Trees. Thousands of trees. An unending maze of forest. At certain points, the canopy above was so thick that Aaron was unable to see the sun. Only small little beams of light were able to penetrate through the leaves and branches. In retrospect, entering the forest was a very bad decision, though at the time Aaron was not presented with many. Things had gone south in Oakville. The situation he was presented with left him with three options. Run, hide, or die. Aaron chose to run. At the time, running north seemed like a good idea. In his mind, he thought that there would eventually be some highway or freeway. He was wrong. There were open patches from time to time. Fields and farms, even some dirt roads. Following the roads was pointless, Aaron tried once and it led nowhere, he decided to continue north instead. After about an hour, Aaron's boots were covered in mud as were the bottoms of his pants. Sweat ran down his forehead. The temperature was cool, not chilly though. That being said, non-stop walking (and some jogging) led to sweating. 

After roughly five hours of almost constant travel (save for a few breaks), Aaron came across a car on a dirt road. At first glance, it looked abandoned. There were some boxes visible in the trunk and backseat, but Aaron was still hesitant to approach. For about five minutes Aaron sat in the brush observing the car, waiting for something or someone to exit it or walk towards it. No one came. The car was dirty. The passenger side door was flung open, Aaron could not determine whether or not the driver's door was open. The biggest two questions on Aaron's mind were; was the car operational? why was it abandoned?. Hopefully it worked and had enough gas to get him out of the God-forsaken forest he found himself in. Slowly, Aaron approached. 

Almost instantly, Aaron regretted approaching the vehicle. Unfortunately, a walker had been lying dormant inside the car. How Aaron had not noticed it was beyond him, but once he started walking towards it, the creature noticed him. Almost instantly the typical moans and groans sounded from within the vehicle. Within about ten seconds, it had freed itself from the vehicle, stumbled onto the ground, and started trying to get back on it's feet. There was probably another ten second window before the walker would be on it's feet and walking towards Aaron. He acted quickly. In a few swift movements, Aaron drew the switchblade from his pocket, flung it out, and jammed it into the walker's forehead. The two fell over. The blade did not penetrate deep enough, because the walker was still flailing it's arms around. Aaron ripped the knife out, and began stabbing the creatures head. After about two bloody minutes, he stopped.

The little episode with the walker was great stress relief, but also relieved him of his much needed energy. Now, not only was he dirty and bloodied, but he was also exhausted. Aaron pushed on though. For another few hours he walked. When he entered the forest, it was just before sunrise. Now it would have been the afternoon he guessed. He had slept for a few hours, so perhaps an entire day had even passed. Aaron really did not know. His mind was elsewhere. Finally something happened to bring his concentration to the real world. [b]HIGHWAY 8[/b], it read. The walk had been Hell, but he was finally rewarded. The original goal and thought behind entering the forest was to find a nearby highway, unfortunately the nearest one happened to be what felt like 100 miles away, but was in reality only roughly 15. Aaron made his way to the guard rail and looked onto the highway. This section had a fair amount of cars on it, though not enough to block it completely. If there was a working one in the bunch, Aaron would definitely be able to drive off.

A nearby van offered some solace. Aaron checked it for any hidden occupants before entering the back. He did not close the back doors, rather, he left them open to observe the area while sitting in the back, drinking some water. His legs burned, but he was more relaxed than he had been in a very long time. "Maybe this is the start of something great" Aaron said aloud, to himself.