Elsewhere: A Survival Story

[Snating]

Hello all! I've been lurking on these forums for quite a while and have really enjoyed reading survival stories on here so I decided to try my hand at writing my own! 

This is on Voyager difficulty. I hope you enjoy!

Day 1

I woke up to a cloudy sky and crows flying overhead.  I closed my eyes for a moment more before I noticed how cold I was. I sat up and saw I was surrounded by snow. Gray trees marked the landscape like monoliths. Wind blew icy spikes into my face as I stumbled towards what looked like picnic tables. There was a can of soda half buried in the snow. I grabbed it then dropped it with a hiss when the frigid aluminum burned my hand.

I took off my scarf and used it to pick up the soda can and put it in my backpack. I had a backpack apparently. And a scarf, and… what is going on exactly? Where did these things come from? Where am I? The cold started to bite into me. Warmth first, thinking later. I turned away from the picnic tables and saw a frozen corpse have buried in snow. I felt my stomach turn and I ran in the opposite direction, and tripped over a piece of fire wood, face planting into the snow. I shook off the snow, and shivered, willed myself to take a few deep breaths and calm down. I put the firewood in my backpack and picked a direction at random.

I ended up at a small pond with a few overturned rowboats and a fishing hut in the middle of it. A dear spotted me and bolted when I stepped on the ice. I collected anything that might be useful, scraps of food, cloth, I remembered from somewhere that cattails and reshi mushrooms are edible so I grabbed those. The cold started becoming unbearable and my fingers went numb. I tucked my hands close against me and jogged towards a bridge.

The path felt endless. I jogged as much as I could, then walked for stretches, the pushed my frozen body forward again. A fog set in and all snowdrifts started to look the same. What if I was going into a circle? Am I going to die out here?

I kept my head down and ran faster, blindly, hoping I could at least out run my panic. A metal fence appeared out of nowhere. There was a tall radio tower inside the perimeter and a tiny building. I crouched through a gap in the fence and went inside the building.

I sat down on the bed to catch my breath, then started looting the place. I found food, two military style coats, rifle ammunition, some sad driving gloves, a first aid kit, boots, and a hunting rifle. There was a lot of electrical devices. I wondered if I could use the radio equipment to maybe send a signal to get help, but nothing happened when I pressed all the buttons on the panels. The outlets didn’t seem to work either.  

I set myself in survival mode, and pushed my questions and fears out of my head.  

The coats were in bad shape and I repaired them with a sewing kit and some spare cloth. Tore up my old leather shoes for some spare leather to repair the boots later, then collapsed in bed

 Day 1 (night)

I woke to an electrical hum. Every piece of electrical equipment was flashing and flickering in bright white lights with an eerie whine. I leapt out of bed and scrambled for the door.

Once outside I realized I’d been holding my breath and I took deep painful gulps of the frigid night air. I felt dizzy and sick, my heart was trying to wrench away from my chest.

I need to get out of here I can’t stay here I’m alone out here I’m going to die out here nobody can help me I can’t do this I can’t be here I need to I don’t know what’s happening or why I’m here or what is going on or-

I struggled to pull my thoughts out of a tailspin. The cold shook me and I looked up to see a haunting aurora amongst the stars.

It was enough of a distraction to ease back into myself. I took a few deep breaths, realized how chilled I had gotten. I wasn’t about to walk back in the building quite yet. Those electronics were…unsettling.

I made a fire and boiled some water, and wrote in this journal until close to dawn.

[JAFO]

I like.. especially all the little details you added to pad out the game mechanics into something more like the way a person would behave.

Looking forward to more.

(Oh.. and welcome to the forums!)

[Thrasador]

6 hours ago, Snating said:

Hello all! I've been lurking on these forums for quite a while and have really enjoyed reading survival stories on here so I decided to try my hand at writing my own! 

This is on Voyager difficulty. I hope you enjoy!

Day 1

I woke up to a cloudy sky and crows flying overhead.  I closed my eyes for a moment more before I noticed how cold I was. I sat up and saw I was surrounded by snow. Gray trees marked the landscape like monoliths. Wind blew icy spikes into my face as I stumbled towards what looked like picnic tables. There was a can of soda half buried in the snow. I grabbed it then dropped it with a hiss when the frigid aluminum burned my hand.

I took off my scarf and used it to pick up the soda can and put it in my backpack. I had a backpack apparently. And a scarf, and… what is going on exactly? Where did these things come from? Where am I? The cold started to bite into me. Warmth first, thinking later. I turned away from the picnic tables and saw a frozen corpse have buried in snow. I felt my stomach turn and I ran in the opposite direction, and tripped over a piece of fire wood, face planting into the snow. I shook off the snow, and shivered, willed myself to take a few deep breaths and calm down. I put the firewood in my backpack and picked a direction at random.

I ended up at a small pond with a few overturned rowboats and a fishing hut in the middle of it. A dear spotted me and bolted when I stepped on the ice. I collected anything that might be useful, scraps of food, cloth, I remembered from somewhere that cattails and reshi mushrooms are edible so I grabbed those. The cold started becoming unbearable and my fingers went numb. I tucked my hands close against me and jogged towards a bridge.

