Chapter 2: Head Trauma?
Jack looked around desperately for his backpack but only found dirt, rocks, bushes, and arm's length away from him, just past the rhododendron, a cliff edge. He was kneeling in a rhododendron bush, and it wasn't the one he'd been traversing before.
He looked up the slope, searching for his backpack, but didn't find it.
Damn! Did he lose his grip on the rhododendron and lose his pack while tumbling down the slope?
With the memory of the golden, glowy messages still fresh in his mind, he wondered what had really happened. He wasn't certain where he was, but it was possible he had lost his grip on the rhododendron he'd been traversing and taken a tumble down the slope. If this was true, then it was possible he'd struck his head, and the messages were just some kind of head trauma induced hallucination. His head was throbbing painfully, but when he checked, he couldn't find any blood, so he wasn't sure if he'd struck his head hard enough to cause a hallucination.
His thirst demanded he find water and, given that water flows downhill, going down the slope would have been the wiser choice. Except, on the other side of the bush he was in, was a sharp drop and a long fall. There was no way he could safely go that direction.
He pulled out his phone and checked the time. It was two in the afternoon, two days later. He'd been in the nothingness for two days! No wonder he was so thirsty. At the start of his hike, he'd put his phone in airplane mode to conserve battery charge. There was no reception on the trail and he didn't want it to drain the battery trying to find a cell tower. And, since he was outside coverage range, there was no point in taking his phone out of airplane mode to call for help.
He looked up the slope. This is going to suck! He thought. Even on his hands and knees, he would just slide back down unless he had something to hold on to. So, he plotted a course through the small trees and bushes, hoping there would be enough hand and footholds to make it to leveler ground.
As he began his climb, he noticed other aches and pains. Besides his head and back, his hips, right knee, and left ankle also throbbed with pain. As he climbed, he felt lethargic and weak and realized he was also extremely hungry.
Part of him just wanted to lie down and rest, but his overpowering thirst drove him onward and upward. The nearest source of water, assuming this was terra, was near the trailhead, only a few hundred meters from his car. In the other direction was Lake Valhalla, but it was further away than his car and wouldn't solve his hunger.