Jim woke with the blazing sun piercing through one of the tent windows.  He had no idea how long he'd been asleep, but the sun seemed to indicate it was around nine in the morning.  Veronica was no longer next to him.  Connor and Lydia had already packed up everything in the tent.

Jim shimmied his legs off the inflatable bed.  Jim began searching for his footwear and clothes.  Yawning, he got dressed and unzipped the tent.  A cool morning breeze hit his face, he breathed in deeply, stretching his arms to the sky.  He looked around and found no one in the immediate vicinity. He wondered where everyone was, but was slightly more concerned about his own dehydration.

Jim walked over to the stream next to him and knelt down.  He couldn't be sure how clean the water was, let alone if it was safe to drink.  Jim scooped a handful of water and brought it to his face.  He sniffed it a couple of times to make sure it didn't smell funny.  Satisfied with the results, he took a small sip.  It didn't taste too bad, he thought to himself, so he took a full handful between his cupped hands, and took a very large mouthful.  His mouth was more dry than he thought it was.  He could feel moisture returning to his tongue when the water came in contact with it.  A few more gulps of that fresh spring water was exactly what he needed.  He took another handful or two and mussed his hair around.  They didn't have any soap, but they could at least use water to try and clean themselves.  Using his fingers to comb his hair back, he stood back up and walked back over to the tent.

While it would have been nice to have some help in dismantling the tent, he knew how to do it alone.  It was far easier to dismantle the tent in this beautiful morning weather than it was to try and set it up in an impending storm with the wind whipping, and rain pelting his face.

After Jim got the tent packed away, he really started to wonder where everyone was.  He'd been awake for a half an hour at least, and yet, there was no sign of anyone.  He stood back from the sound of cascading water and listened.  He stood listening for about ten seconds before calling out to anyone.

"Veronica?!" he shouted.  "Connor, Lydia?!" he stood for a few more moments but heard nothing.

Now he was starting to get concerned.  They couldn't have just left him behind.  They certainly wouldn't just leave him, would they? It seemed entirely out of character for all of them.

Jim had a decision to make, should he just wait there for a little bit and hope they showed up, or should he continue downstream, and hope they were further down for some reason, with a plan to come back.  He truly didn't know.  How long would he wait before deciding that something was actually wrong?  The thought of something actually being wrong was now in his mind, and he couldn't silence the thought.  He didn't want to panic though.  Panicking wouldn't help anything at this moment.  He took another look around and decided that he should continue following the stream.  Before he did that though, he knew he needed to leave a marker of some kind.  If they did show up again, and he was already long gone, they'd need to know somehow, some way that he had continued on.

Jim searched briefly on the forest floor and found some large dead sticks and a couple of rocks.  He arranged them on the ground in such a way that the rocks formed a line, and used the sticks to form the rest of the arrow pointing in the direction that he was heading.  Satisfied with the results, he stood up and picked up his backpack.

Jim began walking along the stream which began to widen out a little more into a small river.  Jim would occasionally call out to them in hopes that they were also downstream, and would respond.  Nothing.  In between calls, he would wait a couple of minutes just listening while he walked.  He couldn't help but notice his surroundings in the process.  The trees on his left were a variety.  Pine, oak, and spruce.  He could almost smell the bark.  The aroma surrounding him was very striking, fresh rainfall had that effect on plant life.  

The small river on his right was narrowing again.  He looked over to the other side.  There was more forest with the occasional moss covered boulder.  Averting his attention back to his current path caused him to notice something unusual about fifty yards away from him.  There was something on the shore.

He hurried his pace a little and got closer to the object.  When he got close enough, he immediately recognized it.  A fishing pole was lying on the ground.  It was a very rudimentary fishing pole, but it was set up.  Kneeling down to inspect it, he quickly glanced upward and searched with his head on a swivel.  There was no one in sight.

Jim stood back up and started calling out their names again, this time with a little more urgency.  This was definitely not a coincidence.  As far as Jim was concerned, his crew was missing, and this fishing pole was the only evidence that human interference had happened.  Jim was baffled by the discovery.  Suddenly, a branch could be heard snapping in the distance behind him.

Jim spun around quickly.  It wasn't easy to see much through the thick foliage of the forest, but he strained anyway, trying to catch a glimpse of whatever made that noise.  Human or animal, he couldn't be sure.  Another snap happened.  This one sounded closer, but not by much.  He realized it was pointless to try and see anything through the foliage, and knew he had to venture into the woods to find the source.  Whatever it was, he needed to be on guard.  Having no real weapons, Jim managed to find a large stick about three feet in length, it seemed sturdy enough.

Jim began walking in the direction of the sound.  As quietly as he tried to walk, the fallen twigs on the ground would occasionally snap as well.  The snapping sound happened again, this time much closer, it couldn't have been more than twenty yards away.  Jim ducked down very close to the ground.  Jim had stopped moving altogether, and just observed, listening.  Hearing nothing further, he slowly advanced forward toward the sound he had heard.  About twenty yards in, he found broken branches on the ground.  He looked up and could see where they broke off of a dying tree.  He looked back down wondering if those branches breaking was the sound he heard.  He crouched down to better inspect the branches, knowing that he knew very little, if anything, about tracking.

"Don't move!"

A voice came from maybe a foot behind him.  Every muscle in his body tensed up at these words, filling him with a sense of dread.

"Turn around slowly."

Jim very slowly complied.  Turning around, he saw a man standing there.  This man had very long hair and a beard to match.  He wore a tunic made of big, thick leaves and other materials.  He wore sandals made of similar materials and wood with some kind of fibrous material that kept his shoes on.  The most notable thing about this man at that moment was the very large, makeshift bow and arrow he had.  The arrow was trained at point blank range, right at Jim's face.

"Are you with the others?" The man spoke, wild eyed, and grit in his voice.

Stunned, Jim couldn't begin to find his voice.  All he could do was nod.

"Drop the stick."  The man commanded, giving direction to throw it away.

Jim did exactly what he was told.

"You gonna give me any trouble if I put this bow down?" The man asked.

Jim shook his head.  The grizzled man studied Jim for a few more moments, and lowered his bow.  Apparently he had decided that Jim wasn't a threat.

"You hungry?" The man asked

Jim nodded his head.

"Okay, then, some with me, you're gonna need to know about your friends." The man said in his gruff voice.

Jim knew he had no other option than to follow this man wherever he was being taken to.  What did he mean about his friends, was he referring to his crew?  Whatever it was, it couldn't be good.  The only thing he knew for sure, was that this man seemed to know where Veronica, Connor and Lydia were.  He knew he had no choice.  If he wanted answers, this may be the only person on earth who could tell him how to find them.