The Fall and Get Back Up Again
Posted on Sun Jan 31st, 2021 @ 10:46pm by Lieutenant Bonnie "Bon-Bon" Durnell
Mission:
The Jungle
Location: Jungle
Timeline: Current
Rope breaking, rain sopping, wrist probably broken, nearly spotted, Bonnie was low on options. She mustered the courage and attempted to wrap her legs around the truck, her knee protesting every ounce of movement. She looked down at where the hunter was only a minute before and saw nothing. He or she had either moved on, or was looking for a cleaner shot.
It didn’t take long to find out as a shot from a high powered phaser rifle split the still air, striking her in the shoulder. She jerked, the rope broke and her fall began. She crashed from one branch to another like a plinko chip until she landed with a heavy thud onto something both hard and soft at the same time. In pain and now bleeding from multiple places, she looked down into the helmet of the hunter whose body had stopped her fall. What was lucky for her was most unlucky for him.
She took several minutes to roll off of him and get to her feet. Even then she was doubled over in pain. She took his rifle, slung it over her shoulder and scoured his pockets for anything useful. She found a disinfectant spray, some bandages, a ration pack and a communicator which she surmised allowed for site-to-site transportation.
Finally she removed his helmet, he was human. No one she recognized, but still, human. Her main interest was his helmet and any possible tech he may have been using to aid in his tracking. From what she could tell it had a heads-up display with possible night vision or infrared. Unfortunately the power source had been damaged in the fall, rendering it useless, at least for now.
She took several caring minutes and made a makeshift splint for her wrist, and applied disinfectant to as many wounds as she could. Then after attaching the helmet to the rifle strap and opting to carry the rifle, she looked in the direction of the Holy thing in the sky and set off at a slow pace.
Roughly an hour later she reached the face of a tall cliff which stretched out in both directions into the horizon. She was already ready to cry at the sheer magnitude of it. How would she ever climb this face with one hand? In truth, she couldn’t, and she was already declaring a loss to herself as she sunk against the rock face.
Tired, growing hungry and in pain, she needed to assess her options. She pulled out the commbadge followed by the rations pack. The ration pack just required breaking and it would cook itself, no water needed. The commbadge had a powercell she might be able to use on the helmet, if she had a tool set. Hell even a small knife would work, neither of which she had. She contemplated pulling the powercell out of the rifle and using it on the helmet, again deciding the rifle was more valuable as it was.
Not hungry yet, she pocketed the ration pack. Then she placed everything away for safekeeping and stood. If she couldn’t climb the wall, she had to find a way around or find shelter. Even a river or other water source would help at this point. She looked off in both directions of the cliff face, and chose the direction the sun was rising from. One foot in front of the other she disappeared into the thicket of the green once more.
TBC
