Chapter 5

 

 

It was already dusk by the time Hanzo broke free from his frenzied state of running.

 

'Just how long have I been running? 5 hours?'

 

He had already lost track of time. His legs were also shaking from exhaustion while his chest kept on erratically heaving up and down. Luckily, he doesn't have any heart condition or he feared that he would have surely suffered from it in the middle of his run.

 

'Thirsty!'

 

More than his tired body and aching legs, his parched throat caused him the greatest discomfort. It was as if ants were gnawing inside his throat and every time he swallows, the arid muscles inside grind hard against each other.

 

It was then that he found tree leaves that are as big as his body just a foot above his body. Might be because they were covered from all directions with even bigger leaves, they were still moist with morning dew.

 

Quickly,  Hanzo brought his mouth to the end of a gigantic leaf. He then pulled the end of the leaves slowly so the water would accurately trickle in his direction. Whether the water was contaminated or not had long been thrown out of his mind.

 

'More!'

 

Just the dew of a single leaf was not enough to quench his thirst. Luckily, there were more of them.

 

It took a few moments before Hanzo could completely relinquish his thirst.

 

rumble

 

It was now his stomach's turn to protest. He wished to scavenge for food but just in time, the auspicious presence of the luminous body in the sky got completely devoured by wicked, old darkness.

 

'Sorry, but you'll have to endure for now.' He patted his rumbling stomach. Now, he could barely see anything in this pitch-black world devoid of any light, 'I'll just have to rest here.'

 

He slowly made his way through the bunch of gigantic leaves to locate the trunk of the tree, before he slowly rested his body upon it. Then, he slightly tilted his head upward before staring with an unfocused gaze at the empty air in front. He kept that stance for a long time.

 

Perhaps he thought that if he stayed like this, something would happen. Maybe he'll suddenly hear Irene's complaints and wake up to realize everything was just a nightmare he had while dozing off during work hours. Or maybe, someone would suddenly come up to him and say "surprise! It's just a prank!". He didn't know if he would be able to stop himself from giving that fellow a few good smacks, but as long as he could win back his peace, he might be able to find it in himself to forgive and forget...

 

 “...else. What else should I do... ha-ha... I don't even know what to think anymore...”

 

      'But I can’t help that, can I? I mean, I don’t even know where I am. I mean, how did I even find myself in such a creepy place? It makes no sense! Today was supposed to be just another normal day for me—I'll wake up, go to school and listen to boring lessons, go to work and banter with my mischievous colleague, then go home and sleep. But here I am! In the middle of nowhere!... When that angel came, I alone was knocked unconscious for whatever reason. Maybe they have already been told how to leave this place... So why do I have to be singled out? Why?! How can they be so unfair?!... As if that wasn't enough, I...I have to witness a person being killed right in front of me, just how fucked up was that?! Finally, despite feeling so lost, I had to run away for so long just to save my life. Even though my legs were already strained to the limit, I could only force myself to continue because once I stop, those monsters will surely catch up to me...'

 

“Of course I’d lose my nerve after all that...”

 

       'What’s wrong with losing my nerve? It wouldn’t be strange at all for me to give in to despair. Heck, I wouldn't find it strange if I suddenly turned insane, or maybe I already am one. After all, how would I explain all these unrealistic things? I know. I'll just sleep. I'm sure once I wake up, I'm already back lying on my comfortable bed. Then I'll find out I was late for school, then...'

 

He laughed sardonically, perhaps at himself. "There's no way I'd do that..."

 

He couldn’t bring himself to be optimistic, but giving in to desperation was just as hard.

 

Moreover, on the off chance that everything right now is real, he deemed it unwise to waste precious time sleeping. He's not a fan of acting swiftly; he's more to the procrastination side. But when it comes to his survival, he had to do so even if he finds it uncomfortable. He knew that there's no such thing as 'too early' in regards to his safety.

 

"An ounce of prevention is worth more than a pound of cure after all...." He murmured.

 

It might not be the most appropriate to compare his current situation with, but the saying speaks of the advantage of acting now than later. "Maybe 'Prepared ants live better than lazy grasshoppers ' is a better fit..." Regardless, it all meant that it's too early for him to resign and take a rest right now.

 

Inhale

 

Exhale

 

Inhale

 

After repeating a set of deep breathing for a few minutes, he finally regained a little bit of his calm. It was a habit he had whenever he needs to calm his nerves since a young age. Along with those exhales, he threw away all the unnecessary emotions out of his system. He knew that the more dangerous a situation is, the more important it is to have a steady mind and calmly assess the situation. The most important characteristic a soldier must-have isn't bravery. A soldier must be calmer the more dangerous the situation is; only then do they have a higher chance of snatching the victory. "Now, what to do..."

 

'First thing first—I better analyze the authenticity of the situation.'

 

Things have gone too fast that with so many questions, his logical mind was keen to think that this is just a nightmare—a very realistic and brutal one.

 

Though from somewhere within him, something was telling him that everything is real. 'But if this is reality, isn't everything a little too unreal?'

 

He had read his fair share of fantasy novels so he wasn't entirely new to the idea of "transported to another world", but fantasizing and accepting such an event when it truly happened were entirely different matters.

 

'Calm down Hanzo, be objective. You're a genius, start using your brain.' He closed his eyes. Then as if founding something, he nodded. 'That's right, let's use the 5w and 1h analysis method to make things clear.'

 

What, Who, Where, When, Why, and How. One of the most commonly used methods to analyze most situations.

 

'Let's start. First and foremost, where am I?'

