Chapter 3 3:Crisis

A sigh escaped from his lips as he walked through the empty lane with a heavy heart.

His arms holding the small package unknowingly felt heavy for some reason.

Various emotions flashed in his eyes as he looked at it. He knew that his father might have been expecting to see a joyful expression on his face as soon as he gave him the package, however, he was too stressed at the moment to react.

"My dull reactions must have hurt him. I should have at least pretended to be happy."

Sigh...

"I should thank him for this wonderful gift in the evening."

Truthfully, he didn't want to go to college today but he was afraid.

Afraid of being alone.

It might sound like a joke that a grown-up man is afraid after just a simple nightmare but the nightmare seems to be etched in his mind and no matter what he does, it is not going out of his mind.

Currently, he is really afraid of the sickening nightmare that was haunting him.

It wasn't the first time he had a nightmare.

Everyone goes through countless bad dreams that agitate everyone greatly. He was also one of them and he had gone through many nightmares previously.

He had dreamed of falling off a cliff, he had dreamt of getting hit by a truck and similarly, he had dreams that were worse enough to wipe off his sleep but he never had such a dream which had messed up his mind.

When he opens the tap, instead of water he feels blood coming out of it.

When he saw breakfast, he saw clumps of rotten meat stuffed on the plate.

When he looked at glass water, instead of water there would be blood on it.

When he passed through garbage dumps, he would have the illusion of bodies piled up above one after another.

His feet become heavy and he seems to sink deep into an endless abyss and corpses seem to be all around him.

Sickening and weird scenes like this were overlapping his sight if he let his mind wander even for a moment.

Instead of suffocating yourself by staying alone, it's better to go to college and mingle with your friend.

Once his mind was occupied he was sure that all this would be over.

'I guess, I should look for a doctor if this sickening feeling does not stop.'

Beep...Beep...

He walked into the train with just one minute remaining before its departure.

Finding a seat, he slumped down on the couch comfortably and looked at the outside scenery trying to relax but he was interrupted by a soft voice beside him.

"Is this a book?"

"Huh!" Roy stared at the man in disbelief.

With a bewildered expression, he turned his head to the other side and asked"How did you know?"

Beside him sat a man who seemed to be in his 40s and had a gentle smile on his face.

"Sticker.."

"There is an ISBN on it and being an author myself, I felt the package looked familiar."

Roy felt exasperated for a moment as a stranger was conversing with him out of nowhere.

Not wanting to sound rude, Roy replied with a smile"It's a gift from my father. I was in a hurry so I wasn't able to open it."

"Why don't you open it now? I also wanted to buy it but I wasn't able to get my hands on it due to limited sales."

Roy squinted at the man while wondering what kind of book was this. He was sure that his father wouldn't give him his favourite type of novel.

Most of the books he got as gifts were an encyclopaedia and books of other people's biography and a mental exercise test book.

His curiosity got the better of him and he unwrapped the package.

Inside the package was a book with a golden cover that reflected the golden rays of the sun.

Roy's eyes scanned the book and his eyes struck at the title of the book.

[Dawn Of Legend Volume 2]

He closed his mouth with his hands to stop himself from screaming out due to excitation.

It was his favourite book.

Volume one of this was released a year ago.

Volume one was a hit so they decided to print 10,000 limited hard copies. The webnovel version was going to release next week.

The happiness of getting the book outclassed all the negative emotions he had.

His mood which was at the bottom of the pit rose straight towards heaven.

"Oh, my God!"

"Dad, you made my day."

"Hahaha!"

"You are trying too hard to suppress your excitement."

Roy heard a chuckle from the old man beside him who patted his shoulder.

The train stopped and the man stood up hearing the announcement.

"My station has arrived."

"Young man, you have a rough journey ahead."

"I hope you can face the ordeals."

"Good luck."

The old man stood up and walked back with an uncanny expression.

Roy wanted to say something hearing the odd words but he was only able to say thank you.

He wanted to ask what the man meant but the man had already run away.

"What a weird man?"

"Maybe he is talking about the contents of the book?"

"Is the ending too hard to swallow?"

"Did the author pull out some kind of shit?"Roy muttered wondering about the man's words.

Roy spoke and shrugged his shoulders and opened his book.

He had felt a bit better and seemed to get rid of the sickening emotion after sitting on the train and to further distract himself, he decided to dig into the book right now.

He opened the cover on the first page and read the words on it.

[This book is dedicated to those who had threaded through the path of darkness and lit up the path for others at the cost of their life.]

"Isn't this too heavy to put on the first page?"

Roy's heart surged with an uncanny emotion after reading this, he skimmed the next page only to be mortified.

His lips opened wide and his jaw almost dropped onto the ground.

"What...How?"

Roy's hands trembled as he saw the blank page one after another and as he skimmed through the entire book, his expression turned worse.

"Bloody bastard."

"Is this a joke?"

"How the hell did a blank book go unnoticed?"

"Is this a scam?"

Roy cursed the scammer and his heart ached on seeing the 9.99$ price dollar tag on the unwrapped foil.

Roy felt as if he had been betrayed and his emotions were cheated.

"Father might go over the publishing company head after knowing that he was scammed."

He looked out and saw the wide river channel on which the train was passing.

Roy gritted his teeth and was about to throw the book to the side when the train jerked.

"Kyakkk!"He groaned as he was thrown off balance causing his head to hit the side. The compartment jolted and tumbled.

A huge explosion shook the train wildly. The cabin shook and the train running on the railroad staggered sideways.

