Bigger Than Life

Chapter 1: The Booming

Your head was pounding. But that wasn't quite the worst of it, as you soon found out.

As you pried open your eyes, the sun overhead pierced your very skull with the brightness of its rays, causing you to wrench them shut again. With your left hand, you felt around beside you, hoping to find some sort of hidden earthly off switch to ease your headache. Though you found no switch, a merciful cloud strolled in front of the sun, and parked itself above you. Finally, you opened your eyes.

Above you, and around you, were three rather strange sights.
First you saw three spinning blades, their details blacked out by shadow underneath. Next, was the twisted metal, and shattered glass, which seemed all too precariously close for your liking. But the last detail tied it all together.

The pine needle canopy above you seemed to have recently been torn asunder. Broken branches laid haphazardly over one another, and the trunks they were bound to were burnt and cut.

Your memories flooded back, along with another rush of blood to fuel your pounding headache.

The night prior, you were on a return trip from aiding firefighters further north. Brush fires, although uncommon in the temperate climate of New York state, were still very much a force to be reckoned with when paired with dry weather, and hot temperatures. The fire started at a camp bonfire, from what you understood. Drunken party animals apparently fueled the fire to a point where it licked at some overhanging branches, and set the surrounding trees afire. Thankfully, due to a sudden rainstorm and vigilant responders, there were no casualties. The environmental damage was far less devastating than it could have been, which when it comes to firefighting, is a sort of solemn accomplishment on its own.
Admittedly, the rain saved your ass. But it stormed harder on your trip home. You weren't entirely certain, you thought it likely that your helicopter was clipped by a bolt of lightning.

As the thought left your head, you placed your hands down to lift yourself out of your shattered cockpit.

Searing pain shot up all along your right arm, from the base of your wrist, to the highest point of your bicep. You cried out in pain.

Looking down, the issue became quite apparent. Your arm had been broken during the fall. There were no protrusions, which you silently thanked Me for. It appeared to be just a very bad fracture. With luck, and care, you may be able to heal it back to the way it was.

Though, you wouldn't be in a hospital any time soon. This, you were sure of.

Using your legs, and your left arm, you pushed yourself very slowly off of your seat, back away from the console, and out of the mangled helicopter, resting your rear down onto the podzol floor of the forest. On your crabwalk out, you snagged a backpack out from under your seat and dragged it with you. You hadn't used any of the supplies while you were out fire fighting, much to your newly found relief. Everything that you had packed was in the bag.

Your inventory consisted of five granola bars (each of a different flavor), ace bandages, anti infection cream, a filled water canteen, and a change of clothes, in case you needed to stay longer than expected.

You were no amateur when it came to first aid. Without even a second thought, you reached for a broken off piece of the helicopters boarding step, resting it beneath your right forearm. Your teeth and left hand teamed up to unravel the ace bandages, securing your arm to the flat slab of plastic, then wrapping up over your shoulder to bend your arm at a ninety degree angle.

You'd created a splint and sling so efficiently, you surprised yourself with your craftsmanship.

That was one issue taken care of. Phew!

What next?

A throbbing pain in your temples came back, as if only to spite you.

Boom, boom, boom, boom.

You must have hit your head rather hard for it to be putting up such a fuss. Your free hand fishes the water canteen out of the backpack, and with a bit of effort, you unscrewed the cap and took a few big swigs of delicious H2O. The water would help your circulation, which would hopefully help your headache.

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM.

That was NOT your head.

If you didn't know any better, you might think that you'd just heard gargantuan footsteps in the distance. But such a thing was just... simply impossible. Nothing that large had existed on earth in millions of years. You reasoned in your head that was perhaps a plane's engine revving overhead—or maybe a tractor trailer on a far off highway. Either scenario gave you one clear goal in mind:

Follow that sound!

You stood up a bit shakily, and heaved your backpack up over your shoulder. The sudden movement stoked the pain in your head. You winced.
You really hoped that'd ease up soon.