 

He got the feeling he had been asking that question quite a lot of times already but until now, the answer hasn't come to him yet.

 

'This place is a jungle. But where?'

 

He had visited some of the most known jungles in his country back when his parents were still alive. As far as he remembered, there was no forest such as this. Just the leaves of the trees in this place were gigantic enough that it should be impossible for Hanzo to not know if such a type of tree were to exist back in his hometown.

 

He didn't know anything more about this place other than its strangeness. Still, he concluded that a place like this doesn't exist near his area.

 

But if this was a place overseas, then that begets the question,

 

—Why?

 

Was it mass kidnapping? Remembering the roughly hundred other people when he first woke up—if they were all in similar circumstances—then the only logical explanation was that they were mass kidnapped by some terrible organizations.

 

'Let's not jump to conclusions. I'll go back to this part later.'

 

The next is how. Now that he thought more clearly, this was where the first and strangest part exists.

 

—How long was he unconscious? How did they even send him here? How was it possible that time seems to have gone backward during his slumber?

 

'I went to the store at about 3 in the afternoon. The movie I watched with Irene was about two hours long. The part of the movie I last remembered was the climax, so about 3/4 of the movie had already passed. By then, it should have been 4–5 in the afternoon with the sun already setting.'

 

Yet when he first waked here, it was just noon. The sun was still at its highest point on the horizon and in its most glaring state. 'Was I forced to sleep for almost 20 hours?'

 

That was the only plausible conclusion unless he truly believes that time went backward.

 

But all of a sudden, a realization struck him. 'The taste of coke, it was still fresh!'

 

He had very sharp taste buds; he remembered that when he woke up, the lingering sweet taste of the carbonated drink was still vivid in his mouth.

 

If he had been sleeping for almost 20 hours, either the taste should have already faded or it had turned into a very foul, sour taste. But it was still sweet. An hour. For the drink to still retain its sweetness, an hour shouldn't have passed.

 

His breathing starts getting rugged.

 

He opened his eyes, they were widened.

 

His lips were shaking.

 

He could feel cold sweat trickling down his nape.

 

'There's no way I was sleeping for that long!'

 

Rough calculation on his part also shows that the same phenomena could never be replicated by any modes of quick travel.

 

That only means there's something very wrong happening here.

 

'I've forgotten! I have my watch with me!'

 

He found it uncomfortable to wear it on his wrist, but he couldn't bear to place it far away from his body because it was the last gift given to him by his father. Because of that, he had always kept it in his pocket.

 

Broken.

 

His wristwatch's hands had stopped at exactly 4:46 pm. 'That should be the exact time I disappeared from the store...'

 

This watch was one of his most precious possession. It was both waterproof and shockproof, there's no way it would easily get broken.

 

Within his mind, he had already started believing that all these signs solidify the idea that this is another world.

 

'If I assume that this world is indeed a different world, then I could answer the previous question more easily.'

 

He had read enough novels that the idea of mass transfer was not entirely new to him. If it was to be considered, it could easily solve all the questions; how he was brought to an entirely remote place almost instantly, why is there such a great time difference, and what's up with this unbelievably large forest. Also... about the existence of that angel and those monsters.

 

'Let's just stop at those answers for now. I need to rest.'

 

In the end, he couldn't stop his weariness anymore. Without food to eat, his brain hurt just from thinking too much. He also deemed it would be fruitless to go too deep with his 'otherworld' conjectures without seeing more proof—he knew there might be some flaw in his thinking. 'Well, judging the truth could still wait until tomorrow.'

 

---

 

Now that he was no longer occupied by his thoughts, he finally realized his current position.

 

—It's seriously dark in here.

 

There was no moon, or if there was one, it was covered by the leaves of the humongous trees surrounding him.

 

Rumble

 

His stomach protested once more. The ache in his legs returned. 'It stings!' He didn't notice before, but he was scratched many times by thorns on his way here. Now that they were starting to heal, the itch became another problem other than the stinging pain.

 

Roar!

 

Roar!

 

Around a hundred meters from him, cries of hungry beasts echoed periodically. Anytime now, they could smell his scent and gobble him up till not even bones remain. In his current state, resistance is just a fanciful thought.

 

He hugged his knees tighter. It was also only now that he noted the cold night air seeping in. The tree leaves couldn't provide him the warmth he sought.

 

—This seriously sucks...

 

Might be because he had just witnessed a person's dying a gruesome death close up, he couldn't stop fear and anxiety from paralyzing his whole body. It felt as if something heavy was pressing upon his chest.

 

'When was the last time I felt like this?'

 

He flashed a look at the broken watch on his left wrist. Out of his hazy mind, he saw the gentle and caring smile of a man and the flaring eyes of a woman.

 

"Stop... Don't think about them..."

 

Trying his best to shake away those illusions, his mind unconsciously wanders to the deepest recess of his memories. It was where both the sweetest and the most detestable part of his life lies.

 

Her worried gaze and the warmth transferred through her soft hands. She who had reached out to him when he was drowning. She, who despite her usually cool persona, never left his side and tried her best to glue his fragmented heart piece by piece.

 

Suddenly, small warmth caressed his cheeks. They trickled down as if wanting to find and connect with his heart. With one hand, he touched the warm things on his cheeks.

 

'Tears?'

 

He had come to believe that everything was inevitable; that's why he never cried anymore after that one time. That's why he never once doubt that he was a strong person. But was everything just his delusions? Within this world devoid of any light, a man realized just how weak he truly is.

 

Tonight was destined to be a sleepless night for him.