Harsh wake-up call

'Huh?' Mathew first thought that managed to sneak past the barrier of his sleepiness was just a simple surprise. 'What am I doing? Where am I?' he thought, before even being able to open his eyes.

This moment of extreme carelessness was also the fuse that caused the young man to boot up his "awake" procedure right away, jumping up by strongly pushing himself out of whatever he was lying at.

It was a standard technique for Mathew at this point. After all, for his senses to alert him while he was asleep, something had to be terribly wrong. And if something was terribly wrong, rapidly changing one's location was just the basic form of defending against an unforeseen threat.

"Auch!" a moan of pained protest followed Mathew's desperate measure at escaping whatever danger was looming. And it was this voice that finally erased most of the sleepiness that fogged his brain, allowing him to open his eyes and properly read what was going on around him.