Mershad

Erika and Mershad sat silently as the mist continued to surround them with its cool embrace. The thick vapors had fully obstructed their vision of the trees that were less than ten feet away.

“This is some fog,” Erika commented in a low voice.

“We’ll have to take it slow, when we head out of here,” Mershad said.

Erika looked over at him. “Probably won’t vanish anytime soon, knowing my luck. Good thing we know the lay of the land.”

“Yes, good for us that we do,” Mershad responded, grinning at her though he felt a little nervous about blundering about in the dense haze.

“The cars must be slowed to a crawl as they come through up there,” Erika stated, as she gestured upward towards where the roadway was. “Or they’ve stopped.”

Mershad then noticed that a permeating silence had blanketed the area, with no sound of anyone or anything coming from the normally active street above them.

“I sure don’t hear anything either,” Mershad remarked. He slowly rose up to his feet, pulling his satchel over one shoulder. “Want to try and start navigating out of this?”

Erika nodded, getting up off the ground herself. “Otherwise we are going to be here all night. I think that this stuff is here to stay for awhile.”

Mershad agreed with her, though he held no objections to spending more time talking with Erika. The lack of visibility simply made him nervous. At the very least the process of getting out of there would be easier to navigate with a friend.

“We’ll have to go slowly,” Mershad cautioned, taking the first step forward, grasping his satchel strap with his right hand. “Work our way to the sidewalk, and from there it should be easy enough.”

“Sounds like a plan to me,” Erika replied.

Erika walked closely by his side. They went painstakingly, step by step. There was just enough visibility that they became aware of trees before they smacked their faces into the hard trunks.

After they had moved about twenty arduous paces, Mershad noticed that their visibility was gradually increasing. He made no comment, continuing to press onward.

Looking down, he perceived that there were more leaves and twigs on the ground than he had observed before, even a fallen branch that he had not noticed on his way in. The university’s maintenance staff usually kept the grounds around the student center very well groomed.

“We must have gotten changed around,” Mershad said with some discomfort. “We should have hit the sidewalk by now. I know that we’ve been walking in the right direction.”

“Well, this place is not that big, we’ll run into it sooner or later,” Erika added. “Besides, it looks like our visibility is increasing.”

“Yes it is,” Mershad replied, glad that she was noticing the improving visibility as well. It meant that it was not just his hopeful imagination.

He took a couple more steps, when he suddenly tripped and fell forward. With a startled outcry, he slung his hands forward in reflex, casting his satchel ahead as he braced for the expected impact.

“Are you okay?” Erika said in great concern, dropping to her knees next to him.

Groaning, Mershad shook his head as he brought himself up to his knees slowly. He had caught his fall at the last moment, and was not injured other than a few light scratches.

Brushing his chest off, he looked behind him. A large tree branch lay across his path.

“Wonderful,” Mershad muttered, not wanting to know what had happened to his laptop. He looked sheepishly to Erika, highly embarrassed. “I didn’t think there was anything on the ground. Didn’t notice any fallen branches coming in here.”

“It’s okay. As long as you are okay,” Erika said quickly, her eyes full of worry. “Let’s find your satchel.”

They both looked all around, but could see no sign of the satchel. Mershad was perplexed, as he knew that it could not have fallen very far from where he stood.

More than ever, the ground that Mershad could see beneath his feet looked markedly different than it had seemed before when he visited the area. There was a sprawling cover of debris, of fallen leaves, dirt, twigs, and grasses all about them, as if the surface of a wild forest. It was not the well-cropped, rich green lawn that he had walked through numerous times before. The feeling of unease grew faster within him.

Even stranger, the rate of improved visibility was accelerating, along with the emergence of a steady breeze that flowed all around them. It was as if the fog was reversing itself, departing as quickly as it had come.

Mershad and Erika remained wordless, fixed in place, their attentions captured by the bizarre phenomenon. Their range of sight increased by twenty, thirty, and then forty feet.

Trees began to appear out of the misty air, and the uneven contours of the ground, with the rough covering upon it, spread out in all directions around them. Mershad struggled to comprehend what was happening.

There was no sign of the sidewalk, the student center, or even a small patch of the rich, trimmed grass turf that they had been sitting on just minutes before. He barely moved a muscle as the fog steadily fell away, continuing to reveal the unexpected environment.

“What is going on here?” Mershad stammered, his eyes widened in trepidation as he looked around.

Erika shook her head in disbelief, staring ahead. Her voice was uncharacteristically full of anxiety. “I just don’t know. I just don’t know.”

The fog proceeded to thin out on all sides. Strong rays of light began to cut through to them from above, a multitude of beams piercing the diminishing fog as they reached through the leaves and branches of the surrounding trees.

“What is this? What in the world is …” Erika began, her words trailing off as the air above them finally cleared up.

The strong light of a mid-day sun was revealed, cascading down from a nearly cloudless sky spread out far above the trees. It was a uniquely blue-greenish sky, like nothing that Mershad had ever seen before.

Mershad and Erika now found themselves in the midst of a great forest, with matured trees of several varieties rising up high all around them. The bright chirping of birds met their ears, coming from all around, amongst the lofty branches, but it was the surreal sky above that transfixed his initial attention.

Erika

Erika continued to stare upwards, entirely stunned.

There were no cloud masses to bar the view of the smooth, luxuriant sky, the light radiating from a solitary sun that seemed to be directly overhead.

The blue-greenish tint to the sky was remarkable.

It was turquoise, like the surface of the waters about the Caribbean islands that Erika had once taken a vacation to with friends, on a break from school.

Beautiful and vivid, it was nonetheless frightening. At the very least, though she did not consciously acknowledge it, the commanding presence of the sun was a stabilizing and comforting element to her jostled psyche.

“What do we do?” Mershad asked, his eyes still wide in a look of surprise and bewilderment.

“I have no idea,” Erika said.

“This can’t be a dream,” Mershad remarked.

Some beads of sweat now stood out upon his forehead. He reached down and rubbed his arms, and even felt his own face, as if about to pinch it to test the reality of the moment.

He looked over towards Erika with a helpless expression. “This can’t be a dream.”

“I know that it isn’t. I know when I am asleep, and when I am not,” Erika said slowly. Her eyes were filled with fear, but she had already started to reach down into deep, internal reservoirs of personal strength to gain some elemental bearings. “This is real. Make no mistake about it. Whatever it is, we are both in it, it is real, and we had better acknowledge that first and foremost.”

As she spoke the stark words, some more of that strength welled up in her. She took a few cautious steps forward.

Her shoes crunched on the debris-strewn forest floor. Mershad stared after her, until she turned and beckoned for him to follow her. Gingerly, he took a step, then a second, and slowly trailed after her.

She continued onward, feeling the hard ground beneath every step. Unexpectedly, she discovered that she was taking notice of the very air. It felt exceptionally fresh and clean within her lungs. She took many deep breaths of the sweet air into her, as her heart rate began to steady from the initial shock.

Though she was no naturalist, she knew that the trees around them were of types that she was familiar with. Likewise, the chirping and chattering coming from the branches above was akin to the sounds that she had heard before on wilderness hikes.

Other than the color of the sky itself, she could not help but think that they were not too far removed from the university. The state was filled with thickly forested areas, and as far as Erika knew, they were in any one of those regions. It was just a mystery as to how they had gotten there, perhaps something conjectured in some obscure journal of theoretical physics.

The continuing commotion in the branches attracted her attention. She looked upwards, searching for the squirrels that she expected were running about the trees, just as they did all around the university campus. She knew the sight of a few little squirrels would be something else to grasp onto, as her mind struggled with the unprecedented instability of reality itself.

Any hope that she had of taking another step towards calming her mind was swiftly evaporated.

The creatures making the ruckus in the trees looked like diminutive foxes. They had reddish fur, elongated snouts, and four narrow legs that ended in grasping appendages, like those of monkeys. Long bushy tails protruded out behind them.

Even more unusual, sprouting from their backs, were the presence of a pair of leathery wings that they kept tucked in as they skittered about the branches nimbly.

Erika gaped at the astonishing little creatures.

“What are those … animals?” Mershad asked, having taken note of the host of small creatures himself.

Erika was breathtaken, as one of the creatures glided gracefully through the air from the branch of one tree, over to the limb of another tree situated about thirty feet away. It moved with dexterity as it alighted smoothly upon the new branch, grasping it firmly, with exceptional balance. Folding its wings, its little eyes watched them intently, and though the creature looked cautious, it was clearly not overly afraid of the two humans.

“No idea,” Erika replied. “I think we’ve just discovered a new animal. But wouldn’t you know it? We don’t have a camera with us.”

Mershad shook his head. He looked far more worried than regretful about missing the opportunity to document a rare species. “This is getting crazy.”

Though the environment held some features familiar to her, there was no denying now that there was something utterly alien about it as well. It was no longer just a matter of the anomalous sky.

She kept a wary eye on the little bat-foxes, not knowing whether or not they presented any kind of threat, but not about to underestimate them. Sometimes, the smallest of creatures could be the most deadly.

“Let’s move on, this way,” Erika suggested in a low voice.

Erika slowly turned to the right, beginning to carefully make her way from the area. She cast a sideways glance to make sure that Mershad was following her lead, but kept the greater part of her attention fixed upon the disposition of the little bat-fox creatures.

The creatures continued their high-pitched chatter among the branches, a few shifting their places amid the cluster of trees that they were situated within. To her immense relief, they made no moves to follow the two humans.

Erika had observed, with not a little worry, the fact that the creatures were not terribly startled by their presence. The creatures appeared to be no more wary than were the squirrels that heavily populated the university campus’s grounds. Yet whether or not the little creatures were some sort of pack hunter in their own right, it soon became clear that humans were not likely their prime quarry. Erika and Mershad gradually lost sight of them, as the little beasts’ hyper, high-pitched sounds faded farther behind.

Finally, she felt comfortable enough to turn around and face forward, picking up her pace a little in the process.

Erika looked over her shoulder several times to check on Mershad. “They are not coming after us, I’m pretty certain,” she commented, as she recognized his lingering fear, her gaze sweeping around the area for a moment as an idea came to her.

She walked a few paces to the right, leaned over, and snapped off a branch that had been attached to a tree that had long since fallen to the floor of the forest. She stripped it of a few narrow offshoots, leaving behind a rather straight, sturdy piece of wood.

She extended it towards Mershad. “Here, take this. I’m pretty confident that those things in the trees could not take a solid hit from something like this.”

Mershad reached out and took the offered branch, nodding to her. She watched his expression relax just a little as he gripped the stalwart branch, clearly feeling a little less vulnerable.

“And now for myself,” she remarked, locating another suitable branch. Clasping it firmly, she held it out in front of her. “It will work fine. Just in case. But I don’t think we will have much to fear from those little winged guys.”

“My brain says we won’t, but I just had no idea what they were,” Mershad replied.

“Hence, precautions,” Erika said, bringing the stick about in a powerful swing that swooshed through the air. As if taking her gesture as a cue, Mershad whipped his own branch-staff through the air.

“You’ve got the hang of it,” Erika said approvingly, forcing a broad smile despite her ginger nerves. “Well, let’s get going. We need to find someone or something more familiar in this area.”

Erika started forward, resuming her long, easy strides. Mershad hustled up and walked along at her side, beginning to use his branch like a walking stick. She noticed that he glanced behind them less and less often, as they continued forth without incident through the forest for the next couple of hours.

To her relief, they encountered no more unusual creatures. More promising, they saw several birds that were of very familiar forms. Among those that she recognized were sparrows, finches, and even a couple of large, black crows. The familiar caws of the latter were welcome music to her ears.

Her tensions gradually lessened, and her spirit became more emboldened as they continued their long march beneath the trees. Mershad seemed content to walk in silence, but she suspected that under the surface his mind was racing with thoughts. She did not disturb him. Erika took the silent time to attend to her own thoughts. There was little else for her to do at the moment, except to avoid being lulled into complacency.

Erika could not begin to comprehend what had happened to her and Mershad. She had no idea as to what the fog was, or how they had gotten to the forest, much less why it had happened in the first place.

There had been no sensation of travel. The fog had merely appeared, and then departed, revealing a whole new environment around them.

Erika found that she was eminently grateful for the presence of another person with her during the harrowing experience, especially one that she already knew. She was not entirely sure if her mind could have handled such an event by herself. At the same time, she knew that while she derived some stability from having Mershad with her, she also had some new responsibilities.

With their whole world shaken, Erika knew that Mershad needed her as well, immersed as they were in an experience whose nature neither of them had an inkling of. She knew that she had to be as strong as she could for his sake, and resolved herself to that course even though she suspected that the fox-bats and the blue-green sky were not the last surprises that they would encounter.

Logan

“Thick. That’s really, really thick,” uttered Antonio.

Logan had no disagreements, seeing how the bright headlamps on the car, normally intensely illuminating, did little to cut through the dense mists all around them. His nerves were tingling as they crept through the fog. He feared that they were risking a collision any second with another car exhibiting less caution than they were.

“I’ve never been through fog like this. Nothing like this before. Never,” Antonio said emphatically. “There’s been fog on this road before, but I’ve never seen anything close.”

They had already slowed down to barely a crawl, as their visibility lowered to just a few feet ahead. Logan felt increasingly vulnerable.

“Just our luck!” Logan finally snapped, frustrated and incredulous. “You know … we don’t ask for much in this world. We just want to take a break to get a damn milk shake … and, lo and behold, the world’s most dense fog bank ever has to manifest and roll in out of nowhere, right here, to make even getting a simple milk shake a major frigging endeavor!”

“Hard luck champion,” observed Antonio, his right hand nervously clutching the passenger side door handle. “I think that we hold the titles in that division, counting all weight classes.”

Again, Logan had no disputes.

The ride suddenly became extremely bumpy, as the smoothness of the paved road changed to the uneven surface of grass-covered ground. Logan’s heart caught in his throat. Seeing a patch of grass in front of him, he feared that they had somehow gone off of the road.

Logan pulled the car up into a complete halt, not wanting to risk anything further. He cursed under his breath in frustration.

“What the hell is this? I know I didn’t go off of the road. It was right there, even if I could only see a couple of feet. This ground just came out of nowhere, running right into the road.”

“It’s okay. It happens. People go off the road in bad visibility,” Antonio said. “It’s just good that you were going slow and we didn’t wreck. No harm done.”

Despite his friend’s attempts at reassuring words, one glance told Logan that Antonio was a nervous wreck. Antonio’s eyes had been riveted ahead, and Logan knew that Antonio had also seen that they had been squarely aligned on the road. Logan had not deviated from their course in the least.

“Well, I’ll tell you what. I can’t just pull the car around, and blindly head for the road. Who knows who else is trying to get through this? We wouldn’t know until it’s too late, in this kind of visibility,” Logan vented, exasperated. “I think that we are stuck for a while, at least until this clears up somewhat.”

Antonio nodded. “I understand. Well, let’s get out of the car. Let’s walk, and see how far it is to the road. We could easily hear another car coming, at least. And it might be safer that way, than being stationary targets in a parked car.”

Having his car wrecked in the impenetrable fog was the last thing that Logan needed to have happen right then. He took a deep breath, beginning to get his bearings.

“Yeah, and that’s about all that we can do right now,” he declared, feeling more resolved. “I’m putting the hazards on, though, and keeping the lights on for a few minutes. Hopefully someone will make something out before they crash into it.”

Taking the keys out of the ignition, he listened to the click as he pulled the hazard light switch. He then opened up his door and got out.

Antonio got out on his side, and the shutting of their doors was the only sound within the still, heavy air. Logan walked around the car to the rear, astounded at the sheer thickness of the fog. The flashing hazard lights were swallowed up just a few paces away.

With Antonio close behind him, he started forward, heading straight towards where he knew that the road had been. When they had gotten just a few feet away, they could not see any sign at all of the car behind them.

“Better not lose track of it,” Logan growled. “We shouldn’t stray out that far, but I know the road is right about where we are. We stopped almost immediately after I felt uneven ground.”

“Should be real close,” Antonio agreed.

“But I’m beginning to think that if another car comes through this, I’d might want to be in a car when it hits, rather than be hit outside of a car,” Logan remarked, drawing to a halt. “Don’t forget, if they can’t see the car with the lights on, then they certainly can’t see us.”

Antonio frowned as he thought about that troubling verity for a moment.

“I’ll second that notion,” he replied. He looked around then, his eyes narrowing in scrutiny as if taking note of something. “But maybe we won’t have to wait for that long. It looks like things are starting to thin out already, or is it just my mind?”

