Hotel Selten

A lot of noises can be heard in a dark, isolated forest. The rustling of leaves and branches, and the simultaneous and loud noises of boots, and other sounds that are already incoherent to even describe. It was something new in the forest. This large amount of noises coming from all directions made a largely concerned wildlife that was still in the forest. The sound of the critters just made the sound more prominent than ever. All of it culminated in an indistinguishable mixture of sounds.  In all of this commotion, there are a couple of people that contribute to this. A young lady, probably in her late teenage years, is running through the trees. Traversing every root and rock that will trip and hurt her. She was in a dirty t-shirt, it seems a uniform of a convenience store. Under her were her jeans and the shoes that she was glad is merciful enough to keep her standing. With the smudge of dirt all over her body, she might have stumbled a lot before. Her brown hair is in a complete mess. It went to a lot of tangling with the dirt and some small twigs on it. She was sweating bullets. Her leg joints are working hard just like a piece of factory machinery. Her feet went to a few twists and she feels it's going to give up anytime soon. It's not good news for her but to those who were chasing her are. Behind her was a few German police who's just behind her tail. Even they are few, they are plenty enough to scare someone and make them flee for their lives. They're rooting for the young lady with their hands ready to grip on this wild beast on the loose. With the resistance that she presented to them, they knew it will be hard to tackle just this one lady. Even with her body looking frail and incapable to even resist one small pull, she has a determination to hold on to. She's a skinny girl with a pale skin tone. Her face looks like she hasn't had any good night's sleep in the past few days. Her whole body looks like it's going to collapse at any moment. Her whole being feels like she's going to faint in one big task. With their underestimation, their grasp on her slipped and now she's on the loose. Even the young lady feels that her legs are jelly, she must go on. She can't stop moving her joints to get another step away from doom. Even her heart seems it will explode at any moment in fatigue, she can't think about stopping. This will not be the end of her future, this will not carve her future. If she can do something to prevent her to get jailed, she will do everything. She did her best to make confusing traversal and detours in the forest. After a while, she successfully outran and lost the police in their tracks.  With the police losing their directions to her, they started to meet in one place. They all catch their breaths and rest their weary feet. They start to pile under a tree. They were still gripped on their guns. With the speed and head start the girl was in, any bullets they waste is another waste of the distance they have. With a dense forest, the trees act like nature's bulletproof to the girl. As expected, even with groups, they all fail to get a grasp of her once more. The head of the operation took a deep breath and takes a little bit of time to decide. In the end, they split again to find the girl in the forest. They knew she will stay there since it's the only safe place she will have this day. She was not far away from them and she will probably stop sometime, giving them an advantage. They contacted their station and called for more assistance to search for her. The forest will not be in peace for days. Speaking of the girl, she's in the very middle of the forest. She doesn't know where she is which is good news for her. The less that she's familiar with the place, it will not be easy for the police to find her. She slowed herself and lets herself stumble to the ground. It wasn't her plan but her feet finally gave up on holding her against the ground. She lays on the ground with her catching her breath. She was heavily breathing and her chest has never been pumping like this before. She experienced this fast heartbeat before but it's much worse with the anxiety she's feeling. Her legs were almost stiff with the exhaustion that it went through. Her entire bottom half was under torturous pain. It adds more exhaustion to her body and she's not feeling very well. Despite the pain, deep inside her, she was celebrating the fact she lost the cops, for now. The only thing she needs to do is hide very well to trick the police that she has escaped the forest. She needs to make sure that she will not be found ever again until she can go somewhere else. Although, her problems don't end there. Every place in Germany is still a dangerous place for her. She's not ready to be a hermit of the forest but she doesn't have a choice if she doesn't want to surrender herself to the police. She rises and stands after a while of resting her body. Her legs are still aching. She sighs as she decides it's something she will be in for a while. It's been an exhausting run for her. She has run far that she doesn't know where she is right now. She knows that she's far enough where she last felt that she was still being chased. There is a possibility she could get lost since she doesn't really know how this area looks like. She had been in the outskirts of the forest and that's that. She has never been this deep in the forest. She decides to sit on a rock beside a rotting log. It has some edible-looking mushrooms and other plants and fungi feasting on its remains. The survival books she has been reading will help her situation a lot in the forest. But, she decides to rest before collecting things she might need in the forest. Minutes later, she feels a little bit better. Her legs are still aching but it's not bad like earlier. Her feet seem so weak but she can handle it. She started to walk around, looking for things that could help her in this sudden survival journey she's in. As she looks around, she starts thinking about her life in the forest. It will be hard since she never had an experience. This was even