POV: Solomon Reynaud

I woke up especially early Wednesday morning, it was maybe 6 am, and after showering and shaving, it took me 15 minutes to wake Marcel and Jules my two kids. They're 7 and 8 respectively, and the lights of my life since their mother died 3 years ago to cancer. I wasn't taking them to school today, but rather with me to a fencing tournament at the fencing club of which I am president. Most of the time we would only have them on weekends and I would be taking my kids to school, but this Wednesday was a holiday. I started our usual Saturday routine, packing up snacks and lunches for all three of us along with my fencing gear and a list of our participants. We were out the door by 7:00, and after the usual 30-minute drive we arrived at the Avenir Fencing Club.

"Good morning, Solomon." Welcomes my vice president of the club.

"Good morning, Remi. How is everything coming along this morning." I greet Remi with a smile which he returns and passes on to my children as he greets them as well.

"Everything is actually ahead of schedule today." He responds after saying hello to the kids.

From there we move to my office where I stash my gear and get the kids situated. After that I sit down with Remi and go over all of our preparations for the tournament that will be starting in a little less than an hour. With everyone participating in the tournament being part of the club we don't have to worry about extensive pre competition evaluations and can get right into the fun stuff quickly. It doesn't take long before people start arriving and checking in, and before I know it, we're about to start.

With moderately filled stands and all but one of our participants making it in time I begin the tournament. It's during the fourth match that it happens.

Warning!

Initial scan completed.

Energy threshold met.

I thought I was seeing things at first, but as everyone around me reacted the same way I knew something weird was going on. I moved towards Remi ready to ask if he knew anything more than I did, when more words appeared.

Initializing Integration.

Merging Realities.

Prepare for finalization.

10!

9!

...

3!

2!

1!

As the numbers counted down a slight panic had arisen in the crowd and my thoughts immediately went to my children. I needed to get to Remi right now. I had left the kids with him while I announced some of the matches. However, as the numbers reached 1, I froze, blinked, and then stumbled to my knees having lost my balance all of the sudden.

Integration Complete.

WELCOME ALL TO THE PRIME MATERIAL!

What the hell is a Prime Material? I asked myself while trying to get my balance back and pick myself up off the floor. And why is the power off? I immediately ignored the questions as I remembered my kids. How could I have forgotten them? I berated myself. It doesn't take me long to find them exactly where I left them with Remi trying to calm them down.

"Daddy what's going on! There were words in front of me and then I didn't feel very good!" Jules calls out to me as soon as she sees me.

"It's okay sweetie, I'm here and everything is going to be okay." I assure her and Marcel bringing them both in for a hug.

I thank Remi for looking after them, and then decide it's my job to try and restore some order since I'm the president of the club. I make my way down to the stage, bringing my kids with me so as not to let them out of my sight for a second. Without a sound system it takes me 30 seconds to get any semblance of attention from the scared crowd.

"I know everyone is scared, but panicking isn't going to help anyone! First and foremost, has anyone called 911?" I ask the crowd.

"I've tried to call emergency services, but I can't get a signal, no internet connection either." Lucien one of my good friends and an avid participant in the club responds.

"Can anyone else get a signal or internet connection?" I ask hoping that maybe his service provider is just down.

With a multitude of "no" or "I can't get a signal" I sigh and try to think of what else we should do. After a few seconds I get everyone's attention again and tell them that we should move outside. Worst case scenario we can just drive back into town and figure out what's going on. However, that idea is quickly thrown out as I exit the building. Not too far away from here across the well-manicured lawn and the lightly forested ground beyond I can see a city with its tall and tightly packed buildings. Unfortunately, it is not in the right direction.

