I decided that my best course of action was to start by going home and then figure out what to do from there. I found one of the ramps up the maple's roots and followed it into maple lane, joining the flow of people. I didn’t see the man who was carrying the fruit on the way back but looking closer this time I noticed plenty other people carrying things that looked too heavy to carry. Paying closer attention I noticed a translucent outline of another figure overlapping the people doing these feats. The most extreme example of Avatar strength I saw was a guy single-handedly carrying a pallet with tightly packed layers of what looked like old train rails to a stone building from which the sound of metal on metal and fire emerged. The man walked into the blazing hot room without any hesitation and I lost sight of him. This wasn’t because of the wall in the way, it was because I tripped on something while looking to the side. I nearly found myself on the floor but fortunately I managed to catch myself. I kept my eyes ahead of me while walking after and that.

I did stop to stare when a person jumped nearly 8 feet onto a building right in front of me, a plain brown cloak obscuring their appearance. After leaving maple lane the streets calmed down a good deal but after a few wrong turns I realized I was lost. I pulled out my phone and opened google maps to find a route home, and noticed something new. Around half the buildings on the map had red icons on them, and when I clicked on one it stated “inhabitant unreturned, change status?”. I quickly found my home and noticed that it too was marked with the icon. I opened the icon and pressed change status. The icon turned blue and the words verification pending showed up, and that was that. I slowed as home came into sight, then stopped as I registered what I was seeing. Most of the houses I had passed had been rather intact. maybe a bit overgrown and a more worn, but not too bad. My house was an entirely different story. It looked like it had been abandoned for decades, not years. The roof over my room had collapsed entirely and the rest of the roof sagged. Many of the visible windows were broken, and the rooms they led to moldy and trashed. Ivy had choked out Moms beloved gardens and then spread across the yellow grass of the yard and along the faded orange walls. The Ivy even grew through the broken windows and into the house. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. No, I didn’t believe what I was seeing, this was a dream. A vivid extended dream. I had thought that this had felt too real to be a dream, but now I knew that I would wake up soon. Yeah, I would wake up and tell Jake about it. He would laugh about how wacky it was and share one twice as weird, and then we would resume hanging out. I closed my eyes and willed myself to wake up. I almost managed to convince myself it wasn’t real, but when I opened my eyes it was still there, my house in ruins. This nightmare was all too real. I felt numb as I approached the door, the only intact looking parts of the house.

I pulled the handle and it stayed firmly stuck in place. I gave it a sharp tug, and it shifted a little this time.

I grabbed the door in both hands, and forced the door open. The scent of mildew filled my nose as the ruined interior was revealed. A patch of ivy had spread across half the living room. The walls were warped from water with a patch of mold spreading along the top of the window. I didn’t bother exploring the first floor of the house. Instead I climbed the stairs, where my room, and the hole in the roof were. There was a large pile of debris with mold growing all over it, a small sapling had even managed to take root in the debris and start growing. I carefully climbed the pile of fully rotted insulation and rotten wood. The pile constantly shifted under my weight, and dry handholds were near nonexistant. As I reached the top I looked down at my room, or at least the chunk of roof that had fallen into it. There were raised chunks of roofing where it had landed on my bed and desk. I approached the patch of roof where my desk had been and gave it a tug, uncovered my desk now heavily scuffed and damp with mold like everything else in my room. The remains of my computer were nowhere in sight. All I could find was a broken picture of me and my family, the five of us all crammed onto a bolder mid hike. The section where mom and dad were hugging was almost completely destroyed by moisture. I felt a tear prickle my eye. Before the lump of emotions that was making its way to the forefront of my mind could arrive my phone rang, buzzing a cheery buzz sound that pulled me back to reality. I pulled out my phone, the caller ID read Tom. I pressed the green button and raised my phone to my ear.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

“Tom?” I asked, and I heard Tom’s familiar happy voice.

“Ethan! Welcome back. Sorry I couldn't reach you earlier but I was dealing with a couple of issues, and I didn’t notice the notification on my phone.” Tom said apologetically.

“No problem. Why are you calling?” I responded on autopilot, trying to keep any emotion from my voice and barely succeeding.

“Straight to the point as usual. I imagine you don’t have any plans for the future right now, so I thought I would rehire you now that you're back. you were always one of my best employees, and I imagine you could use some help getting back on your feet.” Tom's familiar voice was just what I needed. I jumped on the piece of familiarity that he offered me, perhaps too quickly.

“Yes please! So… back to flippin burgers?” I asked hopefully.

“Kinda. After the world went whack the burgerhouses supply chains were gone. We couldn’t really keep making the same things but I managed to improvise a new menu, and we managed to keep functioning. Meats aren’t as big a part of the menu anymore after how hard it was to get for a while, but we’ve managed to make do pretty well with what we’ve got. Do you want to come over and get started now, or do you want some time to find your bearings?” I looked around my former room and made my decision. when in doubt, work. I knew I should have said something about what I was going through, but what? Yeah I need some time. My house fell down and I don’t know where I’m going to sleep tonight. Easier to just ignore it for now.

“No, I’m good to come over now” I answered. Tom wasted no time responding

“Great, see you soon” Tom promptly hung up. I took one look around before clambering over the rubble pile and walked downstairs and out the door. I was feeling a bit better now that I had something to do, and I pointedly didn’t look back. I could pretend a little longer.