I snuck a quick look at the captain.

‘Oh man, if the rest of the squad- no, the organization - saw this, they would have a field day for sure. His reputation may take a hit, but I would be hailed as a hero among devils. You just never have what you want when you need it, do you?’

A memory of tossing my phone onto the living room couch and watching it make a splendid somersault after the initial bounce before coming to a stop flashed through my mind.

Sigh

The sky was devoid of any clouds, giving the Sun a clear path to beat down onto me. Regretting my decision to depart onto the mission without my phone and having something to cover my head with, I turned forwards and got going.

I started sauntering forwards, kept going, and kept going some more, just a couple more steps…There! I arrived in front of a tree.

‘God, these little bodies are horrible. If I had my old body this measly distance would only take several strides.’

Lifting my arm and placing it on the trunk of the tree, I ran my hand across its rough and coarse surface. Not sure what I was expecting, it seemed just like any regular old tree. I tilted my head backwards and evaluated my options of scaling it.

‘Tch, there aren’t any branches for the first five meters…that’s nearly five times my height!’

I reckoned that two and a half meters was possible by running up the tree and kicking off it, but no plan came to mind for the other two and a half. The gears in my brain started turning furiously as I stroked my pretend beard with my free hand.

‘Hmmmm’

That’s right! The knives! Cato and I should both have some mil spec knives in our now overly large clothes. I jogged over without caring about saving my energy as there was no way in hell I am spending another minute just to walk there and back again.

Rummaging through our clothes I started tossing ammo, radios, gauze, pistols, and grenades to the side until finally got to the two knives and returned to the tree.

‘Wait, will I even be able to sink the blades deep enough into the bark with my atrophied muscles?’

I took a deep breath.

‘Well, here goes nothing’.

I stabbed towards the bark. Uniting my shoulder, core, and arm strength into one as I poured it through the blade.

THWUK!

A dull and silent sound came from the wound I inflicted onto the tree. I swore it stirred, if only slightly…

Regardless, I managed to pierce roughly five inches into the bark. Now to confirm if it can support my new weight. I hopped onto the blade and did some practise squats on one leg. It held. As a final test, I leapt off the blade with extra force, landed back down onto the grass and took out the knife that was still stuck fast in the bark.

I made a few quick calculations and practise runs in my head before backing off a good distance. I tightened my grip on the handle and sprinted forward with all my might. Approaching the tree, I kicked off the ground and tried to sustain as much of my momentum as possible by continuing to run up the tree. Just as I my momentum came close to a stop, and I was about to plunge downwards, I brought my hand overhead and stabbed the knife straight into the bark.

‘Yeah, take that, tree! You thought I couldn’t climb you?’

A deep breath readied myself for the drop and I looked down. My heart sank and a tingling sensation ran down my spine.

‘That’s not the two and a half meter drop I was planning on, that looked more like four meters…’

I was now dangling four meters in the air, with no safe way down.

‘How did I even get this far? Is the gravity less? Nah, that can’t be.’

Not once did that happen in any of the stories I’ve read.

Seeing as how there was no way down, I looked up. The first branches were relatively close to me. Great! I just need to climb up and-

‘How am I going to climb up? Sure, with my old body I could hoist myself upwards without issue but with these spaghetti arms? Pfft, yeah rig…maybe?’

‘On the other hand, jumping down seemed like an equally bad decision. Guess I’ll try the safe route first’.

I gave a quick tug on the knife and nearly skyrocketed upwards. Not only did I raise myself eyelevel with the blade, I kept going until my shoulders were on the same plane. Not wasting the opportunity, I sunk my fingers into the bark, acquiring a flimsy grip, and pushed downwards with my right hand onto the blade.

Bringing my knee chest level, I got my right foot onto the blade just as it started to wobble more than normal.

‘Uh oh…’

Panic began to seep into my body. With a last ditch resort I kicked off the blade and outstretched my arms towards the nearby branch. Mimicking a motion similar to a leopard as it jumps onto unsuspecting prey from a crouching position, front paws outstretched and their hind trailing behind.

A dull thud came from the knife as it landed on the ground below, by which both of my hands were now gripping the branch. Swinging my feet back and forth to get onto the branch I was hanging off, I supposed that a monkey would do something similar.

