Part 2 – Survival
Bruce walked for several hours before the sun went down to reveal complete darkness, the moon, and the stars out in full let Bruce know exactly where he was.
The position of the big dipper revealed he was somewhere far north, possibly Norway or Sweden. If he was in Norway he had a problem because if it was Norway it would get down into the thirties. If he was in Sweden, then all he needed to do was get to Gothenburg, he knew that Overwatch's resident tech wizard Torbjörn lived there, or at least his family did.
He knew that Torbjörn and his father were good friends and that if he made it, he could count on Torbjörn to get him to Overwatch.
Bruce kept the knife that the Talon agent tried to stab him with, he knew the first thing he had to do was get rid of the long hair.
Back at the Talon base…
"It's unbelievable," Sombra said as she examined the video.
"The diamonds have integrated well into his systems," Reaper said, "We know that it can be integrated into a human's system."
"So, the plan wasn't to integrate him," Widowmaker asked.
"Mutating Major Silverstone's son was simply phase one," Reaper said, "He had the right genes that allowed the experiment to work properly. But such genes aren't that rare, one in 100000 people born every year carry them. There are 82000 others that carry genes almost as perfect as his."
"Then what was the point of mutating him," Sombra asked, "Why not just grab one of them?"
"We needed to make sure it worked," Reaper said, "Now that we know that Bruce's genes were an exact match, all we have to do is find another."
Back with Bruce…
The hair came off almost completely at the knife's will, but he knew that if he left a trail, Talon would find him, after quickly binding the hair together with a few threats he pulled off the jacket, he proceeded.
It was rough countryside that he was walking through, the forests were beautiful no doubt, but in the middle of fall, the snow wasn't exactly light on the ground, but it wasn't heavy either.
Being as he only had on a pair of pants, boots, and a jacket, the cold air stung his skin as he walked on.
The survival training that Talon programmed his with still set true in his mind, priority one when surviving in the wilderness is Shelter, but finding a good spot to rest was going to be difficult.
After walking for a while, a felled tree seemed to be the answer for Bruce's problem, stacking a few logs along the sides of the tree near the top would make a good shelter.
Gathering strong enough logs to make a decent shelter was not a fun endeavor, Bruce spent the better part of an hour gathering enough logs, and stacking them against the tree before looking for some foliage to make a bed and tenting for the outside.
When it was done, it looked like a triangular tent made of twigs and branches, not exactly cozy, but it'd do for the night.
Priority number two for Bruce was fire, some dried wood from the forest, and some of the flesh from the pine tree he made his shelter on was all he really needed.
Another priority for Bruce was water, luckily the man who owned the jacket previously was a drinker, and inside the right inner-pocket was an empty hip flask.
Eating snow is a very, very bad idea when trying to survive in snowy winter conditions, snow can be very bad, eating raw snow can cause ulcers and blisters to form inside the mouth, not to mention can bring body temperature down to dangerous levels.
You can get water from snow, the best strategy for getting water from snow is to store the snow in bottle or flask, and thawing it out by storing it near the warmest point of the body, which in the case of a male body is either underneath the armpit or down near the family jewels.
After storing the flask, Bruce walked off to find food, something high in fat, and something with a lot of good meat.
*When in an extreme cold weather survival environment, the trick is to load up on calories such as something with a lot of fat in it.
A nearby stream would serve Bruce well as with the U.N.'s Reforestation Act that was put in place shortly after the Omnic Crisis not only allocated money for planting several billion new trees, but also reintroduced multiple species into untouched wildernesses.
A nearby Beaver mound would serve as Bruce's saving grace, tying together a few strands of hair to a log, and using the cord from the waistline strap on his jacket he quickly improvised a deadfall snare trap.
After setting up his trap, Bruce had to determine his position, a nearby hill would serve as a perfect position to get his bearings.
Climbing up the hill, he could see for miles around, but all he could see was forest, but there were several mountains, and he could see the sun above him, he knew it was early in the morning so the sun was rising.
The sun rises in the east, and sets in the west, on a compass west is to the left, and east is to the right.
If he was in Sweden he needed to head South West, and he knew that the mountain range off the South East was a good landmark, if he walked with the mountain to his left, and the sun over his left shoulder in the morning and in his right peripheral vision, he knew he was heading in the right direction.
After walking back to his shelter, he found that his trap had worked almost perfectly, there was a beaver stuck in the trap, but it hadn't worked that well because the beaver's tail was stuck in the noose.
Bruce pinned the beaver against the ground, dispatched him with a quick knife through the heart, and crossed himself before dipping his fingers in the creature's blood, and drawing two lines on his cheekbones, and two on the corners of his lips, all four diagonally downwards, and one right below his lower lip to the tip of his chin.
In ancient Native American lore, red was supposed to symbolize strength, war, using blood meant that a young warrior had made the transition from boy to man, and was ready to provide for his family.
Walking back to his camp with his catch, the first thing he did was start a fire.
The tail was what Bruce was after, a simple wooden skewer made by sharpening the edge of a stick with his knife stuck in the ground placed over the fire would make an excellent cooking vessel.
Back during the days of the old Mountain Men, the tail of the beaver was a luxury because it's almost one hundred percent pure fat, and if you want to load up on calories which is important in surviving in freezing conditions then the tail of a beaver is what you need.