Logan looked around himself, and quietly studied the mists pervading the air around them. After carefully watching it for a couple of minutes, it was clear that the fog was indeed thinning out, for their field of vision was observably expanding.

“Well, that’s the first good news that we’ve had in quite a while,” Logan replied sarcastically, turning around to head back towards the car.

After they had gotten about twenty feet, Logan, with Antonio following his cue, came to an abrupt halt.

“It should be here. We didn’t get that far at all,” Logan avowed. “Not far enough to lose track of the car.”

“No we didn’t,” agreed Antonio firmly.

The amount of ground that they could see steadily continued to grow, as if the land itself were generating out of a gray void in all directions.

“Sure, it got stolen right after we moved. Like I am going to believe that. We should have seen it by now,” Logan said, his ire and disbelief rising rapidly.

“We would have heard something if it did,” Antonio reminded his friend, earnestly trying to soothe Logan’s rising anger.

“I was just being sarcastic about the car being stolen. There isn’t any way that could have happened, and I’ve still got the keys,” Logan said sharply, holding the keys up in his hand for his friend to see. “But where is it then?”

“Right around here,” Antonio said, looking equally mystified.

“Around where?” Logan stammered, holding his arms out wide.

“We didn’t go that … “

Rays of strong light cut through the fog from above them, and everything around them seemed to be lightening swiftly.

“What in the world is going on here?” muttered Logan.

He flinched in surprise as the misty cover above them parted and thinned out, letting through more of the piercing rays that soon became a flood of unmistakable daylight.

“Man … oh man … this is weird, way too weird,” Antonio mumbled, as the advancing force of daylight routed the last remnants of the mists around them.

All evidence of the dense mass of fog was completely gone. So too was any sign of the road or the car.

Night had suddenly become day, the dark, black sky being fully replaced by a creamy, greenish-blue hue lit by a bright sun overhead. Stretched out before them were rolling grasslands that ended in a long line of woods just at the edge of their vision.

“This is weird, this is weird,” Antonio said, repeating himself, as he gazed steadily into the unusual sky above. “Where are we?”

“Believe me, I’m wondering the same thing,” Logan replied, his hardened demeanor shaken by the incredible changes that had taken place around them. Shading his eyes with his right hand, he turned slowly around in a full circle. There was nothing but the expanse of undulating grasslands and copses of trees in one direction. In the other was the line of woods that demarcated the beginning of an enormous, forested region.

Even more disturbing, there was no sign at all of the world that he knew; the encompassing diorama was fully devoid of any signs of human existence.

After a few more minutes passed, Logan slowly turned to look at Antonio. He found that his friend was looking expectantly towards him, a frightened, almost child-like expression spread on his face.

“So what do we do now?” Antonio asked, looking pleadingly at Logan, as if he would somehow have the answers.

“I have absolutely no clue,” Logan responded regretfully, an edge to his voice.

Logan paused for a few more moments, gathering more composure, before continuing, “Maybe we should just wait and see what happens, and hope that someone turns up. Or we could just go wandering off in this place that we’ve never seen before.”

The words were spoken flippantly, exuding a sarcasm that emphasized the seeming futility of it all.

“We’ll probably get nowhere by just waiting for things to happen. It’s never worked like that in all of my previous life, and I don’t think my luck appears to be changing now, unless for the worse,” Antonio said, his breath short as he struggled with his nervousness.

“Good point,” Logan said curtly, placing his hands upon his hips.

With the tip of his right work boot, he idly dug around in the grass. He then shook his head and let out a deep, sustained exhalation, as if willing some of the coiling tension in him to ease out of his body. There was one thought that tilted the balance of the frustrating indecision now holding him in place.

“Maybe we shouldn’t stand right out in the open, where anyone, or anything, can see us so easily,” Logan said in an even, careful tone as he looked at Antonio. “Let’s do something, at least so we don’t lose our minds. Well, let’s get a move on it, and maybe get ourselves just inside the borders of those woods, unless you have any objections.”

“Sounds like the best option we’ve got,” Antonio replied.

Following Logan’s lead, they started off at a quick pace towards the extended tree line on the horizon. They constantly scanned around for the sight of anything that could give them any insights into the causes or full state of their current predicament. Their bolstered level of wariness heightened their senses, causing their attentions to snap in a flash towards a singular bird that flew across the sky.

“Well, it looks like we’ve got that little wish that you made last night,” Antonio said, breaking the silence.

Logan rolled his eyes. “Sure did. I bet you are going to tell me to be careful what I wish for. Don’t even say it. I can assure you that this isn’t what I had in mind.”

“I wasn’t about to say it, but I’m frightened,” Antonio admitted.

“And so am I,” Logan replied, his face smiling ruefully at the open admission for just a moment. An edge of grim determination swelled in his voice as he continued, “But I’m not going to give in to this ridiculous event that’s been foisted upon us. We are going to stick together to get through this crazy thing.”

“We’ll stick together,” Antonio echoed, nodding quickly.

For the second time in recent moments, Antonio had the air of a scared child about him.

“Yes, together,” Logan confirmed, before vowing angrily, shouting to the sky, “And I can assure you, that when I find out why this all happened, and who or what was responsible, we are going to set some things straight!”

Logan knew that they both harbored fears of the unknown, but where Antonio was willing to feel fragile and utterly helpless, the sheer fury of Logan’s ire at their undeserved predicament reinforced his chosen course of action.

Fully resolved not to go down without a fight, and with a deep hunger to find out why they had been ripped away from their world, Logan clenched his jaws as he continued to ruminate upon their situation. He was committed to regaining the bearings in their lives once again. Their core foundations, those very elements that helped them rise to face the day from one morning to the next, had been severely violated. Yet as far as Logan was concerned, as a blaze of righteous anger was stoked within him, it would not be irrevocably violated.

Janus

“This mist is absolutely insane. I can’t see a damn thing!” Kent spat out angrily, cursing as he strained to look forward from the bow of the watercraft.

“We’ll probably have to just cut the engine off,” Derek replied calmly, though a look of concern shone in his eyes.

Janus fully concurred with Derek’s choice, his own concern at possibly wrecking Kent’s father’s boat rapidly increasing. His confounded eyes told him in no uncertain terms that they would be wise to concede for the moment, rather than force themselves to take on any ill-advised risks in trying to blindly navigate through the mist.

The unusually dense fog choked off all visibility. Another boat could easily be just five feet away from them. Janus could only hope that they heard it, as he was certain that they would not see it until it was far too late.

After a moment, Janus voiced his full consent with Derek’s proposition.

“Shouldn’t we try and get somewhere?” Kent countered with a look of desperation. “We could be hit by anything.”

Janus understood Kent’s worries as well, as it was indeed quite unsettling floating about in the water, adrift within the midst of the impenetrable fog. Furthermore, any manner of objects might be close, from docks to shore ground. It was not just a matter of other boaters out on the lake.

“You are right. It’s not just the other boats we have to worry about. I know what you are thinking, Kent. We could be beached any minute without warning,” Janus said gently. “But if we cut the engine, we lessen any risks of damage to your father’s boat, even if we were to run aground. And that way we will also be better able to hear something approaching us, so that we can try and warn them.”

Kent stared at Janus, and then looked to Derek for a moment.

“Yeah, I guess that you guys are right. Damn! Why did this have to happen?” Kent stated in clear resignation. He nodded and gestured to Derek, indicating for him to go ahead and cut the engine off.

When the motor died down, all they could hear was the gentle sound of the water lapping up against the sides of the boat. A foreboding, eerie silence hung heavily in the air about them, the sheer lack of sounds escalating Janus’ tensions. All throughout the sojourn, the wisps of music and laughter had carried through the air from the various houses. It was as if the fog closed off sound as much as it did sight.

For the next several minutes, they drifted idly in the water, listening intently for the sounds of any other boat or person. Kent kept the headlights on full beam, and they honked the horn periodically.

It did not take very long for their frustrations at the situation to mount steadily. Kent was the first to give voice to them.

“So, are we going to sit here all night? Are we?” It was evident that his patience was quickly wearing thin. “All I want to think about is drinking a few more beers, and then crashing for the night under warm covers, in a nice king-sized bed.”

“Would be nice to round out the evening that way. If we could see for even ten feet ahead of us, I think we could go for it,” Derek advised. “With the headlights on, and the horn and us calling out, we might be able to pull it off very slowly. But we can’t even see five feet from the side of the boat. This fog is far too risky to try anything yet.”

“It looks like we are going to have to wait,” Janus added. “I don’t like it either, but you might as well settle in, Kent.”

Kent slumped back down into his chair, shaking his head in disbelief at the sour turn of fortune. “I guess that we are stuck.”

Janus leaned back in his chair and closed his eyes. The moist air brushed against his face, and if they had been under any other circumstances he would not have found the feeling to be altogether unpleasant. In fact, its touch under other circumstances would have been rather soothing.

There was not much that he could do for the moment, and his strained emotions had already exhausted him considerably. The sustained idleness quickly added to his weariness, and he felt himself begin to slide towards unconsciousness. With an extended yawn, he slumped his chin down to rest. The tranquil refuge of a dreamless sleep tugged ever stronger at the edges of his lingering consciousness.

Consummately drowsy, he did not know whether he had momentarily fallen asleep, when Kent’s sharp, raised voice roused him back to full wakefulness.

“It’s thinning!” Kent exclaimed excitedly, from where he was still perched at the bow.

Janus leaned back up in his seat, and opened his eyes, feeling a heavy lethargy rooted throughout his body.

As Kent had indicated, the visibility beyond the sides of the boat had now increased to about fifteen feet. They were still surrounded by an outer boundary of dense fog, and could make no sign of the shore through it in any direction.

“Wanna go for it?” Kent queried impatiently.

“We can, but we’ve gotta be really careful, Kent, and do it my way, with horns, calls, and a very, very slow rate of speed,” Derek said with manifest caution in his voice. “We do it systematically.”

Janus had the sense that Derek much preferred to wait and see if the fog thinned out even further.

Kent nodded, “We’ll do it your way, but let’s get out of this.”

Derek frowned slightly as he turned the key again, and the motor rumbled back to life. Slowly increasing the power, Derek set the boat forward once again. They were barely creeping along the water’s surface. That much appeared to relax Kent considerably, who pulled back from his perch on the bow to come over to stand by Derek.

Kent, Janus, and Derek kept their eyes fixated upon the water just ahead of them. Janus could see that Derek’s senses were on full alertness. His friend maintained a firm grip on the throttle, ready to cut the engine off at a moment’s notice. Derek honked the horn frequently, to warn any others that might be in the immediate vicinity. They elicited no manner of response in return, and the only sounds to reach Janus’ attentive ears were that of the boat itself.

The absence of any kind of response struck Janus as being very peculiar. He fully expected that their soundings would invoke at least a yell or call-out from a reveler or two, reacting to their horn signal from a party at one of the lake houses. Janus strained to hear even the slightest sound of music or talking, knowing that they were passing by houses on both sides of the narrow lake.

“Next problem,” Derek then brought up suddenly. “How are we going to know where exactly we are supposed to go? We might be able to see ahead of us, and avoid crashing into somebody, but we can’t make out any landmarks or houses. Unless, of course, you are really, really good at guessing, Kent.”

“Once we pass under the main bridge, we know that we are close. And by then, the fog will probably have thinned enough so that we can get a glimpse of the shoreline,” retorted Kent. “We just need to get in the vicinity. I need only a brief view of the dock areas, as I know most of the houses that are near to my dad’s. I will only need to identify one to tell us exactly where we are.”

“Well, then it won’t be very long,” Janus remarked with a little relief. He pointed off of the port side of the boat, “There’s the shoreline, right over there.”

“There we are. Easy enough,” replied Kent enthusiastically. “All we have to do is follow along that shore, and we’ll get there eventually. Take it in closer, as the water drops off deep right off the shore, all the way down the lake.”

Derek steered the boat over a little closer to the shoreline. Janus observed that the visibility had increased by another few feet, even as Derek accelerated the watercraft.

Kent’s face was filled with an expression of sheer relief. Yet as Janus looked at him, Kent’s mien suddenly changed to one of shock as Janus felt the boat lurch to an abrupt halt.

Janus, Kent, and Derek all fell forward with the sudden stop. Kent’s face was now a mask of confusion and fear.

“We are far enough off the shore. I know this lake well. It’s got good depth right off the shoreline. What’s this all about?” Kent said incredulously, anxiously looking over the side of the boat.

Janus joined him at his side.

Through the light from the front of the boat, he could see that they had effectively lodged the boat into an expanse of extremely shallow water.

For the next few moments, Derek tried to get the boat moving but it soon became very evident that it was fully immobilized in the muddy, shallow bottom.

“Great. That’s all I need,” Kent stammered.

Janus knew that Kent was thinking of his father, and how he would react to the news of having his boat run aground. Janus knew that any hopes that Kent still harbored of beers and rest had evaporated from his mind.

Kent looked towards the shore, several paces away. He announced with obvious unease, “Well, I’m going to find out where we are, at the least.”

“Hey, be careful,” Derek cautioned, stepping forward as Kent swung his legs over the side of the boat.

Kent’s feet splashed into the cold water of the lake, but his weight was held up. He sloshed forward, examining the bow of the boat before looking back towards the others, his face illumined by the glow of the boat’s headlights. “See, it’s solid, and shallow. We can find out where we are, and maybe work on pushing the boat back out in a minute.”

Kent stepped away then, trudging through the water as he made his way over to the shore. Striding up out of the water, he turned and gave the others a half-hearted smile that was accompanied by a thumbs-up gesture.

“It will just take a second, I’ll find out where we are at,” he called.

Turning his back to them, he walked up the shore and away from the water’s edge, his form soon swallowed by the mist.

Derek and Janus sat patiently in the boat, the ponderous silence continuing its hold around them. They could hear nothing from the direction that Kent had gone.

The minutes continued to increase, one streaming into another without sight or sound of anything else. Janus finally placed his hands on the side of the boat, looking towards the shore.

He glanced back at Derek. “How long should we give him?”

“A few more minutes,” Derek replied tersely, his features stoic and unreadable.

Janus knew that underneath it all, Derek was growing as concerned as he was. Kent had a jocular manner, but was not the reckless type of individual to indulge in trivial games during a situation such as this.

“Kent! Hey Kent!” Janus called out loudly, cupping his hands about his mouth. The shout broke through the still air with the equivalence of booming thunder.

There was no answer forthcoming.

“Kent! Hey! Where are you?” Derek yelled, even louder than Janus had.

The cumbersome silence around them remained, unrepentant and defiant.

Janus looked back towards Derek, his features grim. “I’m not liking this at all. Not one bit. I think I’d better go to the shoreline. What if he’s tripped on something and hit his head, or something like that?”

“We shouldn’t get completely split up,” Derek advised. “We can leave the boat here. I don’t think it is going anywhere for the moment.”

Grabbing the side of the boat, Derek pivoted on the spot that his hands clutched as he jumped nimbly over the side of the vessel.

“Here, wait a second, let me test something,” Derek said.

He brought his arm back over the side of the boat, just behind the wind-shield, braced himself, and tried to push it backward. After a moment, he changed his grip and tried the other direction.

Veins stood out on his forehead, and his muscles bulged with the considerable exertion. A muffled grunt escaped as he finally gave up the effort.

“Whatever we’ve managed to do, we’ve lodged it really good. I don’t know how we’ve managed to get it stuck this firmly, but it is, and there’s no sense disputing the reality of it. But as for our immediate worries, I don’t think it is going anywhere, anytime soon. There’s no current to speak of on this lake anyway,” Derek remarked between rapid breaths. “Like I said, if we go after Kent, then I think we should stick together.”

“Sounds like a solid plan to me,” Janus readily agreed, not feeling eager to wander off into the engulfing mists by himself.

Janus swung his left leg over the side of the boat, holding onto its edge as he swung his other leg up and over. His feet plopped down with a splash as he came to stand in the ankle-deep water.

Derek and Janus walked towards the shoreline, calling out for Kent as they distanced themselves from the boat. They stopped for several moments to listen for a response, but the eerie quiet persisted. Janus found himself growing extremely worried. Something was simply not right about any of it.

“This isn’t like Kent at all,” Derek said curtly, glancing back to where the boat was lodged. “But I tell you what, I’m not going to be very happy at all if Kent is messing with us.”

“That makes two of us, but I don’t think that he would joke about something like this,” Janus said. “He’s a joker, but he’s not a fool.”

