Getting Started-Food and Water

As the sun began to set, I looked at my surroundings before it became too dark to try and find a place to spend the night, so that I don't become sick or mauled in my sleep.

After spending a good 15-20 minutes looking around, I could find nothing that would give me ample coverage of nature, I decided to just find a large enough tree to spend the night in, as soon I wouldn't even be able to see the tree let alone climb it.

After finding a decent-sized tree and making it my temporary home for the night, It didn't take long for the landscape to be clouded in a pit of darkness as I drifted to sleep, though not even comparable to the nightmarish void I found myself in hours beforehand.

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After waking up the following morning and having a brain lapse as to how and why I was 30 feet up in the air on a tree, I began to descend with careful steps, making sure not to slip and fall. After my feet met with the hard grass-filled ground, I tried to remember what I learned to do when in situations like this, being stranded in the wilderness of an unknown location.

After racking my brain for a good ten minutes, I remembered that first things first, I should make a priority list of goals and tasks that need to be accomplished. I decided to use a simple priority list called PLAN, it was used by both military and civilians and was adequate for the situation I found myself in.

The acronym PLAN stands for Protection, Location, Acquisition, and Navigation. After a quick deliberation, I decided to start with navigation, hopefully to find a food source, a water source (preferably a running river), and a place to set up camp.

I moved away from the tree that I was calling my temporary home and began moving towards the forest, picking up a sharp rock along the way to mark trees so that I could find my way back in case I didn't locate a base of operation.

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After heading east while weaving through trees and shrubbery for 20 minutes, I came across a long spiraling river a couple of feet deep, yet clear enough to see the rocks that littered the floor, and the small fish and bugs that inhabit the ecosystem.

Although I strayed far from the tree I spent the night in, I kept relatively close to the shoreline, allowing me to see that the river had quick and easy access to the ocean. The river also flowed beyond what my eye could see, up into a rolling hillside, with mountains that broke through the cloud's surface.

Finding the river was perhaps one of the most important things early on in this kind of situation. There is little that is more important than water in survival situations.

I decided to follow along the side of the river, hoping to find a food source or a flat but stable plot of land to set up a campsite, whether it be temporary or permanent.

I followed the river for several more hours, stopping only to take a break or drink a bit of water, from the river to my side. I had been walking along the riverside for so long that the sun had moved past noon and was beginning to move into the late afternoon.

I had decided that I would walk for no more than 30 minutes, and if I found nothing I would go hungry for the day and turn around, and boy was I hungry.

So I continued to trudge along hoping that I would find even an inkling of a food source whether that be animals or fruits or vegetables. And it's not as if I haven't come across some animals already, it's just that they were either too small, too fast, or too dangerous for me to hunt.

It's also what led me to my current train of thought, where the hell am I?

Less than an hour ago, I came across the perfect animal for food, a boar. Unfortunately, though this wasn't like any boar I had ever seen, it had grass, ferns, and rocks growing out of its back and stood up to my shoulders in height.

Now, I am most certainly not a wildlife expert, it just wasn't a part of my interests. Though I know enough to know that that boar doesn't belong to the earth that I inhabit at the very least.

Now, what that meant for me... I don't know, hopefully, I'll figure out where I am and how I got here at some point but for now, all I can do is focus on surviving.

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20 minutes down the river, and finally... fruit, or at least what looks to be fruit. The fruit in question is a blue mango-looking object. I'm not sure if it is edible, but my gut and its incessant rumbling are making sure I at least think about it.

I made my way to the strange blue fruit with hurried steps. What I believe to be this weird fruit tree, is overhanging the river, with some of its fruits looking to touch the surface of the water.

After reaching the tree that may be the key to my further survival, I reached for the closest fruit in sight, picking it off the tree. The mango-looking fruit was slightly bigger than the average mango, almost doubling the size of my hand.

I didn't just bite into the fruit, I didn't know if it was poisonous or not. A good way to tell if a fruit is poisonous is its smell and texture, if it has a weird odor, it might be poisonous, and if it feels weird to the touch it might also be poisonous.

The fruit didn't have these traits and smelt and felt just like a big mango, but I didn't know where I am and for all I knew everything could be poisonous. Instead, I decided to just pick 4 fruits, enough to at least last today and tomorrow, and bring that back down to the tree on the shoreline.

For the entire journey back to the tree I was calling home, my stomach was heavily protesting my decision to not eat the fruits, with its loud and almost never-ending rumbling.

A couple of hours later, and a few stops for rest and water every so often, I arrived back at the tree just as the sun had begun to set. I picked off a couple of ferns from a couple of nearby bushes and made a small net-like object to hold onto fruits until I required them.

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Just as the sun had disappeared below the surface of the ocean for the second time since my arrival. I could no longer resist the urge to at least take a bite out of one of the fruits. 

So I did just that, taking a medium-sized bite and the taste was arguably one of the best I've ever had. I don't know if it was the fact that I hadn't eaten anything in 2 days or if the fruit was simply that good, but after the first bite, I was hooked.

I devoured the fruit in just 3 minutes, turning the large fruit into 1 large seed, just like a mango would produce, though it was slightly larger than the average mango seed.

After I had finished eating the fruit, I climbed back into the safe branches of the tree and fell asleep just 5 minutes after closing my eyes.

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