After escaping the Hawkins laboratory, Jhon now found himself in the middle of the vast Hawkins forest, having run for several hours to get there. Jhonatan walked through the woods for a good few minutes, trying to find a lake to bathe; his body was completely filthy, covered in black sludge.
It didn't take long for him to find a small lake. He approached and looked to see if there were any danger signs nearby. Since there were none, he decided to take off his hospital gown and, using the balls of his feet, slowly descended the muddy embankment to the river. He felt the mud sinking his feet into the ground and, feeling this, all he wanted now was a simple pair of boots.
Entering the river, he stayed there for about 10 minutes until he was sure every part of his body was cleaned of that dark sludge. "Well, I think I'm clean enough," Jhon said to himself, preparing to leave the lake. Suddenly, his stomach made a strange noise; it was warning him that he needed to eat.
"Damn it, where on earth am I going to find food in the middle of the night!?" Jhon questioned himself, irritated. He left the lake and climbed back up the embankment, getting his feet muddy all over again, and reached his clothes, leaning down to pick them up. "Besides boots, I need to change this hospital gown; it's not very normal for a child to be walking around in this." He said, holding the gown he was about to put back on. He dressed quickly and, as if in a hurry, left the area.
Walking a few meters ahead, he wondered: "Can I find a rabbit hole? I've never hunted, but it shouldn't be too hard to find a hole, right?" He couldn't have been more wrong; after all, he had never hunted anything, let alone a rabbit. Rabbits usually stay in burrows in flat places with good visibility, but the Hawkins forest was certainly not a place with good visibility.
Even without knowing how to search, Jhon tried anyway. First, he went to dense, enclosed spots, thinking rabbits would prefer them as they are hard for predators to enter. But, as expected, he found nothing. He spent more time searching in narrow places until he actually found something that looked like a burrow.
Using telekinesis, he wrapped around something inside the hole, but sensing the shape the telekinesis was taking, he found it strange. The telekinesis was enveloping something dozens of centimeters longer than an ordinary rabbit should be. Jhon didn't care and kept pulling anyway. When it finally came out completely, it was a rattlesnake that Jhon was moving with his telekinesis.
"Holy shit!" Jhon let out a loud cry, using telekinesis to kill the rattlesnake quickly. "That really scared me. Well, it's not a rabbit, but it's probably edible, right?" Jhon asked himself. He approached the dead rattlesnake and picked it up; with it in his arms, he set off toward a less forested area.
After some time, he arrived at a spot where most of the ground was stone with little vegetation nearby. Without wasting time, he settled in and threw the rattlesnake on the ground. Using telekinesis on a stone, he tried to cut the rattlesnake's skin. After managing to open a small slit, he let the stone fall and used telekinesis to pull the skin off completely.
After finishing the skinning and placing the meat on some green leaves, Jhon looked for similar stones. He made a pile of dry leaves and large sticks, creating the base for a fire. With two matching stones, he used his telekinesis to strike them forcefully against each other, creating sparks over the base of the campfire. Easily, the dry leaves caught fire and it quickly spread to the dry branches. Jhonatan had cleared away any other dry leaves from the sides, making it impossible for the fire to spread elsewhere.
Breaking several sticks from a tree with telekinesis, Jhon used them to skewer the snake at various points over the fire. "Whew... Finally done!" Jhon stretched while sighing, watching the snake cook over the flames. Not long after, while the snake roasted, Jhon prepared even more pieces of dry wood to fuel the fire. He prepared enough to roast it completely.
"Meow-w-w! Meow-w-w...!" From deep in the forest, an aggressive meowing sound could be heard. Jhon raised his head, which had been focused on the roasting snake, and looked toward the sound. 'What the hell was that? I don't remember any cat making that kind of meow,' Jhon thought, standing up and staying alert.
The meows continued, becoming fiercer, apparently smelling something delicious. The sounds it made seemed to say: Hey, you're my prey. Jhon watched as a damn mountain lion, 1.80m long and weighing at least 90kg, approached. The cougar paused for a second, looked at the fire where a snake was roasting, and finally discovered where that good smell came from. It turned its gaze back to Jhon, who certainly didn't look like a threat at his mere 1.29m height.
The cougar began to approach slowly, as if preparing to pounce. Jhon slowly backed away; he shifted his gaze to the pistol on the ground, the same one he stole from the guard at the lab. But it was a huge mistake to look away from a predator. As soon as he turned his head and used telekinesis to pull the gun, the cougar attacked.
With an abnormal burst of speed, the cougar went from 0 to 35 km/h in two seconds, practically coming face to face with Jhon just as he pulled the gun into his hand. With the quick reflexes of his mental consciousness, he activated a barrier field in front of the cougar, which crashed into the telekinetic field and was thrown back.
Jhon was also thrown several meters away, hitting a tree. His body ached and his nose bled from having to withstand the impact of 90kg at 35 km/h. The cougar, which took most of the impact, was certainly not well, but it managed to get up to go after its prey again. Jhon, slumped against the trunk, opened his eyes, seeing the gun beside him and the cougar staggering toward him.
With blurred vision and his last remaining strength, he grabbed the gun and fired at the cougar's head. But because his vision was blurry and he was weak, his hand dipped as he fired, hitting the animal's paw. The recoil was strong enough to partially break his thumb and index finger, along with significant damage to the trapezius of his hand.
