I was flying. At least before I felt the impact. The car slammed sideways into the ground with a loud crunch. I felt my left wrist sickeningly snap in two places. The car bounced several feet before slowing into a roll down the mountainside. I was frozen in fear, unable to move. I felt a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach. Adrenaline was flowing through my body, but I knew it wouldn’t help with anything. If I even managed to survive, my hand would probably be infected. I realized that I might die right now. That I might never see my wife and never meet my unborn kid. I looked out of the window and saw that my car was slowing down. I was in too much of a shock to feel anything at the moment. Then I saw it. A deep gorge that my car was rolling right into. I stared out through the window. Nausea began to cloud my vision. I saw the ground disappear beneath me as I plummeted into the darkness. Jerking forwards into the wheel I passed out.

You’re probably wondering what’s going on.

It was 9:27 PM. I was driving down a mountain road in the rain. There was no one on the road but me, and I could barely see anything. I was coming home from work in the city and was supposed to have been at home several hours ago. Unfortunately, the road I usually took was blocked tonight, so I had to take a different path at which point I had gotten lost. So here I was driving on a slippery road in the dark. My headlights barely helped as they glared into the fog. There was a turn up ahead, but it came way faster than I expected. I swerved my wheel, but it was too slippery. The car swung out in a wide angle and slammed into the metal supports on the side of the road, taking them off with it. The vehicle was thrown off of the road with me inside. This is where everything began.

I opened my eyes. Blackness. “Am I dead?” I wondered. “No.” I thought. “You don’t feel pain when you’re dead.” My eyes were adjusting to the blackness now. I saw that I was lying on an airbag that was protruding from my steering wheel. “Maybe my lights work?” I asked myself. I reached for the top light. My hand felt extremely odd. I dropped my hand. More of that odd feeling. Using my right hand this time, I attempted to turn on the lights. They worked.
I looked around. Everything in the car that was movable had been strewn everywhere. All of my work papers were all over the car. The only thing that hadn't moved was the thermos of coffee. It was sitting still as if to mock me. Looking outside, everything was still black. My left hand felt out of place. I was afraid to look down, but out of curiosity I did. My hand was broken. Very badly broken. I could see a point on the skin where the bone was almost sticking out. Grimacing, I looked away and turned on my headlights. I could see where I was now. A gorge. A huge, deep gorge. Like two endless walls converging somewhere in the darkness. My car was jammed into it. Just the perfect position that it wouldn’t plummet into God knows where. I was sitting straight and instantly knew that the car was in its normal position. This was good. It meant that I would be able to think better. I knew that I couldn’t stay here forever and would have to get out soon. But the doors were jammed, closed tight by the sides of the cavern. The car creaked loudly. The car creaked again and shuddered. “Now what?” I asked myself.

Then I remembered that cell phones existed.

After telling myself how stupid I had been I reached into my work bag and groped around. Something stabbed my hand, and I pulled it out in surprise. my hand was bleeding. After wiping my hand on the door I took my bag and dumped its contents on the passenger seat. Then I realized what had stabbed me. It was my cell phone. Shattered in a million pieces. My heart sank. I was alone.
I knew that I shouldn't have stayed after hours. My wife told me about the storm and how slippery the roads would be! But me, being so organized, HAD to stay and finish what I needed to do. I was really mad at myself. I can be so pigheaded sometimes. Life is usually straightforward, but sometimes it throws a rock that you have to dodge or be hit with. I had been an idiot to stay. I am a really productive person and never get sidetracked. Especially not with my job. I work for a huge company that is working on breakthroughs in technology. A lot of what goes on in the building is a mystery so that other companies can’t steal our ideas.  I am in charge of all of the materials that are shipped into the building.
How was I going to get out of this? I scanned the car. The cracked windows, the bent steering wheel, the strewn papers everywhere. I looked up and saw that the sunroof was opened a crack. I would get out of the car through the sunroof. I would at least be one step closer to escaping this mess.
I stood up just enough to be able to reach the handle and I pulled it. The cover slid out of the way. I sat back down and pressed the button that opened the roof. It slid a little bit, but then it stopped. I had a feeling that would happen. I thought. I got up, reached for the glass, and pushed it with all of my strength. The glass resisted at first but eventually gave. The violent motion knocked me off my feet and I fell into the back seat.
Behind me I heard the sound of rocks and pebbles falling into the car. I pushed myself up and turned around to see dust and pebbles everywhere. There must have been a ton of debris on the top of the car and when I opened the roof it had poured in.
I climbed out on top of the car and a wave of freezing air, reeking of dank dampness, hit me. The cave walls had mushrooms growing on them. “Hello?” I yelled. The sound echoed off the walls; gradually fading into the darkness beyond. I walked on to the hood of my car and looked off the edge. I could see nothing but darkness below. I quickly got back on to the roof.
Since the lights were only illuminating the cave in front of the car, I would have to feel the walls out. I went to the right first and put my hands on the wall. There was some moss and fungus on it, but mostly rock. I felt up and down for something, but there was nothing. My spirits began to sink, I walked to the other side of the wall. I once again felt the wall. It was basically the same. I was about to give up on the thought when I slipped. My hands shot out to grab something and they did. My left hand popped loudly. I pulled myself up quickly. I checked out what it was. Nothing but a rock.
All of a sudden, the car creaked and dropped half a foot. I lost my balance and tumbled on to the hood, tipping the car forwards a little. “The car is falling!” My brain yelled at me. I got up as fast as humanly possible and jumped back on to the hood. I could feel the car sliding slowly down. Maybe I would be able to catch something on the cave wall. I stepped back a little bit and got ready to run. “It’s now or never!” I thought to myself. I took a deep breath and charged.
I soared into the air and grabbed emptiness. Then I hit the cave wall. The sudden impact shocked me, and I started to fall backwards into the blackness. “This is it.” I said to myself. I shut my eyes tight. Half a second passed like an eternity. Then my foot got caught on something. The rest of my body stopped short. My head hit the cave wall with a loud echoing thud.
I hung there for a while. Taking in what had just happened. A few seconds passed as I listened to the screeching of the car on stone. Then it fell. A gust of wind blew as the car plummeted an inch away from my face. I listened for 3 more seconds until I heard the faint smash.  My foot started to hurt so I took that as a sign to try to get up. I did an upside-down sit up and groped around until I found my foot. It seemed to be jammed between two stones. With some trouble I managed to pull myself up. ¨Hello?¨ I yelled into the darkness hoping that it would echo. My voice came back just as strong and then slowly faded into the darkness. But despite the darkness, I knew I was standing straight up in some kind of large passageway. At least from my guess. Just like when I was on top of my car I went to every side of the passage carefully. Just to see how large it was. It was really big. Probably eight meters from left to right. I couldn't reach the ceiling at all.

