Kieran smiled to himself as he enjoyed the relaxing bus ride to their destination for the class trip.
They had finished the test for the Lower Sixth Form for their studies and were going to enter the Upper Sixth Form once they returned to England from their trip.
The class decided to celebrate with a trip to another country, and Kieran decided to participate, despite not really being friends with anyone except Anthony, who was a mild acquaintance at best.
He sometimes doubted if it was a good idea to study the A Levels of geography, history, mathematics and psychology.
At least he discovered meditation through psychology, which had been a life safer for him, when it came to managing his emotions of loneliness, or when he got upset.
Turning the page, Kieran continued reading.
He was casually reading his favourite book series of Harry Potter.
He had read them dozens of times, but he always picked them back up.
They always seemed to somehow draw him back in.
In the background he listened to the various excited chatter about the upcoming trip from his classmates and relaxed, turning another page.
Suddenly, without warning, he slammed headfirst into the seat in front of him and blacked out.
Groggily, Kieran groaned to himself as he blinked and looked around, his sight was blurry but slowly became more focused as he blinked repeatedly.
He was lying on the…roof of the bus?
He looked up, seeing the seats above him, and stared dumbfounded for a bit.
A groan was heard near him.
Snapping to attention, he immediately looked around himself, seeing the moaning classmates, several clearly unconscious.
One of the awake ones was Anthony.
He talked to Anthony in a low voice and held up three fingers.
“Hey man, you okay? How many fingers am I holding up?”
Anthony groaned as he blinked and looked at Kieran’s hand.
“Uhh…three?”
Kieran sighed in relief, asking Anthony to help him lift their fellow students out of the bus.
As they started their task, more woke up and Kieran directed them to helping to transport the class and the driver out.
They managed to get the bus doors up, and when they got out, he realized they were in a forest.
As he looked up at the cliffside, he realized the bus had an accident and fell down a cliffside into this forest.
Signalling Anthony, Kieran slowly got everyone out of the bus with the help of Anthony.
Kieran was happy seeing most got away scot-free, but a couple were unlucky and got broken bones.
After more woke up, Kieran noticed some were starting to panic.
It made him remember his psychology lessons.
If someone starts panicking, it will spread and spiral, we can’t allow that to happen, Kieran thought as he looked over his fellow classmates that he had helped get out of the bus.
He got the attention of everyone with a small whistle and quickly asserted himself and started handing out tasks to people.
It was easy enough to get started, they just needed a small push.
A while later, a mixture of students were busy gathering the various bags they could recover from the wreckage.
Most of them considered it a small miracle that they got away with only a few broken bones after the bus had an accident where it fell down an entire steep cliff into a forest.
The more annoying issue was that a lot of their phones had been damaged in the crash, and the few that had made it had no signal, and no matter where they tried, the signal wouldn’t appear.
Eventually, the bus company would notice they never reached their destination and send a rescue, but who knew when that would happen.
Next to a tree near Kieran, sat a girl wincing and nursing her broken arm.
Kieran did his best at creating a makeshift cast to support the arm without worsening the injury, his first aid classes paying off.
Kieran let out a small sigh and smiled to the girl.
“This should do it, Emily! Now just sit here and relax while I go help the others recover our food! Now remember what I mentioned, take deep breaths and focus entirely on each breath, okay? That always helps me focus and relax.”
Emily nodded hesitantly, and while Emily tried to relax with some breathing exercises, Kieran walked up to his other classmates and started directing them on where to place the supplies.
He decided to put Jack in charge of ensuring the supplies were dry.
Jack may be someone that focused more on sports and girls, but he was good at taking responsibility, he would make sure to handle the supplies.
Kieran walked up to Anthony and asked him if he could take two or three people with him to look nearby for some shelter, or, failing that, solid sticks to make a shelter against the cliffside.
As Kieran watched everyone having something to do, he sighed to himself, remembering that the point was to avoid a panic; as long as everyone had a task, they were less likely to spiral into a panic.
He stepped up to ensure a panic would not happen, despite never really having been in any type of leader position before, but someone had to take the first step.
About half an hour later, Anthony and four others returned, dragging a bunch of big, thick sticks with them, and Kieran jogged over to help them out.
Everyone pitched in to help create a shelter against the cliff, some finding mud, moss and leaves to cover the roof of the shelter, in case it rained, under Kieran’s recommendations.
He could not help but recall his own wilderness survival camps that his foster parents sent him to, to give him something to do during the summer vacations.
To think I used to complain about these excursions, saying I would never need them, look at me now…
As the day grew darker, Kieran managed to create a small fire under their humble shelter.
To improve morale, he had found some leftover sticks and decided to create a noughts and crosses tournament.
The winner would get to decide what supplies they eat first while they waited for help to arrive.
Kieran was beaten almost instantly, and he jokingly laughed with them that he definitely needed some practice, but he would get his revenge!
He watched contently as everyone managed to get some cheer at the tournament.
Jack even performed a bow in front of everyone when he won, declaring that dinner was going to be the various sandwiches they had packed.
As the days pass, Kieran ensured everyone was kept busy in some shape or form.
All of his classmates looked to him as the natural leader since he had taken the first step, a responsibility he happily took.
He did his best at ensuring that the overall mood was hopeful; but as he looked at the supplies and the clear lack of any traffic above them at night, slowly he realized they may run out of food before they were going to be discovered.
After the fourth day’s noughts and crosses tournament, with him managing to actually win, beating both the three-day champion Jack and the eternal second place, Emily.
He gathered all of them for his winning speech.
“Firstly, thank you Emily and Jack for showing mercy, allowing me to somehow win first place! I will remember this honour forevermore!” He smiled as Jack and the others laughed.
