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// CHAPTER 1: A NEW WORLD 
// Story: Brothers to the end 
// by gingercolt 
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The next thing I feel is the patter of raindrops on my head. I manage to force open my eyes, and from what I can immediately tell is that its night. Also, it must be raining, hard, because the rain on my body feels more like tiny stones than droplets of water. I try to survey my surroundings, not trying to move in case anything should be broken. Right now, I feel numb and disorientated, but I can still remember what happened which means I don’t have amnesia, which is a good sign. But what I see causes me to believe I’m in some sort of hallucination, because I swear I’m surrounded by trees! From what I can remember the car went off the Helmsley Bridge, and beneath that is industrial wasteland. Wait! Where’s the car!? Sure I could have been thrown through the windscreen, but there seems to be no sign of any damage to the surrounding area, and no pieces from the car. What the hell is going on?? Am I in a coma? 

My next realisation shocks me to my very core; James is nowhere to be seen! He was sitting directly beside me, he couldn’t be far away. As soon as I can walk again I’ll look for him, since I can’t shout for him because my throat feels blocked, so I can’t even shout for help. I can feel the numbness wearing off, so I move my arms and my legs to check if anything is broken. I can’t feel any immediate damage apart from a horrible pain in my chest. I reach down to feel if I have any broken ribs, but as soon as I touch the affected are I immediately pull back as a searing pain engulfs my body. I feel a sticky substance on my hand and fear the worst; I’m not wrong. Because as I look at my hand I see it is drenched in blood! Fear overtakes me, I’m not stupid, I’d know if I’d been shot.

My mind is full of questions: why can’t I hear any cars up above? Where’s James and the car? And why has no one come to investigate the crash? My biggest worry however, is my bullet wound. If I don’t get help soon, I know I’m going to bleed to death. I need to move, now. Thankfully, my legs work fine and I manage to rise to my feet, whilst fighting the blinding pain in my chest. I figure I may as well try and head in one direction, because I have no idea where I am. I stumble forward as fast as my legs will carry me all the while trying to stay upright, I can feel the effects of the blood loss taking hold. If I don’t get help soon I will pass out and bleed to death, cold and alone.

From what I can gather I must have been moving for around 10 minutes now. So far I haven’t seen any people or roads for that matter. The only thing I can hear is the rustle of the leaves in the wind. The rain poses a new problem, hypothermia. Even though it stopped a while ago I am drenched from head to toe, so if I don’t find anyone soon, I’ll have to find shelter under a tree and wait for death to take me away. Just as I feel my legs giving way, I see a way out.


The forest seems to open out into a clearing, a large field inhabited by several apple trees and what seems to be some type of animal, from further inspection it looks like a pony, but its yellow with a pink mane. I have no time to wonder why this is, because I can hear a woman’s voice, she sounds quite young but her voice is beautiful and her singing, angelic. I rush towards the source of the voice as fast as my failing limbs can carry me, maybe there’s a farmer around here who can call for help. I don’t even make it half way across the field before my limbs give up and I am sent crashing to the ground. I roll onto my back to avoid causing any more damage to my chest. The blood flow has slowed, but I know that’s a bad thing. I place my hand over my chest and begin to accept my fate when the yellow pony from earlier trots over. Well at least when I die, something will be close to me. I start to close my eyes when I swear I hear the pony talk.

“Ummm… hello?” I swear I hear it say. It must be the effect of my blood loss
.
I half-heartedly laugh and quietly utter “I really am losing my mind”

“Oh my you can talk” it says. 

Alright I know that it talked now. I open my eyes to see it or her looking down at me, half confused half worried. “Are you real?” I ask.

“Oh yes I am, but you look hurt, bad, do you need help?”

I may as well be straight with her. “I think I’m dying, actually I know I am.”

She looks extremely scared now. “I need to get you help right away, don’t move!”

As if I could. “Wait, don’t go, if I’m going to die, I want somebody to be with me when I do.” My voice is getting weaker.

She looks close to tears. ”no you won’t, I can get help, I promise!” and with that she flies off, huh, flies? Where am I? Well no point asking that now since I won’t be here much longer. And with that I surrender myself to fate and close my eyes for what I believe to be the final time.