Charles stared at the light.

His heart beat weakly.

He did not have anything to say.

He lay against the wall.

He watched.

The light beated him, grabbing him by the shirt and kicking him to the ground.

Even the very concept of action had become meaningless to Charles.

He was only here because he was, but every time the pain brutalized him.

And he was brought back awake.

But just as fast as he regained himself and his senses, he lost them, as his mind fell to a halt.

What was it that kept him at it again?

He rubbed his shoulders against the void, pressing his legs against the door leading to his end.

He opened it.

There he saw God.

God spoke to him in a loud voice: "Let all who have come entertain themselves at my feet!"

He could not comprehend this, and he did not want to accept this. He did not want to accept that God was like this, and if that was true, then he could not accept that it was God.

It must be an illusion, he thought.

He faded into the background, but he was brought back to the light.

Time changed, and Charles gloated, allowing the sky to move gently. There was a sky above him, but it did not feel real.

The God in front of him did not seem to exist when he was not looking.

Everything faded, and everything bloomed.

Everything came, and everything went.

Everything dissipated, and everyone returned to its former original form.

He halted.

The tidal waves erupted within him, but he maintained his peace.

The composure he rested upon never budged from its feet.

It maintained strength and balance.

But time budged for him.

It skewed his perception of the world, striking the points in his vision which kept him in balance.

Then the flood gates opened.

He erupted into a fervor.

But before he knew it, he was already gone.

The God had sent him to a new world.

He looked at the green grass around him. "What was I? Where am I?" he said, but he was not the only one speaking that.

Three people were on the ground or standing near him. Zzzygurl, Cassie, and Johanathan were their names.

"W-who are you?" he said.

The three people were confused similarly, distancing themselves from one another and pointing around. "W-what's going on!" said Zzzygurl.

"I-I don't know!" said Johanathan.

"Isn't it strange that we're here?" Cassie told Zzzygurl. "What the fuck, man! I'm pretty sure you were the woman in the elevator right?"

"N-no? I was at home..." said Zzzygurl.

"Oh... I must have mistaken you for that woman... then," said Cassie.

Charles was still sitting on the ground, only having sit up a moment ago. "Wha..." His mind was adrift and engaged simulataneously. He had not been here before. He had not experienced what he experienced before.

His mind had been in a state of everything and nothing at the same time.

How the hell did he get here?

What drugs did they gave him?

It was like he was having hallucinations and delusions a while ago.

He looked around, and the three people composed themselves and helped him up, as he looked the most stunned out of all of them.

Charles said, "I'm fine, I'm fine... Where are we?"

Cassie said, "We..." She looked at the other two. "We don't know."

Then the vastness became apparent.

The land sought to swallow them, it seemed.

Cassie chuckled. "Well... what can we do?"

Charles focused his gaze. There was this long silence between the two ears that heard the echoes of the environment, where everything lay alive and dead.

The world was so new, but their situation was dreadful.

Charles smiled. "We'll make it work..."

Cassie chuckled depressingly, not supporting him there.

Zzzygurl and Johanathan were looking away and talking to each other. Zzzygurl was crying for some reason, but Johanathan was trying to get her to calm down.

Charles couldn't think straight.

Where the hell did everything go?

He sat down, and he was given a pat on the shoulder.

"I..." he quietly said. "I never thought... I would get...

"...killed."

He was on the street walking home from work, but out of nowhere, he found himself face to face with someone on the street. The thing was that the person was not even trying to kill him.

He was just so sick that he fell and hit his head, and he was already so unhealthy at the time. He had spent all his life working, and all of that came back to bite him.

He was now here in this new world, and the gods had given him one more chance.

But he was not excited or hyped at all for this.

He wanted to rest, but he was being forced to live again.

Charles stood up and joined Zzzygurl, Johanathan, and Cassie as they went on their way down a jungle path.

They were never going to escape.

This was their new hell now.

Later, Charles chucked, laughing when Johanathan started talking about baseball, and they were chuckling about a specific game.