“For his sake, I sure hope so,” Derek said, his snapping attitude revealing the great apprehension that was growing inside of him. He fixed his gaze forward. “Let’s go!”

Their socks and shoes were soaked, weighing their steps down as they emerged from the lake and continued up the shore. The grass-covered land quickly inclined at the edge of the denser fog.

Derek used his hands to brace himself as he crept up the rising embankment through the fog. He proceeded very slowly, exercising extreme caution within the incredibly low visibility.

Janus emulated Derek’s tactic and followed close behind. Their visibility had shrunk considerably again, which did little to allay Janus’ worries.

After a brief, albeit steep, incline, the ground leveled out again and allowed for them both to stand up.

“Where do we go from here? We can’t see anything,” Derek commented, as Janus took a step forward to stand beside him.

The boat and the lakeside were no longer visible behind them. They were enveloped fully in the mist again, a world of gray with a patch of grass directly underfoot.

“Kent!” Janus called out one more time, the query proving naught in eliciting any clue as to Kent’s whereabouts or condition. He turned towards Derek, “Let’s go on.”

He took a slow step forward, followed by another, as he proceeded cautiously through the fog. After he had taken several more steps, he noticed that his visibility was increasing again. The fog appeared to be thinning, and he wondered if the bulk of its density was concentrated closer to the water.

Ahead, there was a brighter luminescence that seemed to beckon to Janus. It increased in intensity with each and every step forward that he took.

With the rising visibility, he picked his pace up more confidently. He felt relieved that he could see for at least a few steps, just as the first shards of broad daylight burst suddenly through the last vestiges of the fog; daylight that came from a stunning, greenish-blue sky.

Janus halted immediately, standing in a maelstrom of astonishment and wonder at the edge of the fog bank. He did not so much as move or speak, even as Derek drew up next to him a moment later.

Derek was equally speechless as he perceived the extraordinary sight. A remarkable and unexpected view was spread to the far horizons before them.

The land that was brilliantly revealed to their eyes flowed in a harmony of gently rising and falling contours, consisting of broad swathes of higher grasses that were broken up here and there by a few thick copses of trees. Off in the distance, towards the east, was a blurry, continuous line that signaled the beginnings of a vast forest that stretched beyond sight.

The strange hue of the sky compounded the shock of the unexpected scene unraveling before them. Janus finally turned about, the last wisps of fog vanishing at the edges of a modest river, gliding by along soft currents a few strides behind them.

The lake and the boat were nowhere to be seen.

“Janus! Derek!” cried out a very familiar voice to their right.

A couple of hundred yards off, running hurriedly towards them, was Kent. He closed the distance quickly, nearly tripping over his own feet in his fervent haste to get to where the other two were standing.

Janus’ heart leaped as he saw Kent suddenly jump off to the side, as a loud, piercing screech erupted from the ground level.

A small lizard-like creature leapt up, startled from its hiding spot. Janus’ eyes caught a brief flash of its greenish exterior as its scaly body caught the sunlight. Its powerful legs pumped desperately as it bounded away from Kent.

Janus watched the strange creature race into the distance, moving with incredible speed and agility. He had seen nothing like it in his life.

Janus looked back quickly to Kent. His expression was of outright fear, mingled with a wave of consummate relief at having found them. He stumbled forward again, quickly covering the last stretch of ground that still remained between them.

“You came out of nowhere, I thought I’d lost you guys forever,” he stammered, wide-eyed and dangerously close to hyperventilation.

He looked to be on the cusp of hysteria. His eyes looked back in the direction where the lizard-creature had run, returning his attention a moment later towards Janus and Derek.

“You couldn’t hear us calling for you?” Janus asked him.

Kent appeared perplexed, as his brow furrowed. “I didn’t hear one word from you. I looked back, and I couldn’t see you or the boat either. Then the fog had thinned enough so that I could see the river that’s there now. You two were nowhere to be seen.”

“Impossible. This is impossible,” Derek said pointedly, pacing around in a circle and shaking his head. He opened and closed his eyes several times, as he stared around at the sights around them.

A soft breeze tossed some strands of hair into Janus’ face, as he looked up into the teal sky in absolute incredulity. He had no inkling regarding an explanation for had just happened, his mind spinning as it tried to come up with a rationale.

“Where are we? What is this?” Kent asked Janus hurriedly, panic manifest in his tone and face.

Janus gave a pained smile, as he lowered his gaze towards Kent. He spoke gently to his friend, “Kent, can we all have just lost our minds? I don’t think so, but I don’t have any idea what this all is, or means.”

“We are in the middle of nowhere. There’s nothing out here, nothing at all! Wherever you look, nothing!” Kent declared.

He gave a wide, dramatic sweep of his hand as he spoke, the gesture taking in the full immensity of their unfamiliar environment. Janus’ eyes followed Kent’s gesture, and he could not deny that there was not one singular sign of any human presence or activity. It was a totality of open wilderness, beautiful and daunting at the same time.

“What is this place?” Kent prodded again, as if the others might actually know the answer. “Where are we?”

“I don’t know, and Janus doesn’t know!” Derek declared tersely.

Janus had never before seen Derek looking so exasperated, but like himself he knew that Derek was entirely devoid of answers. That cognizance alone was enough to add further to Janus’ own increasing trepidation.

“I don’t know either, Kent,” Janus added quietly.

His nerves had already been frayed, and his emotions had long been spent, so there was little left within him to cope with the inherent shock of the moment.

There was no other way around it. Unless they were all suffering from a homogenous, mass hallucination, the impossible had become possible. His first inclination was that they had literally stepped right out of their own world, potentially into a world of a different time and place. The scope of that notion was at once overwhelming, and mind-boggling. It also seemed totally absurd, and a part of Janus immediately dismissed the thought as a momentary shred of hysteria present within himself.

It was ridiculous to think that the stuff of dreams and fantastical tales had somehow manifested into a bold new existence, but there was a hard and undeniable reality to everything around them. Janus knew that whatever the case might be, they were at the mercy of something far beyond his comprehension.

“I’m going crazy … man, I am going crazy!” Kent said, his eyes gleaming with fear, moistening as tears of helplessness came into them.

He looked as if he were about to come apart at every seam.

Without a word, Derek walked with quick, purposeful strides over towards Kent. Derek reached out and grabbed him forcefully by the shoulders, bringing Kent around to face him directly as he waited for Kent to look back up.

“Come on Kent! Get a grip on yourself!” he said firmly. His gaze seemed composed of iron, as if compelling Kent to take some strength from it. Though he spoke to Kent with a commanding tone, Janus heard the strong sympathy and compassion underlying the words. “I don’t blame you for feeling what you are feeling. But whatever all of this is, we are all in it together right now. And we have to work with what we’ve got.”

Janus had nothing to add to Derek’s statement, and he did not want to do anything to rattle Kent. He decided to demonstrate calmness while Kent’s faculties swayed on the edge. Janus lowered himself down on the ground into a sitting position near to the other two.

He rested his arms across his knees, his right hand clasping the wrist of his left as he silently looked out over the quiet, grassy land. The breezes created gentle waves and undulations along its surface.

Derek slowly released his hold upon Kent, his voice coming low and much more gently, “Okay? Are you with us now? Come on, keep your cool now. We are going to need you.”

Though a few tears had escaped and left tracks down his cheeks, and although he choked back a couple of muffled sobs, Kent at last nodded in agreement to Derek’s words. Janus was watching out of the corner of his eyes, and he breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the reaction. Kent was still in a fragile state, but he was anchoring himself.

“Sit down, and get your breath,” Derek advised Kent, gesturing towards the ground.

Kent took a seat near to Janus’ side, and took several deep breaths as he struggled to regain his composure.

“No matter what, we’ll have to deal with what we know, and what we have to work with,” Derek iterated to Kent, sitting down to the other side of Janus.

Derek’s words made good sense. No matter what, even if they were somehow sharing a strange dream together, they found themselves in an entirely unfamiliar location. Janus was not quite ready to accept what his heart was telling him, hoping instead that a rational explanation would emerge at any moment.

If Janus’ first impressions, those resounding in his heart, were accurate, the lands around him were located nowhere within the state that he and his friends resided in.

The impenetrable fog that had covered their passage into this strange place was entirely dissipated, and Janus had no intimation as to how they could return back to the lake and the boat, much less his home.

In other circumstances, the extraordinary hue of the sky above them would have been a thing of majestic beauty to gaze upon, and the strange, lizard-like animal an object of great fascination and interest. As it was, Janus was far too unsettled to appreciate the unusual sights.

Even more daunting to their immediate prospects, they had no supplies of any kind, or even weapons.

Until something, or someone, familiar manifested, they had to act as if they had been set into the middle of a foreign wilderness, without any foreknowledge of its contents or environment. They had already seen a representative of the local fauna, and it was not illogical to believe that there might well be other unfamiliar species lurking about, perhaps some that were very dangerous.

At the moment, any signs of civilized society would be extremely welcome. An airplane in the sky, power lines, or even the sound of a car engine would be glorious music to Janus’ ears.

The troubling prospects left him feeling very naked and highly vulnerable, as he sat in brooding silence with his friends on the grass, each of them trying to collect their thoughts together.

Janus did not try to interrupt Kent, and nor did Derek, even when they noticed that he had closed his eyes, and that his shoulders bobbed up and down with silent sobs.

The outpouring of emotion was no sign of weakness, nor any indictment of Kent’s strength or courage. Janus knew in his heart that Derek did not hold it to be such either.

Kent had been fully and brusquely immersed into an incomprehensible and overwhelming situation when he had been separated from the others. If anything, Janus was astounded that Kent had not entirely lost his mind. The mere fact that Kent was holding somewhat together, albeit shakily, instead testified to a considerable strength within him.

As Kent let his terrors and panic ebb through the sobs and tears, Janus contemplated Kent’s ordeal.

Kent had entered this strange new place entirely alone when he had walked up the shore and away from the boat. He had endured a brief period where he had not known whether Derek or Janus would ever be reunited with him. For all Kent knew, he had been cast suddenly into an entirely strange place, and abandoned to face his fate alone.

If there was one small comfort remaining to Janus, it was that he and Derek had not been severed from the sense and bonds of familiarity and friendship that they shared with each other. In an inexplicable experience such as the one that they were now facing, such bonds were a tremendous boon, if not vital.

Janus knew that their bonds of friendship would now be about the only thing that they all could grasp onto. It was a very sobering realization, and it was abundantly clear to Janus that the welfare of the other two was indispensable to his own continued survival.

Reaching over, he patted Kent gently on the back.

Lee

“It’s all around us now,” Lee observed with fascination.

The fog had fully enveloped Lee, Ryan, and the entire restaurant. Looking behind him, Lee had been slightly unnerved to discover that he could not see the front facing of the restaurant anymore. There was not even a hint of it, walled off as it was by the opaque mists.

“It’s so thick,” Ryan commented. “Think that you can even drive in this stuff?”

Lee glanced over Ryan with an expression of disbelief. “Drive? Are you crazy?”

“Probably,” retorted Ryan, laughing. “And if you are too afraid of a little fog, Lee … if it scares you too much, I would be glad to drive us out of here.”

“Great idea. Turn my only car over to you,” Lee replied with a tenor of sarcasm. “Have your license with you tonight? Oh, I forgot … you don’t have one, do you?

“Hasn’t stopped me in the past,” Ryan shot back, giving Lee a wink.

“No, and one of those trips got you a nice visit to court,” Lee retorted. “We don’t need any more of that.”

“Hey, with fog this thick, the cops won’t even be able to see us driving out of it,” Ryan said. “Don’t think they’ll take too much notice of me.”

“Not until we find ourselves crashing right into a cruiser, at least,” Lee said, shaking his head. “That would be my luck if I ever threw you the keys.”

“You have such little faith,” Ryan said, chuckling.

“Not a matter of faith. I know you too well,” Lee responded, grinning widely.

“That, you do, Lee,” Ryan concurred, laughing.

“Well, what do you say? Instead of arguing about whether you or I drive, I think we should just wait this out for a little while back in the restaurant. If you are hungry, I can whip something up really quickly,” Lee stated.

“It’d be lot better than standing out here,” Ryan replied.

Lee and Ryan turned to go back to the restaurant. Lee was simply glad that he had only walked a few feet away from the building, continuing to be astounded at the sheer density of the fog. He stepped slowly, putting his hands ahead of him so that he did not walk face first into the façade of his restaurant.

Lee had traversed only about four short strides when he heard the ground crunch beneath his feet. Looking down, he saw the unmistakable appearance of a forest floor beneath his feet, solid earth covered by foliage debris and grass. He took one tentative stride directly backwards, but the soles of his shoes met more soil, leaves, and twigs, instead of pavement.

“What?” Ryan whispered at Lee’s side. He had drawn to a halt and was also staring down at the ground.

Lee was confounded. He had walked those streets every day, and knew that there was nothing like what was now beneath his feet within any short distance of the restaurant.

The ground that he could see slowly started to grow, and all of it resembled the initial patch. Bringing his gaze back up, he saw that the fog was beginning to dissipate everywhere.

He took a deep breath, filled with tension as he waited for the fog to roll back and reveal the dark, starry firmament of a night sky. He knew that everything would be as it was once again.

There was a simple explanation. He and Ryan had somehow gotten misdirected in the fog, to where someone had dumped a pile of excavated dirt and debris. Lee must not have taken notice of it during the day, which was not a surprise as he always had twenty things on his mind at once.

To his amazement, everything around him was growing steadily brighter. Starting as a dim ambience, the light swelled considerably as the fog lessened in density.

Lee knew that the overall illumination was already well beyond the capability of street lamps, igniting his sense of alarm again. His mouth fell agape as the fog thinned further and began to part. He looked up, awestruck, into the depths of a bright, midday sky, visible through a matrix of intertwining branches that belonged to a host of trees surrounding them; a breathtaking, blue-green sky, of a hue that Lee had never before witnessed.

Lee began to turn around slowly, in complete circles, as it dawned on him that he was standing in the midst of a great forest. Rays of light filtered through the dense covering of leaves and branches overhead. The forest floor spread outward as far as he could see to the left and right, traveling up and around the slopes of large hills looming all about the bewildered two figures.

“You seein’ what I’m seein’?” Ryan asked in a highly agitated voice. “Tell me you aren’t seeing this.”

“If you are seeing a big forest all around you, and a weird sky, then we are seeing the same thing,” Lee responded in a low voice. His eyes darted in every direction, as he tried to find a modicum of sense in what he was experiencing.

The forty-three year old restaurant owner and the sixteen-year-old youth stood in stunned silence for several more minutes.

“So, what do we do now?” queried Ryan, finally breaching the impasse.

“That is the question of the hour,” Lee stated. It took him another few moments to muster up the rest of his words. “Maybe we start walking. We should try to find out where we are, or if anything’s around.”

“I don’t know. We don’t know this place. We don’t know what’s around here. It might not be all that friendly. We don’t know,” Ryan said, his words tumbling out more quickly from his trembling mouth.

As stunned as Lee was, he still caught the tone and pace of Ryan’s voice, and looked over towards the youth with understanding. Ryan’s eyes exhibited the look of a frightened youth, certainly much more than the look of the hardened, street-smart young man that he saw himself as.

“I am open to suggestions, we can figure this out together,” Lee said, keeping his voice calm so that he did not add any impetus to Ryan’s rising panic. He did not want the young man to become unhinged, and he sensed an acute danger of that happening any moment.

Ryan paused a few moments before answering. Though Lee was anything but settled, Ryan finally seemed to draw some stability from the older man’s composure.

“No, you are right. The top of the hill would be best. I can scale one of the trees there, and see if I can get a view of anything,” Ryan said, as he started off towards the slope that Lee had been eyeing. “See if I can find a road or buildings … something like that.”

Lee strode briskly next to Ryan, as the two mounted the long slope and finally reached the summit of the broad hill.

Near to the top, Ryan moved over to the base of a tall oak tree, which had strong lower branches extending out from the trunk just within reach of Ryan’s fingers. He jumped up, grabbed the branch, and pulled himself up in a smooth motion. He methodically navigated up the heights of the tree, climbing from branch to branch with little difficulty.

Lee stood still on the ground below, a look of concern on his face as he watched the other’s careful progress.

At long last, Ryan hugged the trunk of the tree as his feet rested upon one of the uppermost branches. His body weight caused a slight sway as he craned his neck to look out over the treetops.

Lee waited pensively as he watched Ryan scan the horizons. Lee remained tense as he saw that Ryan’s expression remained unchanged.

