Earth.
"Damn it. This traffic jam is killing me." Adrian cursed. He is currently on the North-South Highway that cuts through the mountain. Both left and right of the highway are nothing but a forest, not even a billboard for his eyes to feast on. He is heading to the city in the neighbouring state. He was supposed to meet with his club member there but with the current traffic flow, he is most likely to be late.
He grabs his phone that he put in the cupholder. Then, he begins to scroll through his contact list, searching for his friend's mobile number using his thumb finger. While his right hand holding the steering, his left hand is holding the phone near his ear.
"Hello? Adrian? Where are you, man? It's almost ten in the morning." His friend starts bombarding him with multiple questions before he can even speak a word.
"I'm currently stuck in a traffic jam, I will definitely arrive late. Just start the activities without me. I am going to catch up with you guys later."
"This is why I always tell you to depart earlier." His friend sighed before continuing, "You need to change your last-minute habit."
"Alright, alright, that's enough. I am sorry, I won't do it again." Adrian makes a promise.
"This is like the tenth time I heard the same promise." His friend on the other side ignores it as he is quite sure Adrian can't fulfil it.
"Come on, man. Stop nagging like my mom." He said before hanging up his phone.
Adrian glanced at the passenger seat. There is a bag with all the essential tools for him to go jungle trekking. He is a part of the University Outdoor Club since his freshman year. This club is unique and well sought after by new students. Unlike other clubs that get struck on university grounds most of the time, his club often go outside for a trip or activity purposes.
This is because the club periodically do some outdoor recreation activities such as biking, camping, rafting etc. They also involve in volunteering activities by helping the local community around their university.
Moreover, they don't need to do a lot of paperwork and go through troubles just to do activities outside the university area. In terms of money, aside from the university, they are also funded by several successful alumni.
Today is supposed to be the day he guides the new members of the club, his juniors. As a former freshman himself, he knows the difficulty of handling activity in the forest. Safety is one of the important aspects he needs to maintain during outdoor activity.
However, once in a while there is always that one kid who didn't listen to the instruction and wonder in the forest on his own. There is a case where one student went missing in the forest for days which cause panic among the university administration.
Well, they are panicking because that missing student is from an influential family. As a result, the club was the one who get blamed by the parent despite it being their child's fault.
Since then, the club limit the number of new members and always reject applications from students with well-off backgrounds. They are pampered and their parent has a mentality of thinking their child is the best and never doing anything wrong.
It has caused dissatisfaction but the club always gives the same answer, "Blame that student." or "Blame that family."
The club prefer student from average or poor background since they are more resilient. Even so, he still felt sorry for his friend as the number of students he needs to handle is not small.
"I will buy lunch for him later."
*Nee-naw* *Nee-naw* *Nee-naw* *Nee-naw*
Adrian hears the sirens. He complained, "For God's sake, what took you guys such a long time to arrive? It feels like years I'm stuck in this traffic."
He looks through the rear-view mirror and sees the police traffic and the ambulance coming from behind. He inwardly said 'There's probably an accident in front.'
He couldn't think of any plausible reason that cause this heavy congestion. It was already half past ten. The peak hours are already long-ended.
The police immediately do their job and the traffic flow starts to pick up.
"Finally," Adrian begins to increase the speed as soon as he passes the accident area. He took a glance at it, a passenger bus crashed into a white truck from behind. Then, his focus returns back to the road in front of him. It is not his problem or his job to help. At best, he can only sympathize with the victims.
He skilfully drives through a serpentine-like road with his national-brand subcompact car. His parent gives it to him when he successfully enters university. His eyes darted to the left and to the right periodically looking at the side mirror for any potential danger. Despite being late, Adrian still needs to be careful. The drivers in this country can be as unpredictable as if they've never taken a driving class before.
As he driving on the road, a group of wild elephants somehow crossed the road. Adrian quickly presses the break while turning the steering wheel to avoid the elephants. He barely manages to stop his car from crashing with the elephants but the car behind him is not.
The MPV behind him didn't manage to make an emergency break in time thus crashing into him at a high speed from behind. His car slides into the forest before it begins to flip continuously until it stops in the middle of the forest.
The front mirror was shattered to pieces piercing through his skin. Adrian crawled out from the flipped car with all his might. He coughs a mouthful amount of blood in the process. After succeeding in his endeavour, he looks at his wound caused by the shattered glass. Adrian couldn't help but curse, "This f*cking cheap car! I will never buy this brand again."
He continues his grumble, "Which damn contractor build this highway? Why they don't put in the 'wild animal crossing' sign?"
Adrian tries to stand up and walk but he staggered which cause him to fall again. This time he hit something hard on his head.
"Arrghh! That's hurt like hell." Adrian curls his body while his hand touches his forehead. He felt the pain in his stomach and his forehead. He looks up from the corner of his eyes to see what he has bumped into. There is ruin stone structure with incomprehensible words carved on it. A kind words that he has never seen before.
He take a closer look as he was curious about it. As a history enthusiast, this alphabet did not resemble any ancient alphabet in any book he had read before.
"This alphabet looks like a wriggling worm. There is so much curve in it."
He most likely has stumbled upon the new discovery.
Unknowingly, a drop of his blood fell onto an altar that is half buried in the ground causing him to slowly lost consciousness.
….
Adrian didn't know how long he pass out. His bleeding must be pretty serious, that's what he thought. He had no idea how much time had passed. His body feels like laying on something hard, definitely not a hospital bed. He speaks in his mind, 'Oh yeah…I passed out in front of that weird stone structure.'
Slowly he opens his eyes, he sees four figures cautiously looking at him.
Adrian holds his head, the pain in his head didn't fully subsidize yet, "Urrghh…Where am I?"