Ren stood in front of the black wall of the dome as the timer reached 0. He stayed a few steps back, prepared for the worst, but—luckily— nothing happened.
The dome simply dissolved into thin air. As it vanished, Ren saw others disappearing all around him—at least thirty—each containing someone trapped inside. Some collapsed in fear, others immediately ran up to the nearest stranger to beg for help or frantically demand explanations.
'Loud...' Ren thought as the noise swelled.
Ignoring the panicked chatter, he turned his attention to their surroundings.
And what he saw made his stomach drop.
They were gathered in a lush patch of green—trees, plants, and a pool of clear water—completely isolated inside a vast, endless stretch of desert. Fruit hung from branches and bushes, and even wooden crates lay scattered around as if someone had intentionally prepared the place.
It looked like a haven, but Ren knew better.
"This is bad... Really bad..!"
They were stranded in the middle of nowhere with no sign of rescue. No matter how peaceful this place looked, the food would eventually run out, and staying here wasn't going to magically bring them home.
"For fuck's sake..." Ren muttered under his breath.
While scanning the area, Ren noticed a girl in light purple clothing with snow-white hair staring at a stone tablet identical to his. Immediately, he summoned his own.
"Ha-ha..."
The tablet displayed the same information as before, plus new glowing words:
[Brave the desert and find one of the occupied safe bases scattered in certain oases. Those who succeed will be granted the knowledge to continue.]
Ren stopped breathing for a moment.
'This is suicide...!'
He was supposed to walk into that endless desert—basically blind—and hope to stumble onto an unknown base just to get information that may not even help them?
It sounded insane.
But staying here and dying slowly was also not an option.
"What do I do..." he whispered.
Despite being protected by the shades of the palm trees, the heat was starting to get to Ren's head which wasn't the greatest of conditions to be in right now. At the same time, the group of people finally saw the indication on their own tablet and started planning ways to survive and make it to those bases. They eventually started making multiple small groups to work together, after a bit of time most group were forming, that's when Ren decided to act.
His plan was simple, manage to get in a group with capable people to ensure reaching one of those bases. He first went to a group filled with strong and smart looking people who— for some reason— even had weapons.
"Hey friends! You all look like a tough bunch huh?"
The members of the group looked at him, and immediately shot back with:
"Go bother someone else kid."
"Wait wait wait! You didn't even let me talk!"
"We already know what you're going to ask. There's no way we'd take a scrawny kid like you with us on our team. No offense but you'd just be dead weight."
Ren looked at the group, frustrated but also somewhat understanding. In their place he would have probably done the same.
"None taken.."
Ren walked away from this humiliating defeat, and tried again with other group. Each shooting him down one, after the other. Eventually all groups were fully made leaving only 4 people behind:
Ren himself; the girl in purple from earlier; a rather big man with ginger hair, a dirty shirt and a creepy face; and a handsome man with ocean blue hair.
After seeing everyone that was left he couldn't help but think:
'Maybe going alone isn't so bad...'
The girl was back against a tree, trying to look cool, the big man had a suspicious and perverted gaze, and the last one was more preoccupied with how his reflection looked than with his own survival.
"What did I even expect.. of course I'm stuck with the weird NPCs..."
Ren sighed to himself just before the girl in purple started moving towards him. He instinctively took a step back as she got close to him, before she asked:
"You. What's your name?"
"Um.. don't you know it's rude to ask for someone's name without giving yours?"
She flinched.
"True, my name is Rita, I was a college student before ending up here."
"And what do you want..?"
"What do you mean? I obviously want to talk about what we are going to do now. "
She said in an almost mocking tone, or at least mocking to Ren.
"Excuse you? Last time I checked I never said I'd team up with you-"
He shot back with as much venom in his voice but to no avail, because she just did not listen to him.
"You looked like the only sane one other than me among us so i thought i should discuss things over with you."
After realizing it was not use arguing with that girl, Ren sighed and gave in answering her question but still not revealing his name, after all he didn't know if he could trust any of them. If theres one thing Ren knows, it's that humans will often betray each other for themselves.
"I was planning to rest up here for a few days as I gathered as much supplies as I could comfortably carry and easily ration.."
Rita nodded in agreement.
"I thought of something like that too. I'll go warn the others."
She said as she immediately left. Ren sighed right after that contemplating his current situation almost laughing at his chances of survival.
Rita easily convinced the bigger guy to join them as he gave Ren a gross smile after Rita left, she did not seem very affected by how creepy he was though.
'Ugh..' Ren thought as he smiled back.
After talking to him she went to the other guy, who was still admiring his reflection in the water and arranging his hair, while her conversation with him was not long, he did not seem against the idea of working together and staying at the Oasis for a bit. Rita this time, did seem rather annoyed after talking to him.
Two days passed before they finally decided to move. They spent the last two days gathering as much water in containers Ren found in the bags of the careless people and all sorts of durable foods and fruits they could find.
During those two days Ren managed to know the people he was bound to work with for the time being. Rita seemed like a rather calm and collected person despite having some moments of doubts as she spoke not entirely believing her own words sometimes.
The big guys name was Eric. Despite looking a bit gross and creepy at first because of his facial expression, he was actually a pretty nice guy, a gentleman even. His face just made some weird movements when under stress which makes him look dangerous.
And the last guy with them was Karma, despite his handsome and seemingly noble face he has proven to be quite vain and narcissistic, he spent most of his time looking at his reflection instead of helping the rest of the crew gather supplies for their incoming journey.
Once everyone ready, they looked back at the Oasis, before walking away from it to where they thought was North.