Chapter 8 - "The Chase."
Alpha Date Year(002): 315,848
Day: 273/365
Day: 15
"It happened on the fifth day of my 'research.' It was a horrifying experience, but I think I found a way to keep myself alive. You see, it happened when I was walking toward the pit. I woke up that day feeling… 'motivated.' Since I did so much yesterday, I was excited to see just how well my traps were doing. With the improved pit and the new pit, which I dug the same day, I thought it was possible to wake up and find two new animals in the pit, where one could be a Mountain Hound, thanks to the improved pit. However, just as I was passing through the same clearing, I noticed it almost too late. In that small instance, I remembered something that my Uncle once told me… 'Stay focused and keep your head out of the clouds!' I didn't know exactly what he meant at that time since it was so long ago, but that thought flashed across my mind as I was looking up at the cloud with a smile while going through the woods, and I didn't even notice the danger around me.
I looked down after making my way halfway through the bushes, and as I was about to exit the brush, I heard the sound of large footprints and rustling coming from the bushes in front of me. I immediately put my head down and crouched close to the ground, hiding my upper half from view. I then saw the terrifying Mountain Hound, and I thought to myself that a hound was coming toward me. And I was right…it was horrifying, with just the way they looked around their environment, moving their eyes and their head, and reacting to any small noise around them. Their jaws looked like they could just snap my head off and rip me apart. And they looked strong enough to drag me by my legs if I even tried to run away. It was terrifying. I tried to slowly back away since I still had some cover, and since the hound was scanning his environment, I thought I could get away if I was just careful. However, the worst thing that could have happened…it happened…I stepped on a branch, and the Mountain Hound turned its head in my direction and headed straight toward the bushes where I was hiding.
I froze, but before I could fully freeze, the Mountain Hound was in range to lunge at the bushes…I immediately started pushing myself out of the bushes, creating even more noise, but at that moment, I didn't care. Just before I backed out completely from the bushes, I locked eyes with the Mountain Hound, which raised its head for a quick moment to see just what was hiding in the bushes. It was at that moment that I turned around and started running like crazy, but by then, it was already chasing after me. I tried going past the trees, similar to the rabbit, thinking to myself, 'If I zigzag, it will make it harder for it to catch me…but it isn't impossible.' I was right as the hound followed close from behind, at times coming within a few feet, and I knew that they tried to snap at my leg, where I could feel the snapping of their jaws in the air behind me, which only scared me even more. They were barking as well, almost as if they were calling other hounds, and if there were any others around me, then I'd be in trouble. Luckily, on my way over here, there weren't any other hounds chasing me, just the Mountain Hound chasing me through the forest as I ran for my life. However, since there weren't any hounds coming, I thought that I still had a good chance, as long as I went fast uphill and between the trees. I still had to think quickly because the uphill would slow them down, but also me, since the uphill was tiring me out, so I needed a plan to get away from the Mountain Hound.
But then, I saw it…It was a small clearing that I had gone through on my path toward the pit, but what made it more interesting was that there was a short tree that was near another tree that I had used to mark my location and one that I thought about using to protect myself against the hounds if they went deeper into the safe territory in an emergency. So, I decided that I needed to climb up the tree, and I had to climb as fast as possible. I noticed the Mountain hound trailing behind me towards my right and knew that I needed to shake him off before jumping the bushes around the clearing, and if I was stopped at the bushes, then it would be the end for me. I was determined by this point to survive, so as soon as I approached the tree near the clearing, I went towards the right, and for a few moments, I was in range to get bitten by the hound. The Mountain Hound opened its maw and tried to bite me in half, but before it was able to, I changed my direction towards the other side of the tree, which made the hound slide into the dense underbrush and allowed me to jump over the small opening in the bushes.
