It was 6 am and his feet were trying to keep up with his will to not miss the bus. Two types of faces were recognizable that morning. Fresh and determined ones and those which portrayed a desire to never again repeat the mistake of parting with their beloved pillows.

  Crossing the zebra he was nearly killed by a thoughtful driver on a mission to clear the road of all obstacles. Such a lovely neighborhood. He waved a Hello to mr. Doubt who also looked like he would rather kill him than respond. Got it. Everyone was feeling murderous. He also would have killed for a proper breakfast. But no, nuh-uh.

  The bus that day was on its way to the inevitable decomposition of all matter. He was hoping that on its way there it would also give him a lift to the the Big City. Yep, that one. Where all dreams were bound to come true.

  The doors of the bus slammed shut. All passengers were still fumbling their luggage. Everyone was taking their time, still in silent protest against the early hour trip. Just as everyone was sat down and near motionless, there was a loud bang. Total darkness fell. Not a sound was audible. Panic started crawling up his body from the toes onwards. Was this Death?

  Light came again but everything was different. The bus had disappeared. Only his seat with himself in it remained of the vehicle. All the passengers and the driver – gone. And where was he? A vast forest spanning in every direction from his position was accompanied by the lyrical songs of what sounded like birds. But those sounds were somehow unfamiliar, nothing like he had ever heard before coming out of a bird. Majestic and grand and yet peaceful and serene. Feelings of fear mixed with curiosity overcame his being.

  As he had just turned 30 years old it was an experience he could not believe. He had had his fair share of hallucinations in his struggles with mental health issues. Life had been dealing him a bad hand one event after the other. Luck seemed to be a distant relative he'd only heard stories of but never met. But he was not able to even cry anymore. The pain had been both a physical and mental ordeal which never quite loosened its grasp on him. And now this? What the fuck was going on? Was this a dream, had he fallen asleep on the bus? That was what a normal person would conclude. No pressure. Why should he try to be normal? Fuck that. He was in the middle of nowhere and as magical as it all was he couldn't shake off the feeling it was not in fact a dream.

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  As he was becoming more and more scared and less and less curious he noticed that he and his bus seat were laying on a clearly often used forest trail. He mustered the courage to get up and started walking on it in the direction he was facing when he ended up there. He was feeling hunger not from immediate lack of food so much as from the sudden realisation that it would probably be impossible to find any. By no means was hunting or anything closely related to it on his list of skills. The probability of all this being a dream seemed to grow fainter by the step.

  A lot of time had passed. Maybe an hour or more. The solid shape of a wall could be made out in the distance. It was so tall and the forest so dense that no end could be found to it. It was dark grey stone from the looks of it and it looked ancient and worn out by the weather. So maybe some luck was due. Hope grew inside him at the obvious sign of civilization. The bird songs were still dancing around the trees which also helped him to not feel total despair. Fear did linger, true, but now it was even again with the curiosity and perhaps even lesser than it so.

  Finally he reached the end of the trail and a wooden door with fine carved detailed paintings of the elements on Earth lay in front of him. Okay, this was definitely a good sign. The symbols were familiar so he was still on his home planet. Well he never had felt at home anywhere so perhaps that wasn't the best way to put it but you catch his drift.