Alternate Dream

4. Transported

Nina's breath came out in short pants and her heart was beating out of her chest.

"Carol?" She looked around to see no one.

"Tom?" She was beginning to panic. "Steve?!"

"What's going on?!" No response came. She closed her eyes and tried to focus. "OK Nina, no use in panicking. Think. Think."

"OK it's really cold, windy, and I'm already drenched. You can have a meltdown over whatever just happened later, Nina. For now, you need to find shelter." Giving a satisfied nod over her mini pep talk to herself, she began walking in whatever direction her feet led her, taking in the sights as she did.

She was somehow outside, in the blink of an eye. But this scenery didn't look right, not like what she saw when they arrived the day before. There were more mountains surrounding her and less vegetation. And the temperature was much colder, her long sleeve t-shirt not doing much to the rain that was pelting her right now.

She needed to find shelter fast.

An hour later she let out a grunt. All she'd seen so far were bushes, rocks, and mud. So much mud. She was thankful for her waterproof boots and waterproof backpack she had acquired for this new job. They were for sure coming in handy now. She was just kicking herself for not packing a rain jacket or coat.
"Well Nina, you didn't know you'd be whisked off to the middle of who knows where instead of going back to your nice warm bed!" She let out a deep sigh. "Great, you're still talking to yourself too."

As she crested yet another hill she sped up her pace at the sight in the distance. Trees! They would at least be better shelter than the wide open space she was in now.

As she entered the edge of the forest she turned and looked once again at the area she'd come from. Confusion at the sight of the terrain and the lack of civilization only lasted for a moment as she returned her focus on finding shelter.

At some point her body decided it had had enough. She had been walking for hours. "Too bad you didn't specialize in wilderness training, Nina. Or how to make sure you're not just traveling in circles!"

"Ugh!!" She stopped walking and took a deep breath to calm herself. Would she make it much longer out here like this? Her shivering had increased exponentially and she was struggling to simply stand here.

As she tried to continue walking, her body decided it'd had enough and she fell to the ground.

"Very graceful, Nina. I guess we need a new plan." She looked around and spotted a tree with a slightly hollowed out base and decided that was better than laying out here in the open. She crawled over and curled up into a ball with her back halfway into the hole. She ached all over and the shivering had only gotten worse. Her ramblings to herself were no longer enough to keep her mental willpower going. She finally lost the battle as her vision slowly faded to black.

~~~

"I don't know, she was just laying there under the tree."

It was a man's voice. One she didn't recognize.

"Where did she come from?!" Another man was yelling angrily.

"How should I know? She wasn't awake when I found her. She wouldn't wake up so I carried her here."

Where was 'here,' exactly? She resisted the urge to open her eyes. She was scared of what these men might do if they knew she was awake. She didn't know them and yesterday's events had her pretty freaked out.

She also wanted to hear what else they would say while they thought she couldn't hear them. She noticed a slight accent but she couldn't quite place it, which surprised her. She was usually good at guessing people's origins from their speech. Studying dialects was one of her specialties at the University, after all.