Roy held onto the handles of his seat in one hand and wrapped his other on the rail bar of the window strongly to balance his body but the force that yanked him was too much.

As he wondered what was going on, his eyes widened as the entire compartment was thrown upside down and before he could know what was going on, another compartment came crashing down onto them.

The loud screeching noise almost burst his eardrum and his vision was blinded for a moment.

BOOM!

Splinters of metal were flung and tossed around as some compartments of the train burst due to the collision while some were squeezed.

Flames started to run rampant all around, and a cacophony of shrieks and screams filled with sorrow echoed throughout the place followed by chaos.

The train derailed from the track causing an unfortunate accident and shrouding the entire area with darkish smoke rising towards the sky.n0veluSB.C0m

In the midst of all this, compartments rolled over one another and collided one after another.

And to make the matter worse all of this happened when the train was over the bridge crossing through a narrow river canal.

Some of the compartments broke through the coupling and broke through the bridge side framework and fell into the river.

After a few moments, everything came to standstill.

People who were alive and able to maintain their consciousness tried to get out of the compartments and move away.

Cement, dust and concrete fragments mixed muddling everyone's visions.

"The bridge might fall. We should get out of here."

A man shouted as he came out and saw large cracks at the edges of the bridge and a few compartments that had already fallen and pulled over the others.

They gasped in fear as they saw the scene.

"How do we get out? The compartments are blocking this site while the other end of the bridge has been broken."

"Do we have to jump down into the river? But I don't know how to swim?"More people came out with tears, dust and blood staining their faces.

And among them, a young man in his early 20s staggered and fell.

Through the broken window slits, he struggled his way out.

His vision was blurry and he felt a cool sensation over his head as blood trickled down from his head.

He scanned around and saw a tense atmosphere.

Fortunately, the bridge had two tracks and was quite wide which allowed the train to stop after being dragged for a bit.

The driver must have stepped on the brake noticing the anomaly from before.

Because of the driver's cautiousness, they were alive for now however the engine compartments and a few others at the front were unlucky and broke, threw the suspenser and the deck fell into the river causing a loud blast.

Although it was unfortunate for them however due to this the bridge was at least standing because if the engine exploded on the bridge who knew what could have happened?

Twisting his body he leaned on the crushed compartment and took out the bottle took a few sips to revitalise himself and clear away his muddiness.

He could hear gentle vibrations inside the compartment, there were still people squeezed in there.

His ear which had become numb for a moment started to fill up with shrieks and cries.

He could hear moans and sobs from inside the compartment however he was too injured to help them.

He thanked his luck for getting the window sit which allowed him to get out first however

Seeing water, the people who were around him felt thirsty and moved towards him.

"Child, can you please let me have a sip."

"God will bless you."

Roy had no qualms about it as he had another two stored in his backpack.

As the man came closer.

TREMBLE!

The ground shook as people started to come closer.

"Stop! Don't come here."

"It's breaking down."

Their hearts started to thump wildly.

It was at that moment, a man stumbled forward.

It was an insignificant scene but as the man slammed into the cabin, the ground suddenly shook once more.

Roy and the rest could barely hold onto their wits when their hopes along with their lives came crashing down.

The cable suspensor against which the group of cabins supported themselves broke and slid down the bridge.

SCREECH!

RUMBLE!RUMBLE!RUMBLE

Roy who was supporting the body against the cabin felt his heart come out of his throat and reacting to the emergency, he sprang forward to avoid being hit, in case the cabin rolled or the ground under them broke.

Unfortunately, his shirt was tucked onto the railing beside the window and his body was pulled.

The ground under them broke and many people fell where some were saved by others.

The others who were watching the scene were left horrified but letting out a shriek jumped back in fear.

"Ahhh... hah..."

With loud cries along with a grunt of pain, several cabins fall into the river.

However, amidst all this, Roy was able to land safely in the river as he fell after the compartments fell.

Amid the fall, he tore away his shirt which avoided him from being pulled down by the heavy compartments.

The river had a depth of around 2-3 meters as one could see the pieces of debris floating all around.

Roy was a novice when it comes to swimming, however, with scraps floating all around, he just needed to hold onto them and wait for the rescue team.

His heart was beating frantically and his body was trembling violently due to fear; however, his adrenaline kept him from losing himself and helped him to react quickly.

"Damn...Damn..."

"What the hell?"

Roy bit his lips.

He wanted to curse his luck but stopped. He felt that at least he was lucky to be alive.

'Is this what it feels like to have plot armour?'

'Thank God for sparing this lamb.'

In a way, it was way better and safer to be in this situation rather than to be struck up on the bridge which could fall off any moment.

Since it was a river that flows through the city, there were no sharks nor was there any threat from dangerous sea creatures.

Roy sighed in relief and just when he thought of thanking God again for having mercy on him, something fell over him and blinded his vision.

BANG!

A metallic arch of the bridge fell over him and hit Roy's head sinking him to the river floor.

As he hit the bottom, he touched something.

The blood trickling from the bloodied figure was sucked down by something which started to emit a golden austere.

If Roy saw the scene he would have jumped in fright.

'Bloody hell, how did this book come here?'

It was the same book his father had gifted him today.

The book was opened and pages skimmed one after another followed by heavy gusts of wind after a few drops of blood fell over it.

A small whirlpool was created which engulfed Roy.

The book which was soaked in blood suddenly glowed with golden austere enveloping Roy's whole body in dazzlingly bright light.