Chapter 1: Reality?

I never expected it to happen. I never would've guessed. I was just driving in my SUV with my friends and, suddenly, I crashed into a car with a drunk in it. The morning of the accident, I was sitting in my room, listening to my mp3 player when Jen called me and asked if I could come over. I told her, "Sure" and got up to get ready. I slipped into a black tank top and jeans, then, grabbed my keys off of the nightstand. I bounded down the stairs, briefly telling my mother that I was going out that night. I remember getting into my car and driving to Jen's house. I had asked, "Which car are we taking?" She told me we'd be taking mine, because it had a satellite radio in it. I smiled and told her, "Okay."

In a few minutes Jen and I were jamming to Octane. "Crazy Bitch" by Buckcherry was on. Jen was tapping a beat on the dashboard and I was singing very, very loudly. I kept singing and started to go off key, but I didn't care.. Then, Thousand Foot Krutch's(before you guys bag on me for spelling, that's how they spell it) "Falls apart" came on and I was trying to match the way the singer was singing it -and failing-, but having a great time. We stopped by Cris's house and asked if he wanted to come with us. Automatically, he asked, "Will there be beer?"

Jen shrugged. "I don't know," She said, "My dad might have drank it all." She laughed.

Cris grinned. "I'm in." He said.

So, we drove to Jen's house. When we got there, we started talking about things that had been happening at our college and concerts that were coming up. Then, Jen got an idea. "We should go to a club, tonight." She said.

"Yeah! Dancing sounds fun!" I exclaimed, grinning.

"I agree with Luna," Cris said, "When do we leave?"

"After a movie." Jen said, smiling mischievously.

"What kind of movie?" I asked, suspiciously.

"A sci-fi/horror. It has the oddest name," She said, "It's called Project: Breakdown." She took the disk out. I asked her if I could see the case. She tossed it to me and proceeded to slip the disk in the DVD player. I looked at the front of the case. It was just plain black with a piece of tape. On this piece of tape was, in marker: Breakdown. I looked on the back and saw something written in silver: "The Subconscious is a state in which reality is just a visitor." I briefly wondered who came up with that. Maybe it had something to do with the movie. I got up and flopped onto the couch next to Cris. Jen turned off the lights and, ten minutes into it, my eyes were glued to the screen. The part I was watching had a guy taking a bite of a sandwich. He suddenly choked and began to sink to the floor. I quickly realized that he'd been drugged! Fourteen minutes after this unfortunate occurrence, the poor guy had soldiers barge into his room. Unfortunately, I would not finish the movie. The power went out just as these odd gray-skinned guys went to attack the guy, Derrick.

"Ah come on!" Cris whined, "We were just getting to a good part!"

"Ah well," I said, shrugging it off, because it really wasn't that big of a deal, "Lets go to that club you were talking about, Jen." I smiled.

Jen grinned, as well. "Yeah," She said, "We should go."

Cris jumped up off the couch. I followed behind him and Jen. I unlocked the car and we all got in. A few minutes later, we were driving off to a club. I was too busy singing "Crawling In the Dark" by Hoobastank that I didn't see the drunk driving toward me. He was driving so fast it was almost a blur. By the time I realized he was coming at me, though, it was too late.

I went out like a light.

P.A

I woke up in a blurry, white room. I heard footsteps all around me, indicating that people were in the room with me. I blinked my eyes, but the motion of it hurt so I kept them wide open. Where am I? I thought. Who are these people? I attempted to lift my head, but someone pushed it back down.

"Not yet, Sweetie," I heard a feminine voice say, softly, "You haven't quite recovered. How are you feeling?"

How was I feeling? I felt like someone had stuck a dozen pins and needles into my sides, but I decided to lie. "I feel fine," I blinked, again. This time, it didn't hurt. As my gray eyes began to focus, I saw a woman in her mid twenties. Her long, golden hair was in a neat bun on her head. Her brown eyes showed worry, but her smile showed the very opposite."How are my... Friends?"

