I was woken up by the slam of the door.

“Where am I?” I mumbled.

I was in a car, which was turned off, in front of a gas station. Oh, fuck that’s right I was kidnapped.

I tried to use my superpowers but once again to no avail. Man that was depressing, I shed a silent tear as my dreams once again slipped out of my reach. But I didn’t have long to mourn as I realised someone was sitting next to me.

Thorn, that handsome little shitnugget, he was eating an egg and ham sandwich with a cup of steaming coffee on the dashboard. I had a sandwich in front of me as well, packed to the brim with salad and other disgusting vegetables.

“Hey. Where’s my coffee?” I asked as I tore open the packet. I felt like I could have eaten a horse.

No answer, instead he switched the radio on. Which was currently reading the morning news.

“-And the Annual Rain Harvest festival was met with disaster as hooligans claiming to be crown supporters hijacked and drove a truck in to the fairgrounds. Eight killed and fifteen injured reports Miles-”

The channel was abruptly switched to once again the sound of smooth jazz.

“Hey what the hell? Why do we have to listen to this shit again?” I cried.

That earned me a glare but no remark.

We sat sitting in silence, well as silent as you can be when the radio is on while I finished the rest of my meagre breakfast.

“I need to pee.” I eventually said. Once again there was no response so I exited the vehicle and approached the gas station. It wasn’t much, just a single cashier and a couple of isles of snacks but I needed to go around the back by the look of that sign. As soon as I turned the corner I sprinted as fast I could away from the place.

I ran and ran, only to realise there was nothing anywhere for miles, it was flat grassland in all directions. Ah shit, I slowed to a walk before trudging back to the station and taking a leak. In all honesty I could probably make a break for it, but Thorn would be able to spot me pretty easily if he drove a couple of hundred meters in the general direction.

With dampened spirits I got back to the car only to find Thorn smiling thinly at me, the bastard. He probably knew I was going to run away from the beginning and planned the entire thing, well I haven’t given up yet.

Once I got in he started up the engine and with a rumble we were off, cruising along the open road for who knows how long, it was really relaxing actually. I probably dozed off at some point but I never realized since nothing changed save for the movement of the sun.

“What power do you have?” Thorn suddenly asked.

I blinked. “Uh, teleportation.”

He grunted.

We continued with only the sound of a sad trumpet to fill the air.

“Open the glove box.” Thorn said.

I did so, inside was a book titled ‘The Intricacies of Automobiles’.

“Eh?” I asked.

“Read it.” He commanded

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“Why?” I asked again. No answer.

Like hell I will, I don’t care about cars anyway, did he think this is what kids read these days? Was this some feeble attempt to connect with the current generation? Boys don’t care about cars anymore, well not me anyway.

I flicked through the pages, looking at the pictures. It was basically diagrams of the different parts and little descriptions for what each part did, it wasn’t too bad but I put the book back anyway. Too many words.

But as I sat there looking at the empty fields I quickly grew bored and started looking for ways to amuse myself, I played with the plastic wrap of the sandwich for a while but that grew tiresome as well. I looked around the glovebox some more but there was nothing of interest, just some writing utensils and a spare notebook. Finally with a defeated groan I grabbed the textbook again and flipped to the first page, seeing another thin smile of Thorn from the corner of my eye.

I was head deep in what was called a catalytic converter when the car started slowing down. Looking up I noticed that we weren’t in the grasslands, in fact we were surrounded by tall pines that reached up to twenty meters in to the sky, with snow peaked mountains poking up in the distance.

The road was rough and bumpy, full of potholes and bridges that went over sudden drops, like some fantasy movie sequence shot. And it had a sort of rugged beauty in the landscape that you could only appreciate with Downtown Blues.

A small town came in to view in the base of one of the valleys, the afternoon sun casting scant light on the houses.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“Seoul.” Came the reply, which was just as much as a surprise as the name. Seoul was famous for its tourism, being one of the northernmost cities of Gordon, located right on the border of the Kingdom of Fergus. Hundreds of thousands of tourists part through here every year and as a result it was a veritable hotspot for all kinds of attractions, it was a pretty expensive place.

As we made our way down the mountain the road became smoother and smoother until we were once again cruising effortlessly along. But before I could get used to the feeling Thorn abruptly turned off the road and we were on gravel. But he didn’t go far before he pulled over and switched the engine off.

“Where are we?” I asked as we got out of the car. I really should have known better by now but the recent answer gave me hope.

Thorn went to the back and opened the trunk, inside was a series of cases, all different sizes. Grabbing the largest one we started a long trek up a mountain trail that was hardly visible in the gloom.

“I don’t like this.” I complained. “I’m cold, I’m hungry and you’re taking me into a dark forest. A place that is famous for people getting murdered in.”

Silence. How fucking comfortable must it be to only answer questions when one felt like it.

The walk was a good half hour and by the time we made it to wherever the hell we were my sneakers were thoroughly drenched from the wet grass. And I was really fucking cold but Thorn looked like he was having a stroll in the park.

But when we did make it, which I mean by the time I was swearing my ass off, we were quite high up, with a little ledge just above us, when I peeked over it I could see the entire valley. Not the one where Seoul was located in but a different one, this one still full of pines and rocks and other nature stuff. Right at the bottom I spied a little creek flowing through the very bottom, it was very beautiful.

“Hey Thorn do you think you could-”

A pair of binoculars was thrust into my hands, which surprised my but in a pleasant way, allowing me to look out into the great beyond with a great deal more scrutiny. As I looked through the trees I spied a number of people actually, most in fluorescent vests and hard hats. They were taking measurements on the ground and had little clipboards with them, probably geographers measuring the erosion level of something. I also spotted some campers on the other side of the valley, setting up their tents and campfire in the wilderness, I smirked, good luck to anyone going camping in autumn. And I also saw a car parked up somewhere with a bunch of men in suits talking, they even had little suitcases with each other and doing the whole handshaking shebang.

BANG

“FUCK!” I shouted, jumping in the process. My heart was going at a thousand beats per minute as my fight or flight instincts kicked in, ready to bolt. Looking next to me I found Thorn lying on his belly, tux and all, holding in his hands a fucking sniper rifle with its barrel smoking right next to where I was.

“SHIT ON A STICK! MAKERS ASSHOLE WHAT THE FUCK!” I cried, my voice hysterically high pitched.

The motherfucker was smirking as he stood up but his voice didn’t betray any emotions, as always. “Look at the car.”

“What car you fuck? Did you just shoot someone? Fuck!” I was still being stupid.

He got twitch of annoyance at that and pointed.

“What?” I looked through my binoculars and saw the car.

One of the suit dudes was lying on the ground in a pool of his own blood. His fellows nowhere in sight, probably ran after they saw him topple over. I was slightly shaking from the entire ordeal but Thorn was already walking back.

“Fuck.” I breathed.