Tobie's house wasn't too far but it gave me some time to think.

I have to tell him about what I saw and how time was super slow. I hope he isn’t too worried about me being in a coma for a little bit, if only he knew, haha.

When I got close enough to start knocking on the door and I could already hear the yelling. It didn't stop when I knocked.

"John, get the damn door!"

"Tami, you get the damn door, you’re standing by it!"

"Jesus Christ John, can you do anything?"

"I got it, I got it!"

"OH thank you, sweetie. LOOK JOHN, your son is a better man than you are!"

The door opens to Tobie standing there looking at me, flabbergasted. "HOLY FUCKING SHIT YOU’RE--"

"Tobias don't you curse in the fucking house like that."

"Where do you think he gets that mouth from Tami?"

Tobie steps outside without answering them and shuts the door, "What the fuck Tom! You're awake? When... are you ok? What happened to you?"

"Oh, I woke up a couple of hours ago."

Putting his hands on his head Tobie takes a second to get the words out of his mouth, "You woke up a couple of hours ago and you thought you would just come over to my house? Without calling me or even shooting me a text, you know, to let me know you're AWAKE!"

“Oh well, I guess I didn’t think about that, but in my defense, I don’t really know where my phone is at the moment.”

“How do you not think to…. Whatever I’m glad to know you're among the living. Wait, if you have only been awake for a few hours, what are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be with your mother?”

“Nah, I’m sure she’s fine.” Thinking back to her face once again I had a jolt of fear run through me. Will I be fine? I turned to the walls trying to banish the haunting image from my mind with minimal success. “Besides, I want to show you what I saw.”

“We’re going to the wall.”

“Why? Are you sure that’s a good idea?”

Walking into his garage I grab an old beat-up skateboard.

“Wow, you’re taking out training wheels. You forget to bring your board, or just feeling nostalgic?”

“I would never forget my board... I just don’t happen to know where it is currently and stop calling it training wheels.”

“Hey, you’re the one who used to ride the trucks so tight you could barely push the skateboard in a straight line. Ha-ha, you would start pushing and it would just keep going right.”

While I grabbed a wrench to begrudgingly loosen up the trucks. I retaliated. “Tighter trucks are better for speed; I would have thought you know that.”

“Speed!? Back then? Ha-ha, we both know the only reason you had them so tight is that you could barely keep your balance.”

“AND I was also planning for the future.” After setting the wrench down and standing up I looked at Tobie. Don’t give me that face. Laughter seeped out from his crooked grin. “What’s SO funny, huh?”

“Oh, nothing, just the idea of you planning ahead. You couldn’t even think to text me before coming over.”

He’s not going to let that go. Walking toward the wall I yell back at him, “Just get your ass moving.”

“You don’t have enough money for that.”

Always need to have the last word, asshole

I try to take him along the path I took but I can’t really remember it with it being so bright out now. That and he quickly passes me.

Holy shit, I don’t remember this being that hard of a walk.

“Jesus dude, you alright?”

“Huh, yeah bitch I’m fine.” Heavy panting. “it’s just hard looking at your ugly ass for this long.” My muscles are definitely stiff but thankfully they haven’t really atrophied, I don’t’ think.

“Well maybe if you walked faster you wouldn’t be behind me. Besides with as much as you’re sweating you should be getting lighter by the second.”

First, my Ma, albeit I should have expected that but him too. Do I not get ANY sympathy points for being in a coma?

“So where exactly are we going anyway?”

“I forget the exact path but we’re going to the rusted ladder I told you about. I finally climbed all the way up it. despite having just got into an argument.” Abigail. Why hadn’t I thought of her yet? Damn, it’s been a week since she’s seen me. She might have— “How is Abigail?”

“I’m not sure you want to talk about that.”

I see. “It’s been a week since she saw me right after we had a huge argument. If she moved on that’s fine, for all she knew I could have never woken up.” I don’t have much longer anyway so I guess it is what’s best for her, even if she didn’t know.

Tobie glanced back at me with a sympathetic face. “You sure you’re alright?”

“Pff, yeah” Of course, I’m fine. I mean I expected this. I’m fine. Totally fine. I’d be a lot better if my chest wasn’t so tight. Must be a side effect of laying down for a week--look. “Here!”

Tobie looks at where I’m pointing. This is the ladder I’ve been telling you about. I fell off from about there. I pointed up a little higher than where I actually thought I fell from.

“I thought you said you climbed all the way up it?”

“No, I did. It’s when I was coming back down I fell, wait that doesn’t matter. What I saw on the other side was crazy. It’s like a complete waste land, but not like an empty dessert or something. It’s full of destroyed buildings and houses. So much so that it must have been a city or even a state worth of stuff.

“That has to be an exaggeration. States are huge, way bigger than our community. We’ve read about them before in class but you probably weren’t paying attention again.

