Wrong Place, Right Time (Updated 2021)
A/N: Chapter updates have been done on all chapters up to 26, the story has changed in a few parts, so keep an eye out. Also a new chapter is on the way after a year of silence... Thank you for your patience.
Ch. 1 Down Under
"...Do you come from a land down under?~ Where women glow and men plunder?~... Can't you hear, can't you hear the thunder?~..."
It was the sound that woke me up from my restless slumber, everything at that moment was a haze…
Wait, what am I?
[I am human, College student.]
Ok? So far so good, let's try that again.
[I am a young man, named Aaron Shepherd and attending college at Indiana University.]
Good enough. Second, what was I doing? [Going camping with your older sister and friends for your spring break, Dummy.]
Oh, that's righ- HEY!
I was cut short from my internal monologue by the texture of granules in my mouth.
That's funny, it's almost as if it's hard to… can't' breathe... CAN'T BREATHE!
Strength rushed through my body as I pulled myself up. I gasped for air and made a "blech" sound as sand came out of my mouth. I scraped my tongue and coughed a few times.
Air...finally.
I found that I was prone in the sand with my body slightly scuffed up from something, and what I saw shocked me. It was not the beautiful, Disney worthy forest our campsite was in, but in a vast desert. The Sahara, maybe?
I didn't have time to think about it as I heard similar noises that I made right next to me. At least I wasn't alone. I looked in the direction it came from and saw my sister with the same damage.
First thing she said was, "Turn that song OFF!"
Oh, right, the song.
I saw the source coming from my jacket as I turned over. As soon as I activated my phone, it said bedtime alarm on the screen.
What?!
I looked at my phone's time, and it said 11:00PM. When it looked like high noon around us.That's not a good sign. I looked again and found we had no signal. Also not good. I needed to tell my sister this discovery, but as I turned to tell her I saw that she already knew as she checked her own phone.
At least we're on the same page: We needed to get out of here.
I had to stand, and my stomach was killing me. It was the first really good look of the area, my first assumption of the area was correct. And my sister followed suit as she noticed the same thing. We needed to get out, fast.
Think Aaron, what did Man V.S. Wild teach me?
But all I could think of was "How to drink your own pee…"
Ok not just that just that, just get the obvious stuff out of the way.
"Sis, check our supply and see what we got." I said tossing my backpack to her. I had to start making my outfit better for this environment.
One of the worst things in a desert like this is the sand and the sun. We need our skin in the best condition. Even if we are only a few miles from civilization, we need to prepare for the worst case scenario.
After a couple of minutes, I was finished with my clothes. I looked like Lawrence of Arabia (cue epic music).
That should be good for the road-. Well, desert ahead of us. Jo will be next, let's see where she is at with our stuff.
"Sis, what-"
I turn to see that she is staring at the guns. One was a WW2 colt 1911, and the other was stronger- a 12 Gauge Double Barrel sawed off-shotgun- and she wasn't supposed to know about it. I could tell she was mad.
"Look, I can explain.", I said in a calm voice.
"I can't believe," OH NO! "that you would have a Sawed OFF-Double Barreled shotgun," Here it comes, "WITHOUT LETTING ME TRY IT OUT!" I knew it… wait, what?
I turned once more to see that she was looking at it with glee.
"This is SO COOL, why didn't you want me to know about this?"
"Well, it's not mine, it belongs to Eugene. We traded guns we both bought the other day, just to try them out. Both of us agreed to trade back this trip, I didn't tell you about the double barrel because I thought you would think it would be overpowered for a camping trip to the forest."
She shook her head with a smile and said, "Not if you are just trading them, or testing them out on non living targets. At the most self defense. Like a wild predator."
I've always loved my sister for her understanding.
"Wait, if this was Eugene's," Jo said, holding the shotgun. "what was your's?"
"Mine? Oh a UMP. 45, No biggy."
" A submachine gun, NO BIG DEAL?!"
"Not compared to an AA12 Auto Shotgun Tomas was bringing." I had a full face grin waiting for shriek. "...WHAAAT!" I couldn't contain my laughter at this and rolled in the sand. And that is what brought me back to reality, sand, desert, and stranded.
"We don't have time for this, what we have on us." I asked hastily, standing up.
Shock was still on her face as she remembered their plight. "Right, well, we have about a couple weeks worth of food, 7/8th preserved 1/8th fresh, and 2 weeks of water. But considering this is a desert, it is about a week's worth."
Well, at least that's something.
"What do we have equipment wise? Do we still have our tents?"
"Yes, we have them, we have everything we had with us for our trip. Even our entertainment, and our computers for our homework."
Heaven forbid we lose our homework.
"Alright then Jo, let's get you set up. I don't know how far away civilization is, but we need to be READY. Lord willing… we'll make it."
It took about a minute or two to get her sun proofed.
Her outfit wasn't much different from mine. Survival.
"Alright, now to decide what direction to go." I stated as I put my backpack on me.
Jo looked worried for about a moment.
"Do you think we will find our friends here? What if they're somewhere worse, or dead?"
"Don't worry about it, I'm sure they're fine. Let's just worry about our situation for now."
Jo gave me a nod.
Now time to navigate.
"Alright, now from what I remember," I said, raising my head to the sky, "the sun always sets in the we-."
I couldn't believe it.
My lower jaw went as low as it could go.
"What?" Jo said, looking to see what I saw. She was in just as much shock as I was. There were two suns…
WHAT'S GOING ON?!
END CH 1.