Sam’s Journey, Part One: Alone

CW: Ticks, blood, vomit, snake, gunshots

~ One week since Day 0 ~

Sam tossed her tattered, fur-covered shirt onto a nearby boulder. She wiped her forehead and panted, looking around to make sure she was fully covered from prying eyes before adjusting her bra. Though deep in the forest, she could still hear the distant roar of cars and semis on the highway. She smiled briefly towards the source of the comforting sound before pulling a lighter from her backpack. Her hands fumbled and she had to shake the lighter a few times, but she finally managed to get a small fire going.

“You’d think after three nights of this I’d have it down but screw me I guess…” Her croaky voice echoed off the trees eerily. It’d been four days since she had spoken to another person and hearing some voice, even her own, was better than silence. As she shoved the lighter into her pack, her claws poked another hole into the bottom of the torn bag. She sighed and drooped her head. “Great...”

The claws, tail, and fur covering her entire body were still new to her. They were new to everyone, really. The changes hadn’t gone away yet, and at this point Sam suspected that they never would. She knew it was something she’d have to get used to, much to her dismay, and she’d have to do it soon if she wanted to keep her clothes and backpack in one piece.

She carefully ran her fingers up her left forearm, feeling the somewhat coarse and slightly matted fur that had grown all over her body. She stopped upon feeling a small, pea-sized lump attached to the side of her wrist. To her horror, she discovered a fat gray creature sucking happily on her blood. She frantically pulled it out and popped it between her forefinger and thumb, a squirt of blood oozing out onto her hand. Imaginary pins and needles scratched all over her, and without a moment’s hesitation she jumped to her feet. Her hands flew to her legs where she found two more smaller ones, they were promptly ripped away and popped. Behind her left ear she felt a small cluster of six, similar to what she’d seen on a dog once at her friend’s farm. The memory, coupled with the thought of possibly having many more unseen ticks, sickened her. She shakily fell to her knees before her stomach gave in to the nausea and emptied its contents.

The young tigress fell backwards, a sob breaking through her burning throat. She wiped her face with the matted fur of her hairy arm, then pulled her knees close to her body. 

More than anything  in the entire world, more than all the hot showers and clean shirts, she desperately wanted to go home; To have her father wrap her in a blanket and carry her to bed, to have her mother kiss her goodnight and tell her everything was going to be okay. But no matter how much she wanted it, she knew going home was impossible. She honestly wasn’t sure if she’d ever see them again, or if they were even safe. With her thoughts weighing down on her like a heavy blanket, she curled around the small fire and fell asleep...

Early the next morning Sam woke up to the rustle of dried leaves. She lay still, then slowly crept her eyes open to find a copper-colored snake inches away from her face. She gave a loud yelp before clambering away from it. The snake hissed at Sam as she scrambled to her feet in a panic. There was a boulder nearby, Sam easily yanked it out of the ground and threw it at the snake. She missed, but the snake, startled by the tigress’s aggression, slithered into the underbrush.

The rapid thumping of her heart echoed in her ears. As she looked down at the boulder she had just picked up, she froze as a realization hit her: That boulder must easily weigh 300 pounds, but she hoisted  it over her head and threw it like it was a kid’s toy. Thoughts raced in her head as she absentmindedly began to brush leaves and debris out of her fur. She circled the boulder and nudged it with her foot. Maybe it was hollow? Maybe…

Sam looked around and found another boulder nearby that was roughly the same size as the other one. Carefully placing a hand on either side of the stone, she plucked it off of the forest floor as easily as if it were a movie prop. After a moment of tossing it in the air and catching it, she tried holding it with just one hand and found that it was just as weightless as it was with two hands. Shock turned to surprise, then delight as she casually tossed it aside. Extending her claws, she approached an even larger boulder and scratched hard on its surface. Four claw marks cut deep gashes into the stone. A smile crept across her face.

“Okay,” she whispered to herself, “that’s actually kind of coo--” The sudden bang of two gunshots interrupted her discovery. She twisted toward the sound, her ears laid back. “That doesn’t sound far...hunters, probably…” She thought out loud. She frantically shoved her things into her backpack and hastily dropped a large boulder on the embers of her fire to smother it. 

“It’s okay, it’s just hunters.” She whispered reassuringly to herself, “And even if it’s not, at least I’m strong enough to defend myself.” She gave a quick look over her shoulder before jogging in the opposite direction that the shots had come from.