Chapter 2
Breckenridge, CO
0400 March 26th, 2020
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
Nate reached for his phone, glancing at the time before dismissing his alarm. He sat up as he shook his head, as if to get rid of his sleepiness. Stretching his arms in the process.
"All or nothing." He whispered on his way up. Reaching for his OCPs he had left in the bedstand last night. He went to the bathroom , turning the shower on. Nathan liked hot water , but he wanted a clear head in the morning , leaving the faucet on the 'cold' side.
After taking his clothes off, he rushed inside. Grunting from the freezing water hitting every pore in his skin. He couldn't help but gasp and jump a little bit constantly.
He rapidly washed his body with soap , as he reached for the shampoo with his other hand. Four minutes later , he shut off the shower getting out with a light but exhilarating "Wooo."
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Nathan tripled checked he had everything before closing his ruck, dropping it off in the back of his Model S.
He had already had breakfast, so he decided to head to his destination without stopping.
On his drive , Nate was reminiscent of his days in the Army. He had enlisted as a 68W, commonly referred as a Combat Medic, getting a chance to try out of special forces in the form of a 18D after taking Ranger course training and Airborne. He had honestly just done those two courses for the increase in pay.
He had not been with his unit for more than one year, having been promoted to E-5 , deployed to Iraq once, when he got an opportunity of a lifetime. To become an operator , he had heard of Delta Force before, but it was all hush hush. Even the military never officially declared them part of the Army until just recently.
After passing through an arduous selection process where most of the people with him either dropped out or were injured , he qualified for The Unit's OTC. Known as the Operator Training Course. Six months of non-stop training. Finally ending up in Fort Bragg, NC.
He loved his country, even after doing somethings he would not want to remember, most of what he did was strictly confidential , he wouldn't have to talk about it.
Staying for his contract length of four years, plus two extra he extended, all the while he did online classes, wanting to get most of his dream career done before he got out of the Army. Finishing his Mechanical Engineering in MIT.
He moved back to his place of birth, a tiny famous skiing town in Colorado , the town of Breckenridge. He soon found a job, mostly online, in the near city of Denver.
Having reached his destination, Nathan snapped out of it , parking his car in a dirt parking lot. He quickly got his things, before tightening the straps and marching on into the woods and mountain ahead.
Nate had been in this national forest many times before, he knew it like the back if his hand. He still followed the main trail most of the way, before pulling his compass at a certain intersection of paths. He could take the left to a campinggrounds area, or go right to view the top of the mountain.
But what he wanted was to head off trail, deeper into the mountain, he took a game trail perpendicular to the mountain trail. A few sips from the camelpouch later , and he had already walked for more than three hours. He glanced down at his watch, 1015 , he had it set for military time.
"Not bad, almost there."
There was something really peaceful about hiking in nature, the only sounds around you are mostly birds trying to get the opposite sex's attention , or just the trees themselves.
Which was why he was pulled out of his reverie when wind picked out of nowhere. Nate glanced about him, while he was deep into the forest and still climbing up on the side of the mountain, the game path left enough room to see the sky clearly , he could still see the sun behind him, and not a cloud in the sky.
The wind picking up felt kind of eerie , he couldn't explain, but his senses were screaming 'danger'. A fog started forming from out of nowhere, but at the same time it was all around him.
RUMBLE
BOOM
The sound of thunder came out of nowhere , the fog was so dense, Nate couldn't even see his hands in front of his face. He started double timing forward. He knew he wasn't too far from a clearing he had been to before.
The fog had a menacing violet tint to it, the sound of thunder continued non stop.
BOOM. BOOM. BOOOOM.
The last one resonated in his ears until they felt like they just popped.
And suddenly. Nothing. No sound. Not even a ringing.
Nathan raised his hand to feel his faze, touching his ears for any blood coming out. The sound of silence was more suffocating than the sound of thunder.
Nate stayed in place, feeling comfort in the fact he could feel the soil beneath his boots. Just like how it left, all sound just rushed in at once, catching him in surprise.
"What the fuck?" Nathan had been preoccupied trying to figure out what to do, that when the sound hit him all at once, he did not even notice that the fog had disappeared.
Nate questioned if what just happened, really happened. Glancing around he experienced a strong gut feeling. "The trees..." He whispered.
The trees were different. Some of them were pines, but they were not the pines he was standing next to a few seconds or minutes ago.
Nathan eyed the trees for a second before looking up at the sky.
"Fuck" He muttered. The sun was facing in front of him. He had not turned , yet somehow he was facing east.
