My foot found footing in the expansive darkness. Behind me, the silence gave way to a rushing sound; like wind whipping down an alleyway.

It took me a moment to steady myself after floating for so long without gravity. How long was I in the void? How much time had passed?

Whatever I was standing on was narrow. I could feel the sides of my foot wrapping around it for balance. I swayed, trying to keep my balance. I couldn’t see anything around me. It was dark; darker than dark. It still felt like I was in the void, but there was something beneath me.

Gingerly, I picked up my back foot and slowly swung it in front of my other foot, feeling with my toes that whatever I was standing on continued to stretch before me. Placing my foot down fully, toes to heel, I breathed out a sigh of relief.

Step after step, I began to move forward for what seemed like an eternity, until I shifted my weight forward too quickly and felt my equilibrium shift. I windmilled my arms for balance, my foot searching for a foothold, but there was none there and I fell.

But instead of falling into the chasm of darkness, my knee struck a solid surface and I fell forward, arms flung wide failing to catch myself until my chest made contact and then my face and all went dark.

I awoke a moment later, gasping for air. The impact to my chest had forced all the air out and my lungs convulsed with the effort to draw in fresh air. My vision darkened and I could feel consciousness leaving me once again. I rolled over to my back, and pushed myself up with my elbows. This movement opened something within me and clean, fresh air fought its way into my lungs. I fell back onto my side and lay coughing, gulping and panting, every inch of me shaking and quivering, my eyes watering, and my finger straining claw-like, digging into what I assumed was dirt.

I crawl forward, one hand held above my head to keep myself from further injury. Eventually, I saw a small sliver of light. As I crawled closer, it began to illuminate the inside of the tunnel I was in. I saw that I could stand, so I did and began to move faster until I burst forth into a blinding light.

Closing my eyes to the brightness, I leaned forward, hands on knees sobbing in relief.

When I open my eyes, I can see that the darkness has been replaced by a landscape that is fuller and greener. Trees, taller and fuller, reached towards a sky that was bluer and more vibrant and brighter.

Where was I?

My head throbbed. My throat burned.

I was tired and alone.

Collapsing to the ground, I sat there, realizing how quiet the wilderness had become. Not that it had become quiet (aside from my gasping, wheezing, and swearing) but that it had always been so. This wilderness was free of the constant buzz of electrical wires or the distant rumble of cars or planes, there was nothing except a stillness that only nature could provide.

I had never known such peace and serenity. Not even when I was hiking in the mountains. There was always some type of sound, whether manmade or me-made with the constant companionship that my smartphone brought me. Until this moment, every single second of my existence had been bound by some form of artificial noise. But here, in this place, the always-on symphony of machines was gone. Replaced instead by a gentle breeze rippling leaves through the trees and the twittering of distant birds and the chittering of other forest animals.

This was very different from what surrounded me in the void. There, I was surrounded by nothingness, so therefore I wasn’t surrounded by anything at all. But even though there was nothing, I was surrounded by chaos, perhaps from my own making, and my nervous system was very aware of that fact. Here, I was surrounded by nature, the natural order of things, and all was calm and bright. It was miraculous and I couldn’t believe how peaceful it was.

I rose to my feet and slowly began making my way through the forest, weaving my way through the trees, letting my fingers graze their bark and nearby bushes and feel the tall grass slide through them.

When the dense forest started to thin out, the sun broke through the ceiling of leafy branches, and I fell to my knees in awe. The light was sharp and brilliant. The colors of nature that surrounded me before now glistened and glowed; the colors more crisp and vibrant. The grass was a greener green than I had ever seen. The flowers tucked around the roots of trees were the purplest purples and the yellowest yellows. And the sky—!

The sky was the bluest blue. Bluer than the clearest day in my memory. Free from the haze of pollution and dust.

Everything above and below—everything I saw in my field of vision was better than anything I had known in my world. It seemed new and fresh; more defined than the crispest image on the highest resolution television at the electronic store.

Nearby I could hear the bubbling of water and I knew I was thirsting for its drink. It was down a short hill and as I knelt, I dipped a hand in the cold stream and cupped a handful to my mouth. It was clean and alive and life-giving. I lowered myself further to the edge of the stream and drank from the waters; letting the current splash my cheek as it rushed by me, my lips guzzling greedily; my tongue lapping lustfully.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Standing, I let the water drip down my chin and onto my shirt as I looked around. I appeared to be near a meadow. I thought about going exploring. Perhaps there was someone nearby. Or perhaps by wandering I would discover new wonders.

I followed the water. It was leading somewhere after all and if there were people around, it would eventually lead me there.

All around me was evidence that I was in Paradise. There weren’t any blemishes on the land; not even a common footpath of flattened grass. The trees rose, unbroken. A thick bramble of thorns offered up a sacrifice of berries, which I happily plucked and ate; breaking apart the berries to study their insides, separating the seeds, licking the juices as they ran down my fingers.

