[Story] Project One
PART TWO : "An Encounter in the Woods."
Around noon, present day.
I woke up in the middle of nowhere.
Everything hurt down to my bones. My skin was drenched with sweat, I had to find some way out of here, even if I didn’t know where “here” exactly was. I could feel my heartbeat in my ears and my adrenaline was pumping like I had just run a marathon but I wasn’t out of breath or anything.
Where was I and why am I almost naked?
I’m wearing torn remnants of what looked like a uniform but they’re so badly damaged, I’m barely able to tell it’s clothes. What’s left of my pants are red and black, with dark red boots that are pretty much the only thing left intact. I clanked them together, metal. That’s odd. No wonder they survived whatever happened to me.
Am I in the service?
Not anymore. You’re something else now.
“Shut UP!” Instinctively gushed out of my throat.
My veins felt on fire and my lungs ached as much as my muscles were cramped; I couldn’t remember how this happened. Something felt off but I couldn’t tell exactly what it was. My ears rang and the blood rushing, and heartbeat pumping, made it deafening in my head. I stood up and the world spun around me for a few brief seconds before righting itself. Vertigo. I’ve never had vertigo from just standing, I almost chuckled were it not for the splitting headache.
Exactly what happened???
They woke something worse than Giants.
The thought was fleeting, barely more than a whisper, yet it felt like a stone in my mind. Worse than Giants? What could be worse than Giants? I shook my head, which made it hurt even worse. I cringed, squeezing my eyes against the afternoon sun.
I was in the middle of a small clearing in a large forest, or at least I assumed it was large; the trees were massive redwoods but they shouldn’t be in this part of the world if I was where I thought I was. The cool air combined with the neon hues and grayish color of the skies meant chemical pollution that had been outlawed in all four sections of the human territories for years. The ‘Torradome’ functioned as a highly-advanced invisible barrier that stretched above and beyond the 200ft barrier that was a combination of steel, iron, concrete, and special runes that made specific patterns within each section of the wall, making it impenetrable. Nothing got through either under, through, or above The Wall.
As I stared at the weird sky, the clear crystal air, and the feeling of being misplaced; a thought crept across my mind.
Am I outside The Wall?
The sun’s position was starting to go the other direction, I needed to get higher to figure out my position, to look at the shadows. It must be about noon. Too bad the stars weren’t out, I could read the sky like a compass at night.
They have no idea what they’ve done.
I shook off the thought as if it were someone else, a different voice in my head. Annoying me. It made me nearly say “Shut up!” once more.
I found a climbable tree and, frustrated with my amnesia, focused on that first branch about a foot above my head. I grabbed at it a lot harder than I should have. I somehow tore it off like it was rotten, but it looked solid and felt solid enough. I grabbed a second branch to test it out and this time, I made sure to knock it and listen for any hollow or empty sounds. It was a solid branch.
I squeezed it with the same force as before. It crumbled under my grasp turning into sawdust right before my eyes. The crazy thing was, it didn’t even hurt my hand in the slightest. As effortless as if I was crumpling a paper towel. My head suddenly rushed with visions and I immediately fell to one knee. I can remember things, in short bursts, like seeing images on strobe. Blue and purple lights. A man yelling. Someone I can’t see is pressing buttons on a computer panel behind me somewhere.
More shouting, more lights. Head’s pounding. What did they do to me?
You’re the predator now.
“Who said that?!”
There, to the right! I lash out without thinking. It’s as if my arm is moving in slow motion and yet, I know it’s a blur of speed judging from the explosion of wood chips from the nearby tree I destroyed.
In one punch.
A hole the size of a beachball stood where the center of the tree once was, with the crater facing away from me, bits of wood and dust falling as the weakened sides creaked and moaned under the weight. That wasn’t good, that means the tree…
A thundering crash and sound like a cannon shot split the quaint afternoon stillness. I shut my eyes, ready for the end. There was no way I could get out of the way in time. I’m dead and…
I finished my thought looking in amazement at what was happening in front of me.
The tree had slid forward, snapping clean off the base where I had punched it leaving just inches in each side to support the weight. I couldn’t quite understand what I was seeing.
I was holding it in my bare hands. The tree trunk that was wider than I was tall, in my bare hands gripped as if I had the strength of ten, no, twenty men. My hands and arms were dug in so deep from the sheer force of the fall that it looked like I was trying to make snow angels in the side of a tree.
Blue and purple lights. Flashing in a pattern. A man screaming, someone strapping me to a wall, something that looks like a torture rack. Vague images are beginning to coalesce, but into a bigger picture I’m not sure I want to complete. I dropped the tree in my daze and it leaned over for a minute, then it came crashing next to me like a building toppled over.
It’s time to use what they gave you.
“WHO is talking to me?! PLEASE Shut the…”
Something to my left!
This time, I flinched as my arm wanted to jet out and strike almost with a mind of its own. Same as last time, I felt and saw my arm moving in slow motion but I knew it was going much faster.
I stopped short this time. I saw him. The voice I’d been hearing. Like a distant memory, he appeared in a flash and disappeared just as quickly. A short man in a lab coat, glasses, and greying hair.
