I sat at my workshop, computer guts laying all over the place. It was late, around 10 pm. Boss wanted me to finish up 'some' of the desktops that were acting funny earlier today. By acting funny, I actually mean they were pretty fucked up and because I was no where close to being done with the 15 or so computers that decided to shit themselves at the end of the work shift, I have to stay until they all work again. Now it wouldn't have been a problem if it was just a hardware problem, I could have ordered and/or replaced the faulty pieces with new components easily (which I did for some of them), but because most of these blasted machines are having software problems, it came down to having to reimage most of them. Now that wouldn't be too bad either, just takes time for the process and I can do a bunch at once. Buuuuuuuut, these are other people's work station computers so I have to backup all their work on some empty disks laying about. So that took a lot of time.

It was hassle is what I'm saying. But everything is good now though... Mostly anyway. I finished most of the computers (the few that I didn't fix would have to wait for tomorrow) and decided to head home for the night. After cleaning up the shop a little bit to seem a little less chaotic, and sorting the working desktops and the ones that still need a good ol' kick to the can, I finally locked up, packed up my equipment in my bag, and headed home.

On my way out I saw one of the security guards sitting at the front desk like every night. The security guard's name is Robert, otherwise known as Bob, and he's a big dude. And also one of my 'friends' here. We don't really know each other or talk to one another other when its time for me to head home. Since my job requires me to stay long nights pretty frequently, I happen to see him most nights on my way out, so we just became 'hey guy I see every night, hope your okay!' friends.

"Everything quiet, man?" I asked, coming up to the desk he resided in.

"Huh? Oh hey, Mason. Yeah everything's quiet, like usual haha. Finally heading home?" The large man adjusted himself in his black leather swivel chair.

"Yeah, had to stay later than usual to fix those god-awful machines. My head feels like its about explode." I rubbed my head with my free hand.

"Yeah, I can understand that. My computer at home barely works, one of these days you're gonna see me on the news for finally losing it!" The jolly man gave a laugh, I joined in too.

"Not if it happens to me first, I have to deal with every single one in my department."

"That's true, I definitely do not envy you. I didn't choose to be IT for a reason."

I could only laugh at that, "You, sir, are a smart man."

"On a good day, yes I am."

Looking down at my watch, I saw that it was continuously getting later and later. I at least wanted to be home before 11 pm. Deciding that I needed to get home, I told Bob goodnight.

"Hey, its getting late, and I need to get home soon, I'll catch you later, man." I said with a tired voice.

"Yeah, I'll see ya later, Mason. Have a good night."

"You too." With that I walked out of the large building to my car. My car wasn't anything amazing, its an old, tan 2001 Toyota Camry. I've kept in pretty good condition, only thing that causes issues is my A/C, which I am currently trying to get fixed. Anyway, I hop into my Camry and started to drive my way home.

It was a quiet ride home, I wasn't in the mood to listen to any kind of music right now and nothing interesting was on the radio, so I drove in peace and quiet. I spaced out a bit, thinking about nothing really, maybe what I was going to eat for my late dinner? Leftover spaghetti was all I had ready at a moment's notice, so I'll just eat that. Coming up to an empty intersection, the traffic light turned from a dim green, to yellow, and then red. Snapping out of my thoughts last second, I hit the brakes a bit hard, lurching the car forward a bit. My phone that was resting on the center console flew down underneath the dashboard, where the pedals were.

"Shit..." I gave a hushed curse, reaching down while keeping an eye on the traffic light. I moved my hand all around the car floor, only able to feel around as it was too dark to actually see. Finally after a moment of searching, I found my phone and set it between my legs. Paying attention back at the light, I saw it change to green, letting off the brake, I crawled forward. As I did this, my phone vibrated twice, a text notification showed itself on the lock screen. Looking at the name, it was my daughter's babysitter, Lexi. I was about to open it, but bright lights suddenly illuminated the entire passenger side of my car. The hair on the back of my neck rose in awful dread, and as if time slowed down, I turned my head in the direction of the lights. What seemed to be a truck of some kind raced down the intersection I was still crossing.

