Chapter 2: Chapter one: Florida springs

W-Where am . . . I?

 

The lake's facade of tranquility was shattered as frantic splashes threw water into the air, violent ripples pulsed out, minor ones were created farther out by the falling droplets. The sound was the only hint of life within the lake. Its source was from a lone human, who just woke up

 

It, the human, was. . . male, name unknown to even him.

He tried to scream for help, and swear, but water entered his mouth making it all come out as panicked gargles.

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A slumbering being stirs to consciousness. A hunger gnawed at its stomach. It felt wrong, it was, Hungry.

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His eyes darted to-and-fro, till they still, and began to vibrate. They were moist in fear or was it the water flying in them, hard to tell.

Eyes glossing over – losing that spark of intelligence within them – his mind retreated back to kick his sluggish consciousness into high gear, telling it to ‘wake the fuck up.’

The body was left on autopilot. Still flailing, but losing its natural fear in its movements, becoming more robotic.

With one more kick the consciousness woke up completely. Instead of fixing the problem it made it worse. He began to panic more.

“Where am I, who am I, why am I in water!? I need to swim, how? How? I forgot! Think! Think!”

His thoughts were scattered, unfocused, unable to join together in a steady stream of thought. He was screwed, and his subconscious knew that.

So his subconscious did what it did best. Take in information, and find a solution. A memory was dragged up, an image flashed in his mindeye. It was him swimming, his hands held by a blurred face man, who said –

The man was thrown back into the world. The panic broke long enough for him to get his shit together, and follow the knowledge tide to the memory. Old muscle-memories that were drilled into his core instincts made themselves known.

Tucking his arms to his sides, and relaxing his muscles he allowed himself to sink. The man's eyes closed as he felt the water rising above his chest. He heaved, taking in a breath, but instead of air, water was inhaled. Barely stopping the choking reflex he went under.

The cool sensation filled him. He was weightless, and in a sense, free. A part of him was soothed by the feeling, and wanted to stay under longer, but that wasn't the time to think about who he was or listen to the voice. He was in the now.

With small, but precise movements he recentered himself. His legs flexed, as he spread his arms wide. He pushed off the water, legs kicking.

He broke through the water's surface. His lungs beg for air, but unable to fulfill that request he began painfully coughing up water. After the coughing wane he forced a few deep breaths to ease the burning in his lungs.

Taking only a minute the man steadied himself. Constantly repeating a pattern of motions to stay afloat. The man's face lost its focused look, and brightened.

“Ha- Hahahaha!” He broke into manic laughter, “Ha. That's,” He broke into a violent coughing fit, heaving up the remaining water from his stomach, and lungs.

“One-” He coughed, “Bleugh, hell of a thing to have happened to you when you wake up.”

 

His eyes scanned the surroundings, water flinging off his hair. All he could see were mangroves extending for miles, and little patches of land in between them. Droplets of rain still continued to speckle his face. He got a little irritated by water getting in his eyes, but all he could do was bare with it, and blink it away or shake his head.

 

“Where the hell am I?” He said allowed.

“Well, I know I am in-”

The man began to sink due to him prioritizing hand gestures over staying afloat.

“Bluegh!” The man spat out the water in his mouth, and began rubbing his tonge on the roof of his mouth.

“Oops, didn't mean to do that.” His head swiveled side-to-side to see if a non-existent person saw his slip up, “So, I know I'm somewhere in a landmass, watermass. . . whatever. But the problem is, how?”

He chopped his hand down, then had to stop himself again from sinking. I have to stop doing that!

“Gotta focus. Why did I wake up in a lake-pond, pretty sure its lak- Focus.” He forced his thoughts from trailing off, then tuned out his conscious thoughts.

He started running back his memories for answers, till he hit a blank. “Hm.” The man decided to switch tactics. The man shut his eyes, ignoring the wet-dryness irritating them, and set staying afloat as a side process.

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Deep under the water was disturbed by something big. Its stomach growled loud enough to be felt. Its tale swayed back-and-forth as it sped through the water. Food!

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He began mentally “grabbing” onto any fragments that surface the lake in his mind.

There was rain, enough to the point where if you stuck your hand out you wouldn't see it. The fragment slipped out of his mental grasp, and blurred till it receded back. Another memory surface: A man talking on the T.V’s screen, his voice was covered in memory-static, the text running under him blurred. The only thing he could see in enough detail was a image of a–

Dull pain erupted from the man's side, throwing him out of his mind. His eyes shot open to see his surroundings flying past him, his brain only registering moments later that he was midair, and still ascending. The man let out a blood curdling scream as the true pain set in. It pulsed from his chest as he felt something crack. Fear riddled his heart, and tears stung at his eyes.

He looked down. His vision was clouded by tears, but he could still see its outline- A memory surfaced. The man was in a body of water. His clothing drenched. He was headlocking a-

“Alligator!” The words grated through his clenched teeth.

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A secondary memory surfaced, but was pushed down as fast as it surfaced by a sudden rage that burned in his chest. His body felt hot, mind was hazed by rage, and pain was numbed from adrenaline.

