Survivor

Chapter 7 of Dream Journal

Many different creatures lurk in the caves, but most of them are what you fabricate when you’ve been trapped in there for so long. You hallucinate all of the horrible things that you have ever feared. They all want to take you, rip you apart. Before they can do so, though, you do it to yourself. Wearing away to absolutely nothing.

I am hiking in the mountains, just to clear my head. I’m only a couple miles away from my house, so I’m worried about getting lost or having to bring a lot of food with me. I bought a couple snacks: trail mix, an apple and a couple piece of beef jerky that I had left over with me. I also packed two waters, a blanket, a flashlight, matches, and a swiss army knife in a small backpack. I put my headphones in to listen to music and distract myself on the walk. After about an hour of walking through the woods, I come across a cave that seems to be lit up from a clearing in the trees. Following my curiosity, I trudge through the tall brush to the opening of the cave and peak in. It seems to be pretty clear and empty. The deeper I go, I pull out my flashlight to use as the light fades away to darkness. I stay along the edge of the cave, running my hand across the wall. The wall becomes slightly damp to slimy to dripping wet in the matter of seconds the further I travel. There is a musky smell that starts to arise. I scrunch my face in disgust. Ehh, what is that? The smell is so strong that I become extremely nauseous. I turn back around and head to the beginning of the cave. As I look outside, I hadn’t realized how long I had spent in this cave. The sun was setting and I was at least three or four miles from home and I couldn’t see the path in the dark. I decided it was best to just spend the night in the cave and leave at dawn to go home. I’ll be back before my mom realizes I hadn’t come home.

I started laying out my blanket further inside the cave, so the wind wasn’t too much. I set out all of the items in my backpack next to my blanket, but as I did so, I was startled by a loud crackling sound outside. It was now storming. Great. Spending the night in a dark, creepy cave while it’s storming. What a great start to a horror story. I decide to keep my headphones in while I sleep, keeping my phone on a low power, because I know that if I start to hear noises, I won’t be able to sleep. After awhile, I drift off in a deep dream.

The ground beneath me starts to vibrate and shake. I wake up, thinking I was just having a nightmare. Except it wasn’t just a nightmare. I pull out my headphones and I can hear loud crashing sounds of rock on rock coming from the front of the cave where I came in. I sprint to the where the noises were coming from. I come to a skidding stop and screaming, I throw my arms up to cover my face. The entire entrance is caving in. Massive boulders break off from the roof and build up, blocking my only exit. Small rocks pelt me, chipping off from the larger ones, and dust replaces the oxygen. I fall to the ground, shielding my body. My lungs close in on me and I can’t breathe from all of the dust now, so I have to army crawl around the corner and sit with my back against the cave wall. I become so dizzy and after a few minutes, I black out.

When dawn comes, I finally wake up all groggy. I sit up and hold my head between my legs because it’s throbbing. I woke up laying on the ground, so I must have fallen over after I passed out. I wait around twenty minutes until the pain in my head eases up a little to get up and walk to the entrance. Tears stream down my face at the sight. The entire cave entrance had been blocked off by enormous boulders. I run up to the rocks and start pulling off as many as I can, but most of them are too big to move. I manage to make a small hole in the barricade, just enough to look through. Screaming at the top of my lungs, I call for someone out there to help me. Nobody comes, though, because there is no one in range for a couple miles to hear my cries.

~~~

Days have gone by and I am still trapped in this cave. I check my phone again, but still no reception. I haven’t had signal since I came out into the mountains, but I continue to check my phone every couple hours to see if anything has changed. My battery is running low, I only have twenty percent left until fully dead. I grab my backpack and pull out the last beef jerky stick I have. It’s the last piece of food. I eat it slowly and savor it.

I decide to go exploring the rest of the cave. There might be another entrance at the other end. I grab my flashlight and my backpack. As I am walking through, I touch the walls and remembered that they were still wet. I ran out of water yesterday, so maybe there will be more deeper in the cave. The walls feel as if they are closing in on me. The cave is becoming narrower. The gut wrenching smell returns and I plan to find out where it’s coming from.

I am about half a mile deeper into the cave and the smell is almost unbearable. It smells like something is rotting and has been for a long time. I only walk a couple more feet before I plunge into water. Except, it's not water. This liquid is more dense than water, and feels slimy all over my body. I scream as my body is being sucked down into the murky liquid. As I open my mouth to yell, it becomes filled with a thick, hot, metallic substance. Gargling, I use all my energy to spit it out. I reach out my arm and my hand  finds the edge of the cave floor. I drag myself up and out of the hole. My stomach starts to rumble and churn from all of the foul liquid I swallowed. I turn over the hole and my body goes into a coughing frency, spewing up the last food I had to eat and the substances. I can taste blood coming out with it. With a shaky hand, I take my flashlight and point the light towards the hole. I only had to look at what was in the hole for a few seconds before I was vomiting again.

The hole was filled with a dark red and brown, gooey material. There was steam coming from it, as if it was a sauna. The hole wasn’t just a couple feet in length or width. It stretched to the width of the cave and so far down the cave that I could not see the end with just my flashlight. I examine the pond again and notice that there were objects floating in it. My eyes start to squint, trying to look closer at them. Once I see what it is, my eyes widen and my mouth drops. My body viciously shakes and I slowly step backwards. Bodies. Dead bodies, whole and dismembered, floating around in the pond.

Tears streaming down my face, I turn and run from the pond. The cave is dark and my flashlight is starting to dim. I make the mistake of looking back into the darkness where the horror was and my foot hit a large rock on the ground, causing me to be thrown into the air. I land hard and skid across the cave floor, cutting my hands and knees up. I can feel blood dripping from my face too. My whole body is covered in blood and half-dried, thick liquid from the hole. Instead of getting back up, I just lay there, bawling my eyes out. I cried for hours before finally drifting off to sleep right where I had fallen.

I wake up sometime the next day and struggle to lift myself off the ground. My entire body was sore and stinging from all of the cuts I endured. I walk back with my still dimly lit flashlight and find the beginning of the cave where I had started. Looking around, I don’t see my backpack. Then, I realize that I had taken it with me to explore and fell into the mucky substances with it on. It came off and It was too far in to get it back. Now I am left with nothing.