I hear curses from some people and a few sobs from others, everyone is trying to wrap their heads around what is going on and why the city has moved, and the panic is rising. Something I notice as I look closer is that the city has very square edges. I've never seen anything like this before, any edge of a city I've seen sprawls. We're not too far away from the city, its maybe half a mile southwest of us. With no better ideas we decide as a group to venture into the city to find out what happened. it takes us 10 minutes before we arrive to an odd site, we couldn't tell from a distance, but the edges of the city are so perfectly straight that parts of buildings are missing. There are people everywhere crowding the streets and trying to push past each other, we're able to get a few people's attention and ask them what happened but they're just as clueless as we are.

Before we get too deep into the city, I stop everyone and tell them that if we get separated to meet back at the fencing club. Most of the group sticks close together as we make our ways through the packed streets. However, I do see some people venture off alone or in small groups. I can only hope they know what they're doing and can find their way back to the club if they need to. My immediate goal is to find anyone from emergency services to try and get a clear picture of the situation we're in. I'm surprised by the lack of a police presence in this kind of panicked situation, usually there would be more police around to calm everyone down.

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It takes us an hour before I find a police officer to speak to, he's practically being overrun with people trying to ask him the exact same questions I want to. During the time we spent looking I saw people being trampled or mugged and stores being looted for supplies, if every officer looked like this, I'm not surprised that they aren't able to help anyone. Our group pushes its way closer to hear the answers from the officer on what is happening.

"I don't know okay! We don't know what's happening any better than you do, nothing but short-range radio is working! We're doing our best to figure out the problems and restore power, internet, and water. Please go back home and give us room to work!" I barely hear the officer over the noise before he starts repeating himself.

That's not good, the city is experiencing power, internet, and water outages all over the city. The officer also said that nothing but short-range radio was working. With most of my questions answered the best I was going to get; I ushered our group back and away from the swarming mass of people. Stopping for the first time since we entered the city, one of the club members comes up to me while I'm trying to figure out what to do next.

"Hey, Solomon I think that this city is 30 miles farther away than it should be. I recognize the city, and this is quite a way from where we came." He tells me.

"Really? I know this is the wrong direction but a different city?" I shake my head in disbelief.

"Yeah, I recognize the city, I come here fairly often for my job." He reaffirms.

"Thanks for letting me know." I say before going back to trying to figure out what to do.

Even with this new knowledge things have only gotten weirder, we're still in the same situation as before. With a few more seconds of consideration, I make my decision.

"Listen up everyone, let's take some time to buy some food I don't know how long this will take to sort out and I want to be prepared. Go in groups of 5 or more and come back here once you've gotten yourselves enough food for a few days." I tell everyone.

With some nods and confirmations people gather into groups and try and find someplace still open. Me, my two kids, Remi, Lucian, and two more of our friends group up to go find food. Gaston and Josephine are good friends and also members at the club, it's a pretty tight knit community where everyone knows each other. Finding food proved to be quite difficult and it takes us hours before we find a store that's still open and semi stocked. The reason this place is still open probably has to do with the fact that it seems to be taken over by a gang of some kind, there's people out front guarding the door and we have to pay to enter, after that we have to pay easily five times what the food costs. It was fairly sketchy, but we got a good amount of food and left without issue. I didn't like being extorted like that, but I have kids to worry about and I need to make sure they're taken care of, what's a little extra money in the face of that.

Our group was one of the first to return to our rendezvous location. We waited there for an hour as other groups slowly trickled back in, but after the last group arrived, I gave it 15 minutes before we decided to head back to the club. I wanted to be somewhere away from the crowd, while it may not be too bad now, at best there will be accidents, and at worst a full-scale riot. The journey takes us 30 minutes, first having to make our way through the crowd of people at the edge of the city, and then traversing the distance between the city and the club. Fortunately, when we arrive, I spot a few of the people I had thought we lost. All of us quickly consolidate into the arena complex so we can stay together, but I put a few people on a rotation to stay outside and watch for any planes, helicopters, or vehicles to come our way. I don't want to miss our help arriving just because we were sheltering inside.

