Wavelength

Episode two: Fracture

James woke to the feeling of dew on his face, and the sound of chirping birds in the trees. He blinked a few times, clearing the sleep from his mind as quickly as he could. A picture of a scrawny alien flashed into his vision for a split second as he thought, jolting him awake easily.

        "What the heck!?" He looks around, seeing nothing but forest around a small clearing, before seeing the scar left in one part to his right, where trees were severed nearly at the ground. "Okay, okay, I remember my car going out on me... but then..." After a moment, James leapt to his feet, and immediately started checking whether or not everything was intact. He finished, and caught his breath. "I was... knocked off the overpass.... aw, crap, my car!" He bolted into the woods next to the severed remains of trees, following it back to where he remembered landing, taking only a few minutes to get there on foot, surprising himself at his speed.

        He reached the crushed remains of his vehicle, and collapsed to his knees with a sob. "How am I going to get anywhere now? Well, I guess... I walk. Great." He said, exasperatedly gesturing toward the wreckage. He began trudging through the forest at an easy pace, walking without any incidence, mainly because his cell phone had run out of power long ago. After a few hours, he reached an area he could hop over onto the actual highway, since most of it had either been high in the air, out of reach, or lined with sound dampening walls. He stood on the side of the road, sat on the concrete retaining wall, and stuck his thumb into the air.

        The only vehicle to pass his way was, sadly a motorcycle, who completely ignored his very existence. "Why does the universe hate me!?" He slammed his fist into the concrete he sat upon, which shattered with the impact, compromising his perch. James fell to the ground, and brought his hand up to his face as he laid there, just in time to see a fluorescent purple coating on his hand retreat from view.

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        "This... is a nightmare. Yeah, that's it. A terrible dream that I'll wake up from in the hospital because I fell asleep at the wheel. That sounds good." James lay there, on the concrete and asphalt road, shutting his eyes as tightly as they possibly could be. "I wish I could wake up though.... Crud... maybe I'm in a coma. Well, it fits my pattern at least. That would, of course, be how I'd end up trying to drive through the night. Yeah." He sat up, looking at his hands closely, examining them for any sign of the purple apparition that previously seemed to BE his hand. Satisfied, he got up, using the crumbling retaining wall to stand.

        James waited for several more hours  before a vehicle stopped before him, even with a drastic increase in traffic as the sun rose higher and higher into the dome of azure above. He hopped into the back of the dark green pickup truck, and held on for dear life as his savior ignored the speed limit signs.

        All in all, James made it to the next town, if not a little shell shocked from the ride. He shakily got out of the truck and thanked his driver wobbily, before trying to find some kind of official looking building, perhaps even the town hall, or a police station. The only signs of civilization he found other than seemingly abandoned buildings was a singular sign. It read: "Wayton proper: 3.5 miles".

        "Looks like I made it to Wayton... in a way. Looks like I'm back to walking again, too." He sighed and started moving slowly in the way the sign pointed, grumbling to himself the entire time. "Home... not so happy as I'd like it to be."