Jamie blinked himself awake, trying to shake the disoriented foggy feeling from his head. He guessed he didn’t have his coffee…? Wait, this wasn’t his bed! Or his desk! What… what happened? His vision cleared up, and he was surprised to see… trees? Was he in a forest? What the- Ohh, he was dead. Well, emphasis on ‘was’. He pulled himself from the ground, massaging his head as he recalled his encounter with the man who brought him here.

“Hello? Weird guy?” Nope, no weird guy. At least, not where he was. He got the strangest sense that he was watching him from that strange room, laughing at his confusion. Jamie sighed. Of course he was in the middle of the woods. Well, presumably the middle. How absolutely great. He died in a fire, and would presumably never see his family again, even if he didn’t die again out in the middle of the woods. Man, he really hoped he wouldn’t die. And he didn’t have coffee. He would be dealing with this a lot better with some coffee.

“Anyone there?” God, what was he going to do? He didn’t have a plan for this! This was not in his schedule. He started walking, afraid that calling out would attract the wrong kind of attention. But… calling out would probably scare most creatures, right? Hopefully… Hopefully. Yes, this was going to be fine. He died, and was sent to another world, but it was fine. He shook away his feelings of apprehension and went back to his “Aw man, really? That stinks” attitude from earlier, in the white room. Wait, was he even sure that he was in another world? The man could have just said that to screw with him. He paused and looked at the trees. Fun fact about Jamie: he had a pretty extensive knowledge on plant and fungal life. And it had never come in handy. Until now. He ran a hand along one particular tree, recognizing it as something that was similar to an English yew, although the berries were blackish yellow instead of their usual bright red, and the leaves were a purplish black. Either way, it was probably something that he would die from eating, but he ignored this and plucked them. He would just have to wash his hands before eating. But it was a lovely tree, and he guessed that the odd tree basically confirmed the fact that he was in an alien environment- actually he was the alien. Neat. All of the trees were rather lovely, as far as trees go, and some other ones shared resemblances to his home world trees. Man, living in the city, Jamie never got to see many trees, to his detriment. He shrugged, continuing to walk. He hoped he’d find a settlement before nightfall, and, better yet, one with non hostile residents. He put a hand above his eyes, looked up, and was relieved to see that it was hardly past noon. Yes, as long as this planet had normal rotation, then he had a good few hours before night fall, depending on the season. He picked up his pace, though. Hey, no harm in calling out again, right?

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“Hello?” Nothing. What was he expecting by now?

He continued walking. Honestly, it was pretty peaceful. Mostly silent, save for his breaths, which created small puffs of condensation, and the occasional chittering of birds. Not the worst way to spend his day. But, naturally, he eventually started to feel sore from hours of hiking. The air was cold, and he was getting congested. He got congested pretty easily, and wouldn’t be surprised if a bloody nose came on. He thought of Kevin again, staring at him, eyes vacant… did he wish to eat him? God, that damnable expression. What a creep. Well, best to put it out of his head. If he could just manage to put himself into autopilot, he wouldn’t take much bother to physical stimulus or thoughts of Kevin. Yeah, that’s good. Focus…

———————————————————

After likely another hour, something strange happened. Well, probably just as strange as everything else depending on who you asked, but it was definitely the most jarring.

It manifested as not quite a noise, but at the same time it was very loud and coming directly from Jamie’s own head. He nearly jumped out of his very flesh, screaming a startled obscenity. Well, that must be the System that he was told of! …Wow! That was unpleasant! And oddly similar to a video game, as the weird man had said. Was he in a video game? …No, no he wasn’t. He paused, trying to gauge any sort of changes. …Well, call it a placebo effect, but his mind did feel a little sharper. Okay, time to move on. Unfortunately, it seemed like the sun was starting to set, and due to how chilly his environment was he’d better make a fire… or maybe also a weapon of sorts. He was about to find a piece of flint or something when he saw something that made his very heart skip a beat, a smile of relief spreading across his face.

He laughed. “Oh yes! Woo-hoo!” It was a house! Well, that might be a little generous considering the size. It was a cabin, but a nice looking one at that. And hey, it was much bigger than his old apartment! And it would likely have food, water, and likely would prevent him from being potentially slaughtered by the wildlife, unless there was something else inside of it. He made his way towards it. It was definitely used recently. He didn’t care, certain that whatever hermit lived there would be completely alright with him borrowing it. …Well, he didn’t care. He would tidy the place up- that would most certainly repay this stranger for their unwitting hospitality. Right? And if things went wrong, he spotted an axe stuck in a log.