killing me with heat. I swear - if there were no trees - my skin would look like the purple plant, with a tinge more red to it. Ye, I don't get tanned easy, rather become sun-burnt. But the cool air reminded me of one thing - soon, it will become dark, and I didn't want to stay in the darkness for god knows how long.. for all I know - it could last a year, with deadly light-hating monsters rushing after me.. though I wouldn't have Vin Diesel to cover my ass..

So next on the list was making a fire. Oh boy, the fun part for every apocalyptic enthusiast, survivalist or anyone stupid enough to forget to bring a lighter while camping. Time to collect some wood, and so I did, as I headed a bit away from the pond area and back into the woods, where dead branches were scattered, and even occasional rotten but dry felled tree could be seen. Starting with tiny twigs and dry leaves and grass, I started piling the wood a bit away from the stream. Dry bark from the felled tree looked nice, so I collected quite a bit of it, besides it smelled of pine - so at least it would burn like it as well. I looked for bigger branches, but the only thing I found was a lean young tree which was quite dry and lacked any bark. It was rotten and partially eaten by some sort of insects, but other than that - the wood was still there, so it would burn. The only thing - the smallest broken down piece was around three meters long, as well as thick as both my feet combined. It was also a minute or so away from the place where I decided to set up the camp...and it was on the other side of the hill, so ye. Time to break some sweat, which is stupid and shouldn't be done by anyone, but I wanted to burn a big log.

My hands were killing me after three steps of pulling the log uphill, it was a heavy bastard. I wasn't that weak was I? Oh.. no I was actually. Before all that cancer jazz I was stronger than now, and I was fifteen at that time. So yes, at the moment I was weaker than five years ago, yay to seclusion from the world and self pitying. Nevertheless, I kept at it. Letting the steam out by pulling on the log with both hands, just the usual guy stuff. Well it didn't last long, the uphill struggle. About ten minutes of panting and I dropped it down the hill and let the gravity do its job as I looked at the rolling log. Quite a sight if you think about it.

As you may have noticed - I am quite easily distracted. Some hours ago I was trembling and afraid of even breathing, now I was launching a log down the hill, looking as it crashed into a few trees, breaking into three. Retarded, I realized what I have done only a few moments later. I fucking made a lot of noise, the thought of those toad thingies hearing the noise and coming closer to take a look made me shudder and freeze right away. I kept still, but in my head I was yelling, mostly at myself for the stupid carefree attitude taking charge for a few moments. I could literally die, but still made so much noise. Stupid moron.. A person doesn't change just after a few hours, this will take a while to readjust to. That sort of behavior is unacceptable.

"I could be dead three times already" - I hastily picked up a fat stick that was lying on the mossy floor. Somehow I was scared, but if it was necessary, I wouldn't go down easily. Not like it would be hard for anything in this forest to cap me. I proceeded down the hill in a rather grim mood.

"Just a few moments of rest, just a bit of good in this situation.. and I relaxed.. I was reckless, that was dangerous." - I lifted the makeshift club and tapped myself on the forehead, a slight ting of pain was just a reminder that this is not a dream. Pulling the shortened log was a lot easier, but not worth the risk.

Originally I planned to set up a camp near the stream, but now I decided otherwise. My arm didn't become red, nor did it sting at all - good enough for me to say that the plant will not kill me immediately. If I plan to set up a fire, it will be seen from outside, which will suck monkey-balls in the sense of safety. Screaming on the top of my lungs "FUCKING EAT ME!" would be less suicidal, not like I would do that. Not now anyway. The plan was easy as tits tho, to hide the fuck away from sight. Preferably in the area with the mosquitoes, as it is filled with miniature forests of tall, even gigantic, bushes. And that's where the purple bushes come handy, but before that - one last test on the leaves and I could spend the night in sort of a safe place. I ripped a leaf from the plant and chewed on it for a bit, turning it into mush and letting it rest under my tongue. I didn't swallow any saliva just in case, just spat on the ground. As expected- the leaf was very bitter, as if someone mixed coffee with soap. Not a great taste, but I have to check the plant for gods sake.. I don't want to apply poison to my skin and end up dead a few hours later.

While the lab test in my mouth was taking place, I took my time to crawl around the mosquito infested area, and I brought the branch from the bush along with me. It didn't work as good as when it was fresh, but it kept the most of the blood-sucking monsters away.

Crawling through the thick bushes without any shoes was painful, even more so as I was trying to be at least somewhat quiet. Every five minutes or so I had to regain my focus, keep my mind where it should be and not wandering around. I hit my forehead with my fist every time I made a noise that could be avoided, fair self-discipline, may be stupid, but I had no other idea on how to keep myself from acting stupid while getting distracted by the tasks at hand.

