I was awakened by an orange glow piercing through my closed eyelids, and a crackling ring through my ears that seems distant. I cough and rollover but I fail as I feel my body slide down some sort of slope making the previously unnoticed pain in my shoulder intensify causing me to wince and open my eyes to try to see where I am. Trees. A rabbit. Fire, and lots of it but it wasn't close enough to do any harm to me right now. I glance down at my shoulder to see my red-stained mostly purple jacket. I assume it was blood but it couldn't be mine, well at least not all of it. I sit up the best I can laying back on a large rock that I could've hit on my way down. I roll up my sleeve to see a gash in my shoulder with blood running down my arm.
I attempted to rip the sleeve of my jacket so I could use it as a tourniquet, after struggling for a while I gave up and decided to look up the hill that I initially slid down and see a wing, a helicopter propeller. I hobbled my way up the clay-covered slope and found a first aid kit and a handgun in a holster beside it near the fallen aircraft with a panther face as the logo that is forever embedded into the side. I used the contents inside the red box to disinfect and bandage my wound and strap the holster around my waist and check the magazine of the pistol. 8 rounds.
I hear the crunching of leaves behind me and quickly enter the magazine back into the gun I now have trained on the direction the sound came from. A man stood 4 feet away from me with a machete in hand. "Drop the weapon!" I scream, noticing I have the upper hand in this situation. His eyes dart from the blade and into mine. "I'll give you the count of 3," I state readjusting my grip. "1..." I use this as a moment to look him over. He is covered in blood and sweat. "2..." The side of his shirt has a rip in it exposing a cut and bruise on his abdomen and as I start to say '3' He darts towards me as he is swinging the blade through the air. I pull the trigger in response. Miss. I fire again. Miss. He tackles me causing me to lose hold of the gun. We both scramble to reach it knowing if we don't we would meet our end. He pulls my leg pulling me back making the gun just out of reach. I kicked back giving me the upper hand and the boost I needed. I grab the cold metal and swing it around and stop once it's aimed at the man. "Tell me why I shouldn't pull the trigger right now." I yell causing him to raise his arms instantly "I can help." his voice gave me chills, it sounds familiar but I can't quite remember where I've heard it before, I actually can't remember anything before I woke up. "Where are we?" I inquire taking advantage of his offer "I have no clue," he states "I just woke up not too long before I ran into you." I stare at him blankly for a moment once again scanning his familiar face "It's getting dark, why don't you put the gun down, and we work together so we don't die." he says snapping me out of my daze, I eye him up and down and slowly holster the gun and he goes to grab the machete to put back into the scabbard.
We've been walking for a while now in silence with only the sounds of distant birds and the occasional stick that would snap underneath our feet. "We need to find something to eat," he says, causing my stomach to growl loudly. I didn't really notice my hunger until that moment. "Did you grab anything from the crashed helicopter?" I ask him. He searches the bag he picked up a few miles back and pulls out a bottle of water and a thermos of some sort. "Chicken soup," he says after opening the canteen and analyzing the food inside. He hands me the bag and begins to eat some of the soup and takes swigs of water. I hold the bag waiting for him to pass me the food. beep beep. I look around searching for the source of the high-pitched noise. beep beep. I search the bag removing the contents inside. A pocket knife. A compass. A flashlight. "A radar?" I say aloud. The Guy stops scarfing down the chicken soup and looks up at me and the device. Pointing the other way he says "There seems to be something north, we should check it out maybe we can figure out what happened or how we even got here in the first place." He hands me the canteen and puts the water into the bag as we head off to search for answers.