I didn’t remember him, but he was the same one from the flashbacks.
It seemed he was smirking at me before he flashed out of sight.
Was my mind playing tricks on me?
In time, you’ll remember our conversation.
“What conversation?”
I turned around again, trying to reproduce the vision of the short man in glasses. Nothing. All that surrounded me was a wide forest thick with trees and underbrush and the sounds of nature in the bustling afternoon. Birds chirping, there were crickets nearby, a squirrel calling.
Once my breathing stilled and my nerves settled, I realized I could hear them. Not just some of the animals, I could hear all of them. As if I were connected to each one, with each breath I took, somehow advancing my sensory capabilities within these woods.
How was this possible?
I took another deep breath. Twenty paces to my right, a fox family was rummaging through the bushes. There, a wild turkey in the trees to the left keeping a sharp eye towards the predators it wants to avoid.
I feel a moose somewhere nearby, several I think.
And bears!
An imposing presence, their aura dominated the woods, and I could feel them there from afar, lumbering around at a creek about forty paces up towards the tree line. I could feel the terror in all the other animals combined. It was a feeling I shared as a human very aware of the power a brown or black bear held in each paw. Eight-inch claws powered by an animal that can move like a truck and weighs twice as much, with the swipe force that can kill a large moose without trying.
I could sense the fresh water, and almost taste the salmon being hunted.
I heard the rush and flow of the calm surface broken only by the large commanding figures lumbering to and fro through the stream, swatting large fish up and out onto the soft loam earth. It was an afternoon out of any nature painting.
I reacted without thinking and bolted for the other direction, going at three times the top speed of the average human. Average. What does that even mean.
Getting between a hungry bear and it’s afternoon lunch was a sure way to become lunch yourself. My senses must be going crazy with all the adrenaline pumping through my system, even this far away already I could still feel them back in the stream as if the serene scene was from some movie or a memory I had once seen in a photo. It made no sense how I was able to detect all of these signals and sounds all at once.
I hope you’ll come find me when you realize.
This time I didn’t shout or tell him to shut up, but I knew who was talking. The same short man with glasses whose voice I’d been hearing this whole time. It wasn’t like he was talking to me, it was as if a memory… distant and elusive…had been triggered in my mind.
Running. I was running.
Again, the same sensation of slow motion. The forest was a green and brown blur around me, but I was very aware of every step I was taking. Here a branch, there a large root, up ahead I could see three trees toppled over on each other. Now, I was up on top of the pile, reaching to the sky on one end. Something came over me as I closed the distance with just a few lunges, my toes digging into the tree as claws into dirt, I growled and flexed every muscle in my body. The focus was a small spot in the clearing hundreds of feet below me.
Every sense was telling me to be scared. No, not scared. Excited.
With a smile, I took a leaping jump off in an arc towards the clearing far below me. I felt as a man possessed. The cool mountain air bit into my skin in the most refreshing way, allowing me to appreciate the soaring view of the landscape as I landed. Well, perhaps “appreciate” wasn’t the right term, “surprised” was more appropriate. The trees were burnt around here, and some looked strangled of light or shriveled but not burned, as if starved for life in some other way. Blackened trees?
I wasn’t even out of breath when I landed, but my body was dripping sweat like a faucet and I could feel my heartbeat in my ears again. It seemed every time I did something extreme, the heartbeat was right there reminding me of my limits. I would need to think about it later when I could.
Wiping my brow and tossing the flop of hair back, I coughed as I stood back up taking a moment to look at the trees around me. They certainly were shriveled and sickly looking but somehow still standing, come to think of it, the entire forest appeared to be burdened or …heavy in some way. As if the very branches carried secrets on their leaves and only whispered them to the wind. The sinking feeling I’ve had this whole time was finally settling squarely into my bones like concrete into a fence post:
I absolutely WAS outside the borders of The Wall.
This was not any countryside in human territories that I knew.
I was in the Outworld.
Breathing was hard.
And it wasn’t because I just ran what must have been quite a few miles. The concept of being outside of all human connection was daunting.
I stepped out of the deep pit I had just created looking towards the sun. It’s been an hour if not two since I woke up. From the looks of the shadows and the growing hunger in my stomach; early afternoon. I had no idea what to do.
They don’t teach you this in the Hall of the Wall, or the classes they drill into you from kindercare to middlewall or topwall school. Each kid is routinely told about Giants, about the ancestors that built the wall, the ancient secrets that made it impenetrable, the upkeep it takes, the teams assigned to this and that function at The Wall, etc. etc.
It went on and on, class after class.
But no one, not the first teachers in the first class in kindercare to the last teachers in the last class of topwall school ever explained anything about being outside The Wall.
It simply wasn’t done. As easily as the concept of breathing was the narrative truth that no human ever ventured outside The Wall, in any direction, in any country, for ANY reason. Outworld was not a place for humanity.
And here I was in some unknown portion of the world that we call ‘Outworld’ outside of anything I’d ever been taught or how to handle it. To say a shiver went down my spine is an understatement. I am fighting with my entire being to prevent a freak out or a fainting spell. Yes, I have anxiety attacks, who doesn’t?
