So I'm jumping on board the OC band wagon. It actually really is pretty hard to find stories where the person doesn't automatically know where they are, so I'm giving it a shot.
Disclaimer: I don't own FFVII
The thing is though, I'm on top of a mountain with no reception. The guy is part buried in foliage, looks at least a foot taller and fifty some pounds heavier than I am, and I'm already carrying a twenty pounds of camping supplies. The best option would be to hike back down until there is reception, and call a forest ranger.
It took an hour for me to get here though. Maybe the guy just got drunk and passed out? There aren't any bottles around him, though he is half naked. He…also doesn't have a giant camping pack with him. Who sneaks up here just to get drunk anyway? Maybe he got jumped by bears?
I take a quick glance around, but no mugger bears jump out of the trees.
Then again, there is only one road up to here, and I have a friend who's supposed to meet me at the camp site, considering that I haven't gone camping before. We're watching shooting stars tonight. He got delayed by traffic, so in about an hour he should come across the unconscious guy too. He'll know what to do.
…though, maybe he won't see him. Maybe I should make a sign to point to the guy?
It takes me about ten minutes to find a decent sized stick. In that time I realized I should probably have checked if the guy's alive or not.
I don't particularly want to touch him. I do, however, have a stick to poke him with.
Poke.
Wait a bit.
Pooooooke.
Poke. Poke. Poke. Poke. Poke.
"Hello? Helloooo?"
He doesn't react. However, looking closely, his chest is moving (very slightly) up and down, and I let out a sigh. If he didn't wake from that (and I know from personal experience that many do wake up) then he's probably well out of it. I am safe for the time being.
Now for a sign, though honestly a flag would be easier. I have….a headband, a roll of bandages, and some spare shirts. To be honest, I don't want to use any on them. But…if I do expect my friend to come across him later, he should know to take the shirt with him later, right? So it's not as if I'll lose anything by doing this, right?
(He'd better know to take my shirt with him.)
With that, I slip my shirt over one end of the stick and try to stab the other end into the ground. Turns out the end with my shirt is actually sharper, so I flip the stick around, put my shirt on the other end, and then stab it into the ground. Done.
I look back at Mr. Unconscious. Considering that he's half naked, maybe the shirt would do better on him. It was one of those extra extra large shirts they give out for free at college that I was planning to use as a pajama, so it ought to fit him.
But wait, what about the flag plan?
Oh, who needs a flag? I can just drag him into the middle of the road and someone would most definitely see him.
With that, I plod my way over to the guy, grab a shoulder and heave.
Holy crap he's heavy.
Heave!
Something silver rises out of the ground after his head, and I realize that what I mistook as dried grass was actually three feet worth of silver hair. I pause for a moment and shake my head. Just who is this guy?
Setting him upright and against a tree, I then proceed to stuff him into the shirt. It's harder than it looks, trying to dress an unconscious person. The shirt actually turns out to be a bit tight on him, but it has to be warmer than nothing.
…though come to think of it, I have a blanket too.
But I was going to use that for myself!
…then again, the guy's unconscious. And a lot worse off than myself. Plus I've already gotten involved.
You know, maybe it's not the best idea to leave the unconscious person by himself. Help is only an hour away, right?
I grimace, but put my bag down anyway and make myself comfortable. Mr. Unconscious is tilting a little too far to the right, so I drag him back upright. He starts tilting again, and maybe it would be easier to leave him on the floor but the floor has bugs so, I yank him up again. And plop next to him just in case. His head ends up flopping over mine, and he's still pretty heavy, but it's only for an hour anyway so I bear with it.
An hour's not that long.
Maybe he got into another traffic jam.
A five way pile-up maybe?
Oh, this book had a nice ending.
The sun's setting, I have killed eight mosquitoes, and I am going to murder my friend. Where the heck is he? We had plans! Where's this meteor shower you promised me?
Meanwhile Sleeping Beauty still hasn't woken up yet. He doesn't snore, he doesn't drool, his stomach didn't even grumble when I waved my granola bar under his nose. He doesn't even have those eyelid twitches; I pulled back his eyelid once to check if he even had eyes (very nice green ones, in fact) and he didn't react at all. All he does is breath, really, really steadily.
That, and lean really heavily on my shoulder. I guess I should be thankful he doesn't drool.
…Ah shoot, he doesn't have a concussion, does he? A concussion would probably keep him out for a while. Maybe the inside of his brain was steadily bleeding out. You're not supposed to jostle people with concussions, I think.
And it's been hours by now. Whelp. If he hasn't died yet he probably won't?
(I hope).
At this point, there's not much of a point in sticking around. Even with camping gear available, I don't know how to set it up, so this trip is already a bust. Plus, the bottom of the mountain has reception, where I could call for an ambulance. And yell at my friend for ditching me.
Mind made up, I stand (and ouch my muscles are sore), put on my backpack, and get ready to drag deadweight down the mountain. I can…hold his top half and walk backwards. Or his legs, though with how rocky the path is it's probably not a good idea. Or, I don't know, any sort of method that doesn't involve me carrying him directly.
First attempt made me realize there was no way I was carrying my pack and the guy's body any length of distance. We barely went five meters and I already need a break.
Sun's setting fast though. And I can't see evening stars, so it's cloudy too, and while the weather report said there was only a 5% chance of rain, well…that's still 5% chance of rain. It means I can only take down either the guy or my pack down, not both.
…Dammit, this guy owes me so damn much! I put down my pack and look for a high branch to hang it from. Don't know if that will keep raccoons from ransacking it but it should be better than the ground at least.
There's one jutting edge I can reach if I jump. Got it.
