Chapter 1: Naked and Afraid

Where the fuck am I?!

I glance around my immediate surroundings and am certainly not in my kitchen. It’s as if I blinked and found myself in a dense forest with towering trees. Feeling the wind running over my bare skin, I glance down….

“Why the fuck am I naked?!” I gasp, cover my body and sit down on my knees.

“Please, tell me this is a bad dream,” a tense voice says from behind me. Looking over my shoulder, I see several men. Naked men. They’re scattered throughout the clearing and my eyes meet with a particularly thin man. My breath catches. Confusion turns to panic. This is too real to be a dream; there’s a bunch of naked men behind me, I’m in a small clearing in the middle of the woods, and I’m not having a good time.

I know words were spoken, but I hear only the pounding in my chest. My hands begin to clam up. I struggle to breathe. I start sucking in air in a futile attempt to pull any oxygen into my lungs. Then I hear someone coming closer.

“Stay back, don’t you dare touch me!” A voice echoes through the clearing. I search for the speaker but only find the alarmed eyes of a gangly man, his shaggy brown hair almost covering his eyes. The other guys appear to be increasingly confused and it takes me several more seconds of silence to realize that that was my voice. A sense of heat creeps up my face, as I wrap my arms in a tight embrace and divert my gaze from the nine boys.

“Look, I’m not going to touch you. I just wanted to see if you know what’s going on,” the man’s soft tone sounds out.

I still my beating heart, and look towards the various nude men. One of them is huddled up like I am, another is looking around like something is going to jump out at him, a couple more are grouped around talking, and the ninth one is watching the skinny guy talk with me.

So they’re all confused too?

“No, I don’t know what’s going on. I was walking into my kitchen and suddenly I’m naked in a forest surrounded by strangers,” I say and the hope in his eyes dim. The man pauses, looking at me from top to bottom before glancing at the guys behind him. A sense of recognition seems to cross his features and he turns around.

“Look, I didn’t mean to scare you. None of us know what’s going on, I didn’t even notice you were a girl until just now…. I’m just… just going to go over there,” He says before loudly stepping back to the watcher. He starts whispering to the other man as they move to the group.

Okay Lizzy, just breathe. They’re leaving you alone. So breathe. Stay calm, assess the situation, form a plan, and act. Okay. I let out a breath I didn’t realize I was holding. Taking stock of the situation doesn’t help: I’m naked in a surprisingly well-lit forest, and the small clearing is circular and almost perfectly flat. It seems there is only dirt in the circle, some spots look darker than most but it’s just hardpacked earth. Across the edge of the clearing, various trees and small plants lie overturned, revealing their structure entirely intact. My eyes linger on the exposed roots.

The orange-red light from dawn peaks through the canopy of trees spreading a soft glow across the subtly misting brush. I swear it was just mid-afternoon. A warm breeze passes over my body as the tall trees sway their canopy.

Step one: clothes. The clearing is void of everything but dirt so it’s no use staying here. I look back over at the men to see them forming into small groups. One of the more muscular guys takes a deep breath before walking into the forest, three others follow him, while another group walks in a perpendicular direction. There’s only the guy huddled into himself left. I get up, search my surroundings, then flee into the woods. I nearly trip as I exit the clearing, the ground shifting to a natural environment. Everything feels tilted now that I’m standing on the forest floor, but I force myself to keep moving.

I trudge through the undergrowth, my feet bleeding from various sticks and stones stabbing into my soft soles. My pace slow, each step taking me forward but the vegetation all looks the same. Every swaying tree or sound in the distance causes me to start. As the minutes turn to hours, something finally changes: running water splashes in the distance, roiling and sloshing its way through the earth. I quickly cross a small break in the tree line and find a wide river.

I approach the water and find myself overwhelmed with the size. I’ve gone hiking frequently in my twenty-three years but have never seen a river stretch this far across. To be fair, I haven’t seen many rivers but it’s at least several hundred feet, and I fail to see the bottom despite the clear water. The embankment quickly falls off into a steep ridge. It’s not as deep there, but I’m not sticking my feet in to find out. On the plus side, it does look like reeds have grown along the edges.

Maybe not the best idea, but I lean over the dirt edge and start trying to pull out the reeds. I need something to cover my body with after all. Even if it isn’t exactly comfortable. After several minutes of effort, I have a good amount of the fibers out, using a nearby stone I crush them to loosen them up. Once that’s done I braid them together like I would my hair; it’s a bit of a struggle to figure out how to get it to lay right and it’s not pretty, but I managed to make a serviceable skirt despite being in the middle of nowhere.

Now that I take the time to think, I’m starting to believe that those guys have nothing to do with us being here. The confusion in their features was far too real. The way they spread out seems to indicate they’re not familiar with the area. I may have slightly overreacted, but I was panicking. I hope they’re looking for a highway or something so we can get out of here and call the police. Either way, I’m not going to spend a bunch of time around strangers in my birthday suit.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

So I continue braiding the reeds until I have a functional top that covers my chest. It’s similar to a tank top, but like the skirt it is loosely knit and covers just enough that I don’t feel exposed. Not that I don’t still feel exposed. I much prefer hoodies and shorts to small tops and skirts, but at least my assets won’t be out for the world to see.

My mind wanders as I work the hours away and my thoughts settle on my bodily needs. I let out an internal sigh. What do I even do about water? No way is this stuff’s safe to drink... At least the view is nice. The orange-red sun presses a strong warmth into my skin. I blink the rays away and I glance over the tree line, and find mountain tops in the distance.