I began walking carefully along the passageway.

I had been walking for quite a few minutes until I realized that the walls were getting closer to me. After 10 minutes, I had to stoop a little. Then things got bad.
The walls had gotten so close together that I had to crawl on my hands and knees. Eventually I had to wiggle my way through the small hole that had one been a huge cavern. I was thinking of turning back when all of a sudden my hand slipped. In surprise I fell over and started sliding down some kind of natural slide. I tried to grab a hand hold but there was nothing to grab. The “slide” was unusually smooth and I started to pick up speed. The slope was getting steeper by the second. As I picked up speed though, I saw a light. It was getting closer and closer. I braced myself for the worst.
My body slammed into the ground, but the ground was not hard.

I stopped a second later.

I opened my eyes and saw white. Nothing but white. As my eyes began to adjust I realized that I was trapped in paper. A sea of paper. “Oh no….” I was stuck in one of those paper recycling plants. Machines nowadays would sort all of the recyclables into huge piles. This was the paper. The plastic was most likely in the next pile.
I suddenly realized that I was drowning. Drowning in work. All of these worksheets, homework assignments, schoolwork, writing pieces, and lost dreams. I couldn’t breathe. I was suffocating. Quite ironic actually. What I did with my life was going to kill me. I tried to swim upwards, but my left hand hurt too much. My hand, I had forgotten that it was broken. It hadn’t hurt at all until now. The sensation creeped up my body. I had a feeling that it was really badly broken. Worse than I had thought. Was I going to die like this? Surrounded by my own obsession?
No. I wasn't going to die like this. I was going to make it out of here, and I would strive to make myself a better person. I was going to start listening to people other than myself. A burst of adrenaline shot through my body and I pushed upwards. I was moving now. My hand was hurting so much.
My head broke the surface. I was gasping for air. My head was spinning with all that had happened so far. I was losing consciousness. As my vision faded I saw a police car pull up and people pointing at me. I then passed out for the second time.
???
I opened my eyes. I was in a bed. In a hospital. A huge sense of washed over me. I was alive. I had made it. I could now be the person that I wanted to become. I looked down and saw that my left hand was in a large white cast. I looked to my right and I saw a nurse standing there. She seemed pretty young. Maybe early twenties. Blonde hair, blue eyes, and her face seemed to be filled with the curiosity of a child. She smiled at me and I sat up. My head was beginning to clear.
“How long have I been out?” I asked.
“About two days.” She replied.
The statement hit me in the face. Two days? How could I have been asleep for so long?
“When the police found you, you were unconscious. We brought you here and fixed your hand up. You'll need the cast for about nine weeks.”
So it was worse than I thought.
“We contacted your wife immediately. She has been so worried these past days.” The nurse said.
“She actually visited while you were asleep.”
“Is she coming?” I asked.
“Yes. She will be here soon.” The nurse replied.
“Also, if you don’t mind, I would like to know how you ended up where you were.” She said.
“Well….” I said. “It’s a hell of a story.”
An excited look spread across her face. As I told my story, I glanced out of my window. In the distance I could see the sun setting over the mountain where it had all started. And somewhere in my soul, I knew that I had won.