The first thing in Ari's mind when he's conscious was it hurt. All of his body felt sore and heavy, like a bus had crashed into him. Maybe it really did happen.
The second thing in his mind was 'it stinks!'.
His vision was still dark, and he slowly gained control of his body. He groaned pitifully as the more he moved his body, the more hurt it felt. He squinted his eyes slowly and began to look at his surroundings.
He was lying in a heap of junk, no wonder it stinks everywhere. He seemed to be in a narrow alley between two stone building, with their roof overlapping messily that caused some of the sunlight to shone onto the alleyway.
He had never been to this location before, he surmised with a still slow-moving brain. He didn't even remember how on earth he could ended up here. Maybe he slept in the bus in the way home and the driver couldn't care less so just threw him out? He had no idea.
When he looked around to find his work bag or phone nowhere, it was then his mind cleared.
He remembered the first day of the semester, visiting his uncle, then riding the bus home. What happened afterwards…
He must be involved in some accident. He remembered wearing his usual work bag, his phone in it. Was it stolen? Wasn't the logical thing in finding survivor in accident to bring them to the hospital? Why wasn't he?
He suddenly was startled from his musing from a boisterous laughing from one end of the alley. There was chattering that followed, sounded to be from a group of men. Judging from the place he was in, if he met them it wasn't going to be a friendly encounter. But his body was still weak, so he could only do what he thought the best.
He played dead.
"Oooh boss! There's someone here!" someone yelled when they were near him. Ari willed his body to stay silent with all he got.
"Hoo look wasted, hurry check for money!" one of them said eagerly. Their sound became excited, and two of them, of what Ari could feel, began to feel his clothes to scavenge any change. Ari never felt this grateful before that he was not ticklish.
"Ah, he has no money in him? He was beat up too, maybe someone took him first?" a disappointed voice was heard from his right.
"Tch. Useless. Come, we don't want to waste time here." Someone said. He felt relaxed only for a second until he felt a hard kick to his stomach. He grunted weakly, but thankfully they thought none of it. They laughed and jeered at his pitiful state. He listened with bated breath as their voices wane until it couldn't be heard anymore. Only after waiting for a full minute then he opened his eyes and groaned again, clutching his stomach.
"Ow, it hurts!"
His body was not feeling well, it stinks here and it could be dangerous if he stayed here longer, so after a minute or so for gathering himself up, he was limping slowly to the end of the alley, hoping to find a location marker so he could know the way home. He arrived at a peculiar stone road he had never seen, complete with pedestrians walking on the sidewalks and carts pulled by horses passing by occasionally. He was so dumbfounded by this scenery that he didn't see a person walked towards him hurriedly and almost crashed into him and maybe send him flying, with how weak he was now.
"Watch your step, boy!" he sneered before dismissing him.
"Eugh, he stinks. Only in the afternoon and already got wasted."
"Must be a good for nothing. Stay away from him!" some pedestrian chimed in. but Ari only heard some of them. His mind was blank right now.
Because he didn't know where the hell he was right now.
"Move away!" someone yelled, snapping him from his dazed state. He moved quickly, seeing someone had a big sack in his shoulder, not wanting to be slapped by it. He started walking slowly with the wave of pedestrians while looking around to find some information.
He wanted to find some location marker previously, like some address on a business sign board or a street name in some houses, but he started to think that it wasn't that simple. He might not be in his country anymore. The building style, the stone road, the citizen's clothing, he was unfamiliar with them. Hell, he even thought he was not in his world any longer. The mode of transportation he had seen only consist of walking, and some cargo cart pulled by bull or donkey. One or two carriage were pulled by horse, but it seemed luxurious and brought some awed gaze from the pedestrian. Ari concluded that only certain people could ride it.
And that's it. Ari was sure that in every single country, no matter how poor they were, there must be some mode of modern transportation, bicycle, motorbike, or car. Nobody in the street was playing with their phone, and there was no telephone pole planted on the road side. Maybe there weren't any electricity in here.
The clothing of the people was basically all from cotton, it looked coarse and lacked the modern look that a machine sewn clothes had. There were no one wearing jeans, and Ari doubted if it were invented yet. The women all wore skirt, none wear trouser, and they all brought some kind of goods in their hands like vegetables, fruits, he even saw some game meat. They all looked like they just had a day of hard work in the farm, and maybe they had. Ari had a late epiphany that he might look strange with his modern clothing, but when he looked downwards to his clothes, he found he was wearing the same kind clothing as his surrounding people wore.
All in all, it was strange.
He remembered the thugs he encountered from earlier in the alleyway said that he didn't have any money in him, and he mused that any money he had in this body would be robbed anyway, so he couldn't go to some establishment to eat or stay, or even a drugstore to buy some medicine. He pondered where he should go.
A police station or some sort was an option, but they always asked so much question that Ari didn't know anything about. With his messy and stinky appearance, he could be mistaken as some petty criminal, maybe ended up getting arrested. It would attract the bad kind of attention into him.
Maybe a religious place? A church, a temple or a mosque might let him to clean himself up from his miserable state, and he could gather more information about how he could end up here and what could he do to survive. He could get a temporary job to feed himself before he could go back to his old life.
If he could go back at all, a quiet voice sounded in his mind.
Suddenly, he was attracted by a delicious smell that spread from a certain way. He consciously drifted his feet there, stopping in front of a small park next to a small building he assumed was a chapel. The smell came from a big pot of soup. There was a queue in front of an old lady on a makeshift table, who was spooning some soup from the big pot to a bowl and another woman who was giving people a bowl of soup accompanied by some kind of bread. He didn't realize he had walked to the crowd until the lady spooning the soup noticed him. She smiled kindly to him that he felt warmth in his heart.
"Soup, young man?" she offered.
"I don't have any money." Ari could only mumble awkwardly. She clicked her tongue, unimpressed.
"Nonsense, this is free soup we give to the people every week. You look thin, here, I got you extra portion!" the lady unceremoniously placed a bowl of warm soup and two pieces of bread to his hand, which Ari quickly accepted. Ari could only say thanks to the lady who wave her hand away, and she gave another bowl to the person behind him. Ari quickly went to the side, and looking around to find place to eat. He joined some of the people with their heads on the soup, who looked at him quickly before ignoring him, engrossed on their own meal. He sat carefully and took a sip of the soup.
It was a potato and leek soup, with pieces of potatoes and some vegetables in it. It wasn't much, but it warmed his hurting stomach and relaxed his mind. Only then he really was aware of his situation.
He was stranded on some foreign land, unknown century, nothing in his body and no one to talk to.
He felt his eyes watered a bit as he bit his bread. No one bothered him, maybe thinking he was really hungry to be moved by a bowl of soup. They didn't know that Ari was a man stranded from faraway land after he had a car accident. His body was hurt, he met some thugs and was sneered by people, until he met kindness in this foreign land.