I Among Dogs

Chapter 1: Lost and Disoriented

~ Day 0 - ?:? ~

The damp and cold feeling of the current atmosphere was the first thing I felt as I came to consciousness. As I blinked and was faced with the brightness of the morning light above, my fingers twitched in a vain attempt for me to feel any possible movement, but all I felt was how stiff my muscles were from how they hadn't been used for hours. People who had been in a coma for maybe a few months or years will tell you that every muscle in their body was near impossible to move during their first waking minutes from how immobile their entire body had been for so long. It's the same feeling I was suffering through.

But on this occasion, there was no doctor to tell me how long I had been out cold for so I couldn't figure out how long it had been since I passed out. I couldn't even remember even a second of the events that lead to how I fell unconscious. It was like I had no memory of anything that happened prior to me waking up just now, and yet the only thing on my mind was to try and find my feet. I flexed and clenched my fingers some more as I finally started to feel warmth in my arms and legs whilst with my face still facing the sky above, I saw the leaf-filled tops of many trees surrounding me, the sunlight seeping through the cracks of the overgrown roof of foliage providing enough light for me to take in my surroundings. The current area I inhabited appeared to be a small opening of some kind of forest. The question was, which forest? Where was I? And what was I doing here?

Still feeling mild stiffness in my leg muscles, it took some effort for me to get on my feet and stand upwards without staggering or feeling weak at the knees. I looked down to find myself in a pair of jeans coated in faint stains of dirt, presumably from the ground underneath me that mostly consisted of soil and very few blades of grass were visible. I also had some converse sneakers on and on my torso was a simple plan white shirt, which too had suffered the dirt-stain fate of my pants. One look at my arms was enough to see some dry patches of dirt on them also. Whatever happened that lead to my supposed coma, it must've involved a possible scuffle.

I attempted to brush some of the dry soil off my pants in an attempt to clean them up a little when my hand felt something protrude from within the side of them. I felt around where I thought I felt the lump and my soon felt something at my pocket area. Digging my hand in, I felt something inside with a somewhat squishy and leathery texture, pulling out the source to reveal it to be a black wallet. I opened it up and found nothing inside other than some kind of card in one of the front pockets. Taking it out, revealed it to be an ID with a picture of the ID holder's face and their name and date of birth. Judging by the face's appearance, they were male.

"Nathan Faulkner"

"Date of birth: 7th March 2007"

Who was this Nathan Faulkner and how did their ID end up in my pocket? But there was another question I couldn't figure out the answer to: "Why did that name sound familiar to me?" Putting the ID back in the wallet which I put back in my pocket just in case, I felt inside my other pocket and felt something more solid but with a smoother texture. What I pulled out was a smartphone, a Sony Xperia L1 to be exact. I lightly pushed the power button and the screen booted up, displaying the current time and date.

3rd August 2021 – 9:43AM

On top of that, I noticed that the current battery power on the phone was fifty-three percent. More than enough for me to call for possible help. ...That was until I looked at the top of the phone screen's display.

No signal.

Damn it. I didn't think it would be this difficult. No idea where I am and no possible way to contact anyone for rescue. I was either in a location that was miles away from any civilisation where my phone could possibly pick up even a bar of signal or I was actually in an uninhabited island. I could only hope to god it wasn't the latter. I looked around some more to see if I could spot anything out of the ordinary that would hopefully give me a hint to how I came to this situation, but I was only met with the untouched nature of trees and shrubs, alongside the not too distant bottom of a steep hill behind me. Perhaps I had somehow fallen down this said cliff before being knocked out, which would explain the dirt on my clothes. Other than that, anything else I found on me was just a watch on my right wrist. Not a digital watch and even though it had a small yet noticeable crack on the glass, it appeared to still be functioning so I at least had something to keep track of the time should the inevitable moment where my phone dies from low battery power happen. Inhaling and exhaling softly, with no other options, I started to walk forward, already gotten used to the movement in my legs from standing up.