The rest of the meat would make a great perishable meal, but the fur would be good insolation, if dried right.
After ten minutes, Bruce noticed that the leather on the tail was beginning to peel off, Bruce removed it from the fire, then used the edge of his knife to remove the leather, and then the outer membrane of the tail which is almost solid cartilage.
The fat on the tail was very chewy and tough, but it had almost zero flavor so it was easy to get it down.
The meat on the other hand was very gamey, almost like eating unseasoned venison that had been left in the freezer for three weeks.
Having a filling meal is a good way of keeping moral up when trying to stay alive in freezing cold conditions, so is a good night's sleep.
As soon as Bruce had eaten his fill, the best thing for him to do would be to dry the fur, he cleaned the inside of the fur, but without a tanning rack, he simply skewered the four corners of the skin with four twigs, and stuck them upright in the ground.
Bruce crawled into his makeshift shelter, covered up with his jacket, took a swig of water from the flask, and fell asleep as soon as he closed his eyes.
His dream of being back at home, seeing his mother and her long, flowing black hair, those deep blue eyes.
His father's caring attitude towards the family, his thick brown hair which Bruce got from him, the hair that was protecting him from the cold.
He never met his grandparents, they had both passed away during the First Omnic Crisis, but Reinhardt was sort of a grandfather to him, and Ana was more like a grandmother.
Then again, Reinhardt treated his father like a son, and he even asked Bruce to refer to him as, "Grandfather".
When his father was away on missions, Reinhardt would often be the one to take care of him.
The first time Bruce ever played catch was with Reinhardt, it was Reinhardt that had given him his first real lesson in honor, and had taught him how to respect a woman.
His godfather Jack Morrison was the one that taught him how to shoot, he had taken him to his first baseball game, and had even taught him how to hunt.
Torbjörn was a big part of his mother's life as well, his mother had suffered a serious injury during a car accident when she was pregnant with Bruce, and had to have her leg amputated below the knee (don't say life doesn't have a sense of humor).
It was Torbjörn who made her a prosthetic leg that allowed her to function normally, and during the creation of the leg, she and Torbjörn's wife, Ingrid had become very good friends, almost sisters.
Ingrid was very sweet to him when he was a young child, they had done many things together, and was the closest thing he had to an aunt.
While his parents were alive, from age four to age twelve he had traveled almost the whole world, it was how he had become such good friends with Genji and Tracer
The men and women of Overwatch were just as much his family as his mother and father were, and knowing that they were disbanded hurt, as if his family had become separated.
Bruce awoke after a while, he knew that it must have been at least twelve hours since he had fallen asleep because the sun was setting.
When someone is on a serious adrenaline high, as soon as it dies down what sets in is extreme exhaustion, and it often leads to a very, very long sleep.
Bruce crawled out of his little shack to see that the fire he had made was almost buried in the snow.
The fresh snow on the ground gave Bruce an opportunity to refill the flask before gathering up the dried meat, and the skin before continuing on his way.
The skin did make a good insulator tied to the edges of his coat's collar made a passable substitute for a shirt, a very thin shirt at that, but it still helped.
He knew the best way for him to reach civilization was to find a road, and follow it to the nearest town where he could hopefully pick up a ride.
Everyone in Overwatch probably thought he was dead so there would be no hope of him being found by Overwatch, and it would be highly unlikely that they would be searching for him after nine years, if they had bothered searching at all.
If he had some basic components such as a few wires, some pieces of scrap metal, or maybe even a microphone he could jerry-rig a quick radio, and send out a distressed signal.
He knew that by taking a moment to rest, he could go further, and a nearby lake was the perfect place to rest.
He took a seat near the edge of the lake, pulled out the flask, and took a quick drink, not exactly Voss water, but it was still good, and it got even better when right over his head the Northern Lights started dancing over his head.
After washing his face, he sat there, taking a minute to take it all in was more than enough to keep his spirt high enough to keep going.
His hopes were soon answered, he immediately found what he was looking for: a road, and he simply followed it south.
As he was walking, he noticed a semi-truck coming up along the road, simply sticking out his thumb to hitchhike, the truck pulled right up to the side of the road, and stopped.
Bruce ran up to the door, and opened it to reveal an Omnic was driving, "Watch your step there boy," the Omnic said as Bruce entered, and took a seat next to him, "You're lucky I stopped, I haven't been this way for a long time," he held out his hand, "You can call me Reed."
"Bruce," he said as he shook the Omnic's hand.
"Where you heading," Reed asked.
"Where are we," Bruce asked.
"Just some little ways north of Sundsvall, Sweden," Reed said, "But I'm heading to Copenhagen."
"In that case, I'm heading to Gothenburg," Bruce said, "I've got family there."
"No problem," Reed said, "You look tired," he pointed back at the sleeper carriage, "Bed's soft back there."
"Thanks," Bruce said, "I really appreciate it."
"Nothing to worry about," Reed said, "By the way, I noticed your synthetics, they look pretty outdated."
"I haven't had them upgraded yet," Bruce said, "I haven't been near civilization for a while."
"You one of those Mountain Men," Reed asked.
"No," Bruce said, "Just been camping."
Bruce climbed into the bed in the back of the truck, and he could have sworn he had never slept in a more comfortable bed in his life.
He's alive, and he's heading for civilization, how should Overwatch react to this news…