The winter winds were howling around the car as it sped along the highway toward the big city, returning from yet another great night back home. The driver was in a good mood, as he was every time he came out here, but was eager to get some sleep before classes the next day.

He had made his way back to the dojo again. Since he went off to college, he found that he couldn’t make class twice each week any more, but he could still come back once each month. In his freshman year, he used the trains to get back, but now, his parents let him have the car at school, so he was able to drive, and the commute took substantially less time.

In the seat next to him sat his Gi, his black Obi, and his sparring gear. That was all he took; he couldn’t take his weapons with him to school, so those were still at home. His teacher let him practice with the spares in the dojo, though, so it wasn’t a big deal. The young man considered sneaking his Bo staff and escrima sticks in, but in a city that was really strict on weapons, it didn’t exactly come across as the wisest idea. He certainly couldn’t get sai, kama, nunchaku, or knives in.

Not that it mattered either way. He was a student of Karate, Empty Hand, for over fifteen years now, so weapons weren’t his priority. They were just a little extra fun.

He had his driving playlist playing in the car, positively blasting the music at the highest volume. Normally he would keep it quieter while driving, but late at night, the highways were almost always vacant, save for a car or two here and there. As long as he intently watched the road, there was no real hazard to keeping his music on. His favorite song, Southern Comfort Zone by brad Paisley, came on, and he felt a burning need to join in the joyous music.

“Oh, I love this one,” he said to himself.

He started merrily singing along to the tune as he approached the bridge back into the section of the city where his school was located. He had to slow down to pay with the EZ Pass, but as soon as he was through the gate, he jumped right back to the speed he had been moving along at before. Though as he approached the bridge, he had to slow down a little bit.

The bridge looked stark up top, but it was no surprise this late at night. Few enough people ever went into the city at night, and by now, most people had already come out who were normally would. He always felt bad for commuters; taking so long just to get to work basically added an unpaid hour onto the day.

As he drove down into the lower section of the bridge, normal for his route, he thought about the work he had to do for the following week. He had two essays to write, Calculus problems to complete, and a physics assignment. It wasn’t so much though, especially since it was just a Mechanics class, as opposed to Quantum Theory like the previous semester. He still couldn’t comprehend how that insanity worked, and certainly never would. He was just happy to pass.

Southern Comfort Zone concluded, and a new song played. It was a happy little tune; All Star, by Smash Mouth. These guys were just too classic not to play on a car ride to and from a place that had been so important to him for so long. He started singing along, as he always did, even when his throat pleaded with him not to. As he sang, he approached the joining point for getting into the under section of the bridge.

Before he could get very far into the song, though, another car sped along and didn’t see him coming into the lane. It tried to switch lanes where it wasn’t allowed to and smashed into the side of the car, denting it a good five inches. The young man was thrown sideways and lost control of his vehicle as it was thrown sideways.

Seconds later, the car smashed into a support beam for the bridge and destroyed the protective barrier keeping cars on the bridge. Torn metal shredded and impaled the car it as it hung off the side of the bridge, held in place only by the barrier sticking into it.

The young man inside was no better off; dazed and concussed, he sat in the driver’s seat, unmoving. After what seemed like an eternity, he finally opened his eyes and looked around. The car was totaled, and as he looked left, he was looking up at the ceiling of the bridge. To his right, he could see the river, hundreds of feet below.

In the distance, someone was screaming something, but he couldn’t make out what. He tried to move to get out of the car before it plummeted to the river below, but some very painfully kept him locked in place. When he looked down at his own body, he saw a shard of metal just sticking into his side. The right door had been ripped clean off the car, and the torn barrier went straight into the car and into his body. He felt wet all over, and now, he could see red liquid steadily and quickly following the path created by the intruding metal barrier.

The car lurched toward the river; the young man knew that this wasn’t going to work out for him in the end. Unless some hero besides the person who smashed him into this situation in the first place came to save him, he was done for.

Who would have thought it would end this way? After so much scuba diving, so many years of martial arts, plans on joining the military, it was a damn car crash from some jerk that wasn’t paying attention that would kill him. The car lurched again.

“Well, I guess I had a good life,” the young man said weakly to himself. At least, he thought he did. Maybe he imagined saying that.

Twenty years old, and he had had some awesome adventures around the world. He grew up very fortunate, and his parents provided him with a lot. He hated that they were about to lose their son; they didn’t deserve this. As the car lurched one last time, he thought about what they would have wanted for him.

The car slipped off the bridge and began its final journey, making a final advance on the murky depths of the brine. As it fell down, it slowly rotated so the young man could watch the water rapidly advancing on him. It wasn’t so bad, though; at least he didn’t have a metal shard sticking into his side any more.

The car slammed into the water and threw the young man forward. He hadn’t noticed that the airbag already deployed, so when the car struck the surface of the river, his head was thrown forward and slammed into the now deflated bag, bringing on the blackness of unconsciousness. Right as he slipped out of the world, the young man thought about what was to come.

“Finally get to know the mystery.”

As the pain faded away, the young man departed this world, and was left to freely wander into that vast, wild blue yonder known only as the unknown.