It must've been at least a few minutes or so since I started walking aimlessly, occasionally checking my watch to find that the time had gone up past twelve minutes when I faintly heard the sound of slowly flowing water ahead of me. A few more steps later, I was met with a small stream which didn't house any wildlife whatsoever, whether it was just uninhabitable or they sensed my presence and fled. I knelt down and looked at the rippling surface of the stream, the light above making it easy enough for me to make out my facial features and my dark brown and unkempt hair.

And that was when it hit me like a bag of bricks. I quickly pulled out the wallet in my pocket and looked at the ID once more. The features on the ID's photo matched mine like I was looking in two mirrors. I had a faint feeling that I was fourteen year old Nathan Faulkner before but this officially confirmed it. How did I forget my own name? Was I so taken aback by where I had ended up in without any recollection of the lead-up to it that I didn't even regard my own identity? And that was when I also remembered something else.

Christ almighty, my mom and dad. Where were my parents? Were they okay? I mentally hoped they were, trying to prevent the dread that was starting to infest me that would possibly drive me to assume that they had been separated from me or worse.

Some of the panic did get to me as I immediately screamed out into the open, hoping in dire vain that someone nearby would hear me and come to my aid. My throat was dry from hours of dehydration, making it nearly impossible to even utter a sound.

"Anyone there?! I need help! HELLO?!"

…

"Hello?!"

…

"Hello…?"

…

My words fell as the only response I got was dead silence. I didn't want to believe it, but it was turning out to be the worst case scenario. I was all alone. In the middle of nowhere. And I didn't even know if my parents were alive.

I fell to my knees, the feeling of hopelessness inside me starting to increase in severity. The last situation anyone would never want to end up in and I was unfortunate to end up in that very situation.

…

...No. If my parents really are dead, they wouldn't want me to give up so easily. I had to do something to survive in an area otherwise devoid of society. I didn't want them to feel like those fourteen years of raising me was all for nothing. I maintained my breathing to keep my composure before forming one of my hands into a cup-hold and dipped it into the lake, picking up a small but noticeable amount of water that I poured down my throat and swallowed. I only hope that the stream didn't carry any parasites as I rehydrated myself.

With my thirst problem temporarily out of the way, I sat against a tree neighbouring the stream to try and mentally configure how I was going to survive alone in the middle of the forest. Alongside enough clean water, I was going to need food and a way to clean myself to prevent hygiene-related diseases. I needn't dare rely on any berry bushes I came across due to the risk of them being poisonous. As much as I didn't want to, it seemed like I may have to end up eating edible bugs for the sake of protein and possibly hunt for meat. The latter was what unnerved me the most: the likely possibility of encountering hostile fauna, whether it be bears or worse. If I'm lucky, I could perhaps come across a larger body of water that houses fish that I could catch and eat.

And then there was shelter to worry about, in the event of keeping myself protected not just from cold rain but any hostile creatures that may be more active during night. To me, sleeping out in the open with just a lit campfire was a practical death wish. Oh god, how was I even going to start a fire? The most valuable thing in the incident of having to survive in an uncivilised area and I had no method of making one. The only possible way to even make a fire was to rub two sticks together or get lucky and find some metal and flint and clash those two together to make sparks. With the former, it could take god knows how long for the wood to even produce any heat.

But then, a small miracle happened in the form of a small glint that hit the corner of my eye. I looked down near some rocks next to the stream and what I saw, whilst dirty was clear as day. A lighter. Not only was this a small salvation to some of my problems, it was also evidence that someone was definitely here before me. If I'm very lucky, maybe I'll come across the person who dropped this lighter, meaning I won't have to survive in the open alone. That is if the owner of this lighter is hopefully still alive. I picked up the small metal light tool and brushed some of the dirt on it, before flicking the small switch and smiled with faint relief to see it produce a flame.

