The next few minutes were spent with fabrication. Using the strong vines Lina gathered earlier, she made a very simple belt, and tied the jug there, after emptying the leftover water on the ground. Finally, a pocket! She placed the fruits and the seed pod in it, together with most of the vines she still had. Then she picked another jug, and tried to tie a knot to close it, but the result was questionable at best. After a while she just gave up and left it open, hoping that she could be careful enough not to spill it.

“Where to next?” - she mused, whispering to herself - “I can go back, but it will be a cold night if I don’t find something to make fire with, or at least some cover.”

Suddenly, a strong wave of loneliness took over her. It felt almost like a thirst, the need to talk to someone. She wasn’t a stranger to this feeling, as someone living alone without a long term partner, this emotion state was a frequent evening visitor. When this happened, she usually just stood in the living room of her flat, and imagined the people living upstairs and downstairs from her, and her next door neighbours. She thought about them watching TV, cooking, making love, reading stories to their kids, and she felt that even if she didn’t have a family, she was part of something bigger. But no one was here. Even imagining that her actual body was out there, surrounded by other people, didn’t help.

She struggled with the feeling for a while, trying to raise anger at something - anything - to fight the depression. “I am not going to go back on the first day, no chance in hell” - she thought, her hands in fists, teeth grinding.

Ever so slowly, the bad feelings disappeared, leaving her feeling tired and confused. She couldn’t shake the impression that this was unnatural, like her thoughts were being manipulated externally. And if it was, what was the point? Was it about measuring her dedication, her willpower? What else will be tested and how? Everything she found here raised more questions than answers so far.

Turning her mind back to the problems she could actually solve, she peeked at the sky to see if there was any sign of the approaching evening yet. Since she was in a more bushy area now, she could actually see it properly. She didn’t see a sun or any other discernible object in the sky, so she couldn’t use those to fathom the local time. The color of the sky was a bit off, bluish gray, probably cloudy. It would be prudent to hurry, she decided, even though she had no idea which way to go and what to look for.

She decided to continue walking in the general direction she previously followed. It would make finding her way back easier, and otherwise there was no visible difference in any direction she could pick.

The bushes soon started to change again, new, different types appeared. Most of them didn’t seem to be useful in any way. Still, Lina was able to pick two other types of fruits, one small, like a berry, that was growing on a long, finger wide vine, the other one a red, broccoli shaped fruit that had cubic ends. She refrained from eating them just yet, to be able to determine what poisoned her, if something did. They went into her new ‘pocket’ for later experimentation. She was also able to collect more vines, although she still had to use her teeth to get them. There was a total lack of rocks so far as she could see, meaning that she won’t be able to advance to even the stone age, unless she finds an area where they were more abundant. At this point of time she would have been happy to find something dry that she could use for creating fire.

She didn’t have any luck with that, but she found something else instead. At first, seeing the shape, she thought it would be a willow tree, or similar. Happy to find something useful for weaving, she started walking closer, then she realised that instead of the thin, flexible branches, this tree had enormous yellow sheets hanging towards the ground.

“Okay, it’s official. These plants are designed to provide the fundamental survival equipment.”

Her suspicions started when she saw the jug plant, but still accepted that as a possible quirk of nature. However, a tree that basically grows cloth? She was sure that with a bit of searching she would find a plant that grows scissors.

“So, plant based rudimentary industry? Not a bad idea. I wonder if this somehow mirrors either the primary technology, or the environment of the aliens…”

Thinking about the consequences of the above, she collected four big sheets - each of them is as big as a king sized bed sheet on Earth - and folded them as much as she could. From the touch they reminded her more of paper than cloth, but they were hard to tear, except at the line where they were attached to the branches. She saw that the sheets closer to the middle of the tree were smaller, and more attached to the branches.

“So, they grow and become ripe. Ripe sheets? That just sounds wrong.”

With the big bundles on her back, it took a bit longer to walk back to the starting point. When she finally made it there, she carefully placed her “pocket” and the full jug next to a tree, and then made her bed on the ground with the sheets. Despite only spending a few hours awake, her brain was already so tired from processing the new information that she was asleep in a few seconds.

* * *

Back on Earth the Colonel was reading a report when the civilian called Mark approached him.

“Her heart slowed down, and the body temperature is 10% lower than the normal. Both of these changes are in the expected range. The EEG is practically flat, there is almost no activity. This is also aligned with our previous observations, and proves the theory that the consciousness of the person actually leaves the body in some unexplained way.”

The colonel nodded. He was well aware of all measurements and the theories.

“Thank you, Mark. Anything else?”

“Well… yes. Can I ask why you didn’t talk to her about the deadline?”

“I didn’t want her to be worried about that. She will be out of there way before the five days that is the current shortest time period. Don’t forget that it means more than fifteen days inside, and I asked her specifically to come back after ten days.”

Mark hesitantly nodded. The colonel knew that he was thinking about the “current shortest time period”, but neither of them commented on that.

After a few seconds of silence, Mark quietly turned around, and walked away. The colonel started reading the reports again, but his mind was not on the task.

He hoped Lina would come out in time. He didn’t want to risk her.