All was darkness. The kind of lingering darkness that wraps around your being, making it hard to move. Hard to breathe. Part of me wanted to keep my eyes closed and enjoy that peaceful nothingness. It was calm and quiet, like all the danger in the world had slipped away and left me floating in a safe little void. Perhaps death isn’t so bad, I thought, curling into myself and feeling my thoughts drift again.

Ding!

My eyes shot open.

There were trees overhead, trees so tall and large that their plump branches blocked out the sun. Birds bounced between them. They chirped so loud that it echoed in the surrounding forest.

I sat up carefully. My back ached, my head ached, my everything ached. Rubbing my temples, I groaned and tried to think of the last thing I could remember.

I was at home… I remember playing games at my PC, but that’s it.

A bubbling sound caught my attention. I turned my head and realized it was coming from a wide stream that trickled merrily downhill. For some reason, it was the stream that snapped me out of my exhausted state— it had been a long time since I saw nature naturing to that degree. In fact, looking around again, nothing about my surroundings looked familiar.

Am I in a forest? But how?

I leaned against a tree and pushed off the ground, coming shakily to my feet. Not even my shoes looked familiar. For a moment, I closed my eyes and tried to think of all the possible scenarios in which I could have ended up in this situation.

I must have been hiking… and got… kidnapped? Or maybe some kind of memory disorder.

It surprised even me how calm I felt being in such an extraordinarily bad situation, but— and perhaps I can thank my capable ancestors for this— the first thing that came to mind was finding shelter and food. The stream looked clean enough to drink from, thankfully. I scanned the landscape and noticed plenty of sticks, rocks, and wildlife. If I was stuck out here, it wouldn’t be an entirely hopeless situation, like if I had been stuck on some sort of island. I nodded to myself.

You know, this is sort of like those survival games that I play. I know it’s not the same.. But they’re at least slightly based on reality, right? I snorted and tapped my chin in thought. Oh no. Wait. Why am I laughing? This is bad. Oh, this is really, really bad. I’m stuck in the wilderness and I’m probably going to die out here and—

I inhaled sharply, pushing away the thought.

Nope, can’t think like that. This would be the worst possible time to panic.

Before anymore thoughts could butt their way into my brain, I started walking. I adjusted my path next to the stream and starting walking downhill. From somewhere in my subconscious, I knew that water usually led to civilization, but I didn’t know where that knowledge had come from. Instead of dwelling on it, I starting a murmuring a song to myself.

“Not gonna diiiiie. Not gonna diiiiee.”

I was totally going to die.

Sighing, I rubbed the back of my neck, centering on my usual stress point— and suddenly froze. I tapped my shoulder experimentally and my eyes widened in realization.

I was wearing a backpack.

Without a moment’s hesitation, I dropped it from my shoulders and let it hit the ground. I fell to my knees and unzipped it as quickly as possible. But when I saw what was inside, I was more stumped than I had been before: there was a knife, not all too different from a hunting knife; an industrial grade hatchet; and a little box with a screen that almost looked like a Game Boy.

Instinctively, I reached for the object with the screen first, hoping it was some sort of weird phone. I spun it around in my hands until I found the on switch and held it down. After a moment, the screen jumped to life with a soft buzzing sound. As I waited, I noticed text above the box floating in the air.

GPS - ⚡ 100%

“Ah,” I said.

My ears rang. My vision starting fading in and out, no doubt because of my heart beating so fast that it was hard to breathe. At some point, the GPS had left my hands and was laying in the grass at my feet. I stumbled to the nearest tree and fell into a panicked crouch, my hands glued tightly to my knees.

A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

The text was floating.

I eyed it again— out of some sort of morbid curiosity— and it was still there. But that didn’t make sense. Text didn’t float, and it especially didn’t hover over random objects to signify what they were. Nope, nope, nope.

Right then and there, I knew the reason I had gotten lost in the woods was because I had lost it. My brain was no longer functioning as it should. I groaned and leaned my head back against the tree, wondering how the hell I was going to get back home, when the GPS suddenly beeped.

Auditory hallucinations, I thought, nodding to myself in sympathy. But then it beeped again and again. To my own annoyance, I couldn’t ignore it. There was still a small part of me that hoped it held answers to what I was doing so far out in the woods— even if it was pure, unadulterated insanity.

