JOURNAL OF DEREK RAYNE18 April (I think)
I’m not sure what day it is. Yesterday afternoon - I hope it was yesterday afternoon - I got so hungry I ate some berries from a bush along the trail. They looked something like gooseberries, so I decided to take the chance. I never knew hunger pains could hurt so bad. If this is Friday, then my food ran out 5 days ago.
Shortly after eating them I became dizzy and ill, after which I remember nothing until I awoke down the slope in the forest this morning. I must have fallen. I have a couple of rather large cuts and scrapes, as well as a huge, black bruise on my shoulder. It was pure luck, with a little help from my “Sight” that I found the road at all. I think I’d backtracked. The compass readings were different. Thank God that somehow my instincts were strong enough for me to hold onto my pack and one of the canteens, though the other and the machete are gone.
A rather funny thought - if this is the 18th, it’s the anniversary of the SF quake and fire - 63 yrs. ago. It’s a week of disasters. At least our house remained standing. Perhaps I can too - with God’s help.
What’s frightening is that I don’t really know that it was yesterday that I ate the berries. It could have been 2 days or 3 - I may have gotten turned around and backtracked God knows how far. My gut tells me that it wasn’t yesterday.
From now on I shall only write how many days from this point.
NEXT 
