“This is fine,” I mumbled to myself, hoping I would believe my own words and ease the rising pressure in my chest. “I don’t need my phone.” I lied to myself again.

Closing my eyes and taking deep breaths, I ran through the reel of memories.

The experiment failed. Walking over to the annex. Getting into the elevator…

And then the reel flickered, images pulsed and faded too quickly. There was darkness and a figure, then a bright white light.

My eyes shot open, and anger replaced panic.

Those bastards.

Valeria had warned me when I first arrived to be careful of the ‘initiation hazing’ that some scientists engaged in. I hadn’t believed her, couldn’t believe that grown adults, professionals in their fields, would partake in such activities. Then I saw them, saw their victims looking more haggard and miserable than normal. I thought I was spared because of my last name, or out of fear for my father, but clearly I was the latest prey.

They had knocked me out. Kidnapped me and then tossed me out in the middle of nowhere.

I was fuming.

This was beyond any acceptable form of hazing, and that bar was low.

If they think I’ll wait to be rescued by them and keep quiet about what they did, they’ve got another thing coming.

Los voy a matar!

But first, I had to figure out how to get back to civilization to press charges.

I tried to remember any outdoorsy advice I had picked up growing up, but I knew very little.

Father had forced me to take swimming lessons, not paid classes either, they had been the ‘sink or swim’ kind. Throwing me over and yelling instructions at me kind. He believed that swimming was as necessary as walking, because the world was 70% water. I couldn’t argue with his logic, or I didn’t argue with it, too busy trying not to drown.

I had never attended any sleep-away camps or been part of any scouts.

Very few sleepovers in my life as well. I thought miserably.

Not because I didn’t want to, but because Father had never wanted me to be too far away from home and because ′uno nunca sabe.′

Probably why I didn’t have very many friends either, I shook my head as if wanting to dislodge that train of thought; it wasn’t the moment to be commiserating about my childhood. I’d save that for my next therapy session, where I would undoubtedly also be working through the trauma of my current predicament.

Okay, think. I must have read some survival tips at some point, I thought. Panic resettled in my gut, imagining not finding my way out of the woods before nightfall.

Follow the North Star.

I’d read that somewhere, but it wasn’t helpful, as the sun was still shining brightly, and I wasn’t going to sit here like a lame duck until nightfall. A beautiful forest though it was, something about its stillness tugged at the primal part of my brain that warned me to be out from its canopy when the sun set.

Go west toward the setting sun.

My mind whispered to me. Not bothering to examine where that advice came from or if it was right, I looked for the sun, which was now amongst the branches instead of above them.