Wait I need some stuff. Like my car keys since I'm parked at the bottom. And flashlight, my phone battery's not going to last if I use it like that. Phone's in my pocket. A jacket helps too since it might be colder at night. And…I guess the blanket's also useful for transport.
I need to jump off a nearby rock a few times to get my pack back down. Dammit I'm wasting so much time!
I end up tying the blanket like a cape on the guy's neck. If I get tired and need to drag him I can just untie it and rearrange it. Small things go in pockets, flashlight ends up being tied to my belt loops since I need both hands to drag the guy on my back, and even then his feet are plowing the ground. I wonder where his shoes went. I also want to invest in helmet flashlights, those look convenient.
I'd like to say we made good time down the mountain after that, but honestly I was always two seconds away from rolling down myself, especially when the slope got steeper. The light kept waving back and forth wildly, and the sound of the guy's feet dragging in the dirt wasn't loud enough to drown out the nightlife. No wolves yet, but plenty of owls. And crickets. And random twig snapping leaf rustling in general.
I try not to think of my own heavy breathing and how much my neck is killing me. My legs are already on back-up emergency power.
And of course, that's when it begins to rain. Are you kidding me.
Everything gets wet rather quickly. I hoped it was going to stay a mild summer shower, but no, it had to be one of those bucket ones. 5% chance my ass.
You'd think sliding the guy through mud would be easier. The rain just added fifty pounds to both of us.
Eventually we get to the point where it's just too unstable for me to carry him further. There's literally a tiny mudfall over the next tangle of roots, and I'd have to slide the way down myself, never mind carrying someone. I pause for a bit to check my phone, but I guess we hadn't traveled as far as I thought since the signal bar was still gone.
I glance back at the guy. Still dead asleep.
Whelp, I guess this is it.
I drag the guy under a tree with relatively less wet compared to everywhere else. We're not lucky enough to have a rock under there as well, but I take the blanket and drape it over the lower branches as a tiny shelter. Maybe it would have been better to have at least tried to set up the tent way back there, but it's too late now.
I prop Sleeping Beauty underneath the setup and feel just a bit proud of myself. It's not exactly water proof and he is soaked already, but at least he's not getting any wetter.
New plan: go down myself and call for help.
It really is the best option at this point. I'd be faster on my own, he's clearly not going anywhere, and my phone would work at the bottom. And then I could call for an ambulance for help…or a forest ranger I guess, since the ambulance can't travel this high up. Plus the sooner I get someone else to deal with this the sooner I can get dry and not catch a cold.
…what if he catches pneumonia out here and dies?
Well…that wouldn't be my fault would it? I mean he was already out here unconscious to begin with and maybe I should have gone for help earlier but he wasn't running a fever earlier though without my body heat maybe he will and ohmygodwhatifnooneelsecanfindhimwhyme?!
And it's still raining buckets. Bits of light flash through the sky, and I groan out loud. I don't need lightning right now dammit! Now there's a risk that the path might change and then absolutely no one would find him, or the tree he was under would be struck down, or catch on fire, or the path down might be blocked already. Why did this have to happen now? Shit!
It's really hard to open my eyes in the rain, but I'm somewhere between panicking and pissed off at the moment so I squint up and do it anyway, focusing on the tiny flashes of light.
This is the part that I'll always look back to and regret.
"What the hell, dammit!" I shout at the sky, "You don't get to just dump this on me! What did I ever do to you!" My voice cracks a bit, but my face is already wet and no one can hear me anyway. Something rumbles in the distance. "Give me a sign, dammit! Anything!"
I close my eyes, since the rainwater actually stings about and I'm already feeling a bit embarrassed at my dramatic outburst. What was I expecting, the rain to suddenly clear up and leave?
It takes a few breaths to get myself back under control. I'm calm now. I am a calm, rational being, and I'm going to decide what to do in a calm, logical manner. Who's panicking? Not me.
Of course, the minute I open my eyes I see something giant, glowing and green streaking right at me.
Turns out the meteor shower occurred right on schedule, regardless of the rain.
I thought I had died…for a full two minutes. Then the ground started feeling itchy, so I got up. And found two (glowing?) green eyes staring straight at me.
"You're awake!" I shout, pointing at him. I thought I was the only one hit but hey, company is welcome at this point.
He blinks. "As are you," he says, and wow his voice is pretty deep. He would probably look pretty nice too, if he wasn't splattered with mud in a too small shirt and if I wasn't still annoyed at him.
I squint at him. "So why were you asleep like that in the first place?" I say, surreptitiously looking around for the meteor. If it bothered to hit us it should at least stick around. "And where are we anyway?" There ought to be a steep tangle of tree roots around, I would know. Tree roots don't disappear like that.
"I don't know."
My head snaps towards him. "To both?" I ask. "Yes," he says. I continue to stare at him, and he actually starts getting annoyed, a furrow appearing between his eyebrows. "Believe me," he speaks after a bit, "this was not my first choice of lodging."
That was so absurd that I giggled. 'Lodging' indeed. "Fine, fine," I wave it off, "so neither of us has any clue what's going on. Fantastic." Ah shoot, should probably keep sarcasm in check.
"Cool. So. I'm June, and I carried your deadweight body for about a mile in the rain before we got hit by a meteor. Nice to meet you." Opps, guess I'm still annoyed.
He just stares at me though, brows furrowed. Jeez, what is he waiting for, and invitation? "What's your name?" I end it saying.
His brows only furrow further.
"I don't know."
And there's the first chapter! It was actually really fun to write, no wonder people write OC stories. June's not going to have any notable abilities any time soon (kind of like how I actually am). Updates should happen once a week for the first 3 chapters, after which they will become increasing sporadic.
Hope you enjoyed it, and please review! Reviews make for better authors!
