On the edge of a forest clearing lies an old red pickup crashed into a tree. The rusted red paint marking the vehicle's age. Worn down tires and torn leather seats showing its use. 

The sun’s rays pass through the broken rear window and shine on the clouded mirrors.

In the passenger seat sits a young man sleeping silently with his head against the rolled down window.

*chirp, chirp*

The sound of the wind passing through the leaves being broken by the chirping of birds echoes around the clearing. 

“Hmmm”

*Yawn*

With a yawn, the young man wakes up, rubbing his eyes with his hands and covering his face from the bright light reflecting off of a mirror.

After taking a look around he’s simply Speechless, only being able to come up with a simple thought-

‘WHERE THE FUCK AM I?!’

-CHARACTER POV-

‘No seriously, where am I? Why am I in the woods? Last I remember I was…. I..was….What was I doing?’

I don’t remember, I don’t understand why but I can’t remember. I can’t recall what I was doing before I woke up at all.

Looking around this unfamiliar place I don’t understand what I’m doing here, how I got here, who’s car is this? 

*heavy breathing*

I start breathing hard, I can’t feel my legs, my heart is pounding in my chest, I CAN'T FEEL MY LEGS!! OH MY GOD, OH—

Oh?

‘Oh, never mind, my legs are just numb…’

Shaking my legs a little I start looking around again to understand my situation.

“Ouch” pins and needles, why does it hurt so much?

‘Okay, so I'm in some forest, in a pickup truck that someone somehow got all the way here and yet still crashed into a tree.’

I decide to just wait, if I’m a passenger then the driver should be back at some point to come and check up on me right? 

-3 minutes later-

Yeah no, waiting is way too boring and the sun is going down, albeit rather slow. I rather not sleep in some broken down truck that has broken windows. I’m gonna go find someone and ask for help instead.

For all I know the driver thought I died on the spot and decided to leave on his own.

How do I open this damn door?! Isn’t this a handle? Why isn’t it— 

*click* 

 it was locked…

*creak* *bang*

Alright, finally out of that truck and those doors are loud as hell, I mean someone grease em up for god’s sake. 

Now that I’m out here, standing in the middle of nowhere, I’ve come to find something.

‘Who the fuck is Christopher?’

My shirt, a button down black shirt with a collar on it, has the name tag -Christopher- on the left and the name Bucky’s in white on the right in a wacky purple and blue circular logo, resembling a galaxy.

That’s when I realize an important detail—

‘I can see’

Touching my face, I realize that I no longer have nor need my glasses. My eyes can see perfectly fine, usually my vision is blurry, as if everything is a smudge a little far away from me. Now however, I can see so much more.

looking around, starting with my hands, I see every line on my palms, I see every blade of grass, I even see a squirrel sitting on a tree eating an acorn—

The world begins to slow, and I see the squirrel biting the acorn carefully looking around with every nibble it takes, as if expecting a predator to show itself at any moment.

I start feeling dizzy, I can hear the wind moving through the leaves but the leaves are not moving fast enough, it’s as if I’m playing a video in slow motion but the sound is at normal speed—

Then I blink, breaking my state of concentration and letting the world come back to normal, my eyes stinging, like I’ve been right in front of my computer playing games for 6 hrs in a dark room without blinking and I just looked away.

Making me realize that the squirrel I was looking at must be around 50 meters away (164 ft)!

‘Ugh, I don’t know what that was but it definitely isn’t normal. I’ll have to try and do it again later.’

Although I don’t feel anything other than some mild pain and discomfort, I still decide to look into the mirror to check my eyes.

‘What the hell?! Who is this?’

Staring right back at me from the cloudy mirror is a young man around 20 years old, looking as average as can be, black hair, 7/10 face, about 170 lbs (77kg) standing at an average 5 '9 ft (175cm). Wearing a black collared button up shirt, gray work pants and black steel toe work shoes.

The only thing not average about him were the oddly gray eyes calmly staring back and the black tactical gloves hanging from his black belt.

Touching my face, I see the man in the mirror do the same…… THIS IS ME?!

This.. is me. For some reason I feel rest assured, as if I was hoping that the face I saw in the mirror was this one.

‘Huh’

Moving on! Once again I take look at my 9/10 face (screw you, if it’s my face then it gains some points!), specifically my eyes. Taking a minute to study my eyes I see nothing wrong until they start coming closer to me, I start seeing the blood vessels become more pronounced and I see my pupil slowly moving around—

“Damn” I say. Blinking as my face starts moving normally, ‘I really have to stop doing that every time I concentrate’

So, it seems like nothing too bad happens visually when I start doing my “eye thing”.

