Chapter 3: Festering Wounds
My ear was wet.
It tickled.
My eyes slowly opened.
But they quickly shut as the light made them heavier.
I took deep breaths and felt chills all over.
The tickling in my ear turned to pain as something bit it, causing me to react by quickly covering it.
A deep squeak and large footsteps sharpened my senses.
I looked up in fear as I saw a doe standing over me. It didn't last long as it made a whine and darted off.
Regardless, I was startled and already shaking.
I sat up with my knees tight to my chest as I stared wide-eyed towards the direction the deer darted off.
It never returned.
After a bit, I noticed something I didn't before.
The forest felt alive.
The gloom from before was nowhere to be seen and instead various noises of wildlife decorated the atmosphere.
Chirps and calls. Howls and ticks.
They were everywhere.
Branches moved, not because of the wind, but from flocks of birds that flew back and forth from them.
Squirrels annoyed branches and the brush shook from the ecosystems of insects.
It was completely different than yesterday's nightmare.
Or was it all a single large dream?
I was confused again.
Once again I was lost, finding myself anew in a forest.
But this time I had less. Everything I had collected was missing.
The canister of water that was tied to my belt with a tube that reached my neck was still there. The container of pills within my shirt pocket and the blades wrapped in my right pocket were also left.
The materials and electronics along with the filter were wrapped inside the torso garment of the spacesuit I turned into a makeshift bag. It was strapped to me with paracord leftover from the accident.
But no matter how much I looked it was gone.
I felt defeated.
Or rather was it even there in the first place?
It had to be.
Although most of the bandaids on my face were gone, the bandage around my stomach was drenched in dried blood.
Water also remained in my canister so that proved some of the things that happened yesterday to be true.
But the animals and their weird behavior?
It must have been a horrendous nightmare.
A nightmare that led me to sleepwalk in such an exaggerated way.
I was conflicted and frustrated. I didn't want to believe I sleepwalked and lost all of my stuff.
But after being put in such a stressful environment. Along with suffering such a devastating attack on my state of mind. I must be suffering behavioral consequences from my poor mental state.
It was the only logical explanation.
Which means I am a danger to myself.
Great.
I wanted to get angry, but I was too tired.
I don't know how much blood I had lost, and I had already gone for an entire day without eating. I had no way to know if it was longer than a day.
My stomach felt like it was shriveling up, but there wasn't much that I could do about it.
I couldn't think straight.
I didn't want to think anymore.
But sitting here any longer was akin to suicide.
I got up and continued south.
But I wasn't sure. I was too tired to make sure.
As I walked my head was filled with ideas of how to catch the critters around me.
So many animals, so many chances for food.
But I only had a single month of live survival training from the space program.
Even with proper nutrition, energy, and tools, it was extremely difficult to catch prey.
During my four years in military training, not once did I hunt for food. Most survival experiences were learned from the issues of Army manuals.
With my current physique, it was near impossible.
Insects.
I needed the energy.
Grasshoppers are everywhere and they're easy to catch.
However, they tend to carry tons of parasites. And if they recently ate a deceased animal, unwanted bacteria could easily be transmitted.
The best way is to remove the entrails and cook the legs, but there was no way I'd have the energy to set up a fire.
Raw.
Ants could be eaten raw. If I made sure to kill them so they don't sting me it should be fine, but. It's also best to boil then to dissolve the acid within their bodies if I am to eat them in large quantities.
My head was burning up and I had begun to sweat uncontrollably.
I can't afford an upset stomach in this state.
Worms and larvae are left.
I dropped to the floor and scooped the dirt until I found earthworms.
They were the safest thing I could possibly eat at the moment.
I smelled the earth for piss or excrement before I dug just incase.
I found a few and ate them.
I was in too much pain to even think much about it.
I drank some water sparingly from the canister.
And continued on.
The best way to find clean larva is within a decaying tree.
As I ambled through the forest I used whatever energy I had to watch out for any fallen trees.
My stomach began to feel extremely itchy.
I unzipped my suit.
I decided to remove the blood-soaked bandage and it was gruesomely painful.
I hesitated when pulling at it since the dried blood along with a yellow fluid stuck tightly to the wounded area.
After reaching the last layer of bandage pulling it became a feat of its own.
I could see the skin was a deep pink around the wound where the bandage didn't cover.
I cursed as I thought about what to do.
I pulled it anyways and reached for the ointment wrapped in my makeshift bag.
I had forgotten I lost that bag along with the only other remaining bandage I had.
Bright red blood began to drip slowly out of the thumb-sized hole.
I sighed and decided to use the unsoaked sweat-stained area of the bandage that covers my back while it was wrapped around me.
Learning what I learned in space about plants was useful to identify a handful of species of plants that could only grow in Mars' atmosphere.
Thanks to my seniors and ebooks sent from Command, I learned about a variety of plant species and their uses.
I looked around the forest trying to identify medicinal plants I could turn into a paste that could help calm the infection.
In the end, I was wasting too much time.
The paste I used before should have worked. The foreign debris inside my stomach must be causing an internal problem.
The only thing I could do was let my antibodies do the work.
I was limited on the pills of penicillin so I didn't want to use them.