“Better enjoy the win while you can! I will be taking it back,” laughed Jack.
Giving a smug smirk to Jack, Kieran continued.
“It has been heartening to see everyone do their part to make sure we are all surviving and more importantly, living! I want to propose we travel through the forest, bringing only the necessary supplies.”
Kieran looked around himself, making sure he caught the eyes of everyone, ensuring they understood how serious he was.
“I think we should take charge of our own rescue, instead of hoping for some help we don’t know when is coming, we will brave the forest together and united. United is what we have been these last few days, and I hope we can continue the streak. What say you, my noughts and crosses rivals?”
That everyone was willing to follow his suggestions surprised him; but he accepted the responsibility and made a small promise to himself that he would ensure none of his classmates suffered due to his suggestion.
Privately, before bedtime, Kieran asked Emily why no one objected.
She had looked at him a bit weirdly, “Kieran…every one of us can see how much effort you are giving each person, we all know you have our best interests at heart. If you believe braving the forest is the best option available to us, we will follow you!” she had told him.
Flustered at how direct Emily had been, but secretly happy at her words, Kieran retreated to his own supplies to decide what to carry.
He had never truly been a leader anywhere, his entire life had always been about drifting from place to place, never truly finding a place of belonging.
His foster parents took him in out of duty, but they never truly connected with him.
Maybe after they were back to civilization, he could focus on creating a tight friendship with his class, creating the family he never had.
As he went to sleep, he smiled to himself, enjoying the happy thought of creating a family.
His first true family.
Over the days, the class managed to travel through the wilderness, supporting the weaker members.
Kieran was always near the lead of the travelling group, using his wilderness survival knowledge to listen to the sounds of nature, be it flowing water or animals.
He always paid attention to the group and who walked with who, while respecting nature.
He had always loved nature, it was beautiful, but it could be dangerous if you underestimated it.
They used the flowing springs to restock their water, while during the night, they slept in shifts, ensuring the rest were safe.
Eventually, after some days, they managed to climb a small hill and then they saw it: a small village, civilization!
Kieran smiled in relief, knowing they were at the home stretch, he couldn’t wait until he could get some proper help for the injured, and sleep in a comfortable bed.
Anthony seemed especially excited, running a bit ahead of the group.
“Anthony! Relax! Travel with the group!” Kieran yelled after him and shook his head exasperatedly.
Typical Anthony, always so impulsive!
He watched Anthony run ahead of the group, near a tree that seemed…weird?
Why is all the bark missing?
he wondered to himself.
He remembered hearing something about missing bark on trees in a forest during his wilderness survival camps, but he failed at remembering what it meant.
Then he heard it.
The small roar.
Before Kieran could think, he ran full speed ahead toward Anthony.
He saw Anthony frozen, next to a bear cub that he had stumbled into.
The small roar was the bear cub crying out for its mom.
He should have realized the missing bark meant bear activity!
Kieran yelled back to his classmates, “EVERYONE RUN, GET TO THE VILLAGE, JACK PICK UP SARAH AND RUN, I WILL GET ANTHONY!”
As his classmates ran as fast as they could toward the village carrying the injured, Kieran reached Anthony and forcefully grabbed his friend and dragged him forward.
The adrenaline spiked.
He felt it before he heard it.
The innate fear of being noticed by a predator.
Without thinking, he shoved Anthony out of the way of the bear’s claws with all his power, making the mother bear miss Anthony, but hit him instead in the back.
Something is wrong.
Gasping, Kieran’s instincts screamed at him.
His back felt wet with a warm thick liquid.
Something is very wrong.
Ahead, he saw Anthony running in a panic after his near-death experience.
Kieran did his best to follow.
The numbness of his back spread to his legs, his eyes darkened.
His breath came out in short bursts.
Something is not right.
In the distance he saw the village.
I can make it!
Taking another step, he realized too late that he could no longer feel his left leg.
He stumbled.
Landing on the ground on his side, a piercing chilling pain hit his entire body originating from his back.
Refusing to wait for the bear to catch up, he pushed off the ground with his left arm, rolling down the small hill toward the village; trying to ignore the low baritone roar behind him.
Rolling, he saw the state of the hill, the road he rolled from.
It was covered in a path of blood, and the bear was catching up.
One final roll.
There was a drop.
He saw the hard ground.
He knew what was going to happen.
It felt like minutes passed despite only instants passing.
He recalled the foster home.
The foster parents saw him as a duty, not as a son; it never felt like home.
He never connected to classmates; this crisis was the first time in his life he truly felt a connection!
I am going to die.
He at least found peace in the fact that the mother bear will be too busy with him to chase his classmates.
He will have kept his promise.
No classmates would be hurt due to his suggestion.
The last thing Kieran saw was the ground.
This is going to hurt.
His face crashed into the ground and his vision went black.
…..
Kieran woke up with a gasp and a cry as his eyes were blurry, he saw the light around him, he gasped, feeling the most invigorating breath he had ever taken, the air filling his lungs, surprised at being alive.
But it was when he was placed somewhere he realizes what was different.
He was lying on a giant woman, yet he instinctually knew…this was his mother and he was a baby.
Turned out reincarnation was a thing, maybe his good karma had caught up with him and gave him the one thing he never had…a family.
He focused on taking deep breaths as he listened to his mother humming while embracing him…he felt safe…he could worry about what all this meant later.
For now, he just wanted to sleep in this comforting and safe embrace.
He looked up at his mother, seeing her bright blue eyes, and felt himself falling asleep, his body finally relaxing, finally safe.
Here’s to a new journey!
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