I looked around, as if worried someone in the deserted forest was going to see me, and then walked slowly over to the GPS. The screen was still lit up and the weird text still floated in the air. Leaning as far away from it as I could, I picked up the device with two fingers and scrunched my nose at it. Every bone in my body wanted to cringe away— it just wasn’t right. After a few brave deep breaths, I brought the GPS closer.

It was a portion of a map. In the center was a yellow arrow facing forward. Turning around, I realized that it followed whichever direction I was facing. There was also a small arrow pad on the device that let me move a couple of inches in different directions, and a thumb stick that could zoom in and out. Unfortunately, it didn’t let me zoom any further out than it already was, but it still appeared to show about a mile in every direction. That was more than I could have asked for in my situation.

GPS - ⚡ 99%

I paled, noticing that I had already lost one percent of battery life. Since there was only forest in all directions around me, I turned off the device and stuck it back in my backpack. I stared into the bottom of the bag for a moment, still rattled with the floating text, and then finally grabbed the hunting knife.

HUNTING KNIFE - 🛠️ VERY GOOD

Sighing, I put it back down and picked up the last item.

HATCHET - 🛠️ EXCELLENT

“Okay,” I said slowly. “That’s… something.”

I put everything back into my backpack with a shiver and zipped it tight. When I tossed it onto my shoulders, new text appeared in the air before me.

TO OPEN YOUR INVENTORY, SAY “INVENTORY”.

I’m losing my mind. I really am. But even as I thought this, I found myself saying the word out loud, as instructed.

This time, a screen appeared in front of me. I blinked a few times— not comprehending what I was seeing— but there was no denying it: it was an inventory screen, similar to the kind you would see in a video game. There were about five rows with about five columns in each row, and the three items that I had just seen were now taking up three different spaces in the inventory screen, in the shape of medium-sized icons.

I pursed my lips and tapped the first box.

The hatchet appeared in my hands. I yelped in surprise, letting the hatchet clatter to the ground as I scrambled away from it.

No, no, no. This was nonsense. This… wasn’t possible. Part of me wanted to run away in panic, to scream, cry, and perhaps throw myself into the stream out of despair— but I didn’t do it. Instead, for some reason that even I couldn’t comprehend, I walked back towards the hatchet and picked it up slowly.

Whatever was going on was strange, there was no doubt about it, but there was also something about it that felt strangely familiar— like one of my survival games. None of it made sense, and I was half-sure that none of this was actually happening. And yet, I found myself saying, “Inventory,” and putting the hatchet back into my bag.

I kept walking with the stream at my side, in a daze. There was an unsettling feeling in my stomach that I couldn’t ignore. Every movement in the woods had me looking over my shoulder, every birdsong, every whistle of the wind through the trees.

I think…

I tried pushing back the thought. I fought against it desperately, not wanting to complete it. But as I looked at my surroundings, it spilled out from my lips instead.

“I think this is real.”

A breeze swept past me. I shivered and rubbed the goosebumps on my arms. My head felt stuffed with cotton, churning out one step after another— but nothing more.

I welcomed the stunned silence and focused on moving further downhill. As I went, I barely took in the plentiful creatures that roamed the forest around me: there were racoons, a couple of deer that bolted when they saw me, and small squirrels that scurried through the trees. In the stream, I saw fish leap from it a few times, as well as a few frogs and a turtle.

It was… strangely peaceful. The quietness allowed me time to reorganize my thoughts and slowly let the panic ebb until it was little more than a twinge of anxiety in my stomach. After awhile, I stopped for a drink at the stream.

WATER - 💧 CLEAN

I barely noticed the text floating above it. This time, I only took a deep breath and let it out, letting acceptance wash over me. If I wanted to survive out here, I would have to get used to it. I would have to learn whatever game system this place was using— assuming I wasn’t losing my mind— to survive and find my way home.

I stood up, feeling refreshed from my drink, and wiped the water from my face. A smirk fell to my lips as I shook my head.

This is ridiculous. This is absolutely insane.

“Fine,” I said out loud. “I’ll play.”

As soon as the words left my lips, a Ding! echoed in the air around me. New text popped up in front of me, and I tilted my head as I read it.

NEW QUEST!

BUILD A SHELTER.

I cradled my head in my hands.