1 Cold November Rain

Macha flashed her headlights. She hoped that it would help her visibility in the pouring night rain. It did not. The endless stream made the dark and winding Hana Road difficult to drive. Despite the downpour, she wanted to finish her workload for the day so she refused to slow down too much.

Earlier that day, she had to run in the storm to get to her car and she ended up soaked to the bone. Her clothes stuck to her body and made her clothes smell musty. At this point, all she wanted was to go home and enjoy a hot shower.

The song playing on the radio caused Macha to chuckle. She realized it was November Rain by Guns N' Roses. Thunder boomed and shook her car, making her jump in her seat. The enchanting melody contrasted sharply with the surrounding weather.

'I can do this. Focus,' she thought as the windows fogged. She hated driving in the rain at night. The Hana Road was dangerous because there were no street lights and it had narrow sharp turns. The pouring rain made the drive even more difficult. At this hour, the road was empty.

Macha reached for the control panel in her car. Glancing away from the road for a second, she cranked the switch to turn on the defrost mode. When she looked up, complete darkness lay just ahead. The lights from her car were swallowed up as her car drove through the eternal darkness. The pattering of rain and the music on her radio stopped, leaving a void of silence.

"What the!" Macha yelled, her eyes darted around. The scenery suddenly changed, but before she could say anything else, a thick tree trunk came into view.

For a moment panic gripped her heart and her foot hesitated. After a burst of willpower, the paralyzing fear was pushed aside. She slammed on her brake and tried to swerve to lessen the incoming impact. The second before the car hit the tree, her muscles tightened as she gripped the steering wheel.

BOOM

A strong force hit Macha in the chest. It knocked the wind out of her and left her momentarily stunned. In her daze, she looked around. White powder settled throughout her car, falling like snow around her. She tried to take a deep breath, but an intense chemical odor caused her to cough.

When she glanced down, she spotted the white deflated airbag in her lap. She lifted her hand and turned off her car. It puzzled her how she ended up off the road. The moments before the crash happened so fast and made such little sense.

After fumbling to unbuckle her seat belt, she tried to open the car door. "Shit. It's stuck," she coughed while she pushed against it.

Her body still shook from the shock of being in an accident, but she climbed over the emergency brake to the passenger's side. She opened the door and rolled out of the car. While she gasped for fresh air, she touched her face and body. It was important to check if she was bleeding. Her hands appeared dry, with no sign of blood.

After catching her breath, she reached into the car and pulled out her purse. Macha fumbled around the many nicknacks which she had accumulated in her bag until she found her phone. She turned it on and the bright screen made her eyes squint. There was no signal. "No, no, no. This can't be happening," she groaned, covering her mouth with her hand.

She then used her cell phone to inspect the damage to her car. The tree totaled the front bumper and hood so she probably would not be able to drive away. She pulled her hands down her face in frustration. Glancing at her phone, she double checked to see if there was a signal. The lack of communication filled her with dismay.

In an effort to get one bar, she walked around, moving her phone up and down in the air. While doing this, she swore she would donate to charity if she could get just one bar, so she could call a tow truck.

As she wandered around, her phone lit up the surrounding area. She used the cold light to follow the tracks left behind from her tires. She decided she would use the tracks to get to the road. Once at the road, she would wait for someone to pass by. Despite her bad luck, she hoped someone would let her catch a ride to the next town.

The deep tracks which lifted the grass cut off without warning. Macha looked around. This confused her, and she wondered what happened to the rest of the tracks. She shined the light around her and did not find the paved road.

A thick forest surrounded her. It had trees for as far as she could see. Since it was night, her visibility was limited, but the distance from the crash to the road should not have been this far.

Now that she had a moment to think, the sounds of the night startled her. It was louder than she expected it to be. The hooting of owls and buzzing of insects seemed to attack her ears.

Unsure what else to do, she lowered her head into her hands and sighed. In a small voice, she whispered, "I guess I'll sleep in my car until morning." Macha dragged her feet as she walked back to her car. Her nerves were frazzled from the recent crash and being alone filled her with anxiety.

She smelled around the vehicle. The last thing she wanted to do was sleep in a car that had gasoline leaking out of it. Satisfied that it was safe, she opened the doors to air out the chemical powder that came from the airbag being deployed.

After doing this, Macha walked to the back of her car and opened the trunk. She took out a blanket from the emergency kit that her father had given her years before when she moved out. She pulled it around her body and used her purse as a pillow. A few tears of frustration fell from her eyes before she drifted to sleep.

Macha woke up to the loud sound of birds chirping. The sunlight streaked through the trees and lit up patches of the forest here and there. As she looked around she realized that these trees did not look like the trees that grew along the Hana Road. They looked like fig trees. Plump purple, red, yellow, and green fruit ran along the tree's branches.

"Where am I?" Macha muttered softly. She looked around the area in confusion. A thread of worry and fear wrapped around her. She pinched her arm to see if she would feel pain, or if it was just a dream. "Ah!" Macha winced. She took a deep breath and tried to clear her mind.

Her stomach suddenly growled, and she remembered that she did not eat since lunchtime the previous day. She reached into her car's armrest and took out her Swiss Army knife. She was rather pleased that she had bought it in case of a "zombie apocalypse." She rummaged through the various tools until she found the knife. She used the small blade to cut off the ripe fruit from the trees.

Macha sat, eating the fruit and tried to replay the events of the previous night. She remembered the darkness that enveloped her car but could not think of a reason it would happen. After some speculation, she decided she was still in Hawai'i but failed to remember the scenery correctly. Her neighbor had a fig tree, so perhaps there was a fig tree forest she did not know about.

Now that the daylight lit up the area, she decided to explore her surroundings. Macha wanted to find a way out of the forest and go home. She emptied her purse, cut off some green unripe fruit, and stuffed them into her emptied bag. She used the green fruit as a "breadcrumb" trail as she strayed further from the car.

"Wait," Macha said, her eyes widening slightly. "Using food as a trail might lead to a whole Hansel and Gretel mishap..." Rethinking her plan, she dumped the unripe fruit on the ground. She took out her knife and carved arrows pointing back to her car on the trunks of the trees.

Macha worried about leaving the car but desperately wanted to find a way out of the forest and back to the road.