Chapter 2

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New land

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Teng is awoken by rumbles far above him. Groggily awakening from his slumber, he feels like shit. It seems sleeping in an ice-cold ocean is not the best way to get a good night sleep. He is still thankful for his lifejacket or he’d just drown.

Glancing around, the sun is barely up. A mixture of dark and orange on the horizon amongst the peaceful sea.

Looking up though he starts to make out some small streaks of silver.

Watching for a few minutes, Teng it utterly bewildered. It seems the silver streaks are the aftermath of some kind reaction between the environment. He’s not sure what changes they are, or if he is even on earth anymore.

Teng’s stomach growls. Sighing there isn’t much he can do at the moment. Although he has fasted before in his pursuit of life, he remembers the first day is usually the hardest. The stomach will start to shut down soon after not receiving any food, trying to save energy. Water will be a problem though.

Not wanting to waste energy, and feeling death might be a real possibility he thinks back to his life. Not a bad life in all honesty. It’s just as he grew up, he felt he had become a slave to the system. A slave to his parents and friends. When he tried to go against it, it didn’t end well. Basically, known by his previous friends as crazy. He even considered going to live with monks. After all their life looked much better than his, in Teng’s perspective.

Focusing his gaze on the rising sun he thinks. It’s not all bad being out here alone. At least there is no one to judge him anymore. The sun, the sea, the stars, are his judge.

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There is something about life out in nature that fascinates him. ‘The Beginning’ as Teng puts it. However, as nature is now, it has lost its former glory. In Teng’s heart he feels that perhaps his ancestors saw the grandness in the beginning and so that he himself is never completely satisfied seeing it as it is now. Still it is better than seeing the dull buildings every day. Even he is not sure whether its because he has grown up in civilisation, that he dislikes it or its simply in his genes to dislike it.

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Feeling a sudden turbulence up above Teng Looks over. Before he can examine it in detail, a shockwave spreads out quickly. Whatever it was doing seems to have reached a crescendo. Teng is quickly flung through the water.

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After surfacing with a dull headache Teng is amazed. He sees vast pieces of land being spewed out of the hole. It’s like a new land mass is forming out of nothing. Colourful lights of orange and purple centre ‘the rift’ as Teng calls it.

It doesn’t take long before a small island has been formed. Only taking a little under a few hours.

Unfortunately, Teng has drifted kind of far with all the turbulence spreading to the water. Not wanting to be stuck out here in the ocean, he starts swimming for the land. A trace of excitement can be seen on his face.

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Swimming over proves difficult, but Teng continues in earnest. He feels he has swum nearly a kilometre, but the island is still far away. Needing a rest, he heads for a small piece of land he spotted, a bit further from the main island.

It took him just under half an hour to reach the small island.

The island is about twelve to fifteen metres wide, but looks kind of like a mini volcano. Oddly though it’s growing with lush grass and some purple flowers. Fascinated as Teng is, he still wants to get to the main island. Hopefully build a shelter, hunt some game or fish, and find fresh water. Once he has procured some outpost, he can then figure out what the hell is going on.

After a break he continues to swim. As he was swimming though, he notices some odd-looking creatures enter through the rift and splash into the sea, which makes him kind of nervous. The distance is far though, so he has no idea what they were. Just that there were a few of them.

So far, he has seen no earthly aquatic creatures around him, but that could soon change with such a large disturbance.

Not willing to waste time out in the sea he swims diligently to the new land.