After contemplating trying to make reed sandals, and deciding not to bother, I start my way back through the forest towards the clearing. Having calmed down, the trip back is kinda nice. The trees aren’t as dense as the midwestern forests I’ve seen, more like the Blue Ridge mountains but with thicker trunks, and the warm breeze makes it almost feel like I’m on vacation from work. I shake those thoughts from my mind. No use thinking about the office now.

——

Five men are sitting in the clearing, the huddled one from before is now seemingly asleep, and the other four, including the skinny man who approached me earlier and guy watching us talk, are sitting down near him. Those four have at least grabbed some spindly branches with fresh leaves and wrapped them around their waists, so that’s nice. As I step closer I overhear the skinny man, a blonde man, and a black-haired guy all talking to each other.

“…no Trevor, we shouldn’t go after them,” Says the blonde to Mr. Skinny, but as Trevor goes to respond, the watcher nudges him and points in my direction, and I can only freeze as all of them look me over.

“Oh thank god,” Trevor spouts out while checking my body.

“Are you okay?” He asks as I fold my arms over my chest.

“I’m fine….why?” I mumble out as I look back into his eyes. All four of the men glance at each other before the blonde man with an athletic build stands up.

“When we got back, we didn’t see you or the other group, and these guys were afraid of what could have happened.” His bass-like voice pumps out.

“Well I haven’t seen them, and I’m plenty capable of taking care of myself,” I push back.

“Sure you are,” He eyes me.

“My name’s Chris, what’s yours?” A grin spreading across his face.

“I’m Elizabeth,” I reply quickly.

“Hi Elizabeth, I’m Trevor!” The skinny guy with gangly limbs pipes up.

“Oh, this is Cody. He doesn’t talk.” He points out the watcher. I give Cody and Trevor both a small nod. Cody is the only mixed person in our group, his dark skin contrasting with his piercing blue eyes that seem to look everywhere for some kind of threat. He really does suit the term watcher.

I look towards the last guy, who gives off goth vibes with his early 2000s black side-swept hair accented by a red streak running through it.

“And I’m David,” He says with an even tone and a small wave.

“What about that one?” I point to the sleeping man, who I’d almost call a boy.

Once again, all four of them glance at each other until the watcher, Cody, shrugs and Chris opens his mouth.

Why do they keep looking at each other like that? I ask myself before he speaks.

“No idea who he is, he’s been basically comatose since we got here,” Chris replies, and both David and the Watcher… I mean Cody! nod along.

Seeing as only Chris and I are standing I check the ground before plopping myself down with my legs folded under me and to the side. Chris follows my cue and sits down next to the others.

“So found anything? Roads, highways, a house?…..anything?” I ask as Chris and Trevor both give me a pained look. David just lets out a sigh and lays down in the dirt while Cody glances at the sky with a small frown.

“After hiking for maybe an hour and a half all we really found were some berry bushes and a decent-sized river. It wasn’t very deep but we weren’t about to cross it. Although our good friend Trevor did take a small dip,” Chris’ voice echoes with mirth as his eyes settle on Trevor.

“You didn’t drink any, did you? You’ll need to boil water to prevent sickness,” I look at the guys, before settling on the pink-faced skinny man.

“Nothing on purpose! I just fell in and we made our way back. It wasn’t even that deep.” Trevor fiddles with his hands as Chris gives David a look before letting out a boisterous laugh.

I can’t help but feel uneasy as the man continues laughing for a long minute. When he finally stops, he looks at me with a light shining in his eyes.

“So we found a river and watched Trev here take a tumble. What did you find?” He asks.

“I came across a river too. It was deep, wide, and fast, I definitely wouldn’t want to try swimming in it,” I reply and Chris narrows his gaze

“What’s the chance there are two rivers in either direction?” his features shift and turn angry. His golden sideswept hair stays stiff as his eyebrows strain and lips curl down.

“What, did you only step a few feet into the forest and come back? Now you want to act like you figured out there was a river nearby?!” I flinch at the sudden switch in his tone. Watcher nudges Trevor and points at me.

“Have something to share with the class, Cody?” Chris’s voice drips with sarcasm.

Okay, what the fuck just happened? I look between him and the others as Trevor pipes up.

“Just that she found a river, otherwise she wouldn’t have reeds,” Trevor’s voice cracks as he shifts in place.

“Mmhmmm” Chris mutters and narrows his gaze at Cody, before looking me over.

“I was only joking anyway, you guys need to relax,” he stands and walks towards where the other group left.

“Do you hear that?” He asks the us after a few moments pause.

We all stand up and approach the forest where we begin to hear distant snapping and other faint noises.

“Do you think it’s the other group?” Trevor voices as the noises slowly grow closer. He leans into the forest when Chris yanks him out of the way and starts walking forward.

“John? Is that you?” He shouts. I instinctively flinch at his booming voice and glance back at the sleeper who is in fact, still sleeping.

As he deals with whatever is going on over there, I approach the sleeping guy. Is he still breathing?

I let out a sigh of relief as I see his chest rise and fall, his auburn hair and tanned skin the only features I can make out. I lay a hand on his forehead to check for a fever, but he feels fine. Must just be an oddly deep sleeper. I shrug and look back towards the others to see Chris coming back with a smaller man in a princess carry.

“Of course we killed it, we’ll probably need food, and either way, I wanted it as a trophy!” A bear of a man shouts, red-faced, as he drags something behind him. His dirty blond beard and hair trail down his body as his pale white skin stretches across his muscular frame. The other two are trying to help drag something, but it doesn’t look like they have much left in them. Droplets of sweat coat their features and I fear they may drop in exhaustion. Somehow all of them are still naked. The guy in Chris’ arms whimpers and I finally see why he’s being carried.

Blood. Bright red blood.