When Jake woke up, he was still in the rocky hollow. The fire had gone out, but a quick pat of his clothes let him know they were dry so he wasn’t worried about that. Redressing himself in his clothes was a bit uncomfortable: a week of being worn straight and unwashed in several stressful situations had left them feeling crusty and smelling strange.
Redressed and feeling close to refreshed, Jake collected his belongings and pulled himself up and out of the hollow. It was still dark outside, the sun hadn’t risen, yet the sky had that slight tinge of light about it that let him know that sunrise would be coming at any moment. The ground itself outside of the hollow still felt slightly damp, but aside from the wooden cup he’d placed the night before, no pools of water remained anywhere on the surface.
Scooping the cup of water from the floor to enjoy a morning drink, he walked to the edge of the cliff to find that the rocky plains had naturally gathered and dispersed all the rainwater over the cliff face and into the canyon below. Looking down now he could still see dew glistening on the trees growing out the sides of the canyon and squinting even further below he could see that past the misty fog obstructing the canyon, he could now make out a mass pool of water.
It sat, still except for the occasional gust of wind, with nothing to disrupt its surface. The natural pool that didn’t exist yesterday combined with the growing foliage surrounding it amidst the rocky canyon created a serine beauty Jake couldn’t help but admire. This beauty was further magnified as the sun began to rise, cascading rays of sun off the pool in beautiful arcs of light. Jake stood, transfixed, enjoying the moment of calm till all at once he was falling again.
He was caught off guard. After he failed to leave yesterday, he had ended up accepting he would be stuck here indefinitely so to be suddenly travelling again was a welcome surprise. The sudden departure did unfortunately mean he had no hope of catching himself and once again he landed sprawled out, flat on his back.
His eyes met with blue sky and fluffy clouds obscuring a freshly rising sun and his hands felt cool, wet grass under his hands. These were both good signs in his book, as so far the easiest day of his journey had been in the forest with the apple trees and today was off to a very similar start. Sitting up excited he was immediately met with the sight of an asphalt road.
Buildings lined the roads surrounding him, what looked like fast food joints, megastores, and gas stations. None of the buildings had corners, instead filing off to a rounded curve, and the windows were all multicolored stained glass no matter how lowly the establishment. He couldn’t recognize any of the brands plastered around him or the unique architectural style dominating the area around him, but style Jake felt it hard to breathe for a moment.
He hadn’t felt so close to home in the past week as right now. The streets were clogged with cars taking the busy commute to work, but no one seemed to notice or pay any attention to Jake despite him just falling from the sky seconds ago. Looking around, the sidewalks were deserted save for one man out for an early morning jog through the park. Seeing the jogger run past, something inside Jake snapped and he lost control. Running up to the jogger, frantic look in his eyes, Jake grabbed his shoulders asking:
“Can you understand me?”
The jogger struggled desperately to break free from his grip, he wanted absolutely nothing to do with Jake. He smelled terrible, his hair was matted and stuck out at odd ends, his clothes clung to him and carried their own uniquely terrible stench, and above all the mad desperation in Jake’s eye scared the jogger. Jake ignored the jogger's attempts to shake him lose and asked once again:
“Can you understand me?”
At last the Jogger relented, fearful of what might happen if he kept ignoring Jake, shouting:
“Yes! Yes, I can, ok? Now let go of me please!”
Coming back to his senses at the jogger's panicked shouts, Jake quickly released the jogger and stepped back. The jogger sprinted away, running more than double his original speed to put as much distance between himself and the crazed hobo who had randomly latched onto him. Jake chastised himself for losing it like that so suddenly, but at the same time relief that the people here could understand what he was saying flooded in.
While he had been excited to land somewhere so like his home, he remained paranoid after his experience with the tribesman. Now, however, that paranoia was replaced fully with excitement as he looked around the shopping center across the street. He saw about two dozen stores packed together from where he was standing, but the one that stood out immediately was:
“Billy Burgers”
It looked like a cheap, worn-down fast-food place, a dime a dozen. But right now, it was flashing a neon ‘open’ sign and seemed to Jake like the most delicious place in the world. Carefully crossing the street and practically sprinting toward the door, Jake saw only a few cars parked in the parking lot.