~ Day 0 - 11:28AM ~

Finding that old but still functioning lighter was what gave me enough confidence to keep going, passing over the small stream and pushing through the small plants in front of me like they were nothing. Along my trek, I often looked around, admittedly impressed at the rare but beautiful sights I came across on the way. At one point, I even looked to my left and saw I was on a small clifftop, the bottom having a pond that was home to a family of crocodiles. While the sight was cool, given that I probably never saw a crocodile before in real life, I made very sure that my steps were as quiet as possible to avoid unwanted attention. It must have been around an hour or so when I blinked and spotted something in the far distance. I could make out the colour to be blue with slow ripples, revealing it to be a body of water. Pushing through, I parted the obstructing plants away and was faced with a big but probably one of the most beautiful lakes I had ever seen. Surrounded with nothing but trees, the lake appeared to be circular and I could just about see some birds at the shallow end of the water. They almost looked like chickens except their necks were like that of a swan's and were black with long beaks.

With those birds inhabiting the lake, there was no doubt fish here so my source of food was solved. The only problem was trying to catch them. I had no idea how deep the lake was and there was the chance of encountering more terrifying creatures underwater if I chose to swim in this lake. I'd need to make a fishing rod at best and hope to get some catches. As you'd expect, the lake shore was abundant in sticks of varying sizes, the main issue was getting a long enough cord and something to use for a bait hook. I dug a bit at the ground around me and found a loose strand of wire, like someone had deliberately dumped it there. Maybe it was the same person who had dropped the lighter I found?

I picked up the small black string and was lucky enough to find it a suitable length to use for fishing. After testing and snapping a few sticks, I found one that was strong enough to not bend and tied some wire to one end and scanned the ground once more, finding a single worm crawling along the soil which I picked up and tied the other end of the string to. Standing close enough to the water, I lowered the tied worm down into the lake until it vanished under the surface and sat down, waiting as patiently as possible, hoping it wouldn't take too long to attract any fish.

It was maybe five minutes later when I finally felt something tug at my makeshift fishing rod, making me grip the rod part as tightly as possible as I yanked upwards and found my first catch. A noticeably medium sized fish with skin that looked as black as soot with darker scale margins. Not a bad catch if I say so myself. I brought it over as it started to struggle before it could escape back into the water, wrapping my arms around it to stop it from escaping, having to do so for a short while until I could no longer feel it struggle within my grasp. After making sure it was dead, I placed it on a nearby rock so that no soil would attach to it before gathering as many sticks as possible and arranging them together in a pile, making a circle of stones around it and finally placing some dry leaves on the pile of sticks as fuel. It took a few tries, but soon enough the leaves caught alight and my ears were met with the crackling of burning lumber as I took a spare stick and skewered it through the caught fish, holding it over the flames to slowly cook it.

Nearly ten minutes later and my arm was getting numb from holding the fish above the fire, but I didn't care, as long as it meant me living to see another day with a full stomach. I pulled the stick back and examined it closely to see the fish possibly cooked at an appropriate level before pulling the skin away and biting into the flesh. The fish meat had a bit of a "weedy" flavour, not the most pleasant tasting but anything was better than starving to death. It wouldn't be until a few minutes later when I had finished my self-caught meal, tossing the fish carcass into the lake to serve as it's resting place. With my food and water source provided, the last thing I needed to worry about was shelter. It didn't seem like I was going to be able to make a wooden hut in less than a day so all I could do was pray that the only company I'd get in the form of animals were the birds that often circled the lake's surface. Looking up at the trees nearby, the leaves on top were only the best I had to make some form of bed, so with a full stomach and enough water to last me a lifetime, I started climbing one of them.

Hey everyone, JackCryo here.

The idea for this fanfic has been circulating around my head for quite a while now and I figured I'd give it a shot as best as I could. A lot of you may have questions for the main basis of this story which I hope to eventually answer as the story goes on.

On top of that, I've made a new poll on my FanFiction profile that will pretty much determine whether or not my most popular fanfic at the current time: Family of 101 should continue with a sequel.

Truthfully, I had initially decided on not giving Family of 101 a sequel, but after giving it weeks of thought and with many, MANY ideas for the plot popping up in my head, I'm starting to think a sequel may just be inevitable. But I'd like to know what you guys think first, so if you have the time, please go to my FanFiction profile and vote on the poll and I will see you all when I update again.

Bye.