Different world
I stand up and clean the dust that covers me from head to toe. The earthquake just now didn't bring any harm for me. I'm just surprised by that earthquake and no injury happen.
"Oh no, I must go to the exit. If the quake block the cave entrance I will be buried here alive"
When I realize bad things that can happen during an earthquake, I hurried back to the cave entrance where I enter the cave for the first time. My worry becomes true when I arrived at the cave entrance. The entrance already blocked with big boulders and stones sealed the entrance completely.
I'm trying to remove the boulder and stones with my bare hands before realizing after trying a while that my effort is futile. Too many boulders and stone close the entrance, some of them are very big one too, make impossible for me to remove them all without any tools.
"Sigh! This is useless. Too many boulders and no tools to remove them all" I sit listlessly in the ground watching my hands that become dirty after removing some boulders and stones.
"Ack! I still can message or call home to ask for help!" I grab my phone to ask for help and only get disappointed after seeing there's no signal in his phone.
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" I furiously kicking the cave wall only to make some stone falling over him again.
"Ouch … ouch … enough! damn it!" I stop my kicking after realize that only make the stone falling and can make me buried under the stone falls.
"Calm down Ikki, you must calm and not panic" I'm trying to calm myself while trying to figure it out how to get out from the cave. After calming myself, I remember that I was exploring the cave another exit before the earthquake happened.
"That's right. This cave must have another exit. I just continue my exploration to find another exit. I hope the quake didn't block that other exit too"
After arranging my belonging, I continue my exploration into the deeper cave. I can see the place that I already explore before and walks to the deeper section of the cave. After walking for about one hour, I can feel a fresh breeze blows from the path ahead of me.
"This breeze …. Could it be the exit is there?" I can't hold his joy to find the exit. After walk some distance I can see the exit in front of him.
"Hurraaaay …. Finally, I can get of this cave" I run towards the exit but after I'm passing the cave entrance, I stunned with what I see in there.
"Where is this?" the pine tree forest that he saw before he enters the cave changing into a forest with different trees. It's a forest with many kinds of trees, oak, ash, beech, maple, cedars, and many more kind of trees.
I step out of the cave and walks slowly exploring the nearby forest. My eyes scrutinize my surrounding and can see many trees with wild fruit around him. Sadly, I'm not in the mood to collecting ingredient anymore. I walk further and further from the cave and still can't figure where am I right now. Until a sudden tremor happens again, shocking the soil I stand on.
"Oh no … not again" I run faster to the cave direction only to find that a massive boulder already blocking the entrance and if I'm not come from there, no one will believe that behind the boulder there's a cave.
"Oh God! Noooooooooooo!!!" I'm screaming hysterically after seeing that. I'm now stranded in this unknown place alone.
"What should I do now … what should I do", I keep murmuring those words until I see my shadow over the boulders. The sun already shifts to west horizon and night will fall in a couple hours. I finally realize what I should do right now.
"Right! I must find a place to live or people who can help me move this boulder first. I don't know if there're some beasts in this forest or not. I better leave this forest and find nearby habitats. This is not the time for sorrow and grievance, I must calm and think clearly "
After making up my mind, I walk to leave the forest. I'm looking for a river or stream in the forest and decides to follow it down the mountain. I know that human habitats usually near the water source. So if I follow the river or stream, I'm expecting can meet any human habitats nearby. I'm going westward following a forest trail that I saw after searching for a while. After a walk about half an hour, I found a small stream that flows from east to west.
"Finally I found something to follow. I hope by following this stream I can find someone or a village"
Ikki's hope for finding a place to spend the night arise after he seeing this stream.