Chapter 1: Home

It's been awhile since I've seen any signs of civilization. I've been driving for hours now, but I don't know where to. Maybe you might be wondering why I'm driving endlessly in

Tanzania, well, better to explain now than later. You see, I was born into a dreadful family. My mother died from a drug overdose of Prozac when I was 14. My father, on the

other hand, was a drug dealer. He forced me to come with him to Tanzania to do a deal, but then a gunfight erupted, and my father was shot in the ribs. I managed to snatch a

Beretta Model 92 with 4 magazines, which are now in my backpack. Alongside that, there's also have a lighter, my phone with earbuds, a hunting knife, and a water bottle.

Currently, I am driving a 2014 Grand Cherokee Summit that I stole, and my plan is to just try to survive out here in the wild, far away from any humans. My dad was always

abusing her, and his cruel nature made my mom depressed. She tried to contact the authorities, but when she did, my father would torture her into submission, and she was

locked in the basement. Due to everything that my mom had to deal with, she asked me to give her Prozac, which I did. This went on until in the end she overdosed and died.

How did my dad react? He took out her organs and sold them on the black market. I will never forget what he did. Imagine seeing your father, not giving a fuck about your

mother's corpse, but instead dissecting her and selling the organs into the black market. It seemed like he was extremely happy with her death, as it made him a lot of money.


But right now, that doesn't matter; my parents are dead, I have nowhere to stay, I have no money, and now I'm considered a criminal. When I was 10, I had a dream that I

could run away to a beautiful place, where my dad would never abuse me again, and I could live peacefully. Today is that day, and I hope I can find out if that the dream was

true. It was 9:00 PM, from what my phone told me. I parked my stolen jeep and got out my headphones. After plugging them into my phone, I started listening to Space Oddity

by David Bowie, as I started to doze off.


I woke up from my slumber, realizing it was early morning as the Sun was starting to rise. Taking a gulp of clean water, I started to drive. It must have been at least 40 minutes

until something caught my eye. Hyenas?I tried to drive by slowly, but my plan failed as the pack noticed me. There was at least 9 of them, and they were consuming a carcass

of a zebra. Then, the worst possible thing had to happen; my wheel popped out of the blue. Fearing the worst, I saw them getting ready to attack.

"You gotta be fucking kidding me..." I muttered to myself as I quickly starting digging in my backpack and pulled out my pistol, but before I could get it out, they attacked. They

managed to break through the front windows and were now in the jeep. Quickly, my hands grabbed the door knob and I dove into the ground, turned around, and aimed my

pistol at one of them. BANG went off the gun as it hit one of the hyenas, that were now crawling out of the jeep to get me, in the head. The other 8 were shocked by the loud

bang, so I fired again. BANG went off another bullet, that hit one of them in the leg.

"He's not worth it," one of them said, "let's get out of here!"

With this, they ran off. Before the sense of accomplishment filled me, a realization occurred. Did that hyena just talk? Was I already at the brink of insanity? Maybe talking

animals are just a common thing around here? Regardless, talking animals were at the least of my concern at the moment. Looking at the dead body of the hyena that had

been shot, I already knew what had to be done.


To cut to the chase, I started a fire and had a nice meal. The sound of the fire crackling made me feel relaxed. Thoughts started to race around my head. Is this how I'm going to

live for the rest of my life? Will I ever return to civilization? Who knows. Feeling so relaxed, my eyes started looking at my surroundings. I realized how beautiful the land looked;

there was a river, some zebras, and giraffes, and far away from me was a humongous rock formation. The amazement in my eyes was clearly shown. It was incredible to see

this giant structure in a flat land that had no hint of human activity. Should I explore it? No, I thought, what if there are lions there? Being mauled to death is not the way I

would like to die. Then, my head turned to see a lion, except he wasn't massive at all; it was a cub. Based on his appearance, and what I knew about lions, it looked like a male.

I wasn't afraid of him at all, but his presence might mean his parents were nearby.

"Who are you?" He asked me. Without questioning his ability to speak, and my desire to speak to anyone else than myself, I replied,

"My name is Aiden, and who might you be?"

"My name is Simba," he answered.

From what I can see, he is nowhere near his parents, nor any other lions. My curiosity started to rise as I wondered what he was doing out here.

"Why are you so far away from your parents?" I ask, "It's starting to get dark, and you look very young to be out here by yourself."

Simba gets a sad expression on his face, as he tries to find a reply.

"I snuck out, that's all. I just wanted to see how the Pride Lands looked at night."

"Oh, well you should be getting back."

Taking a sip of water from my bottle, I noticed Simba hadn't walked away. Instead, he was just staring at me, like he was seeing an alien or a paranormal creature. Trying to

ignore him, I started to think about what I would do tomorrow, and if staying somewhere in these parts would be a good idea, when suddenly my thoughts were interrupted

again.

"Hey um... you don't... um.. what animal are you?"

"What? Oh, well I'm a human."

"Hu-man? I've never heard of that. Do you live here?"

"I don't really know. I used to live somewhere far away, but now I'm on a journey to find a new home. I've been traveling for miles, far away from my species after an accident..."

"How about you stay with me? I can introduce you to my dad, and you can become part of the pride! You wouldn't have to travel anymore! We have food and water too!"

What Simba suggested startled me. It was a lot to take in. It was just absurd. Living with a bunch of lions that not only can talk, but have the ability to rip me into shreds, then

have me for a Thanksgiving feast? Hell no! But then again, where would I go? Sleeping in a jeep that has a flat tire and broken windows isn't exactly the most comfortable place

to rest. From what I'm been understanding, this entire place has talking animals. Who knows? Maybe the lions wouldn't kill me on sight. If they could talk, maybe they could

show sympathy towards me, and be rational. Perhaps I could at least try? If anything happens, running is always an option. Outrunning a lion is beyond impossible, but I might

be able to in my jeep if I decide to replace the tire with the spare tire in the trunk.

"OK, I guess, lead the way."

As I follow Simba to the rock formation, my mind starts to recap what just happened; my father got gunned down, I stole a jeep and drove away, I got attacked by talking

hyenas, and then a lion cub is asking me if I wanted to stay with him as I have nowhere else to go. Maybe it'll work out. This could be my second chance. If only my mom was

just as lucky. She was innocent. She loved me. But my dad was a devil. No, even worse. He was the definition of fear. The definition of a monstrosity. But he's dead now, and so

is my old life.

This is Major Tom to Ground Control

I'm stepping through the door

And I'm floating in a most peculiar way

And the stars look very different today

For here

Am I sitting in a tin can

Far above the world

Planet Earth is blue

And there's nothing I can do

For copyright reasons, Space Oddity is owned by the former David Bowie and now is owned by Mick Rock 2002. The Lion King franchise is owned by Disney.