Rise of The Fallen

Kora-

The smell of something burning filled my nose, stirring me awake. Strangely enough, this wasn’t just the scent of wood burning from the fire. No, this was something else with…a sweet undertone to it?

I squinted groggily at the cave’s ceiling, both reassured and annoyed that I was here. Reassured because it meant I was still alive and had shelter, but annoyed that I was still stuck on this dumb planet, and that the last few days hadn’t all been a horrible nightmare.

Groaning, I rubbed the sleep from my eyes. Breathing in, the scent of something sweet burning finally drew my attention to the fire. What the fuck was that smell? I looked over to the firepit that was little more than embers, brow furrowing in confusion as I caught sight of something different.

Why was there a big rock in the middle of the pit?

Squinting, I sat up to take a closer look, more than a little confused. No, it wasn’t a rock, it was the nut from last night. Why was it deformed? Realization washed over me right as my stomach growled. My eyes widened as I quickly kicked the old furs off me and grabbed my fire poking stick.

Nudging the coconut, it easily came apart and started oozing some kind of gelatin-like substance with little black seeds inside. Holy shit! It cracked open! I quickly tried to get the pieces out of the coals, cursing a few times as I burned my fingers. Most of the nut was destroyed by the fire, but I managed to scavenge a tiny morsel before it was completely burned to a crisp, fitting it right into my palm.

Blowing on the strange fruity substance in my hand, I carefully inspected it as it cooled, the remaining shape crumbling until it was all liquid, and oozing down my hand. My stomach growled as some of it leaked onto the floor, wasted. Fuck it. Bringing the leftovers to my mouth, I took a bite without a second thought.

I think I moaned as a sweet, decadent flavor exploded on my tongue. Strawberry–fucking–jello! Fuck, I didn’t even care if it was poisonous, eating every bit I could and licking the juices off my fingers when I’d devoured everything else. I never thought I’d be so desperate for gelatin, but I’d eat just about anything at this point.

Sitting back on my furs, licking my fingers clean. How had the nut cracked open? I couldn’t even put a scratch in that damn shell last night, and I didn’t even remember tossing it into the pit before falling asleep, so it must have rolled in. I stared at the coals and burnt remains of the fruit, wondering what the hell had happened.

Did the heat from the fire cause its shell to weaken? Was it possible the shells reacted like Earth’s pinecones? Those only opened up when exposed to heat, which would make sense here. The shell would protect the seeds inside until a heatwave or something hit in Spring, then they would crack open and animals could eat the insides.

I’ve gotta test this theory…

Grabbing my canteen, I took a big gulp of water before grabbing my bag and heading outside. The damn tree lizards were at it again with their constant chirping as the planet’s suns lit up the forest. Following the marked trees from yesterday, I traveled until I found exactly what I was looking for.

There were a few less coconuts scattered on the ground today, but there were still more than enough for me to choose from. I gathered three good looking ones near the base of a tree, stuffing them into my rucksack before making my way back to the cave, gathering sticks as I went.

Beams of sunlight poked through the top of the dense forest as I moved, warming me to the point that sweat dotted my brow. Various brightly colored ferns and strange plants unlike anything I’d seen from Earth grew all around me, giving the greenish-blue hue of the forest more vibrancy. The tree lizards climbed up thick vines that hung from some of the more massive trees, moving from one spot to another, munching on the seed pods up above. The scenery was quite pleasant, and I managed to relax a bit as a cool breeze kissed my skin.

After returning to my cave, I brought the firepit back to life, eagerly setting one of the fruits by the edge of the fire. At first nothing happened. I impatiently poked at the shell with my stick, hoping it would miraculously crack open. Still nothing.

After a few more minutes of watching the flames grow higher while the nut remained unmoving, my excitement over the prospect of food began to dwindle away. Maybe the heat wasn’t responsible for it opening at all, and I’d just gotten lucky. Had the first one been just waiting to pop open at any minute? Maybe it had been perfectly ripe, and this one just…wasn’t.

This planet is just torturing me...

Sighing, I eyeballed the other two weird coconuts peeking out of the top of my bag, feeling hopeless. My stomach growled angrily, but there was hardly anything left from the fruit earlier. And now there were three more in my possession, but I couldn’t even open them. How cruel was that?

Seriously Xanadis, fuck you.

A distinct cracking sound pulled me out of my thoughts, and my gaze jumped back to the fire, just in time to see the fruit I had placed at the edge of the flames begin to crack.

My eyes widened as it cracked even more and started oozing.

“Yes!” I cried, quickly pulling it away from the fire with a stick as it began to deform. I let it cool off slightly before prying the shell in half, exposing the juicy, jelly goodness inside. “Never mind, Xanadis! I take it back, thank you!”

Bringing the coconut to my lips, I tipped it, letting the jello slip into my mouth. I barely gave myself a chance to breathe, swallowing the thick substance until the shell was empty. I couldn’t eat anymore anyway, laying back on the furs with a full belly.

I knew the fruit was only a temporary solution, but at least for now I wouldn’t be starving. It could tide me over for now, but eventually I would need some proper food. I would need to hunt.

The only issue with that? I had no decent weapons I could hunt with, nor any experience hunting animals, much less alien animals! Those tree lizards might have been little demons, but I’d apologized after knocking one from a tree. And then I’d gotten my ass kicked by a hoard of them. How the hell did I think I was going to walk up to one and stab it with my knife?

Groaning, I continued to relax for a bit before getting up and going outside. Now that I had food and water, for now, my next course of action was to explore the area surrounding my cave for more resources. More sustainable food and a steady water source would be ideal.

Retracing my steps from before, I heard some growls coming from behind a bush. Curious, I moved closer and found two of those small tree lizards fighting over…a shoe?

