As Dave emerged out of the bus he heard the others talking.

“... so we have to ration our food a little.” was all he heard the muscled guy saying.

“Well I guess we will manage, it won’t be pleasant but we will survive a few days of eating a bit less. By my guess it should only be a night or two outside.” Max nodded at the sun “But we should get going now if everybody has everything.” After no clear answer other than a few nods he started walking back the way they came. Dave fell in beside him and they walked at the head of the group.

It was still brutally hot outside, the sun having only passed the zenith by a few inches. So after only a few minutes of walking Dave was laced in sweat. The air was humid and he, just like everybody else, was carrying a heavy traveling backpack. His was able to hold up to 55 liters, which Dave always thought was an odd way to measure backpack space. However it was mostly packed with dirty clothes and a few souvenirs he had bought along the way. So it was pretty much dead weight.

While walking Dave and Max kept exchanging a few words here and there. The rest of the group lagged a few steps behind them but they kept quiet. Usually Dave wouldn’t want to strike up a conversation while traveling with a group, or like ever, he was pretty shy when it came to strangers. But it was such an uncomfortable silence behind them that he felt the urge to say something.

As if that would be expected of him to say something in such a situation. But Dave didn’t think that social hiking normes applied for this scenario. Besides he was pretty sure he would grow closer to them during their ordeal over the next few days. Satisfied with his excuse not to strike up a conversation, Dave’s thoughts turned inward.

He still couldn’t really process this whole situation. Maybe it would turn out that they all had just had a weird group dream and a broken down bus or something. The evidence was stacked against that though. A group of people blacked out and found themselves in a not working bus, with none of their other electronics working. And they all had the same dream explaining these events. Then there were the missing people. Logically that just felt like too much of a coincidence.

Also Dave wasn’t sure if he didn’t want it to be real. Whatever this thing meant by a new world, it had also talked about Mana. Mana was something Dave was very familiar with from games, books and pretty much everything he ever consumed. Silently Dave hoped that whatever had happened, had transformed their world into a fantasy world. He would love to be a wizard or some legendary warrior. On the other hand the thing had spoken about dangers and struggles but it couldn’t be much worse than life before, could it?

To say that Dave was deeply unsatisfied with his life was an understatement. He had an office job he hated, had been cheated on by his girlfriend only days before his trip and his only friend in the world was Max. That was why he fell in love with travelling so much, he didn’t need to be the Dave from back home when he was out here in strange lands. Nobody would want to be that Dave.

Time and miles just flew by. Judging by the sun, the only tool to measure time they had, quite a bit of time had passed. Yet the sun was still high and grilling them. You got used to sweating in this part of the world, still it wasn’t comfortable.

Everybody was lost in their own thoughts and the struggle to keep walking in the heat. Nobody even complained until the jacked guy, or Ryland, as Dave had learned by now, spoke up “I could really do with some food” he said and started looking through his backpack.

So they all ate a little bit. Most of their rations consisted of different snacks and fruit. The bus transfer luckily offered free water and fruit for every passenger. It wasn’t as luxurious as it sounded but they each got a big water bottle for free and they had a small fruit basket in the bus. Water could become a problem but for now they still had enough.

“Man, it's really hot.” Sarah said. Sarah was the girl that had been sitting in the back of the bus. She had long brown hair and a friendly smile. Actually Dave had noticed her on the bus before this whole thing happened. He quickly looked down to avoid staring at her too much.

“Fuck yeah, and my feet hurt.” Ryland chimed in as halved a banana in one bite.

And so they started to complain as a group. About the heat, their sores and how heavy their backpacks were. It helped alleviate a bit of the stress. They sat there for a while, their chatting turning into friendly conversation and avoided heavier topics. Until Mira broke that unspoken agreement.

“Did the thing also tell you about a second vision?” she asked.

“Well he said something about contacting us again I think?” Sam said shrugging.

“I think that will be another vision.” Max said “I’m curious when that will be though.”

“So you all believe that it’s real?” Mira asked again, “I think that’s crazy. How can you believe in some weird dream telling you there is an apocalypse coming? Just cause the bus crashed?” she started sounding a bit hysteric. Dave could sympathize with her though, it must be extra hard for her, not knowing the whereabouts of her friend.

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“Well what do you think?” Max asked in a calm voice.

“I think our bus broke down and we probably had a heat stroke. Bethy and the others probably already went and got help. Maybe we should turn back to the bus or else they won’t find us. I say we should go back right now.”

The others all exchanged glances.

