Death comes to those who eat carelessly

[Stone]

I have now joined the prestigious club of those who accidentally "ate it raw", but let me tell you how this story begins....

"This moose sure ate well" she thought, crouched over the mighty carcass. A few hours work with her hard-forged knife and a large stack of moose steak, too large to carry, poses a new problem. Most of it is re-homed tucked inside the nearby gate to the dam complex, out of the reach of the locals. Laboring under the weight of the meat, she chided herself "Take what you can, come back later - sure, if you can still carry what you take all the way back..." 

The next day it she could do little but collect wood and light a fire in the lee of the camp office before the brief cloud rift closed and the blizzard returned. Yet another stormy day passed before she could set out. A chance sprain and the abundance of fur and teeth around put her right back where she started. Finally, with a clear but cold day she returned to the steak pile. "Just where I left you". With the sun out she resolved to cook there and then and she did well in spot, sheltered from the biting wind, until it turned and day drained into night.

The trailer was dark and spartan but gave a warm welcome. She fumbled for a quick snack before shutting her eyes. She should have noticed the steak was raw before wolfing down so much. It must have been the tiredness, the same tiredness that pulled her to bed. "I'll feel better in the morning. And if not, there's mushrooms round here..." The darkness of sleep felt hot and cramped until it burned away in the fire of her belly. Waking with the pain, a hot fork twisting her, contorting her. 

"This is bad".

Outside the trailer it was a hideous light, flickering and hissing. "Aurora, you come to watch this?" Her vision whirled, greens eyes glinting at the edges. She tried to focus: tea, get back to the fire, light a torch, light the fire, build the flame. Tea - "Idiot". It was still in the trailer, back she went, the wind blowing again. Staggering, returning, mushrooms ready. The fire is a shimmering orb. The legs beneath her carry her this way and that, through a world of murky pools of light. A pool of ice water, clothes dragging her down, deeper. A scream, bright pain shooting up the legs, her legs, her distant scream. Then for a moment she feels nothing. The moment is long. It floats. carrying her back over frozen fields, through rippling rock, under creaking trees, something is following. Glimpsed between boulders and boughs. Small, red.. always following, always her. Always with her. "St..."

The needle explodes showering her with color of every hue. The fire is crackles before her, heart pounding in her ears, pounding "tea-tea-tea". It boils, she glups down. The sound slows, ebbing into the wind. She remembers to warn herself "the trailer is around the fire, not through". Then the sensation of time passing and she is awake, alive, in a bunk in the trailer.

[So yeah, don't eat raw meat then try to sleep it off without tea. And don't forget your Stim.]

[Ruruwawa]

I enjoyed the story -- thanks!

Last time I ate raw meat by mistake was day 5 of an interloper run.  It was a rough start (Desolation Point), but I'd managed to beat a wolf to death with a tire iron.  I grabbed the guts but I didn't take any meat to eat, just a couple little pieces to drop as decoys as I crossed Crumbling Highway.  Before heading out I ate a couple candy bars... too hastily.  Somehow I clicked the wolf bait instead and gave myself both food poisoning and a 20 day case of parasites.  

Needless to say I'm far more careful about clicking food in my bag now.

[Stone]

@Ruruwawa parasites, that is bad luck. Where's a gag reflex when you need one. ?