Finally, Ryan looked back down towards Lee and shook his head in frustration. “Nothing. Nothing but a lot more of this,” Ryan announced sourly.

With a resigned sigh, he held onto the tree and rested for several moments, looking outward as Lee patiently awaited his return below.

Ryan

Ryan’s eyes drank in the uniform hue of the sky, bright and vibrant in the light of the sun directly over him. Though there was no sign of roads or buildings, it was a majestic vision.

“Amazing,” Ryan murmured, shaking his head one more time, as he finally looked downward to begin his descent.

His nerves were teetering on the edge. Only minutes before, he had been standing in front of a restaurant just off the downtown area. He was now peering from the top of a tall tree, atop a hill in the midst of a forest that spread out in every direction as far as the eye could see.

Ryan had not gone more than a couple branches lower, gingerly bringing his weight to bear upon each one to make certain that they would hold his weight, when a dark shadow abruptly fell across him. His breath caught in his throat, as his eyes shot back towards the sky in alarm.

Gliding along the air currents was a very large, winged creature. It had a long, thin body that was covered with a light growth of purplish fur. Broad, membranous wings protruded from its back. A short, thick neck connected the body to an elongated head that resembled a cross between that of a serpent and a bird. Two narrow legs were tucked underneath its body, each ending in grasping talons whose ends looked wickedly sharp.

Ryan froze as the shadow from the animal crossed him and continued onward. It emitted a sustained, hollow cry that chilled his nerves.

The only comfort was that the flying monstrosity appeared to have not taken any notice of Ryan, as it showed no outward reaction to the young man’s presence. As the creature glided into the distance, Ryan counted himself lucky and resumed his descent, quickly angling down from branch to branch with less caution and more urgency. He jumped down to the ground, bypassing one lower branch, and paced over to Lee.

Lee’s face was one of sheer amazement, and his eyes remained fixed upward.

“I don’t know what in the world that thing was, but it was big, and to be on the safe side, I am staying down here,” Ryan announced.

“I think we’d better take things really carefully,” Lee said, his eyes looking about warily as if the forest would suddenly come alive with an array of menacing, unknown threats. “I think we’d better not assume anything. I think that’s the best thing to do right now.”

“Let’s get going, and be ready for the trees, if you see anything at all on the ground,” Ryan responded. “I have no idea what that thing in the air was, and I wouldn’t be sure that we won’t run into even more creatures we don’t know about … ones down here that don’t fly.”

“I wouldn’t be so sure about the trees either,” Lee commented, eyes widening, “Look!”

He pointed towards the branches of a nearby tree.

Ryan followed Lee’s gesture to find a small, furry canine-like creature staring quietly right at them. The tree that Ryan had climbed had been very close to the tree that this creature inhabited, and as his eyes met those of the creature he flinched reflexively in surprise.

A ray of sunlight glinted off of one of the sharp talons by which the small mammal clutched the tree branch. Tucked close into its sides were a pair of dark, leathery wings. Its beady eyes, set back behind the length of its extended snout, seemed to be furtively studying the two humans.

As if it now recognized that its presence had been discovered, it chittered excitedly and leaped abruptly from the tree, spreading its wings and gliding off into the depths of the forest.

“No, we can’t be too sure,” Ryan agreed, unnerved further and finding himself growing more fearful by the second.

“And we can’t assume that smaller is any less of a threat,” Lee added.

“Have any more encouraging things to say?” Ryan curtly riposted.

“Better figure the worst. At least things can only get better,” Lee replied dourly.

Fully out of his element, Ryan was lost in a bizarre forest where the first two living creatures that he had set his eyes upon were entirely foreign to him. The specter of danger was palpably tangible to his senses, whether it lurked in the trees, the sky above, or upon the ground.

A freezing anxiety arose to grip him in the wake of his rapidly diminishing hopes. The feeling traveled through Ryan with a mildly paralyzing effect, and he felt as if the world itself was compressing him from all sides.

Lee

Lee saw the glistening forming across Ryan’s eyes, feeling immediate empathy for the deep plight of the man-child. He knew that Ryan’s fierce pride was straining to hold back any visible sign of weakness. Yet Lee also knew that something rigid and inflexible could be shattered in an instant when enough pressure had been applied.

Lee spoke to Ryan in as methodical and reassuring a voice as he could muster.

“We have some things to learn, probably a whole lot of things. We will simply learn whatever we have to know, to make it through all of this. There is no other choice, so let’s set our minds on this one. I have your back covered, Ryan. I’m afraid, and there’s no harm in saying so, but fear can’t stop us from getting through this unless we let it.”

“And these creatures? Do we stand a chance in a world like this, where we don’t know the first thing about what’s around us?” Ryan responded, his voice strained and shaking.

“Stop and think for a moment, Ryan. Remember, even in the world we are familiar with, the animals are stronger and faster,” Lee replied. “Even an insect can carry several times its own bodyweight. But there is one thing that took us humans to the top of the heap, so that we didn’t have to constantly huddle in fear, and hide from predators.”

Purposefully, he slowly brought his right hand up, and tapped the side of his temple firmly to punctuate his words.

“It’s this. Right in here. The mind. And we both still have that with us,” Lee said.

“I don’t see how I do. I can hardly think right now,” Ryan retorted, staring downward.

“Okay, then maybe it is best that we find something that we can put our minds to. We need to know the lay of the land, we will need water eventually, and we’d better make ourselves some kind of weapon,” Lee said, hoping that the simple logic of his words would find root in Ryan’s troubled mind.

Ryan stood in rapt silence. His expression was dour, and Lee knew that Ryan’s mood was vacillating between the opposing forces at work inside of him. Lee waited patiently on the young man. As if dragging a heavy weight, Ryan finally brought his eyes up to meet Lee’s.

“It’s worth a try,” Ryan announced rigidly.

Once the youth had said the words, it was as if one part of him was unlocked and freed. He looked intently at the ground all around them, and without a word, walked over and picked up a fallen branch off of the forest floor. Placing one knee on the branch to pin it to the ground, he began ripping away the smaller offshoots growing out from it.

When he had stripped the branch bare, Ryan rose up and started walking back up towards the summit of the hill, continuing to examine the ground. Lee followed behind him quietly, continuing to watch.

Using the stripped branch, Ryan scraped around, revealing the rough edge of a jutting rock. Utilizing the edge of the rock, he patiently worked at one end of the branch until it was crudely sharpened.

He turned back to Lee, gripping the rough spear about midway down its shaft. Ryan looked into Lee’s eyes, and something a little more firm and resolute was within his gaze now.

“Then we can start with this,” Ryan proclaimed. “Start with the weapons, and then look to the rest.”

Lee stifled a smile, proud. It was one less thing that he had to worry about in the midst of the unbelievable situation.

“Well done, a good job,” Lee commented, with no hint of being patronizing, in sincere appreciation of the young man’s fortitude.

Lee walked by Ryan, pausing momentarily to pat him gently upon the shoulder. Another elongated, stout branch, which probably had been broken off during a powerful storm, lay a few feet beyond them.

Lee picked up the branch and began to strip it.

Erin

“Okay Lynn, what is this?” Erin asked, irritated and unnerved at the relentless fog swirling all around them.

The fog had encircled them fully, forbidding any forward vision and cooling the very air around them. She could feel the damp, chilly vapors brushing against her arms, face, and lower legs.

“Come on, Erin. It’s time to get back around that fire,” Lynn said resolutely, reaching out and taking her friend’s hand.

“We can hardly see a thing, though,” Erin replied, squeezing Lynn’s hand firmly in her anxiety as they turned to make their way back to the campsite.

“Then we go slow, and we call out for directions. Just follow the voices of Uli and Razor in. We’ll probably walk right into them. It won’t be a problem at all,” Lynn stated. She took a few cautious steps forward, gently tugging Erin into motion behind her. “Come on, let’s start this way. Watch your step. Be careful.”

Progress was painstakingly slow. The encumbering fog prevented Erin from catching even a glimpse of the campfire, though she was certain that it was just a short distance away.

“Hey! Razor! Uli!” Lynn called out loudly. “Where are you guys?” Her voice carried off through the fog, as silence settled back in around them.

They stood still for several moments, waiting for a reply from their friends to help with their bearings. None was forthcoming.

Again, Lynn yelled out to their compatriots, and once again there was no response.

“This is no time for jokes,” murmured Erin in sharp displeasure, delicately stepping over the trunk of a fallen tree that was in their path. She did not recall stepping over a tree trunk when she had gone into the woods, and began to worry that they might have oriented themselves in the wrong direction.

“They had better not play around with us,” Erin remarked acidly, her uneasiness fueling her vexation. “They know I will give them hell. Believe me, I will. Unholy hell.”

“Tell me about it,” Lynn concurred tersely. “But remember, they are just the type of dolts to try and pull something like that, especially if they figure out why we are calling out to them. They couldn’t have packed up the camp and moved it away in a couple of minutes. We’ll stumble into one of them sooner or later, no matter what.”

“Hopefully sooner,” Erin responded, shaken by the utter lack of visibility.

The two picked their way over yet another fallen tree. They continued onward cautiously, methodically making their way over a fairly open clearance of ground judging by the more sporadic contact with the trees looming out of the fog.

The ground seemed to be flatter, certainly more so than the downward sloping angle that the hillside had, but Erin attributed the perception to her momentary disorientation.

Both Lynn and Erin continued shouting out to their friends, repeatedly, with less than satisfactory results.

“This isn’t it. The area where we were had a lot more trees,” Lynn observed, a noticeable tension in her voice.

“Well, then let’s turn back,” Erin replied, matter-of-factly. It mystified her as to how they could possibly have gotten far away from the campsite.

“I wish it were that simple. Don’t forget, there are cliffs not too far off from the camp. If we keep walking, we will have to go really slow. I don’t want to step off the edge of a hundred and fifty foot drop, and I don’t think that you do either.”

Erin certainly had no argument to that.

The fog seemed to be thinning somewhat off to the right, as Erin could make out the outlines of trees a little farther away than before. Elsewhere, it was as dense as ever.

Lynn had evidently taken notice of the variance as well.

“Wait a second, Erin. Maybe we should go in this direction. It looks like the fog’s not as thick that way,” Lynn suggested. “At least it will be a little safer for us in this area, being able to see a little farther ahead.”

“I’m with you on that,” Erin agreed, relieved that they would have a few strides warning before coming to the edge of a lethal drop-off.

They took a few steps to the right. Erin reached out and felt the texture of one of the trees as they passed by it. She drew a little stability from the solidity of the trunk.

Gradually it became easier and easier to see farther into the trees ahead. The two women were finally able to concentrate more on the ground under them, than what was coming up immediately in front of them. Even so, Erin’s sense of caution did not lessen.

As they continued forward, keeping a careful watch on the ground, Erin had no more doubts that their visibility was steadily increasing. Strangely, the illumination in the area was increasing as well.

“Full moon should be helping out, but this much?” Erin asked Lynn, taken aback by the rising ambience.

“I don’t have an explanation for it,” Lynn responded. “But you are right, it is getting much brighter around here.”

They took a few more steps, when both Erin and Lynn came to a stop. Erin saw that the fog was visibly receding around them. Looking over at Lynn’s bewildered expression, she knew that her friend was as struck with the bizarre phenomenon as she was.

With great apprehension, Erin stood with Lynn as they waited to see what the fog’s dispersal would reveal. Hoping for a landmark, a sign of their campsite, or even a member of their group, she scanned the growing periphery with great scrutiny.

The amount of light continued to expand, until the last layers of fog started breaking up to reveal a blue-green sky spread far and wide above them. Forested hills rose up all around them, as they found themselves at the base of an incline that led towards a long ridgeline.

After the initial shock of the sight of daylight and unfamiliar terrain subsided, Erin looked to Lynn to see if her friend was as stunned as she was.

“Where are we? That’s not normal. Something’s wrong with my eyes,” Erin said, looking at the teal hue of the sky, panic surging. “Something is wrong with me.”

“Then something is wrong with me too,” Lynn replied in a voice just above a whisper, her lips barely mouthing the words.

“Then what is it?” Erin asked Lynn after a few more uncomfortable moments had passed.

It was not what she had wanted to hear from Lynn. Erin had hoped that the problems rested with her alone, and that Lynn did not see what she was seeing. Whatever was affecting Erin’s vision was also altering Lynn’s.

“We’ve gotta find the others,” Erin went on, before Lynn answered. “Something’s gone wrong with us, Lynn.”

“So that’s how we walked all the way to the bottom of a hill, moved into another entirely different area, and found ourselves here? Is that right, Erin? And we’ve suddenly gone from night to broad daylight in less than half an hour? And how come everything but the sky is the right color, if something’s wrong with our eyes?” Lynn queried.

Her barrage of words stung Erin. She wished with all her heart that they were experiencing some shared hallucination, but knew better.

Erin frowned as she looked over at Lynn. “Then how do you explain this?”

“You think I know?” Lynn countered sharply.

“We got lost in the fog, and lost sense of time,” Erin said.

“For how many hours? And that explains the sky color?” Lynn shot back.

Erin glared at Lynn, unable to come up with a verbal response but not about to concede anything either. A heavy tension weighed the air between them down, as they continued to glower at each other.

They were given little time to resume their argument, as a loud, piercing screech shattered the still air. A broad, dark shadow swept across the ground, passing swiftly over their position and bringing their eyes hastily upwards.

“My god! What the hell is that?” Erin cried out, looking skyward, where she beheld the sight of a horrific-looking creature that was flying just above the tops of the trees. Its fierce, reptilian visage gazed down hungrily upon them, as it circled over their position.

The body of the fearsome creature was well over ten feet in length. Its extended jaws, opening with each ensuing outcry, revealed an arsenal of whetted teeth, arrayed into the unmistakable maw of a very formidable carnivore.

“Run! Just run!” Lynn yelled, giving Erin a hard shove to urge her onward.

Erin broke out of her momentary trance, lurching into a full run, needing little inspiration to hasten her strides. In an instant, both of the women were running as fast as they could across the forest ground. Lynn, with a slight lead, angled towards the rounded base of a nearby hill.

Behind them, the creature glided low just over the uppermost tree branches, relentlessly tracking the young women. The beast skimmed above the trees, its keen eyes searching carefully.

When it reached a larger break in the forest canopy, its wings tucked in suddenly, and it swooped downward with deadly grace and force as it leveled out beneath the trees.

The creature’s wings folded close to its body whenever it passed by the trees in its path, spreading wide in the gaps between the trees, and snapping down in the open spaces, giving bursts to its pursuing flight. The beast closed fast upon the two desperate women running before it.

Legs straining to the limits, Erin and Lynn reached the bend at the base of the hill. Dodging trees, and adroitly leaping over another fallen tree trunk, the two women looked frantically about for escape.

“To the right!” Lynn shouted quickly, breaking sharply to her right, running towards a wide creek.

The creek had cut a deep embankment, as its waters coursed steadily along their meandering route. Erin realized Lynn’s desperate notion at once.

Glancing back, Lynn checked to see that Erin was still close behind her. Erin was following right on her heels.

Erin looked over her own shoulder and stifled a scream as she saw that the huge predator was deftly flying just a few feet above the ground, gliding rapidly just a short distance behind.

It was closing on them far too fast.

“Down! And stay on this side of the bank!” Lynn yelled as they reached the lip of the bank.

In a flurry of motion that was a mixture of falling, twisting, and slipping, Lynn dropped and rotated to press herself against the near side of the bank. Erin tumbled in awkwardly behind her, almost falling out from the bank in the process. Swiftly, Lynn reached out and grabbed Erin’s shirt, pulling her in tightly. Mud and water was spattered all over them.

A second later, the creature shrieked in rage. It hurtled by just overhead, streaking across the surface of the creek as its prey evaded its imminent grasp.

“It will probably turn around! Let’s go!” Lynn said, anxiously watching the winged nightmare.

Once the beast came back from the other direction, their position would be abruptly turned from a means of refuge to one of vulnerability.

The cry of the monstrous creature suddenly changed pitches, as the sound of a great, sonorous roaring intermingled with it. The forest was filled with the deep-toned eruption, the furious cacophony shaking the air. Erin knew at once that the roar had not come from the flying entity.

The shrill shrieks of the flying monstrosity and the horrible roaring of the other denizen of the forest escalated, with both creatures now well beyond Erin’s line of sight.

Erin was not about to wait to see what the cause of the tumult was, or what had become of the flying creature. Most certainly, she did not wish to see the source of the deafening roar.

