Heather woke up inside a crashed escape pod.

Most of the hull was broken, leaving only the base somewhat intact.

The chair she was strapped to was some meters away from the rest of the hull, on the ground.

She started to look around and found herself in a forest. She tried to unstrap the security belt, but felt an intense pain whenever she made an effort to move.

It was then that she decided to look at herself. Her body was full of burns and cuts everywhere, except for her vital organs, which were mostly ok. The pain of moving was simply unbearable, so she just stayed there, trying to remember what happened to her. Then it came back.

======before the incident======

Heather was already inside an escape pod. She was the first to get to one. She shut the door and strapped herself to the chair near the consoles, and was about to initiate launch sequence when she heard an explosion outside.

That explosion became multiple explosions and eventually it reached her. She didn’t have any time to react when her pod’s fuel tank exploded and she was sent flying towards the lightning Fog with an already fragile pod, because of the explosions.

When she was close to the Fog, she was struck by energy bolts from both sides: the Time Energy-infused bolt from the Prototype and the unknown energy from the Fog. Both energies traveled through the metal pod to her. The last thing she saw before fainting was that half of the base ad already turned liquid.

=========================

Before she could contain herself, she was already crying. She was in the army for some time, but her system never entered a war. She never lost a comrade before. She wasn't young, and had already lost some family, but never so many at the same time. Most of the people in that base had known each other for years, and they all died within minutes. All of them but her.

Heather didn't know for how long she'd been crying, but it was long enough for her to be almost dehydrated. She knew she had to go to the rest of the hull to see if some of the water bottles were intact, but she was afraid. Afraid of the pain she felt. Afraid of what might be in the forest she saw earlier. Afraid of the dark that crept up on her when she didn't notice. But she had to go, or she'd die. She didn't want to die.

So she moved. Her skin stretched an the cuts opened when she removed the security belt. Blood started flowing out. The pain was so intense she screamed and almost fainted, even with her training as a former soldier. But she had to endure, or else she was going to die. So she got up and started walking. Those few meters were the most painful meters in her life. When she got to the rest of the hull, she was almost entirely covered in her own blood. Fortunately, there were two full water bottles inside a cabinet close to the hull, along with two small packs of crackers.

She gulped down a full water bottle, and then relaxed. As soon as the adrenaline started to fade away, the pain came back more intense than ever, and she fainted.

When she woke up, it was bright again. And she was extremely thirsty, again. So she sat up to drink the last water bottle. It was only after the last drop slipped down her throat that she realised there was no pain anymore. She looked at herself and there was no more blood gushing out of her from cuts everywhere. When she got up, she noticed she felt lighter than before the incident, or that might have been a distortion in her senses caused by the pain she felt earlier, she didn't know.

At that moment she decided she should enter the forest. She didn't have any more water and was also eating all her food. She also thought it would be nice to take a bath an check her body. So she got up and went in a random direction. The forest was thick and hard to walk in, even more in her case as her clothes were in tatters. After walking for five minutes, she lost sight of the clearing created by her pod.

During the time she was walking, she startd thinking. She asked herself questions, like "What happened to the Research station? Why did that happen? Where am I? More importantly, why am I still alive?!?!". She got too immersed in her thoughts, trying to find an answer. So immersed, actually, that she didn't notice the wolf until it was already jumping at her, jaws ready to bite off her head.