The path felt endless. I jogged as much as I could, then walked for stretches, the pushed my frozen body forward again. A fog set in and all snowdrifts started to look the same. What if I was going into a circle? Am I going to die out here?

I kept my head down and ran faster, blindly, hoping I could at least out run my panic. A metal fence appeared out of nowhere. There was a tall radio tower inside the perimeter and a tiny building. I crouched through a gap in the fence and went inside the building.

I sat down on the bed to catch my breath, then started looting the place. I found food, two military style coats, rifle ammunition, some sad driving gloves, a first aid kit, boots, and a hunting rifle. There was a lot of electrical devices. I wondered if I could use the radio equipment to maybe send a signal to get help, but nothing happened when I pressed all the buttons on the panels. The outlets didn’t seem to work either.  

I set myself in survival mode, and pushed my questions and fears out of my head.  

The coats were in bad shape and I repaired them with a sewing kit and some spare cloth. Tore up my old leather shoes for some spare leather to repair the boots later, then collapsed in bed

 Day 1 (night)

I woke to an electrical hum. Every piece of electrical equipment was flashing and flickering in bright white lights with an eerie whine. I leapt out of bed and scrambled for the door.

Once outside I realized I’d been holding my breath and I took deep painful gulps of the frigid night air. I felt dizzy and sick, my heart was trying to wrench away from my chest.

I need to get out of here I can’t stay here I’m alone out here I’m going to die out here nobody can help me I can’t do this I can’t be here I need to I don’t know what’s happening or why I’m here or what is going on or-

I struggled to pull my thoughts out of a tailspin. The cold shook me and I looked up to see a haunting aurora amongst the stars.

It was enough of a distraction to ease back into myself. I took a few deep breaths, realized how chilled I had gotten. I wasn’t about to walk back in the building quite yet. Those electronics were…unsettling.

I made a fire and boiled some water, and wrote in this journal until close to dawn.

Nice, you have some amount of creative writing ability! I do not, I am a scientist and seem to only be good at reporting exactly what transpires without artistic embellishment. I am good at lab reports. My mother actually wrote all my English papers and poetry assignments in high school and college. I just don't seem to have that creative right side of my brain working, I seem to be all left brain.

I've always been fascinated by people who can just pull fictional stories out of their butt like that! It's very cool!

If you continue you could use The Long Dark as your muse, and actually turn the happenings in the game into material for stories. Others have done this already, but yours seems better to me so far...

I'm pretty sure some aspects of autism are due to inactivity of portions of the right brain. I have read scientific papers about people receiving severe trauma to portions of the right hemisphere of their brain, and then behaving socially as if they have Aspergers....like over-sharing, failure to pick up on social queues, etc. Some people due to SEVERE seizures undergo hemispherectomies sometimes, and they remove a whole half of their brain. When they remove the right half....again sometimes there is social dysfunction....almost like high functioning autism.....

Sorry I just over-shared.....that's what your post made me think of...

Welcome to the forums! Lol!

[Snating]

Thanks so much for the replies! @JAFO @Thrasador I'm glad you like it so far!

I actually am currently completing physics major and a creative writing minor at college so I guess I have a little bit of both the science and creative mindset. Anyways on to day 2!

 

Day 2

I couldn’t remember how I ended up here. Or much of anything beyond that actually. I couldn’t even remember my name. That’s retrograde amnesia, specifically of the episodic memory. Odd that I know that but not my name.

Maybe its better that I can’t remember.

My past doesn’t really matter anyway. What matters is what’s happening now. Mindfulness and all that.

I kept peeking back in the hut to see if the lights had calmed down. It took until sunrise. I slept for a few hours more, then collected and organized my belongings.

I didn’t much want to stay any longer than I needed to. From the hill I could see what looked like a farmstead, and that seemed like a promising enough place to go. Hopefully I could find a someone there.

I stuffed my hands in the pockets of my military coat and trudged down the slope. It was so quiet out. As if the snow just swallowed all the sound. The cries of crows and the sound of woodpeckers felt muted.

It was a clear day, but somehow I got lost. I realized I walked in a circle when I spotted my own footsteps in the snow again.  Slowly freezing again, even with the warm clothes I found, I became increasingly aware of how heavy my pack was. Perhaps I went a bit overboard on all the water I boiled last night. I pushed on regardless, collecting sticks and rose hips as I went, just trying to put one foot in front of the other.

Eventually I saw two bridges and a road. I took refuge in an abandoned car briefly, and sank into the seat. As much as I wanted to take a nap, the car was barely warmer than the outdoors, so sleeping here would be a death sentence. After munching on a stale granola bar, I continued onwards.

Soon the orchard came into view, row after row of identical leafless trees on either side of a path to a dilapidated farmhouse. I knocked on the door when I got up to it, but there was no answer. The door creaked loudly on its hinges as I opened it.

It might have been cozy at some point, but it was a mess now, broken kitchen cabinets, and papers strewn everywhere, shattered picture frames and smashed furniture.