a forced one, a surprise in her life. She hopes she doesn't need to stay here for so long. She is afraid of darkness, especially when it comes to forests. Who knows what lurks in the dark forest? Only one can hope that it will be just a lot of trees and barely any dangers. Only one can hope. But, she preferred this rather than getting captured. She took a deep sigh and shakes her head a little bit to focus on what she needs to do. She picked a medium-sized branch of a tree, with a little bit sharp on the edge, fine enough to protect her from whatever hides in this forest. Although, she could sharpen it more if she has a sharp rock to beat it to this stick. She started to go on for a walk, picking up some edible mushrooms and collecting them on her shirt by making the bottom of her shirt a pouch-like one. She doesn't care if her shirt gets dirtier. If it can help her, she will settle for it. She needs to survive while running from the authorities. She only needs to find a river or even a small pond, to drink some water and rinse the mushrooms she got. She knows she will not find clean water but she needs something to quench her thirst in the forest. She is afraid to face her consequence. She strongly believes that she didn't mean that, she is making herself believe she hasn't done that. It was not her. Even if it's her, she doesn't mean doing that to the lady. She was still traumatized and her sanity is dropping every minute. Her mind is piled with a lot of reasoning that she doesn't want all of this to happen. She didn't intend to do that to the lady. She wasn't expecting all of that to happen. Everything was going well for her even she lost someone. But, she didn't knew her life could get much worse. She was doing well without the very person that provides her needs. Beside, she's a legal adult to work for herself. All she need to do is be an obedient citizen and work hard. She didn't knew that one uncontrolled and repressed anger could make her do that. She can't even think how she have done that. She was just in great anger and everything just went in a downfall. With a simple mistake comes a big consequence she didn't even foreseen that it will be something big. She can't grasp how it really happened. After a few minutes of carefully traversing the forest, she heard a tranquil and faint splashing of water. She was in great delight when she heard even the faint gush that she's been finding. She followed the sound and found a clean-looking river. It's even hidden through the trees which is beneficial for her. She doesn't need to be that alert and anxious about getting ambushed and captured. She rushes to the river and she dropped on her knees. WIth delight, she scooped the water that will satisfy her for a while She didn't care where it was from, she was so thirsty from those running. It was so refreshing. Even with the muddy flavor, she wasn't bothered. She doesn't have the choice but to quench her thirst with the only water she have found yet. She then washed the mushrooms and start eating them raw. She savors the earthly taste of the mushrooms she picked up earlier. She sat on the dirt and munch on the only food she have in her journey. These mushrooms that she hopes aren't poisonous. Even with their color, she doesn't know if this is really safe for her to eat. But, she trusts what she have learned through those survival books. It will have to do for now.  She looks around, her eyes can't grasp the river's end. It seems long and it can lead her to placed without her departing from the only water source she found in this forest. As she was trying to look at the river's edge, she looks at the sky. It starts to get dark. She needs a shelter for the night. She can't lit up a fire since its smoke will just reveal her location in this deep forest that hides her from the consequence that's hunting her. She will have to sleep in this cold forest in a cold climate. She took a deep breath and sighs. She finished her mushroom and stand to take a good look in the place. As her eyes wanders around, she found something strange between and above the trees. She was just thinking of making a fire and in just a distance was a smoke. A smoke that she's preventing to create and it just appeared in her eyes? It could be a forest fire, but she can't smell fire nor some distress in the environment. No animals were in great panic and there's no big light from a blazing fire. Although, there's a faint light she can see through the trees. She's not sure what could it be. She rubbed her eyes and even blinked several times. She looks at it again and she wasn't imagining it. There was smoke and a faint light in the distance. She curiously walked through the river. Her heart was pounding with the rising anxiety she have inside. But, her curiosity has her decision wheel this time. She couldn't resist checking it. It's something strange to have those in a forest. This will be either her fall and doom or the thing that would miraculously save her. As she steps on the opposite river bank, she felt an eerie feeling, her tiny little hair on her body erects. She looks around and seems the forest gets a little bit more mystical. She doesn't know if it's just her tiredness and her brain is playing with her but her feelings started to change. She shrugged the feeling as she cautiously went to the source of the smoke. The wind blows against her face, it's a little bit cold, but she continues anyway. With the remaining courage she have inside her, she goes forth and goes nearer where the source of the smoke and light was. In her surprise, she saw some strangely organized stone path that leads towards a building in the middle of the forest. She was puzzled by this. Her emotions started to oppose each other on what to feel about this. She's unsure if this could be something good or bad for her. But, she decided not to be a chicken and follows the path. She came to a halt as she saw a concrete cabin-like structure, with a chimney on the back, it seems bigger in the rear portion of it. There was an arch on its gateway saying, "Welcome to Hotel Selten."