I was growing tired, but the additional note buoyed my hopes – I had to explore a bit more. I concluded that the water referred to in the note did not mean the pond but a larger body. After hiking uphill from the stream, I decided it would be best to return downhill in the direction that the stream was flowing – hoping it emptied out somewhere nearby. I headed downhill, passing through a stand of pines.

 

 

Almost immediately, I found myself enveloped by thick weeds. I paused for a moment in the silence, pulled the ragged note out of my bag and read it again. Straining to hear anything, I realized that the only live animals I had seen all day subsisted on carrion. Did only scavengers survive in this land?

 

 

Flailing about as if thrashing at a swarm of hornets, I stumbled onto a path. I anxiously pushed on down the slope.