Thomas moved slowly, each step a negotiation between pain and panic.
The creature was long gone, but the fear hadn't left with it. It clung to him, thick and cold in his chest. His ankle throbbed badly, probably twisted. His side still burned from the shallow gash. He kept pressure on it, stumbling between trees that glowed faintly in the alien dark.
Everything was wrong.
The air tasted strange. The ground pulsed faintly beneath his feet, like it was alive. The sky above stretched endless and purple, stars swimming in it like fish in deep water.
And the silence. Something about it gnawed at him. It wasn't just the absence of sound. It felt like the world was holding its breath.
He limped forward until he spotted something shiny half-buried in the glowing moss.
A water bottle. Sealed. Cold.
Next to it, a torn plastic bag with energy bars and something that looked like trail mix.
He dropped to his knees, teeth clenched against the pain, and grabbed the bottle with shaking hands.
Not poisoned. Not cursed. Just water.
Real. Cold. Familiar.
He drank too fast, coughing as it hit his throat, but it grounded him. Reminded him he was still alive.
He sat there for a moment, pressing the bottle against the side of his face, when a noise made him flinch.
Footsteps.
He pushed himself up, instinct screaming. He turned, hands open, ready to run even if he couldn't.
Then he saw her.
A girl, maybe a little older than him. Dirt on her jeans, her sleeves torn, her dark hair tied back in a loose, messy braid. She held a long stick sharpened into a crude spear, but her posture wasn't threatening.
She was breathing hard, wide-eyed and tense.
"Don't move," she said, her voice rough from shouting or fear or both.
"I'm not," Thomas said quickly. "I'm not armed."
She blinked, then lowered the spear slightly.
"I just… sorry," she muttered. "I didn't know if you were something else."
He let out a breath. "I get it."
They stood in silence for a moment, both of them clearly trying to figure out what came next.
"I'm Thomas," he offered. "Thomas Zane."
"Nia Calder," she replied.
She looked like she wanted to say more, then seemed to change her mind. Her eyes flicked toward the bottle in his hand.
"There's stuff like that all over," she said. "I found this spear and a backpack a few minutes ago. Random gear. Just lying around."
"You think they want us to survive?" Thomas asked.
Nia gave a humorless laugh. "I don't think they care. I think they just want to see what we'll do."
Thomas glanced down at the bag of food. "You just got here too?"
She nodded. "Same as you. I was walking home from work, and then…" She made a vague motion with her hand, like she was wiping fog from a window. "The sky cracked. And then I woke up here."
Thomas felt something cold slide down his spine. "So everyone?"
"All at once," Nia said. "A couple dozen people woke up in a clearing near me. Some ran. Some stayed. Nobody knows anything. Not where we are. Not what those monsters are. Not why we're here."
Thomas let the silence settle for a few seconds.
"I thought maybe you knew something," he said.
Nia shook her head. "I was hoping you did."
He laughed, a quiet, dry sound that didn't feel good. "Yeah. Figures."
The two of them stood in the middle of the glowing forest, surrounded by twisting trees and strange light, unsure of where to go or who to trust.
Nia finally looked at his ankle.
"You're hurt."
"Just twisted," he said. "The side's bleeding a little."
"I saw one of those things too," she said quietly. "Tall. Bone-thin. It didn't see me."
Thomas looked down at his hand.
"My screen said I had some ability. Null Field. It let me hide. Just barely."
"Mine hasn't shown up yet," Nia said. "I saw something about syncing… whatever that means."
Thomas hesitated. "Do you think this is just one place? Like what if there are more? Different zones for different people?"
Nia frowned. "I don't know. It feels… designed. Like someone built this just for us."
"For who though?" he asked.
She didn't answer.
Because there was no answer.
Just trees, and silence, and the faint whisper of something breathing too deep in the woods.
They didn't speak for a long while after that. Just stood there, sharing a bit of food, taking careful sips of water. The fear hadn't gone away, but it wasn't as loud anymore.
Eventually, Nia turned to him.
"We should move. Stick together. At least until we find others. Or shelter."
Thomas nodded.
Yeah. Shelter. Safety. If those things even existed here.
He looked up at the sky again, the stars shifting slowly across the purple dome, and knew something with complete certainty.
They weren't in the real world anymore.
And nothing was going to be fair.