“What … the … fuck!”
“How is that even possible?”
“Is it … disappearing? No, it’s … it’s being absorbed.”
“It disappears as soon as it hits the ceiling.”
He lifted his head to look at the ceiling.
“Wait, is that …”
“I’m such an idiot!” Eric said while smacking himself in the head repeatedly, “All this time, and I never bothered to look up!”
“It looks like some thick, black moss up there. Is that what’s absorbing the smoke?”
“How would that even work in the first place?”
“Well, at least I don’t have to worry about being smothered by the smoke, but my plan is ruined. Looks like I’ll have to figure my way out the hard way.”
“I’ll have to check some of those corridors in the forest. I should probably make some weapons first. This one stick of fine wood I brought looks like a decent choice for making a spear. And I have plenty of rocks in here to carve it properly. It will probably take me a few days just to do that … but that’s far preferable to being caught off guard.”
“I do have my pen, let me check … yes, it’s still here. I could use it as a last-resort weapon in case of emergency. I can always stick it in someone’s eye. But I’d feel far more confident with a proper spear.”
“Meaning that I’ll have to find some proper food first. I can’t carve up a spear on an empty stomach. And those few berries I found won’t do.”
“Wait, wait, I have a … a stream right here. It’s a long shot, but maybe there’s some fish swimming through the stream?”
“Everything else was already provided for me, so why not?”
He walked up to the stream, bending to examine it closer.
“Hmm … I don’t see anything … but still … I have a blazer I have no use for …”
“Or … maybe I could make some improvised bag out of it? It could be useful for carrying wood. It takes more than an hour to go to the forest and come back. Having some kind of bag would be useful.”
“But, then again, how much wood will I really need? The temperature is fine here, so it’s not like I need to keep myself warm. So I’ll only need the wood for some tools and to cook food … if I catch any.”
“Food is definitely a priority right now, meaning that my expensive blazer is about to become a fishing net. At least I didn’t pay it out of my own pocket.”
“But, to do that, I’ll need something sharp first.”
-----
Eric spent a good portion of the day puncturing holes in his blazer with the pen he found in his pocket. The blazer turned out to be far more durable than he expected, making him curse and sweat far more than he expected to. Then, he used the sleeves to tie the blazer on each side of the stream.
“This shit ain’t going to work,” he said out loud as soon as he saw the blazer floating on the surface, “Stones perhaps? How do I tie the stones to it?”
He smacked his forehead in irritation as he finally realized: “I’m so fucking stupid! The pockets!”
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Untying the blazer, he filled its lower pockets with some larger stones.
“Let’s see how it goes now … yeah, that’s more like it! And luckily enough, the stream isn’t deep, so the blazer can reach all the way to the bottom.”
“Actually, now that I think about it, this stream looks very suspicious. It’s almost like an open pipeline.”
“Congratulations, Eric! Not even a single day has passed, and you’re already talking with yourself out loud!”
“Well … this better work … I’m starting to go hungry.”
“Let me try one of those berries to see if those are poisonous. Better I try one right now instead of eating all of them in one go when I start starving. Then, I should work on sharpening one of these stones as I’m waiting for a catch. There’s no point in roaming around without a weapon anyway.”
“While at it … I could also try working on a spear. Just a sharp stick will do … I don’t want to risk the tip falling off at the worst possible moment.”
“Well … at least I won’t go insane anytime soon, not now when I found something to work on. Hungry, on the other hand …”
-----
SPLASH! SPLASH!
“Oh, what do I hear?”
SPLASH!
“Is it … ah, it’s a catch, all right!”
Dropping his primal tools, he rushed to the stream.
“But now, do I really want to put my hand in there? What if it’s some sort of piranha?”
“If I had a spear, I could just fish it out of the water, but I haven’t even started working on it yet. The damn stone is taking too long to sharpen.”
He slumped, rolling his eyes.
“Eric, why are you such a fucking idiot?”
Approaching the blazer, he started untying both of its sleeves at the same time. Then, he paused for some time as he bent over the stream.
“I just need to roll this fucker up. The element of surprise is on my side. Come on Eric, you can do it!”
After a deep breath and a long sigh, he bent as much as he could, shoving the upper part of the blazer behind the splashing animal. Then he moved both arms towards the stones on the bottom as fast as possible. He grabbed the stones and, as soon as he had felt them, yanked the blazer up and out of the water before throwing it to the ground.
“Still wriggling, huh? So I did a good job. Let’s see …” He looked at his hands, “Fingers … all here … good. Now, let’s see what we caught.
He moved the top side of the blazer away, revealing his catch.
“Hmm, that’s a fish if I ever saw one. And I don’t see any teeth … which is good. But how do I kill it now?”
“Hmm … a stone … but it’s not sharp yet. I could beat it with a stick, but I’d probably miss it a dozen times … so I guess a stone it is.”
Grabbing the stone, he hesitated for a bit.
“Please forgive me if I make you suffer, all right?”
-----
“Hmm … this ain’t so bad. Not bad for an unseasoned meal.” Eric said with satisfaction as he sat on a rock with roasted fish in his hands.
“And I have a sharp stone for carving things up. Not much of a weapon, but it’s serviceable for gutting a fish and cutting its head off. But next time, I should smash the fish against a rock and not the other way around. More force that way.”
“And I have a … let’s say a stick for cooking the fish. Could’ve done a much better job at it, but was too hungry to wait. Will work on improving it tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow …” he looked in the distance as he considered something, “When will tomorrow come? There’s no sun in this place. I have my watch, but … time isn’t so relevant here.”
“Anyway, tomorrow is the woodwork day. Refining the stick and making a proper spear. If there’s fish in here, it’s safe to assume other animals are around. And some of them probably have teeth.”
“This place is starting to feel like some do-it-yourself prison. I have everything I need: food, water, wood, basic tools. It doesn’t look like I’ll need to worry about the food with another fish splashing in the stream already. Not to mention that the campfire was here before me. It’s as if my captors don’t feel like taking care of me and have just left me to my devices.”
“But what if I would just decide to sit on my ass and do nothing? Would they let me starve to death? What’s the point of a dead prisoner?”
“And who are they in the first place? Is there anyone at all? Am I just unlucky?”
“It’s funny, really. How quickly a human adapts. Only now, when I have everything sorted out, did I start thinking about everything. What am I doing here in the first place? How the fuck did I get here? Are the others searching for me?”
He shifted on top of an uncomfortable rock, “I better find something new to do soon. There’s no point in thinking about that. It’s only making me gloomy. The sad reality is that I’m all alone in a cave. Or even worse … I’m not.”
“Besides, I only did the most basic things that the humans knew how to do for thousands of years. There’s much more to do and areas to explore. This is no time to get complacent.”
“And if this really is a prison, there has to be an exit out there somewhere.”
“But still … it’s not so bad. At least there’s plenty of room to move around. And I prefer catching my own food to having it delivered through the bars. At least I know what’s inside of it. Things could’ve been much worse.”
“WWRRROOOO!!!” A sudden, loud roar startled Eric, making him jump.
“What?”
“…”
“WWRRROOOO!!!”
“Holy, fucking shit!!! It’s a dinosaur!!!”