Chapter 1

I had been sleeping quietly at Katherine’s apartment when, I thought, I rolled off the bed and fell. That was the last “normal” thing about what happened. I landed fairly softly but not on the carpet but on leaves! I was also getting chilly.

I sat up and looked around. “Kath? What’s going on? Where are you? Where am I?” Neither Katherine nor anyone else answered me.

I was in a forest by a tree! That wasn’t quite what I might expect! How in the world could that have happened? No person or persons could have done that without drugging me. I didn’t feel drugged.

I thought about that evening and night. Katherine Johnson and I had been dating. We were at the point where we were talking about moving in together. She had spent a week at my apartment and now I was in the middle of spending a week at her apartment. I had spent a number of nights here as had she at my apartment but now we were really trying to determine which place worked better for us and what furniture was more comfortable. It wasn’t working for me. Sex wasn’t that great with Katherine and she really liked her apartment which was a further commute for me and felt cramped.

There was also no exercise facility nor a safe place to run or walk. I enjoyed my complex’s exercise facility including its pool. Kath used it once while she stayed at my place. I also was an early riser. I liked to get up early thanks to a rural upbringing. I would rise and take a walk or jog a bit. Early was always a good time for that. Kath liked the result of my exercise since it kept my stomach flat. She didn’t want to participate and verbally resented the time it consumed.

I shivered. I tabled that line of thought in favor of doing something about my current situation. I was naked which was how I slept normally. Kath didn’t like that either. My feet crunched leaves as I slowly stood and looked around. The situation was immediately serious. It was fall when I went to bed and still fairly warm where we lived in Georgia. I was wondering about how cold it might get but decided that it wouldn’t matter if I couldn’t find food and water. I had to do something quickly or my body might start trying to shut down from the cold. I calmed saying to myself that it wasn’t that cold. On the other hand, I was waking to a very different situation than I could possibly have expected.

I looked around and still saw nothing but trees and forest! I was thinking with some exclamation points.

I thought about it and moving seemed like a good idea. I didn’t know what happened but it hadn’t changed and I had a bad feeling that things wouldn’t go back to how they had been. I carefully took steps away from the tree and saw a brighter area to my left. I hoped this would be some lights but was not very hopeful.

Slowly, I walked toward the brightness. It took a while and, before I reached the edge of the forest, I figured it was the sun coming up. It was warming a bit and I was moving which also created some warmth from my body.

I came to a clearing and saw ... nothing. It was more comfortable because the sun was shining on me now. Other than that, I was in a forest with no sign of civilization nor of people. I heard nothing of people even after listening carefully. I was worried. I had hunted with my dad and fished, too. I had nothing here including clothing. I wasn’t sure what to do but would continue on in an easterly direction since one direction was as good as any other. Fortunately, the ground was soft with leaves so my feet didn’t suffer.

I came to a creek and stopped to drink. Its water was very clear and almost cold. It tasted good. That last, the temperature, didn’t bode well for the future because it might get cold here, wherever here might be. After some thought, I decided to follow it downstream. That would take me southeasterly which wasn’t far from my original plan. If I were in Georgia, a valid question to determine, going south would be warmer.

I stuck with my plan and walked close to the creek all day. I now had water but no food. I was watching for something to eat or a way to shelter myself from the weather. I had read somewhere that you could burrow into dead leaves for warmth. I would do that if nothing else was available. The creek entered another creek which was larger than mine.

I saw something different. It looked man-made and I walked toward it. It turned out to be man-made. It was a crude lean-to that was open on the ends and, of course, a side. It was dark where it was covered along with a layer of leaves. I tossed a stick inside trying to make sure it wasn’t subject to a prior claim. Nothing responded. It was low and needed some repair work but would give me some cover from the night cold.

There was a fire ring that demonstrated to me that its last use had been some time ago. There was grass growing in that ring! I crawled into the lean-to and saw a hide covered with leaves lying on the ground. I picked it up and carried it out. I shook it vigorously. I laid it back on the ground. I spent some time looking over the lean-to trying to determine how long ago it had been since it had been used. I was also looking for anything else that might be useful.

I learned little new. It had been many years since this place was used from what I could determine. Nothing inside it gave any thought but that it had been years. I did find a knife with a very worn handle. I also found a rock by it that looked scraped upon. I used the rock to clean and sharpen the blade with some success. The metal of the blade was neither steel nor even iron. I found another piece of rock that would produce sparks when scraped with the sharpening rock. I gathered sticks and leaves in the fire ring that I had seen in my looking around process. It took a while and many tries but I managed to start a fire.

I fed my fire and enjoyed being warm for the first time since I woke up. I found the inside of the lean-to warmed quickly. I reveled in that warmth. I drank some more from the creek. My stomach wasn’t fooled. It knew that I hadn’t eaten.