She shook her head, sadly. "I'm sorry, Sweetie," She said, her smile morphing into a frown, "They didn't make it."

I almost choked. My friends were gone? Why was I the lucky one? I felt a tear slide down my cheek as I thought of Jen. She'd been my best friend since high school. Hell, we even go to the same college, now. And Cris... He and I had been friends since elementary school. Why did they have to go?

"Ms. Sato is awake?" a male voice asked, bringing me out of my thoughts. A man clad in white came over to my bed side. His spiky, black hair came just to his neck. "Ah, Ms. Sato! So good to see you're awake. How are you feeling?"

"I'm feeling fine." I said, dismissively.

The doctor turned to the woman in the room. "How long has she been out?" He asked her.

"Three days and twelve hours." The nurse replied. Three days? I'd been out for three fucking days while my friends were dying? I scoffed at myself which earned me a puzzled look from the nice nurse.

Some friend I was.

The nurse looked at me. "Are you hungry?" She asked, sweetly.

I didn't realize how hungry I was till she said that last word. "Yes, Ma'am." I replied, voice dripping with the somberness I felt.

She helped me out of my bed, out of the room, and down the hall to what looked to be a cafeteria. A pepsi and a small chicken sandwich was on the table closest to me. The nurse led me to that table and motioned for me to sit down. She sat down in the seat across from me. "So..." She trailed off, thoughtfully, "How much do you remember, Luna?"

"I..." What exactly did I remember? I couldn't pinpoint many thoughts from that night. "I-I remember watching a movie with Jen and Chris, but... That's as far as it goes."

"What was the movie called?"

What was it called? I couldn't remember. It was as if my mind was a white board and had been wiped clean with a wash cloth. Why couldn't I remember? I thought of it for a second and it finally came to me. "It was called "Breakdown."

"Oh? Very interesting," The nurse smiled. "Tell me more about it."

"I... Can't remember."

The woman frowned. "All right. I'll let you eat." She left the cafeteria and I began to eat my sandwich. As I ate, I began to think of things more thoroughly. How did I get to this place? I must have had some sort of accident, but I didn't remember what it was. The more I thought about this, the more my head began to pound so I stopped. I took a drink of my pepsi and laid my head on the table, not feeling like staying awake, anymore.

A few hours later, I awoke to a blood curdling scream. My eyes automatically popped open and I looked around. A large fire was burning in the once peaceful cafeteria and gray shirtless things were attacking people. I was suddenly thrust head first onto the table. I let out a small cry of surprise and tried to get up. Something was planted firmly in the small of my back, though, making that difficult. I was now staring straight into the eyes of what couldn't be real- no what shouldn't be real. Yet, there he was, peering down at me. The movie Jen made us watch suddenly came flooding back to me. It was the antagonist of the movie: Solus.

I wanted to run like hell. I began to struggle under whatever was holding me down. The weight was suddenly pulled off of me and I got up slowly. I turned around to see a woman with dark brown hair fighting one of the gray beings. Then, it hit me. It was the woman from the movie!

Wait. That didn't make any sense. Was this a dream I was having? Was I in a hospital bed somewhere in a coma? Or... Was this reality? The woman's, Alex', voice pulled me out of my thoughts. "Run, dammit!" I was very happy to oblige. I ran in the opposite direction of the man who supposedly killed the girl who had just saved my life. I was confused, but I knew that if I stopped he or the strange gray men would catch me and -most likely- kill me. That thought spurred me on. I was still in pain from the accident, but it was better than getting killed, right? I ran down the hallway and over to an elevator. One of the strange men were inside the elevator and, once it saw me, it attacked me straight on. It punch me in the face, automatically sending me hurtling towards a wall. I realized that if I didn't figure out a way to fight this thing, it would likely destroy me. I kicked at it and ran. There has to be something here I can use as a weapon, I thought, running to another room.

