Tripping
Gripping my backpack tightly, I followed the dirt path down the small mountain my father and I hiked every year. This time, however, I was doing the three day hike alone.
Grief threatened to choke me as I walked down the familiar path, memories of the many hikes we’d taken bubbling in the back of my mind. It had been six months since he had passed away from a heart attack, but it still felt like it happened only yesterday.
If only he hadn’t run that marathon...
Of course, it wouldn’t stop him from getting that heart attack, seeing as it could’ve happened at any time. After all, he had some kind of heart condition that the doctors hadn’t picked up. But despite knowing that, I wished I could’ve stopped it from happening all together.
Still, a small part of me was glad I had finally fulfilled his last wish. My father loved hiking this mountain since he was young and always wanted to have his ashes scattered on the top of the mountain.
It had taken me months to even attempt doing this hike, but now that I’d done it, a weight was lifted off my shoulders. My father would finally be at peace now that his last wish had been fulfilled.
A sudden rumbling sound pulled me out of my thoughts and my head instantly turned up. Clouds were beginning to appear across the clear, late afternoon sky and I couldn’t help but sigh.
Seemed I’d have to pick up my pace if I didn’t want to get rained on.
And but the looks of it, that was likely with how many clouds were beginning to gather. Damn weatherman saying it was going to be clear and sunny for the next few days,..
Shaking my head, I picked up the pace until I was almost jogging when something unexpectedly caught my right foot. Next thing I knew, I was falling and there was no way to stop it.
I threw out my hands to break my fall when a white light flashed, blinding me for a moment. And when I finally hit the ground, it wasn’t dirt that I felt under my hands, but soft grass.
I blinked a few times, trying to orientate myself and when I finally was able to look around, I was hit with a giant wave of shock. This wasn’t the rocky mountain I was climbing anymore.
Rather, I seemed to be in some kind of lush, topical jungle.
There was no way this was real. I had to have hit my head when I fell and am now dreaming about some jungle. I couldn’t have suddenly teleported to another place. There was no way I could’ve been isekai’d like in those novels and comics…
But just to be sure, I pinched myself to prove this was just a dream. And stood corrected.
This wasn’t a dream! I had felt the pain from that pinch, even doing it two more times just to be sure. Panic gripped my chest as realization dawned on me.
I was in a different place, possibly a different world!
No, this couldn’t be true. There was no way I had isekai’d into another world and in a lush jungle at that. I was just dreaming, probably in some coma. This type of thing didn’t happen in real life.
Tears flooded down my face as it became harder for me to breath, my mind in overdrive. I clawed at my chest, it tightening with every breath as it became harder to gasp for air.
Calm down… I need to calm down… Deep breaths…
1, 2, 3… 1, 2, 3…
After what seemed to be an eternity later, I was finally able to get my breathing under control. And now that I was somewhat calmer, I decided to look over my situation.
I was sitting on a jungle floor in some unknown world. I didn’t seem to have any injuries despite my fall and my hiking backpack was with me. That was good for something at least.
I could survive in this place for a bit. At least, until I better understood my situation. My only problems would be food, water and safety. Water would be easier to find and I could purify it if necessary. My bigger problems were food and safety.
I could fish if I found a water source like a stream or lake and setting up traps would get me meat. The problem was plant based food sources. Survival was important, but if this was going to be a long-term thing, I was going to need plants in my diet.
Otherwise, I’d be at risk of diseases like scurvy.
However, my plant knowledge was limited and I knew almost nothing about plant life in the jungle. Had it been the mountain back home, maybe I could identify a few plants, but here that was useless.
I also had to think about safety. This was some unknown place and with it came unknown dangers. Fire would keep most animals away at night, but what if there were more dangerous things than animals.
Say monsters…
I shuddered at the thought. I might have some survival skills thanks to my old man and doing scouts for a few years, but my fighting skills were bottom of the barrel.
My taser and pepper spray would only get me so far.
Caw!
The sound of birds crying out and flying wildly into the sky instantly drew me out of my thoughts. I glanced at the clear sky filled with black birds and groaned.
That was never a good sign.
I needed to get moving before whatever was scaring the birds found me. Quickly getting up, I adjusted my backpack before heading over to the nearest tree.
I then pulled out the pink swift army knife my father had gotten me for my sixteenth birthday and swiftly carved an X on the rough bark.
WhileI wanted to get away from whatever was in the jungle, I needed to be smart about it. Marking where I’d been would ensure I wasn’t going in circles. Once I was done, I carefully hurried off into the jungle, hoping there was a water source nearby.
And that nothing attacked me.
Damn how I wished I had some kind of plot armor like those main characters or at least some kind of system to help me…
[Loading… 10%]
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[100%... Complete]
[Welcome Player to System 101]
I stopped in my tracks and stared at the blue screen before me. There was no way I was seeing this right. Did I just get a system?!