My eyes widened in fear, I couldn't move. I was going to be hit. There was no way to dodge it, it was already in the intersection. My heart raced, images of my daughter, Ally, flashed into my mind. I could do nothing but take the hit. I sat there, my body rattling with fear. I closed my eyes, I heard myself take a deep breath and exhaled. I opened my teary eyes.

This was it, wasn't it? That truck was moving way to fast, there was no way I was going to survive this unless God himself came down and stopped it personally. I sincerely doubt He would.

It hit me.

Everything crawled as if it was in slow motion, the entire passenger side crushed inwards, the windows shattering from the blow. The force of the impact heaved me to the left, my seat belt disengaging from the buckle, doing the exact opposite of what it was supposed to do. I flew straight out of the driver window, smashing the glass as I went through. In real time, it happened all in a blink of an eye, but to me, I saw every little detail of the accident. Soaring through the air, I saw glass dance all around me. My mind flashed with images, memories. I thought of Ally, all the good times we had, all the bad times. I thought about how beautiful she was, her sweet smile, the times she gave meaning to my life. She is all I have. How is she going to understand her daddy wasn't coming home? How could this happen to her? Why did I do this to her? What would happen to her?

Tears streamed down my face.

I'm so sorry...

I hit the pavement with a solid thud. For not even a fraction of second, I felt the bones in my body break, my muscles tear, and then nothing. All sound went quiet, I could not feel myself lay on the ground, my body unable to move. I couldn't even taste the blood that filled my mouth. The only thing I could do was stare straight into the beautiful, starless night sky.

The last thing I saw before disappearing into the darkness of my own unconsciousness was the face of my daughter.

I'm sorry...

Pain.

That is all I felt as I laid on the ground. My muscles ached, my head was pounding with agonizing pain. It felt as if my body was broken into pieces, but then harshly put back together. I tried to remember what happened, but the thoughts added to the stress of my unending headache.

Something happened. Something horrible happened. To me? Yes, to me. What was it? Why does my body feel like it was hit by a train? ....Wait, no. Not a train. A truck. I was hit by a truck, on my way to work. No, that's not right... I was heading home from work. Back home, to eat spaghetti and tuck Ally into bed. But the truck hit me and killed me.

But wait, I'm not dead? I don't remember the details, but I have this feeling that I should not be alive. Was I rescued? No I don't feel as if I'm in a bed or a moving vehicle of any kind. Am I still on the ground? I.... Yeah, I am. I'm alive? B-but how? A miracle? Oh my god, I'm alive. I'M ALIVE.

Caught in the moment of excitement, and using all my will and strength, I sat up quickly to take in what had just transpired. My eyes were fanatic, moving erratically, trying to spot something familiar, the city, the wrecked cars, anything.

But I saw none of that. I only saw grass. And trees. It was still night out, but the reflection of the big, bright white orb in the sky illuminated the entire forest clearing I was in.

How the fuck did I end up here?! Where the fuck am I?

Instinctively, I tried to stand up from the grass, but my body started to ache in displeasure. I caught myself and tried again, albeit, slowly and much more carefully. As I started to stand all the way up, my eyes went dark and I became light headed. The world seemed to spin around me. To counteract with the nauseating feeling, I put my arms above my head and stared into the starry, night sky, to which then I started to give slow, deep breaths.

My vision began to clear and the sick feeling that was overwhelming my body was fading away. I continued my study of the moon-lit sky. The more I peered into it, the more beauty I saw in it. It was unlike anything I've ever seen before. It was full of stars, hundreds... Thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Almost like auroras at the north pole, with the vibrant greens, pinks, purples, blues. Like a painting, craftsmanship that only a god could create. Any nausea I had completely faded away as I got lost in the visible galaxies shown before me.

Just... Just where was I? I have never heard of something like this. I've never seen something like this. Normally, you couldn't see stars very well from all the city lights, but if you were to go out into the country, or anywhere without city lights, you could see them.

But this? This was something else. I didn't know whether to be impressed or frighten, so I met in the middle.

A cold, icy breeze interrupted my gaze. Up until now I was running on adrenaline, but as I calmed down, I was able to feel the night's cold and nippy weather. The sweat that covered my body added to the freezing temperature that I was experiencing. I crossed my arms to warm myself, my body shivering intensely. My work suit I wore did little in keeping me warm against the wind. I needed to get moving so I can warm myself.

