Aftermath

"Ouch." I woke up feeling pain all over my body as I tried to get up. 

It seems that besides feeling a little dizzy and a slight pain over my whole body, I didn't receive any major injury.

'Someone might have brought me over here from the bus.' I thought.

"Aaaaah!" 

"Please help me! my mommy is still inside the bus!"

"Arggg! My head!, my head is bleeding! Ah! I'm bleeding!! I'm going to die!!"

"Hold on miss, I'll count one to three and try to move."

"I need first aid please! My girlfriend's bleeding!"

Screams of agony and voices of people asking for help could be heard in all directions.

No wonder they've only moved me out of the bus and didn't even bandage me up, there are people who have sustained far more injuries than I've got.

I look around and gather some information.

'What a tragic accident.' I sigh as I look everywhere.

It seems that the bus we are in has crashed against a large boulder and a lot of people have sustained various injuries while some people might even have died.

The most worrying thing is that we have somehow drifted away from the road and we are now currently in a lush green environment that seems to be far away from civilization.

"Hey you! what are you standing there for? Come quick! Lend us a hand." One of the guys helping the injured called me out to help.

"Sorry, I'm still a little dizzy just now, I'm coming!" I snapped out while in deep thought. 

'Thinking right now won't be much of a help, I better rescue the others first!

"Okay, now get your ass moving as there are still a lot of people who need to be rescued! Do you know how to apply first aid?"

"Yes sir I've learned about it when I was in high school." I answered. Although It may have been a long time since I was taught basic first aid nevertheless I could still recall the first aid procedures.

"That's good, then please go over that little girl and ask her if she is injured."

"Okay I'm on it." I nodded and went towards the crying girl.

"Hello there, why are you crying? Are you hurt somewhere? " I spoke as gently as I could.

◆

I remembered the first time I approached a kid.

It was during my 4th year of high school while I was on my way to school when I saw a crying girl who seems to have lost her parents or guardian. My conscience won't let me rest if I just ignored her so I tried to approach her and asked.

"Hi, are you perhaps lost?" Despite the concerned question my voice doesn't seem to be concerned at all!

"Boo-hoo!!" The girl cried more instead of settling down.

"Hey come on sweetie do not cry, big brother won't hurt you" I tried to calm her down but it is to no avail as she continued crying.

"Boo-hoo! I don't want you! I want my mom!"

"Yes yes I'm here to help you look for your mother." 

"Really? Is that true?" The girl stopped crying and seems to have settled down.

"Yes, I'll help you look for your mother so that you could reuni—"

A cop suddenly appeared who might have heard the commotion.

Tweet!!!

The cop blew the whistle as he approached us.

"You! What are you doing with that little girl?" He asked while suspiciously looking at me.

'Did he just think that I'm a lolicon!?' A sigh came out from my mouth as I tried to explain what happened.

◆

"I don't have that much injury mister but my mommy needs help! She is still inside the bus! Please help her! Boo-hoo!" Sobbing, the girl spoke anxiously about the situation.

"Yes it's fine now, don't worry Big brother here will help your mother out, okay?."

The girl led me over at the back of the bus. The bus is in terrible shape, although it remained intact a lot of dents could be seen on the surface.

"Over here mister! Come here quickly!" She shouted, urging me to go faster.

I arrived at the location wherein an unconscious middle-aged woman was lying down with her left foot buried under a lot of debris.

Besides her left foot, debris must have hit her head as there's some blood dripping from it.

"Whew... It seems she's still breathing" I tried to check on her pulse by placing my two fingers at her wrist.

Rip!!!

Because there is no bandage around I removed my polo, tore it into small strips, and gently wrapped it around her head to stop the bleeding.

After that I tapped on her shoulder and shouted.

"Hello! Can you hear me!?"

Proving to be effective, she slowly opened her eyes and scanned her surroundings.

"Hello, ma'am can you hear me!?" I tried asking again.

"H-have you seen my daughter?" Stuttering, she asked back in a weak voice. 

Her daughter who was silent behind me, step up and shouted.

"Mommy! you're alive!" 

.

Carefully removing the debris stocked up above her foot, I said.

"Apparently she's the one who led me here to help you out." 

"That..." Speechless, tears started to fall from her eyes.

"Mommy I brought this mister here to help you out so please stop crying now."

"Yes sweetie, I'm just glad that you are safe."

"You have a very good daughter ma'am." I said while removing the last few debris remaining.

"Yes, I don't know what will happen to me,  if I lose her too." Despite the smile on her face, I could tell from her eyes that she was really sad.

"Could you perhaps tell me what happened?" I continue to talk to her.

I've learned before that keeping someone who's injured in a conversation will help ease their pain.

"Her father is a soldier, but a few weeks ago their platoon was ambushed during their reconnaissance and her father is one of the few people who were killed." With mixed emotions, she told me what happened.

