Hello everyone,

To anyone who decides to read my work, I appreciate the chance you're giving my story. This is my first piece of fictional writing. I expect there will be things I will need to work on to improve my story development. I look forward to any reviews, good or bad. I can't wait to hear you're thoughts, and to develop this into a story worth reading.

As it stands now I've already written 12 Chapters. I will upload them over time after considering suggestions from all of you, and I will continue to move the story forward. So that hopefully there isn't a long break in between each chapter.

Lost.

Sarah heard a rustle in the bush nearby. Though startled, it took her great energy to look over in the direction of the sound. She could barely move now, having spent the last week with no food. She was feeling desperate for anything to eat, anything. A bird flew from the bush, causing Sarah to feel disappointed at the lost possibility of food. The stabbing hunger pains in her stomach constantly reminding her of her predicament.

Just 9 days ago Sarah left her apartment to set off for a day's hike. The only things she brought with her in her small backpack was a few snacks, a few bottles of water, and a jacket in case it became chili. She had only planned to be gone for about 8 hours or so, allowing herself a little extra time than was necessary for a hike that usually took her 6 hours. She had a birthday party for her brother that night. He was turning 30, and even though she didn't really want to go, she felt obligated to be there to celebrate with the only person she felt any attachment to.

Looking back now she could see the mistakes she made. She was lost with no real knowledge of how to survive. Thank god she found a small survival kit at the bottom of her backpack after she realized she was lost. Sarah knew that she didn't have one, but had decided to see what she had that could be useful. After the realization hit her that she had wandered too far from the terrain she was familiar with, it was too late. She had absolutely no idea how to get back. On top of that she made the mistake of continuing to move forward when panic had taken over. She hadn't been thinking clearly, and now she was probably even further away from the hiking trail, she thought bitterly. But, that survival kit had been a lifesaver for her first few days. When she discovered it she had felt relief, and a smile warmed her face. She was certain that she never bought one for herself, so she surmised that it was her brother Marcus who snuck it in there. He always did get on to her about being more prepared incase something like this were to happen.

I guess I should have taken your advice a little more seriously, huh little brother? Sarah thought to herself. She didn't have the energy to say it out loud. She didn't have the energy for much anything anymore. Her only saving grace had been her ability to stay hydrated to some degreed. At some point while wandering after her second day, now out of food and water, she came across a patch of ground that look like it had been dug at recently. There was a small puddle of water at the bottom, so Sarah took out the survival straw that came with the survival kit, and greedily drank every last drop. It was such a small amount, and it wasn't enough, but it was something. She dug a little further down with her hands until a little more water pooled into a puddle again. She decided then to stay put. The water had brought back some of her common sense, and she realized that if there was a search party looking for her, she was only making it harder for them to find her.

Now 9 days later, and 7 days without food, she was starting to give up hope that anyone would find her. Her biggest mistake was not telling anyone where she had gone. He brother knew she loved to hike, but she never took anyone to her favorite hiking spot. The only way anyone would know to look in this area is if she was lucky enough to have a forest service worker come across her small pickup that was parked on an old logging trail.

Sarah lay there among the trees thinking about food, and still looking at the bush that moments ago held what she felt was her last chance for a decent meal. Wishing she had learned more about this area and what berries where okay to eat. There was a brown grasshopper near her, and even that was looking like a tasty prospect. She tried her best to reach for it without scaring it away, but she no longer had the ability to do much without being slow and clumsy. She wasn't fast enough, and it hopped about 2 feet further from her grasp.

She had rolled to her stomach in an attempt to reach it but failed again. This time it hopped out of her reach even sooner than the time before, now that it was more aware of her. She felt how dry her mouth and throat felt, and she knew that she could at least help that a little. The hole with water was getting deeper and harder to dig now that she had little energy. She grabbed the small Tupperware container she had started using as a makeshift shovel several days ago, after her hands had started to bleed from using them to dig over and over again.

Sarah crawled over the pine needles that covered the ground beneath her in a thin blanket. She positioned herself by the hole that keep getting deeper and wider after a weeks' worth of digging at it. She mentally tried to prepare herself for the exhausting task ahead of her. She looked down to discover that there was a decent amount of water already pooled in the hole she had come to rely on. Apparently, she had dug enough for now for water to replace itself over time. She sighed in relief that not only could she quench her thirst, but she also wouldn't have to waste what little precious energy she had left. She had been worried that soon she would no longer have the energy to even do this much. She grabbed her backpack that was laying nearby. The light blue backpack that held all the things that had kept her alive and as comfortable as possible was filthy. It was no longer light blue. Over the course of the week it had been covered in dirt and grime, some areas dirtier than others. There was barely any indication of the color it used to be. If she had the energy to smile or laugh she would have. She could only imagine the way she looked right now. She probably was a sight to see. A part of her was tempted to pull out her phone, turn on the camera, and look at what she could only imagine looked like a filthy crazy woman. She fought the urge, but then she remembered that she should probably turn on her phone for a few minutes.

