Todd's Survival

Point of view from a man named Todd

Have you ever been in a situation of survival? Was it so dire, you would resort to anything to live? I have been in a situation like that. Seeing people die in front of your eyes, I would have never dreamed of it, but I saw it.

I used to play football at the University Of Wisconsin. I loved it and did not mind the injuries. Like a lot of people that played football, I had several concussions. These were not just minor concussions though. These were major ones. I did take some pretty heavy hits, and those rattled my brain a lot.

I spoke to my doctor for more information on my case and he had said the next head injury I receive might cause paranoia, hallucination, and amnesia. I had driven home, ready to heed the doctor's advice. Maybe it wouldn't be that bad. I just needed to be more careful. When I got home it was dark, so I went to bed straight away.

My doctor called me the next morning. He had suggested I stop playing football because as he had said, another head injury would result in amnesia. I was crestfallen, forced to stop playing football in fear of losing my memories. I took on a new job in the field of geography. I found a new meaning in my life. All thanks to the University Of Wisconsin for letting me perfect the art.

In my new career, I had the opportunity to go to the woods of Arkansas to study a newly found cave system we were given permission to explore. We had to take a large van. This was a great new opportunity in my life, all thanks to The University Of Wisconsin.

We were in the van a week after the news, and I was quite excited. Soon enough though, we were on our way. After a while, I had found out this trip would be awesome. I loved the fact that there was danger involved with cougars in Arkansas. It was a thrill. I got quite comfy in the van, as I leaned back and began to watch a movie on a kindle I had brought. To start the ride, it was quite smooth and thoroughly enjoyable.

It was about five in the afternoon, and the van was almost at the border of Arkansas. Then, all of a sudden, we heard what sounded like a bang in the hood. I looked outside my window and saw the car had hit a deer. This was a serious issue, as we were next to a lake, and the car was going down fast in that direction. I pulled off my seat belt.

The van hit the water. Not long before I heard the terrified screams of everyone around me. When we crashed into the water, my survival instinct kicked in. I opened the side door, waited for the water to fill in, and swam to the surface. Good thing I thought fast. I realized how lucky I was to survive.

When had I surfaced, I took a look around. I began to cry, as I realized at that moment nobody else made it out of the van alive. I began to paddle, using my anxiety of survival to stay up. After several hours, I lost all hope, and the anxiety that was making me strive had lost me. My last vision was of a nearby land. I was too tired to swim further though.

I had awoken on the shore of the woods. I looked around and soon spotted a building about one hundred yards away. I ran up to the building with the energy I had left, and I went inside. Inside, there was no one there. It appeared I was in an abandoned building. I asked myself why it wasn't torn down, but hunger doesn't allow you to think for anything other than hunger for that long. There laid a pencil and a blank journal in the building. I began to record my experience for the sake of recording it.

I found a fridge that had consisted of a peanut butter jelly sandwich. While I ate, I took note of the building I was in. It seemed to be just a large room with what seems to be surgical tools. I looked around the room and saw a sign that said, Jeffrey's workshop for building surgical tools. After my food went down into my stomach, I became a little less hungry. When I had taken care of my hunger, the injuries I sustained from the crash started to ache. I had a head injury. I had a huge knot on my head.

My vision became blurry. I had tried to gather my thoughts, but I was overwhelmed by the feeling that I had forgotten something. Then, I soon realized I had no idea how I got here. The room seemed unfamiliar. I had forgotten everything up to that point.

At that point, I had amnesia. I was terrified when I started to find things harder to remember after a while. Good thing I had that journal to remind me what happened. I teared up a bit, but I soon got over it after reading the entry. Today, a man pulled up in his car. He came in here with working gear on. He said he had come on a plane to get here for work. He said the plane had just left. When I asked what his name was, he said it was Jeffrey

That night, my head injuries made me have all sorts of visions. That night, I could hear a voice from the corner telling me to come to him. I saw dark shadows in the corner of my eye. Normal items looked distorted.

I had a dream that I killed Jeffrey. I had a dream he killed me. My voice was slurred, and you could say my mind was just messed up.I got no sleep that night. Sheer terror filled my body.

That morning, I thought I heard loud banging. It was my head injury. I couldn't think right. In one night, terror filled my mind. Anxiety controlled me, served with a bit of depression. I continued to see those damn shadows moving. My mind was becoming dull, and I felt ignorant at the very least.

The next morning, I asked Jeffrey if he would help me get out of here, and he said he would try. He had no means of communication, and the plane that flew him here would arrive in a few days. He did have a load of food in the back of his truck, though. We ate for a bit and talked about my story. He sounded quite interested in it.

I had lots of conversations with Jeffrey. He told me he had a wife and two daughters by the name of Elisa and Emma. He came to work here after being declined as a doctor. So, he began to make tools for doctors. Since he was not a very social man, he decided to work alone in the woods.

Every day, those damned shadows had appeared. then I heard banging. What the hell is going on? Am I imagining them? Are they real? Questions questions questions... stop it stop it stop it shadows... Slowly, it became so my only moments of peace were during the talks with Jeffrey. I loved to converse with that man.

God, the headaches, they still hurt. I'm still afraid to look in the corner of my eye. I had terrible nightmares. All involving Jeffrey. God, I hated these events. What started out as bad had turned into worse. Slowly, Jeffrey and I began to hate each other. Mainly because of the head injury making me a mad man.

For a few days, no plane had come. We both began to become hungry, and we were running out of patience. The plane should be here. We broke into deadly arguments often. Finally, after about a month, search planes came to the island. By that point, I had killed Jeffrey over the last bits of food and drink, leaving his body on the floor while I ate. The arguments had turned to something worse. Although, I did feel genuinely sorrowful and guilty, as I both cried and screamed at myself in rage for my evil actions on my only friend. Too bad the search planes took so long to find us.

When I was on the plane, a man next to me gave me a lot to eat and drink. I had confessed to him about how I killed Jeffrey. The man looked confused, telling me there was no man with me. They had inspected the whole area I was in. What's more, the tool making shop I was in closed many years ago, after a man named Jeffrey went missing after being attacked by another man after their plane was struck down by a bird on the way to work. They had fought each other when they were starving, fighting over the last bits of food.

Therefore, to this day, I don't know whether it was a hallucination or a the ghost of Jeffrey playing mind tricks on me, making me do things, making me think I killed him. Making me think the thoughts of his murderer. It makes me shiver at the thought. Maybe, it's best I never know the scary truth. I am currently going to a therapist for help. Then again, how do I know I'm still not hallucinating? I still sometimes think I see a shadow a bit darker than the rest staring at me.

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