UNTOLD


As darkness fell across the forest she switched on a headlamp, squatting in the dirt at the base of a gigantic cedar tree. Her phone still had no signal. Em breathed for a moment. Then she dug through her backpack, taking an inventory of her supplies. She had a knife, a lighter, a compass, a poncho, a first-aid kid, a steel canteen of water, an apple, some cheese, a bar of chocolate, a notebook, a pencil, some tortoiseshell eyeglasses, a roll of duct tape, an emergency blanket, her badge for work, and a solar charger. Her breath was becoming steam in the air. She was freezing. She took out the emergency blanket. She zipped up her backpack. She wrapped the emergency blanket around her body, nestling back into the trunk of the tree. She switched off the headlamp. She could hear ferns rustling in the darkness. Frogs were chirping. She had always been afraid of being alone. She felt like crying. She sat there listening to the sounds of the forest until eventually her eyes flickered shut and her head tilted back and her body went limp and fluorescent colors began to shimmer across her vision. A cyborg drifting off to sleep in the wilderness.