When he awoke, he had no memory of what he had done to end up in this position. He was laying on his back looking up at the sky and he felt like his head was going to burst. Blinking, he tried moving his arms and legs.
'No pain, that's good,' He thought. 'At least not more than an ache. He tried sitting up and found it extremely difficult to do. He realized that he was laying with his head oriented downhill. 'That explains it.' Rolling to his stomach (carefully) he pushed himself slowly to his knees and saw stars popping into his vision. He gently sat down and started to breathe deeply and evenly to try to control the headache that had started to manifest behind his eyes.
After a few minutes of calming breaths, he started looking around to try to figure out where he was. He couldn't remember a thing about how he had gotten there. He noticed that he was on a slope first of all. The trees were large and thick, gray as burnt paper and without leaves. There wasn't much in the way of undergrowth. He saw some bushes here and there but he had o idea where he was.
'Well, might as well try to figure that out with a hike,' he stood to his feet stretching his stiff muscles. He checked his pockets, hoping, and was rewarded by finding a small metal box. "Yes," he breathed. At least he knew that this was most likely his doing that he was here. Bandits and thugs would have stolen everything from his body and left him to die.
Opening the box, he pulled out a small compass, orienting himself north, he turned straight to the west (uphillish) and started walking. He was going through his mind trying to remember doing a self diagnostic on his conscience. Learning that he could remember all the basic things about his life, he started looking a bit closer at his surroundings. It was cold, about 16 or 17 degrees Celsius. That meant that he was still in the northern areas of the wastes. There was a slight wind coming from the southeast and the slope was going uphill almost straight to the north. He noticed that there were some clouds forming above him which meant that he needed to find shelter soon, rain was never a good thing in the mountains.
After about 20 minutes of walking, he started to notice that the trees were thinning out and he started to see a break up ahead. Picking his way even more carefully, he came to a road that he recognized. He knew this road as a main route between Glowater and the Claw. Glancing with apprehension up at the clouds above that were starting to look angry, he started towards Glowater. The road was old, cracked and worn, with potholes dotting the winding surface. Climbing a slight slope, he knew he was about 20 more minutes from getting to Glowater.
Coming around a bend a little later, he saw a familiar shape, it was the large truck that had been flipped on its side and that marked the edge of the area where the guards of Glowater walked. A thunder-clap sent him running towards the truck, racing time. He had about 3 kilometers left to go to get to the town and he knew that it would be close to have him get caught in the rain. He thought about staying in the truck but his hunger won out and he passed it and kept on running.
He started to hear a thin drumming and quickly glanced behind him and saw the telltale streaks in the sky that announced the coming rain. He pushed himself faster and could feel his chest starting to protest. He came around a bend and saw the familiar shapes of the general store and the bar. The drumming was getting louder and another quick glance showed him that the rain was coming up behind him and would soon catch him.
He yelled, "Open the door!" and summoned his last strength to hit a full sprint, racing right for the door of the bar. The rain was catching up and he could start to feel the cool tingling that came when it came close to skin. The door creaked open a crack and then it was thrown open. A second later, he was through the door and it was slammed shut behind him.
"Are you out of your mind!? shrieked a small gritty woman as he hit the floor and tried to catch his breath. "You were 3 inches from death right there you know!" she continued, walking toward him and shaking her head. "Krist, you have really got to be careful out there."
"Relax Kate, I'm okay aren't I?" he asked, "besides, you are overreacting, I wouldn't die, at the worst I would just need to take a dose or two of Rad-X."
"Whatever, you know what I mean. Now, you made me drop a plate of food, go clean it up."
He got up to his feet and shot her a mock salute, "Yes ma'am."