No-Clipped

Chapter 2: Condorspoint

     BEEP BEEP BEEP BEE—
    
     I woke up to the sound of my digital alarm clock and let out a deep sigh, slowly sitting up in my bed. I flopped back down, the back of my head in front of my pillow instead of on top of it, staring at the ceiling and letting my eyes adjust as the alarm beeped over and over. As soon as the room shifted into place I grabbed my alarm off my bedside table and hit the button at the top, then checking the time.

   "4:30..." I groaned, setting the clock back down. I had a feeling it was going to be a very long day.

I quickly changed into a white Skillet T-shirt, blue jeans, a black hoodie I tied around my waist, and a pair of socks. I had rummaged my drawers searching for pairs of socks but couldn't find any forcing me to wear one red sock on my right foot and a gray sock on the other. I opened my blinds and looked out my window at the long, winding roads. No light shone through my window.

   "Still night." I groaned, and grabbed a small flashlight out of one of the drawers on my nightstand. I slipped it into my back pocket, before exiting my room and walking down the hallway. I stopped for a minute, looking at my reflection in the mirror through the bathroom door which was left open. I smoothed out my  hair, which I had grown out in the past year, and ran my fingers through my bangs, which flopped over my eyes. I continued walking forward and stopped, placing my hand on dad's door and slowly turning the knob, creaking it open. I flinched at the loud noise the door made as I opened it, waiting until the crack was large enough for me to slide through sideways. Without turning the light switch on I creeped over to dads bed as he continued to lay fast asleep. I placed the back of my hand gently on his forehead and sighed.

"...Hungover again. Guess I'll have to walk." I muttered quietly under my breath to myself, backing up out of the door and quietly shutting it. I walked through the hallways past the living room table, which was weird for me considering I wasn't used to living in a one story house. The floorboards creaked slightly underneath my feet. I flipped on the light switch and pulled my pale orange backpack off a hook on the wall, unzipping the top and placing a few unfinished composition books I had from my previous high school inside along with my flashlight, a bag of saltine crackers, a mechanical pencil, and my panda. I ripped a small page off one of the books and wrote a quick note to dad.

Hey. If you're reading this, I'm glad you're up. I let you sleep in and walked over to school myself. See ya. —Wyatt

I paused and crumpled up the note, putting it in the back pocket of my jeans.
"Forget it...I'm gonna run late."

I had GPS opened on my cell phone to prevent myself from getting lost in the road. It was 6:00 now high school was about four and a half miles away from home. I walked carefully on the right side of the road, although there were hardly any cars driving. I saw about one or two cars every twenty minutes. Roads aside, all you could see were dry, barren fields with droopy dead grass and some succulent looking plants. There were several forks in the road, but I made sure I took the right path each time. As I walked further along I saw subtle movements on the side of the road. I got closer, realizing they were six vultures feeding on a dead brown ferrel cat. I gagged and ran past them.

   "So that must be where our town got the name Condorspoint from...although there's a difference between vultures and condors. Who even named this ridiculous place?!"

90 minutes later I finally arrived at school- my cell phone only at 13% battery, not having charged it overnight and then using it the entire walk. I assumed I was early as I entered the doors, very few students inside. I stared at my schedule walking through the hallways, soon realizing I was not early, but late. I picked up the pace and frantically looked around searching for my first period classroom and finally made my way inside, the entire class including the teacher turning towards me, making direct eye contact. I let out an awkward chuckle, looking at the teacher.

   "Uhm...good morning, ma'am." I said quietly. She raised an eyebrow.

"I assume you are Wyatt Conner?" I nodded.

"You're ten minutes late."

"My apologies."

   "I'll let this one slide since you just joined our school mid year, but it better not happen again, alright?" I nodded and walked slowly to the back of the classroom, removing my backpack and sitting down at an empty desk.

     The rest of the day at school was very...well...interesting. No one bothered to talk to me, and I didn't bother to talk to anyone. There weren't any classes or teachers that stuck out to me. I stayed in the library for half an hour after school ended to catch up on certain work I needed to while listening to music. Afterwords almost everyone student had already left campus, therefore I was left by myself on my way back.

It had been 45 minutes walking down the road until the tricky parts came in. I held up my cell phone and attempted to turn it on, but no matter how many times I clicked the on button the screen stayed black.

My phone was dead.

   "No no no..." I said, biting my lip to keep from screaming. Sweat ran down my forehead as I panicked, looking forward at all to the forks, winds, and zigzags in the road. I decided to wing it and ran as fast as I could, attempting to retrace my steps. I stopped and panted, leaning over with my hands on my knees. Out of the corner of my eye I saw more movement.

"Probably just another vulture...wait a minute—isn't that..?" I turned around to see a brown ferrel cat, similar—no, identical to the one I had seen being eaten earlier.

"Impossible..." I walked closer to the cat, but with every step I took it turned it's head the opposite direction. Suddenly the brown cat darted past me to my right.

   "Hey—wait!" I said, chasing after it. I followed it through every path and every wind it went through for what had to be fifteen minutes. I fell to my knees and looked around me, the sun already falling into the horizon. I had completely forgotten where I was going and completely lost track of my location. Every direction I looked there was nothing other than seemingly endless brown fields. I pulled the flashlight out of my backpack and shined it onto the road towards the cat, creeping towards it.

    "Heyy...I'm not going to hurt you." I said in a cheesy high pitched tone. It took a step forward with its front paw.

"There you g—" my voice was suddenly cut off as I gasped, my left leg giving in. I felt myself drop. I was sure I had just fallen down onto the road...but I was proven incorrect as I had kept on falling down the large sewage drain. I screamed like my life depended on it...because my life DID depend on it. Shocked, I began to feel drowsy and closed my eyes, accepting my fate there and then.

     Could this really be the end..?

     I woke up, not yet having opened my eyes. Was that all a dream? Am I not dead..? They slowly opened, the space around me a blurred yellow. I blinked and shot open my eyes this time, standing up and looking to both my sides and then behind me. The floors were pale and carpeted and the walls were yellow, with flickering lights lining the ceilings...the whole place having a strange, damp, mildewy scent. I took a step forward and peeked through the edge of one of the walls, only to see more walls, like a maze.

     "W...where am I?"