The hound was stuck in the thorny bushes, trying to push through the bushes and growling in pain. Even though I could still hear how loud the hound roared, I didn't stop to look behind me; I was only focused on climbing the tree in front of me. The tree was low enough to reach with my arms and a small jump, but the height and smoothness of the tree made it hard to climb up with my legs. It was only after the Mountain Hound made it out of the bushes and was running towards me that I was able to get my feet out from under me and onto the top of the tree, but not before it snapped its jaws right near my legs. I felt the snapping of its jaws nearly tear into me. It was horrifying. I heard the snap even though I was high up in the tree. And if it was able to jump up the tree like me, then I was screwed. Luckily for me, there was one thing that helped me: they couldn't climb. Instead, they were just jumping up, trying to claw their way onto the tree, onto the trunk of the tree where I was. But I didn't let them. At the time, I still had the medium-sized stick that I used to climb out of the improved pit, and I was stabbing its paws, making sure it didn't get up the tree. Their paws were wide, but when the stick was stuck into one of them, the tip broke off. I had hardened the stick beforehand, and this surprised me. 'Just their paws alone that thick?' They plucked it out of their paw after a while, but then they were just staring at me. Their eyes were just so angry. I didn't understand how eyes could be that angry, but they were. The hound barked a few times, almost seeming like it was calling someone.
But then they just ran off into the bushes after a few minutes. I stood there for an hour and a half before I noticed that there was no movement around me. I even let a few rabbits that got by me pass. I didn't want to take any chances. And I'm glad I didn't. Because then a few different mountain hounds came by and looked at me. I was in the tree, so I started to climb a little bit higher, deeper into the center of the tree. Even though the height kind of scared me, I still had to go up. I knew this because if even one of them got up and pulled me down, then all three of them would come and kill me. It was the same as last time, this time bringing two friends, likely trying to stalk me out for the night. But after half an hour had passed, it got too dark, and they probably noticed some rabbits, and they all collectively chased after them. I got lucky. The rabbits from the clearing likely spooked or distracted them. So, I decided to run away as quickly as possible, straight back to the safe side of camp, past their territorial lines, and right past any kind of safety. As soon as I got to camp, my heart was beating out of my chest. I could feel it thumping and hurting me. It almost hurts to live. I kept thinking about this, but I needed to calm myself down.
But at the same time...I was nervous about the oncoming darkness approaching me, as I was walking around the camp at a fast pace, feeling like I couldn't stand still, I couldn't stand still. I chose not to stand still. 'Always be on the move, because it's better to be on the move than stand still and die.' Those words echoed through my head. I was 'fearful'—'fearful' for my life. I had to find the words just to express how afraid I was. I wanted to calm down, but at the same time, I was scared. Terrified of what might just jump at me and of whatever noise might mean that a predator could come to kill me. 'Death'—a word echoed through my mind. 'To not be alive.' I know what death is; I've seen the rabbits go through it. What if I died? I started thinking. What if I died? It was horrifying to think about this. I crawled in for the night. I did not care about how I was huddling. I didn't care at all. I just wanted to live until the next day. And when I woke up the next day, that's when I started writing in this journal, which is the only real comfort I have. I'm running out of paper, though, since I've written a lot on it. At first, it was just drawings and colors from when I was younger, but then it turned into words—little notes about my thoughts—and then I started writing it like a journal. It was a drawing book turned into a journal.
And I appreciated it. It was my favorite book. I appreciate this book more than most things in my life. It used to define me. 'Who was J?', as I wrote my name down. One and two strokes. I tried to write my name in one stroke. Thinking it was alright. Then, I started to make it fancier. Then, when I started learning about numbers, I made sure that it was fun to learn numbers. Because I used knowledge from stories that my uncle used to tell me. Stories about families all coming together. Families of people. Some were made. Some were formed. Some just happened. But they all were a 'family'. The echo of that word in my head made me lonely, even though it was supposed to signify that I could not be alone. I had an uncle, but now I feel alone, scared, and afraid for my life. But at the same time, I just have to deal with it. I have to stay alive. I have to survive. 'Survival.' That word kept echoing in my head. It's the largest one right now. Ever since I learned about that word, it's been echoing in my head. At first, it meant nothing. Now, it has grown so large. It has become so hard to understand in my mind. But as its meaning is becoming clearer, the more pressure it brings.
