Thirteen

Chapter Five

"Sir, are you alright?"

The sound of an unfamiliar voice woke Jack, bringing him back from the state of unconsciousness he'd been in. He slowly opened his eyes to examine who was talking to him, and where he was.

"Ah, there we are."

Jack blinked as the light from his surroundings flooded into his eyes, shocking his optic nerves, which had become accustomed to darkness. He hadn't been prepared for such a bright environment, and the sudden assault on one of his senses made it a bit hard to focus on anything at first.

After a couple seconds of adjusting, Jack was able to get his eyes to focus on the person who'd just spoken to him. The person in question was a woman in a uniform kneeling in front of him, whose was face ever so slightly taut with concern, and her dark eyes filled with worry. There was a bag just behind her, its contents unknown to Jack, and a radio that she was clutching so tightly in her right hand that her knuckles were white. Her appearance indicated that she was distressed, but what she was distressed about remained a mystery to Jack. That is, until he realized she was looking directly at him expectantly, as if waiting for him to grow a second head or a third eye. As if there was something wrong with him.

She was distressed over Jack's condition, but why? He felt fine, and nothing bad had happened to him... had it?

The woman waited a moment for Jack to get his bearings before she managed to shake any trace of stress from her face, and launched back into doing whatever it was she was here to do.

"Are you having any trouble breathing?" She asked, cautiously watching Jack's movements, which Jack didn't care for. It made him feel like a zoo exhibit, something to be gawked at or monitored.

"No," He replied. When the woman didn't seem certain of his answer, Jack took several deep breaths in to prove his response. This seemed to satisfy her, as she nodded to herself and reached down to pull something out of her bag.

"Are you feeling dizzy at all? Any vision problems?"

Again, Jack responded with a negative response. Physically he felt absolutely fine, which made him wonder why this woman was here at all.

As the woman started to mark something down on a clipboard she'd pulled out of her bag, Jack took the opportunity to get a good look at his surroundings and figure out where the hell he was. He knew he should've known his current location, considering he'd just been unconscious in the middle of it moments ago, but for some strange and alarming reason he didn't.

The first things that jumped out at Jack was the fact that he wasn't inside. He'd been expecting some sort of indoor environment, as that's where one normally sleeps, but instead he found himself surrounded by outdoor structures. He was situated in a ditch just to the left of a road, which was lined with first responders' vehicles and clusters of people in various different uniforms talking. To his right was a small woodsy area populated solely by trees, their tall stature and spindly branches appearing menacing in the grey lighting, like the hands and fingers of ghosts extending towards the sky. Dying shrubbery and mud puddles surrounded Jack on all sides, meaning if he moved his hand even an inch he'd either plant it into vegetation or a pool of wet dirt. He could even hear the faint sound of a stream flowing some ways away, the sound of the water's movement slowed due to the cold temperature. The whole scene was actually rather lovely. It was like they'd managed to catch nature when it was at its most beautiful, making it seem like something straight out of a movie.

However, there didn't seem to be any actual buildings nearby. At least not that Jack could see. The area they were in appeared remote and rural, considerably far from the busiest parts of Brighton. Which made Jack wonder where all these people came from, and how long he'd been here.