The birds were chirping loudly, with the glaring sun washing over my face. My eyes fluttered open to see a clear blue sky. I was laying on my back in a strange paddock surrounded on three sides by large dense trees. With the side to my front leading out forward making a path through the forest. I started to stand, well tried to, I was weak and groggy. I managed to stand and take stock of my surroundings, the trees were dense and thick, the grass lush and long. I wasn’t alone. There was twentyish other people around me, wearing the same white smocks as each other. I looked down and realised that I was wearing the exact same outfit. I fingered the hem of the top, coarse and threadbare I thought.

 I then wondered to myself, nothing like the … wait what? What was I thinking of? I don’t remember. Wait, who are they?  I looked at the other people curiously, I couldn’t fathom why we were here. Or now that I thought of it, who am I? I touched my face with my hand, my cheek flushed red. My knees were getting heavy again while the floor was looming closer and the grass was waving and not just from the wind. I started to panic, with sweat across my brow, who am I? What am I doing here? I started to pale and looked around, none of the other people were up and awake yet. I hoped they weren’t dead, that wouldn’t be something I could deal with, was I supposed to be dead as well, why wasn’t I?

I started to take a step forward, my leg started strong, but my knee didn’t stop bending until it was touching the damp grass. I realised that I’m not coping with this well, I had to put it out of my mind, to try and focusing on working out where I am and who I am. I slapped my leg, my hand hitting the damp patch on my leg.  Damp. The thought pulled a memory from a long time ago. There was the tap of rain and a crying of pain, and a lot of screaming. Yet the screaming was that of a child and voices of relief, and a very loud booming exclamation of joy, tinged with worry. I remember being in the next room looking at the window, as I watched a bead of condensation run down the window, a young boys face shown in the reflection, a small black mop with piercing clear green eyes. I remember a feeling of being lifted, and the loud voice proclaiming, “Son, you will grow up big and strong like your father, and my father, your name is…”.

My name is James I whispered to myself, my breathing slowed, and colour returned to my face, the simple thought of my name carving through the worries I had. I thought to myself, this is who I am, this Is my name, the thought raced across my mind, over and over. It took me a while to fully recover, having nearly succumbed to my panic. After I have mostly recovered I stood up, with my hands on my hips and sighed.

I wonder if anyone else is alive and awake? I thought, walking towards the closet person. She was 5 feet 6, brown haired and rather pretty, although the twisting way she was laying down with her arm over her head didn’t exactly convey that. I put my hand on her neck, and one over her mouth, two fingers over her artery and felt a pulse and a soft breath on my hand.

Well she’s okay, and after checking the next two people, I’m guessing everyone else is too, while surveying the remaining people, it was hard task to hold back a chuckle at the ridiculous poses that they all had. I stood up and turned around. The paddock was more of a meadow, and surprisingly seemed to be in a perfect circle. The only obvious exit was through the path formed by the gap in the trees.

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I started forward towards the exit while patting my clothes, there wasn’t any pockets or folds to hold anything, with the fabric being coarse and stiff. It seemed to be rather low quality. I wondered where it came from, looking at the others as well. As I walked through the still asleep people, I idly wondered if I should wake them up, I realised I didn’t know them. I didn’t want them panicking like I did or freaking out, no, it was a safer bet to see if I could find anything of importance that would tell me where I am, at least for now. I would probably end up trying later, I reasoned. I steeled myself turned towards the exit and walked forward, onto my new path.

Walking through the trail, I was starting to realise that the grass was getting longer, gone from crunching under my feet to whipping around my knees. I was looking around, trying to find a destination to head to. I can see mountains to the left of me, but at this point I can’t really compare the position of them to anything. The sun seems to be doing a weird circle in the sky, but I think it’s just playing tricks on me. Although it is west to the glade, where I came from. I can see a farmhouse in the distance, which is where I’m currently headed. It looks to be about 3 kilometres away, so I’m rushing because I’m hoping to get there quickly.

I can’t say sure that I’m ready to meet anyone though, more hoping to see what I can find.  Maybe a map, or a book or well something. Worst comes to worst I might have to talk to someone who lives there. I can pretend that I’m lost or just passing through and need information about where the fastest way is…. Maybe, I don’t know. I should get a look at the place first.

As I was walking through the pathway I couldn’t help but get drawn to a tree on the left of me, it was bigger than the others surrounding it, its highest leaves towering over the others around it, the trunk old and warped. It wasn’t that which gave its allure though, it was the seemingly random stripes and curves of purple flowing through the tree. From the swirls down the trunk to the outline of the leaves, contrasting greatly with the deep brown and leafy green of the surrounding trees.  It had an evil feel to it and gave me the creeps, I decided not to touch it.

I kept walking forward, intent on getting there quickly, the path was weird as I walked forward. The middle of it had grass growing without much traffic damaging it but the outside of the path was bare earth and dirty, like it gets upturned every now and then again, it seemed to have traffic every now and again, but not constantly.

After around fifteen minutes of walking along the twists and turns of the path I started to hear more noise along with the constant drone of the forest of trees surrounding me. They were yells, cracks and the slap of steel on steel, faint at first but louder as I went forward. It concerned me about what it could be, so as I was turning around a sharp corner, I slowed down and went close to the thick trees, I wanted to go through them, but the trees were to big, the shrubs and ferns to thorny and the vines are to long. I kept to side, crouched and moved forward. As I rounded the bend, I couldn’t believe what I saw, and made me be in this world even more unbelievable.