The man woke with a grating gasp, his lungs burning as he desperately sucked in air. He kept his eyes scrunched shut, incapable of focusing on anything aside from his efforts at breathing. Slowly, very slowly, his breaths grew calmer, shallower, the urgent pressure in his chest subsiding. His eyes still closed, the man could start to let other information filter through – something hard pressing into his cheek, a throbbing pain on the side of his forehead. A dull, pulsating ache, deep within his skull. Something cold dripping on him. A loud, steady chime, repeating again and again, shrill enough to make him wince.
Ding-ding-ding-ding…
Groaning, the man forced his eyes to creak open and looked blearily about himself. He was sitting in a car. It was small and worn, the fabric of the seats frayed. With another groan, he sat up and more or less fell back into his seat, the movement causing a fresh wave of pain to flood through his head. He’d been slumped over the steering wheel. Raising a trembling hand, he lightly pressed a finger to his forehead, pulling it back with a hiss when he felt a gash, the side of his head swelling where he must have struck the hard material when he… crashed? This… I don’t… The door on his side was hanging open on its hinges, the warning signal beeping at him to remind him of the danger it posed. Movement in the rear-view mirror, and a jolt of panic ran through him before he realised it was himself. Thin, dark hair, a worn and tired faced lined with stubble…As the man blinked, trying to keep his breathing steady, to hold his nerve, he realised something else.
The car and everything in it, including himself, was soaking wet. Water was dripping from the ceiling, pooling in the floor space by his feet. Wet mud and dirt was spattered around the interior of the car. His white shirt and dark business trousers were plastered against him, his black tie hanging off him like some drowned animal. Has it been raining? The thought fumbled through his mind, blindly. Face twisting in confusion, the man raised his eyes, looking through the crack that ran across the length of the windscreen to outside… and he felt himself go limp.
Trees dotted everywhere, surrounding him, the trunks huge and almost grotesquely wide, stretching up high, high above. Thick branches drooped down, their long, dark green leaves hanging limply. Here and there, small patches of sun were able to filter through, weakly. It didn’t do much to stave off the oppressive darkness that the man felt was pressing down on him. I’m in a forest? This doesn’t… None of this made any sense… how did he get here? What happened to the car? How did it get in that state?
His stomach roiled. Weakly twisting in his seat, the man flopped out of the door and landed on his hands and knees, dry leaves crunching on the ground beneath him. Leaning forwards he wretched, and more water came up, pouring from his mouth and spattering into the dirt. He stared down for a moment, then wiped the back of his hand across his eyes, blinking away the tears. He couldn’t stay here… he needed help. Standing up unsteadily, the man started to shiver. Whether from shock, or his soaked clothes, he was freezing.
Wrapping his arms around himself, the man leaned against the car. “Hello?!” he tried to shout, his voice broken, hoarse. Gathering his strength, he tried again, louder. “Hello?! Please, I… I need help!” His shout echoed around him, the sound disconcertingly dead and lifeless.
Nobody responded. “Fuck…” Swallowing, continuing to shake, the man looked around him, peering through the trees desperately, his teeth chattering. And started. There… way off in the distance… He squinted. Was that a building? This far away, he couldn’t tell. But if there were people…
“Okay… alright…” Muttering to try and reassure himself, the man took a step forwards, his shoes crunching dead leaves and snapping twigs as he pushed through the undergrowth, making his way towards what he hoped was help. Behind him, the sound of the car's door alarm started to fade. Soon, the ruined vehicle was swallowed up by the trees and the shadows.