~~~

Days go by with no food or water. Still, no one has shown up to rescue me from being trapped in this hell hole. I am so hungry…

Strange noises start to occur deep within the cave every night. I don’t sleep anymore because the fear keeps me awake. Insomnia is slowly taking over. During the daytime, the inside of the cave becomes so hot that it is unbearable. Seeing to how intensely claustrophobic I am to tight spaces and heat, I begin to have multiple panic attacks throughout the day. I remembered that the cave walls were leaking with water further down, so I start walking in search of the wet walls. When I find them, I press my face against the cave and try to let some water run into my mouth. Barely anything is even dripping and the water has a disgusting, murky taste to it.

The nights, on the other hand, become so cold that my only blanket is not enough to keep me from shivering all night. I shake and twitch throughout the night. I start to bite my lips and they are completely chapped by this point that it makes it easy for them to crack and bleed all of the time.  

My body has become so sore and constantly aches that I no longer try to move from one corner in the cave. Nail biting is a bad habit that I have started to take on unintentionally. I don’t realize I am doing it until my fingertips start to bleed. I have bitten off my nails so much to the point that all of the nails on my fingers are almost gone. Soon, I start to chew on my fingers. More days go by with the cycle repeating of chewing on my fingers until they bleed, shaking and crying, and not sleeping. At this point, I stopped chewing on my fingers because I can no longer feel them. They are purple and bloodless. I begin to chew on something else, which I don’t realize until I find chunks missing off my arms.

I am slowly bleeding out. Over the course of the next couple of days, the wounds on my arms and fingers become severely infected. There is different colored pus seeping out and the skin around them are insanely bruised and discolored. I can barely move them, but I try to wrap my blanket around my arms to help. After awhile, I start to cough up blood and I become very ill.

~~~

My eyes are slightly open, but I can see that light is starting to seep through the cracks of the front of the cave. The streams of light become thicker as the cracks in the cave become larger. Confused, I keep watching. I must be hallucinating again because surely, everyone has forgotten about me. By now, months have gone by. I force myself up onto my hands and knees and try to inch forward. I can hear voices, but I can’t speak out to them.

A few minutes later, Large chunks of rock fall from the barricade. Men and women from a search party walk in to find me looking back at them. Most of them gasp at the sight of me. My entire body covered in blood and soot, massive chunks missing from my legs and arms, my face almost scratched off from going insane and hallucinating, and my now twig-like, frail body pale as a ghost.

I reach an arm out to them right before collapsing on the hard ground, going unconscious.

. . .

I am awake now. My body shaking and sweating, trying to tell myself that it was only a nightmare.

Reviews

[Rasheem]

This was really creepy but i liked it! Storytelling at its best

[Natasha]

Thank you.

[Ghost]

This sounded so good... I noticed it said chapter is it for a book? If so I would like to read more... Thank you for sharing..

[Natasha]

Thank you! Yes, "Dream Journal" is the book. Please read more! I'd love your feedback and criticism!

[Hebe]

Natasha... this is brilliant, I was totally absorbed in this horror story.... very realistic, very descriptive, very emotionally and psychologically griping! Well done!

[Natasha]

Thank you so much

[barleygirl]

Thank you for read-requesting me. I'm old & forgetful, so I can't keep track of everything I want to read on this website. I'm glad to be continuing on with your dream journal. The other dreams I've read of yours seem to be disconnected & scrambled, much like it is when dreaming. But this one seems different to me. It seems extremely well-organized, almost as if you are trying to anticipate things ahead of time, & writing them into the story, to make it make more sense. Example: bringing quite a bit more stuff than most people would bring on a day hike, which sets up your story for this extended stay. These kinds of "calculated" details make it seem like less of a dream & more of a crafted story. Not a bad or good thing, just letting you know how it comes across.

In some spots you are doing some killer macabre writing. I like the fingernail chewing that gets exaggerated to the point of infection. These are the kinds of almost-realistic ideas that can be stretched to the point of crazy s**t & you do this well for crafting any horror story. It's an interesting contrast, the way your storytelling is well-organized to make this story flow logically, & yet the descriptions are so creepy, it doesn't seem like a realistic story at all, but rather a macabre story that's written in an exaggerated way for enjoyment (for people who like that). All in all, this one seems to be more complex & developed than the other ones I've read of yours so far. (((HUGS))) Fondly, Margie

[Natasha]

Thank you, I appreciate that. I don't always remember my dreams fully, so sometimes I make a story out of what I remember.

[barleygirl]

I totally agree . . . I embellish all my "true stories"! *smile*

[Coyote Poetry]

A amazing chapter. I liked the thoughts and the struggle in the chapter. You made the reader believe. I liked the ending of the chapter. Thank you Natasha for sharing the outstanding chapter.
Coyote

[Natasha]

Thank you!

[Coyote Poetry]

You are welcome Natasha.