‘Aren’t I just the king of the jungle now?’

Raising myself onto the branch I reflected on what just happened.

‘How did I even manage to climb that? No… That would be too good to be true! Did I not keep only my memories, but my strength from the old world - my previous self - as well? In that case, I will be completely unstoppable! Just a decade or so of training and people all over shall bow down before my greatness’.

I took another look upwards and whistled.

‘Man this tree is tall’.

I scanned the nearby branches with serious consideration before proceeding to climb it. Jump, grab, swing, pull. I performed one acrobatic move after the other in perfect succession. If some villager saw me they would call me a gymnast prodigy. Finally reaching the apex of the tree I sat down and leaned against the trunk. Using the opportunity as a breather, I closed my eyes and listened to the wildlife around me.

Instead of the expected barrage of birds chirping, leaves rustling and squirrels scurrying about, there was silence.

All right, time to get up and take a look around.

‘Woah…’

My sight was greeted with a lush forest, a blanket made of leaves and branches blocked out the Sun from the dirt. Not only that, like a smooth wave, the forest rose in height together with ever increasing, expanding trees the further back I looked.

The ones further away became massive skyscrapers. It was like a sea of green with a wave that rose up, threatening to come crashing down on me at any moment. I did my best to switch my attention to my right.

‘Well isn’t that nice’.

It was a mirror image of the forest, only made up of mountains.

Absolute monstrosities. Strangely enough, much like the trees, there were smaller mountains closer to our position and bigger ones behind it, increasing in size as the land went on.

‘Wait, is the tectonic plates theory wrong? Or perhaps this spot is an oddity…but why wouldn’t anyone notice this earlier…?’

Thankfully I possessed enhanced vision, thus my nickname - Eagle, and could make out the individual mountains, whereas they would appear blended into a single large hill to anyone else.

I let my gaze wandered upwards as I followed the distinction between the area of trees and mountains until I felt like I was about to lose balance. Just at the edge of my vision, the distinction met the clouds.

‘Well shit. Pretty sure we are not on planet Earth anymore. The boss is going to love this.’

I turned around and looked behind me, the direction Cato went.

‘Oh this has got to be a joke’.

On the side opposite of the trees and mountains was a village. In fact, it’s less than one Klick away, the boss was sure to run into them, probably did by now.

An itch welled up on my bum cheek, something must have crawled onto me while I was sitting… Slapping it with all my might to make sure it didn’t get away I felt a satisfying squish as it died. I attempted to bring my arm back but found that it was stuck.

‘Oh come on, really?’

I gave another pull, yet I was unable to free my hand, it was firmly stuck on my ass. To top it off, there was probably a stain from the insect’s splattered innards as well.

‘Gross’

No! With renewed effort, I brought my left hand on my right and with the combined force of both arms, I tried to pry my hand from my butt cheek but to no avail. The sticky substance stretched but did not give.

‘Oh you’ve got to be kidding me’. I sighed inwardly at my rotten luck.

‘This day is just getting better and better’. Deciding to ignore my predicament for now, I looked behind me.

Emptying my lungs and taking in a deep breath, I confirmed my situation. Having scanned the basic environment, I needed to descend and get a better understanding of our environment on the ground.

Tracing my path upwards, I was able to approach the final branches after which a five-meter drop awaited me. Three meters I could handle with the help of a roll, that left two more.

An irresistible scratching sensation rapidly built on my back. Just as I was about to relieve myself, I remembered what happened to my right hand.

Carefully, I prodded that spot to see if there was any tree sap on it. Of course there was, why wouldn’t there be? Tightening my muscles, I pulled the finger away from the tree sap on my back.

Suuurp

It came off rather with an odd slurping sound. I brought the finger with the tree sap closer to my face, and sniffed it.

‘No smell... strange’.

I examined it a bit closer and fought back the urge to lick it with all my might. An attempt at taking a step forward revealed that my foot was stuck fast onto a branch. Unprepared for the sudden resistance coupled with my right arm throwing the center of gravity off, I lost my balance and toppled off the branch.

Shielding my face with my arm, I braced for impact. The wind rushed in my face threatening to choke me as the branches, riddled with leaves, approached at a frightening speed followed by a sudden shock that reverberated through my skull.