Field Trip

Cries could be heard everywhere. A loud ringing stabbed into my eardrums and foliage spread throughout the bus. Adrenaline rushed through my veins in a hopeless struggle.

Trapped in a bus that felt so brittle when colliding into trees. Branches shattering windows and piercing my classmates as though butter with a hot knife.

Cloudy skies continually slam the top-side of the bus with endless rain, with running blood to accompany.

What was supposed to be a fun trip camping in cabins out in the woods for our senior trip, may just end up adding me to the soil. A chain reaction caused by a slipup of a driver ahead completely derailed us off a mountain of all things, plunging straight into a forest.

Alex Idris was having a hard time differentiating whenever this was real through his hazy conciseness. He was cold, confused, and instinctively knew this was the end of his 17 years of life. He knew he'll never see his family and friends again, he could feel his eyes getting heavier. What was supposed to be a fun trip somehow turned into this?

This was unfair, it felt impossible to him. He was terrified of the thought of death but always somehow felt invincible, but now somehow around the corner. Dreams never fulfilled, it was too early for him.

'So this is it...' Alex thought to himself. 'I hope there's something after death... I don't want to die'

There was a dark vintage forming around his vision, as his body felt colder. Then, something fell on top of the bus tearing open the roof above Alex.

Rrriiipp

The rain started to soak into Alex's clothes dropping his body temperature even further faster. Leaves and debris slowly fell on top of his body as he stared into the sky.

The darkness slowly started to creep even farther into Alex's vision, feeling as if everything was slowing down alongside it. Regrets started to kindle into Alex's mind, playing over and over slowly turning into one of his only thoughts.

Those thoughts, although mostly meaningless, slowly built up into a suffocating mountain in his mind. He tried to suppress such thoughts to make the process of dying a little better but to no avail. He wasn't the kind of person he wished to be, he wished he'd done better; maybe he'll be even happier.

He never succeeded in what he wanted to be, he thought he'll have more time to accomplish such. He always felt as if he was a hollow shell, hoping he'll figure out how to fill it in the future.

Alex felt as if he should've known better. No, he did know better but chose to act ignorant. He was lazy as if expecting his dreams to naturally come to him. Acting ignorant to delay the enviable, which only came faster than expected.

Tears ran down his face, maybe it was rain? Alex can't make out much anymore, he's bleeding out from too many points on his body for his brain to receive the oxygen it needs.

Despair took over, along with anger to push back what was happening. But soon it was only replaced with simple and unyielding despair, his pitiful state can only sustain itself for so much longer. He felt as if his soul was slowly being taken away. He doesn't know how long he's been awake, seconds? Minutes? Hours? It was impossible to tell.

Everything slowly went numb, this was his final moment on Earth. The bus will be his coffin today. He slowly closed his eyes and everything simply disappeared. The pain, the emotional turmoil, and his soul. He felt strangely calm, as he slowly stepped into the abyss.

***

Alex slowly opened his eyes. His heart started racing, he felt something in the very depths of himself screaming to wake up. Did he perhaps survive and fall into a coma?

Alex haltingly sat up to inspect his surroundings only to end up even more confused than before. He was in a hay-layered bed with old wood making up the walls. It didn't appear very big either, perhaps a cabin?

'This doesn't appear to be a hospital? Did some stranger save me?' Alex thought for a moment before calling out… "Hello? Anybody here?" No?

Looking down at his body he realizes his body looked perfectly fine, no cuts, no scars, nothing. 'Strange… I know I was bleeding out, how come I'm fine? How could there be nothing?'

Standing up out of the hay-bedding which was honestly very irritating to a bareback, Alex took a closer look at the building he was currently in. Looking around, everything looked like it came straight out of the 1500s with a layer of dust laying upon all the furniture. The windows were sealed up, so the only source of light was through the various cracks throughout the building making it hard to see, so Alex decided to go through the door that leads outside.

The sight outside was shocking, to say the least, the geography outside is completely wrong! "What the hell!? Why am I in the plains… Why do I smell the ocean?" This was extremely strange as where he crashed was definitely up in the mountains far from any coast.

'How did I travel this far? Why am I not in a hospital then?' Many things weren't adding up. As an avid reader of fantasy novels, he started to expect he may have been transported somehow; although completely unbelievable the clues were there. He experienced what he was sure was death, woke up in completely perfect health, and now is in a completely unfamiliar area.

'No, definitely not possible…' Although he had his doubts, he'd be insane to jump to such conclusions so fast.

With an incomplete picture of what has happened, Alex decided to hike to the tallest hill nearby and get a clear view of his surroundings. 'I need to get an idea of my current situation and find myself back to civilization…' This was because he was completely lost!

Once reaching the top of the hill, he surveyed his surroundings; but it would appear his worries about being completely lost were unfounded. He spotted a small village a couple of miles away, but there were two very big problems. In the distance, he can see a herd of… slimes? The other was, the medieval-looking village was… well medieval-looking.

"Okay, seriously, what the f…"