Zef roused, coughing in pain; with each hack, a blast of agony was sent throughout his body. He was sprawled on his back accompanied by a pulsing pain shooting from two directions, his right shoulder and left foot, more so from his foot.

He forced his eyes to open but only his left did. The other was too swollen. He noted that he was in a dark place again, which prompted him to blink several times until his vision turned to night mode. He turned his head to the side and gazed at his foot, hoping it wasn't broken.

Sadly it looked pretty swollen. Zef groaned and used his healthy shoulder arm to a seating position. His body ached, but he needed to inspect his foot; soldering on, he touched his swollen foot lightly with his left hand. He clenched his teeth; sweat dripped drown his back, his throat dry again. He tried to recall his first aid training as shooting agony pulsed with each touch.

He hoped that it wasn't internal bleeding; otherwise, an operation would be required, which means meant he was a goner in this godforsaken place. Luckily he didn't feel lightheaded or sick yet, just bruised, battered, and hungry.

Guess things don't change.

After inspecting his foot for several minutes, he concluded it was only a fracture but couldn't pinpoint where because of the swelling. Next, he examined his right shoulder and sighed in relief; it was only a dislocation. Fixing it was an easy painful maneuver.

Zef looked around his surroundings again and dragged himself towards the nearest wall gritting his teeth as he avoided putting pressure on his injured foot. He took a deep breath and scrunched his face against the wall. He set his dislocated shoulder against it before suddenly ramming it into the wall, a pop sound followed by a sharp human cry. Tears dampened the dried blood on his face as he tried to bottle his emotions, breathing deeply, his head still planted on the surface of the wall. Only a tiny whimper could be heard, less so with his pain and more to do with his cursed suffering.

By the time his tears dried, he had breathed out, sighed, and turned his body around to assess his situation. It was clear that he fell into a chasm of some sort as he looked above him and could pick up a faint light coming from the dark sky. It was probably the moon. He thought about climbing, but to his demise, a hundred feet of rock stretched towards the surface, which marked it as a suicide climb with his injured body, and he crossed that idea off for now.

Still, miraculously his body survived the fall with only a broken foot and a dislocated shoulder. Most probably, his sturdy self played a part in his survival, and the fact that he didn't fall on his head meant a bit of luck played a role.

More like cursed luck.

Zef understood he needed first aid, shelter, and water urgently. Fortunately, his eyes picked up an object at the edge of his vision.

He saw a branch that was big enough for his 7-foot body to lean on. He got up on his healthy foot and skipped towards it carefully but his foot still pulsed with pain with each jump. Beads of sweat dripped down his dried, bloodied face as he finally leaned to grab it and positioned it under his left armpit to put off pressure from his left foot, acting as a walking stick.

He lifted his face towards the evening sky and sighed in relief. The chasm stretched towards his left and right.

He decided on taking the left route and started limping slowly. He crawled slowly. Zef realized he wouldn't have much progress if he didn't make a makeshift flint for his foot soon.

He stopped walking after several minutes and focused on his surroundings. His antennas were informing him of life and lots of movement. The chasm was only 10 feet wide, but there were numerous animal skeletons, branches, and leaves on the ground. What got his attention was the chasm walls. While he kept moving, he saw many cave-dwelling insects such as beetles and centipedes in different shapes and colors. Some of them glowed in the dark while others speedily trod the walls.

They were practically everywhere, and he wondered if some of the animal bones on the ground died peacefully or were they alive and gorged by these atrocious bugs. He gulped; a few of these insects were quite large, some as big as his hand. It didn't help that his hands were much larger than the average human hand, which said much about how big these pests were.

Seeing so many insects unnerved him, but they seemed to ignore his existence as if he were too large to pester. He thought about turning back but noticed a fresh kill with pointy ears. It was a sizeable rusty-colored rabbit that must have fallen recently and hasn't been entirely decimated yet by the more giant bugs. Half its fur was gone, and he could sense maggots and worms rummaging through its skin. The insects surrounding it felt him coming and left the carcass in batched groups as he got closer.

Huh...they left.

Zed reached the dead rabbit and crouched. He was quickly slicing it from the torso towards its leg using his index finger claw. A stench emerged and clouded his senses as he tried to breathe away from the corpse.

Focus dummy, find those intestines, or you'll end up as this ill-ridden corpse soon with your lame leg.

Zed pushed himself throughout the ordeal and worked his way towards its intestines. He operated quickly and produced a long string, then moved away from the corpse and zoomed in with his eyes for any larvae or eggs. He found some, which he plucked with his nails until he felt satisfied. Next was finding bones that could act as flints, which were numerous around him. He found two similar ones in size and spent an agonizing ten minutes trying to gently wrap it around his lame foot on both sides to restrict movement. Finally, with a sigh, he tested its durability for a while and felt satisfied. Then, he got up; all these sitting around with insects eyeing him creeped him out, so he picked up his large walking stick and got up to continue his journey.

Two hours later, he sat exhausted from limping himself to thirst and sat down against the chasm wall. Thoughts of death drifted into his head. He wondered if whether being eaten was better than dying of thirst in this wretched chasm. He swore loudly and threw a pebble that bounced off the chasm's wall. An echo was produced from the hit, which ricocheted along the chasm walls, his ears following the sound as most of it went straight ahead, yet some of it entered some path to the right not too far from his position.

A way out??

He gulped and got back to his feet, well, actually foot, and limped towards the entrance. Sadly he didn't realize the ruckus alerted a dangerous predator, and it didn't take long for his sensitive ears to pick up the sound of skittering along the walls.

Zef suddenly stopped and looked behind, he couldn't see anything but could sense a threat coming, and it was getting closer fast. He looked above and zoomed in and saw a vast red centipede crawling on the chasm walls using four of its antennas to feel his position.

His eyes widened, and he swore as he turned around, limping erratically towards the side's entrance. He approached the cave's entrance, which was big enough for him to fit in. He hurried in just as the centipede almost crashed into him, throwing him forward accompanied by rocks and dust.

Agonizing pain jolted his brain, emitting from his swollen foot; he didn't bother to look behind him. Zef tried to get up, fell again, then pushed himself up with a desperate shout. Refusing to give up, he grabbed the walking stick and kept skipped ignoring the unbearable pain from his broken foot. Adrenaline fueled him as he hopped like a madman inside the tunnel till he reached a large cavern. The cavern was beautifully covered in large blue stalactites. In the cavern's center was a huge pool surrounded by bluegrass, but he didn't have time to appreciate the view as he kept limping towards the back of the cavern, going around the pond looking for an exit or a place to hide. Zef reached the cavern's end, and instead of meeting a wall, it was a murky and liquid-like substance. Its color was utterly black. He stood in front of it and weighed his choices before the skittering of legs behind him jolted him to touch the wall.

It felt cold as ice, and he tried to pull his hand back, but his antennas warned him that something massive just reached the pond. He looked behind him and watched it traverse around the lake; the centipede had four large mandibles on its head, which snapped like a scorpion's claw. Zef's heart thumped faster and said a word of prayer before plunging into the unknown.