Thankfully they don’t start bleeding or glowing red..

Now that I know how I look I should start taking inventory of what I have.

Reaching into my pockets I find—

Nothing…..

So, maybe I should check the truck instead? 

*creak*

I open the door again and look inside, surprisingly the truck is quite clean, if you ignore the ingrown vines and dust, that is.

I open the glovebox—*click*— And find a couple of things—

-Some papers (the registration)

-A gum packet, full, if I might add ‘yoink’

-A box of condoms (large), ‘also yoink’

….what? You never know when these can come in handy, specifically for carrying water, what else?

-Some baseball cards

And finally a little black pocket knife which I took as soon as I saw it.

So, putting on my tactical gloves, I slowly close the door and this time there is no loud creak. 

After looking around I see nothing special, just more trees, so I look up and see what direction the sun is heading, and according to my limited knowledge of the sun I start heading west, which also happens to be the direction the truck is pointing at.

If I had to guess it looks to be around 5-6 p.m. so I have a couple hours to walk before it turns dark.

Hopefully I can find someone to point or take me to the closest town.

And so, I walk into the woods, basking in the peaceful sounds of nature. It really is calming, especially when you need to clear your head.

—————————————————

It’s been about an hour and a half I think and I haven’t found much, except more forest. Half way through I pondered going back but then I remembered some important details.

The truck crashed into the tree but there weren't any tire marks behind the truck, or anywhere for that matter. Which means that there wasn’t any perfect direction to take.

It’s getting pretty late though and the sun is almost down, I have a feeling that the woods are going to get REALLY dark once the sun goes down.

*CLICK* A loud click, right behind me.

I still, chills roll up my spine.

???, “DON'T MOVE! Don’t move a single muscle and I won't BLOW YA HEAD OFF!” Yells a raspy male voice, right behind me.

And so I listen, trying not to move, as my life is on the line!

???, “NOW, slowly look up at the sun, SLOWLY!” He yells.

I do as he says, I have to. Slowly, I look to the sky, it looks to be almost dusk but the sun is still bright and yellow.

A pause, only as long as two or three seconds but it felt like minutes, hours!

???, *sigh*

I take a second, not understanding what I should do, I’m starting to dread what’s coming next and I don’t know what to do! ‘Should I say something? Should I keep quiet?’

???, “gooood, verrry good” says the man, slowly, as if only now measuring me.

???, “turn around” he says.

So I do, slowly, not forgetting who has the weapon in their hands.

He takes a good look at me and then lowers his rifle.

???, “what are ya doing here kid?” He asks.

I let go of a breath I didn’t even know I was holding, my shoulders slumping down a bit with the relief at keeping my head.

“I-I don’t know.” I respond, taking a look at the man who almost took my life.

He was an older man, perhaps in his mid 50s, the stubble on his face seemingly explaining how long he has been here.

He wore a green shirt and a camo vest, brown cargo pants and brown boots. On his head was a worn green cap.

???, “so you too huh..” he says as he beckons me over to where he begins to walk. “Come with me kid, it’s getting dark and these woods ain’t safe.”

I pause for a moment but decide to follow, I don’t have any other choice really. Isn’t this what I set out to do anyways? Now that I finally found some help there’s no way I’m going deeper into the woods.

After walking for around 10 minutes in silence we arrived at a camp with only 1 tent and a simple fireplace along with a slightly rusty pot.

The man sits on a log and points to the tent, “ya can sleep in there for tonight, but I wouldn’t recommend staying any longer than that.” He says.

I look at the tent but I don’t go in. I feel like asking some questions before I decide to sleep in a tent with someone who just threatened to kill me right outside.

I open my mouth to say something but—

“Go on, get in, it’s getting dark and ya are gonna need the sleep.” He says, with an underlying tone of…..pity?

Not wanting to piss him off, I open the tent and look in, it's not very spacious but it’s enough to fit one person comfortably. 

But before I take a step in I ask, “I’ll gladly take it but where are you—“

Looking back, my heart drops and my body gets cold, ice cold.

It’s dark, with almost no light to be seen other than the soft dim glow of the moon. The forest has quieted and only the sound of crickets remains.

And most importantly of all, the man……is gone.