17 Bullets: becoming the Werewolf Queen

Chapter 1: Riding the Metal Wolf

ELEANOR
60 BULLETS

Ever worry that while you're innocently driving down the street, you'd suddenly be crashing through the middle of a dense forest jungle instead?

I didn't think I'd ever have to be worried about that either.

But that's what happened.

It was fall, right in the middle of harvest season. I needed to get some more supplies for the chickens on my farm and was coming back from the feed store. My mind was on the many projects I would need to get done when I got home. The list was long. Fix the electric fence. Clean the chicken coop. Harvest the squashes. Can tomatoes. Dig potatoes. Create the new emergency preparedness video for my youtube followers. Enough work for the whole week that I needed to get done this weekend.

It felt completely overwhelming, but also incredibly fulfilling. Twenty-six and I already owned my own farm and successful youtube channel.

My mind on my work, I drove my truck down the dirt road to home.

And then, I was not.

Instantly, the scene changed and the next second was chaos.

The truck lunged through some backwoods jungle, leaping like a deer over rocks and vegetation. I screamed at the sight and tried to slam my foot into the brake, but impact with a fallen tree beat me to it. My face slammed the steering wheel, cutting a jagged line over my cheek and the seatbelt pressed a heavy bruise clear down my chest.

I laid still against the steering wheel for a full minute. A moan of pain escaped my lips.

My truck's window had a large crack coming from a six-inch circular impact. It hadn't broken clear through but a spiderweb of cracks laid at the passenger side. The front engine had been crushed and a try of the key only clicked.

I was stuck.

I sat back with a groan and surveyed the surroundings. I was in a heavily wooded part of some forest somewhere. I could only see about fifty feet in any direction, the vegetation was so crowded. A turn behind me showed only about twenty feet of broken greens where I had run them over.

What just happened?

I took another minute to calm my nerves and rub the wetness from my eyes. My thoughts felt fuzzy and blurred and I rubbed at my ears, feeling the sensation like they needed to pop. I gave a heavy yawn and got the air pressure to even out.

Unbuckling my seatbelt with a groan, I reached to the passenger floor where my purse was and cringed through the soreness of my chest. A glint of aquamarine fell from the top to the ground, and my eye scanned for the color half-heartedly until I found my cellphone and turned it on. A heavy sigh pressed my injured front when I noticed the bars. Of course there would be no signal.

I dug around in my purse, bringing a travel sized tissue pack out and pressed a tissue to the cut at my cheek. Using the rear view, I wiped the blood from my face. Then I used my purse emergency kit to place a bandaid over the cut. I had a bottle of pain reliever, but no water in the cab, so I took the pill dry. It was not as easy as all those movies make it out to be.

Note to self: there is some water in the emergency bin in the cargo bed Eleanor, you lazy butt.

My muscles hurt so much that I just sat there for a few minutes letting the pill start to work. When I felt like I could breathe again, I got out of the cab and looked around. 

What just happened?

Where was I?

How would I get home?