Zzzygurl and Cassie did not understand, but they found them amusing. It was nice to have everyone composed, even if just for the moment.

He was then given a weapon. Cassie was the one who made it for him. "I know how to make stuff like that. My hands are pretty crafty, you know?" The weapon was reproduced like Jesus with the fish and loaves and given to the rest: herein Cassie accentuated her shrewdness. With that victory, she beamed and did a little dance. In addition, she put her fingers around her right eye, as if sniping her next opponent. Ultimatley, she had not only regained composure but a sense of playful self.

Furthermore, seeing her improvement, Charles nodded pregnantly. They were going to beat this hell, whatever it cost them.

Then each member of the group made their entrances.

First, Cassie stood in front of Charles, overlapping him, a smile enchanting her introspective expression.

Second, Charles moved to the side, so that he could see the vast land in front of Cassie, his form emerging greatly.

Third, Zzzygurl ran up a small knoll, striding up and down and testing her balance, appearing over them from behind, a confident pose keeping her in balance.

Lastly, Johanathan closed his eyes. Even when he was behind the two, he could see beyond what they could see now, as he was thinking and analyzing everything.

Moving on to their first objective, they sighted a mountain and began to ponder and analyze their extended situation.

Meanwhile, goblins scurried about in the distance out of sight. Animals found themselves preyed upon by their skewering javelins, as they hurried in a series in a line. The small axes they produced marked the trees, their hands smoothly navigating tactilely against the trees' bark.

Returning to the group, Charles told the rest that if anything dangerous popped up, they had to run.

"Run!" Cassie said as soon as she saw a goblin mid-leap grabbing at her hair.

Cassie dodged, kicking at it before cancelling it and then leaning against a tree to stabilize her momentum. Shen then pressed her hands against it to help her climb up the hill.

From behind, Cassie was followed by two guardians, Johanathan and Charles, while Zzzygurl raised her voice and barked at the goblins, keeping them in suspense. She raised her arms like a bear and hid her hands behind her back and then revealed them again and again. In the goblins' eyes, she was every time only a moment away from throwing a rock at them.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

With the goblins in hesitation, the group finally retreated past a thicket of trees.

The goblins were divided from them, as the thicket now blocked them.

The movement continued, and the group encountered various obstacles. But they pressed on until they converged at a clearing.

"Okay," Cassie said, patting the dirt off her clothes.

Charles had his hands on his knees, breathing heavily. He was not fit for this. He was an office worker, not a marathon runner.

Johanathan chuckled, raising his hands and placing them on his hips. He was athletic, so his calves sported themselves here.

Before Charles could turn around, Johanathan raised his arms and then shouted at rest of the group: "Let's go!" He brought a sense of direction to the group, pumping them with agility.

The group sprinted. With Zzzygurl first in line, she smirked.

The goblins, after seeing that they were too far, halted and fled away.

Johanathan made a mark and revealed his good sides here, which Charles and the rest of the group recognized. Because of this, as challenges tested and exposed their skills, they were becoming more solidified as a group. With that, the group advanced a step toward converging to transform into the unitary entity they were set to be.

The group took this moment to regain themselves.

Charles nodded simply, as he raised his arms, his sweat dripping down the sides of his belly, sitting on the ground.

Cassie raised her hands and wiped the sweat off her neck, head, and forehead, resting against a rock.

Johanathan took a deep breath and closed his eyes, leaning against a rock.

Zzzygurl sat on her haunches, using her forearms to wipe her sweat.

One of them found a hill and looked around there, locating a path forward.

The group then moved on.

Charles smiled. "Isn't it great? We've been here only for such a short amount of time, yet we've already gotten this far. I think... I think... Maybe... we'll get out of this alive. I think we just need to be patient—"

"Fucking gobs! We saw goblins! That, those were goblins—"

"I know, just chill for a second."

"I honestly don't even know what the fuck we're doing."

It was actually Zzzygurl that was talking to Charles.

