was, he felt the best course of action was to pick a direction and start walking, marching in a straight line so he could come back here if needed. If he found a break in the trees, he would try his phone or GPS again. He would continue to do this until he was able to make contact with someone or found civilization. Hopefully, he would come across some water as well. Now regretting that he had not eaten before he left the house, he knew that he could go without food for several days, but he would need water soon. He just needed to decide on a direction.
From the position of the sun through the trees, he was able to determine what he believed to be north, south, east and west. After some thought, he decided that a westerly direction would be the easiest to track since he could simply follow the sun. As a precaution, he set up some sticks in a pattern next to the tree to act as a marker if he had to come back. He shut off his phone to conserve the battery, took a deep breath to gather his courage and started walking.
Jake felt better as he started moving, feeling fairly confident in his plan. It was easy going from the start as the forest floor was fairly level with light undergrowth. The air was cool under the trees, but not cold. He glanced back from time to time to make sure he was moving in a straight line. To keep his mind clear, he kept a silent step count and stopped to set up small markers every hundred paces or so. As he traveled, he tried to notice any distinctive terrain feature that could help him find his way back, but all he saw were trees.
After traveling like this for an hour or so, the movement was causing his ribs to bother him. He decided to take a break, so he sat down and leaned back against a tree. He closed his eyes, taking some deep breaths to try to relax his body and relieve the discomfort in his ribs.
He was sitting there quietly when he heard the very faint sound of running water. He quickly stood up, listening intently. He closed his eyes again and concentrated, trying to use his hearing to determine from what direction it was coming, moving his body to face the sound. After several moments, he felt he knew the direction, but had no clue about the distance. When he opened his eyes, he was facing north.
Jake immediately saw a problem. The ground seemed to rise gently in that direction and the forest looked thicker. His plan called for a straight-line march away from the clearing to keep his bearings. He could set up a marker here and try to keep a straight line, but if he got off track in the rougher terrain, he might never find it again.
After several moments of indecision, he shook off his doubts and decided that it was worth the risk if he could find water. Also, there was likely open sky above the water, so he could try his GPS again. Not only that, he would probably be better off following the waterway unless the terrain was too rough. Generally, where there was water, eventually there would be people. The more he thought about it, the more excited he got about the prospect; maybe he could get out of this quickly.
He made a marker at the base of the tree, just in case. Trying to ignore the dull throbbing in his side, he took off in the direction of the water. Because the forest floor was still relatively level with few obstacles, he made good time for the first twenty minutes or so. His pace began to drop off as the ground began to incline up and more obstacles of fallen trees and rocks appeared. He attempted to keep on his straight line, but that soon proved to be impossible in this terrain. He kept his same general direction, but he knew that backtracking to the clearing was unlikely at best now.
While that troubled him, he was motivated to keep going by the growing sound of running water. As he made his way through the rocks and trees, he could almost see in his mind's eye what the river would look like. He was sure it was a river now, since the sound was of water crashing over rapids. As