Chapter II "Awakening"
This time, the man awoke in a grass field. It was windy and cold, but the sun beat down on his face. A cold breeze whisked his hair and entered his nostrils, filling his head with chill. While this was happening, the ground began to shake. Startled, the fellow sat up sharply as it shook more and more. At the same time, he heard a faint rumbling, which got louder and louder. Looking south, he saw a pillar of smoke and flame rising from behind a mountain. Reasoning that it was a rocket, he observed it further. As it ascended, separate boosters began falling back towards the ground.
Shielding his eyes from the sun and peering towards the dot in the sky, Darryl noticed that it was shaking quite hard, and as it began to disappear from sight, a massive fireball and a loud bang erupted in the cloudy sky. Startled, Darryl staggered back and watched with intrest, but worry, as hunks of metal began falling from the sky. Multiple smaller explosions started up as deposits of fuel in the shrapnel were lighting on fire. Out of the smoke came a small capsule with all three parachutes open. It slowly drifted while everything else settled. Hearing a faint "fhoop fhoop fhoop," Darryl turned to see a helicopter flying towards him at high speed. As it flew over and blew grass and dust everywhere, he noticed it had orange and white markings, which Darryl took as a coast guard machine.
He decided to try and walk in the direction of the explosion. If this was a dream, why was he feeling cold and the breeze? Was it just his imagination? Would he be able to walk? Taking a deep breath, Darryl sent a signal to his brain to move his legs. Surprisingly, he began walking. Proud of himself, the long trek began towards the crash site.
All the while, Darryl tried to remember what had happened before this. Unfortunately, he couldn't recall anything that happened since before he woke up. He knew that he was experiencing some sort of amnesia, but without a doctor to diagnose it, he didn't know how serious it was. Suddenly, the man stopped and reached into his back pocket. Pulling out his phone, he quickly went to his "photos" folder. As he went through his photos from the last week, his memory slowly returned.
"Yes, that's me...At the bar...There's A..Al..Al..C...Alice...I see Jack...Oh! Here's a picture of my house..."
Darryl smiled at his genius. His phone. Of course his phone. That could get him out of this if it wasn't a dream. He checked. No service. Kinda cliche, but he had other options. He would have to find some sort of building. The smoke ahead was getting thicker and thicker as he approached a hill.
Cresting the hill, he could now see the entirety of the rocket crash. Debris was strewn everywhere, and fiery hunks of metal lay al over the valley. Various helicopters and off-road vehicles were maneuvering around the scene, and various dots, which Darry took as people; were moving about.
Taking his phone out again, Darryl lay down in the dirt, and using his elbow as a bipod began zooming in using his camera. He noticed a few odd things. First, the "people" looked more like children than actual adults. He snapped a few pics of one of them, the closest to his position. The figure was wearing an orange vest over a camouflage uniform, and he had a flying helmet on. At the present moment, the 'soldier' was writing in a clipboard, while another uniformed official took pictures of the site next to him. Above them both an army-green helicopter hovered, occasionally changing it's position ever so slightly. As Darryl continued to snap photos, he heard another chopper arriving, this time much lower. Turning around, he was alarmed to find a helicopter hovering about 500 feet away from him. Looking at the open door in the side, a gleaming barrel of a rifle met his gaze. Scared and surprised, he dropped his phone and shot up his hands.
The helicopter came almost directly over him, and members of the military began to rope down to him. As they approached, Darryl noticed that the soldiers were about 3 feet tall, and had...Green skin? He took a harder look. Yup, that's green skin. The higher ranking of the two soldiers watched him with a rifle slung over his chest, while the other bound his hands. Darryl could do nothing but watch, but after a minute he couldn't contain himself.
"Who...Are you?"
The sergeant in front of him just checked his watch and said one word.
"Kerbals."