It was the sound of the leaves on the trees, rustling as the wind passed through them that first penetrated through to Caliban's unconscious mind. It was a sound both soothing and peaceful and yet utterly out of place that stirred his mind towards waking. Cal rolled over with a grunt and snorted as the grass tickled his nose. His eyes opened, the sight of the silver trees and the blue grasses confused him. His brain lagging behind as the fog of sleep slowly cleared.
After a minute or two of confusion he sat up and looked around. He was sitting in a dell, the ground was covered in odd coloured leaves and a lightly wooded forest that stretched up the hill and beyond. The dim and muddy vermilion coloured lift filtered through the tries, dieing the landscape red.
"Alright….you got me…" Cal said to no one in particular. His first thought being that the few friends he did have must have somehow slipped him some kind of rufie and then dragged him out to the woods as some kind of practical joke. He was dead certain that in a few moments they'd jump out from behind some tree and have their gotcha moment. They would all laugh and then they'd go home. When the only thing that greeted him was silence and no one jumped out to tell him how bad they had punked him Cal frowned.
"Ha ha…way to go guys, you punked me good." This declaration was greeted with more silence. Cal was starting to worry now.
"Guys, this isn't funny anymore. You had your laugh now come on." Cal stood up and started looking for the cameras and his friends. He was fully convinced this was a joke and he just had to find them. He persisted looking for about 15 minutes, which It was the sound of the leaves on the trees, rustling as the wind passed through them that first penetrated through to Caliban's unconscious mind. It was a sound both soothing and peaceful and yet utterly out of place that stirred his mind towards waking. Cal rolled over with a grunt and snorted as the grass tickled his nose. His eyes opened, the sight of the silver trees and the blue grasses confused him. His brain lagging behind as the fog of sleep slowly cleared.
After a minute or two of confusion he sat up and looked around. He was sitting in a dell, the ground was covered in odd coloured leaves and a lightly wooded forest that stretched up the hill and beyond. The dim and muddy vermilion coloured lift filtered through the tries, dieing the landscape red.
"Alright….you got me…" Cal said to no one in particular. His first thought being that the few friends he did have must have somehow slipped him some kind of rufie and then dragged him out to the woods as some kind of practical joke. He was dead certain that in a few moments they'd jump out from behind some tree and have their gotcha moment. They would all laugh and then they'd go home. When the only thing that greeted him was silence and no one jumped out to tell him how bad they had punked him Cal frowned.
"Ha ha…way to go guys, you punked me good." This declaration was greeted with more silence. Cal was starting to worry now.
"Guys, this isn't funny anymore. You had your laugh now come on." Cal stood up and started looking for the cameras and his friends. He was fully convinced this was a joke and he just had to find them. He persisted looking for about 15 minutes, which was long enough to search the nearby area. When he found no sign of another human being the idea that maybe this was exactly what it looked like began to sink in.
Think Cal think, there's got to be a way out of this. No one is going to just dump you all the way out in the bush. Cal thought, completely ignoring his surroundings. He tried to remember what happened before he woke up. He was a loner, practically a recluse who didn't go anywhere except to and from his shitty office job. He never witnessed any crimes or knew anything anyone would want to make him disappear over.
He was just a low level Customer Service Rep for a small mail order company. He didn't deal with anything to do with the companies money, mostly he just processed orders. It was a boring job, his bosses where idiots who would probably one day ruin the company and his co-workers were barely classified as intelligent life forms. If it would have been allowed he was pretty sure his job title would have been Office Bitch. He despised working there, but it put food on the table, kept a roof over his head and allowed him to pay the bills plus a little left over that allowed him to afford the odd gaming subscription and his medication.
As time went by, the initial panic of the situation started to fade as the time stretched. Five minutes became fifteen, fifteen became a half hour and after about an hour had passed Cal was finally starting to accept that maybe this just wasn't a prank. That no one was going to pop out from behind the nearest tree, laugh their ass off at him and then show him the way out. If that was the case, then the strangeness of the vegetation wasn't a setup and the differences of his surroundings finally started to penetrate his mind.