Nate noticed his breathing had picked up, he was almost to the point of hyperventilating. "Calm down."
He slowed his breathing. This was his field. "Focus on your training. You can freak out later." One of the things that he valued the most from his training, was the ability to compartmentalize.
He pushed everything he was feeling to the back of his mind, he would get to it "...Whenever I can."
"First things first. Where am I?"
He pulled out his phone from his pocket. No signal.
Nathan glanced about him, eyeing each tree. He spotted one that would work for what he wanted, it stood taller than the rest. Nate dropped his ruck, digging inside for his binoculars and approached the tree.
He began climbing it in earnest, using some of the branches to propell himself forward. Once he got as far up as possible , and had a great view of his surroundings, he took out his binoculars from his pockets.
First glancing east towards the sun. He could only see trees rolling on an on as far as his binoculars could see. The terrain sharply rose up towards the horizon. "Mountains."
Towards the north he could see a single mountain stretching towards the clouds. Not a mountain he could recognize from Colorado, he pushed that to the back of his brain.
Towards the south he could see the trees were lower. "Plains." But they still went on towards the horizon.
Turning west, away from the sun, the terrain was mostly just rolling hills with the forest continuing on. He was about to place his binoculars down, when he spotted a break not only in the tree line , but it looked like on the hills as well.
"A river? Maybe." It was as good a chance as any. Placing his binoculars back in his pockets, he started the climb back down.
"Just keep moving forward. You got your objective, now do it." Nathan demanded from himself.
Staring at the compass on his ruck strap, he moved until facing west , and moved one foot after the other.
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Checking his watch , it was 1340, he estimated that he had trekked around twenty-five miles. He could finally hear the sound of the river. "That must be a strong current."
Nate eventually arrived at the river bank. Even without his binoculars , he could tell the river must be a mile wide. The current was stronger than what he imagined.
Putting his ruck down and taking out one of his canteens on the side, he approached the river , filling it up of water.
He first took a small sip, moving it around his mouth , but the taste was one of the , if not the , freshest tasting water he ever had. He continued taking a few more sips before refilling it once more.
"Well, at least I won't run out of water." He chuckled.
Nathan went back to his ruck, putting his canteen back and reaching for the other one to fill it up.
He reached into one of the side pouches and pull put a Beef Stew MRE. Looking at it , than looking back at the river. "A fresh meal is always better."
Nathan put the MRE back and dug into his ruck for his collapsible fishing rod. Making sure to set it up properly , he pulled out one of his plastic worms, attaching it to the hook.
He placed the fishing rod to the side, while pulling out his E tool , his fire starter , and a hunting knife.
He looked around the river bed, spotting a few rocks. Strolling for a few minutes until finding enough for what he needed.
Returning back to his ruck , he started digging a little using the E tool. Making a fire pit using the rocks he brought with him.
"Need some wood now." Nate said as he looked over his work. "Ha, not that kind of wood." He chuckled.
Finding small dry branches was not a hard task at all, there were quite a lot in his surroundings. He gather them all into a small stack and place them next to the firepit. Sorting out the ones he could use , placing them in a triangle inside the makeshift firepit.
"Time to go fishing."
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Nate stood next to the fire , eating his second fish. He had a good haul today, catching four big trout looking fish. After eating and burying his leftovers. He used the e tool to extinguish the fire.
He placed both cook fish that he had not eaten in one of the leaves he found. Rolling it , and using some bark he peeled off to tight it. "This will be a good meal for later. I should have brought salt and some spices though."
Making sure everything was just like he found it , not counting the firepit, as he was leaving it for a landmark.
Looking at his watch , the time was 1509 , glancing on top of him at the sun, the time seemed to match, give or take an hour.
Nate decided to once again climb a tree to get his bearings. No matter which cardinal direction he looked , it was either trees or mountains.
"I should follow the river downstream, it should lead me to civilization." Nathan said outloud as he climbed down.
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"It's 1830, sun will most likely go down in an hour or two." Nathan glanced to his right, he couldn't see the sun anymore due to the trees, and the river getting narrower. It was still at least 60 feet wide.
He glanced around at the trees in his vicinity. "Third time is the charm right?" He said as he took his ruck off and began a climb once again. Getting to the top Nate took out his binoculars and stared south, directly downstream from the river.
To his surprise , he could see a human structure, what look like a granite tower on top of a hill, and what look like houses around it. Before that he could see the end of the forest line , and a river bifurcation.
'Things were finally looking up!'