Chapter 27
This duffel bag is your best chance for food. And it’s not like you’re going to steal the hitchhiker’s belongings. You’re just looking for some chips or beef jerky.
You unzip the duffel bag, your stomach growling painfully. The first thing you see is a bunch of clothing. That makes sense, you suppose. You fish around a little more, and you pull out items one by one. A mini sewing kit. A roll of duct tape. A color photograph.
You hold up the photo, and to your surprise, it’s a picture of a giraffe. Even stranger, he has crossed out the giraffe with a Sharpie marker. You’re not sure what to make of this, but it’s not food, so you put it back in the bag.
The next thing you find in the bag is a wooden box that is latched shut. When the hitchhiker sees you remove the box, he starts jerking against his restraints frantically. You ignore him and undo the latch to open it, wondering if the box contains something valuable like jewelry or cash.
It’s not jewelry or cash. It’s… a bunch of dust.
For a moment, you think the dust could be hot chocolate mix, or something along those lines.
But you take a little taste and—no, definitely just dust. You pour it out onto the ground while the hitchhiker moans like you just punched him in the face.
He needs to calm the hell down. He has much worse problems than a dirty box being cleaned out. You did him a favor.
Finally, you hit paydirt. You find a baggie of blueberries buried deep in the bag. There are only a handful of berries, but you don’t need many. Only enough to calm your empty stomach.
You eat the berries quickly and then return the plastic to the duffel bag. You zip it up, then get to your feet to try to sleep now that you’re not so desperately hungry anymore.
You feel better for a short time and almost drift off to sleep, but then, all of a sudden, you are wide awake again. Your mouth is almost painfully dry, and when you try to swallow, it’s difficult.
You sit up on the bed of leaves, and find that your heart is pounding and you’re covered in a layer of sweat.
You try to stand up, but a sharp pain in your abdomen knocks the wind out of you.
You feel like you’re about to throw up, and you want to get away from the bed to do it, but your legs don’t seem to work, so you just turn your head to the side and vomit next to the bed.
You are very dizzy. Could it be from a lack of food? But it hasn’t even been 24 hours since you’ve eaten a full meal. Plus, you ate those berries.
Wait.
The berries…
They looked like blueberries, but somehow, they didn’t taste like blueberries.
They tasted sweet, but also kind of bitter, almost like a tomato, which was very strange.
You were so hungry, though—you didn’t give it a second thought.
After all, why would the hitchhiker have poison berries in his bag?
Another wave of nausea hits you, and you vomit once more. When you raise your eyes, you notice that the hitchhiker is watching you, a smile playing on his lips. He continues watching you as your heart beats wildly, your blood pressure plummets, and finally, you collapse and die from cardiac shock.
THE END
Want to try for a different ending? Turn back to Chapter 1 (page 1)!