"Human." I heard a robotic voice behind me.I hid under a table, not quite sure what else to do. I held my breath as I heard things beginning to break. I silently whimpered. How did I get into this? Was this still the world I knew? I heard footsteps stop right next to the table.

Ah fuck! I thought. It's him! I held my hands up, covering my head, shaking. I closed my eyes, willing him with my mind to go away.

Unfortunately, no luck for me. I heard the table being lifted and thrown against the opposite wall. I still sat in my curled-up position on the floor, awaiting my doom. I was thrown against a cabinet somewhere in the room. He was toying with me! I knew full well that this thing could kill me within seconds.

So, why wasn't he? It made no absolute sense. I looked around and saw doctors lying on the floor, blood pooling from vital wounds. I was suddenly lifted off of the ground by the scruff of my neck. I was face to face with the guy who'd killed almost the whole of the hospital's staff. I was grateful that I was alive, but still the question nagged at me. Why am I alive? I struggled in his grasp, kicking at him, but he stood firm. He seemed to be... examining me. All the while, I was thinking: What the hell? What was I? Was I an experiment simply put here for analyzing? No! I was a human being, dammit! I began to claw at his hand, trying to pull it away from my windpipe.

"Not a threat." the thing said, robotically. I dug my fingernails into his hand, but still to no effect.

"Let me go, you big bucket of bolts!" I hissed, still trying to break free of his grasp.

He laughed, robotically. "You amuse me, female." I heard a machine gun go off. He threw me down and turned to face his attackers. I could see that they weren't much of a threat to him. What was he? Invincible? I suddenly realized something: I could escape! I dodged around the soldiers and the, practically invincible, robotic guy and ran out of the room as fast as my legs could take me. I looked behind me for a second. I saw one of the soldiers' bodies collide with the wall.

I had to get out of here, now! I ran down the hallways, sneaking past a few gray guys -thank god I was barefoot- and headed toward a closed elevator. I saw the back of a head. The color of the head's hair was a light brown. He turned around and I gasped. It was the other guy from the movie: Derrick! He seemed kind of shocked himself, but I didn't think it was because he'd found a girl from a movie. "Someone else besides Alex and I survived?" He asked, uncertain, "Who are you? You're not one of them, are you?"(A/N: If this is out-of-characterness, I'm sorry, but they didn't give much dialog for Derrick.)

"My name is Luna Sato," I told him, "I was a patient, here." Then, I thought for a second. "Where, exactly, is here?" I looked behind me and saw one of the gray guys charging toward us.

"Quick," Derrick said, dropping the conversation, "Up into that hatch," I jumped and grasped the hatch on the ceiling, quickly opening it. "After you."

I climbed up first, then, -just in time since the gray guy had come into the elevator- pulled him up by his hand. "How the heck did you get into this place?" I asked.

"It's not a hospital," He said, as if that would answer my question, "It's a research facility, but..." He trailed off, looking down at me. "Why are you here?"

I shook my head. "I don't know. I figured it was a hospital, since, I was taken here after a car accident. I fell asleep at a table and next thing you know, I wake up to something digging into my back and a strange guy dressed in what seemed to be computer-like scales."

"How did you escape?"

"This girl helped me. I think her name was Alex. She threw the gray guy holding me down off of me." I told him about what had happened in one of the labs and he looked shocked, but didn't ask any more questions. I saw a ladder and began to climb up it.

Derrick suddenly called out. "Wait," He said, stopping me. I climbed back down. "You might need this." He handed me a machine gun.

"Thanks." I took the gun and put it in my pocket. I guess they'd left me in my jeans when they found Jen, Chris, and I. Man I missed them... Derrick's footfalls on the ladder brought me out of my thoughts. I climbed on after he was halfway to the top and began to make my way up the ladder. I climbed quickly to the top and met Derrick in the next room. A few of the gray guys were in there along with some soldiers. I pulled out the gun Derrick gave me.

It was going to be a long night.

So... What'd you guys think? It wasn't too boring, right? Any criticism you have is much appreciated.