I don't think its cold enough for any serious problems, but I should move around to create some heat in my body. Fuck its cold. Its supposed to be in the middle of the summer, ain't it?

I began walking around, my sore legs cried in protest, but the cold sweat on my back stifled anything my legs said. I'd rather feel pain than be cold. I headed towards the treeline in hopes that the trees would oppose the freezing wind, but I quickly found out that the trees did nothing to protect me from the cold air. Lifting my collar up to cover my ears, I tried to figure out what I should do next. It looks as though I am in a forest of some kind, so I kept my guard up. I tried to remember what survivalists in those TV shows did first in the off chance that you actually got lost in the wilderness. I guess water would be the first, as that is what I need to actually survive more than one day. The next would be shelter and food right? Then the ultimate goal should be to find civilization.

I sighed tiredly and haphazardly. I belong at a desk, not a stupid forest in the middle of God knows-where. I looked to the night sky again, no sign of any daylight any time soon. It sucks, but I would have to survive in the middle of the night. I played a chant in my head for a random way to start in, and settled on going in the direction I was already headed when I came over to the treeline.

Thus my journey had begun.

As the night went on, the more it got colder and colder. And the colder it got, the more I wanted to get out of it. I was likely not going to find anything-- or anyone-- out in the middle of a forest this late into the night. I could keep moving all the way until daylight, but even with the moonlight, it was still very difficult to see anything. Might as well be blind. I decided to stop searching for a way out of the woods, and tried to look for a place to sleep. Maybe try to find a hole to sleep in for the night... Or create one. Maybe I could find a cave, hopefully an unoccupied one, definitely do not want to deal with a sleeping bear. If the weather is being true to the season, then likely a bear would be hibernating for the winter or something.

So for another 20 minutes or so, a guesstimation mind you, I found no such caves or natural made holes. I was left with no other choice but to dig. By this point, the temperature was frosty, in the light I could see my own breathe. My lips were chapping and my ears were numb from the cold. Grabbing a sturdy piece of bark off of one of the trees, I used it as a shovel to dig. If I remembered correctly, dirt is a good insulator to keep warm. I don't remember where I heard it, but I'm pretty sure its a thing survivalists have done in a worst case scenario. I looked around for a good area to dig, spotting one near a tree on a small natural ditch. It wasn't deep, but it would be better than nothing. I began digging, it was a lot harder and draining than I thought it would be, but I kept it up.

After some time digging, and few breaks here and there, I was close to what I wanted as a hole. It wasn't deep, but it would have to do. My hands were freezing and my teeth were quietly chattering.

I finished the hole, I stood back up from my kneeling position to get ready to hop in. But I hesitated in doing so.

Am I really going to sleep in a dirt hole? I'll get all dirty... Mason, don't be stupid. Being clean is the least of my worries right now. I am mysteriously stranded in the middle of nowhere, my daughter is probably freaking out about why I didn't come home, and I lost my phone in the accident so I have no way of calling anyone for help. Right now, I just need to survive this shit, find some help, and get the fuck back home.

With new profound determination, I took off my clothes.

I took off everything I was wearing, my khakis, black button up shirt, my undershirt, footwear, and even boxers. I was completely naked. I folded all my clothes up nicely and put them to the side of the hole. Getting into the hole, I sat down and started to cover myself in the cold dirt I dug out before. After covering majority of my body, my arms still exposed, I put my clothes behind my head as a pillow, only using my undershirt as a wrap for my head to keep warm. Finally, I dug my arms into the dirt. It was cold at first, like bone shivering cold, but the longer my body was covered, the more tolerable it was.

If you're curious to know why I stripped naked, I didn't want to sweat with everything on while underneath the dirt. If it was cold the next morning and my clothes were wet with sweat, it would be even colder than it should be. I kept the clothes underneath my head so my body heat could keep them slightly warm for the morning.

I rested my head, and closed my eyes. It was a struggle at first to sleep, my body cramped up in the hole, but eventually I began to drift asleep.

Don't worry, kiddo. I'll be home soon... I'll be home soon.

With that, I fell into a dreamless sleep.

Author's Note

Hey.