"It must have been hard, I'm very sorry for your loss ma'am."

"Because of that, we planned to go back to our province as we don't have any relatives here." Smiling wryly, she continued.

"I see... There you have it, now let's go outside to take care of your wounds."  

"Alright." 

I grabbed her hand and put on my shoulder to help her stand and walk outside of the bus. And from there I saw some people tending and helping the injured.

We approached her and I spoke.

"Excuse me? Could you also take care of her? Although I've already stopped the bleeding on her head, I think it would still be better for you to take a look at it. She also had an injury on her foot."

"Sure I'll take care of her after this so please lay her down there."

"Thanks... Well then, I'll go look for others that still need help." After expressing my gratitude, I laid her down on the ground and went back to the bus. 

On the way, I saw Mr. Peter carrying someone on his back. Both of us were at a relatively safe place on the bus because of that we have sustained fewer injuries than the other passengers.

I approached him and offered my help.

"Do you need any assistance?

"Mm." He nodded and gave me the other side to help him carry.

Trying to break the heavy atmosphere around us, I asked him a question.

"Are there still people on the bus?" 

"I think he is the last one." 

"I see." 

Although I find it strange that he is not his usual talkative self right now I just let it pass because of the situation we are in right now.

After helping Mr. Peter out, I excused myself and said.

"I'll try to survey the area and see what I can find out."

"Alright be careful." 

◆

Glancing around, I could see people who have already died. They either died from the excessive loss of blood or they have directly died from the crash.

Although we have done as much help as we could, there is a little thing we could do with the lack of equipment and medicine.

Further away from the crash, I can see people of all kinds doing various things a typical human would do in a situation like this.

Most of them were on their smartphones, trying to do everything they could to contact their relatives or a rescue team.

"Why's the damned internet connection not working here?!"

"H-helllo dad? —the phone number you have dialed is temporarily not in service, please call again later."

"Hello 911?! Hello?? We're in a deserted place, If you can hear me please save us!"

But it's to no avail as it seems we are cut off from the rest of the world. Just looking at the surrounding will make you realize that this place is far away from human civilization.

There are also some people who just sit on the ground either contemplating what happened earlier or agonizing over the fact that we are stranded in a deserted place. 

Though there is some exemption as I look into the distance.

"Tsk tsk." I clicked my tongue in disgust

Even though I have to admit that we have some kind of fate, it's not something I should be happy about.

Iverson is currently hugging two girls who were frightened by the recent event that happened. 

"I'm scared, what are we going to do now?"

"We can't contact people outside for help, so what can we expect?"

Patting their heads, he said in a gentle voice.

"Everything will be fine, believe me, sooner or later those rescue teams will arrive and help us."

"R-really?"

"Yes, and besides no one's going to hurt both of you as long as I am here." He proudly said.

"It's really a relief that we are with you."

'Eek!' 

I almost puke in disgust when I heard those words as I passed them. There's no way I can stomach those words especially coming from that kind of person.

Meanwhile, I opened my backpack and took out my smartphone to check the GPS, but to my shock I realized that it was not properly working.

Now that I think of it, the surrounding is filled with trees and plants of unknown origin. In the first place, we shouldn't even have gone that far right?

And then I recalled what happened on the bus during the accident wherein some people have vanished or moved to somewhere else. 

If I piece up all of these together, then... 

'No! That's impossible, such a ridiculous thing to happen. I might as well go look for more evidence.' 

Even with all those pieces of evidence, Laravel rejected the only plausible explanation for all of the things that happened so far because it is really unbelievable.

He continued going further as he checked out the compass on his smartphone.

"Hmm... I'll just continue this way." He followed the compass and confirmed that he's been going further north.

As he went along the way, he saw various plants that couldn't identify.

And at the end of the track above the steep canyon, a conspicuous rock with some words engraved on them could be seen.

"Alteria must be the name of this place, but I've never heard of this place before..." 

"Rules of nature?" Bewildered, Laravel pondered what those words meant.

"What do the rules of nature mean? Is it pertai— huh, what is that smell?" While lost in his thoughts, Laravel suddenly smelled a rotten egg-like odor. 

A chill ran down on his spine as he slowly turned his head on his back.

Gasp!!!

His eyes widened and his mouth agape. As wide as an egg.

A total of two bird-like creatures with huge owl-like eyes, parrot-shaped beaks, and an over 1-meter height was standing behind him!

Lost in his thoughts trying to comprehend the meaning of the words engraved on the rock, he failed to notice the existence of the creatures standing before him.

'Although jumping into the canyon might be a pretty good idea, I can't risk my luck. Fighting them with my current state is not also a good choice and initiating a dialogue with them is most unlikely to happen because they are not big-bird from sesame street.'

With no weapon he could use at the moment, his brain furiously churned, when the "big-ass birds" suddenly growled and charged at him as if they saw their favorite food.