Five days of travel had come and gone.

Their original estimates of how long they would last had been reached. There was no turning back at this point.

Without food they would soon die.

They had searched the hut before they had left, but other than the few pieces of furniture they found, it was empty.

The hunger was really getting to them. Their stomachs were constantly growling and hunger pains were common in the group. They had even started to eat some of the weeds that grew along the river.

Strange it was to be in such a large forest, yet there was no berries, fruits or nuts. If it wasn’t for the hunger they wouldn’t have risked possibly eating poisonous fauna.

Without animals to see what they eat, they were clueless on what was safe.

Morgan sat by the river mid day as he soaked his blistered aching feet. Looking at his reflection all he could see was an empty shell of himself.

He looked more like a skeleton with skin wrapped over it than anything else.

[ Why.why.why… Why did this happen to me. Look at me, I look like I’m already dead. I wish I never fucken left. Fuck school I miss my family. ]

Done with self pity and complaining Morgan leaned over to take a drink from the river when something caught his eye.

[ What’s that? ]

In the shallow water, camouflaging with the gravel were a few tiny fish. Small they were at about an inch long.

Morgan just stared at them thinking he had possibly lost his mind. He reached his hand to grab one and they swam away. This was no hallucination, they were real, they were alive. They were something else!

“Guys get over here!” Morgan yelled at the top of his lungs.

The group looked over and came quickly due to the urgency of his voice.

When they saw the little fish they were in shock.

“Oh my god.”

“Fish!”

“Hahaha!”

Their reactions were each different, but the meaning was the same. They had finally found an animal. Something alive in this god forsaken forest.

The silence that had spread through the group was erased in an instance. They began to cheer and laugh in joy.

Using a few sticks, a shoe lace and a Morgan’s shirt they were able to fashion a net to scoop the little suckers out the water.

They caught nine. Two for each person and as the for the last it was given to Nestor since he was the biggest person there. Those small insignificant little fish were some of the most delicious things in their minds. At the point of starvation even the fish’s blood was like a sweet elixir of life.

Sarah had a bit of difficulty eating them as she was a vegetarian, but hunger conquers all.

This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.

After their quick snacks they persevered on with hope of finding more food.

Within two hours they heard a sound echo through the forest. It was the wail of an animal clearly suffering. It was unknown what was going on over there.

Nestor was the first to react.

“Everybody get down and hide. We don’t know what that is.” He said.

They immediately ran over into some underbrush and laid low in order to not be seen. Meanwhile, they could hear the animal’s cries getting closer.

With a final wail the animal stopped; however, they could now here a new sound.

There was murmuring and talking. Yes talking. The sounds only other human being could do. Although, they could not understand the language it was clear that there were people.

Together the group rose from their cover and eagerly approached the sounds of other.

After getting pass the tree line they could finally see the scene before them.

There lay a dead deer. Ir should I say something that looked like a deer. The basic shape was of such, but it was huge. It’s size was comparable to a horse, but it was more muscular and looked quite more vicious and powerful.

Around the animal were people. There were five of them to be exact. Three women and two men. They were dressed in strange garments and wore hardened leather armor over their bodies. The men carried swords to their sides, except one who carried many tools. The women both carried bows.

Their eyes were dark brown, but their hair ranged from hazelnut to black. Although they weren’t very short, they were under no interpretation tall, even the men. In fact they were shorter than Sarah who was around 5” 5’.

They were smiling and speaking in a strange tongue, but their attitudes changed as soon as they heard the approaching group. The men immediately drew their swords and the women readied their arrows.

Nestor stopped and the others followed as he attempted to speak with the presumed natives.

“Umm. Please excuse us, we mean no harm. We are some of the survivors from the plane crash. We are looking for help and a way to contact the authorities.”

He made a hand gesture for a phone on the side of his head, but the natives just looked at him strangely.

They were probably thinking what’s with this fucking weirdo. Wandering in the forest talking in a weird language.

Or at least that was probably what they thought they were thinking.

In actuality they took it as a threat and approached with their weapons drawn.

Nestor frowned as he reached into his shirt.

Forced by the situation he pulled out his gun and pointed it at them.

“Stay back or I’ll shoot!” He yelled at them.

Undeterred by his warning they continued to approach ready to attack. To them all he did was pull out a chunk of metal and act like he was a threat.

To them this strange man had to die.

Nestor quickly shifted his aim to the right and fired a shot at the guy at the front.

The bullet grazed his cheek and he screamed in pain as he fell gripping his face. The shock of what just occurred left the hunters paralyzed.

They looked fearfully at Nestor unsure of what they should do. This strange looking man that they met in the forest held a weapon that the could hurt them before they could react at range.

Not even an arrow was this fast.

“Are you willing to go peacefully now?” Nestor calmly said.

He walked up to towards the man on the ground and outstretched his arm to help him up.

It seemed the group understood this as a sign of peace, and decided to back down since it was clear Nestor was capable of killing them, yet didn’t.

Once the man was up he beckoned Nestor and his group to follow them. Morgan looked up to Nestor and asked.

“Should we follow them?”

He responded, “do we really have a choice?”

They stood to the side as the hunters skinned the deer and began to cut it up. The man with the tools was actually the dismantler and work quickly in processing the deer into smaller parts without destroying the pelt or horns.

The man Nestor shot stood to the side as a woman pulled a dark red root out of the sack tied around her waist and began to chew a piece of it.

After a few minutes she spit out a dark red paste and rubbed it into his wound. She then grabbed a large leaf off a tree and stuck it over before wrapping it with cloth.

Morgan and the rest just stood to the side watching the people work. He couldn’t help but think.

[ These people aren’t from Earth. ]

Once done, the tool packing hunter constructed a simple sled and loaded the deer pieces onto it. Attached to it were ropes on which the others could pull their haul more easily than carrying it.

They left toward who knows where with Morgan’s group following close behind.

They soon reached a simple dirt trail and were able to move more easily and faster.

Within minutes Morgan could see the entrance gate of a tall wooden wall made of logs.

Nestor gave the group an order.

“Follow my lead and don’t do anything that can cause problems.”