The heat and painful throbbing of his ankle woke Reuben up for the umpteenth time. He saw that his sprained appendage was turning several different shades of purple and blue. With a groan he grit his teeth against the pain and leaned back against the cool stone floor of his cave.
For the second time he had barely outrun the vicious storm. There he had been dangling twenty feet above the ground and watching the lightning roll in with brutal efficiency. He had had no choice. He had pulled his knife out of the mushroom stalk and slid the rest of the way down grabbing whatever he could to slow his decent.
His landing had been less than graceful, the force of the hitting the ground was enough to make him roll his ankle despite the thick combat boots he wore. Fueled by adrenaline he had managed to make it to the cave right as the first wave of deadly bolts began to strike the ground.
Four more days. Just four more days of this and I'm done.
Four days might as well have been an eternity. His survival pack contained bandages and coagulants but nothing so trivial as a pain reliever. Which meant he couldn't even find respite in sleep. Added to that the heat and humidity of the early summer season was oppressive.
Four days. I can do this. Only four more days...
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