The Fantastically Mediocre Adventures Of Orion

The day started out like any other in the life of a mediocre desk jockey for a collage. Get up. Take a shower. Eat breakfast, and wait for the car pool. It in its self seemed boring, but for Orion, it meant security. Security in the fact that he still had a job, that he could afford his rent and that he could still care for his budding family.

          His family consisted of him and his VERY pregnant wife. They met at a Motocross race Orion happened to be participating in, only not in the way you probably think. Orion's wife, Melissa, was the nurse on the life flight helicopter. If not for her, he'd probably be dead, because you don't usually survive internal bleeding and severe brain trauma. Lucky for him, he didn't suffer any lasting effects other than a slight twitch whenever he was nervous.

            An alarm rang out against the stillness of morning signifying the start of the day. Orion groggily rubbed the sleep from his eyes and reached for the source of the demonic sounds keeping him from his slumber and switched it off. Letting out a large yawn, he slipped his feet over the side of the bed he was on and stood up, lumbering towards the small bathroom he shared with his with wife.

             As he entered the humble washroom, he thought to himself, 'Man I need a bigger house, this place sucks ass.' He then put his hands on the nozzle that regulates the water flow for the facet in the tub, turning the hot all the way up and the cold just a little he waited until the water heated up to test it. It was perfect. With as much practice as he has with this particular facet it isn't surprising. Turning around and shutting the door, he then started to undress. before long he was out of his pj's and into the showers warm embrace. He washed himself clean of all of the previous night's activities, he contemplated how his life could have gone.

             He could have been famous and successful is Melissa hadn't made him quit racing. It was his passion, his life, his blood, sweat and tears, and she took it from him. But he couldn't blame just her, it had been his fault as well. If he hadn't of been as reckless as he was, he wouldn't have wrecked, he wouldn't have lost, he wouldn't have almost died. But, he also wouldn't have met the love of his life. It was a doubled edged sword, but he was happy with the life he had made for himself. Too bad good things all end.

             After he made his way out of the shower, dried off and put on his work clothes, he walked up to his bed, where his wife lay sleeping. He looked at the sweet features of her face, her hair, her perfect little dimples and her cute little nose. He glanced down and saw her belly bump, holding what would soon be his own child. Boy or girl didn't matter to him, what did matter is that he would be in its life like a good father should. Unlike his. He grew up around his father until he was four years old, but then a fateful day in march signaled dad wasn't coming home. He knew it wasn't his father's fault but still felt underlying anger that his father abandoned him, his sister and made a widow out of his mother. He promised himself that he would do all he could to be in the child's life. Kissing his wife on the cheek, he tucked her in and made his way to the kitchen.

                While in the kitchen, Orion rummaged through the fridge looking for any kind of food that he could eat on the go, as his carpool would be to his home shortly. He lucked out and found a couple of nice looking oranges. He walked to his cabinet that held the silverware and picked out a knife. Pressing the knife against the orange he slowly made his way all the way around the fruit. Once satisfied about his cut, he began to peel away at the outer-layer protecting his delicious orange food. After removing all the peel and discarding it into his garbage can, he slowly bit into the fruit. Relishing the taste of vitamin C, he swallowed and went in for another bite. As he went to peel the next one, a horn sounded outside. Orion set down the knife and fruit and sighed. Hurrying to his front door, he once over'd himself to make sure he didn't have orange peel or something on him. Once his inspection was done, he opened the door and walked into the morning air.

                  The ride in the carpool was anything but eventful. Everyone was quiet except for Dan, who just wouldn't shut the fuck up. As they drove down the highway Orion looked out of the window, daydreaming away and trying to block out the annoyance in the driver seat. Dan. Dan was the kind of person that would chew your ear off, glue it back on and chew it off again. He was Orion's least favorite person in the office and definitely the loudest, most obnoxious person who knew outside of work. The worst part of it is that he would only talk about himself, Orion probably wouldn't hate him as much if he asked questions about other people, or interrupt you in the middle of telling someone something to one up you. Yep, Dan was being 'That Guy'. The other people in the car were John, Isaac, and Greg. Good old Greg, never mean to anyone, kept to himself, and always gets his work done. John and Isaac though, those two are trouble makers. They were both fresh out of high school when they started working at the collage, you'd think two graduates working in a collage would have their lives together right? Wrong. They are both on parole for the same thing. Breaking and entering. Although it was Dan's house, which is kind of funny Orion still didn't trust them fully. But they couldn't care less and in truth they did get their jobs done so he couldn't say they weren't good workers, just a little shady.

                   The ride to the collage couldn't have gotten any longer, the Highway was so congested that it was bumper to bumper for an hour. Progress was slow so Orion decided to rest his eyes. During his power nap, Orion dreamed about his life and how boring his routine had gotten, and he did something he hadn't in a long time. He wished. He wished that something exciting would happen and take him away from his life of mediocrity if only for a while. An escape from reality. He immediately regretted his wish. With a terrifying groan of metal bending and the sound of glass breaking he woke, for only a moment before he was plunged into darkness.

    The next image that greeted Orion was that of extreme color and brightness, at first he thought it was a hospital room, like he'd expect from getting into a car crash. Upon his eyes adjusting and losing his temporary vertigo, he lifted his head up to see that he was in a field. He wondered if he had been ejected from the car and landed in a grass pasture. He looked at himself to see that he had no cuts or injuries expected from be ejected from a moving car. Orion slowly stood up on shaky legs to take in his surroundings; an small grass field surrounded by rows and rows of what looked like apple trees. No highway in sight but it looked like there was a barn off passed all the apple trees. If he had any chance at trying to find civilization, the barn was his best guess as there was nothing else he could see that looked like it could help him. He just hoped that it wasn't run by a psychotic murderer who kept their mothers rotting corpse in the attic. He started his walk to the barn, silently cursing and pang of pain in his left ankle he didn't know was there until he started walking.

      "At least now I'm conscious," Orion mused to himself quietly. He didn't hear the light stepping sound behind him as his soon to be assailant ninja'd its way toward him.

         ~WHACK~

      Orion's vision blurred and his head whirling, meeting the grounds not so comfortable embrace for the second time that day, he found himself unconscious.