I about the family that lived here. How many memories, first steps, milestones, did they share in this house?

They probably didn’t take my invasion all too kindly.

“H-hey,” my voice felt strange, “Sorry, about all this, you know uh, I’m just in a bad spot ok?” I held up my hands in a nonthreatening way.

The house creaked in response. It’s only been a day and I’m already losing it.

I stored my things in a cabinet then crept through the entire house, combing over every crevice to see what could help me. There was a lot of food, clothes, some novels, books on marksmanship and cooking, fire wood, a magnifying lens, among other things.

 I took another look outside around the perimeter of the house and found an exterior basement. Inside there were some more goodies, a workbench and two lockers that I couldn’t get to budge. 

I went back to the main floor of the house and organized what I had. I made a fire in the stove and cooked the questionable meat I found in the freezer. As I ate, I distracted myself from the flavor by flipping through one of the novels I found.

As the fire dwindled, my eyes grew heavy. I grabbed all the blankets I could find in the house and settled in the master bedroom. I lay awake for some time, just letting my mind wander over endless scenarios and possibilities over what I should do, what would happen next, what my goals are, if I’d even ever seen another human being again. I felt myself getting trapped and tangled over the same repetitive things endlessly, so I got up and took a walk around the house to clear my head.

I stepped on something soft in the hallway by the crib and picked it up. It was a stuffed giraffe. Somehow it felt nostalgic. I brought it back to bed with me and whispered my thoughts to it before drifting off.

[CitrinePeridot]

I enjoy very much how you include details that make the whole story more of an experience as the reader experiences it with them. That was very well done, and I too look forward to more.  :-)

[Thrasador]

3 hours ago, Snating said:

I about the family that lived here. How many memories, first steps, milestones, did they share in this house?

Your welcome!

I think you missed a word here....

Figuring the word is "thought."

[Snating]

Day 3

I woke before dawn to a blizzard raging outside. I kept busy as best I could, organizing my belongings, ripping up excess clothing, mending the clothing I planned to keep. The busier I kept the less my mind could wander.

The storm subsided around midday. I figured this place could be a home base for a while. It was better than that radio hut anyways. I couldn’t just hang out in the house all day though.

I packed a few essentials then decided to go check out the red barn. I left the giraffe (I really should give it a name…actually maybe I should give myself a name first?) on the bed and told it I’d be back soon.

I guess there’s no harm in being crazy if there’s nobody around to see it.

 I stepped out onto the porch to see a bear clambering across the snowdrifts! I froze for a moment and realized I hadn’t packed my rifle, then quickly turned around and went back inside.

Bears should be hibernating in winter right?

I collected my rifle from the kitchen table. Wasn’t too confident in using it. Only 7 rounds of ammunition anyway. Should save it for when I really need it.

I read the rifle guide for an hour waiting for the bear to pass.

By the time I finally got outside it was late afternoon. There was a light snowfall, and a beautiful partly cloudy sky lit up in the beginnings of evening. I clumsily loaded my rifle the way the guide instructed and set out.

Three wolves were pacing around far to my left and I gave them a wide berth as I made my way to the road. It was a pretty uneventful trip. I was almost warm in my patched up clothing.  I checked cars I found along the way and found an archery guide in one.

When I reached the red barn I grabbed a few arrows from the archery target and went inside a side door.

The interior was musty and dim. I carefully maneuvered around shelfs and haystacks scanning for objects with my hands. I found bits of cloth and scrap metal, a pry bar, among other things.

There was a figure slumped in one corner of the barn. I held my breath and head down, then swiped the scarf and water bottle from its feet and swiftly turned away. Maybe I’ll eventually get used to it.

After searching the barn as best I could in the low lighting it was a bit too late to bother going back to the house so I busied myself with tearing up excess clothes and reading a little from the archery manual. When It was too dark to read, I smoothed out a pile of hay, spread my bedroll out on it, and tried to get to sleep.

Night 3

I woke late into the night to the faint electrical whine again. The few barn lights were flickering on and off. My chest tightened immediately and I scrambled out of my bedroll. I braced myself against the wall and tried to catch my breath.

It was the same sheer panic from before, twisting into my chest and spreading up to my throat.

It’s just lights. It’s weird but what are they going to do to you? Blind you? Take some deep breaths, stay calm, stay calm, there are scarier things than this. There’s wolves and dead bodies and the spiral of loneliness of being in an Arctic wasteland. All of those things are way scarier than flickering lights, and you’re handling those just fine. Just fine. Everything is totally fine.

My eyes moved wildly around the room and I noticed a green glow from outside. I felt my way to the door and looked outside.

It was the aurora again. I stared at it for a while. Maybe the two were connected.

I slipped back into the barn and tried to contain my fear. It was too cold to stay outside and I don’t want to waste a fire on this. I need to just face it. Nothing’s going to happen to me if I just go back to sleep. These lights were not nearly as intense as the ones at the radio hut anyway.

I slipped back into the bedroll and hummed to myself as a distraction.

[romerabr]

Great read so far.  Keep  going...