Death and A New Beginning

In a random Midwest city, a young woman walked down the sidewalk of her driveway towards her car. She was carrying a bag in one hand, and a phone in the other. In what seemed to be a well practiced maneuver, she opened her car door, set her bag on the passenger seat, and climbed into the car. She pulled the seatbelt across her chest, clicked it into the lock, and with a wave to her kitty that was watching her from the living room window, she backed her vehicle out of the driveway and started her commute. It was as she was driving down the highway towards her destination that everything went south.

A truck in the opposite lane suddenly lost control and veered into her lane, and as headlights filled her vision and she pulled her arms up to try and protect herself instinctively, she recalled the cliche in webtoons of getting hit by “Truck-kun” and couldn’t help but cry at the irony of her meeting a similar fate. With a loud crunch, her vision went dark. When she came to, she was surprised to find herself unharmed, her raised hands and arms showing no cuts or signs of damage. She also felt no pain, which seemed impossible by the amount of car debris she could see around her.

It was as she started to get up from the wreckage that she started to realize that something was wrong. People were frantically running towards her but despite her current standing position, none of them were looking at her. They were all glancing it seemed through her and she found herself turning around to see what it could be garnering their attention, only to see what appeared to be herself still sitting among the debris field of what was left of the two cars.

“Oh,” she thought upon seeing the grisly sight, “I guess I wasn’t unharmed after all. Well, now what do I do? Am I really dead? Is there really no chance for me?”

She gazed on as people from nearby cars rushed to her aid, and continued watching as first responders got on scene and assessed her. Her hope dwindled as they tried to get her stable, and soon after she saw her own body get covered in a white sheet and knew that all hope was lost. She was well and truly dead. One thought then came to her.

“What happens now? Where do I go and how do I get there? How much time do I have left before something happens to me? Am I trapped here? Who would take care of my cat?”

Her questions were endless, but there were no readily available answers, no status screens or booming voices from the gods. Nothing like what happened to protagonists in the webtoons and manga she loved reading in her free time. Which reminded her- if she died now, she would never get to know the ending of her favorite series! It was this thought that seemed to open a torrent of emotions within her. Fear, sadness, regret, stress, and so many other emotions raced through her and she was overwhelmed.

Crunching in on herself, she squatted to the floor and placed her head between her knees. Or at least, she tried to. She realized that even in ghost form she was not very bendy and that led to another choked sob as she desperately took heaving breaths in an effort to calm down. It was as she was finally starting to regain her breath and some semblance of control that things began to change. It started off slowly, as a tingling that started at her toes and slowly spread across her body, encasing her in what felt like a pins and needles blanket. As she started to study herself for answers to the bizarre sensations, she realized that she had started to float.

She was currently about 6 inches off the ground, but she was slowly moving up even as she watched, the ground falling away and the feeling buzzing around her increasing. Her fingers were starting to fade and she was becoming more and more see through.

“Is this it?” She thought uneasily, “Do I just float and fade away into nothing?”

It was as she was having this thought, and watching the clouds surround her that she suddenly felt the air move. It was hard to describe but it seemed like the very atmosphere seemed to be moving around something that was still out of sight. She scanned around her for any signs of what it could be, and turned just in time to catch a mass flying towards her at breakneck speed. Screaming in terror at the immediate revival of what felt like “Truck-kun 2,” the girl only had enough time to raise her hands up protectively before whatever object rocketing through the sky collided with her and everything once again went dark.

When the woman began to wake, she knew instantly that something was different. She quickly sat up, her head pounding- and wait, pounding? She was dead wasn’t she? How could she have a headache if she was dead? Looking around her, she realized that she was nowhere near where she had seemingly died moments before. She was sitting in a clearing in a forest, bright green grass beneath her, and unfamiliar sounds reaching her from beyond the treeline. She scanned herself for any of the grievous injuries she had seen on her body after the crash, but found only deep scars in the places that had been punctures and cuts before.

It was midday, the suns directly overhead in the bright blue sky-

“Suns?,” She asked herself, “That can’t be right, I must be seeing things…”

She checked the sky again, and sure enough, two suns sent their warm beams down on her from high above. Despite the bright beams, she felt as if there was ice in her veins, her whole body covered in chills. She was suddenly hit with the realization that she was no longer on Earth. She once again found herself hyperventilating before a sudden noise drew her attention and she realized that another person was also lying in the clearing. Hearing a grunt from the outline of the person, she crawled her way over to him in search of possible answers about what had happened to her.

She reached who she could now tell was a male, who had sat himself up and had his back to a tree, grunting in pain as he rolled his left shoulder and clutched it with his right hand. He was wearing a blue/grey tunic and leather armor on his torso, and black breeches. A sword was attached on his left side, and he looked up at her as she approached, a wary look on his face. Now able to see his face, she was surprised that he was unnaturally attractive. With silver hair that gleamed in the light, blue eyes that seemed to pierce right through her, and tanned skin that seemed to glow in the midday sun. She had never seen a man so handsome before, and she found herself scared to reach out to him, especially considering the fact that he was armed.

Hesitantly, she called out to the stranger, “Hey there, sorry, are you ok? Do you need help?”

She was not sure if he could understand her, as he simply scanned her up and down and then tilted his head, as if unsure what to make of her. She slowly sat in front of him, both hands held up to show she meant no harm, close enough to try and check his injuries but not close enough for him to get her with his sword if he tried. Seeing red starting to peek through his tunic on his right side, her eyes widened and she realized that he was more wounded than she had previously thought.

Meeting his wary eyes once more, she asked, “You are injured, can I help check your injuries? I am CPR certified.”

