Ratan sat on a low hanging branch of the tree with his bandaged foot dangling at an odd angle. He was not able to climb any higher with that broken foot. He hoped that this height would be enough for his survival that night. He did not want any wild animal encounters this night.

He tried to make himself more comfortable but it was not possible to be on the branch. Ratan sighed and resigned himself to another night of fitful rest. He dug into his pockets for the fruit he had picked earlier and bit into it. He hoped it was not a poisonous one. He could not afford to get sick what with his leg already injured. The fruit tasted quite ok. He closed his eyes and tried to get some rest. The forest was by now quite dark and shadows were creeping up.

It had been two weeks since he was all alone in this forest. Two weeks since he saw the drone above his head. Two weeks since he saw another human.

He was a participant in a reality TV show about 10 contestants who survive in a forest all by themselves with very primitive tools and equipment. They would be followed on their journey by a drone fitted with a camera. They would be given tasks to be done. The viewers were supposed to vote for them and every week one of them would be eliminated. Eventually there would be one winner. This was for about ten to twelve weeks.

Ratan was quite enthusiastic about this adventure. He was quite adept at living in the wild, having done it on all terrains before. But those ones were with a group of people and they were definitely not all alone in the wild. He had done camping, trekking and such.

Ratan signed up for the show. Just for participating, each of them had received quite a nice addition to their bank balance. It was quite a nice experience for Ratan till it wasn’t.

For about four weeks, Ratan along with other contestants lived in the jungle, foraging for food, making tents with large leaves, catching fish for food using rudimentary fishing equipment. It was all jolly and fun.

Every week, one of them would be eliminated. At the end of four weeks, there were only six of them left. Three drones had followed all of them till now. On the fifth week, they were given individual tasks to perform and there would be a drone following each of them individually. They would have to separate and live off of their wits and skill.

Ratan set off deep into the forest, with his drone following him, high above the trees. In the beginning, it was all fun. Doing all the things himself, but slowly as the days went by, it became lonely and kind of scary too. It was a great sense of relief whenever he heard the low hum of the drone above as he walked around. It motivated him to keep performing the tasks and just concentrate on surviving.

At the end of fifth week, he received a message via the speaker in the drone that he had survived in the audience vote-off and that he was to continue with his tasks.

The more he went into the jungle, the thicker it became. Sometimes, the hum of the drone was not even heard. Then a few hours later, he would hear it, but not actually see it. He was not so perturbed. He thought it was because of the thick vegetation and let it go. A week or few days went by, Ratan was not so sure anymore. It was getting disorienting with all the loneliness.

Sometime in the night, there was a huge storm and the rain poured down in torrents. His tiny cave he had found for shelter was flooded soon and he had to get out of it. He climbed up a nearby tree and spent the night shivering. But the worst was yet to come. He found out in the morning that his meagre equipment was washed away in the rain water and now he was left with a tiny knife and a length of a rope that he had tied to his belt. The worst part was that he no longer could see or hear the drone. Not even after a few hours of the storm cleared out.

He was at first panic stricken. He ran in all directions and got even more lost in the jungle.

Then, as he ran, he tripped over a root hidden among the fallen leaves and injured his foot. With nothing to treat it with, he simply tore off a part of his pants and bound the ankle tightly.

He had to live! Now he was all alone in this place with no help. “This jungle cannot go on for ever! There has to be an end. I will walk through it! I will come out the other end! Maybe the drone will spot me sometime.” He decided.

Everyday he would walk as much as he could, plucking and eating fruits, or catching fish, and cooking it over fire. He tried to keep to the open grounds in the hope that the drone would catch him. He also kept to the stream for both water and eventually the water would lead to civilization, he reasoned.

He would not give up. He may be out of the ring of security but the journey would end someday!

Ratan slept on the tree. Tomorrow was another day of trek. Hopefully he would not be going off at another tangent!

Tangent

In geometry, a tangent is a straight line, that just touches a plane curve like a circle or an ellipse at a given point and nowhere else. The line can extend infinitely at both ends, but the contact with the curve will only be at one point. Interestingly, for any point on the circle, only one tangent can be drawn through it. Every other line that is drawn through that point will not be a tangent. If there is a point outside the circle, then there can be one two tangents drawn through it to the circle.

Tangents to a circle from external point

Tangent to a circle on a point on the circle

Similarly, the tangent plane to a surface at a given point is the plane that “just touches” the surface at that point.

The word “tangent” comes from Latin, “tangere” means “to touch”.

The non-mathematical meaning of tangent comes from this sense of barely touching something: when a conversation heads off on a tangent, it’s hard to see how or why it came up.

Today’s genre: Survival

Survival stories describe the characters of the story in dire situations where they fight severe odds to survive. The obstacles that the protagonists face may include the harsh elements of nature, animals, other people trying to kill them, oppressive systems, aliens etc. The saga follows their struggles and their eventual victory or loss depending on the author’s discretion! 😀

Disclaimer: All plots, people, places and situations are a product of my imagination. No identification with actual people, places etc. are to be inferred. Any resemblances if any are mere coincidences. Thank you!

In this year’s A2Z, I am attempting to write fiction whose titles are based on mathematical concepts. I have randomly assigned a genre of writing to each letter. This way I will be able try my hand at all types of genres.

Read my A2Z till now here.

This is a part of the #BlogchatterA2Z 2023 challenge. Check out all other awesome entries from other awesome bloggers here.