Trees weren't silver, just like the grass wasn't supposed to be blue. Yet what really convinced him fully and irrevocably that this wasn't some elaborate prank, he wasn't hallucinating or any other weirdity was the fact that the light from the sun wasn't that muddy red colour. Not even the best prankster in the world could fake being outside and change the colour of the light from the sun.
Well….that's fucked. So I guess I'm not going to get out of here, wherever the hell here is. So what now genius? Your all alone in a weird forest where nothing is the colour it's supposed to be, what the fuck do I do now?
"Right…Stop it, you'll go nuts that way", he said to himself.
"What would Macgyver do right now." Cal mumbled as he racked his brain trying to conjure the spirit of the tv character for inspiration. was long enough to search the nearby area. When he found no sign of another human being the idea that maybe this was exactly what it looked like began to sink in.
Think Cal think, there's got to be a way out of this. No one is going to just dump you all the way out in the bush. Cal thought, completely ignoring his surroundings. He tried to remember what happened before he woke up. He was a loner, practically a recluse who didn't go anywhere except to and from his shitty office job. He never witnessed any crimes or knew anything anyone would want to make him disappear over.
He was just a low level Customer Service Rep for a small mail order company. He didn't deal with anything to do with the companies money, mostly he just processed orders. It was a boring job, his bosses where idiots who would probably one day ruin the company and his co-workers were barely classified as intelligent life forms. If it would have been allowed he was pretty sure his job title would have been Office Bitch. He despised working there, but it put food on the table, kept a roof over his head and allowed him to pay the bills plus a little left over that allowed him to afford the odd gaming subscription and his medication.
As time went by, the initial panic of the situation started to fade as the time stretched. Five minutes became fifteen, fifteen became a half hour and after about an hour had passed Cal was finally starting to accept that maybe this just wasn't a prank. That no one was going to pop out from behind the nearest tree, laugh their ass off at him and then show him the way out. If that was the case, then the strangeness of the vegetation wasn't a setup and the differences of his surroundings finally started to penetrate his mind.
Trees weren't silver, just like the grass wasn't supposed to be blue. Yet what really convinced him fully and irrevocably that this wasn't some elaborate prank, he wasn't hallucinating or any other weirdity was the fact that the light from the sun wasn't that muddy red colour. Not even the best prankster in the world could fake being outside and change the colour of the light from the sun.
Well….that's fucked. So I guess I'm not going to get out of here, wherever the hell here is. So what now genius? Your all alone in a weird forest where nothing is the colour it's supposed to be, what the fuck do I do now?
"Right…Stop it, you'll go nuts that way", he said to himself.
"What would Macgyver do right now." Cal mumbled as he racked his brain trying to conjure the spirit of the tv character for inspiration.
"OK, first assess the situation. What is my condition, what are my resources."
Cal then sat on a rock and began to pat himself down, checking for any injuries or any condition that may affect his ability to survive.
"Ok, no injuries and this place, wherever the hell here is doesn't seem to be adversely affecting me. So let's assume for now that I'm not just going to drop from exposure to a foreign body or anything. Not like I can really do anything about that if it happened."
Cal then checked his trouser pockets and pulled out his wallet, a cigarette lighter, a packet of smokes, his keys and some change.
"Hmm, so whatever happened it seems to have happened fast and taken me completely by surprise. That's not exactly good but then it could be worse. I could be tied up in a basement somewhere being told to rub lotion on my skin."
Cal sorted through his wallet, keeping the condom and throwing out the rest. He remembered from the survival videos that he used to frequently watch on You-tune that it would come in handy when he found a water source. It was the only container he had and the spermicide would keep the water sanitary for extended periods of time even if the taste and the thought of it left something to be desired.
That was it, the sum total of what he had to survive…..for now. After a few minutes of thought Cal tossed the smokes, he'd been meaning to quit anyway and while going cold turkey would suck, it was going to happen anyway and the sooner he embraced the suck the sooner he'd get through the worst of it.
Alright, there's no time like the present. Cal thought as he gathered his courage and set off into the silver forest.