Neither did Lynn evidently, who was already up and on the move, dragging Erin into step behind her and urging her to hurry. They dashed down along the edge of the creek, their frenzied steps throwing up splashes of water with each impact. Erin was pumping her legs as quickly as she could, several times almost stumbling and falling in her unrelenting haste.

Far behind them came anther loud, high-pitched cry from the winged creature. It carried a noticeably different tone. Unlike the cries that it had made before, this one sounded like a cry of tremendous agony.

It was followed a moment later by another thunderous roar. The piercing cry of the winged entity was then abruptly cut off, the roar ebbed, and the forest fell into silence once more.

The cessation of the chaotic dissonance did not lesson the frightful panic that Erin felt racing through her veins.

Erin and Lynn continued their urgent sprint, putting plenty of distance between themselves and the area where the creatures were. Only when her lungs were about to burst, and her leg muscles felt gelatinous from being pushed to their utmost limits, did they finally reduce their speed down to a jog and begin to reclaim their breath.

“What is going on …?” Erin asked between heavy gasps for air.

Inwardly, she cursed her life of sedate activity. Exhausted and winded, she knew that she was going to pay a very steep price for her prolonged lack of regular physical exercise.

Calling up all her willpower, she trudged onward, keeping by Lynn’s side.

“I have … no idea,” Lynn replied, between her own heaving gulps of breath.

Though in better physical shape than Erin, Lynn was still far from prepared for the ordeal that they found themselves in.

“Then, what do we do?” Erin asked, her voice despondent.

She looked to Lynn, as she took a few protracted breaths. Her heart continued to pound rapidly in her chest, strained by exertion and fear.

Lynn slowed down further, turning aside towards a spot where they could easily scramble up the bank. Before answering Erin, she dug into the incline, using her hands to help propel her upwards.

When she stood at the top, she turned around and looked down to where Erin had come to a stop at the base of the embankment.

“For now, we just keep going,” Lynn said.

Leaning over and reaching out, she took Erin’s hand and helped her up to the top of the bank. Standing at Lynn’s side, Erin cast a distressed glance back down the creek. Fortunately, there was no sight or sound of any pursuit.

A wave of dizziness then came over Erin as she stood still, sweat beading and beginning to trickle down her warming face. The young woman then hunched over, her hands braced upon her knees. She felt a light wave of nausea. It was all that she could do to remain relaxed, and avoid the eruption of violent heaves.

“Breath slow,” Lynn advised, placing a hand on her friend’s back.

Erin closed her eyes and drew in a long inhalation, letting it out slowly. She repeated the process a couple more times.

“We keep going, but to where?” Erin asked between breaths, teetering on the edge of vomiting.

“I don’t know,” Lynn replied simply, after a long pause.

Erin glanced over at her friend, who had straightened up, placed hands on her hips, and was now looking around them.

The forest was quiescent, and the only sound in Erin’s ears was that of leaves rustling in soft breezes. Whether it was paranoia, or just keen perception, Erin felt a prickly sensation along the nape of her neck. She sensed that they were being watched.

“Do you feel it?” Erin whispered curtly. “Like someone … or something … is watching us.”

Lynn nodded quietly, her eyes wide as her gaze darted about.

“We’d better get something to hit back with,” Lynn said at last, her eyes lowering as took a couple of steps away from the bank. She then warned, “We aren’t going to be able to run much more.”

Making her way over to a tree with low branches, she put both her arms out, wrapping her fingers around on a strong-looking branch. With a forceful, backward pull that engaged her body weight, Lynn snapped the branch off the tree.

Quickly, she set about stripping all of the extraneous shoots from the main branch.

“For you,” Lynn announced to Erin, handing her the makeshift staff. “It won’t be brittle, at least.”

Lynn walked back over and repeated the process on a similarly stout-looking branch attached to a nearby tree.

“And for me,” Lynn remarked as she bared the branch.

The branch felt solid enough in Erin’s hands, and she knew that it could deliver a crunching impact. At the very least, Erin knew that they now possessed usable walking staves.

Erin set one end of the branch in the ground and straightened up, feeling another wave of dizziness and nausea pass over her. She leaned some of her weight upon the staff that she now held, closing her eyes and taking another couple of long, careful breaths.

Erin plodded over to where Lynn stood, her legs heavy and drained. As their eyes met, Erin could see a reflection of the fear that she was still wrestling with.

“Just relax yourself Erin, as much as you can,” urged Lynn, glancing downward.

Erin followed her friend’s gaze, and noticed the whitened knuckles of her own right hand where she tightly gripped the wood staff.

Erin nodded slowly to Lynn, willing herself to relax her grip a little. “I’ll try … but I don’t know the first thing about what we’re gonna do.”

“And neither do I,” Lynn replied. “We’re both scared, just about out of our minds. We have to hope that this will all explain itself soon, and that we can somehow get out of here.”

“Not very comforting,” Erin said morosely. “And what if we can’t?”

Lynn shook her head. “Don’t think about that, Erin.”

Erin looked downward, unable to meet her friend’s eyes. She feared that Lynn would somehow be able to see inside her, as she slid further towards a state of sheer hopelessness.

They were completely lost, in the midst of an area that had already demonstrated that it held creatures of an inexplicable and terrifying nature within it. Erin did not have the first idea as to their whereabouts, and their lives had been threatened less than five minutes after becoming aware of their strange predicament.

“Come on, Erin, let’s at least get moving,” Lynn said. Branch in hand, her friend started off, following a path that ran atop the embankment, proceeding along the border of the creek.

Glancing down at the water, Erin saw that Lynn was heading upstream.

“Hey, wait up,” Erin said, jogging hastily to catch up to her friend. “Why go this way? We don’t know where we are, so we can’t know where we are heading.”

Lynn looked Erin in the eye as she continued her purposeful strides. “No … we don’t know what is happening. But if the creature that put a stop to our pursuit is territorial, I want to keep moving away from it. As a matter of fact …”

Lynn’s words trailed off as she turned aside, maneuvering back down the embankment and into the creek’s bed.

“Let’s keep our wits a little, and not leave any scent for anything to follow,” Lynn stated.

Erin scrambled down the embankment, stepping into the water and feeling the cold chill as it soaked into her shoes. That was the least of her worries as she strolled alongside Lynn, continuing their arduous trek upstream.

After just a few moments, Lynn seemed engrossed in studying the rocks of the creek bed. Seeing a few that rose out of the water, she moved over towards one in particular, laying the end of her branch-staff upon the rock’s edge.

She looked to Erin. “We can obscure our scents, and we can improve our weapons.”

Lynn began to scrape the end of her crude staff against the rock edge, and Erin quickly realized what her friend was doing. Seeing another similar rock, she got started on the improvements to her own.

Mershad

Mershad and Erika continued walking at a comfortable pace, having already traveled for what certainly had to be several miles by then. Mershad had never walked so far in one single jaunt.

The scenery around them remained fairly constant. There was only a little fluctuation in elevation, as they wended their way around the bases of the encompassing hills. The plants, trees, and even animals remained largely familiar as well.

Yet twice more, they came upon more of the odd, tree-dwelling creatures that they had encountered shortly after their arrival within the strange locale. As before, there were no indications of threat from the unusual creatures, but the sightings reminded Mershad to not lapse in his focus.

“I believe that this forest could go on forever,” Mershad remarked ruefully.

Though they had not pushed themselves overly hard, his legs were feeling entirely leaden. He was beginning to brace himself a little more with each step upon the stout branch that Erika had procured for him.

“I wish I was in your condition,” he said through a tired grin.

“Need a break?” Erika asked him, looking at Mershad with care and concern. Her condition appeared to be holding strong. Her breath still came easy, and she was yet limber of step. She had since found herself another branch that she had deemed more suitable for her height, and was carrying it loosely at her side.

It came as no surprise to Mershad. He was well aware that she was accustomed to a regimen of regular exercise and activity. Mershad was not foolish enough to entertain any notions of sharing her endurance, honed and developed as it was through considerable exertion over a long period of time.

Mershad felt no loss of pride in being completely honest with her. He had no desire to quietly allow himself to sink into a completely exhausted state, especially not when they still lacked any clues as to their whereabouts. Neither could they afford to be lax regarding possible wilderness threats.

“Not just yet, but I promise that I will tell you, Erika, before I get into too much trouble. Who knows? Maybe we’re just a little short of finding something that will let us know where we are,” he replied.

“You’d better tell me,” she replied firmly, still eyeing him carefully, before adding in a softer tone, “and I do hope that we find something soon, anything at all.”

The two trekked onward for a couple more miles, sweat beading upon both of their foreheads. The late-afternoon weather was warm and mildly humid, broken up by the occasional breezes wafting through the trees. By the light of the sky above, Mershad judged that it was now just a few hours before evening arrived.

Mershad did not have any other options for estimating the time. Both his and Erika’s watches were now useless, little more than decorative accessories, after the transfer through the fog. Both watches had come to a stop, and with the unexpected shift from night to day, he knew that trying to estimate a time would be largely futile.

Mershad was also feeling the initial pangs of thirst and hunger, a foreboding development that Mershad began to fear as it raised several new dangers to light. He had spoken about his concerns a little already to Erika, and found that her own worries were not much different.

Neither of them wanted to blindly sample just any sort of berry or nut, not even ones that they might deem to be edible, as they were not experts in woodland growths. Furthermore, they both had little experience with hunting, and did not have any ideas on making efficient netting or rigging poles for fishing.

Still, the inevitable had to be faced, whether they were prepared or not.

As he was worrying about the approaching difficulties, Mershad perked his head up as his ears took in the distinct sounds of running water. A few moments later, they came upon its source, a wide, deep creek whose current flowed at a mild pace.

“I hope that it’s good water, because we are going to need it sooner or later. We’ve got nothing to boil it in, and I don’t know how to start a fire,” Mershad commented. “I …”

“Shhh!” Erika warned abruptly, gesturing urgently for him to be completely quiet.

Her eyes widened as she stared ahead, her posture rigidly still. Mershad felt the hairs stand up on the back of his neck at her clear aura of alarm.

“Something is moving near,” she whispered, indicating for him to lie down quietly upon the ground.

They both lowered themselves to the forest floor, and Mershad’s heart began to pound rapidly in anxiety.

He listened intently, and it only took a moment for him to hear what had prompted Erika’s sudden concern. It was the distant sounds of voices, moving through the brush and growing slowly louder. They were still faint, and he could not yet make out any of the words, but the voices were perhaps the most welcome sounds that Mershad had ever heard in his entire life.

The sky above them, though, was still of the unique, blue-green hue, and one glance at it served as a stark reminder to maintain caution. They could not afford to make any quick assumptions. If anything, the sudden upheaval in their personal worlds had instilled a strong sense of prudence in Mershad.

He glanced over at Erika. She nodded back at him, and gave him a slight smile, clearly looking pleased to hear other human voices.

Both of them strained their eyes to gain a better look at the approaching beings, and their ears to discern their specific words. After a few moments, the figures responsible for the voices came into view among the distant trees, accompanied by the crunches and snaps of their footsteps upon the debris on the ground. They were two men, walking at a slow pace.

One was a stocky male, with dark brown skin. He appeared to be in his mid-twenties. His short, coal black hair was shaved high on the sides of his head, and he sported a dark shadow of growth upon his face that would become a very dense beard if given time. He was dressed in dark khaki pants and a collared, short-sleeved shirt, with a single logo of some type over the left breast.

The other male, a light-skinned man, looked to be of approximately the same age. He was a little taller than the first, modest of build with a narrow waist, and had angular facial features with a strong jawline. He had dark eyebrows, and long, even locks of jet-black hair that descended to the top of his shoulders.

He was wearing gray jeans and a solid blue, long-sleeved shirt. His face was also covered with the stubble of a few days’ growth.

One of the first things that Mershad noticed about them was that neither of the men looked to be very comfortable, as they were constantly looking around. They were talking in low voices, and it appeared as if they were keeping alert for an imminent danger. Their hands were empty, which surprised Mershad a little, given their obvious tension.

Mershad glanced over at Erika, and could see that they were both puzzled by the strange sight. The two men were clearly of a contemporary nature to their own, and their obvious discomfort strongly reflected the wary state of being that Mershad and Erika were in.

Yet despite the familiar signs, there was also the possibility that the men were yet another danger to be faced in this unpredictable and unknown place. The pair were headed right in their direction, and there was no real place to run to without being seen. A decision was being forced upon Erika and Mershad, which he knew that neither of them relished.

He gripped his branch-staff a little tighter, steeling his nerves as he looked back to Erika again. She quietly indicated her ears, then pointed towards the oncoming men, and proceeded to touch her mouth, as she silently mouthed some words.

Lip-reading as best as he possibly could, and using the gestures to augment the communication, he came to understand her intentions. She wanted them to remain quiet, and to try and listen to what the approaching males were saying before taking any action.

Nodding in agreement with her, he returned his attentions back to the two oncoming men to see what he could glean.

In the next few moments, he hoped that something could be learned from the men’s conversation regarding their identity, or the circumstances that Mershad and Erika found themselves in. Enduring a few more tense moments would hopefully secure the knowledge that they needed to make a decision; to portray hostility, or to offer friendship.

Logan

“This is completely insane,” Antonio said in a low, tense voice. “We’ll have to figure out food shortly. There’s the stream that we heard. I just hope that it’s water fit for drinking. Last thing we need is to get sick.”

“This is all insane, Antonio. Completely insane,” Logan replied emphatically.

He looked over towards the stream that had just come into sight. It appeared to be ordinary water, but the way that things had been going, Logan feared that nothing could be taken for granted.

“I’m getting a little thirsty, and we do need water,” Logan said. “Do you think there’s anything to worry about? How could we even test it out anyway?”

Antonio shook his head with a nervous grin. “Drinking it straight? Not me. You can be the first.”

Logan chuckled. “Thanks, but you better not be so flippant about this sort of thing. If I suddenly keel over and fall dead, you’ll be in a world of hurt. Maybe we should save the taste testing as a very last resort.”

Antonio stared towards the clear, gently flowing water. He slowed down and sighed, shaking his head.

“Sooner or later, if we are here for a while, we are going to have to take a risk and try it,” Antonio said.

Logan stared down at the water as well, watching a few minnows darting about in its mild depths. He found that he was in a state of sheer disbelief, that something as simple as drinking water could unsettle him to such a tremendous degree.

His mind was getting the best of him in the wake of the dense fog and ensuing turmoil in his life. The realization annoyed him greatly, as he resolved himself to keep his reason intact.

“Well, at least we can keep close, until we absolutely need it. We can follow the course of the stream for a while,” Logan suggested, looking back to Antonio. “And if we are going to be in these woods tonight, we need to begin coming up with some kind of plan.”

“Where are we?” Antonio said, exasperated, in a raised voice that carried farther through the trees. “Can you tell me even that?”

Logan shot his friend an angry glare as he hissed, “Did you forget already what we agreed on when we entered the woods? Keep your voice down, Antonio. Even talking low like we have been might be too much of a risk.”

It was almost as if Antonio was not listening to him. He saw a look of surprise and agitation spread abruptly across Antonio’s face. He swiftly turned his head to share Antonio’s angle of view.

His own heart skipped a beat.

Two human figures stood in plain sight about thirty feet away, almost directly in their path.

One was a young female of around twenty years of age. He was relieved to see that she was dressed simply in dark jeans and a yellow, long-sleeved t-shirt, the familiar attire giving him some hope. He was very thankful for the contemporary look, fathoming that she might possibly have some answers as to their whereabouts.

The other person was a shorter, thinner man with dark, olive-shaded skin. He was also clad in everyday clothing, wearing a collared shirt and jeans. The vestiges of extreme apprehension were stretched all over his face, though his mouth was turned up in the beginnings of a nervous smile.

Though both of them held sturdy branches in their hands, Logan felt no sense of threat coming from either. “Hi there … I didn’t think we would find anyone out here,” Logan said, breaking the momentary impasse. “Who are you?”

The icy tension that had risen upon their appearance quickly melted away in the wake of his words. He could see their postures relaxing just a little.

“My name is Erika, and this is my friend, Mershad,” the woman replied, gesturing towards the male at her side. Her voice was steady and confident, and the look in her eye remained imbued with scrutiny.

There was a little awkwardness to the atmosphere. Logan got the distinct impression that, while both pairs were unsure of exactly how to proceed, they were both greatly relieved to have encountered the other. But, the guarded caution in the others strongly suggested that they were not entirely native to the local area. Their apparent discomfort was not a very encouraging aspect of their demeanors.