“I swear I’m not exaggerating, it’s massive.... wait how long have we been out here.”

“45 or 50 minutes.”

“Shit, I have to get back to the house. I only had an hour.”

“Fuck, why didn’t you say anything?”

“Because you would have had me leave 20mins early just to make sure I got back on time.”

“Exactly! So this wouldn’t have happened.”

Tobie and I race back to my house on our boards. He’s ahead of me of course, only by a little since I’m not back to my normal self yet. He starts to round the corner.

“(Loud car horn)”

Shit, we weren’t paying attention. “Get out of the way!!” Instead of starting to turn I go straight, slamming into Tobie and knocking him out of the way. I can feel a smile on my face as I brace for impact but I notice the car isn’t moving. In fact, nothing in my view is moving. No, It’s as if the whole world was frozen by God just to fuck with me. My head felt as if I was only having a light headache.

Why… can’t…. I…. MOVE. It feels like I’m locked in a pool of concrete.

The car slowly inches forward.

It’s starting to move. I still can’t, no wait I think I’m moving. If I just push harder. Maybe.

"(Screams inside head)"

Yes, I can see my arms. It’s so slow, and it's taking everything I have, but I’m moving. I need to find a way out of this situation that doesn’t involve a lifelong disability. Fuck it. I’m using this bitch like a quarter pipe. I'll roll and ramp my body off the windshield. God, I hope it doesn’t break.

My hands finally reach the hood.

I’ll put my right shoulder to my left hand and twist my body so my legs don’t slam against the grill of the car. This should turn the force of the impact on my body into rotation.

The car is now an arm’s length away. As I’m twisting my body I go to put my right forearm on the hood. My right elbow contacts the hood and the headache vanishes.

OH SHIT

Time speeds back up as I had just started to roll and whips me onto the hood and off the windshield in an instant. I go spinning into the air.

“FUCK, FUCK, FUCK.”

I start to regain my senses as my spinning slows. My body rotates around to where I can see the ground. Times stops. Fuck, the grounds really close. I don’t know if this is good or bad that it stopped now. This feeling in my stomach is gonna make me sick. Putting my feet out to land I realize, Wait, if I’m not actually moving slow but time is just slowed down then the impact on my legs will probably break them. Fuck it, all I can do is try and roll out of it.

As I slowly fall back to the road and feel my feet touch the asphalt. Bending my legs I put my head into my left shoulder. My hands hit the asphalt and I start tucking my head under my hips. Time speeds up.

Oh no!

Slamming into the road with my right side I bounce and roll across the road, then come sliding to a stop. Gasping for air I laid in place for a minute. Ok, that was a little more force than I thought it would be. Sitting up I try to assess the damage.

Oowowow. FUCK that hurts. I don’t think anything’s broken though. My plan did work. I guess that’s what people mean when they say time slows down during a car crash. But then why did it go in and out? Standing up trying to regain my sense of balance, I see the car driving away with my skateboard kicking out from under its’ tire, now in pieces.

Tobie rushes over to me, “Oh my god, are you, okay man. I’m so sorry I didn’t see the car.”

I brush him off, “I’m fine if you’re fine.”

“Tom what the fuck are you talking about, of course I’m fine. I’m not the one who just got hit by a fucking car!” He starts to pull out his phone.

“Oh hell no Tobie, I’m not going back to the hospital, I told you I’m fine. I jump up and down ignoring the pain in my side to let him know I’m okay. “Now go home and don’t tell anyone about this. Please do me the favor and act like this didn’t happen, I swear I’ll make it up to you.” I run off before he can respond.

Fuck (heavy breathing), I am out of shape. Shouldn’t be too far from here to the house I’ll just walk. I’m way too fucking tried to try and jog the rest of the way. That shit took a lot out of me trying to move when everything was slow. And who was that bitch who almost hurt Tobie, all I saw was long brown hair and her head hitting the steering wheel. I guess it could have been a guy. Oh wait, I saw the license plate. It was………shit. I can only remember 769k.

Such an ominous presence oozing out from behind it, and this intense pressure in the air. If only I had my phone I could call for help or check the time. I hope I’m not too late! I step through the front door of my house.

OH my GOD! “Oh… High ma. I really appreciate you letting me go see Tobie, he said he had been really worried about me and that seeing me alright really help him out. So in a way, I’m saying thank you for Tobie and me.”

“………….”

I’m too young to die!

“You’re late.”

“Am I? I apologize Ma me and Tobie were having such a great time, all thanks to you, of course, we must have—”

“Cut the shit, get something to eat, and get your ass to bed. We have plans for tomorrow.”

I have survived another day, for this God, I thank you. Making my way to the bedroom I could feel everything. She didn’t seem to notice anything. Thank God, I could barely stand up straight with this pain in my side.