After a couple days of being lost Sarah had gotten the idea to turn her phone on, and hope that people somewhere out there would be able to track her by her phone. She never paid too much attention to the functions of her smart phone, but she had heard that sometimes the GPS in someone's phone had helped them to be found. She had turned her phone off just before she had left her house, but it had had a full battery. She knew where she was going had no service, so she hadn't bothered to turn it on to call for help when she first realized the severity of her situation. Everyday, since that first sip of water had cleared her head, she would turn it on for one hour before turning it off again to save the battery. The battery was now below 50%, but she counted herself lucky it had lasted this long. She had resisted any urges to entertain herself with other apps to make the phones battery last as long as possible. She did have a back up charger, but she wasn't willing to risk it. She kept her phone and backup charger in a zip lock bag to protect them from the moisture and dew in the forest during spring.

After she drank from the hole with her favorite straw in the world, she put her backpack on intending to use it as a cushion on her back as she rested on a nearby tree. She settled herself against the tree and set an alarm on her watch for one hour, after she placed her phone in the side pocket of her backpack still protected by the plastic bag. Even though it was slightly after noon, she was tired and tried to take a nap, while also trying to ignore the strong pains that constantly ripped at her stomach. Eventually her lack of energy overtook everything else that made her uncomfortable, and she drifted off.

She slept for what seemed like moments, dreaming of food. Even food she would have never tried in the past. It didn't matter, everything was delicious. The dream was disrupted. She realized that she was awake, and that her right leg had a small aching pain. She rubbed her leg with her right hand and looked at her watch. Only a half hour had gone by, so it wasn't her alarm that woke her. The pain in her leg wasn't bad, just slightly annoying. She realized something must have hit her or fallen on her. She lazily looked around the pine needle covered ground, then her eyes came to rest on the object that apparently woke her up.

Her eyes widened, and her stomach practically screamed at her. Was this a fruit? She had never seen anything like it, but it was oddly familiar. She reached over to grab it with both hands, holding it like it was the most fragile and precious thing in the world. She looked it over. It was so strange, and so tempting. It was round like an orange, but it was bright green almost neon. The size was about twice the size of her fist, and the weirdest thing about it was that it had sections with pointed tips like an artichoke and weird swirls in every section. The stem seemed odd as well since it was a vibrant cobalt blue. The skin of the fruit felt soft, and when she squeezed it, it had a little give, but was still firm.

Sarah knew that it was a big risk to eat a fruit she didn't recognize in the wild. It could make her sick, which would dehydrate her even further, or possibly even kill her. Logic and reasoning told her to get rid of it, destroy it somehow so that it couldn't tempt her again. On the other hand, her stomach started to violently turn, the sharp pains getting more intense, demanding that she eat whatever she could. Her stomach trying to convince her mind that the benefits far outweighed the risks.

She looked at it for a few more minutes, still carefully cradling it in her small hands that were dirty, and her fingertips that were cracked from her digging several days before. Dirt and dried blood still under her fingernails. As she looked at the fruit, the weird feeling that she has seen the fruit before came back to her. Racking her brain trying to remember where she had seen it, so she could determine if it was okay to eat. Eventually the only thing that came to her mind was a fruit that wasn't real, but instead from a world of fantasy. One of her favorite animes and manga that depicted fruit eerily similar to the one she was holding in her hand. For the second time in one day she would have laughed if she had had the strength. Somehow despite her circumstances she did find the will to crack a small smile. It hurt her parched and peeling lips, but she kept it there for a few moments.

The fruit symbolized 3 possibilities to Sarah. The first being that it was food that could replenish some energy and ease her pain that was caused from slowly starving to death. The second less pleasant thought was that it was poisonous. It could cause her even more pain and discomfort, and possibly speed up the process of her inevitable death if she wasn't found soon. The last thing, and it was quite possible given her state of mind, was that she had started to lose it. She was so desperate that she's now imagining fictional food to try to calm her hunger.

Her stomach was now churning so violently that Sarah was almost doubled over in pain. A hoarse cry left her mouth, as she tried to bare it. No longer thinking of the consequences, and only thinking about how to stop the intense protest her stomach was making, she bit into the fruit that couldn't possibly exist. The bite in her mouth instantly turned rancid, but she was so hungry that she didn't care. She swallowed it as quickly as she could and was about to take another bite when she noticed that the neon green fruit was now a murky green. The plump and ripe fruit was now rotten. How was that even possible? Sarah still didn't care, one bite wasn't enough to put her belly at ease, so she ignored the rotten appearance of the once ripe fruit. As she brought the rotten fruit to her mouth about to take another bite everything around her warped, turned dark, and then everything was bright, but she was in water. Sarah instinctively tried to take in a large breath of air. She opened her mouth, but before she could fill her lungs her head was underwater. Saltwater! She couldn't understand how she could possibly be anywhere near the ocean, but she tasted it when she was trying to catch a breath. She couldn't swim either, all her energy long gone. She was sinking and the week in the forest with no food had been too much for her to suddenly be forced in a position that she needed to swim. She thought to herself that at least this was better than starving to death. However, that thought was forgotten as soon as her lungs started to burn. She needed air, and even resigning herself to her fate wasn't enough to persuade her natural instincts to survive. The pain in her stomach long forgotten and taken over by the burning in her lungs from the need to breath. With her instincts taking over she tried to swim to the surface again, but she only sank. She still had no energy, and she felt as if the surface was getting further away. Then without her being able to control it, her body involuntarily sucked water into her lungs in an attempt to fill them with oxygen. Before she blacked out Sarah saw something white and orange enter the water above her.