Squirrelly

Luca springs awake after feeling many legs crawling over his arm, he flings the limb out in order to shake off whatever if it and stands up quickly. Looking around he can see better than he could yesterday as it seems to already be morning. Rubbing his eyes to relive them of dust he examines the room to find some way to actually get out, the wall he'd fallen down too steep to climb and so smooth that he wouldn't be able to find a foot hold. There's seemingly no entrance or exit to the lower lever and the only thing of interest is a small pond at one side of the room, though while it's stagnant it doesn't look dirty.

He sighs and walks over to the pond to wash his face, only realising that there's some visible light at the bottom of the pond that doesn't seem to be from the hole he'd previously made. While he believed he had found an exit he still wasn't sure about diving under there, what if he got stuck and drowned? Of course he could swim relatively well but due to his sedimentary life style he didn't think he could hold his breath for any appreciable length of time.

Deciding he'd rather get moving instead of pondering his life's existance in here, he strips naked and leaves his underwear and duvet next to the pond, to collect if he manages to find and exit and not die. "Well, here I go." he mutters as he jumps in, the pond seems to be deeper than he'd expected. His tries to peer through the clean water and follow the light that illuminates the nearby floor and walls alluringly close by. He kicks the water and makes his way over, his heart rate jumping slightly as he realises he's under rock and wouldn't be able to quickly go back for air, he'd only been under a few seconds and felt the need to go back up... Regardless he continues on wards and follows the light, he'd gone a couple meters and felt he was almost there.

Finally he spots a hole above him, wide enough to crawl through, he almost explodes out of the water to catch his breath and looks around to observe the environment around him. Green.

He takes a minute or two to catch his breath and calm his heart rate before preparing to resubmerge in order to collect his underwear and duvet, as he wasn't sure he'd be able to live through a cold night without it covering him. The journey there and back through the pond was relatively easy, especially when compared to the panic inducing feeling of now knowing if you'd drown or not. With his heart rate remaining at a normal pace his requirement for oxygen didn't increase, resulting in him being able to hold his breath much longer. This was useful as dragging a soaked through duvet through the water was difficult for the weak teen.

After that he began the long trek to find some sort of civilisation, as Luca walked he'd occasionally see long jagged lines carved into tree's... They looked like they were from some sort of animal which had him petrified for an hour, in which he didn't dare move and was flinching at every sound. Eventually he resumed his travels however, occasionally collecting edible looking mushrooms just in-case he'd need them. He kept an eye out for any fruit as well but didn't have any luck in finding any, this carried on until the sky darkened yet again, causing him to try and find somewhere to sleep. This ended up being under a thick bush that he hoped would keep any rain out.

The next few days were absolute agony for Luca, he was cold, thirsty, hungry and wanted to go home. He'd spent four more days walking through the huge valley but didn't find anything apart from the occasional streams to quench his thirst. He hadn't found any food that wasn't mushrooms either and felt like his stomach was eating itself from within, he'd finally had enough and sat below a leafy tree that looked different from the common pine ones that were around, he noted that the ground around him was covered in hard seed-like shells. He laid his head against it, closed his eyes and looked up, wishing this was all a dream. Luca had only three things on his mind currently, food, water and toilet paper... None were readily available. His stomach rumbles again causing him to flinch at the sound and open his eyes, only to see gems, red gems that the sunlight gleamed off of. He starts salivating as he glares at the apple above him, it's shape is slightly different to the ones you'd usually buy but that didn't matter to him, not anymore. The tree was high however, so high that Luca didn't think he'd be able to climb it, regardless he would make the attempt.

He stretched his arms up and grabbed one of the lower branches and tried to pull himself up, he struggles and groans under his own weight but his under developed upper body strength isn't able to lift him. He places his feet on the tree and kicks off of it, hoping the momentum would help him reach the gem above him, this proved to be a mistake as he loses his grip and falls and lands hard on his back, aggravating the injury he'd received when he'd fallen into the cave.

"Agggghhhh, ughhhh... My fucking back!" he coughs out, winded from the impact.

A couple minutes later Luca finds himself propped up against the tree, hopeless in getting some food from here. "God, I'm so hungry! I could... I could eat a horse!" he says, his stomach rumbling again, only this time a dull ache making itself known. "Ah, fuck it, please just be lucky this once!" he says and eats one of the mushrooms he'd collected. He bites into the green cap and quickly chews it, the rubbery texture and earthy flavour making him gag but he manages to swallow, feeling slightly relieved at finally putting something in his stomach, he continues to eat the long white stem and sighs as he finishes it. "Must of been one of the good ones" he mutters.

He sits back and enjoys the warmth of the sunshine, hoping that with finally eating something he'd have the strength to climb the tree and grab the apple. His rest doesn't last long however as he feels something roiling in his stomach, a sharp pain jolts his body causing him to quickly stand up, sweat starts pouring from him as adrenaline kicks it and dulls the pain slightly. "W-what i-s th-BLRRRRGGGHH" violently throws up, luckily missing his duvet with his projectile vomit. After this, the second wave begins... An attack from below. His eyes water as he throws his underwear off towards his duvet and shits a torrent of watery brown liquid like a fire hose. The pain intensifies and not even the adrenaline is enough to stop the agonising pain he's feeling, combined with the diarrhoea and vomiting is making him regret ever being born or not simply killing himself when he found himself lost in this fucking forest!

His entire body trembles as he curls up on the floor, vomiting, shitting and shivering from the intense pain he's currently in, courtesy of the mushroom he'd just eaten. Luca lies on the floor for eight hours, writhing in pain, suffering. Until he simply blacks out.

Waking up Luca scrambles up, feeling himself over for any injuries or any feeling of pain that he'd been experiencing before he'd passed out... Nothing, at least, nothing noticeable. Apparently the mushroom only causes him to be crippled by immense pain and that's it, Luca is thankful that it's over and vows never to eat another mushroom ever again, no matter who says it's edible.

He doesn't notice something weird however, he'd no longer hungry, thirsty or even exhausted... He feels like a fresh man, like he'd been reborn. His nose wrinkles at the smell of his vomit and faeces and looks around before becoming horrified at finding most of the stuff he'd "excreted" to be dark red, blood... He shakes his head, this ridiculous amount of blood would definitely kill him, something else must've died here, or maybe he'd eaten something that's red?...

His mental justifications continue until he takes his mind off of it, instead turning his focus onto that damned apple! He's well rested and ready to take this tree on! He runs at it, preparing to tame nature itself and become a survivalist, "JUST LIKE BEAR GRY-UGH!" his foot slips on the tree, causing him to collide with the tree, crotch first. He lands heavily on the floor holding his manliness in both hands, again, writhing in pain.

A couple hours later Luca had finally made it up the tree and was reaching from a branch over to where the apple was hanging... Closer, almost there... *Creaak* the sound causes him to scramble backwards, afraid of falling from such a height, his movements causing the nearby branches to shake, and the apple's stem to gracefully detach from the tree. It falls onto the floor where a grey rodent sprints by, picks it up and runs up a nearby tree, causing Luca to scream in horrified anger. "NOOOOOOO! YOU BASTARD!"

His shout causes many birds escape for the skies for fear of whatever predator had released such a vicious "roar", Luca slowly crawls down the tree, hope in the world lost with dull eyes. He swore if he ever got out of this situation he'd skin every squirrel he saw, no matter what.