Bubbly stories

After a couple steps, Brandon decided he hadn't recovered enough to walk all the way towards the trees. His legs were shaking under him from a sharp pain in his muscles. Mercifully he allowed himself to collapse on the warm sand and waited a bit, until the pain in his legs started subsiding away. When he felt he could move a bit again, he started to walk on hands and knees, which was considerably more comfortable. With the dream still fresh in his mind, he took a good look where he would enter the forest, trying to take advantage of some of the dunes for a bit of cover. The footprints in the sand were going in a near direct line towards the edge of the forest, but his route would go a bit more to the left, although Brandon didn't want to stray too much from the footprints.
Some laborious minutes later he had nearly reached the top of the dune he had had in mind of using as a lookout place before finally entering the forest. Just before reaching the top, he took another swallow of the sweet liquid he had been carrying on his belt. Although the exercise of crawling upwards had been demanding, moving his muscles around had also cleared his mind a bit. At least things weren't so foggy anymore and he thought he started to remember some things from what felt like a week ago, but he didn't want to contemplate that now, as his mind needed to be focussed on what he was about to do next.
Waiting just a couple of more seconds to let his muscles relax a bit more, Brandon finally to a carefull peak over the top of the dune he was on. A quick scan revealed nothing out of the ordinary at the spot where the footprints entered the forest. Immediately he duck down again, to let the rest of the image sink in his mind, visualizing what else he had seen in the corners of his eyes, creating a mental map of the forest edge. It was a technique he was used doing, being a hunter most of his life. Focussing on one point, but letting nothing else escape his view.
When he felt confident he hadn't seen any other strange things, he hazarded another look, this time taking a bit longer, to get a good look at the rest of the borderline. He was glad when he realized the image in his mind fitted completely with everything he saw now. And with that realization he knew now for sure there was noone there. As quickly as possible, he let himself slide down the dune, into the forest.
The oppressing heat from the sand exchanged with a much cooler air in the shade of the trees. He thought his luck couldn't have been better, when he spotted a bush with what looked like blackberries, about twenty feet futher away. The break he had on the dune, together with the little drink, on top of the cooler air, had significantly restored some strength, so he was able to walk from tree to tree, towards the bush. When Brandon got there, he took a good look around, to see if there was noone to surprise him and after securing himself of that fact, he squatted down to get some of the berries. They would be a welcome addition to the drink, supplying him with some food as well. After eating a couple of the berries, he suddenly realized he remembered that the sweet taste from the drink was the same as from the berries. Someone had made a good drink and given it to a complete stranger. Why someone would do such a thing in these crazy times, completely baffled him. Wondering about this, he ate some more berries before setting out further in the woods.