Somehow Surviving
Somewhere on the road to Green city, a middle-aged man drove a motor wagon. In the wagon sat three people, a man in his early thirties, a woman in her late twenties, and their son of age ten. The man's name was Edward Port. Because of the new job he recently got in the Green city hospital. Today he and his family of three were moving to Green city.
The motor carriage moved slowly as it made its way on the road. If they do not encounter any difficulties on the road, they should be able to reach the city by evening. However, fate has already decided something for them. The wagon suddenly stopped.
"There something up on the road," the driver's voice sounded inside the carriage.
After hearing the driver's voice, half asleep, Edward inside the wagon slowly opened his eyes. He slowly stood up and tidied up his clothes to walk outside to look. The driver was already out of his driver's seat and looking at something when Edward came from the back and looked at the boy lying on the ground. The boy was half-cooked in the sun; his skin was red, with blisters popping all over his body from the sun's heat.
Edward looked at the boy, who was still breathing and hanging on his last breath.
"Hurry! Hurry! Pick him up." With an urgent expression, Edward hurriedly urged the driver to pick up Aeim.
"Pick him up and bring him to the back of the wagon" Edward moved fast and made a space inside the wagon to put the boy down. If the boy was dead, the most he could have done was, bury him on the side, but the boy was still breathing, and given he was a doctor by profession, if possible, he could not let anyone die Infront of him. The driver picked the boy in his arms with great difficulty; Aeim's skin was so cooked it peeled just by the driver's touch.
The driver placed Aeim at the back with a twisted face. Edward was already ready at the back with his instruments. After placing Aeim in the right position, Edward grabbed a scissor from his bag and poured some liquid to sanitize it before cutting Aeim's clothes open. In the corner sat Edward's wife anxiously holding her son in her arms with her hands covering his eyes. Edward looked at the wounds on Aeim's legs and arms; taking another bottle of liquid from his leather bag, he poured it on the wounds to clean them up.
The wagon driver also did not stand at the back and watch Edward operate; he started the wagon and moved. Stopping in the wilderness for too long could be dangerous because of how scarce food is in summer animals will even attack humans on roads.
By evening they reached the city, Edward was provided a house by the city hospital, so they moved directly into the house. The driver helped them offload their stuff before taking off.
Edward moved Aeim to an empty room in the house; he could not admit him to the hospital because Aeim looked like a homeless person and might not have any money to pay for the hospital expenses. Edward had already done his best to save him, and now it would all depend on his fate if he could survive or not.
Time passed fast; it was already the seventh day from the time when Aeim arrived in this strange world. His wounds were slowly healing, and he was able to open wake up on the third day thanks to Edward's meticulous care. Aeim was quite grateful to Edward, who picked him from the road and healed him; not many people like him existed in the world from his experience and knowledge.
So far, Aeim found this world did not look much advanced, but the medicines Edward used to treat him had caused new skin to grow on his whole body in just a week, which was impossible in his previous world.
However, Aeim was quite confused; he had many questions, such as how he suddenly got thrown into this different world. Was this a completely different world, or was he in some different galaxy or something? How would he go back now? He still had a loving family waiting back home. Questions like these made him quite depressed. What was he supposed to do now? He does not even understand the language people here in this world speak, let alone try to find out how he ended up here or how to go home.
After waking up, Aeim also had recurring nightmares of the cellar every night, making him feel quite scared to sleep. However, the big problem he faced now was the constant voices in his head, making him paranoid all the time. No matter what he tried so far, the voices did not go away. The only time he felt quiet was when Edward gave him pain medicine. At first, he thought the voices in his head were maybe the ghosts that died in the cellar, but when he listened and tried to talk with them, he found out those voices in his head belonged to his mind. He thought he was quite healthy yesterday; how did he suddenly get dissociative identity disorder, or did he develop Schizoid mania? He had so many questions but no answers.
But What mattered most was that he had to first survive in this world.
While Aeim was in thought, suddenly, Edward knocked on the door and walked inside. He walked up to the bed where Aeim was lying and grabbed his arm; he first checked his pulse and then looked at the new reddish-pink skin growing on his body.
