Well, now what?
The sun shone brightly on the clear blue sky. Summer, Kayo thought, or at least an equivalent thereof. Far different from the late autumn on Earth when he was going home.
Kayo turned around to get a better look at the cave—or rather the wall behind which the cave was—completely undisturbed by what he just did earlier, as if nothing ever happened. Touching it didn't reveal some elaborate illusion either.
I can have existential crises later. First, I better find shelter before nightfall.
As he made his first steps into the outside world, he caught glimpses of the beach behind short, grassy hills. That alone gave him incentive to not only hurry up, but also change direction, as the creature that kidnapped him couldn't have been far away from the entrance, which was surely somewhere over there. And so he ventured further inland instead.
The field stretched as far as the eye could see, picturesque enough to seem almost fake, like a computer wallpaper. Mountains in the far distance broke the horizon, but there were no signs of society anywhere. Maybe Kayo overestimated this world's development and spread of settlements when he heard they had TVs. Back on Earth they weren't occupying every square inch of the world either.
If past experiences with my luck are anything to go by, I probably found myself in a national park or something.
He wasn't completely against the idea, but it would make leaving a lot more difficult in case he ran into security without any identification. His phone no longer turned on, which Kayo suspected was as much the fault of the dead battery as the submersion in saltwater that he never rinsed off. But he held on to it anyway. At worst, it's emergency ammo to throw as a distraction.
It took him another few hours of walking to realize he wasn't feeling hungry or thirsty. In fact, he hadn't felt the need to eat, drink, or sleep since he woke up.
Am I even alive still?
That thought lingered for a while as he scratched the back of his head. Though there was no wound, he did feel a faint sensation where the bullet had pierced his skull. The idea of this being some sort of afterlife would explain why a 'spirit' was here, the lack of biological needs, and why he got here via dying… Supposedly. But then, what need would a creature have to string him up for food? Unless…
Was it merely to torture me? No. No, that can't be the case, there were bones and shit in the corner. And even then, I don't think I was a bad enough person to deserve a torturous afterlife.
His train of thought had been interrupted by a silhouette in the distance, different from the trees and hills. It looked more like a spire, perhaps a chapel roof, the kind one would see in open-air museums.
Overjoyed with the idea of some sort of settlement, he broke into a full sprint towards it. But the closer he got, the more he slowed down.
What if they aren't friendly? Hell, what if they aren't human? I can't just waltz into a community a total outsider, and especially not unannounced, that's just gonna make me look like a bandit or something.
He hid behind a decently tall mound far from the village, weighing his options. Ultimately, he decided not to risk it, wait for everybody else to fall asleep, and then snoop around the village for some food and water. He may not have been feeling hungry, but plenty of times in his past did his own body fail to alert him to hunger, sometimes for entire days at a time. He couldn't trust it.
As the sun set and darkness befell the village, Kayo's plan was set to motion. The sounds of shutting doors and windows confirmed that the residents went to sleep at night. He crept between the houses like a ghost, occasionally stopping underneath a window to listen in. Most homes were dead quiet save for snoring, but in one of them, somebody felt like a midnight snack.
Kayo decided to take advantage of their half-asleep brain to scout out where they kept their food through the blinds, and when theu went back to bed, it was go-time. Careful not to open the window too fast, he climbed into the house and crawled towards the pantry. Just like in the cave, Kayo could see clear as day, something he was infinitely grateful for. He made out with half a loaf of bread, something that looked like a stick of salami with odd sturgeon-like protrusions coming out of it, and a confirmation that, at least this home housed a human-looking creature in it.
The night sky was vast and riddled with stars both distant and close, but the strangest thing were the 4 moons above. One large, two roughly equal and reminiscent of the Moon back home, and one comparably smaller. A faint streak of stardust ran behind the largest satellite.
Wow... You'd never see something like that in the city.
For now, he let himself get lost in the serenity of it all. He thought he deserved it after what he had been through. The flavors of his loot confounded him. The bread, visually rye, had a relatively stale texture and tasted more like a bread roll or a kaiser bun. The meat stick, however, was closer to blue cheese with a firm, chewy texture, and a strong fishy, urine-like aftertaste. The protrusions ended up being bones after all, much to Kayo's dismay. It was quite possibly the worst thing Kayo had ever tasted in his life, so much so that he nearly threw up several times.
