Nate awoke to a system alert sounding in his head. Before he could even make sense of the alert, pain racked his entire body. With the pain lingering in the background, the system alert let Nate know he was in trouble.

[You have been affected by ‘Bleeding’ status]

[Your health will decline at a rate of 2 per minute until ‘Bleeding’ status removed]

[Health: 25/100]

With a loss of health at 2 health per minute, Nate had figured he had about 12 minutes until he would be dead. The thought of his pending death sent shivers down his spine. He needed to stop his bleeding. Looking around, Nate tried to figure out where he was bleeding. To his dismay, this self-inspection proved to be difficult for two reasons. First, Nate was hurt all over his body which made moving was very painful. Second, Nate was sort of pinned in his seat by the crushed wreckage around him. He couldn’t free himself to look at his own body.

After his panicky attempt at finding his injuries, he finally started looking at his surroundings. Nate could smell smoke and could see a few flashes of fire from somewhere in the twisted metal of the wreckage. Despite the small portion of transport that Nate could see left him with little answers to the situation, but one thing was clear. Nate was lucky to be alive. Kevin, the man that had sat next to Nate the entire time, was still sitting next to him with a large metal shard stuck in his neck. The sight of the dead man caused Nate’s fear to spike even deeper. He started to struggle to get free with no luck. Nate’s movement must have brought attention to him because he heard a cough from somewhere in the transport wreckage.

“Hey kid, you alive?” a questioning voice sounded from on the other side of the wreckage that pinned Nate in his seat. Nate wasn’t quite sure what passenger was talking. Hell, he wasn’t sure who was still alive. But, he felt grateful that someone else was nearby. Maybe, it was the old man that had always sat across from him lecturing everyone during the trip.

[You have been affected by ‘Bleeding’ status]

[Your health will decline at a rate of 2 per minute until ‘Bleeding’ status removed]

[Health: 21/100]

Nate didn’t respond immediately, but the man continued talking, “Good to see you lived through the crash, kid.” There was a pause then the man continued, “I don’t think I am going to make it.”

Hoarsely croaking out in response, Nate responded to the man’s first question, “I’m alive, but I’m bleeding out though. Can you see where I am bleeding from?”

“Ya, kid,” the old man responded, “You got a nice gash on your leg just below your knee. I think I can fix it for you.” The man’s voice paused for a second, “Good luck kid.”

Nate was surprised by the man’s words and heard the clatter of metal from the man’s direction. Nate didn’t have time for another thought as a hard impact hit his leg. Intense pain seared through his leg the next moment. Nate screamed in pain before passing out again.

************************************

Nate came back to consciousness still trapped in his seat.

[‘Bleeding’ status has been removed]

[Health: 15/100]

He was no longer facing imminent death.

“Hey man, thanks for whatever you did, but that fucking hurt,” Nate said with a bit of relief in his voice. With his status effect removed, he didn’t feel like death was certain.

“You there?” Nate yelled but got no response.

Not getting a response and unsure of how long he had passed out, Nate figured that he had only been passed out for a few minutes based on his health. He wasn’t sure what the old man had done, but it seemed to do the job

“Damn, I was only out for a couple of minutes. You there, old man?” Nate yelled out again.

No response came. So, Nate wasn’t sure what to do next.

“He’s dead,” another voice sounded from off to his side.

Nate couldn’t see who was speaking but the words struck Nate pretty hard none the less. The man who saved him, whoever it was, had died.

“What? Who are you?” Nate yelled back in response. His voice was still raspy and sounded strained due to the wreckage pinning his chest.

“Looks like, he tipped over a burning piece of metal to cauterize your wound and started bleeding more himself,” the voice said as it was getting closer, “Guess the old man really wanted to help you. It looks like everyone else is dead too. You are the only live body I have found so far.”

The next second a face came into view off to Nate’s side. It was one of the transport guards that seemed pretty beat up. He had a large gash on his face and one of his eyes was swollen shut.

“Can you get free?” the guard asked.

“No,” Nate responded, “I am stuck and can’t get loose. Can you come to help me?” Nate asked a little pleadingly. He was having trouble figuring out why the old man would help him, but he didn't have time to think over the situation thoroughly.

“Nah kid, I can’t make it over to you without getting hurt myself. I am going to get out of here. I was already fucking tired of being forced to live at everyone’s whim in Newcomb City. Now those fuckers wanted to send me to guard the mines. The guards there do not typically live too long because of shit like what happened today. I think I will try my luck in the wilderness,” the man said before Nate heard him move away into the distance.

After shouting a few times, Nate didn’t hear any more movement around him. With only the sounds of creaking metal, a sense of dread hit Nate pretty hard. He wanted to free himself but it seemed like he would be trapped here to die. He needed to think clearly. After spending so many days practicing settling his mind, Nate started to focus himself on the situation. After a few minutes of calming his panic, Nate sighed and laid his head back against the headrest of his seat.

“I can’t freak out anymore. I need to think of a way out. There has to be a way out of this mess,” Nate said to himself mentally.

