Warnings: personal care is mentioned and language

Italics denotes thoughts

Thank you to everyone who keeps leaving a review!

To my right, hope rose above the horizon. The sun, and the warmth it carried, was a welcomed reprieve from the storm retreating with the twilight. Throughly soaked to my bones and utterly exhausted from a sleepless night, I stiffly rose from my shelter and scanned my surroundings.

To my right, not far from my camp, I could hear moving water-moving water that definitely was not there yesterday. Half panicked, half relieved, I debated my options of looking into the matter or running from it.

On the one hand, it was water-a resource that I struggled to find yesterday, on the other, that area definitely did not have water there yesterday, which meant that this forest area was possibly a runoff/flood zone.

Stay or leave?

To stay could risk becoming trapped in a flash flood, to leave would mean finding a new 'home' and new resources- and still possibly get caught in a flash flood.

With the possible threat of an impending flash flood, and no drinkable water that I was willing to approach, leaving seemed to be the best option.

"And go where?" I asked myself, deflated by the realization that I didn't know where to go to get to definite safety. My heart clenched as I was reminded, yet again, that I was lost. Looking around desperately, as if the answer would just materialize out of thin air, I panicked as I realized that I had no way of knowing which direction to head in.

"Don't freak out, just think about it for a moment" I told myself, trying to calm my nerves, "It's like a math problem, you have a problem that has a solution, you just need to find it"

Ok, find a solution to the problem.

What is the problem?

I'm lost.

The solution?

Can't do anything about that, so don't bother thinking about it.

Ok... what is another problem?

I may be in a flood zone.

The solution?

Get out of it.

No shit Sherlock!

"God, that is so much easier said than done" I sighed, looking up to the sky exasperated.

How am I supposed to get out of a flood zone when I don't know where I am?

Move uphill.

Looking around me and my previous nights shelter, my next problem presented itself;

No obvious change in elevation.

Sitting back down, dismayed and frustrated, I put my head in my hands and ran through the same questions again, this time muttering them aloud to myself.

"Problem: I'm lost... can't do anything about that. I need to get out of the flood zone and have no idea how to"

"Lost-" I repeated to myself again, "Ignore that. Need to get out of the flood zone. Don't know how to."

Stop and think about the problem, stupid.

"Problem; I'm in a flood zone. Wait, that's not the problem. The problem is that I don't know how to get out of the flood zone"

Keep going...

"How do I get out of the flood zone? Go up." I wasn't getting anywhere fast.

And how can you tell if you are going up?...

..."I have no idea"...

Think about it, you're smarter than this.

"Come-on! Think about it" I scolded myself. I know, talking to myself, scolding myself, it's kinda pathetic. But really, what else was there for me to do?

Ok, lets try a different approach. What is something that I've learned that I could use?

Why is it that your mind draws a blank at the times that you need it most? Frustrated at my complete lack of answers, I picked up a small stone next to me and threw it as hard as I could. It landed a few yards in front of me where I spent the next few minutes glaring at it as it lay on the ground. And then it hit me-

"Duh!" I exclaimed, as the palm of my hand met my forehead, "Gravity! Gravity pulls things downward!"

So what now?

"Find out which way the water is flowing and follow it upstream!"

Turning to my right and following my ears, I headed towards the water. Not long after passing my markers from yesterdays venture, rocks set into a design and sticks piled together unnaturally, I breathed a sigh of relief upon reaching my destination.

Before me, a small gully had taken on last night's runoff water, channeling it from my left to my right, and deeper within the forest.

Satisfied that I was not likely in any immediate danger, I began my trek upstream.

Midday I stopped to rest in a sunny glade. It was another humid day, and my clothes were still very damp. After following the gully all day, I was no longer worried about a flash flood, since the gully had obviously been there for a long time. I was however, still leery about approaching the gully's edge. I couldn't tell how deep it was, or if the dirt banks were strong enough to hold my weight. Despite my thirst, I opted to wait for a more visually stable area before approaching the waters edge.

I was throughly exhausted after walking half a day with no food and water, and I really wanted to sleep. I could feel a tickle in my throat starting from being in the cold rain last night, and I'm sure my wet clothes were not helping matters either. Sleep hopefully wouldn't be an issue, drying myself and my clothes, however…

Yeah… insert the awkward moment when I realized what drying off will entail.

For the first time since my arrival yesterday, I noticed the complete lack of privacy-and how much I needed to use the restroom. Heading back the way I came, I quickly realized my appreciation of modern appliances (a tree and a bush offer little comfort for privacy, and washing my hands was left to improvisation).

After finishing my business, I headed back upstream to the glade I had found. Glancing around me, to make sure no one was watching, because someone is always watching when you have to do something embarrassing like this, I began to undress. After spreading my white tank top and polka-dotted short shorts next to me in the sun, I covered my now bare chest with my arms, and debated removing the remainder of my undergarments.

There wasn't much debate, it wasn't happening.

I wasn't able to sleep when I had stopped in the glade, call it stress, embarrassment, or hunger, sleep was not in the near future for me. After I and my clothes had dried off, I redressed and continued upstream- in search of shelter and food. Unfortunately, I was feeling the effects of to little sleep during the second half of the day; I was disoriented and clumsy-not a very good combination while in the middle of a forest.

Just as dusk had arrived, I found an adequate shelter next to a small tree. A very large bush, large enough to fit a five foot seven female for the night, was my new home. After such a long and overwhelming day, I had become indifferent to the bugs, and spent the last few minutes of my sunlight counting the pink and purple polka-dots on my blue shorts, wondering if I would find some sort of food tomorrow. I was starting to get shaky and light headed, and that was never a good sign.

The night was clear and windy, and still unable to sleep-despite my exhaustion and hunger-, I said my prayers and watched the stars, trying to identify any constellations I might know.

It didn't do much good, nothing was familiar to me.

Finally after a few hours of praying and watching/counting the stars, I began to doze off-only to be startled awake a moment later by rustling behind me. Sitting up and spinning around to face the source of the sound I stared wide-eyed into the darkness, what ever produced that noise was too large to be a rabbit.

For a few long moments, I didn't even breathe. My heart was pounding in my chest, and my pulse was loud and obstructing in my ears. I silently recited my mantra of prayers as the rustling noises continued moving closer and closer, until finally something caused the animal to move away. Once it was out of earshot, I sighed in relief and settled my back next to the tree for another sleepless night.

Thanks for reading! Please leave a review!