Mood ruined, day and night both ruined, I hope whoever had this in their house will be happy somebody got rid of it.
Kayo decided to follow a dirt road leading into the village before sunrise. He spent much of the time contemplating his situation: a complete stranger everywhere, no past, connections, or family, no identification, speaking a language no one knew, and having no knowledge of the world around him did not sound like the ideal person to be anywhere at all. He hoped a city, being a melting pot of cultures and travelers, would be more tolerant to a wayward wanderer like himself.
Surely they get people from unfamiliar lands all the time... Right? Well, whatever the case may be, all I can do is hope.
He was so deep in thought that he didn't even notice the pair of very poorly placed bushes-out-of-place on the sides of the road. As he walked past them, a pair of shady, armed men jumped from behind them and immediately pointed their pistol and blades towards Kayo. The taller one, wearing a dark brown overcoat over a linen button-up shirt and a stained, dark crimson bandana over his face, slurred out some phrases Kayo didn't understand. Instinctively, he raised his hands in the air, but the bandits did not seem to recognize the gesture. The taller motioned towards the shorter one who wore a tricorne hat and a high-collared coat that obscured his face, at which point the shorter bandit slowly circled around Kayo to cut him off the path. Kayo could feel the blade of the shorter one's dagger slowly approach his shoulder blades. The bandit then spewed out the same phrase as his partner, more aggressively.
"I don't expect you to understand, but I have no money or anything valuable!" Kayo protested desperately, earning him two very confused stares. In his mind, he was trying to summon the same power that got him out of that cave, but to no avail.
The taller bandit was clearly losing patience with the way he was fiddling with his pistol's trigger. One wrong move and that thing's going off. That was when the shorter bandit, who was still slightly taller than Kayo's 178 cm, placed a dagger underneath Kayo's chin and began rummaging through his pockets. He pulled out Kayo's broken phone and a bag of not-salami bones.
"My keys and wallet were lost a while ago, that's everything," he said to no one in particular.
Frustrated at their trash for loot, the taller bandit lost his nerve. When his partner was out of shot, a single bang echoed into the distance as Kayo's left lung was punctured by a bullet.
Can I stop being shot by muggers, please?
He didn't fall so much as fold. The sound that came out of him wasn't a scream. It was air trying to go somewhere it no longer could. His chest seized, hot and wet, and the world narrowed to the desperate, mechanical need to breathe.
Boots crunched close. Voices followed, sharp, fast, and rising. He couldn't make sense of the sounds, all hard edges and anger, spitting consonants that meant nothing to him. The voices surged. One cut across the other, loud and sudden. There was a shove, the scrape of boots, the grunt of impact. They were fighting. He knew that much. Then sensation thinned and the sky dimmed to a colorless smear.
Pain came back first, then convulsions. One of the voices stopped. His fingers jerked against the dirt. A breath tried to happen. Failed. Tried again. The sounds he made were wrong, wet, broken, bubbling through his chest. Blood spilled from his mouth, dark and foaming.
The voices rose again, this time sharp with something else. Fear, maybe disbelief.
The wound shuddered. Kayo felt it before he saw it: the torn flesh pulled itself together, slow and obscene. Kayo dragged air into lungs that had no right to work anymore. His eyes flew open.
The sky slammed into focus. Two men stood above him, frozen mid-motion, faces pale beneath their dirt. One still had a hand half-raised, as if he'd forgotten what it was for.
Kayo tried to speak, but all that came out was a rasp. The man with the gun shook his head violently, saying something over and over, faster each time. The other shoved him hard, shouting, hands grabbing at his coat.
They had killed him. Kayo knew it by the way they looked at him now. It wasn't a dream.
He took a clumsy step forward, the bandits made two back. The shorter one was shaking so hard his hat nearly came loose. A high-pitched noise escaped his mouth, distinct from the baritone gruff before. He turned and ran, leaving the other one behind.
The taller one lunged at his partner, missed, and found himself face-first in the dirt. It didn't take him long to stand back up and run for the hills as well. Kayo was left alone, still heaving from the dust and tiny rocks he accidentally inhaled.
When he finally got a hold of himself, he inspected his chest frantically. The wound was indeed gone, and so was any remaining sensation of it ever being there.
Is every death gonna be different, or...?
That was when he noticed the saber at his feet, and another glare further up the road: the gun.
Well... Next time, I'm gonna try harder to stay!