Chapter 1

My head is pounding and that damn light hurt my eyes. I swear I will put some bricks on all the windows. Groaning, I slowly regained consciousness, my stomach rebelled; groggily I get up on my hand and knee, and puke on the grass. Grass, where the hell am I? The last time I remember is leaving the bar with a brunette in my arm, O boy am I going to get lucky last night. Yet here I am, in a post-drunk state and in the middle of nowhere.

Let see, last night I was spending my time in Henry's, with full intention to drown in alcohol. Anything to forget about this lousy problem for a while, I have worked for ten years for the company, obtaining class A commercial driver's license, and always make sure that the cargo arrive on time no matter what. Driving semi-trailer truck across state probably doesn't provide much for most people. For me, that job is the perfect job, the sense of power when you are riding a giant on the road, the sense of freedom, laughing on those other people that stuck behind their desk eight hours per day. And now, I got nothing, except a recommendation letter and three months of paycheck.

It was my eighth bottle, but at least I got some result, this brunette giggling beside me seems to be socially available. I knew it, the more I drink, more charming I become. So, after I paid my bill, me and the gorgeous girl leave the bar, we both must have been drinking more than we should, and you can't blame me for not having full concentration on our surrounding. What I remember is we crossed the street, some vague honking, and that was as far as I remember.

It was one hour later before my mind is fully functional and I'm still confused, I'm in the middle of a freaking savannah. Wherever I set my sight, there are only grasses and few scrubs, some weird animals, no sign of humans, and on top of that, my whole body feels weird. Damn, what the hell happened?

When in unknown situation, practicality is the best, and the first thing I need is a source of fresh water to drink. I can see a small creek about two hundred meters, and bushes that seems to be some type of berries. Ignoring the rotation of the world, I stumble toward the potential breakfast. After filling my stomach, I feel better, and most definitely smarter.

Sitting near the creek, I inventoried what I have. My clothes, boots, hat, pack of empty cigarette, lighter, twelve inches blade made of hardened steel, wallet, class A commercial driving license, credit card, fourteen dollars and fifty cents. It could be worse; I could have waked up naked. It could be better; anyone or anything that is responsible for this mess could have brought my last night companion too.

Sitting and thinking will get me nowhere, so I started walking down the stream, logically the stream will soon come into a river, and where there's river surely there's town. After walking about two hours, I found my river. And I nearly die when I found it. When there's river there are also predators. I was still trying to figure out what happened when I notice that a pair of rocks on the river is moving slowly toward me, when I realize what that is, "I'm gonna got eaten" alarm scream in my mind. The river burst and that pair of rock change into a jaw of teeth coming slowly toward me. Hell, I don't get it either, one moment I'm close to being a breakfast, and the next, everything move in slow motion, like one hundredth time slower. I jump backward, nearly slipping to avoid the jaw, even with the faster mind process, my mind only produce one output, escape, escape. So I turn and run, even my movement feel sluggish like fourth slower. Hundred steps and I look back, that must be the greatest crocodile on earth, her head is at least four meters long and two meters wide.

That's no crocodile, there's no way a croc can grow that big. But there it is. Her head is on the land and I think she's considering of chasing me, she blink and open her mouth, but I guess chasing is too much of a work compared to playing peek-a-boo so she slowly moved back in to the river, and soon there's no sign that a monster croc is living in that spot of a river. After my trembling stop, I walk again, parallel to the river, but at thirty meters distance. I'm not in the mood to be a breakfast for a big fat mama croc.

Thankfully the berry bush are quite abundant this close to the river, so I can easily find something to eat while walking. There are other types of bushes that feel cool and numb my skin when I accidently break a branch and its sap touches me. Another one got entirely different effect, an irritant of the highest degree, a little contact, and that spot of skin turn red; I spent several hours gritting my teeth trying to avoid scratching that spot.

The sun is not as hot as I expected in this kind of environment. Instead of burning hot, it is tolerable. I can't afford a relaxing walk though. The monster croc proves that this is not a park, I still don't understand where I am, but I learn to be prepared for anything.

At night I usually sleep on a tree, using my belt to avoid falling. So far I didn't encounter any other type of predator, and I don't think those overgrown croc can climb a tree. I got another prove that someone or something has tampered with my body, even at the darkest of the night I can still see my surrounding. And even if I have not encounter other type of predator, I have no doubt that they are out there, since I can hear them at night, thankfully none of them are close by. Knowing that they are there made it impossible to be truly asleep though, and now I understand what it means to sleep with one eye open.

My first encounter with a land based predator was actually during daylight. I am walking along side the river when I notice two hyenas like creature far away. Since the wind is blowing toward me, I am pretty sure I could walk slowly and avoid confrontation. But as my eyes focused, I can see that the pair of hyenas is fighting over something that looks like a child body. Loneliness and desperation outweigh logic, and instead of avoiding them, I run in their direction. Just my luck, the wind change direction and the Hyenas smell my scent, they abandon their current food and ran toward me.

I don't really sure, are they the ones that really fast, or I'm the one that run faster than ever, but the distance closed within second, and they are definitely not hyena, I miscalculated their size at the distance, at nearly six feet tall, these are monstrous. That thought only a flash in my mind.

Like with the croc, time seems moving far slower, yet I don't even consider running. I simply grip my knife in my hand, one slash, and the first giant hyena is disemboweled while on air. A stab between ribs fixes the second one.

No longer running I approach the child corpse, since from this distance I can see that whatever rescue that I planned subconsciously, are already far too late. It was a girl, already started to decompose, but what really shaken my mind is the fact that the child death was caused by the broken spear driven through her chest. This shake me, since now I realize, not only I'm stranded in a place with gigantic croc and hyena, but that even if I find another human, or colony, It won't be the civilization that I knew. That the only way to survive is to close the memory of my previous life or civilization, there is only one rule, survive.

For months, I traveled along that damned river. Gone the happy drunkard, what is now exist is a savage on the edge of insanity. The only thing that keeps me going is the will to survive, eat or be eaten. My clothes are no longer exist; I wear the fur of the hyenas as cloak, brushed with sand and its brain. My lighter is out, and I have learned to light a fire with tinder and stone. My boots are worn out, and my feet have grown calluses.

The only reason I survive, is because somehow my body now has far more ability than a normal human beings, all my senses are greatly enhanced, and the most important thing, is the freaking adrenaline burst that enables me to react far faster, in danger.

Sometimes I found sign of human life, several trace of camp fire, and one broken flint spear. Yet it was only yesterday I saw the first living pair of humans. Well putting those creatures as human is a bit flattering; they walked with two feet, have pairs of titties, and bushes between their legs. But they most definitely are not porn stars. Well, beggars can't choose, female are female, thankfully my bigger brain won the fight with my lower head, instead of jumping, chasing and raping them, I hide.