Revamped [ Watty Awards 2011 ]

- Prologue -

I remember waking up to darkness.  The sound of the wind rustling through the trees was the only thing that convinced me I was still alive. Breathing. Trapped. That’s when my senses kicked in.

My hands flew to my throat in an attempt to slow down my rapid breathing. My eyes opened and immediately adjusted to my surroundings. I was literally in the middle of nowhere, surrounded my hundreds of oak trees. I peered through the car windows, hoping to see a sign or something that could tell me why I was there, but there was nothing.

I racked my brain as to why I was in a car in the first place. My breathing became raspy as I tried to get my head around the situation. I remembered leaving to see my grandma who lives on the other side of town…but that was the night before, meaning I had been in the car for hours. I realised I was still fully clothed and had no injuries – that I could see. Taking deep breaths, I roughly opened the door and stumbled out onto the dirt.

My mouth opened in shock when I realised the state of my car. The right side was completely  dented, as if something large had hit it at an extremely high speed. It was obvious I had crashed, but why and when, I had no idea.

I punched the dirt angrily but instantly regretted it when a dull pain spread through my hands. I stood up, shielding my eyes from the sun and wiped my jeans even though it didn’t make a difference. I was no expert, but I was pretty sure I looked like a wreck. Glancing at my watch I realised it had just gone 2pm. I walked over to the back of the car, observing the tire marks that stretched for what looked like miles. Why had no-one helped me? Surely if someone had hit me, they would at least see if I was alright… except there were no other cars here.

Tears pricked my eyes, but I refused to cry. After all it wasn’t that bad…right? I searched my pockets for my phone but found nothing. My purse was also gone, which meant I had most likely been robbed…just after I got hit….typical. Maybe someone had planned to hit me. Realising I was all alone I would have been an easy target. But there were no other tracks...meaning the person who hit me was smart enough to escape.

I rubbed my eyes wearily and trudged back to the car door, cautiously looking around to make sure no-one was watching. I was officially paranoid. The slightest movement caught my attention and made me jump 2 feet in the air. I half expected a psycho killer to jump out of a bush and stab me in the ankle….

Fumbling through my belongings I noticed I only had a jumper and an empty water bottle. Helpful much? I had no map, no phone, no money and no idea where I was….perfect horror story right there. The person who hit me probably planted a hidden camera somewhere in the car and was watching my every move.  Laughing at the situation as if it were all a sick joke.  

After a few minutes of contemplating what to do, I grabbed my jacket and began walking. I had no idea where I was going or how long it would take me to find someone, but it was my best option. My sense of direction was terrible; I was starting to wonder if I was going in completely the wrong direction or worse, round in circles. The sun was disappearing and I knew it wouldn’t be long before it was gone completely. That would be the time to panic.

Turning back sounded more appealing by the minute but I had come this far, I wasn’t giving up anytime soon.

I hugged my jacket closer to my body in an attempt to make me warmer and picked up my pace. Every tree looked the same, I tried to walk forwards so I could make some sense of where I was but the feeling of tiredness was so overwhelming I couldn’t be sure whether I had changed direction somewhere along the way.

Realising I couldn’t keep going; I crawled over to a large tree and leant against it trying to slow my breathing. It wasn’t long before my eyes closed and I drifted into unconsciousness.