“I’m Logan, and this is Antonio,” Logan responded. He ventured a little further with his words, deciding to take some light risks. “I suppose that you are not from around here, am I right?”

“No, and I would bet that you aren’t either, correct?” Erika asked him.

She took a few deliberate steps forward. As if following her cue, the one named Mershad started forward, keeping close by her side.

“No, we aren’t,” Antonio answered, before blurting out, “and do you know anything about where we are right now?”

A discernable flicker of discouragement crossed through Erika’s eyes at that moment, and Logan could see that she had been hoping to ask them the same thing.

“I’m not really sure,” she responded, with a tinge of unease.

“And neither are we,” Logan said, starting to see that the other two shared his and Antonio’s predicament in some way. He then decided to say one more word. “Fog?”

He immediately saw the tidal wave of relief and recognition that hit their faces.

“So, have you two been in this place for very long?” Erika queried, somewhat hesitantly.

“Not really very long at all,” Logan stated. “And we are totally out of place. If you know what I mean.”

“The fog?” Mershad inquired cautiously.

Antonio nodded, as he replied, “Yes. One minute we were in fog, thicker than anything I’ve seen before, and the next minute we were here, just outside this forest. We didn’t plan it.”

“No, we certainly didn’t. And yet here we are,” Logan added, with a bitter edge to his tone.

“What were you all doing when the fog rolled in?” Antonio asked the newcomers.

“Just sitting and talking on our campus, at night, at the University of Lexington,” Erika said. “The fog came in, and then night was day … and here we were.”

“University of Lexington? Both of us are from Lexington,” Logan replied, finding the increasing familiarity a welcome feast to his starved psyche. “Maybe there is something about that, unless you have any idea as to where this place is.”

“No idea. Whatever has happened, we should stay together,” Erika said. After a pause, she continued, “So, have you two discussed any plans for handling all of this?”

“Really … no,” Antonio admitted. “We’ve just been walking for a little while. Haven’t even tried to drink the water. What have you found out?”

“We’ve seen some rather unusual animals. And you already know about the strange color of the sky, but other than that, it seems enough like a normal forest,” Erika remarked.

“There are some open grasslands, back in the direction from which we just came, and it isn’t too far away,” Logan said. “We decided that we definitely didn’t want to stay out in the open, until we learned more about where we are. There are a lot more places to hide in a forest, and there are more possibilities for shelter. It didn’t take us very long to decide to get out of the open and take our chances in here.”

“The open grassland would be something different from what we’ve seen. We’ve just been walking through miles of forest and hills,” Mershad added, gesturing behind and around him.

“As I assume we’ll be staying together, what direction do you think we should try?” asked Logan.

“Maybe follow that. It might lead to a bigger body of water,” Erika said, pointing over towards the nearby creek.

“Or it might go underground, with our luck,” Mershad said dourly. “But it might be worth a try.”

“I think it is worth a try, and we were about to follow its course for awhile. We also need to plan for food, shelter, and everything else. We don’t even know if the water is safe to drink. I really hope one of you two is a woodland expert,” Logan queried. “I hope your degrees were in forestry, and that at least one of you is an aspiring forest ranger.”

“At the moment, I wish that were so, but I’m afraid that neither of us is. But there are more minds working together now. Maybe that can offset our lack of knowledge regarding all of this,” Erika replied.

“Maybe it can,” Logan said. He stepped forward and extended his hand, his somewhat stern countenance allowing a modest grin to emerge. “It is good to meet the two of you, and I’m glad that our paths crossed pretty quickly. It looks like we are going to be in this thing together.”

Erika responded congenially, with a firm handshake, the others following suit.

“I’m not happy that you had to go through all of this, but we are very glad to find you as well,” she said, the relief very evident in her expressive smile.

“Likewise,” Logan replied, holding her deep gaze for a moment.

It took him a second to draw back from her warm, striking eyes. In the wake of his edgy nerves, he was starting to take more note of her considerable attractiveness.

With refreshed spirits and higher hopes, the foursome started along one side of the narrow brook, heading downstream. They compared their experiences and observations. From their collective best guess, the course of the creek meandered near to the outer border of the forest.

About an hour later, near to a cluster of oak trees, they stopped for a short respite. Taking their cue from Erika and Mershad, Logan and Antonio fashioned their own stout walking sticks out of branches during the break.

The quartet then resumed their travel at an easy pace, indulging in some light conversation as they began to relate more of their backgrounds and insights to each other.

The temperate flow of the creek next to them established a continual, relaxing backdrop, which further soothed Logan’s wearied and harried mind. Yet despite the tranquil environs, they did not ignore caution. All continued to keep their eyes open for any signs of danger, and their voices remained subdued.

When the creek continued out beyond the edge of the forest, it was decided that they would keep within the cover of the trees. Turning to the left, they altered their path to shadow the forest’s edge.

Lee

“Exactly what I was expecting on a Saturday night,” Ryan said in frustration, taking a half-hearted stab at the ground with his crude spear. His voice was thick with sarcasm as he continued, “A nice, long nature hike, under a pretty aqua sky. Just what I was wanting.”

The young man sat down heavily upon the trunk of a fallen tree, as Lee sat down close to him. Lee extended his legs out, to rest them and perhaps recoup some energy after several hours of what felt like aimless wandering. His stomach felt as if it were about to cramp, and a faint dizziness brought on by hunger and fatigue was just beginning to creep in.

“Not what you were expecting when you left the restaurant?” queried Lee ruefully.

“Didn’t expect to go hiking, that’s for sure,” Ryan replied, with a bittersweet grin.

The youth slumped to the ground, leaning backwards against the prone trunk and letting out a fatigued groan. They sat together in silence for several minutes, as they both took in the serenity of their immediate surroundings. Breathing in the fresh air, they gradually allowed the aches and tingles in their muscles to settle down.

At long last, Ryan glanced up at Lee. “What’s next?”

“There’s the obvious. I know we’re both getting hungry. And we should assume we’re going to be here for awhile, so we’d better start thinking about things like that,” Lee responded evenly.

“We barely know what is out there, and what we’ve already seen is not that encouraging,” Ryan said.

“No, it’s not,” Lee said, thinking of the flying creature that had startled Ryan when he had climbed the high tree to espy their surroundings.

The broad forest, contoured by low hills and blanketed by teeming masses of trees, seemed to go on forever in all directions around them. As much as the forest seemed peaceable enough, that discovery was deeply troubling and weighed heavier with each passing hour upon Lee’s mind.

“Should we stop and try to make some sort of camp then?” Ryan asked him.

“Probably wouldn’t be a bad idea. And we will have to hunt soon, or take a chance on some berries, roots, or plants,” Lee said. “I’m not familiar with a lot of things about this area, so we’ll have to hope that we find some things that we are familiar with. Luckily, I know a little about mushrooms, herbs, and some things like that. We should …”

“Hey! Lee!” Ryan exclaimed curtly, in a hushed voice, jolting his hand up abruptly in a gesture that demanded silence.

“What is it?” Lee asked in a whisper.

Ryan slowly got up to his feet, tilting his head slightly to the side, appearing to be listening to something.

Ryan finally whispered, “Something is coming … this way.”

Turning, he pointed emphatically over the tree trunk, in the direction to Lee’s back. Lee quietly slid off of the tree trunk, and placed one knee on the ground as he rotated to face the woods alongside Ryan.

The fallen tree served as a capable barrier in front of them, easily large enough to hide behind. They remained as still as the thick length of dead wood lying right before them.

At first, Lee heard the unmistakable crunch of leaves and breaking twigs. Something larger, and not altogether stealthy, was indeed moving resolutely towards them through the woods. At a fair distance, Lee then caught sight of two human figures through breaks in the trees.

As they drew closer, Lee saw that the figures were two younger females. His hopes rose sharply with the recognition, instantly relieved to see the presence of other people within the strange woodlands.

Even so, he was not about to counsel recklessness, and wanted to make sure that Ryan retained some caution as well. He turned to Ryan before the other did something that might give away their hiding place.

“Let’s go over there, a little more out of the way,” Lee said, indicating the end of the fallen section of tree trunk, where it had broken off from its lower, rooted base. A narrow swath of arched wood and bark still attached the fallen section to the jagged lower portion that was still firmly anchored to the ground. “We can watch them coming with even less risk of being seen.”

A small, triangular opening was formed near the ground, at the juncture between the fallen portion of the tree and the rooted lower trunk. To Lee, it appeared highly advantageous for engaging in concealed observation.

“Just keep down,” Lee cautioned, as he took the lead.

Lee and Ryan crawled down towards the end of the tree, keeping to their bellies. Lee took painstaking care, and undertook a little extra exertion, so as not to cause much rustling as they moved across the leaves and brush lying beneath their knees and stomachs.

When he reached the small opening, he crouched to one side and left the other free for Ryan. He found that he had guessed correctly. The new vantage point did indeed offer an ideal place from which to watch and await the females without being too exposed.

Lee noticed right away that the dress of the women was contemporary, which came as further relief given the confounding nature of their experience so far. The recognition of that fueled Lee’s hopes that everything was ultimately going to turn out to be some type of strange aberration, and that soon he and Ryan would be well on their way to forgetting about it all.

He got a good look at the full-faced young woman to the left, who had dark hair with streaks of deep red dyed into it. Her face and neck were glistening with sweat. As the women neared, he could see that her cheeks were flushed and that her eyes were reddened. Lee guessed this was the result of sustained crying, exhaustion, or a combination of both.

The young woman accompanying her was slightly taller, with long, straight dark hair. She appeared to be more composed than her companion, her expression taut and wary.

Their sluggish movements held the air of extreme fatigue, and both were using makeshift walking sticks crafted from stout tree branches. There was no question in Lee’s mind now that they were both utterly tired, and had already been put through a great deal of exertion. Their wariness and fear were also manifestly evident as their eyes were constantly scanning the area around them.

While they did not talk, they trudged heavily forward. They continued to make more noise than Lee believed that they wished to, their steps crunching upon the forest floor. He also judged that they were not threatening to any degree, as far as he and Ryan were concerned.

Lee looked over to Ryan, and made a sharp motion for him to stay put, and to remain silent. Setting down his branch on the ground, and slowly straightening up, Lee walked calmly around the end of the broken tree stump to stand in clear, open view of the two women.

The two females flinched, and the one with the dyed-streaks of hair gasped, both quite startled at his sudden appearance. They reacted swiftly, rapidly collecting themselves and raising up their branches in firm grips, such that Lee could see that they had crudely sharpened the ends of their rough weapons. Lee resented causing them any further fright, but he wanted to make sure that they saw him first from a comfortable distance, both for their sakes as well as for Ryan and himself.

Lee slowly held both of his hands high, his palms openly exposed and empty. He opted for complete honesty, though he doubted that he would quickly gain any measure of trust from them.

“I am not a threat,” Lee announced in an even tone of voice. “I wanted you to know I was here before you got any closer. I didn’t mean to startle you, but it would have been more startling if I stood up right next to you.”

As he spoke, he realized that he had taken it for granted that they all shared the same language. Fortunately, the women showed no confusion at his words.

The woman with the straight brown hair, a granite look embedded in her eye, asked firmly, “And who are you?”

Her eyes then flicked to each side, and she stole a quick glance backward. Lee could sense the immediate and sharp distrust that she had, as if his emergence was some part of a larger ruse or ambush.

As if to confirm his suspicion, she whispered to the other young woman, who kept a watch behind them as the first turned back to face Lee. Her countenance was grim, and Lee could see a little wild frenzy now playing about the edges of her gaze. He was certain that she had been through something quite terrible, and that it would not take all that much to cause her to snap violently.

Lee responded quickly, and as gently as he could. He decided to hold nothing back, hoping against hope that the other two found something in his words that struck a familiar chord within their own sphere of experience.

“My name is Lee Chen. I have no idea where I am. I got lost in a fog. And I found myself in this place. And you are the first people that I have seen,” he stated calmly. “I am hoping you know where we are right now, but it looks like you don’t either.”

There was no mistaking the look of understanding that flashed across the other’s face. She did not drop her guard for long, and her hardened façade returned as the flare of clear surprise at the mention of the word “fog” faded. Yet at the least, Lee had some of his instincts confirmed.

“I’m right, aren’t I?” Lee pressed, deciding to go with the momentum and his gut feeling. “If I were to guess, I would guess that you were doing something quite normal, and then a fog came, and then you found yourselves in the middle of … who knows where we are. Maybe you even saw some strange things, or creatures? Different than anything you’re used to.”

The tensed, defensive look softened slightly in the eyes of the brown-haired young woman, if again only for a moment.

“And why should we believe you, that you aren’t a threat to us?” she asked him tersely.

“I cannot prove to you why you should believe me. I have only my word. And I don’t expect you to believe me. I almost don’t believe myself, with what I’ve gone through,” Lee replied.

He got the sense that there was something different and much darker about the experience that the other two had faced, as the edge of great fear remained at the fore in the young woman. Her companion had remained very disciplined and vigilant as she kept watch behind her friend, like one would be in the wake of going through something incredibly terrible.

Lee wished that he could fully reassure them with his words and demeanor, but knew that such a thing was well beyond his art. For a few moments, there was an unpleasant tension hanging in the air as the brown-haired woman carefully considered his words.

“You may be a danger to us, but I risked it,” Lee then added.

The continuing level of mistrust, the obvious signs of weariness, and the protective postures of the two young women was evidence enough to Lee that he decided to take one further risk.

“Okay, I will be fully honest with you, in the hopes that you will trust me, and understand that we have been through something unexplainable ourselves.

“I have been defensive with you, as you are now being with us … Ryan, come on out,” Lee said gently, turning slightly to face Ryan’s obscured position.

Ryan hesitated for a moment, a hesitant look on his face.

“It’s okay, Ryan,” Lee encouraged. “Come out slowly, and stand up.”

The woman with the dyed streaks turned and raised up her staff reflexively, her grip tightening upon it. The two women quickly backed up a few feet at the emergence of another man before them, casting glances to the back and sides, as if they feared that Lee was somehow triggering a trap. Seeing the gangly youth, they relaxed their rigid postures slightly, and Lee could see that they were beginning to perceive the truth in what he had been telling them.

“Explain more about how you got here, what you were doing, and where you are from,” the girl with the straight brown hair demanded in a steeled tone, though her eyes gave away the sliver of hope that had now entered her. “Details are fine.”

“I own Lee’s Wok, down by the University of Lexington. Ryan is a friend of mine who works with me, and had joined me as I was closing the restaurant, earlier tonight … as it was night when all of this happened.

“We walked outside of the store when a large fog rolled in. It was a fog like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It came in quickly, covering everything, and soon we were in the middle of it. The next thing that I knew, we were here in this hilly forest, in the middle of the day, with a sky completely different to any I’ve ever seen.”

He shrugged his shoulders, and gave a sigh of resignation.

“What can I say? It wasn’t our choice to be in the middle of this, and I don’t know how we got here, and I really have no idea where here is, to begin with. Honest, that is all that I know,” Lee stated.

The brown-haired girl nodded slowly in understanding. The hints of a smile slowly crept upon her face, reflecting familiarity as the various places were voiced. The other young woman then turned towards them fully, also exhibiting a relieved look. Both ceased casting furtive glances all about themselves.

“Then you are from Lexington too. And I know your restaurant. I’ve eaten there before, but not enough for you to know me,” the brown-haired woman said. Her next words were as much for her own benefit, reasoning aloud as much as replying to Lee. “Wherever we are, I don’t think it would be easy to make up a story that matched ours in so many ways.”

Her companion with the dyed streaks, rigidly silent until then, finally entered into the conversation.

“You have great food at Lee’s Wok. I’ve gotten deliveries from there more than once. I recognize you a little now. My name is Erin, and this is Lynn,” the woman with the red-streaked hair introduced, stepping forward as a new series of tears began to roll down her face. “Right now, I am very, very happy to meet the man responsible for the food at Lee’s Wok, more than you can ever know.”

Lee smiled awkwardly, as Erin suddenly threw her arms around him, and proceeded to give him a tight hug.

“She tends to be emotional,” Lynn remarked curtly, and Lee could see that Lynn was not at all pleased that Erin had completely let down her guard. “But we’ve been through more than a little so far.”

“Very nice to meet the two of you,” Lee said. “I’m Lee, and this is Ryan. I think that we are going to need each other’s company, once we’ve compared the stories of our last few hours.”