Once again he said nothing, merely looked at her through his silver lashes. He seemed to be listening, his eyes would drift to her mouth when she spoke and then back up to his eyes, but no words came from his mouth. Only an intense stare that reminded her very much of a predator’s gaze, like those T-rex videos that had been circulating around lately. She slowly inched forward, shuffling in the dirt while being sure to keep her hands up and looking as unthreatening as possible. When she got close enough, she reached forward with a single hand and carefully pulled the ripped fabric aside, showing a large and deep gash in the stranger’s side. She knew if she didnt work fast, that his odds of survival were only going to decrease.

She quickly got up and began searching for anything that could be of use to them. She spotted a pack lying next to the man, one strap still strung around his left shoulder. Gesturing to the lump, she mimicked taking the bag and searching through it, and he slowly nodded. He leaned the slightest bit forward, wincing as it pulled at the gash on his side, but he was able to get far enough from the tree he was on to allow her to carefully pull the strap off his shoulder and pull the bag out from behind him. Prize in hand, she quickly opened it up to see that it seemed to contain camping supplies and other objects she didn’t recognize by sight. What she did not see however, was any sort of medical bag or first aid supplies. Sighing, she put away the items she had pulled out but purposely put a small metal pot on top. She planned to use it shortly.

Gesturing to the man to stay put, which earned her a look that just screamed,”Duh, do I look like I can move?” She carefully made her way to the tree line that surrounded the clearing and listened for any sounds of running water. After listening closely in different spots, she eventually heard the slight sounds of water flowing and followed it into the forest. Picking up a rock that was nearby, she used it to scratch arrows pointing back the way she came, that way she could reduce her risks of getting lost. After walking for about 10 minutes she stumbled upon a river.

The water was clear and she could see the rocks and river plants along the bottom of it. If she had to guess, she estimated that it was probably around 4 feet deep, and would come up to roughly around her armpits. As tempted as she was to drink several handfuls of water, she knew it was risky to do so. She had no clue what the water contained in terms of bacteria and knew that despite how clean and fresh it looked, she could get seriously sick if she was too trusting of the water. She walked along the river bank in the direction of the setting suns, which in her world would have been west. After not seeing what she was looking for she went back the way she came until she saw her arrows leading into the woods and kept walking past them to what she presumed was east.

After a short trek along the curving banks, listening to the sounds of the water flowing past and the scurrying of unseen creatures fleeing from her, she came across something of interest. It was an offshoot of the river, the water branching off into a large eddy. Grabbing some nearby leaves she tossed them into the river and saw them enter into the eddy at a steady speed where they circled lazily around the eddy before rejoining the river. The eddy itself was tucked into an alcove, the treeling of the forest at some point having gone up and around this clearing, meaning the eddy was met with the river that fed it on one side and a natural wall of dirt on the other three sides, with a large clearing in between the two. This was perfect.

They were going to need water to survive and someplace with better cover than just a random clearing in the forest, and this place had both. Now she just had to figure out how to get her new-friend? Companion? Either way, she needed to get him to this safer spot and get a proper camp set up. Looking around she gathered some decent sized branches and a couple handfuls of twigs and set them in the center of the clearing and out into the sun so they could dry out a bit. She remembered that dried wood burned better, but for some reason she couldn’t remember why she knew that, or who had taught her that.

Now was not the time to figure this out however, so she shook her head and after checking the position of the sun decided if she was going to get him moved she’d better head back now. With his injuries they were going to have to move slowly and she really wanted to get them into cover now, before darkness fell and they were left to the mercy of the unprotected clearing. With that thought in mind, she began working her way back to her partner in survival, following the scratched arrows to him and quickly making her way over to him.

Thinking back to her earlier attempts to contact him verbally, she figured it might be time for a different approach. Waving her hand in front of his face to get his attention, she did her best not to flinch when his piercing eyes wandered over to meet her gaze. With one eyebrow raised he waited for her to continue with whatever she was attempting to do. Seeing he was focused on her now, she brought one hand up and laid it flat palm up, the other she brought above it, and using her index and middle fingers, mimicked walking on her flat palm. She then pointed with the hand she had been using to “walk” between the two of them, did the walking motion again, and pointed to the direction she had found their soon to be shelter.

He watched the motions carefully, and with a mostly emotionless face, marred only by a tightness around his eyes from pain, he nodded to indicate that he understood. Well that was a relief for her for sure. This meant that he might not understand her language but he understood her with body language at the very least. Grabbing his satchel containing the only belongings they had, she slung it over her shoulder and put the lump behind her so it wasn’t in her way. Then, she reached out an arm to the man who was still sitting and beckoned at him by waving her hand in a motion that meant come here. He reached a hand out and grabbed hers in a firm grip and with a pull she leaned back away from him and somehow managed to help him up, though she wasn’t sure how because he was heavy.

Once he was on his feet, he swayed a bit, and she kept her arms held out to catch him just in case he started to fall again. After taking a second to steady himself, the man took one step with his right foot and started to fall to the ground, bent over in pain. The woman quickly threw his right arm over her shoulder and began to carry some of his weight, and they began the slow trek to their destination. She made sure to watch him for any signs of the injury getting worse or for the pain to be high enough for a break. His brow was furrowed in pain, and his teeth clenched, but he did not indicate to stop, so onwards they continued. When they reached the river she could see the sweat forming on his brow and knew that a similar moisture was gathering on her’s.

As much as she wanted to stop, she knew that it would be hard for her to get him moving again if they were to stop now. As if sensing her reluctant urge to keep moving, her companion tore his gaze away from the cheerful water and to the path ahead. It was obvious where she had walked previously, the grass flattened where she had been walking about previously during her exploration.