He lay there for what seemed like forever on that cold dark night. He wasn’t sure if his legs had been broken,he only knew he couldn’t move them and he was in the most agonizing,intense pain he had ever felt in his life.

 He let his mind wander to try and forget about the pain and fear, if not just for a second. His thoughts brought him to his cozy little house that sat on top of the hill overlooking the town. A small forest lay between them which was just fine by him,close enough to the all of the amenities but far enough so that he did not have to put up with the town noise.

 His name was Anthony Huntington, but all his friends called him Tony. He was rather rugged looking and a big fellow at 6 foot 3. He had always loved wildlife and considered himself  a gentle type of person but because of the way he looked, his friends loved making a joke out of it, calling him the wilderness brute.

 He had grown up in the town and over the years watched it change,expanding,growing larger and busier with the times. Forty five today, so much for that birthday cake his wife had made him and the surprise birthday party he knew about every year, although he didn’t let her know that,he would never hear the end of it. Yup so much for all of that now.

 Early that morning he had decided to take a walk in the woods and had tripped over something,rolling down into the ravine. He woke up in the night shivering from the cold and in so much pain it was taking his breath away. There was a large bump on his his head and he couldn’t move his legs. Wilderness brute, more like klutz, he thought, feeling angry with himself.

 If he had just taken Lucy, his Labrador retriever,she at least would have been some kind of comfort. But oh no he couldn’t take her, that would have been the smart thing to do, after all he just wanted some peace and quiet and she had the tendency to scare all of the wildlife away. He sure as hell didn’t care about wildlife now,he just wanted to make it out of here. Now thanks to his lame brain idea about going alone, he would probably just lay here and die and no one would ever know where he was. Some wild animal would eventually come and tear him limb from limb and there would be no way to fight it off. He shuddered at the thought and closed his eyes, a tear rolling down his face.