It took me a while of exploring the area, and a few little cuts and bruises, but I found a perfect area for a camp. Amongst the thick cover of tall bushes, was a clearing. A five meter wide somewhat circular shape was perfect for a camp. It seems some long time ago the place in the middle was a campfire. The bushes didn't grow directly in the area, but my own fire would fit perfectly. Plus i knew what to do in order to keep it under control and perfectly safe - well, as far as safe goes.

It was quite hard getting out of the bushes, but that was the plan. It was impossible for anything to get to me without me noticing beforehand, and I would be able to react. Not the best plan, of course. I could still be ambushed, surrounded. Here I felt safe a bit more than outside. So started the preparations for the night. Well to put it into simple terms - I drank up, gathered all the wood and slowly brought it into my little enclosure within the green bushes.

I didn't feel any changes on my tongue either. There was no tingling, nor did I not lose sensation in it, so the purple-plant was proven safe. By the way I took the opportunity and called it Purple-Maple. Don't judge my naming sense, it was just on a whim and without much thought put into it. The area was filled with a few piles of wood, my belongings - the trash and cloth, and only one of the three logs, as they wouldn't work for the type of campfire that I decided on.

In order to dig I used the sticks as a shovel, not like digging by using only my hands would be efficient. What I was left with after a few minutes of digging, were two nearby holes, one larger, the other narrower. I connected them with a small tunnel at the bottom. This way I could stack the sticks into the smaller hole, fill it and let it burn. The air will be sucked from below due to the difference in pressure caused by hot air moving upwards, and as such the flame will be contained. It will not be super bright, but I will have a bit of lighting and even if it becomes colder - I will be rather warm. Another thing that I noticed while digging - the soil in here had some clay in it, so I had another Idea for the future, but that could wait for a while. No I didn't plan to build a mud house, that is too much effort.

I tried to postpone this part for as long as possible, but it was the only thing that remained. I even gathered a whole bunch of Purple-Maple leaves to chew into paste and rub into my exposed skin. It was time to try to light the fire, from the looks of it, I had a few hours of daylight still, yes it was a really long day cycle apparently - I felt tired, but I won't rest without a fire...not like I was sure I would be able to light it.

I removed the bark from the dry sticks and made a small round hole in one of them, as well as a crevice for the hot dust to fall from. Simple when you talk about it, but it was rather hard to do using small pieces of glass for a tool. Nearly cut myself, but gladly only nearly.

"Tinder - check, small stick on top of it to allow some airflow -check, base fire-stick with the Pac-Man shape carved in - check.. the straight stick to go spin-to-win... check" - I gulped as my hands pressed on the stick and began spinning it. Applying only a bit of pressure, using mainly speed, not force. I heard slight screeching noise from dry wood, but obviously it took more time than I thought. More time, as in hours of trial and error. I failed twenty three times exactly. The charring dust wouldn’t make the tinder catch fire for some reason.. First ten tries I couldn't make even smoke, but then it became a lot easier to do so...But it still didn't burn. I added the dry moss to tinder around try seventeen, but it wasn't enough to catch fire. But patience kills all other motherfuckers in the room, so as I blew on the smoking pile of tinder, they caught the heat and produced bigger ember, then it roared a bit and caught fire. I could barely see at that point, as it was getting quite dark.

As I placed the burning tinder under the prepared pile of wood, slowly I could hear it crackling and making other wood catch fire. It was the best campfire ever, for me, for this moment in time, tomorrow will be even better. My hands were covered in blisters though. I did everything I wanted, finally I sat on the log and relaxed. It was not that dark now, not that scary, not that cold and lonely. I had a fire going, I had enough fuel, and I was rather safe in this hidden spot. My chest pumped up as i took a deep breath, relaxing, and slowly my eyelids shut, letting myself doze off.

That’s when the scream came back. The scream of the man who died before my eyes, wailing in pain, gurgling as he was strangled by the ugly branchlike hands. His words were unclear, burning into mind like molten metal. The sticky sound of dripping blood accompanied him, his empty eyes were looking at me, pleading for help, asking to save him. Then he cursed me, as the dark fingers reached for my own throat from within the darkness.

I opened my eyes, fire was still burning as bright as it was just before I fell asleep sitting. I felt a knot in my throat, I finally burst and let myself be consumed by everything. My fear, my anger, my sadness.. I silently wept while covering my eyes with my palms as if to muffle the sounds. My body shook from the painful trembling, as my tears rolled down my cheeks. It was terrifying, being alone like this. With nothing to distract me from those thoughts, I became consumed by them. I don't know for how long I kept at it, but as suddenly as it started - I stopped. My hand reached towards a piece of wood, long and straight. I looked at it with red swollen eyes, not thinking anything as my fingers clenched the piece of glass.

"I need a distraction after all.." - My hands started scrubbing the bark off of the piece of wood. It was going to be a long night indeed.