'To understand something means to know more about it. And to know means there's greater pressure.' A least that was what Uncle told me before. My entries in my journals are so much better now, and I was also able to improve my handwriting. It was a bit…Scribbly, I think that's a good term. It was 'poor', you could say. It's kind of hard for me to read it when I compare my old writing to my new writing. That was not the point; the idea stayed the same: I was living and surviving all by myself. And with all this danger around me, I'm so much more alone. But I still want to keep going. After a hard time sleeping and sleeping with a tightness in my chest, likely out of fear, I decided to wake up earlier than I ever had before sunrise. Bad idea. I would have come to regret it the following morning.
As I sat there for about 30 minutes watching the sunrise, the day went on. It wasn't peaceful like before, and the light just came so quickly that it was surprising. When I came to and realized that the day was already here, the sun had already risen. The day went by, and I was by myself. The day went by, and I was alone, and it went by me, and it didn't care. I started to write this journal because I had that thought. At the same time, although I was alone, I still wanted to survive, even alone. I didn't want all of what I wrote in my journal to just disappear along with me. The only person I'd ever known was my Uncle. He kept speaking as if there were other people in this world. And then, when I asked him about it, he was quiet. He said, 'Yes, there were other people. How many? How many people are in this world? And what's even more, how many people are also facing this kind of world? It terrifies me. Does everyone face this terror? I keep thinking about it over and over in my mind, but it's only getting worse."
He was scared of that thought more than he was even scared for himself. What could he do about it? All he could do was help himself. He kept breathing through his journey. Then he started to distract himself, writing down what he saw in front of him. "Leaves. Fire. Smoke. Ashes. Dust. Tarp. Sky, cloud, sun, sunset, birds, small birds, nice birds, air, hot, water, ground, and dirt." He kept writing these down. He just had an urge to write down everything he saw. As if he were trying to preserve this memory as deeply as possible. A memory of what he was going through. But afterward, he started to abstract himself with another thought, writing down just what he thought he could do. Thinking about it again and again. "I may not be fast enough to avoid all these hounds. They're so much faster than I. The more legs they have, the more they can outrun me; they are just stronger. But what if, on two legs, using my hands to climb, I can go on the ground and then get on top of the trees?" This idea flashed in his mind, and he thought it was a great idea. But there was a problem. He couldn't climb very well.
"Today, I'm going to start climbing trees. Again and again. Until I can get up a tree that's higher than me, as fast as I can run." He wrote and then circled this sentence in his journal, all with determination and grit, and began to look for a tree to start running and climbing. He began his journey relatively well and tried climbing a few different types of trees. One was a shortish tree that was still taller than he, but the way to the top of its canopy was relatively short. He tried practicing on that tree, but he noticed something: he wasn't getting up the tree as fast as he thought he would. He thought he could just get up the tree as fast as before, using his arms and legs to climb up the branches, but the branch was too far, and his legs weren't in the right place. He thought it was lucky that he got up that tree when he was being chased. Then he started thinking about how to use his hands and feet to get up the tree. He also had to remember that he had to practice running. So he tried running and then getting up the tree. First, he started to run and then jump up the tree. And no matter how far he tried jumping up the tree, he'd only push himself back. It was like he was just kicking the tree for no purpose besides looking like an idiot. He found himself embarrassed because he couldn't get up the tree fast enough. So he gritted through it. The rest of the day was like this until he finally got hungry. He made it up the tree. The problem was that he needed to get up the tree as quickly as possible. But the tree was still so much larger than he was. While he could jump up, climb up, and grab the branch, he was still too short.