Desolate Survival

The forests of the desolate lands came into view. I switched off the GPS and took control of the Jager myself. There was no autopilot inside the desolate lands, unfortunately there were no roads either. This meant that I had to drive into the forest myself.

I did a lot of preparation for the jungle survival that my life was going to be for a while.

After finding a clearing with less shrubbery, I parked the truck in center and marked a perimeter in that area. After which I used little bursts of electricity to burn all the vegetation in the vicinity till the perimeter. Later I moved the ashes from the burning to the edge of the perimeter.

Clearing all the vegetation was important. Animals weren't the only things that had evolved after the Cosmic Radiance, insects did as well. They grew larger and tougher and an absolute pain to handle. But that was not my worry. Some insects remained small and they gained sufficient power to survive in that state. That power was poison. In the earlier days, doctors and scientists tried to make antidotes to these new poisons but the rate at which more and more types of poison were discovered completely dwarfed the rate of antidote production.

So, they gave up. Because anyone with a powerful healing ability could just remove the poison entirely.

By, removing the vegetation, I cleared any chances for small insects in the vicinity. 

I would sleep in the truck either way, it was safer. But everything else needed to be done from outside.

I then planned an agenda. The things I needed to do in the period I stayed here. 

Firstly, water. I needed a water source. That required exploration. A proper water source would ensure my survival in this jungle.

Then, food. I could forage for plants and berries. I could always differentiate them using the scanning option on the displays I had. For meat however I needed to fight whatever creature that I could find. This would also double up as training. 

An issue that might pop up is a truly strong monster. They usually stay in their areas and I shouldn't in all likelihood meet them. Terriotorial monsters didn't come to the outer zones but there were still chances I could meet one of them. I might be able to take them down, but otherwise the only option left was to run away as fast as possible. The truck being destroyed is also a possibility, one I should come to terms with.

Just because I was training shouldn't mean that I wouldn't be studying. I had to learn as much as I could. Subjects or topics didn't matter. Anything and everything would be useful.

I started my search for a watersource. But first I tore of some large leaves from nearby plants and formed cones out of them and hung them around the truck. That would collect rainwater, in case it rained. I would need to make a solar water still later if I couldn't find a watersource.

My investigation started with a search for animal tracks, animals would frequent watering holes and I could use that to my advantage. I could get both food and water from a single search.

It was quite easy to find prints but they kept randomly disappearing and appearing as I walked through the jungle. I moved slowly, it didn't hurt to be careful in cases like these. I didn't need to optimize my search.

In my hours of searching, I found a couple fruits that I recognized. I put them in a bag I had brought with me. I had another couple of hourse before nightfall. Night would be really bad, not only for navigation and vision but for danger of nocturnal creatures.

As powerful as I was, I was still locked to hand to hand combat. I didn't have a weapon. At this point even a cold weapon would do. I would need to fashion something out of the supplies I had brought with me, a simple spear would do for now. What I should have done was search the secret room properly. Weapons were guaranteed to be there, if Mama had prepared a truck she would have obviously prepared some kind of weaponary. But I didn't search the room, lets hope that mistake wasn't a fatal one.

SHSHSH

I froze mid step. That was not the wind. Something was moving in the bushes. My hearing and vision were pushed to the limit. What was moving around? Moreover, how dangerous was it?

I didn't see or hear anything else. My nervousness turned into anxiety and paranoia. There was something in the jungle that could avoid my senses. Something that could catch me off-guard with a sneak attack.

I re-traced my way back to the truck constantly looking around my surroundings. It was mentally exhaustive to be that aware for a period of time. By the time I made it back, my head was throbbing.

It was not optimal. My anxiety giving way to fear. The confidence with which I had initially entered the jungle was now, completely gone. I was vulnerable. Despite my newfound power I felt weak. Not knowing everything happening around me felt scarier than just straight forward facing something.

I sat outside the Jager looking at my surroundings till nightfall. It was beautiful. The shade of green, so vibrant, so attractive. But behind the beauty was danger.

Back inside the Jager, I set up the cameras and sensors inside to alert me if there were any movments near the truck. This was the most reliable safety measure. It was similar to someone keeping watch as I rested.

Funnily enough, I didn't get any sleep the entire night.

