Lost

Chapter 4: Missing

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Zayn held on to the rods that supported the seat. The bus continued to swerve at unpredictable tangents. Thrashing about in an uncontrolled manner, he kept losing his hold on the iron rods. A faint scream reached his ears over the howling wind. He opened one eye a blink. Appalled, he realized the girl in the weird dress was no longer clinging onto the pole.

The wind whipped at him, yanking at his body into the whirlpool. Zayn bent his elbows to pull himself away from the door. The bus skidded again. Something heavy landed on his head and slid across his body. Much to his dismay, he experienced a forceful tug away from the seat.

Zayn's gaze shot down.

Oh no!

The bag that had dropped onto his head mere seconds ago, was now flying and banging in the doorway; its strap having gotten caught around his foot. Zayn tried to rid himself of the weight by twisting his ankle but it was heavy, and the whipping wind was making things hard.

Driving around a bend, the wheels of the bus skidded on the wet road yet again. A crack above snapped his attention to the luggage rack overhead. A heavy suitcase was inching on its way out, much to his horror. Before Zayn could even formulate the thought of somehow moving out of the way, the heavy weight had already crashed on his head. The anguish cry that escaped his lips mixed with the noisy wind, and pain shot through his skull like it had cracked open. Blinded, he lost his grip, and got thrown down the steps. He impulsively grabbed at the suitcase stuck in the door-frame. However, his body ramming into the case knocked it free. A split second realization occurred. He was about to fall to his death with the slipping suitcase. Terrified, he made a desperate attempt to switch his hold onto the frame of the bus.

Unfortunately, it was already too late.

The speeding bus knocked his fingers away. Intense pain shot through the digits of his right hand. Zayn's eyes widened catching just a blur with the bus zooming past him. A deafening scream left his throat. His cry was cut short, however, when all breath was knocked out of his system. Surprisingly, he bounced off a surface instead of painfully crashing to his death, but before he could comprehend what was happening, he was already shooting down the slope.

The wind blew Zayn's hair into his face. It took him sometime to realize, his crazy fall was causing him no physical damage. He forced opened his eyes, just enough to peek through his lashes. The green and brown of the ground below was blurring away as he somehow floated over it. Seeing his fingers clinging around a grey, gauze imprinted surface, Zayn realized he was still straddling the suitcase. Branches slapped him upside the head, making him duck and flatten against the case. He tucked his elbows in, in fear of getting knocked by a tree trunk or a jutting piece of rock. Although it threw him out of the bus, the case plummeting down the steep slope was cushioning his fall.

Until, the slope cut to sheer drop of no less than twenty feet. The suitcase jerked to an abrupt halt with its handle getting caught onto a branch it had just snapped. The sudden break shot Zayn straight out into the air. Then, like a pancake, he flipped midair. His body floated over nothing before nosediving. Blood rushed to his brain and his ears muted out. With his eyes popping out with fear, he plunged headfirst to the thick forest below. The fast approaching branches of an oak tree were about to slap him in the face. His vision darkened just as he felt a faint rush of leaves. He was mostly unconscious by then. His eyes went in and out of focus. He slammed on the fork of a stout branch that was enveloped in a cloud of a thick, green foliage. Zayn was only vaguely aware of his breath getting knocked out, before he passed out completely.

***

"Hey." Someone patted Asim's cheek. "Mate, wake up."

He opened his eyes slowly.