nosleep

Link to Part One: https://www.reddit.com/r/nosleep/comments/y1j653/im_a_fire_watch_lookout_and_i_think_ive_made_a/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web2x&context=3

By the time dawn arrived the next morning, I had climbed down from my temporary shelter in the low boughs of a red cedar and tried to work out all the painful kinks from my stiff shoulders and neck. The night had not been kind to me, but I was alive, which is more than my fear-stressed mind expected after yesterday.

The night had been harrowing – there was no better word to describe it. The rain hissed among the trees and stung exposed skin angrily, driven by the banshee-wail of the wind rushing through the forest, and was accentuated by the chaotic flashing of lightning and heart-stopping crack of thunder.

Because of this relentless chaos, it’s difficult to say with any certainty. But throughout the night, I thought I heard something large trying to move stealthily in the forest near my shelter. I say, “trying”, because it felt like whatever stalked through the underbrush was more at home in the unnatural stygian gloom of a cave than under the watchful eyes of nature.

Of course, it could just as easily have been my imagination.

When the first dim light of dawn started to illuminate the sodden and dripping forest, I spent the better part of twenty minutes straining my eyes with every ounce of concentration as I scanned the gray woodlands around me. I was only ten feet or so above the ground, but there was no way I was going to step foot from my hide until I was absolutely certain I was alone. Once I was satisfied that I was alone for the moment, I climbed down to the muddy ground.

I tried the radio several times through the night and into the morning but wasn’t able to get even a burst of static that might indicate someone was trying to respond. A combination of the storm and the interference from the trees worked against me.

My first thought was to get back to my Jeep as quickly as possible and run every drop of gas out of its tank trying to get as far away from this place as I could. When I checked the GPS to see how close I was to its marked position, however, I found the unit unresponsive and with a disastrous crack across the screen that seemed to mock my dismay.

Probably caused by my less-than-graceful scramble from that damned cave.