Was this Eden? Was I Adam? Where was the Tree of Knowledge? Would I eat of the fruit and become like God?

I walked until the waters widened and after looking for some form of evidence of humanity, I turned and began to walk up a long hillside, trying to gain some form of elevation to gauge my surroundings. As I reached the top I turned and saw a black cloud in the sky.

No. Not a cloud. It was rising from the trees.

Smoke.

And where there was smoke, there were people.

I began to run; tearing down the hill as fast as my legs would take me.

Oh, this air! I laughed as I ran faster than I ever ran gulping down lungfuls of this miraculous air. My legs seemed to lengthen, my stride swift and sure. Was I even touching the ground? I was flying.

I was back in the woods when I heard it. A thrum, deep and long, its reverberations shaking my insides. Again and again it thrummed. Louder and louder. Faster and faster.

I slowed, trying to understand. I could see the smoke curling up from the trees. I stopped, listening to the thrum, thrum, thrumi, trying to discern the direction it was coming from.

Behind the trees, warriors began to emerge. Covered in animal skins and bones. Painted in reds and blues. Beating their chests with the shafts of spears, swords, and clubs.

Turning, I made an attempt to run for it, but more warriors, several hundreds yards away on the opposite side of the grove emerged, half naked, their chests glistening in the sun. They beat their weapons onto their shields, huffing with each impact.

There must have been a hundred or more on either side of me. Some held shields. Others held torches. Most were on foot, while others, further back, sat on horseback.

Had they come for me? Had they heard me traipsing through the woods? Had I violated some form of the sacred and they had come to kill me?

The painted warriors began to chant, “Yalla! Yalla!” as they beat their chests in time.

I stood there in shock. Too stupid to know if I should run or which direction I should run.

The other warriors raised enormous animal horns to their lips and blew a hideous sound that made my knees weak. I fell to the earth and felt through the hand that braced me the Earth moving and vibrating with the call of the horns and the clashing of weapons and the chant of “Yalla! Yalla!”

It grew in volume and tempo until, raising their swords, spears, and clubs aloft the two warrior clans threw themselves towards each other. I pushed myself up and ran towards the distant trees, hoping for cover and safety.

The painted warriors almost reached me by the time I had thrown myself behind a towering tree. I could see their eyes: the bloodlust, the joy, the ecstasy. They were the fantasy of every boy who daydreamed what being a man was really like: chiseled from granite with firm jawlines and a muscular torso that made me forget how close to death I really was.

I huddled as low as possible, trying to make myself invisible.

The trumpeting and the drumming stopped to be replaced by the sound of metal ringing upon metal. Spear against spear. Sword against sword.

“Yalla! Yalla!” turned to screams.

Metal slicing and stabbing into flesh.

Flesh against flesh.

I peaked around the tree and it was a nightmare. There was no strategy; no formation. Just bodies pressing against bodies; trying to kill one another.

Except for one.

A woman.

In the midst of the melee she spun gracefully; a warrior amongst brutes. In one hand she held a spear which she twirled about, making short work of the men that rushed her. In her other hand she held a sword, which she used to parry her close attackers and stab the fallen to make sure they didn’t rise again.

Blood splashed about her, coating her legs and arms and the thick leather that wrapped and bound her breasts.

One attacker closed in faster than she could block and knocked her across the head from behind. Her helmet fell to the Earth and red hair cascaded down her shoulders.

“Veronica?” I whispered.

I couldn’t help but watch as she fell warrior after warrior. A throat slit. A skull smashed. Feet swept from underneath and quickly gutted.

The rest of the battle quickly made it to the trees. I had to pull my eyes away from the warrior woman as I dashed further and further into the forest, dodging this way and that, trying to stay out of sight and hidden, but it became harder. Men and women fought all around me, but they paid me no mind. Even with a lack of camouflage, or maybe because I wasn’t half-naked or clothed in animal skin and bones, it was as if I didn’t exist to them.

When hiding places became scarce, I began to look elsewhere for cover. Nearby there was a discarded shield. Still attached to a discarded arm. I tore at the bindings trying to free it; twisting, pulling, my movements frantic. My focus was solely on the shield when I felt a hand land on my shoulder.

I screamed and turned, tripping over my own feet and falling to the ground, blinding myself in the radiant sunshine glinting through the treetops. A spear hovered above me and I threw my hands up, trying to defend myself and look as defenseless as possible.

The spear lowered and a face came into view, blocking the sun and allowing my eyes to focus on her red—no, blood soaked blonde hair.

Her lips parted and she spoke. “Dad?”

I looked and saw that she had a familiar face, albeit older. “Eleanor?” I stammered. “Eleanor, is that you?”