Status: Am still trying to write, but school is keeping me really busy
Hopeless Wanderer
Five
After the food and water ran out, I entered the woods in hopes of finding water. Surely, I convinced myself, a stream must run through their somewhere. I found gross bugs and snakes. I found an assortment of plants that made me slightly itchy. As I munched on random leaves to keep my stomach from growling. I even found an assortment of small animals that made me wish I knew how to hunt. The only water, though, pooled into the tiniest, smelliest puddles. That stupid diploma hanging on my parent’s wall really didn't mean much now that I realized it left me utterly unprepared for a post-modern world.
The third morning without water, I finally found a stream. I dropped to my knees next to it and used my hands to scoop as much of the cool liquid as I could into my parched mouth. Having finally found water, I kept to its trail, hoping it would lead me someplace worth being. It had taken that whole first day to grapple with what they had told me. Mary’s words bounced around my skull for the longest time. “They’re dead, girl. They die and come back and start walking.” The second day, as I weighed what little evidence I had, I decided she wasn't just fucking with me.
So much time had passed already and I still didn't have a plan. Will was out there walking about, half-dead. I needed to find him. Not so much because I had to see for myself he was gone, but a physical pain tugged at me, agitated that the man I loved so much might be out there and I wasn't with him. Maybe I could help him. Mary had to be wrong. Will would remember me if he could see me. We were bonded. Once I had Will back, I knew I needed to somehow get home and find my family. Too bad I had no idea how to find Will or travel a thousand miles without planes or cars. My mind set itself to figuring out how long it might take to walk home from here.
I hadn't run into any more dead people since entering the woods so I felt fairly safe. That didn't stop me from sleeping with my back against a tree and waking up at the slightest of sounds in a panic. I used to sleep straight through my alarm clock. Now the slightest movement of the wind in the branches or an animal scampering along the ground pulls me from sleep. It’s kind of amusing how quickly and fully the body goes into survival mode.
With the sun beating down high overhead, I sat down against a tree to alleviate the fatigue in my body. Two squirrels busied themselves with a chase around a nearby tree. One would run a parabola partway up the tree trunk and back down to the ground on the other side. The other wasted no time in following. I watched this dance go on until my eyelids felt large and lazy.
The third morning without water, I finally found a stream. I dropped to my knees next to it and used my hands to scoop as much of the cool liquid as I could into my parched mouth. Having finally found water, I kept to its trail, hoping it would lead me someplace worth being. It had taken that whole first day to grapple with what they had told me. Mary’s words bounced around my skull for the longest time. “They’re dead, girl. They die and come back and start walking.” The second day, as I weighed what little evidence I had, I decided she wasn't just fucking with me.
So much time had passed already and I still didn't have a plan. Will was out there walking about, half-dead. I needed to find him. Not so much because I had to see for myself he was gone, but a physical pain tugged at me, agitated that the man I loved so much might be out there and I wasn't with him. Maybe I could help him. Mary had to be wrong. Will would remember me if he could see me. We were bonded. Once I had Will back, I knew I needed to somehow get home and find my family. Too bad I had no idea how to find Will or travel a thousand miles without planes or cars. My mind set itself to figuring out how long it might take to walk home from here.
I hadn't run into any more dead people since entering the woods so I felt fairly safe. That didn't stop me from sleeping with my back against a tree and waking up at the slightest of sounds in a panic. I used to sleep straight through my alarm clock. Now the slightest movement of the wind in the branches or an animal scampering along the ground pulls me from sleep. It’s kind of amusing how quickly and fully the body goes into survival mode.
With the sun beating down high overhead, I sat down against a tree to alleviate the fatigue in my body. Two squirrels busied themselves with a chase around a nearby tree. One would run a parabola partway up the tree trunk and back down to the ground on the other side. The other wasted no time in following. I watched this dance go on until my eyelids felt large and lazy.