Patter.
A raindrop fell on his head.
He gathered as many leaves as he could and ran into the cave.
He set another makeshift campfire and put leaves in them.
...….
After struggling for three hours to get his campfire going, he finally realized: using green leaves was pointless—only dry ones would do.
"Ugh, that was stupid of me. I saw Mr. Cage using both dry and green leaves…maybe the fire was started with a torch off-camera?" He frowned, but fortunately, he'd already managed to start a small flame. Carefully, he blew on it, coaxing it to grow as he added a few dry sticks. He was trying to blow at it to increase its size and he slowly started adding a few dry sticks to it.
It was raining heavily outside the cave, he could hear the patter of the raindrops, the claps of thunder and smell the fresh and muddy air.
Trying to ignore the nauseating smell, he pierced the raw meat with his dagger and held it over the fire.
He took a piece of red meat and stabbed it with his dagger. He went closer to the fire and sat near it. He used his dagger to touch the fire and slowly heated the meat at the tip of the dagger.
After 6 or 7 minutes of roasting it above the heat, he looked at the juicy meat that seems to be leaking some sort of oil. He had left it on the fire for longer than he thought he would and the meat looked a little charred and looked black.
"Its edible… I think?" He sniffed it hesitantly. The scent was charred and burnt.
"I've never seen Mr. Cage eat anything like this, but it wouldn't hurt to try…right?"
He took the dagger and blew at the meat at its tip, after a few seconds he put it in his mouth and dragged the meat into his mouth.
"Hahh Hahh hot hot" he gasped, fanning his mouth as he chewed.
"Hooh" He blew at the meat in his mouth and tried eating it.
It tasted charred, gamey, oily and chewy. And most importantly it tasted so bland and bad. The charred taste clung to his tongue, greasy and foul, but he swallowed it anyway.
"Weird.." he mumbled.
He sat with his back facing towards the end of the cave. He was wary that some animal might enter the cave to seek shelter from the rain. And he was constantly blowing at the fire so it did not die out.
He put another piece of meat on the fire and walked towards the entrance of the cave. It was still raining, perhaps more heavily than before.
Through a gap in the trees, he could see the tower again.
Maybe it's an old telephone tower, or even someone's home? Either way, it seemed safer than this shit hole. He thought while looking at the cave.
The gloomy mood, the lonely rain, and the memories of him almost being wolf food. Today had been a long, exhausting day.
"I'll reach the tower and get help and get the fuck out of this weird place…." His eyes widened. He just realized, "Wait…why am I even going to the tower? That's probably a terrible idea. The dagger has the same symbol as that tower, and it glows when I point it that way. Why would I run straight toward something connected to a murder weapon?"
The more he thought about it, the more he realized that it would be a bad idea to go to the tower that looks similar to the one on his murder weapon.
"What if they kill me again?" He chuckled dryly and abandoned the idea.
Exactly as he contemplated this, The dagger suddenly buzzed vibrated, it had a red and golden hue on it and Theo's eyes became a little dilated. It too slowly started becoming red and golden before it disappeared and became black again.
"Huh? What was I doing right now?" He said out loud while looking at the rain with a confused expression.
"Oh yes I felt thirsty" he said and so he peeked his head out a little and tried to open his mouth to drink the water falling from the sky. He stood there drinking the rain with his mouth open for a good 20 minutes or so.
When he returned to the fire, the piece of meat had nearly turned to charcoal. He bit into it anyway, ignoring the gritty taste. It felt almost the same as before but now he realized something while looking at the meat that was left.
"It still looks red on the inside?" He was a little confused but he heated the meat a little more and spent the night eating a bit more meat and then pushed the corpse of the wolf away before sleeping on the cold, hard and damp floor.
He was mere feet away from the fire so he did not feel cold. It just was uncomfortable. He wished he could be on his soft bed right now but he didn't have the luxury right now.
"I hope it's a good morning tomorrow" he mumbled.
He tried falling asleep for an hour or so and finally fell asleep. He thought would find tomorrow's morning to be better.
...
The morning hit him like a punch.
He snapped awake and lurched forward, he felt his stomach twisting sharply and he put his hands against the cold hard floor of the cave, He felt a bitter taste raise up his throat and
"Blargh"
The sound of him puking got louder and louder and at some point he could not even puke anything out but he still felt discomfort in his stomach. A foul taste lingered in his mouth and he pushed himself up, he tried to walk a little only to stagger and fall near the walls of the cave.
He supported himself with the wall of the cave to look around and realized that it had stopped raining and he could smell the damp and wet mud but he was weak and burning up.
He stopped puking and couldn't puke, until he had nothing left to bring up but since the waste couldn't come up….
"Oh shit."
…..It had to come down.
He ran out of the cave as fast as he could and found a bush to reveal himself.
....
After an hour of diarrhea, he limped back inside, feeling weak and feverish. His lips were cracked and dry, his body burning up.
"Was it the meat? Or maybe the rainwater?" he wondered, his voice hoarse. He was pale, shaking, and exhausted, barely able to keep his eyes open. Still, he took his dagger and left in search of food and water.
This was a disaster.
The familiar rock serving as his landmark. He walked in the opposite direction from where he'd first arrived, weakly placing one foot in front of the other. He walked weakly with small steps, his eyes were hardly open, He didn't even get a good sleep.
Time blurred. He lost track of how far he had gone until he heard it—running water.
His eyes widened and it was like giving a dying man some water, quite literally.
He put his dagger in his pocket and ran like a mad man towards the source of the sound. He saw many bushes in the way so he pushed past the bush and ran on the wet mud-
He got closer and closer to the sound, he even hear a waterfall like the sound of water whooshing and falling down.
He felt like he had got salvation. He kept running and he heard it getting closer and closer and–
He lost his footing and slipped on the wet mud.
He slipped and fell. His initial hope and power vanished. He felt weak, He wanted to rest. He wanted to sleep. He wanted to rest.
I want to sleep and rest but what If I get up again...No. Not after all that.
He supported himself and got up, His knee hurt after the fall but he ignored it and ran again. He shouted "Arghh!!" and ran as it it would power him. And then, He ran at the edge of a bush.
Then, suddenly, his foot slipped on the wet mud yet again.
The ground disappeared beneath him, and he felt himself falling, his arms flailing as he pitched forward. Time seemed to slow down. His eyes widened----
"This is a not a good morning, this is a fucking funeral. I'm the only one attending and I'm the fucking corpse" He shouted while falling rapidly.
He saw the large lake at the bottom, he felt weakness assault him.
His mind worked rapidly but he had only one thought, I can't even fucking swim. All that to die like this. Is that it?
Everything blurred, He felt his body go limp, exhaustion finally claiming him as gravity pulled him down. As he fell, he slowly started closing his eyes as if to accept the fatigue.
"What a shit way to die," he muttered, a bitter smile forming on his cracked and muddy lips as his vision darkened.
And then—nothing.
It's cold, is this what death feels like? Theo thought to himself.