Ben Greenfield reads Chapter 5 of The Forest: a narrator wakes in a cave with a shattered leg, tends to a blind companion, and in desperation plunges the splinted limb into freezing water. The pain is immediate and overwhelming.
The Forest Chapter 5 the Water I woke during the night in the cave. My leg is what woke me. It kept throbbing. It hurt so bad I was gritting my teeth.
It was as if bees were crawling.
All over and stinging me up and down my leg all day long. I was trying to be tough because I knew Terran needed me to lead him. He's blind after all.
I couldn't just spend the day complaining.
About how much my leg hurt when he couldn't even see. But the night pain now was so, so bad. I started crying. While I was laying there in the pile of debris. My whole brain couldn't think of anything but how much my leg hurt and I felt like throwing up. Help me.
Help me. Help me. Someone please help me. It hurts so bad. I want to die. I don't know why I decided to.
Go over to the pool of water. Didn't even feel like my brain and.
My body going to the water.
It was almost as if my leg was pulled there by some kind of magnet.
I just had to put my leg.
In the and there was nothing I could do about it.
I thought Taran would wake when the.
Wooden splint on my leg scraped across the floor of the cave. But he kept sleeping. Then because nothing could stop me from doing it. I put my whole leg in the water splint and everything. Right away it felt like icy knives plunging into my thighs.
I didn't want to wake Teren, so.
I grit my teeth. I thought I was going to bite off my tongue.
I've never felt this much pain before. My leg started shivering and then shaking and then sharp, sharp pain exploded everywhere. It was so dark in the cave that I couldn't see anything. But it was like I could see fireworks exploding inside my head. Blue, icy cold fireworks everywhere. I shut my eyes hard and clenched my jaw even harder. I could see all the fireworks inside my head making one big ball of icy blue liquid inside my body that seemed to be seeping down through my blood towards my leg. My whole body felt like ice. Hard, frozen, painful ice.
Then I opened my eyes and I was laying there with my leg still in the pool and it was morning.
The Solution to Aging Might Be Closer Than Anyone Realizes - With Ben Goertzel