Hit by a bullet in its front paw and already suffering from the impact against Jhon, the cougar let out a thunderous roar of pain, causing birds to wake and fly far away. The cougar weighed the pros and cons and gave up the hunt; this human had too many tricks up his sleeve—he wasn't easy prey. The cougar turned and ran as fast as it could on three legs.
Seeing the cougar had left, Jhon finally blacked out from the impact against the tree and the pain of his broken hand. Upon fainting, Jhon found himself in a dark area, just like the place of his psychometry; apparently, he had ended up in his mental domain.
"I'm glad that, upon fainting, I didn't completely lose consciousness." Jhon was genuinely relieved. "Apparently, my telekinesis protects a small conscious space, preventing me from losing total awareness." Jhon analyzed the environment and realized he was inside his own mental space.
"But now it's as if I'm trapped. I can think, but I can't wake up or move in the real world..." Jhon paused briefly. "If it stays like this and a predator finds me fainted out there, it's certain death. I need to find a way to wake up." He racked his brain for a few minutes, thinking of the fastest way out.
Jhon tried to force his way out as he usually did, but it was useless. The brain wasn't awake to respond. 'Wait... that's it.' A flash of insight hit him. 'If the brain isn't awake to respond, then I just need to wake the brain up.'
Convinced this method could work, Jhon sat on the floor, crossed his legs, and began to concentrate. 'Normally, when we faint, we lose consciousness and the brain enters a state of deep sleep, but that doesn't mean it stops completely. If I can send telekinetic waves directly to the mind itself, it should stimulate the sentient areas of the brain, forcing it to fully awaken and thus wake my body.'
Jhon initially tried to send waves to various spaces of consciousness, but it was useless, as they weren't hitting anything beyond the barrier protecting this small area. After some time, Jhon tried several methods to send a wave to the brain itself but didn't know how to get that wave out of this small conscious space.
"Damn it, no matter what I try, my telekinesis can't pass this conscious space. It's like I'm completely trapped in the back of my brain..." Jhon said, noticing something in his own words. "That's it! If I'm already in a part of the brain, why do I have to send the wave out of this space? I just need to create a telekinetic wave strong enough to wake the brain within this small space."
Thinking this, Jhon closed his eyes in the lotus position. He began to concentrate a powerful telekinetic wave directly in front of him. The wave built up until it formed a small tornado of invisible wind. 'It's now or never!' He thought, slamming the concentration of telekinesis into the ground.
Boom... An explosion sounded—something imagined by his own head, since sound doesn't exist in that space. The telekinetic blast was strong enough to launch him several meters and strong enough to "itch" that region of the brain, stimulating the rest of it to feel. Gradually, the brain regained consciousness and left its dormant state.
In the real world, Jhon slowly opened his eyes. In his head, at least 40 minutes had passed, and in reality, it was about the same. The moment he opened his eyes and began to feel, an intoxicating pain hit his being. A massive urge to scream came from the depths of his soul, but Jhon suppressed it; attracting another predator wouldn't be hard with such a scream.
After containing the urge, Jhon looked at the snake; the fire was now out and the snake only partially cooked. Unfortunately, all his firewood had been useless; after all, he wasn't awake to refuel the fire. But Jhon didn't care; the important thing was to eat and recover his strength. He slowly dragged himself to the campfire over some smooth, sharp stones. His small hospital gown was torn in several places, and even his skin was punctured, but Jhon remained firm in his determination to survive.
He dragged himself for two whole minutes until he reached the snake meat. The leaves and wood that were once on fire were now charred and emitting hot steam. Jhon broke the sticks supporting the meat with his hand and pulled it down in front of him, finally having the chance to bite into the succulent meat. When he took the first bite, the taste of undercooked chicken filled his mouth.
'If I knew snake tasted like chicken, I wouldn't have even killed it to eat, I hate chicken!' Jhon joked in his mind. He kept eating for several minutes until he felt full; it was hard to eat undercooked snake, but it was necessary.
After eating, he turned his body and stayed still for some time. Meanwhile, a small snake tried to pass near Jhon. He recognized it as a non-venomous snake; it was a small corn snake. But something surprised Jhon: it was a damn white corn snake, incredibly rare in nature. He pulled it with a weak telekinetic force, placing it on his body. The corn snake didn't seem startled; instead, it snuggled into Jhon, coiling up completely without even covering its head and began to sleep, as if it liked the spot.
"Are you tired too, boy?" Jhon asked the snake now sleeping on his chest. "How funny, I'm in this situation because of one snake, and now another appears to keep me company." Jhon seemed to smile, thinking of this coincidence of fate.
Jhon left the little snake in that position for a few more minutes until he could finally sit upright, placing it in his lap. Using his buttocks, he began to push himself backward, using his unbroken hand as support. With the other, he held "Little White" gently so as not to strain his broken hand. Yes, Jhon decided to name the small white snake Little White; he would certainly have a pet snake now.
After some time dragging himself, Jhon finally hit a huge rock that sat with two other stones, forming a shelter where he could stay a bit more hidden. "I think this is a good place to stay. I hope the rest of that damn rattlesnake doesn't attract anyone else." Jhon closed his hand as if praying.