CHAPTER ONE
I was jolted awake, confused, unsure of where I was. I don’t know how long I had been unconscious but I was still groggy and trying to figure out my location. My heart was pounding and I was sweaty. I knew the place was dark and had a damp musty smell. Wherever I was, I was in a small confined space and I was moving. I could reach out and touch the sides of my confinement and tell from touch that it was a wooden structure. In fact I could tell it was a rough wooden container of some kind as my fingers gently floated over the texture of the panels beneath them.
I felt the structure sway back and forth like I was floating and I could feel some liquid seepage through a few cracks in the sides. Once in a while the structure would bounce like it struck something that propelled it in the air. The wood had some degree of rot; I could both feel it and smell it. I also didn’t know how long I had been inside the container. It was pitch dark and I had zero visibility inside whatever I was inside of.
My memory was very limited at the moment and the pounding headache assaulting me gave me a clue as to why. I had evidently suffered a head injury and since it was unlikely, I climbed into the container on my own, I would assume it was at the hands of someone else. I didn’t even remember my name at this moment but had some hope that if I survived wherever I was, I would regain enough memory to make sense to me.
It was pretty clear someone had taken a dislike for me and had gone to some degree of trouble to rid themselves of me. But with no memory of any incidents taking place, I could only speculate what may have happened. My hands were free although one had a small rope attached to it like I had been bound at one time. I don’t know if I had escaped or if my captors had simply released the ties that bound my hands together.
I had a wristwatch, I could feel the band around my wrist and I kept squinting trying to see it in the dark but accidentally pressed the button on top which lit a light inside the watch. It was a weak blue light but I used it anyway to get a glimpse of my current prison. I was certainly correct in my summation, that my structure was wood. It seemed to be a barrel, like a wood wine barrel or whiskey barrel, minus the wine or whiskey. In fact I could smell no aroma from either ingredient in the barrel so it had perhaps never been used for such a task.
I could feel an occasional bumping into some solid objects that pounded the side of my restrictive wooden home. The barrel moved up and down like a roller coaster. Being confined to a small wooden space had taken its toll on my body. My legs ache from being bent up into my body for so long. My shoulders throbbed from being shoved up against the side of the barrel. My neck and back throbbed with pain shooting through them.
One of the jolts against some solid object had knocked out a knothole from one of the panels in the side of the barrel. I turned myself in the barrel to align my eye with the hole. I could at least see out of that small opening and tell I was floating down a river toward something as yet unknown. I didn’t know what river I was traveling down but I could tell it was along a wooded area. I could see trees along each side of the river with rocks and boulders scattered along that path. I estimated the river was about thirty feet wide, it seemed to go on forever and I had no idea how deep it was and prayed I didn’t find that out.
I could see some rocks along the side push out blocking the path the barrel was traveling and I had some hope that I would hit one of those rocks and it would stop my travel. I could see no other possibility for this trip to end without something striking the barrel with enough force to break through some panels to give me my freedom, with the hopes of no personal damage.
I couldn’t tell from the inside but I assumed this barrel was made like most with metal bands that wrap around at the top and the bottom to hold the panels in place. Since those metal bands were on the outside they weren’t visible from the inside. I surmised barrels were not intended to be viewed from the inside. They weren’t designed for human travel either so comfort was not a consideration in their construction. I was beginning to cramp in places I didn’t even know I had.
I did learn I could move the trajectory of the barrel by leaning to one side or another. I could look out the knothole and when I could see a large rock along the river bank ahead, I would lean to one side enough to make the barrel travel toward the obstacles that could free me. I missed my aim several times but I was improving with practice. I knew it was just a matter of time before I could manage to actually strike one of the big boulders that covered the right side of the river.
I wasn’t sure if being rolled up like a ball was in my favor or against me, but it wouldn’t be long before I found out. After a dozen tries I finally was on target. I didn’t want to hit dead on, my goal was to try to graze one side. When I was almost to the bolder, I tilted quickly to the other side. The hit was still pretty hard but I think it was much gentler than it would have been. It worked as well as I could have expected. The right side of the barrel cracked on two panels and they fell out completely. The top of the barrel collapsed on top of my head but the barrel was far enough on top of the boulder I could reach an arm out and pull myself up onto the big rock.
With two panels already broken loose the others slid away easily. I crawled out of the big hole in the barrel and stretched out on the flat part of the top of the boulder. I just lay quietly for a few minutes, hoping the muscle ache in my legs would finally ease. I had been curled up for so long my legs were in more pain than I ever thought possible. At that moment I knew I wouldn’t be able to stand while in that much pain.
I slowly crawled away from the edge of the river, into the thick forest that lined the edge of the bank. It offered a lot of cover so I wouldn’t be seen by anyone, in case my captors came to verify my demise at some point. I didn’t know when I would be able to stand but for now crawling was better than being curled up in a barrel. I brought what was left of the barrel with me, those pieces may be useful at some point.
I had on a pair of denim cutoffs and a cotton t-shirt. I checked the pockets of the cutoffs to see if there might be some identification but it was clear all of the pockets had been emptied. There wasn’t even a cigarette butt left inside. I didn’t know if I was a smoker but if I was this would be a good time to light one up. By the same token it would be a good time to quit since I didn’t have any available.
One thing was obvious, I wouldn’t travel very far by crawling. I had to work the muscles I had to get them back to normal so I crawled to a tree that had some heavy low branches I could use to pull myself up with them. I grabbed the branch and pulled hard while I tried to straighten my legs. The pain was awful, the worse I could ever remember, but I managed to stand. I had to keep going even though tears streamed down my cheeks.
I discovered the more I moved my legs the easier it became to do so. It still hurts to walk but not as bad as it did when I first started. I had to find a spot to make a shelter and try to make a fire. I wished I had paid more attention to those survival shows I used to watch. I didn’t have any tools. I had no knife, I had nothing to cover up with in the night and no food or water. I had a river but I didn’t know how drinkable the water was.
I began to scout my surroundings. I found an area with three trees growing into each other. I could get under the branches and they would offer some protection against the weather. I kept an eye out for animal tracks in case there were dangerous predators in the area but I didn’t see any signs of anyone or anything having been in this area in some time.
Walking would be easier if I had shoes but that was one thing I didn’t have to wear. I would have to make do with bare feet for the moment. I had other concerns for the immediate future, fire and food.
I could make a fire with a stick with a type of bow drill. I could use it to rub into a panel of the barrel and possibly start a fire. It wouldn’t be easy but I have limited choices available. I took the metal bands that had held the barrel panels, in the hopes of using that metal in the place of the tools I didn’t have.
The wood planks I held and used as a small shovel. They couldn’t exactly dig but where the ground was soft enough, they could move dirt out of the way. I could smooth an area out that would make a floor to my shelter. I dug a pit, just away from that floor and I would attempt to make a fire inside that pit later.
I hoped to eventually make it back to wherever I lived but for now I just needed to survive. That would be a huge task in itself considering I had no resources, no tools, no food and no water. The only tool I had was whatever I could fashion from the metal barrel band. I had no memory of where I was from so I wouldn’t be able to get home anyway.