My head swiveled at every sound. Every rustle in the branches. Every little creak in the woods. Every howl in the darkness. All seemed to gang up on me. What was worse however, was when it went completely silent, when the wind died. The silence went from calming to deafening in an instant. My anxiety increasing with every passing moment, my heart beating faster, my breathing speeding up, sweat forming in my palms, my eyes darting around looking for something... anything.....

I kept the inside of the truck dark as well. I didn't want to attract unnecessary attention toward the truck or myself. I wasn't in my element here, I was in theirs and just to survive the nights, I would play by their rules.

I started dreading the nights I would have to face from now onwards.

My extremely fast thinking didn't help with the nights either. My mind hopped from one thing to the other.

I would need to fortify myself and my surroundings if I needed an ounce of sleep from now on. What I learnt that night was eye opening. I came into the desolate lands underestimating it. I predicted an easy survival here. I was dead wrong on that. My expectations were crushed and I hadn't faced a single enemy yet. The fear I felt in my dreams and the fear I felt when facing Jackal all of it paled in comparison to this fear. The fear of the unknown. 

The forest might know me but I definitely didn't know it. That was my shortcoming. I was trying survival techniques from before the Cosmic Radiance. Things had changed over the years, and I couldn't prefectly rely on the old survival methods. If things were so easy, why wasn't more than half the desolate lands reclaimed by the strong Waking across the nations. 

Mama definitely knew that all of us wouldn't survive the desolate lands and still told us to come here. The danger provided by the jungle would be our cover. That must have been a hard decision to make for her, knowingly sending your family to their deaths, in hopes that some of them would survive and come put later when all of this had blown over.

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Along with the light came relief. I had survived my maiden day in this jungle. My goals had changed a little. Instead of hunting and foraging or even searching for a water source, I would make do with my supplies for now and first explore and map out my immediate surroundings. I needed to kow everything about my location first.

I needed to make this entire place my domain. So first I needed information on the flora and fauna of my surroundings. I needed to take these steps to make my nights here a little safer. The perimeter I had marked previously, I decided to dig them out. Forming a type of trench system there. I couldn't cut trees and make fences. Not only did I not have the necessary equipment, I didn't want to piss off some creature that I couldn't handle.

After digging the trench around the entire place, I moved toward exploring my surroundings. The sunlight shone through gaps in the trees. I had not seen a single bird here yet. Shouldn't they survive on these large and tall trees?

I then spotted animal prints, paws and claws were evident from the prints. It was likely a cat or dog species. Then my eyes were pulled toward the trees around me, what I had not caught before were claws marks on the trees. 

This was some animal's domain and I had probably intruded upon its home.

I followed the prints, extremely slowly and carefully. It went around in a large circle. It looked recent. The animal had walked around the perimeter of my little settlement, at night most likely.

Then suddenly, the prints disappeared. If I did not know better, I would say that the animal vanished into thin air.

That was also possible however. Humans weren't the only ones among the Waking. Animals could also join the ranks of the Waking. But unlike humans, not all of them could go through a Waking but instead they were blessed with strong physical characteristics. If they were a Waking, well, that was just icing on the cake.

Now, our vanishing animal friend here was probably the sound from yesterday and the cause of a few of the howls from the previous night.

I proceeded to investigate and map out my surroundings, and succeeded in doing so. In my exploration, I found a couple of areas with an abundance of wild fruits. I picked a few of them. At first, I wanted to completely ransack it, but then I realized that I couldn't fit most of the fruits in the small fridge properly and I didn't want to anger the animals that lived off of the fruits as well.

Instead of ruling over them, I needed to coexist with them.

There still was no water source near me, so I built a solar water still. I dug a hole in the ground, put a small bucket at the center. Then I put leaves around it and covered it with a tarp, which had been among the supplies. I put a couple rocks on the center to weigh it down. Now, condensation wound gather the water from the leaves to the center of the tarp and drip into the bucket. 

There.

Now I had a temporary source of water and food.

I then went back into the Jager, to both do some research using the displays and mentally prepare myself for the coming night.

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Heyo, Manager here. There will be a new chapter everyday to cover for the missed two days and two more for missing schedule. Secondly, how do people enjoy travelling? Like its just a hassle for everyone involved.

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