Were there just the two? After a quick glance around, I didn’t see any other lizards, which meant this might be the perfect opportunity to hone my lackluster skills and attack. Grabbing a large rock, I hurled it at them with all my might, cursing under my breath when my throw went wide. They quickly dropped the shoe, making frantic, high-pitched cries before scattering under another bush and disappearing.

“Not so tough without your buddies to back you up, huh?” I yelled triumphantly, even though I hadn’t managed to kill one.

Walking over to discover what was so damned interesting about a shoe, I covered my mouth in disgust when I got close enough. The foot was still inside of it! It looked like it had been gnawed off, disconnected from whoever’s body it belonged to.

Swallowing back bile that rose in my throat, I took a look around. There were signs of a struggle in the mud; a bit of blood, as well as tracks from whoever had been wearing the shoes, and similar large tracks I’d spotted the other day. Following the bloody trail cautiously, it wasn’t long until I stumbled upon the remains of a body that was missing a foot.

This must be the guy I saw running for his life yesterday…

There were various cuts and stab wounds across his body, and even a broken arrow lodged in his side. Those…natives really were hunting him down.

Some small insects were already buzzing around the body, and the more exposed injuries had been torn open by scavengers, with tiny claw and bite marks all over his flesh. It didn’t look like any larger predator had taken a bite out of him, which was a relief. The natives clearly hadn’t considered him as food, only a threat.

The corpse was face up in the mud, drained of his blood, no doubt from the large cut across his neck. Slitting someone’s throat was a very personal way to kill someone. I wonder why they were so intent on hunting him down…

Shaking my head to clear the thought, I knelt down next to the dead man, knowing I needed to take the opportunity to scavenge him for resources. My hand trembled a bit as I placed it over one of his pockets, willing myself to remain calm. If I just thought about what I was going to do in a clinical manner, then it wouldn’t be a big deal…even though I was thinking about looting a damned corpse.

After a deep breath, I started searching the body for anything useful, determined to not think too hard about what I was doing. The clothes were shredded, so it would be pointless to go through the trouble of stripping the body. The shoes… I glanced back to the detached foot with a grimace.

Yeah, no. He can keep those…

In one pocket, I found a survival kit notebook that had been used quite a bit based on the ink markings I spotted as I quickly flipped through the pages. One of the relay pens was tucked away in between the pages which I tossed over my shoulder without a second glance before closing the book and stuffing it in my bag. I’d have to read through it later. Maybe there was something useful written inside. In another pocket, I found a ration bar–that had been half eaten–but I wasn’t going to turn it away. Food was food. I stuffed both items into my rucksack before searching the rest of him and coming up empty-handed.

Standing up, I moved away from the body, looking him over one last time until something off to the side caught my eye; metal glinting in the afternoon suns.

His gun.

Stepping over the corpse, I picked up the discarded pistol, the weight of it heavy in my hand. Removing the mag, I sighed when I found only one bullet left inside before peering back at his ravaged corpse, his face frozen in fear and covered in splatters of blood. Maybe he should have used it on himself…

I stared back down at the gun intently, debating on whether it was even worth taking before stuffing it into my waistband. Once I was sure there was nothing else I could scavenge, I left. The last thing I planned to do was hang around the corpse until a native showed up and attacked me, or to bump into a wild animal looking for its next meal.

I knew I should have kept looking around for more resources, but despite my resolve to remain calm and collected after seeing a ravaged, dead human body, I felt more uneasy than ever in the forest. Maybe tomorrow the thought of wandering the unknown would be more appealing.

With that decided, I traveled back toward my cave, gathering as much firewood as I could find along the path, as well as two more of those fruits. With everything I’d managed to gather, I assumed I would have enough sticks to last me three nights, and food for two days if I rationed it.

After hauling all of my supplies into the cave, I decided to retire for the night. Leaving most of the supplies by the cave entrance, I dropped down onto my furs, opening the dead man’s notebook. Half of the pages were filled with day-to-day journal entries talking about his experiences on the alien world. There were also well written descriptions of certain plants and animals he had encountered, as well as information on the natives.

I perked up with interest, needing to know more about my possible enemies. According to the notebook, their weapons were dipped in poison and there were many tribes scattered within the forests. A small map was drawn across two pages, showing the territory borders as well as other landmarks and rivers.

I wasn’t quite sure where I was on the map, but if I managed to find one of these landmarks then I’d be able to find water and possibly other food sources. I might actually stand a chance of surviving long term. I turned eagerly through the pages, finding something curious. There were crude characters and symbols drawn onto the pages, reminding me of different languages back on Earth, although some characters I’d never seen before in my life. Were these words from an alien language? And what the hell were they doing in this notebook?

Had this guy been attempting to communicate with the aliens? If he was on good enough terms to speak and learn from them, then why had they hunted him down? I read through a few more pages of the alien language until I started getting weary.

Laying back on my furs, I inspected the book further and even tried sounding out some of the alien words, though I doubted I was saying half of the words right. But if learning another language could possibly save me from suffering the same fate as the man who had written this book, then so be it.

Closing the book, I sighed and stared at the campfire beside me.

There were so many questions running through my head, but little to no answers. If I didn’t learn more about this forest, and soon, I’d be screwed.

The plants are deadly, the natives are hostile, and I don’t even wanna know what other kinds of creatures are out there…

Tomorrow I’d go out and try to figure out where I was on the map. If I could manage that, then I would be able to find water and hopefully learn the dangerous areas to avoid. I didn’t even want to think about what might happen if I stumbled upon a tribe’s lands half-hazardly.

If there was one thing I’d learned today, it was that I needed to avoid the natives.

Cause as I was right now? I didn’t stand a chance.