Inside he was hit with a familiar fast-food smell that made him salivate. There were a few people ahead of him in line, and Jake was planning to just stand in line quietly till it was his turn to order but upon his entrance, everyone in lines' noses scrunched and turned to stare at him. While most soon turned back around after staring him down for a second or two, one steadfast woman ahead of him continued staring at him up till it was her time to order.
He must smell worse than he thought. He had grown used to his smell since it had gradually grown worse day by day, but even he had noticed a strange smell from his clothes this morning. If he had noticed the smell only slightly, he couldn’t imagine how bad it was for everyone else around him.
Jake felt embarrassed and felt a strong desire to leave the line immediately, but this desire was nothing when compared to his desire to fill his stomach with a burger. Finally at the counter now, he was face to face with a young teenage employee. Jake could tell from the employee’s face that he was struggling to remain professional talking to him and not react to how badly he smelled.
“Can I have three large combo burgers please?” Jake chose to ignore that and order as fast as possible. The sooner he could order the sooner he could leave.
“I’m sorry sir,” The employee said, “We only after burgers after ten thirty, all we have available right now is anything off the breakfast menu.”
“Alright, then can I have three large breakfast combos?”
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“…Which breakfast combo do you want sir?”
Jake had no idea, having not read the menu and had never been in a Billy Burgers before. He quickly glanced at the menu before choosing the first option he saw; at this point, anything was fine with him.
“The breakfast sandwich please.”
“Alright sir, two large breakfast sandwich combos come out to eleven ninety-nine, tax included. Will that be cash or credit?”
“Cash,” Jake said before pulling twenty dollars out of his wallet and handing it to the teller. The teller looked confused for a minute before looking between the dollar bill and Jake and finally saying,
“I’m sorry sir, we don’t accept foreign currency here, do you have anything else?”
Jake was flabbergasted, taking the bill back and pocketing it. He knew wherever he was wasn’t his home, but based on how similar everything was he’d still expected his cash to spend easily enough. Wordlessly he handed his debit card to the teller, without much optimism. He wasn’t very surprised when the card failed, he doubted his bank even existed here.
Taking the card back as well, he looked at the teller with a sigh and said
“Sorry about that, cancel my order”
Before starting to walk towards the exit.
“Hold on a second sir!”
The teller called out from behind the register. Jake turned around, thinking maybe he needed to collect a void receipt or something. Instead, looking left and right to make sure his manager wasn’t nearby, the employee pressed two bundled things of food into his hand and with a look of pity in his eye said
“Be safe out there”
Jake was so stunned he barely managed to squeak out a thank you before exiting the store. He couldn’t imagine anyone doing that back where he was from. If he was honest with himself, if he had been the employee he probably wouldn’t have. It seemed so small, but he probably would have just ignored the smelly man with weird unrecognizable money and gone about his job like nothing happened.
Maybe people were just kinder on this earth, or maybe just that guy was. He couldn’t understand it, but thanks to it he was now seated on a curb in front of a megastore enjoying one of his two breakfast sandwiches. It was the best thing he’d eaten all week, not that there was much competition, but given the week he’d have it was in contention for the being one of the best things he’d ever eaten.
Finishing the first sandwich and setting the second aside for later, he set the head in his hands and started to think. Why had he fallen here when he had? What was the pattern? At first, he thought it was a random freak accident, then after three days, he thought it was every twenty-four hours. Neither theory seemed true. Looking back on it, he fell through no matter if he was sleeping, standing, walking, sitting, or lying down. His physical condition didn’t matter, and it didn’t matter if he was in a building or underground or exposed to the open air. It felt different every single time, except for one common factor.
The sun. It always rose to greet him right before his fall. A smile lit up his face now. The first time he’d fallen into the desert, he’d been on his morning run right after the sun had risen. The second time he’d fallen the sun had just risen in the desert. Every time he could remember after that, he always fell through with the rising of the sun. Whatever was happening to him followed the sun. That was the best theory he had at least, and it was a theory he could work with.
