Chapter 1: Prologue

No, that’s not it.

How does it do that? Does the rope fit through here?

Where’s the… there it is.

“Done!” I excitingly proclaimed. This was my first time creating a snare trap. I read the instructions carefully again to make sure everything was the way it looked in the picture. It seemed like it would work. All an animal had to do was walk through, get a limb or preferably its head through the noose, and then if it kept moving it would tighten. All I had to do now was play the waiting game, and in the meantime I might as well get a fire going while there was still light out. I walked back to camp and dug out my fire pit from before; last night it flooded with water and the ashes turned into a wet sludge that solidified while I slept.

“Probably should of done this in the morning…” I mumbled to myself.

This time I was going to set a tarp down around the edges, and then pack it in with dry sand. The nearby creek got wider since yesterday, and now resembled a small river. Tomorrow would probably be the day I start moving again.

I had just put everything for the fire together when it started to rain again, and it was good thing the pit was covered by the trees. My tent was sitting beside it, and luckily it was above ground because a small trickle of water was emptying from the stream and was frighteningly close. My fire should at least be okay this time though. I think it was put out last time because water seeped in from underground, but the ground above was still dry around the base so the tree was doing a good job at stopping the rain. I really don't want to waste a match, but the clouds are starting to block out the sun so there is really no other option. After making sure there was plenty of spare wood I checked my watch; it was 8pm. I was also getting pretty hungry so I took my umbrella and went back to check on my trap.

Good news: it caught something. The bad thing was that I couldn’t eat feathers. Some bird must have barely escaped getting caught, so no fresh meat tonight. I went back to camp to more bad news, there was a mountain lion snooping around the camp.

Cats are very territorial if I remember. What was the best thing to do if confronted by one? I think it was to curl up into a ball and pray it leaves you alone. Or was that with bears? Did it work both ways? Wait, it doesn't even notice me yet.

I spoke too soon. After pawing at my tent it noticed me and growled. The sun was setting, and soon my only way of warding off animals would be the fire; and mountain lions apparently aren't deterred by fire. So I stood there motionless locking eyes with the cat and then it started to walk in my direction.

So I reacted with what I thought was the most logical, although probably unorthodox, thing to do time.

I took my umbrella and kept closing and reopening it again. I thought of being as intimidating as possible and so probably against my better judgment I was whooping and hollering too. I think light was reflecting off the gloss coating on the umbrella from the fire, and the rain probably helped with that too. Combined, I was somehow able to spook the animal off and it fled. Hopefully it’d never return, but I lived with a cat before and the thing was stupid and kept acting like a damn lemming, so it always got hurt.

“I guess I’m not sleeping tonight then.” I muttered under my breath, taking refuge in the tent from what looks like a coming storm.

Too whom it may concern, August 15th, 2011. Day 12.

I was writing in my journal while snacking on a power bar.

Today I met my first mountain lion, and things went better than expected; it left me alone. I won’t be sleeping tonight out of fear it may return. It’s still storming and the creak looks like it’s turning into a river. Tomorrow I’m going to be packing up and moving; I got no luck catching food here for the third day in a row. I like the forest out here, finally some adventure in my life. According to this Oregon map I’m about ten miles out of McMinnville, and from there it should be another 40 to Tillamook. I thought this trip would just take about 90 miles and a few weeks, but my math seems way off, you can never truly account for everything. I’m making about 6-10 miles a day when I move, but I’ve been trying to reserve as much food and water as possible so I’ve been staying at my campsites longer then I intended. Soon I’ll be in McMinnville where I plan to stock up, hopefully steal a car and not fail like last time.

I don’t think I told everything before, so here’s my story from before this trek of mine. The first two pages got soaked in water today, so all my writing there is ruined. That’s why I’m not writing in pen anymore. My name is Christopher Roland, and I was about 6 happily living with my parents Albany. Things… happened and I found myself in foster care with my older sister who at the time was 16. She got adopted a month later and we were separated.

The foster home was a single story building, and at any given time there was anywhere from 8-15 kids living in there. I’m surprised social services found the place livable, let alone capable of being a foster home. It was constantly falling apart, and the dad there did little to fix it up. Both he and the mom did okay at raising the kids there, in the sense they provided food and shelter. That was it. They lazily carried the place to the point it was a dictatorship. All the older kids were taking care of the younger ones, and only a few kids to ever live there had jobs, myself being one of them. However nothing in that house is sacred; everything was being stolen by everyone, there were open fistfights over stupid things that were often settled only when one of them cried uncle, and whoever did get a job was forced by the foster parents to use their minimum wage income to buy food for everyone else. However, unlike everyone else, I was smart. I would cash every paycheck I got immediately and opened a bank account. I never used any credit cards in case they got stolen, and kept my valuables in a hole hidden beneath a large rock in the front yard.

