FicWad

I slowly awoke from a deep dreamless sleep, and as I became aware of my surroundings, I realized something was wrong.

The first thing I noticed was the sound of water. I had an aquarium in my room, but that was a trickle accompanied by the mechanical hum of the motorized pump. This was the rushing sound of gently crashing waves. Next I noticed I was not lying in my soft comfortable bed, but on something rough damp and granular. Finally I felt the soft caress of a cool breeze on my skin. Was I outside?

I opened my eyes only to clench them shut again as the harsh light from the sun stung them. I was definitely outside. I turned my head down and opened them again, slowly. I saw sand around me. I looked up and saw a vast body of water with no end in sight. It was either one of the great lakes or, no, I could smell salt in the air. It was the ocean. I was a long way from Rockford Illinois. I looked around and saw forest opposite the ocean. No sign of people though. No vehicles, signs, or buildings.

I stared at my surroundings, trying to understand how I had gotten here. The last thing I remembered, I was in my high school English class, then there had been a bright light, then I was here. I got to my feet, and scratched an itch on my left arm, only to freeze when I saw what was causing the itch. There was an object attached to my inner for arm just above the wrist. It was only a few inches long and across, and looked like some kind of jewel, diamond shaped. The playing card, not the stone. It was dark blue in color, and from the look of my skin around its edges, it was implanted into me. I hesitantly touched it. There was no pain. I tried to take it off; it did not budge. Whatever it was, it was anchored down to the bone.

My mind raced with possible explanations: was I dreaming? My dreams were vivid, but not this detailed. They were often more chaotic as well so I dismissed that one as unlikely. Had I been kidnapped? Doubtful. My family wasn’t rich, so no chance of a large ransom, and why would I be dumped into the wild? The implant was a clue. Was I a test subject for some messed up government experiment? Again, why me? I had a family that would miss me. Why not a homeless person? And why didn’t I remember anything? Had I escaped and had amnesia? Cliché as it sounded, it was the most likely scenario, unless I had been put here as part of the experiment. Suddenly I felt like a rat in a lab.

I looked around at the ground hoping to maybe trace back where I had come from, but there were no footprints anywhere around me. “That doesn’t make sense,” I said to myself. I was in the middle of a sandy beach. I had to have left tracks. How had I gotten here?

Too many questions, not enough evidence, and only two choices: stay here and wait for someone to find me, or be proactive and find my own way out of here. Given that I had no idea if anyone was even looking for me, or if I’d even want them to find me, I decided on the latter.

Once that decision was made, my mind switched over to survival mode. I’m part Native American on my grandfather’s side, Comanche to be specific. My little sister is more into our cultural heritage than I am, but it did get me interested in wilderness survival, and like any nerd, I study the hell out of anything I’m interested in. I knew all kinds of tricks about staying alive in the wild. Step one, get a knife. A knife was one of the most essential tools for survival. There were no shortage of rocks around, so it didn’t take me long to find a good sized piece of flint and a hammer stone. I struck the hammer stone against the flint repeatedly, breaking off flecks until I had the right shape and size. Then I took so plant fiber and wrapped it around to make a handle. The process took a little over half an hour. The knife wasn’t pretty, but it would do its job.

Step two was to make a spear. I didn’t know where I was and had no idea what kind of wildlife was around, and the last thing I wanted was to run into a predator without being able to fend it off. I found a young tree of the right thickness and cut into it, then I used a broken off branch to hammer the back of my knife through it. If I had used a stone, my knife would have shattered. After cutting it down, I cut it to the right length and shaved its branches off. Then I sharpened one end to a point, and presto, spear. It only took about twenty minutes. Ideally I would have greased and hardened the tip with fire, but I didn’t have on at the moment.

I felt much less anxious now that I was armed, though not very well, and I set out along the coast, thinking that water front property was popular so I had a decent chance of finding civilization this way. I considered calling out for help, but I didn’t know who would answer, and I wanted to find my abductors before they found me, so I kept quiet.

I traveled for a while, and as I did, I noticed something very odd. There wasn’t any garbage on the beach. No fish nets, no plastic bottles…nothing. It struck me as wrong. Even on a remote island, garbage washed up on shore.