There’s a rustling in the shrubbery ahead of me. I’ve been so focused on the tops of the trees and the direction of the sun that I haven’t been paying attention to the terrain. Yet oddly, I’m more agile than I’ve ever been, never once tripping or hitting a tree branch underfoot. I’m thankful for this newfound agility as I leap ten feet up into a tree to get a better vantage point. I clear another ten feet up with one lunge when I realize my mistake.
I smell him before I see him.
The essence of salmon, wet fur, mud, and urine make me almost gag when I see a large head the size of a whiskey barrel break through the bushes just twenty feet below me, right where I once stood. He smelled me too but I’m praying he doesn’t look up or follow the scent upwards.
No such luck.
Dark beads for eyes slowly draw up the tree as his massive snout continues to sniff for me, white beads of spittle forming around his mouth at the promise of a meal. I feel a low vibration in the tree around me. He’s growling. The claws begin scraping at the tree as he shakes it with his weight, feeling out where he can climb or break through the branches.
I’m facing a giant bear.
And there’s nothing I can do.
He roars, angry that I’m so far up, and slams his paws into the tree attempting to shake me out of my post. I’m at least thirty feet up but I can see he’s already digging his heels in for the climb.
I laugh through gritted teeth to prevent chattering, “No such luck, Big Guy!”
He looks up at the sound of my voice, showing his gigantic yellow teeth and wide jaws, roaring out his anger at the effort this food is taking. He slams another paw into the tree before lurching up the side, closing the distance between us. Slowly but closing in on me all the same.
I need to change the situation or I’m a dead man.
There are several trees clustered around the one I’m in, so I jump across a group of branches to the adjoining tree. I hear him complain loudly as he lurches against the tree and shimmies back down.
If there were other trees close by I would jump again but I can’t see any others that would support my weight from this far of a jump. My choices are to go back the way I came or climb down my new tree. The new tree that my big black buddy is about to climb.
You can jump as far as you want.
I shake off the crazy voice and ignore him again, no time for the small man now. I have to jump across the branches back the way I came and try to climb down the tree before the bear can do the same. My only hope is to get into a clearing where I can possibly jump across a chasm to…
A roar disrupts my rambling, the bear is only a few feet below me!
Perfect.
I jump across and he roars again, this time loud and long and full of anguish. He must be really hungry to pursue me this hard.
“I hear you, Big Guy! I hear you! I wish I could find you some other source of food, trust me!”
I’ve made it halfway down the tree and see that he’s ambled down that tree just as quickly. There’s not much hope of getting away from him, perhaps I could outrun him but bears can smell and track up to 20 miles away. I either face him or face another just like him.
I jump down from my branch the last six feet and land, rolling out into a crouch facing him. He’s already out of the other tree and lunging back this way.
I think back to the hole in the tree.
Again, things slow down and I can feel my heartbeat thump-thump-thumping in my ears. I start to realize it’s tied to whatever happens to me, as I can see the black bear moving in slow motion as if I’m watching a nature documentary and he’s ambling his way across a stream.
I’m not scared but I really should be, however, I think back to the freak accident with the tree and I think about the bear. He’s slowly angling in my direction, at least it appears that way, and I can tell he’s going to get up on his hind legs signaling an attack.
And yet, I’m still not scared. I feel a shiver across my spine but not out of fear, like a snake coiled about to strike. He’s only a few paces away from me now and heaves himself upwards, snarling a low guttural menacing sound like chains across gravel. I look carefully at him and see his scared, tired eyes. Deep chocolate eyes that reflect the afternoon sun. I can somehow feel the hunger he’s fighting against, as he’s swiping down with the massive paw that shades my face from the sun. It’s all still in slow motion, as if I’m an observer outside of myself. Something clicks inside of me and I close my eyes and flinch, my body taking over instincts I shouldn’t have.
I feel the hot breath on my face before I realize what’s happened.
I caught his paw. Squarely and without issue, like a man fighting off a child, I have his paw firmly in my grasp at the wrist. The shock and obvious surprise pauses us both before he attempts to swipe with the other paw.
I catch it in my other hand. Again, seemingly effortless, as if I’m pausing to fold a blanket in midair we stood there for a few seconds before I try to gently toss him away. Yes, toss.
He smashes across a wide tree and lands against the brambles and shrubbery only a few feet away from me dazed but not harmed from what I can see. He’s still conscious but not moving towards me yet.
My mind racing and my heart beating like a hummingbird’s; I look around for any options I can. I can’t even process that I just tossed a thousand pound animal away like a plaything. All I can think about is his hunger and what’s driving him to pursue me.
His eyes follow me and I can’t tell if he’s just sizing me up or if he hit the tree harder than I intended. Whatever instincts I have inside me are blaring all sorts of mixed signals.
“I’m so sorry, Big Guy… I’m so sorry, I really hope…”
I smell them and hear them.
Suddenly a pack of wolves has attacked a moose somewhere in the distance and I see my chance. I bolt towards the sounds and hope there’s still something left.
I’ve determined I’m going to take care of the Big Guy.
•••
Love,
R. Carnie Littlefield
Littlefield Log
Jan 28th, 2025