If you care to know about myself, I am about 5'8". I have hazel eyes and I'm a brunette. My hair is thick and wavy, but I like to keep it short. I never went to school so henceforth I have acquired no real friends and I learned mostly everything I know from the internet. Of the things I know; I can play drums, I know my way around some electrical wires, and I above all I learned to be resourceful. I also taught myself to sew since most of my clothes kept getting torn, and being able to sew comes in handy more often than you might think. I tend to pay attention to detail which can get annoying at times, but it can really help out when needed. So does being light on your feet; like most of the kids I reverted to stealing, but went for more than just candy and quarters. When I was twelve I stole a laptop, a year later a radio and shortly followed by this watch. About half of the some $8204 I had when I began this trip was also stolen.

A few kids tried running away before, and I don’t know if any of them succeeded. As usual an alert would go out, and any kid seen alone at night was either never heard from again or was caught by the cops and brought back. This is the main reason I don’t stick to roads, and when I get to a town I hide all my stuff in the woods so I can return for it later. My duffel bag is what I carry my clothes around in along with my food, water, and some books. When I go into a town I use the tent’s bag to store what’s in my backpack so I can go shopping. This consists of my laptop, a pocket-dictionary, a car battery that has a modified electrical socket wired to it, so it could charge my things and be charged itself if needed. I also had some duct tape, rope, a calculator, sketchbook, this journal, some pens, and a pencil sharpener. I keep the more important things, mainly my wallet (in it was money, coupons, a bookmark, and a fake ID), switchblade and smartphone, in my pockets at all times. I’ve also got an iPod, map, lock pick, and some matches on me right now too.

A year ago I read a news story about a girl who had her husband murdered in Tillamook (where I’m heading now). Too my surprise, she was my sister! She must have left her adoptive parents’ home when she was 18 and left, and my best bet is she’s living in the Tillamook area. Even though I turned eighteen last month, unlike her I still couldn’t legally leave the foster home. For some reason my foster parents found a loophole to keep me in that house to take care of everyone, since being the eldest I “Knew exactly how to handle everything.” So I packed my things, bought some other stuff such as this tent, and ran away. So here I am now. Also, if anyone finds this, that must mean I likely died and my body must be nearby. Please tell my sister. Just track down the news article from a about a year ago.

I spent the night watching My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic on my laptop which I downloaded (illegally, since I don’t use credit cards) and thankfully that mountain lion hadn’t returned. Yes, I am a Brony, but more or less I’m a closet Brony. Not having any real friends had drawn me into the internet culture of memes and cat videos and the like, and I keep up with trending topics. I also check up on the news and occasionally random web articles.

This wasn’t my first sleepless night so far, and it likely won’t be the last. I lifted my arm to check my watch and it was 6am, and as I set it back down something snagged my right arm.

Ouch… oh no. Blood.

I looked down and realized I left my switchblade open and I must have cut myself on it accidently, right below in the center of my upper arm. The cut was maybe an inch long, and bleeding is something you do not want to do out in the wilderness, especially since I forgot to get any sort of medical supplies. I usually don’t get sick, maybe once a year, so my immune system is probably pretty strong, but I hadn’t got anything worse than a fever before and who knows what could be contracted from an infection. I decided to go out to the fire and recover any embers and burn the wound shut. Thankfully there was one left, and I was very lucky considering the circumstances.

The rain stopped, but the dark clouds still lingered blocking out the sun. I thought the fire should have still been burning as I got out of the tent, but that small trickle of water in the ditch I mentioned before was now two feet wide, and the fire pit walls collapsed outward and fell into it. I quickly found a stick that was still hot on one end and jabbed it into my arm. Letting it sit for a few seconds afterwards I went turn to the creak to wash it out… but I didn't need to. The creak turned into a river overnight and was now some 12 feet wide, coming directly up to where I stood. It was also not too far from reaching my tent either. After washing off I quickly packed up before anything went wrong and continued my journey.

Odd… I’ve seen this before. I was inspecting the burn wound about an hour later.

Heh, it looks like a hexagram. But I think this kind is called “unicursal.” I never really saw one before. The lines, no, a single line builds the pattern, instead of two triangles like on a Star of David. What are the chances it looks like that? Damn I hope this doesn’t scar…