Super•Villainous

XVII

My screams rose in pitch, coming out in earnest now, as I once again encountered that weightless feeling of my stomach rising up, up, up into my throat, passed my throat, lost completely. It lasted only a second before other branches slowed my descent, whipping hard against my side, my limbs, even my head. I reached out for something to grab, but everything snapped by two fast, until my useless dress finally proved itself useful, the fabric catching just long enough on a pointed branch for me to secure my grasp around a thick arm of the tree. Despite my humerus nearly yanking out of my shoulder socket, I didn't let go. The branch wobbled precariously, and I feared it would snap, too, before I could find footing on another one.

After much careful prodding with my feet, gently kicking my legs out to locate a sturdy enough surface, I let go, and, hugging the base of the tree quite a bit tighter than before, began a somewhat rushed descent back to the safety of the ground, dropping down from limb to lowered limb. My distress over a wasted climb to the top of the tree didn't seem to matter quite so much when faced with nearly breaking several bones, if not worse.

I shivered at the thought of breaking my neck and living paralyzed atop of the roots of the tree for days, unable to do nothing to help myself as life moved on around me.

I hated heights.

Safely on solid ground with both mind and body pushed past the pint of exhaustion, I sketched a quick cross into the dirt denoting each outward point with the cardinal directions, specifying west as twice as large as the others, based on my observations of the sun. It might not prove useful, but I clung to anything gleaned from what was beginning to look like a needlessly dangerous climb. All there had been to see was row upon row of trees and the distant outline of power lines.

With that done, I nestled into the tree's roots, imagining it were an armchair before a roaring hearth, and let my eyes drift shut. They stung from having been awake for upwards of thirty hours.

I hated that I needed to sleep as much now as I had hours before, but I no longer trusted my emotions to guide my decisions. Had I been rested, I wouldn't have freaked out so high in the air and nearly gotten myself killed. I needed sleep, probably more than I ever understood.

With those final thoughts, I drifted off into an uneasy sleep, unconscious before my head could even slump against my shoulder.

*~*~*~*~*~*

Power lines.

My eyes snapped wide and I jerked upright, instantly awake, the only hint of my time spent slumbering found in the soft golden hue dampening on the lovely jade leaves above. Late afternoon, or perhaps early morning? Only time would tell which way the sun would drift.

I scrambled to my feet, still feeling like trash compacted garbage and looking far worse, but altogether better than I had before my uncomfortable, stiff-necked nap. I wasn't liable to have a mental breakdown at the first minor inconvenience, which could only enhance my odds of survival.

I craned my neck to peer back up the tree, cogs whirring. I tried to envision the view from up there once more, the millions of trees and the pin-thin power lines breaking through the monotony, so far away I almost missed them, and so mundane I almost overlooked their greater meaning.

Power lines typically lined roads, right? Or at the very least led back to the cities they supplied with power. Proof. Proof that civilization wasn't as far as I feared.

It took all my self-control to stop me from sprinting down the mountain with reckless abandon and expending a dangerous amount of energy in the process. I vowed to be smart about this.

If I recalled correctly, the distant poles carrying the power lines had been cast in sharp relief by the sun. They would have faded into the background completely had the light come from any other direction, which meant necessity dictated my path to be a eastward one.