Looking up, he could see it was still morning. If his theory was correct, he had plenty of time to kill here before he next fell through. But here he was penniless. With the extra breakfast sandwich he’d received and how close public restrooms were with open faucets, he could easily get food and water for today. The problem was tomorrow. Being here today was a golden opportunity he couldn’t afford to waste. Who knows when he’d next land somewhere with so many abundant resources?
Glancing behind him at the wall of the mega store he was leaning against, he started making a shopping list in his head. Every important item he might need, ranked by importance and ease of acquisition. Then, standing up with a groan and a stretch, Jake moved towards the sidewalk with his carved wooden cup, planning on busking on the sidewalk till it was closer to evening.
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As evening dawned, Jake entered the mega store with one hour till closing. His back felt sore from hunching over all day begging, but in the end, he only made what he thought was approximately a dollar and seventy cents. He didn’t particularly mind though. The begging was just a formality. If he managed to make enough money to pay for all his supplies then that would be more convenient, but he wasn’t leaving without getting what he needed.
Jake moved fast after entering the store, hoping no one had noticed him yet. After begging all day, he was distinctly aware of how bad he looked and smelled. There was no way this store wasn’t going to have at least one employee notice him and mark him as suspicious. He didn’t know how they would choose to respond from there, he guessed they wouldn’t do anything to stop him from shopping till he tried to leave without paying, but he had no guarantees.
His first stop was a decently sized camping equipment section towards the middle back of the store. Massive tents and yard chairs were put up on display to show off products, but Jake didn’t care about any of them. They were way too big or useless for him to carry right now. Instead, he turned his attention to a decently sized backpack first. It had two large pockets and three smaller pockets in the front. It didn’t feel heavy while empty and looked like it could fit a decent number of supplies when filled. It would do perfectly.
Along with the backpack, Jack also grabbed a one-man pop tent, a portable canteen, a small foldable blanket, and a flashlight. All of these items were immediately thrown into his backpack, the bag itself still carried in his arms instead of on his back as there was more to fill it with. His next stop was the hygiene section at the front right of the store. He grabbed a three-pack of bar soap, a large tube of toothpaste, and a multipack of toothbrushes and dental floss.
By now he felt paranoid, like everyone was watching him. Occasionally he swore he saw regular shoppers glancing at him from the corner of their eyes and could feel store employees closing in on him. He quickly jogged through the front of the store, only stopping briefly to grab a phone charger from a kiosk display, before reaching his final destination of food items which took up the entire left side of the store.
He wasn’t really sure what to grab at this point, nothing frozen would work and any fresh fruits or produce he bought would spoil in a few days since he couldn’t refrigerate anything. Unsure of what to do, he filled his backpack with bags of beef jerky and cans of soup, before closing it and slinging it across his back. Then, grabbing two gallons of water, he sprinted full speed for the exit.
He was certain he’d be stopped, by now he knew for a fact everyone was watching him and planning to ensnare him. He knew the employees had clocked him long ago and were waiting for security and the police to arrest him and throw him back into a pen. But instead, he ran easily out the front door past a couple of confused employees. He ignored the ringing of the electronic surveillance alarm at the front of the store and the surprised shouts of the employees. He just kept running, turning, and weaving at random down alleyways and random sidewalks for several blocks.
When at last he stopped running he was out of breath and his legs hurt again. He had ended up behind the back of a different shopping center and was currently sitting behind a completely different megastore chain to catch his breath. Taking his bag off and looking through it he was delighted to find everything on his initial list there, with the added benefit of a pop-up tent he had never even considered grabbing.
Unsure of what to do next, Jake spotted a wall outlet, jutting out the back of the building complex behind him. It was partially hidden by the shadow of a parked truck, and the only reason he noticed it was because he had decided to sit down to catch his breath.
Deciding this was as good a place as any to wait out the night, Jake unspooled his new phone cord and plugged it into the open outlet, before plugging in his phone which was barely hanging onto life support. Then Jake into the shadow of the parked truck to try and keep himself and his loot hidden. Setting a new alarm to go off in seven hours, well before the sun should rise, Jake closed his eyes and did his best to fall asleep.
He struggled for a while, his paranoia was on high alert at the moment, and every bump or creak in the night caused him to jerk up and look around, but at last, he managed to drift off into a fitful sleep.