Chapter 3: The Quiet Days And The Unfortunate Bike Ride.

Back in Alex's countryside, nothing exciting was happening. Some kids were running around the playground, some were riding bikes through the dirt roads, leaving dust clouds behind them. Most parents were home, preparing dinner for their children while a couple people were watching the kids on the playground.

Chris quickly became a good friend to Alex's parents, and Jake became Alex's best friend. Chris' wife, Maria, rarely left her house because of Jack, Jake's younger brother who was born not too long ago. Maria looked after Jack while Chris took care of the house, Jake helping him with simple things.

One day, Alex, Jake and Max were riding on their bikes, stopping every once in a while to show Jake the nature or tell him an interesting fact about some structures that were built ages ago.

"This tree here was supposedly planted by my great-grandfather, I was told that my great-grandfather convinced some people that praying to this tree would bring them luck." Said Max as he pointed towards the biggest tree within their countryside. Alex didn't have much of a reaction as he already knew that so he was more interested in Jake's reaction. Jake looked really excited, just like Alex was when he first learned that, and walked up to the tree, touching its bark carefully.

"So if I pray here then I'll have good luck?!" Jake asked excitedly. Max let out a small chuckle and shook his head.

"No, unfortunately it doesn't. That would've been nice though." Replied Max, which made Jake a little sad. The three of them got back on their bikes and continued their small adventure, stopping in front of objects or structures that Max had information about.

When it comes to school, Alex was above average in everything, but his main thing was math. He was the best out of everyone even in the city not too far away. He understood formulas, rules, laws, principles and anything else related to math perfectly almost as soon as he learned about them. Solving what are semi-complex problems in his grade was relatively easy for him, while more complex ones required a small amount of concentration and focus.

***

Now, about 5 months after his 16th birthday, Alex was still the top of his surrounding area in math and in most other subjects. He and Jake still remained best friends and each year they got more and more daring, getting further and further away while driving bikes. Of course, they had their parents' permission and were told to be as careful and cautious as possible.

Jake was a good person to everyone, just like he was raised to be. He didn't get in trouble too much, though sometimes he did cause little problems. One time, about a year after moving to the countryside, he decided to surprise his parents. He lived on a farm, so they had about 100 chickens and 3 roosters. The 8 year old Jake decided that it would be a good idea to wake up super early and try to feed the animal by himself without informing his parents. So he did just that, instead of sleeping he stayed up all night to make sure he was awake before his parents. Then, an hour before his parents woke up he stood up from his bed, got dressed, went outside and looked at the bucket of prepared fodder. He tried to lift the bucket, but it was too heavy for him. He had the bright idea of putting on a lid from a barrel on top of the bucket and rolling the bucket on the ground. Obviously, it didn't work, he got too eager and let go of the lid, which fell down and the fodder spilled out of the bucket.

Back to the main story, Alex and Jake were on their bikes, driving through a forest. They were nearly 10 kilometers away from their homes, having fun driving through the rarely touched roads and stopping every once in a while to catch their breath or just talk without having to yell in the middle of a forest. They were further than their parents allowed, they were told to be within 5 kilometers of the countryside but Alex convinced Jake to go further, his reasoning being that if they were quick and took a shortcut through a small and narrow path in the forest then they would arrive before their parents would start getting suspicious.

"Slow down! I can't keep up!" Yelled out Jake, being behind Alex and getting further and further back since Jake was decelerating slowly. Alex just barely heard him and looked back, a bright smile on his face.

"Then speed up! The last one to open space is the loser!" Alex yelled back, then sped up. Jake, who was tired, tried to speed up but couldn't, so he just continued slowing down. Alex gave a quick glance over his shoulder at Jake before looking back ahead.

After some time they got to a point of a turn to the right. The road was slightly elevated on one side so people on bikes don't drive off the path. Alex, being confident, continued driving fast, too fast for the turn. Of course, there was a limit to how fast you could drive on this corner without driving off the path, and Alex was going way too fast. He tried to turn right on the corner, but instead he drove off the path without his bike even having the chance to change direction. Alex crushed into a tree straight ahead and hit his head really hard, passing out almost immediately. He started bleeding from his head and his bike lied next to him.

Jake watched as Alex hit the tree head on and sped up, ignoring his exhaustion and stopping right before the turn.

"ALEX! Alex, wake up!" Jake yelled at Alex's motionless body as he ran up to Alex and started shaking him. Alex, being unconscious, didn't even register what Jake was saying. Jake continued screaming at Alex to wake up as he took out his phone to call an ambulance, but since they were in the middle of a forest, there was no signal. The only thing that Jake could think of doing was bandaging Alex's head and then getting to an open field. The only way out was either continuing on the unknown to Jake path or turn around and go back to where he came from. Another option was not going through the paths and instead going through the forest dense with trees, but this option meant having to walk almost 2 kilometers on foot which would take a long time.

Jake took off his shirt and applied it as a bandage on Alex's head. Now, he didn't know what to do. Does he leave Alex and drive on his bike? Does he carry Alex? He considered the two options, on one hand, taking Alex with him would allow him to make sure he's okay, on the other hand, leaving Alex and driving his bike would be faster. Both had downsides, the first meant that it would take a long time, and the second meant that he couldn't check up on Alex and couldn't help him if something were to happen. In the end, he decided to take his bike and go back where he came from. He knew that something unexpected could happen while he was away but still decided to take the risk.

He took his bike and drove off. Any exhaustion was ignored. Jake's only goal right now was getting help, nothing else mattered. After about 6 minutes he was at the edge of the forest. He took out his phone and looked if he had signal, seeing that he did made him the most relieved he ever was.

As he called the emergency number his heart raced, the thought of losing his best friend terrified him and the sight of so much of his blood made him dizzy. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity someone picked up. When asked where he was Jake gave the name of the forest and how to get to where he was. He gave any information was asked of him if he could. When the operator asked about Alex, Jake could only give a vague description and say that he wasn't near him.

Meanwhile, on Alex's side, he wasn't in the best condition. Scratch that, he was in a seriously bad condition. His blood seeped into Jake's shirt, painting it a deep red and he was still unconscious. He was bleeding a lot. A lot more than Jake predicted. Alex was slowly getting closer and closer to death as minutes passed. What's worse was that the shortcut they took was not known by many people, so Jake had to wait for the ambulance to arrive and take them there.

The ambulance finally arrived after a minute and Jake rushed ahead with them towards Alex. Once they got close to Alex they ran off-road to him.