Rapidly blinking to clear the blur in his eyes, he raised a fist — particularly extending his pointer, and middle to make a dull point. Their gazes met, one filled with rage, one filled with … smugness.

The man’s gaze sharped. The alligator began to roll. The man threw a punch. The second knuckle of his pointer, and middle fingers slammed into the alligator's left eyeball.

The alligators let out a yelp of pain, its hold on the man loosening. Two hands shot to the alligator opening maw, and slipped in. Sharp pain needles at the man’s nerves as he pried open the alligator maw.

Using the alligator head as support started pulling his low half towards him. The gator shook off its confusion, and began chomping down again.

 

Alligator's teeth dug into his flesh, opening small gashes from his stomach to his legs. Blood flowed mixing with drizzle turned rain.

The gap has shrunk to the point where his feet didn’t fit through, which placed him in a bad situation, a really bad one.

“SHIT!” The man tried to point his feet and pull, but was too late. His strength waned, mangled hands unable to stop it, he was so close. Fuck. The alligator bit down.

The man let out an undignified scream as the teeth pierced above his heels. Bones cried out.

The alligator began to roll right before they slammed into the water. The man's face impacted first, then, they were under.

The act of being face planted, and dragged under made the man blackout for a second. The alligator did not care, and continued its death roll. The man tried to grab onto the alligator or something, but getting repeatedly face planted into the water stopped him before he could get a grip.

“Im going to die” The thought resonated in him, and it made him pissed. But he couldn't do anything going to do.

 

Slam. Slam. His lungs screamed for oxygen. He was blind. Everything hurt, and. . . THERE!

The alligator grip had loosened, and he took his chance. He yanked his right leg. Flesh was rended, blood gushed, it hurt like a bitch, and did a toe go? He twisted his center of mass, and he- SLAM! The force of the slam knocked him out of the alligator grip completely. His left foot screamed in pain.

“Did my foot just get ripped off?! Or was it broken?! Fuck! No time to think about swimming!” And so he did. He started pumping his arms, kicking his legs, while ignoring the mind numbing pain each time he kicked with his left.

 

His ears perked up, trying to hear anything of the alligator.

His ears were filled by the sound of the splashing of water, he felt doom settle on his back.

 

His left ear twitched, as the sound of an alligator's tail disturbing water entered his eardrum, and he turned a hard left. The alligator shot past his right side, mouth snapping down.

He focused on a patch of land a few yards away. In the corner of his eye he saw the alligator dice under. The mans pace quickened, “Fuck, fuck fuck, fucky FUCK!” His thoughts were filled by swears, the only thing allowing him to concentrate, and not fall into the exhaustion riddling his body.

He felt a disturbance on his right. He rolled back, as everything curled in to avoid the alligator teeth latching onto one. The alligator soared a few in front of him, and then water clouded his sight.

 

The man twisted underwater, and reoriented himself towards the patch of land. While underwater he switched to a breaststroke, till he resurfaced, and switched back to freestyle.

Only a few feet away the man heard the splashing of water right behind him. Dive or Swim.

 

The decision did simmer for long, “Fuck no, gator are fast as fuck!!”

Diving the man felt the belly of the alligator rub against his back.

Switching to breast strokes, the man decided to stay under for a bit longer to steal a few more seconds.

He was in front of, what he can make out, crumbled stone held together by the mangroves root. And- he felt it behind him. He kicked off the stone, and saw the alligator slam into it. The man felt anger, it was worse than before. His skin radiated heat, and he felt a numbing fog cover his mind. He swam forward, something tearing in him, and grabbed onto the stunned alligator.

 

His hand crawled up its body, till it got to its head. His right middle and pointer fingers went rigid, and he pushed them into the alligator right eye. The eye resisted only for a moment before giving in with a squishy pop.

The man pushed harder, scratching the inside of the socket with his nails. The alligator thrashed, slamming the man into the wall, doing anything to get this crazy thing off it, and to stop the pain. The man in fact wasn't up there. Only Rage, and an old memory guided his actions.

 

A grin was plastered on the man's face, then it was gone, as the alligator slammed him one more time. The man's head cracked against the stone, his body going limp, which allowed the alligator to swim away.

He slowly floated up. A few seconds passed, then it dragged out to thirty. . . was the man dead? His body spasmed, then went limp. The drizzle by now has turned into a fairly heavy rain. It pelted his back, and he spasmed again before going limp.

The man spasmed again at the minute mark, and instead of going limp he shot up gasping. His eyes bloodshot, canine gleaming, and something else guiding his actions. He dragged himself onto land, leaving a faint trail of blood, and water.

The man finally collapsed a few feet from shore onto a patch of teal lichen, which was stained a faint red by the man's blood; a tree was the only protection from the rain. Whatever controlled the man left, and he went limp.

 

The rain intensified. The droplets grew in size, their speed increased, and something else came with it. The world was shrouded by it.

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The lichen wriggled. It sensed food.

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