Even if Charles might have seen someone strong in Zzzygurl, she wasn't strong. She did not want to be strong. If being strong meant dealing with this world, she did not want to be strong. She was afraid of what would happen if she dared be strong. There were so many things that could and would likely happen if they kept going like this.

Zzzygurl did not want to participate in this any longer.

Charles saw her, and he was distraught. "I... It's okay... It's not... But... What can we do?"

Zzzygurl rubbed her head, running her hands through her hair. She was going crazy.

Charles frowned, and the rest of the group could sense the futility of their situation.

"Why are we still pretending?" Cassie said instead of Zzzygurl, her voice low. "We should not keep going like this. She's right. This is stupid. Whatever the reason. This just should not make sense, and we should not accept it as is. There must be a reason we're here, and I don't know if it's an easy one."

Charles nodded. "Y-yeah. I know. But..." He didn't want to go back. He would rather die here than go back. "We can just try... our best. We'll find people, a community even. Just trust—"

Zzzygurl found her bearing again: "Trust? Brother, I have seen so many people say the same shit, and I'm tired of that. Look at where we are! We're in the middle of fucking nowhere! This is a fucking hell zone! Shit! What do you think I'm supposed to do? Accept this? Maybe if I was a fucking 11-year-old who still watched fucking fantasy films like Lord of the Rungs, then maybe! But I'm an adult. I've given up that part of my life! I've already given up on the idea that that part of my life was ever important! I was forced to become an adult, and that's part of it. But you, you're not really an adult, are you? You're still stuck in your mind." In reality, Charles was in his 50s, and Zzzygurl was still in her early twenties. She was being pressured with adult responsibilities, and she had yet to get used to it. It was only necessary that she threw away her old toys, and that hurt her. But she had to grow up. Now she was here back again in the place that she used to love but made herself hate. But this was not that place, oh no. This was hell. This was those stories she read a child, but there was no way this was the same thing. This was fucking real! She could actually die here! She knew that! She knew how vulnerable the human body was to diseases. She was a medical student, for goodness' sake! And for what! For what was she here! To sit down and pretend that this world was somehow a god-given thing! This was not god-given, and it was not hashtag blessed. This was hell on Earth. Fuck that!

Her mind had yet to accept that she was in a new world, and she had only started adjusting. Recognizing even just a slight tiny part of this new reality already broke her to this point. What would even more parts of this world do?

"The fuck am I doing!" Tears were flooding her cheeks, and she was supposed to be a professional. She was supposed to be adulting. But she was this fragile. "Fuckin' piece of dogpile..."

She was never the type to curse, but she grew up around swearing Americans, having moved to America from the Philippines when she was 11 years old. But that did not mean she was always mad.

This world brought out that side of her that wanted to keep her mouth clean. Guys hated it when she cursed or smoked or did fucking anything!

This world was a disgusting pile of dogshit!

She had already turned away from the silenced rest of the group, frozen in a sense of intense vulnerability and out-of-placeness. She was like a naked woman on television.

But the rest of the group were not at all antagonized by her behavior or expressions. They understood and empathized with her, having experienced their own cognitive dissonances. It was only now that they relieved their sense of tight-lipped painful unease through her truthful anger. Basically, they created a shared space for emotional release and catharsis.

Expressing pent-up emotions was not an issue, nor was addressing issues. In fact, it was a good thing, and it contributed to a greater sense of camaraderie and honesty between them. Honesty bred camaraderie.

Lack of issue-addressing, communication, transparency, honesty, and vulnerability between members of a social group led to dysfunction.

This was why Cassie did not interrupt. It was not only her shrewdness but also that of the rest of the group, including Zzzygurl herself in a counterintuitive way. They all knew that in this situation, Zzzygurl's outburst was actually the best thing they needed right now.

Indeed, even after Zzzygurl said all that, now that she was much calmer and more in tune with her real feelings, having been honest, she admitted she did not want to give up so easily. She wanted to work hard and fight, and she did not want to leave her teammates hanging.

She stood, her hands glasping the side of a rock with power, as the rest of the group beamed their approval beside her.