To Lee’s surprise, Lynn seemed very enthusiastic to the idea. “We’ve already seen more than our share of things around here,” she said, giving a slight shudder as she inwardly made some sort of terrible recollection.

“We’ve seen some really strange stuff too,” Ryan said pensively, speaking up for the first time.

“Then you know that all this might be really, really dangerous, and that we need to be very careful,” Lynn replied, looking about her, as if for emphasis. “I don’t want to run into what we ran into just moments after coming here.”

“I don’t think that these would do much good at all against what we almost got caught by,” Erin added, holding up her crude weapon. “It was horrible.

Ryan commented, “Then we are going to have to stay real alert, all of us together.”

“First of all, we are all in the same boat. We don’t have any idea of what or where this place is,” Lynn said. “We were just out camping in the woods with our friends, down by the Gorge. The fog rolled in, just like you said, and Erin and I were suddenly alone in this place. Our friends and the camp were gone.”

“I have no idea why,” Erin said with evident frustration. “We didn’t do anything to deserve this.”

“What were you guys trying to do just now?” Lynn asked.

“Just trying to find out more about this place,” Lee said. “And beginning to think about what we need to do for food and shelter.”

Erin shook her head in agreement. “Like we’ve been doing, only we were forced to move pretty quick after getting here.”

Lynn proceeded to relate the tale of their harrowing pursuit by the flying creature in detail, including the unexpected intervention by the unseen, roaring beast, and leading all the way up to the most recent moments where they encountered Lee and Ryan.

“Well, what do you think we should do? As in right now?” Ryan inquired when the women were finished with their account.

“I think the same things you two were about to do, just as a quartet now,” Lynn said. “We don’t have that many options. We need to figure out some kind of place to settle in when night comes, and we need to think about finding some kind of food.”

“I don’t even want to think about what comes out at night around here,” remarked Erin somberly.

“Good thing there are four of us now. We can set watches with two at a time,” Ryan observed.

“Each watch can be done with one of us, and one of the two of you,” Lee quickly suggested, “if that would make you feel more at ease.”

“Thank you,” Lynn responded appreciatively.

“Well, then, let’s try and find some food, and find some more things out about this place,” Lee stated, before adding, “but hopefully no more creatures.”

“We’re in full agreement with you there,” Lynn said.

After a few moments’ discussion, they decided to start off in a direction that neither party had previously been going in. They made sure that it was one that definitely did not go anywhere near to the area where Erin and Lynn had encountered the fearsome woodland denizens.

Lee already had a good mental image of the flying beast that had pursued them, and he was not sure that he wanted one of the roaring creature that had inadvertently saved the two young women. It was abundantly clear that the young women did not want to risk an encounter with their unseen savior. Added to the flying creature that Ryan had seen from the treetops, at close range, it was indisputable that the forest sheltered some very dangerous residents.

In low voices that were near to whispers, Lynn and Erin spoke further with Ryan and Lee about their experiences. Lee was very glad for the new companionship, and felt a little better about their chances in a larger group of four. The two women seemed to have wits enough, though Lee’s first impressions were that Lynn was the more focused of the two.

Having already traveled far that day, it was not all that long before the entire group possessed throbbing leg muscles that seemed ready to take on the consistency of jelly.

After recognizing that each of the others was in such a condition, they all finally decided to stop and search for a place to settle for the evening. They had not been lucky enough to blunder into something more familiar, like a building or a road, and it was becoming evident that they would be spending the night in the wilderness.

Lee thought back to the day’s trek as the shadows began to lengthen. The distance that they had covered had been fairly substantial, likely far more than he ever would have thought himself capable of.

The rest of the day had gone mercifully without incident, free from the unorthodox creatures that they all had encountered after emerging from the fog into the strange forest. For Lee it was a tremendous relief, though he knew that the two women probably held much more gratitude for the absence of encounters with strange fauna.

The landscape had continued to remain much the same. It seemed like an endless series of slow rises and dips in the ground, surrounded by trees and brush that obscured any distant view. The continuous litany was broken only by the occasional encounter with a stream or creak. The air remained refreshingly clean to breathe, and the only sounds to reach Lee’s ears were those of birds and their own footsteps.

The light of day continued to slowly decline, as the deepening pools of shadows expanded and started to fill the woods. Lee realized that the growing gloom in an unknown world would be much more menacing if they did not soon fabricate a makeshift shelter.

After the group had agreed upon a place that looked favorable, Lee instigated the formation of a basic shelter that took little time to erect. Using some long branches and a bevy of grasses, they worked together on fashioning a lean-to shelter at the base of a steeper hill. When finished, Lee saw that the small shelter had the added benefit of being relatively concealed.

Even with the shelter accomplished, Lee had some growing concerns as it came to light that the two women were relatively inexperienced in survival issues. He had hoped otherwise, given that they had been camping when the fog had enveloped them. As the women discovered the same general fact about Lee and Ryan, that they were not naturalists or versed in wilderness skills, a definite anxiety began to rise within the group.

Erin and Lynn’s camping and hiking experiences had involved large numbers of people, equipped with plenty of modern conveniences such as sleeping bags and waterproof tents. The majority of their excursions were into the Gorge area in the Daniel Boone National Forest, with clearly marked trails and highly trained rangers in the vicinity.

Lee and Ryan’s wilderness had always consisted of a jungle of concrete, metal, asphalt, and large numbers of people.

They were all finding themselves to be far out of their element, but Lee could see that necessity was quickly bringing them together for mutual support.

After some more conferring, it was decided that Lee’s earlier idea of using one of the women and one of the men to serve in watch shifts would be implemented. The pair on watch, as well as those sleeping, would be situated within the little enclosure, so that none of them would be left too exposed out in the open.

With the evening’s arrangements settled, they set out as a group in the waning daylight to search around the immediate area for any possible source of food. Lee did not expect instant success, but hoped that they could get some ideas for the coming day.

Lee urged the others to check into the beds of nearby creeks, suggesting that there might be the equivalent of frogs or crayfish lurking within the waters and grasses.

The others did not appear to find the idea altogether appetizing, and Erin looked entirely revolted by the suggestion. But Lee at least knew how to prepare both frogs and crayfish for consumption. He also realized that they would soon be eating tree bark if they did not find other solutions for sustenance.

The worries of the others turned out to be for naught, if just for the moment, as nothing was turned up from the couple of creeks that they probed.

Erin succeeded in discovering some mushrooms, which none of the group wanted to try. They had all heard stories about people eating the wrong kind of mushrooms, and none felt certain that what Erin had found was not one of the toxic varieties of the fungus. Lynn found some unrecognizable type of berries, which they also decided against trying for much the same reasons.

When the last vestiges of daylight finally ebbed, they all settled themselves into the enclosure with ravenous appetites harbored inside of them. Thirst overrode caution, and they drank abundantly from cold creek waters near their camping site, hoping that no contaminants were in the water. Bellies full of water helped to take a little of the edge off of them, but Lee knew that it would not be very long before solid food would become a major issue.

The night eased in upon the forest, and the sibilant sounds of insects chirping filled the woods all around them. There were only a couple of moments in which the woods went silent, which caused the group to tense at what was perhaps the passage of a larger creature nearby. Once, Lee’s head shot up in alarm at what sounded like a far-off shriek. It took some time for his nerves to settle back down.

Good fortune prevailed overall, though, as there were no major disturbances throughout the rest of the evening, enabling those who were not on watch to allow themselves to surrender to sleep. The largely peaceable night also caused those who were on watch to struggle to stay awake, especially the first pair, as all four of them were entirely exhausted at the outset of the evening.

Lee had volunteered for the onerous duty of the first shift. He knew that it would be the toughest, and in that sense the most important, as it carried the greatest risk of leaving the group vulnerable by having those on watch inadvertently falling asleep.

Lee had been joined by Lynn for the unpleasant challenge, and to his delight soon found her to be very pleasant company. Yet in their great weariness they spoke rather sparingly, and when they did it was often only to help each other remain awake.

After the first shift had ended, and they had roused Ryan and Erin to take their places, Lee could barely keep his eyelids parted. The cloak of sleep came as a very welcome mercy, and not a moment too soon. Lee’s consciousness tumbled into a dreamless sleep as he lay upon the hard, uneven ground.

The engulfing fatigue that plunged him into the dark depths of unconsciousness was not without its useful merits. He knew that otherwise he would likely have spent the entire night battling a rising tide of fears and anxieties, the greatest of which being that the sojourn that had begun that day in the peculiar forest would not be ending anytime soon.

Janus

A few hours later, the mesmerizing sky began to dim as the sun descended towards the west. Janus was intrigued as to what kind of sunset would occur given the different hue of sky, but there were far more pressing matters at hand.

Though night was approaching, it was not yet fully dark. Janus, Derek, and Kent had been passing the time letting their bodies rest up a little.

There had been no major incidents during the past few hours. There were no signs of any sort of strange new life forms, like the creature in the grasses that Kent had startled upon their arrival. The only noises to be heard were that of the air sweeping through the high grasses, and the waters as they flowed through the channel of the river far behind them.

Growing tired with the inactivity, Janus stretched his limbs out and got to his feet slowly. Taking a deep breath, he walked well away from the others, until he was back at the river’s edge. He looked all about for any sign of the boat.

To his continued dismay, there was no clue as to what had become of the vessel, and he felt a lump in his throat as a growing anxiety gripped him. He gazed back to where the unbroken line of trees heralded the beginnings of the vast forest. As the light dimmed, the shadowy boundary looked ever more mysterious and foreboding.

It was becoming evident that sooner or later they would have to begin thinking about getting something to eat. The forest would likely serve as their most opportune place to search, perhaps offering some nuts or berries. The river before him could well be teeming with fish, but they had no poles or nets available.

There was a small victory to be had nonetheless, in that there was plenty of accessible fresh water to go around. Cupping his hands, he knelt down and scooped up some handfuls of the water and drank it. He imbibed the cool liquid with relish, even as some of it dribbled down the sides of his mouth and neck.

He took in rapid breaths after the long draughts of water, still amazed at the clean feeling of the air as it passed into his lungs. He concentrated on gathering his wits, which was the most important asset that he still had available to him in this extraordinary place. He knew that they could not sit around and wait forever, but they had absolutely no idea as to how to get back to the lake.

With a barely audible sigh, he spun about and walked back down to where Kent and Derek were still resting.

“Anything new?” Derek inquired, idly looking up into the blue-green sky.

A couple of large, black ravens flew by overhead.

“Not always the best harbinger,” Derek remarked with a rueful chuckle, watching the dark birds slowly fade into the distance.

“You mean the ravens?” Kent asked him.

“I’ll explain it sometime later,” Derek replied with a dismissive air.

Janus shook his head and frowned.

“What are you thinking about?” Derek asked him.

“Everything. Just what we do know,” Janus responded dourly. “Boat’s gone. There’s a strange forest nearby. We have no idea what has happened or how it happened. The sky is entirely different to us, and we’ve already seen an animal that is very different from anything we’ve known. My gut feeling is that none of it bodes very well.”

“We’ll have to head forth sometime and explore our surroundings. That much is obvious,” Derek declared. “We’ll look for some source of food too. Can’t assume we’ll be back home anytime soon.”

“Not far at all from what was running through my mind,” Janus said. “I wonder if there is anyone around this place, as far as people.”

Janus let his breath ebb out in a long, controlled exhalation. He stood with his hands resting on his hips, looking down at the swaying grasses caught in the early evening breezes.

Under the circumstances, the most simple of things appeared daunting.

“There are others,” a strong, deep voice intruded suddenly.

Janus whirled around, even as Derek jumped up immediately to his feet in a combative stance. Kent’s eyes snapped wide open, and he twirled around with a mien of renewed panic, as he scrambled up to his feet and stood close to Derek.

All of their eyes were fixed upon the speaker, who had somehow managed to approach them without any of them having heard or seen anything.

The one who had addressed them was a tall man of very advanced years, clothed in full-length, blue garments. A wide-brimmed hat with a low, rounded crown topped his head.

Thick white eyebrows, a mass of long white hair, and an extensive white beard were among the most prominent features of the peculiar stranger. His long, sharp nose poked out over the abundant growth of facial hair, and a lone blue eye gazed intently at the three of them. His left eye was hidden from view, fully covered by a patch.

The elderly man looked to be very calm, even amiable in manner. “I mean no harm to any of you,” he continued, before they had a chance to reply. “But there are others such as yourselves in these lands. In there!”

He extended his right arm, pointing to where the great forest began.

“There you will find others, who have gone through what you have gone through,” he proceeded. “It is where you must start.”

“Who are you?” were the first words out of Janus’ mouth.

It was pretty evident that the man represented no great threat. Janus and his companions were physically capable enough, and he knew that Derek was an exceptional fighter if a greater danger arose.

“I am … a friend … names would mean little to you now, and perhaps be more trouble than it is worth,” the old man replied. “Dire times indeed have struck this world, and there are very few that you can trust now. The violence across this world is great, and an unrivaled age begins. Everything is at stake. You must join the others who are here, who have come from your world.”

The old man’s remarks about two distinct worlds sent a deep feeling of unease rippling through Janus.

“Sounds absolutely wonderful. But perhaps you can tell us where the hell we are then,” Derek retorted sharply, agitation and sarcasm lacing his words.

The old man did not respond to Derek’s statement, nor did he seem to be offended by the curtness.

Instead, he calmly repeated his urging, “Go to the forest, and you shall find the others. I have matters of my own to attend to, but it is important that you know that others are nearby. Begin there.”

With no further instruction or comment, the old man turned casually and started to walk off in a direction parallel to the forest. Janus noticed how easy and supple his movements were for an old man, and how his robes flowed gracefully with each long stride.

Janus glanced over at Derek, and discovered that the other’s face was exhibiting the same utter confusion about the situation that he was feeling inside. Janus’ eyes reverted back towards the old man as he continued heading away from them.

Janus and Derek simultaneously shook their heads in disbelief. Janus rolled his eyes and broke into a swift trot, hurrying to catch back up to the old man.

Without breaking stride or turning, the old man snapped his right hand up as Janus neared. Janus came to an abrupt halt, as the old man stopped and turned to look at him again.

This time, the sunlight caught his right eye directly, revealing it to be a bright, sparkling blue.

“I know that you are filled with questions. But it is best to keep the questions that you have to yourself for now, as any answers I give will only multiply your questions. I assure you, in time you shall know more. And as I have indicated, in time you shall find that you also know less, as each piece of knowledge beckons to several more,” the old man told him.

The old man’s voice then took on a very purposeful, careful tone. “Here is some wisdom. You may find help from sources that you can see, and some help from sources that you cannot behold with the eyes that you see me with at this moment. See to your friends, and go find the others from your world. That is the best that you can do right now. I shall return to you soon enough.”

Janus was entirely confounded by the enigmatic words of the older man. He failed to ask the old man about the issue of worlds, which had been at the tip of his tongue when he had hastened to catch the mysterious stranger. For no explicable reason, and perhaps only because he did not know what else to do, he heeded the man’s words and pressed no further questions. He made no move to follow as the old man turned his back to Janus and resumed his walk.

A thousand questions were racing through his mind, but it was clear that the old man was not going to discuss anything further. With great reluctance, Janus turned and walked slowly back towards his two friends.

He knew that it was not a total loss. At the very least, they had encountered another person within this strange place, which was becoming more bizarre by the moment.

“I have no idea,” were the first words that he heard from Derek as he drew near to the other two.

Derek was shaking his head and looking down at the ground. When he looked back up, he had an expression of sheer bewilderment.

“I don’t even know where to begin,” Derek spat out. “Or even which way is up, or which way is down right now.”

His friend’s tremendous mystification matched his own. “I don’t either, Derek,” Janus replied. “The world is upside down.” He looked back in the direction that the old man had gone, only to find that the stranger was no longer in view. His brow furrowed for a moment, as he did not think that the old man had been walking quickly enough to travel entirely out of sight. The path that he had taken out in the open should have kept him in their sight for quite awhile.

“Who do you think that was?” Kent said, staring into the distance. Neither of the others answered him immediately.

“An old, bearded man in blue robes and a wide hat. That’s what we know. Here and gone already,” Janus finally replied, with an edge of tension to his words.

“So what did you find out? What did you ask him? Did you ask him where are we?” Kent asked.

“No closer to that answer,” Janus said with frustration. “You heard him, and know as much as I do. He warned us not to trust anyone, that things are violent here, and that there are others from our world in the forest.”