“What?” she almost yelled “You think I’m crazy? How can you believe all that stuff and think I’m crazy? How?”

It was a good question. A few seconds passed before Max spoke up.

“Because I know it to be true. I can… I don’t know, I think I can feel it” he said.

“Yeah, I know what you mean.” Sarah said. Ryland and Sam thought for a moment and then nodded.

Mira looked at each of them incredulously. Dave could see that she was fishing for words. Looking for arguments hiding somewhere. But deep down she knew what they were talking about. There was something about what the thing in the vision had talked about and how the world felt different now.

Just before Mira could say something again there was a noise from the trees behind them. Followed by a cacophony of screeches. He and the group turned as one and what they saw eliminated their wondering if the world had changed.

Over a score of squirrels sat in the trees looking at them, a few also stood in the bushes, half hidden away. Eyes and fur between the bushwork.

That wasn’t what shocked the group though. It was the way these things looked, those weren’t normal squirrels. For one they were almost four feet tall, standing upright on their hindlegs. There was something weirdly human about the way they carried themselves. And something even more unnerving about the way they were watching them. Calmly waiting and observing. But not quiet, they were making all sorts of noises amongst themselves as even more of these beasts came into view. Dave thought he heard some of them laughing.

Looking closer Dave noticed that some of them even held weapons or wore crude strips of clothing. Some held spears, simple but sharp looking. And one of them stood in front of the others, carrying some sort of axe almost as tall as the squirrel itself. Red symbols were painted on its chest as it quieted all the other squirrels with a screeching sound it made. All of a sudden the other squirrels quieted down and they just stood, staring at them.

One of the girls screamed and even Dave almost cried out. He slowly got to his feet and started backing away. The rest of the group either followed suit or remained frozen on the ground. It felt like a Hitchcock Movie.

The second of silence passed. Before Dave could really gain ground, the leader squirrel screeched again and raised its axe. As if it was some sort of signal, a lot of movement started happening in the trees and the squirrels jumped down. The cascade of screeches coming out of the trees as squirrels started rushing at them.

Suddenly Dave felt very lightheaded. He turned around, wanting to break out into a full out sprint, but due to his dizziness almost stumbled over a root. His heart was racing and a strange feeling overcame him. Then blacked out again.

He found himself floating in that strange black place again.

“Great timing now I get eaten by some mutated squirrels just because of these visions” he thought “It’s probably not healthy to pass out that often.” Before he could ponder the risks to his health any further the bright light appeared again.

But this time it turned from a bright white shape into the image of a real human. The man wore long white robes and had short brown hair. He looked to be of middle age but his eyes looked much older. He looked so real Dave wondered if he was really in a room with another human. He gave Dave a warm smile and a wink. Then he began talking, his voice still had a deep thrum, not sounding like a real human voice.

“Greetings Earth. We had to move the timeline for the next time we could talk to you forward, which means we can only keep this channel of communication open for a limited amount of time. Let us first tell you a bit more, afterwards your assigned Sector Controller will go a bit more in depth with you.

First off, yes your world is about to change fundamentally and forever. We tried to keep your plane of existence separated from the Greater Whole but unfortunately it wasn’t possible anymore.

That means there are new rules to live you have to accept or be left behind. For one there is a thing called Mana. It runs through everything and is the fundamental building block for everything in the universe. Most of you have probably heard of something like Mana through culture. And it’s similar to what you will imagine.

We made sure to leave references for your culture in case the thing that is about to happen will happen. So you will accept and understand more easily. The rising Mana levels mean that planes we had tried to protect you from will overlap with Earth again.

These planes will bring dangers with them.

We called them fae. They are also what you know through culture but much different and much more dangerous. Fae are groups of sentient beings that exist through creation by Mana. They are what you would call fantasy races. Elves, Dwarves, Orcs and many more kinds of creatures. Lots of which you probably won’t have heard of before. Be aware of them. We tried to seal everything non-human away for a reason. Humans and Manaborn have always been at war. Here and everywhere else.

Also be careful of your local fauna. In some regions the rising Mana Levels will have impacted animals and created monsters. The world you live in now is dangerous around every corner and if you want to survive, humanity has to unite together.

With these dangers also come opportunities though.

Mana gives you the chance to get strength surpassing your wildest dreams. Strength that you will need to survive. Mana interworks with a system that allows you to gain Skills and abilities surpassing what a normal human would be capable of by far. This again is something you probably know through culture so most of the elements should be familiar to some of you.

Still it’s hard to explain and even harder to believe, so we want to show it to you.”

With that Dave’s vision filled with darkness again.