Chapter 3

A musty smell of earth tickled Marcie's nose as she slowly came to. Her side and front that made contact with the ground felt damp. Sliding her hands up by her shoulders, she tried to prop herself up a bit to get her surroundings. 

It looked like she was in a very old forest with trees that were huge like redwoods but with a ground thickly covered by pillow mosses, ferns, and the odd leafy bush or nettle-like plants here and there. The atmosphere was warm and dense like in a sub-tropical region. 

Marcie's attention was abruptly altered to the source of a cry perhaps only a few meters from her followed by some sounds of hushing. As she gazed around, she realized that there were some other people that had also landed in the same spot as her and were just as disoriented.

Eight others in total including one child. She surmised he was the one who was crying earlier and that he could begin wailing at any moment. Marcie tried to prop herself up a little more by rolling over onto her back to sit up, but the tree logs around her were awkwardly getting in her way. 

A man had noticed her struggles and came over to assist. He tried to pull her up to her feet to her dismay and kept trying to correct him to help her only sit. 

"Ma'am I'm just trying to help you stand, are you injured somewhere?" 

Marcie shifted and looked herself over, then shook her head.

"N-no, but I am disabled and can't walk…" The hesitancy in her voice was very clear. She knew what that was going to mean to the others, but she prayed to herself that they would at least have enough empathy. 

As to not miss a beat, the man withdrew and his expression fell. 

"T-then you should just hang tight here while we go try to find the rescuers. When we find them, we will tell them your location."

Lies… How could they tell them where she is when they don't even know where they are? Marcie began to lament in the obvious act of abandonment. Leave a cripple to die is it? As she glanced at the others, they all seemed in agreement or at least turned a blind eye to it. 

Marcie bit her top lip to prevent it from forming a frown and instead looked about for her bag. Luckily, it was clipped to a belt loop on her pants so it stayed with her when they went through the portal. She began to rifle through it, keeping it out of the sight of the others.

Her wallet, a bottle of water, mace, her pre and post swimming snacks and meal, a charged taser, housekeys, a multi-tool set with the name 'Gregory" carved on the side and some partially crumpled receipts were the gist of what seemed to be in her bag. 

The mace and the taser were items she started carrying on her after being confined to a wheelchair when she got mugged right after leaving the hospital. I guess she was considered easy pickings for thugs. But after that incident, she was going to at least try to put up a fight. 

Marcie strapped the bag more securely to her and closed it tightly. She glanced around again to notice that the group had begun collecting things like tree branches to use as walking sticks or makeshift weapons and were conversing amongst themselves to decide what direction to go.

Marcie turned away and instead skimmed the brush-line. Hiding was going to be her best option to survive for the moment. Almost directly in front of her about 50 or so feet away was an exceptionally large tree with roots that were exposed from the ground and twisted about sporadically. 

Perhaps she could wedge herself in there to make it more difficult for any larger monsters to get at her. Either that, or it would be a death sentence. But she had to try. Mustering up her courage, she flopped herself forward onto her elbows and began the long, painful crawl along the uneven forest floor to her destination.