“And that we need to find them,” Derek added.

“That explains a helluva lot,” Kent quipped in irritation. “And what’s the bit about ‘our world’? So, we are in another world, aren’t we? That’s for sure, I suppose, just looking up at that sky and seeing that lizard thing earlier. Well, then, maybe we shouldn’t stay out in the open for too much longer. Where do you all propose going?”

“What about the forest?” Janus inquired.

“What about it? How can we just trust that guy?” Derek asked. “Who knows what’s in there?”

“He’s the first sign of sentient life that we’ve seen in this place, and we’ve gotta move on sometime,” Janus rationalized. “The forest probably has our best hopes of finding something to eat. And if there was a threat involved with the old man, then don’t you think that it would have come upon us when we were idly sitting here, and were completely unaware of his approach to within a few feet of us? If an old man snuck up on us so easily, then anyone could have … or might yet, if we sit around here forever. That’s the way I see it.”

Derek immediately harmonized with Janus’ logic. “I’ve never been that oblivious before, having someone sneak up on me like that. You’re right, Janus, regarding your comments about the threat. But still, what reason do we have to trust him? Even he warned us not to trust anyone.”

“Maybe because we don’t know anything. And what if what he said turns out to be true? About this really being a different world? And about some others from our own world also being here, in the forest? If this unintended arrival in this world could happen to us, then it could have happened to others, right? Maybe there is a real reason why we are here,” Janus responded, though he found the sentiments incredible to fathom even as he spoke of them.

“Maybe there are others, and maybe there aren’t,” Kent interjected. “I, for one, sure as hell do not want to place my life into the hands of an old stranger … especially if this is another world.

“I don’t care if he’s the best older sneak in the universe, and could have crept up on us, and cut our throats in broad daylight, right in the middle of a barren desert plain, with us wide awake and sitting back to back looking out in every direction. You’re giving him way too much credit for trustworthiness, too soon … way too much.”

“Then I wouldn’t expect you to follow the suggestion,” Janus retorted in a more resolved tone, drawing upon a sudden dose of inspiration and willpower that rose within him. “I’ll test it out myself, and Derek can stay with you here. Right now we don’t have many, if any, options, and at some point we need to begin to understand this place.”

“And what if it is some kind of trap?” Kent asked with a trace of fear splayed upon his face.

“If it is, then those enemies would move on us sooner or later anyway. The old man got up to us without us catching a glimpse of him, like I said. We all know that. And like I said, it wouldn’t be too hard for others to do the same, I’m afraid, unless we get our heads on straight and figure some things out,” Janus stated.

“So what are you going to test out? You don’t seriously mean in there, do you?” Kent asked incredulously, gesturing towards the darkening boundary of the forest.

“I’m going to go on a little trek, just a very short one, and I will be back before nightfall,” Janus said. “I just want to get a better idea of what’s going on, and maybe even see if I can find something we can consider eating. Is that okay with you both?”

Derek nodded, and Janus was appreciative that he had heeded Janus’ unspoken wish. Janus knew that Derek understood that it would be foolhardy to even suggest leaving Kent alone, especially after the horrific trauma that he had been through in the moments when he had been trapped alone in this foreign place.

From the stoic look on Derek’s face, Janus knew that he had made solid, nearly irrefutable points to his friend.

Janus’ own appetite was just starting to nag at him, but he knew that food would not be the only need of theirs in the coming days. They would have to begin making some headway in several areas, and take some chances, if they were going to survive for very long in this strange new environment. To remain ensconced in indecision was accepting almost certain ruin.

Unless they suddenly woke up and found out that this was all some sort of unbelievable, shared dream, or were suddenly whisked back to their familiar grounds, they would have to begin facing the stark reality of their situation.

“I’ll return before nightfall, remember that,” Janus said, mustering as much confidence as he could into his voice as he started off.

Janus then turned his full attention on the scene ahead, increasing his stride until he was almost jogging. The riverside and his friends fell farther behind him, as the distant line of trees steadily rose up to greet him.

If this was indeed another world, he hoped that the progress of time, and the passage of day into night, went at a similar rate to that which he was used to.

He felt a mounting trepidation as he drew closer to the line of trees. His imagination started to unfurl as he wondered what manner of life might be within the shadows of the forest. The first animal that they had encountered seemed to indicate that there would indeed be some surprises, though the trees themselves looked to be normal enough.

His imagination starting to run amok, he silently admonished himself to regain his grip upon his fraying nerves. His steps crunched beneath him as his shoes met a higher concentration of twigs and fallen leaves. Before he knew it, the forest suddenly loomed right before him. With a deep breath as he girded his resolve, he stepped forward into the trees and was enveloped within just a few strides.

The trees of the forest were fairly well spaced apart, proud, older sentinels that had long since carved out their space and spread their branches wide above to secure it. The ground itself was carpeted by low growths of grasses, moss, and wildflowers, and pockets of more significant brush grew wherever adequate light was available through the foliage canopy.

Walking out of the clear, unobstructed daylight and abruptly entering into the dimmer forest environs jogged Janus’ senses. He decided to pause for a moment to let his eyes adjust to the shadowy depths around him.

He could perceive the thumping beat of his own heart, feeling much smaller as he tried to gaze through the assemblage of towering trees ahead of him. His mind started to play tricks with him again, cruelly reminding him that he was too far from his friends to get help if something truly unexpected and threatening did occur.

There was a discernible stillness to the air, an unsettling disquiet that made his pulse race a bit faster. Glancing around, Janus searched for something that could be used as a weapon. He conceded that anything he found might not be very effective against whatever might ultimately lurk within the depths of such a forest, but he knew that it would suffice to provide him some confidence.

Studying the trees, he saw that some of them had sturdy-looking lower branches that were not too big to be snapped off and utilized as a rough staff, or club-like weapon.

Without further delay, he walked over to the nearest tree and fixed his attention upon a suitable branch. As he set his hands upon the tree branch, readying to put his muscle and weight into bending it to break it off, his ears heard a strong male voice call out. “Excuse me!”

Janus whirled about, nearly falling over in his haste and panic. He faced the four strange people now a few short paces before him, three males and a female. Unlike the old man, they all wore familiar styles of clothes, and to all appearances looked like people of his own community.

Janus’ jaws clenched. His mind immediately set itself to analyzing possible options for defense, and for considering potential escape routes. He cautiously backed up a few steps in the direction of the forest’s edge. His muscles bunched in readiness to run at the slightest provocation.

“Let me guess … you were doing your own thing, in a world that made a lot more sense than this one. Then a fog came … and next you found yourself in this world, wondering what the hell happened … just like us,” a tall man with dark hair addressed him, the one that had first spoken.

Though he had a very stern countenance, and his words were firm, Janus did not sense any imminent threat from the speaker.

Janus must have looked quite puzzled, as one of the other males, a stockier Hispanic fellow, ventured, “I’m sure you have no idea of what this world is, and probably neither does anyone that might be with you. Am I right? You know what I am talking about? I bet you do know.”

It then crossed Janus’ mind that perhaps these were the individuals that the old man had so recently spoken of.

“Have you seen an old man near here, in blue, robe-like clothing, and with a long, white beard?” Janus queried cautiously.

To his disappointment, all of the others answered in the negative, a couple of them looking perplexed at his question.

“Then tell me something of your story,” Janus told them, darting his gaze behind him as he took another couple of slow steps backward.

The serious-looking male who had first addressed him proceeded to explain the details of their situation. He described taking a car ride with his friend, who was evidently the second speaker, and encountering a similar, impenetrable fog, then undergoing an inexplicable arrival into the new environment. He spoke of later meeting the woman and the other man while wandering within the woods.

The woman in the group then interjected at that point to relate the origins of their own escapade, which had evidently begun at the University of Lexington’s campus. The dark-haired man finished the story with a brief description of the things that they had since discovered about the forest, with a few comments added in by the woman.

In many ways, the stories carried great similarities to Janus and his friends’ recent experiences. He was incredibly relieved to see that they all appeared to come from the same town that he and his friends did.

He knew exactly where the grassy, tree-dotted haven that the woman had spoken of was, situated along one side of the student center at the University of Lexington. He knew the road by the mall that the dark-haired man and his friend had taken, when they had become immersed in the strange mist.

There was little doubt that they all shared some common origins. If they were to be believed, then the others were in the very same predicament as Janus, Derek, and Kent. The two pairs had come together randomly in the middle of the forest, just as Janus was meeting them now.

It did not take Janus long at all to recognize that a group of seven would have a much better chance of success within this foreign territory than one group of three, and another of four. The temptation of increased numbers put a tremendous pressure on Janus to accept their story at its face value.

He carefully regarded them as various thoughts and emotions pulled inside of him.

At last, he stated, “Here’s my own situation.”

The other four listened attentively as he spoke of his own ordeal. He detailed the boat trip, coming to the shore in the fog, and the recent visit of the old man.

When he had finished, the woman among the quartet, a tall beauty with flowing black hair and expressive dark eyes, said, “Maybe that old man you talked about did know something. Maybe he was speaking about us specifically.

“But I know one thing for certain, I think that we had all better stick together, for our own sakes at the least. I think that it is pretty clear by now that this isn’t a place that any of us are familiar with. Maybe not even our world, the more I see of it. None of us can argue that by now. And if we are to go much further, then we’d better get introductions taken care of.”

Janus paused for an extended moment, held back by some last vestiges of extreme caution. He looked into each of their eyes, one by one.

“Agreed,” Janus finally answered, trusting to his impulses. He offered them a smile. “My name is Janus Roland.”

Janus shook each of their hands, as each of them gave him their names in turn.

The attractive woman’s name was Erika Laesig, and the dark-haired man with the austere countenance was called Logan Danner. The stoutly built male was Antonio Guerrero. The shorter, lean male with a darker complexion, who looked to be of Middle Eastern descent, was named Mershad Shahab.

“I need to go back to my friends, as they need to know of this right away. They won’t exactly be expecting this, so you might as well come along with me,” Janus indicated, as they finished their introductions with each other.

The quartet of new acquaintances followed behind, keeping a little distance between themselves and Janus. Seeing their own caution was a reassurance to Janus as he settled into a brisk stride, leading them back out of the forest and into the open.

Janus called out, waving to get Derek and Kent’s attention as soon as they emerged from the cover of the woods.

Derek and Kent saw them right away, standing quietly and awaiting their approach. Both looked very attentive, sizing up the four individuals coming in Janus’ wake. After watching them approach for a few moments, Derek started forward, breaking into a jog as he moved away from Kent to intercept the others.

“Janus!” he called, his eyes fixed upon the other four. “What’s up?”

Janus replied, as he slowed down to meet Derek’s approach. “The old man appears to have been right. These people with me are all from Lexington, and have been through the same kind of thing as us, with the fog and everything else. They’re in the same mess as we are.”

Derek’s eyes looked over the foursome that was now drawing close, resting his evaluating gaze upon each one of them. The careful, appraising look in his eye gave away the fact that he was even less inclined towards trust than Janus had been.

Janus could tell that his friend was fully on his guard, watching very alertly for any sudden moves or other troubling indications.

Janus turned to look at the others, as they drew to within a few paces of him and came to a stop themselves.

“This is my friend Derek Decker, and over there is Kent McNeeley,” Janus told them.

He then proceeded to introduce the four to Derek, who still kept his own distance from them. Kent had strolled over in the interim, and was now standing by Derek’s side.

Janus found that he was even more convinced about the other four at that moment. In his mind, he knew that if they bore any ill will towards Janus and his friends, it was definitely not to their advantage to allow the three men to come together in a group.

“Probably best if you tell your story in your own words to them,” Janus said to the quartet.

“I understand,” Erika replied with a nod, glancing towards Derek and Kent.

The stories were then shared again, which helped to break the tension a little with Derek. He asked them a few pointed questions regarding some elements of what they had seen in the forest, clearly looking to gather useful insights about their new environment.

Following the retelling of the stories, they all came to agreement that they would remain together from that point onward. With the light around them continuing to ebb towards their first night in this region, it was abundantly clear that some kind of plans had to be made.

The group of seven slowly made their way back to the edge of the forest. Dividing tasks up, they set about to building a shelter for the night, as well as looking around for any source of food that they could find.

The shelter that they erected was crude, but would likely suffice even if some rain fell during the night. It was arranged as a rough, semi-circular lean-to around the massive diameter of an ancient oak tree. Gathered brush and foliage were arranged to form layers atop a lattice of thin branches harvested from the nearby trees.

Only a few sour tasting berries were turned up in the search for food, unripe versions of a wild berry that Derek was familiar with. To help offset the worsening hunger pangs, all of the group members had to settle for drinking copious amounts of cool water from a stream that was located near to the site of the shelter.

The most obvious concerns were gradually voiced by more than one member of the newly formed group. Very soon, unless they uncovered a few naturally growing, edible sources, they would have to turn to other options for food. It would likely mean trying to hunt some of the local fauna, or perhaps figure out a workable method for fishing in the streams.

Of their group, only Derek and Kent had hunted before, but even that was not a full assurance of success. Their hunting had been done with guns, and the group currently had no firearms with them, or even bows.

Just as the shelter was finished, the night finally settled in around them with a sharp drop in temperature. As cooler winds coursed throughout the trees around them, bringing a steady rustling to the teeming leaves, Janus’ eyes were attracted to every break in the branch canopy overhead.

The glittering spectacle that was unfolding in the skies above them was an experience that he would not soon forget. It was yet another piece of evidence that they were indeed in a strange new world, but it was nonetheless incredible to behold.

There were a great many more stars visible in the deep sky above than there ever were in the skies of Janus’ own world. They were also arranged into unfamiliar patterns, a bevy of new and strange constellations.

Similar to his world, a circular orb rose resolutely up into the sky as the night marched forward. Nearly a full circle, its light provided a fair amount of illumination as it reached down to break up the deep shadows beneath the trees.

Unlike in his world, however, a second orb soon came into view, smaller than the first, but most certainly another moon.

Janus sat awestruck at the development, not believing his own eyes. He heard the gasp of one of the others as they took note of the undeniable presence of a second, gleaming moon.

“I think that confirms it,” Janus heard Erika saying to one of the others.

Several members of the group talked for a long time about the presence of the second moon and what it heralded. Janus had nothing to add to their discussion, and sat quietly as he continued to stare above in amazement and awe.

The blue-green sky had been no anomaly, and the strange creatures that had been witnessed were not merely undiscovered species. They were truly within a foreign world, a concept that Janus found to be utterly staggering.

Even Derek had grown very quiet and pensive, and Janus knew that fear’s chilly touch had not spared his stalwart and undeniably tough friend.

A thousand more questions were rising up within him, and it was all that he could do to suppress his spreading anxieties.

Each of the others dealt with the reality in their own way. Kent and Antonio gave voice to their laments, while Erika and Logan tried to instill some courage in the others, though Janus could still sense the nervousness behind their words. Mershad’s reaction was much like Janus and Derek, as he dwelled upon the revelation in a contemplative silence.

The chirping of insects droned on steadily in the background, as Janus watched the two moons slowly crossing the sky overhead with a feeling of wonder and trepidation. He tucked his knees up to his chest, clasping his hands together.

The old man had been right. The answer that they were in a new world stoked the fires of new inquiries, and Janus saw the wisdom in keeping things to their most basic element.

Dawn would bring with it a host of new worries and pressing matters, and Janus could only hope that the old man would return to them. If this was a world that was entering a violent age, and most could not be trusted, then Janus was not eager to have too many random encounters before they knew the lay of the land.

In due time, the full weight of the day finally caught up to each of the seven. They were all emotionally drained, and the four that Janus had met in the woods had already hiked a considerable distance, and were physically very weary. The seven were unified in their exhaustion, and despite the troubling certainty that this was indeed a foreign world, their bodies’ demands for rest finally became irresistible.

Before their focus faded completely, they quickly organized watch shifts for the night, with Derek and Erika taking the first one together. Janus had been ready to endure the challenge, but drew the second shift. He was quietly relieved that he was spared the early task and could get a little immediate rest.

He crawled into the shelter of branches and brush. He kept to one of the two open ends of the semicircular lean-to, so that he did not disturb Mershad and Kent when he was roused for his designated watch.

As he cushioned his head upon his tucked arm, he found that the hard ground was unforgiving, and that the air was thicker in the confined space. Yet neither discomfort proved to be an impediment to sleep as his weariness became irrepressible.

Listening with fading awareness to the litany of trees and insects, Janus finally drifted off into the arms of a deep and abiding sleep.