Chapter 4 - survive

From the corner of my eyes, I had seen the tiger smiling, and I don't think that ever in my life had I felt more fear from anything than I had at that moment. Of course, it's not like it was a very high hurdle.

I had stopped paying attention to everything that had been going on behind me at this point, or rather, I could not afford to, as my horse had entirely started to go crazy at this point, it too probably could feel the same fear we could from the tiger.

My horse not cooperating at this point was not very helpful in this situation considering we were totally away from the road and had been traveling in the general direction of the western base straight through the forest.

*fwip*

"Huh."

*thud*

*pssssstt*

Then it happened. I was looking at the world upside down. Mid-air, I realized how messed up I was as I saw the hooves of my horse along with many others had been chopped off. There were also the unlucky few who had their heads chopped off by the tiger that had caused this travesty. It was no exaggeration to call it a fountain of blood, as the corpses of the horses and soldiers started to shoot out blood, covering the forest floor crimson.

It took me no longer than a second while my horse started to fall, to get my legs out of the stirrups and jump, or right on time to roll on the ground with as few injuries as possible. Of course, it was impossible to avoid damage, as I had jumped straight into a tree. However, I didn't have enough time to assess the damage that had been dealt to me, not that I was even capable of doing that as things were right now and how scared out of my mind I was.

I don't know how I looked at the moment as I looked at Jason and the rest, not even looking back at me. Perhaps it was because the feeling of abandonment had enveloped me at the moment. I didn't even know how to react, but I was not given time to get my thoughts together as I saw the tiger had started to approach its prey, and behind it were the parasites that stuck close enough to it to eat the leftovers of the tiger.

Before my brain could react to the situation, my body moved as I picked up the bag of supplies that barely survived off my horse's corpse and ran straight into the forest, hoping that the beasts would not find it worth the effort to go after a single struggling piece of meat, especially when they had such a large buffet before them.

What I had forgotten to consider at the time was that the entire forest would be filled with beasts that would easily be able to kill me, the green tree pythons being a perfect example. However, I, none the wiser, ran north, hoping to take a longer route to the camp, possibly avoiding the beasts that had been chasing the group.

"Fuck you if you think I am going down without trying," I murmured to myself, attempting to encourage myself despite my dire situation.

"Should I look for other survivors? No, I don't have the luxury to do that right now. Anyone that could have been alive would likely have been dead. If not, they are escaping like I am right now," I muttered to myself under huffed breath.

For four hours, I think I ran, jumping over tree roots, vines, from bush to bush, avoiding most creatures that could kill me while trying to find a place to hide for the night.

It was only after the sun had started to set and the little light that had been coming from the crowns of the trees stopped coming that I stopped running and found a suitable tree to seek refuge under, all the while covering myself in dirt, mud, animal dung, and leaves to cover my scent, which I had only now realized I had not hidden until now, that is.

Fortunately for me, the giant redwood trees tended to have large cave-ins between their trunks and the ground due to how they grew, which led me to at least find a suitable place to sleep for a night. Of course, I could not light a fire, as that would be like announcing to all the beasts of the forest, 'I am here, come eat me.'

I dug a small hole in the ground underneath the tree close to its gigantic roots, which for tonight, I would be calling my bed. Once I had done that, I leaned back against the tree and for the first time today got an ounce of fresh air, still not relieved of stress, of course, as a billion thoughts had started to go across my mind at this time. But still, given the scope of nature I was surrounded by at this point in time, there was no way I could avoid taking a moment to appreciate how beautiful (dangerous but beautiful) the forest looked right now.

The gigantic redwood trees, with dark green leaves, only lit up by the fireflies that roamed the forest, and the lush greenery that thrived at the bottom of the forest, almost felt enchanting, to be honest. However, after taking a moment to appreciate it, my thoughts once more started to get back on track, as I rummaged through my bag and pulled out the jerky that I had packed with me. "I am so proud of myself," I muttered with a proud look on my face and started to eat when all the exhaustion and pain that had piled up until now hit me and made me almost puke out everything I had eaten all day.

Fortunately, I kept my mouth shut and gulped everything back in. I had no choice but to. If the smell got out right now, I would be in big trouble, and not only that, given my situation, when I did not know how long it would be before I could get to the camp, I had to save every ounce of nutrition I could. There was the option of foraging around for food, but that carried two great risks. The first was that it could potentially attract unwanted attention from beasts, and the second being that I did not know what was edible and what was not. As such, if I just picked something up randomly and ate it, I could potentially be walking straight to my grave.

"Haaaah," I let out a pained breath as I took a moment to assess the damage that I had suffered so far. "A broken rib, maybe two, and several other internal injuries. I will need to find a doctor first thing when I get to the camp," I said to myself as I looked at the multiple bruises on my body and then pulled out the map that had been distributed to all of us going to the western frontier, as we had to have some way to get there precisely in case something like today happened.

"Let's see. I ran for about 4 hours north when we were about 2 hours on course away from the training camp, and about another 30 minutes straight west from there… a horse would have been really fucking nice right about now. Shit." I cursed as I crawled into the hole I would call a bed for the night.