"You are healing better than I expected," Edward spoke.
"Maybe a few more days and you would be running on your feet."
Unable to understand what Edward was saying, Aeim stared at Edward and nodded after when he stopped taking. Edward looked at Aeim, thinking about what to do with this young man after he was completely healed. He helped him on a whim, but this young man did not even understand the language. Then how is he going to survive in the outside world?
When Aeim first opened his eyes, Edward tried to speak with him, but after receiving no response, he thought Aeim was deaf. However, after one day, when Aeim finally opened his mouth, he spoke in a foreign language. Then Edward finally understood that Aeim came from a different area or country. He also noticed this by observing Aeim's bone structure and face, which was slightly different.
Edward also had many questions, such as who would beat a young man and throw him on the road to die instead of directly killing him. However, this was not the time to ask about them.
The wheel of Time moved, and three-day went by in an instant. Aeim sat at the dining table and ate breakfast with Edward and his family. Edward and his wife were good-hearted people. They took care of him and even gave him food and a roof to live on. Aeim only had gratitude for them. Aeim ate slowly, he looked calm on the surface, but a storm was brewing in his head.
"Aeim, what do you think you want to do now," Edward questioned. Aeim was smart enough to understand and use gestures and could tell his name to Edward.
Aeim, lost in his world, hearing Edward's voice suddenly flinched, and his mind returned to reality.
"WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DO NOW? YOU ARE COMPLETELY HEALED" Edward tried his best to make different hand gestures so Aeim could understand what he was trying to say, but most of it went over Aeim's head.
"Anyone understand what he is saying...."
"No!..."
"Nothing!..."
"The one who does understand all the languages does not want to speak...."
"And one who can see everything does not like to open her eyes...."
"Why are all of you so weird...." The voices in Aeim's head continued to argue between themselves.
Edward's wife, Cilia, sitting at another side of the table, watched her husband try to talk with Aeim. She was smarter than Edward. Seeing Aeim could not understand Edward's words or gestures, she took out a piece of paper and pen from one of the table drawers in the room and started drawing on it. After finishing, she handed the paper to Aeim.
Aeim took the paper and looked at the drawn pictures. It was still hard to guess, but he got an idea of what Edward was trying to say.
Aeim flipped the page; he took the pen from Cilia's hand and started to draw on the page. After a few minutes of drawing, he handed the paper back to Cilia. Cilia looked at the paper. Aeim drew two circles on the paper; inside the first circle, he drew three people, and in another circle, he drew himself and an arrow pointing from one circle to another.
Edward and Cilia seemed to understand what he was trying to say. Edward thought of something; he whispered something in Cilia's ear, who, after hearing, started to draw another drawing on the paper.
Aeim stared at the drawing on the table, which Cilia had made. Except for drawing, Cilia also tried to make hand gestures so Aeim could better understand what she was trying to say.
"IF YOU WANT, YOU CAN HELP EDWARD IN HIS JOB UNTIL YOU CAN SPEAK THE LANGUAGE PROPERLY"
"AFTER THAT, YOU CAN GO WHEREVER YOU WANT TO GO"
Edward and Cilia felt pity for Aeim. Security in the city was quite tight, so they were not worried somebody would dare to attack at home, especially when Edward had an important job in the city.
Aeim carefully looked at drawn pictures of him and Edward on paper, and with further help from Cilia's hand gestures, he tried to make head and toe of what they were trying to say.
After a few tries, Aeim finally understood what they were trying to say.
'I'm in a completely different world. I don't know the language. I did not even step outside to see if it was safe outside. Is begging on the road even allowed here? Learning a new language will take a few months at least, and I will also have to worry about food, clothes, and house...' Aeim thought and placed all his cards on the table.
After thinking for a bit, Aeim looked at Edward and nodded, agreeing with what he said. He was going to take things a little slow. Seeing Edward taking care of him for the whole two weeks without even asking for any money, Aeim found them quite trustworthy and good people. So, he readily agreed. This way, he will be able to learn the language and get an idea of how the world works and may earn some money to survive.