5 The Other Side of the Hedge by E. M. Forster

The narrator was running an unending race. He kept looking at his pedometer to make sure he was making some progress. The road is monotony and he was tired, so he stopped. He began thinking about what's on the side of the road. He decided that he would take a look on the side of the road then quickly come back to the road he was on. He crawled through the thorns and he lost everything he has and was hurt. At last he dropped into a moat. He struggled to get up until an old man pulled him up on the other side of the moat. The old man told him that many had come, but few returned to the other side. He asked the old man where the road they were on leads, but he said that it goes nowhere. The narrator was stumped. He desperately wanted to get back, but the old man would not allow him to. They saw a white gate opens outward that leads to the road, but the gate was shut. The old man told him it was the beginning of the road where all people left, but they will also come back through another door when they were tired and left dead. He was surprised to meet so many people he knew. He felt sympathy for those people who work for nothing in this world. The narrator was hungry and tired, but he knew he couldn't sleep or else he will never get back. Then he saw another gate opening inward that is half transparent. A man with beer running past the narrator. The hungry and thirsty narrator ran towards him and snatched the drink out of his hand and began drinking. Then he saw the old man shuts the gate saying all humanity will come through this gate. The man whose drink the narrator stole was his brother.