They were the safeguard to prevent sepsis. The worst-case scenario of an infection that comes after an improperly treated fever.
During an infection, the body desperately tries to fight back. The body would release its antibodies and other chemicals into the bloodstream.
A fever means your body is working properly. The moment it rises too much in temperature it means the antibodies flowing through the blood have irritated the bloodstream.
This disrupts blood flow leading to septic shock and eventually organ failure.
The result is death.
This has now become my biggest obstacle in survival.
I must maintain myself cool, hydrated and fed.
And thus the race begins.
I tie the upper part of my jumpsuit around my waist allowing myself to remain shirtless.
Assuming that it's been two or up to a third day since the accident. It would mean the foreign debris contained tons of foreign bacteria that activated quickly.
I can assume as much due to the lack of thirst and hunger I felt yesterday.
However, if I was in a comatose state my body consumes less food and water than normal. This means I could technically go for more than 3 days without water as long as I was asleep.
If that was the case and the infection only became active after so long. It meant I would only have to wait it out for a bit.
But I decided to prepare for the worst-case scenario.
That said after a few hours of walking, I found a decaying stump I picked up a large branch shaped like a cane and beat the side
Of the stump to break off the bark.
Grub larvae and other insects spread on the floor.
Grub is the safest of the insect groups in front of me to eat raw that I could remember.
I collected all that was visible and put them in my left pocket.
They were bitter, but not difficult enough to chew that I became utterly disgusted.
Regardless my eyes teared up and my gut clenched itself. I forced myself to swallow them after a disturbing chew.
As I continued through the forest I still felt horrible in every sense of the word.
I decided to keep the branch after I cleaned it up with the knife a bit.
It made it easier to move through the shrubs and overgrowth.
My pants and boots had picked up various plants and burs that attached themselves willingly.
Luckily the nylon pants of the jumpsuit were thick enough that the unwanted stowaways were not too annoying.
Regardless I habitually picked them off as I hiked my way through the forest.
It became ever so difficult to continue chewing on the grub so I looked for earthworms again when I reached another stream of water.
I used the stream to wash the bottom of my boots.
I was afraid of unboiled water and didn't use it to clean my wound or rehydrate myself.
I was already fighting an infection and couldn't risk more.
Regardless, I followed the stream in Hope's that it would be an easier way to reach civilization.
The night quickly came, but this time I didn't prepare a shelter.
I grabbed a rock and dragged it to the nearest tree. I sat with my back to the tree and thanks to my exhaustion fell quickly asleep.
No dream.
Before I knew it, the sun was caressing my face.
I felt groggy but no better than yesterday.
It was difficult to open my eyes and thinking about it cause me to yawn.
I stretched myself from the awkward sleeping position and decided to sleep some more.
I stretched my arms over my head and played down across the dirt faceup.
My stomach still hurt, and plants tickled my naked torso.
Regardless I slept a bit more.
I felt itchy on my back as it seems I became a meal for some of the insect life around me.
A mosquito here and there and maybe and tick or two.
I sat back up to three and scratched my back with my right hand.
I leaned on my left and reached as hard as I could.
"Fuck!!!"
I quickly got through myself forward and stood up.
A slithering monstrosity with a diamond pattern on it's back retreated into the foliage.
My hand was in dire pain as I held it tight.
Once again I was angry and scared at the same time.
My body boiled as I wanted to let out a scream from the frustration I felt.
I already felt faint and dizzy. I don't know how much blood I had lost from the improperly untreated wound in my stomach.
The fever made it worse.
And now two visible holes could be seen in my left pinky and its neighboring finger.
And that snake was unmistakably a viper.
"Things will go wrong in any given situation if you give them a chance." Murphy's law floated in my head once again.
I was so frustrated my eyes teared up.
My only hope now was to find civilization.
There was nothing I could do for a venomous snake bite.
Sucking out the venom even using one of those pump kits is debunked nonsense.
The venom has already found itself into my bloodstream and I would only risk another infection from disturbing the wound.
Most snakes don't care to waste their precious venom on large prey. Thus it could have been a dry bite.
Even so, there's a chance it released some venom.
Our bodies are resilient and would immediately fight it with antibodies. But mine already has a heavy workload fighting the infection so the venom will have to wait in a queue.
As if.
Since I have no way, or even know how to produce antivenom to dissolve the foreign substance coursing through my veins.
I now can only wait it out.
And so I did.
I continued following the stream.
Minutes pass and I could already feel unbearable pain on both of my fingers.
They had swollen into sausages.
Stiff and useless.
An hour passed by and my vision had begun to become hazy.
Before I knew it, it was difficult to breathe.
I took a deep chug of water and contemplated on taking the remaining painkiller I had.
Bad idea.
Painkillers like aspirin or ibuprofen, the first of which was in my container, would thin the already thinned blood I had left.
Penicillin.
My antibiotics could be my last hope.
I've only studied about inconclusive and contradictory studies of antibiotics against snake venom.
However, I already have an infection.
It may help lessen the workload of my body's natural antibiotics in the bloodstream.
It may not.
Regardless I collapsed on the ground.
I simply couldn't continue.
I grabbed everything ounce of strength I had left. I finished all the water in my container and ate the antibiotic pills before my body forced me to sleep.