I’m ashamed to admit that it wasn’t until this point that I thought to check my pocket for my cell phone. My book bag was gone, so I suppose I had just assumed whoever abducted me had taken my phone as well, after all, why wouldn’t they. I was surprised to find it, and to find it still had a full battery. I tried to call my parents, but couldn't get a signal. I tried to send a text, but again, no signal. I tried to get online, could not connect. “Impossible,” I muttered angrily. It was twenty twenty. You could cell phone coverage in the fucking North Pole! How could I not get a signal?

After about ten minutes of failing to get a signal, I put my phone away. No sense in draining the battery.

I continued walking along the beach, not finding so much as a single piece of trash, let alone people, for over an hour. Eventually I came upon a river emptying out into the ocean. This was a good thing, it meant I now had a fresh water source. I changed my course, following the river inland. I could use it for drinking water, and it was also a high chance of finding people. Communities often form near drinkable water.

As I trudged through the foliage of what I was fast considering to be a jungle, I desperately wished I’d had a machete. It was slow going, and bugs were everywhere. More than once I had to veer away from the river, but I always got back to it. It was a warm day, and amid the undergrowth it was humid. Sweat dripped on the inside of my glasses. I was getting dehydrated.

I came upon a clear area near the river and knelt down by it. I splashed my face with water, but did not drink any. Drinking water without boiling it in the wild was a very stupid thing to do. You could get deathly ill from bacteria. I could just see the sun over the tree tops. It had been high in the sky when id woken up, which meant it was now setting. I had a few hours before nightfall. It was time to set up a camp, make a fire, and make drinking water.

I took one moment to appreciate just how clear the river really was. I could see the bottom a good distance out, which was when I noticed a large fish about the size of an adult carp not too far from shore. I wished id had a fishing pole, it would have made a good supper. As I thought that, the fish slowly came forward. I sat still as the fish came right up to me. It was so close I could reach out and touch it, so I did. I slowly reached 0ut and stroked its back. I had expected it to immediately dart away, but it didn’t. I blinked in surprise, and stroked it again. The fish didn’t seem to mind at all. it had no fear of me. I suppose the smart thing to do would have been to try and grab it for food, but in that moment I didn’t want to kill it.

“I’m petting a fish,” I whispered to myself with bemusement.

Quick movement snapped me out of the surreal moment as a large shadow shot from an overhanging tree towards me. I instinctively pulled my hand away as the shadow approached the fish id been petting. There was an explosion of water, and when it had settled, the large fish was gone, as was the shadow. Only blood remained. I didn’t get a good look at the attacker, but I made a mental note not to go into the water.

I walked away from the river and started digging a fire pit using the back end of my spear to tear up the loose dirt. I hadn’t been working long when I heard a sound. It was a soft rhythmic humming sound, definitely unnatural, and didn’t seem to be too far away. I went away from the river, following the sound into the jungle. What I found stunned me.
There, floating two feet off the ground, was some kind of machine. It was a kite trapezoid, with the long end pointing down. Black metal with faint blue light emitting from between its panels. There were five blades spinning at the top at a downward angle like a helicopter, but too slowly to be keeping it aloft. The thing was larger than a person. I stared at it, feeling a knot form in my stomach as a word came to mind; alien.

What else could it be? I’d never seen human technology like this before. I couldn’t even guess what it was. What was it doing here in the middle of nowhere? I didn’t see any cameras or manipulators. It was just hovering there. Was it dangerous?

I crouched low and hid, observing the thing for a few minutes. When it didn’t do anything, I decided to take a chance and approach it. It was covered in panel lines. I didn’t see anything that looked like writing. I did see something that caught my attention though. Just above the center edge was a panel that looked identical to the implant in my arm, only it was about the size of a hand. Going off of my intuition, I placed my hand on the panel. A light shown around its edges, and I felt the implant in my arm become warm. Then the large device opened up.

I stepped back and readied my spear, not that it would do much good against a machine. Inside I saw that this thing was some kind of storage container. There was a metal spear, a hatchet, and a canteen inside of it. I stared at those items and again I felt like a rat in a maze, and this was my cheese for solving a puzzle. I hesitantly too the items, canteen first. It was metal with a cloth strap. Then the hatchet. It had an oddly curved handle and blade as well, like someone over-designed the thing. The grip was some kind of rubber. Last I took the spear. For being a five foot rod of metal it was surprisingly light. I slipped the hatchet into my best and the canteen over my shoulder. The spear I just held with the other one. I was considering what I could do with the container when I heard a scream.