They Wait in the Woods

Chapter 3

The first thing she realized was that she was finally warm and dry. The sensation of the soft mattress under her was comforting, giving her the illusion that she might have been at home in her own bed. The sounds around her, however, told her otherwise.

She opened her eyes slowly, finding herself lying in a cot bed in a small, plain room that had a map and a small bulletin board on the walls. There was a bright light coming through the grayish curtains indicating the night was over. Her eyes followed a rhythmic tapping sound to a round clock on the wall. It was past noon.

She pushed the grey blanket aside and sat up slowly on the edge of the bed waiting for the first wave of pain to hit. To her surprise, she felt mostly dizzy, her weak body numb from the pain medication she assumed she had been given.

A tight pinch ran down from her neck to her shoulder and chest. She heard the dry, plasticky crackling of an adhesive pad, feeling the fuzzy surface with her fingers. Her own clothes save for her underwear were gone and replaced by a soft, flannel button-down that had a light, pleasant smell of a man's cologne to it.

The wooden floor felt rough but warm against her bare feet as she slid down from the bed. There was a small white door in front of her that had the promise of leading to a bathroom. She could hear muffled sounds of people talking somewhere further in the building, but she was not yet ready to come face-to-face with any of them.

Her knees giving in as she crossed the room she reached in and patted the tiled walls fumbling for the light switch. The glare of the light tube above a wide, rectangular mirror was blinding as it reflected off the white, ceramic tiles. The sight of a sink and a faucet made her realize she was actually quite thirsty.

She leaned against the edge of the simple sink and started a steady stream of cold water. She took a few long, hungry sips letting the water drip off her dry lips down her chin. Wiping her mouth she finally dared to do what she had been scared of for a good while already. Slowly she raised her head to look at herself in the mirror.

The very last of her memories flashed before her eyes like a nightmare she was not quite sure she had awoken from yet. In the cold light of the tube lamp above the bathroom mirror, her face was almost ashen. There was a long, narrow cut running across her forehead above her right eye that someone had now covered with a thin white adhesive. The pinching she had felt earlier was caused by a padded bandage that ran the entire length of the left side of her neck and throat disappearing under the flannel shirt, heading for her shoulder. The pad had begun to show seepage in places. She felt the tiny knots of stitches underneath.

Her toes bumped into a plastic trash bin that had been tucked away under the sink. It was full of stained tissues and wipes, used medical wrappers, pieces of dark string and tiny glass containers with complicated names printed on them explaining why she was standing there in the first place. Someone had cleaned up quite a mess.

She was startled out of her thoughts by a light knock on the bathroom door.

"I'm sorry, ma'am, I didn't mean to scare you," an apologetic soft male voice came from the doorway. The voice belonged to a young man dressed in a Park Ranger uniform. He was holding on to a bundle of clothes with a folded white towel on top.

"I thought you might want to freshen up," he said sheepishly offering the bundle in her direction while not quite knowing where his eyes should be. "The shower's all yours," he waved in the general direction of the booth in the corner and placed the bundle on the stool by the doorway retreating to stand behind the door itself.

"...Thanks," she replied cautiously reaching for the terrycloth towel. She found her own clothes neatly folded and fully dry underneath.

Numerous questions about the night before flooded her mind, but at that moment she was simply too startled and confused to ask any of them. Sensing the nervousness of the young ranger, she figured that questions were going to need to wait until they had gotten past the initial hello and he was actually relaxed enough to answer any of them.