[‘Mental Calm’ has increased to Level 6]

[Wisdom Stat has increased by 1]

“That’s nice, but it doesn’t really help me here,” Nate said shaking his head. He had managed to level up his skill after all, but this wasn’t the way he wanted to do it.

Realizing that he couldn’t get free by himself, Nate started looking around to see what was within his reach. Maybe he could grab something that could help him get free. After glancing around for a few minutes, nothing in Nate’s surrounding jumped out to him helpful. Judging from the metal crushed down on him, he probably only survived due to the backpack that was wedged between him and the crushed transport.

Maybe he could get free if he could work a few items out of his backpack to make some room for movement. Nate reached up to grab the zipper of his bag.

Suddenly, a horrific scream from outside of the wreckage stopped Nate’s movement entirely. He instantly became on high alert and tried to see what was happening. Uneasiness flushed through his body as Nate realized that the situation really didn’t matter. He could not see anything or move to get away from the danger. He was helpless.

The wretched scream became muffled suddenly and Nate could feel a vibration as something very large moved toward the wreckage that trapped him. With a grating of metal, something began to tear into the wreckage.

Nate had been so concerned over getting free that he had completely forgotten about the true cause for this situation. The grating of claws on metal caused Nate to remember why he was in this predicament in the first place. The transport had been attacked by a beast.

With no warning, Nate felt a crushing pressure as the beast cause the canopy of the transport to collapse more onto him. Nate couldn’t breathe from the pressure on his chest. He struggled to take a breath as his consciousness started to fade.

Then, he felt something inside the backpack crack and the pressure lessened slightly. He could breathe again.

Thankfully, something inside his backpack broke before his ribs collapsed. Nate instantly felt the pressure lessen on him. However, before he could celebrate getting a little room to move, Nate found himself flying through the air while still strapped in his seat. The scenery flashed between the blue of the sky and green of the trees as a part of the wreckage hurled through the air.

With another crash, the section of aircraft landed on the ground. Nate was pretty shaken up from the sudden jerky movements but at least he was alive. A part of the transport had landed with Nate facing toward the ground. Luckily, the cylindrical shape of the transport had kept Nate from being smashed into the earth. Nate was both fearful over what was happening and excited that he could finally move to free himself.

Undoing his safety straps, Nate fell on the ground landing on the pack that he was holding to his chest. Pain wracked his body as he began to move around. Nate had just enough room to maneuver around and sit-up between the transport debris and the ground.

Taking a moment to catch his breath, Nate could hear the breaking of metal in the distance. At least, the beast seemed to be preoccupied. Nate knew that he needed to get to somewhere safe before the beast came near him. He flipped his bag around to his back and crawled towards the sunlight peaking from under the remains of the transport. Looking down at his pale white hand as he crawled on the dark earth, Nate realized that he stuck out in contrast to the surroundings. Grabbing a handful of dirt, he smeared it on his face before moving forward.

[Wisdom Stat has increased by 1]

Putting the alert aside, for now, Nate became very cautious as he approached the opening. With a rush of adrenaline, Nate peeked out from the wreckage and paled at the sight in front of him. A beast that was about a quarter the size of the transport was ripping apart the remainder of the vehicle about 50 yards away. The beast looked similar to a bird that Nate had once seen in a book. The beast’s feathered muscles rippled as its claws easily pulled apart the metal. A clank of metal sounded as Nate’s pack hit the side of the debris. The beast raised its head to look around and Nate’s heart almost stopped beating. As the beast looked his way, Nate could see a piece of cloth that looked like a part of a guard’s uniform. A chill went through him as he realized that the beast had been scavenging for the corpses of the dead.

The giant bird turned its head away and resumed ripping at a corpse on the ground. Nate knew that the bird beast would eventually find him if he stayed in place. He needed to get away quickly while the beast was distracted with feeding. Nate looked around and realized that the transport had crashed in a somewhat open area with high grass around. Even though this was the first time Nate had seen or touched grass, he knew what everything was based on his basic education in the city.

Nate continued to watch the beast as he tried to formulate a plan. As soon as the beast dipped its head back inside the hull of the transport, Nate realized he had an opportunity and began crawling along the ground out of the debris. His backpack was still strapped to him as he crawled through the tall grass toward the wooded area. He knew the opportunity for shelter would be much greater around the gigantic trees. The huge bird would have trouble getting at him with all the green foliage of the trees preventing flight.

Crawling away from the debris, Nate didn’t bother looking behind him to check on the beast. Nate just listened to the sound of the beast ripping at the metal of the transport. As long the sound was present, the beast was occupied. As he crawled towards the trees, Nate tried to focus on the sound of the grinding metal to keep him distracted from the pain of his body.

After a few minutes of crawling, Nate neared the tree line and grew excited. He struggled to keep himself going as the pain in his body continued to get worse. Just as he moved from the tall grass to shrubs at the edge of the clearing, Nate froze as the sound of the claws on metal stopped. In a slow movement, Nate turned to look over his shoulder behind him.