It's fully 4-5 hours later or 8-9 hours since this entire thing started that the people watching outside exclaim in wonder, shock, and surprise followed by shots of worry before finally audible to us inside ... Screams. By this point as most of us stand and prepare to venture outside that someone comes rushing in.

"There are animals attacking us! They just showed up pouring out of the tree line." One of the people I put on rotation outside reports with incredulity.

My immediate thought as I rush outside is that some bear has decided to attack us, but I'm immediately proven wrong upon witnessing at least 100 weird looking animals rushing our way. I freeze for 5 long seconds as my brain does a reboot. Then I get into the same headspace as when I'm fencing and my mind races to find a counter to this problem. It lands on the small collection of ceremonial blades, part of which are used as a central art piece in the main meeting hall, and the remainder that is stored away in my office. These 10 swords are actually real weapons from long ago that were saved as part of this club and its founders history, used to induct members into the club for centuries before it fell out of practice.

I turn and shout for Remi to go inside and keep my kids safe before calling out to Lucien, Gaston, Josephine, Oliver, Henri, Celine, Mathis, Clemence, and finally Claude to come with me. I don't wait any longer before jogging off to gather the blades. I chose these 9 not only because they are my friends, but because they are some of the best fencers in the club. While our fencing skills were not the same as sword fighting abilities, they would definitely give us an edge over most others picking up a regular sword for the first time.

When we reached the meeting hall, I took the sword rack down and distributed the 5 swords to Lucien, Gaston, Josephine, Celine, and Mathis, and told them to go out front and do their best and that we would be following right behind them soon. The rest of us ran to my office and I unlocked a safe that held the 5 remaining swords. Handing them out we ran outside to assist the others. As I approached the exit, I could hear more screams. There were already a few people that had been mauled by the animals their lifeless eyes staring into the middle distance. I froze for a second before I tore my eyes away from their still bleeding corpses and back to the horde of animals trying to kill the rest of us.

The first monster I get a proper look at is some sort of grasshopper on steroids. The thing is easily the size of a small dog and it's attempting to claw and bite at one of the few watchmen I asked to stay outside. With a fierce desire to save the man from death I unsheathe my blade and attack the grasshopper with a fencer's lunge. My new sword is easily twice as heavy as my foil, but the strike hits near enough to where I aimed that the grasshopper is impaled and dies with a soundless cry from its spread open maw. I remove my sword from the corpse and pull the man I saved up off the ground before calling for everyone to get inside as quickly as possible. If we can secure the entrances and force them to attack us head on through chokepoints perhaps we can live through this.

As we collapse towards the doors, I gather together everyone I gave a sword and inform them of my plan, I send three groups off in pairs to secure side entrances while the four of us remaining prepare to defend the main entrance. The next few hours are spent fighting for our lives, cutting through four different kinds of monsters as they mindlessly assault the chokepoint uncaring of the pile of dead bodies building up in front of them. Every so often they take a minute break to dig through the corpses so they have better access to us once again.

The three types of monsters we fought at first were a mixture between the original grasshopper I killed outside which was the most common, followed by a creature with the body of a bear and the head of a boar, but the size of a big dog, which was the second most common. Finally, every so often we would be attacked by some sort of creature made out of roots, it had four legs and a head like an animal might, but from what we saw it had no flesh, only vines and roots. Its eyes were just dirt, and its claws were wooden things, but extremely sharp. They were bigger, stronger, and harder to kill than the other two but there were few enough we were able to hack through them before we were overrun.

One and a half hours into the fight Mathis is killed by the fourth monster we hadn't seen until then. The six-legged furry wolf creature with 2 ram horns erupting from its skull and a sharp rhinoceros like horn on its snout burst through the dead monsters being cleared by the others and impaled him through the chest with the horn on its nose, killing Mathis faster than any of us could react while we thought we had a chance to breathe. The three of us charged the monster and cut it to pieces as it tried to remove Mathis from its horn.

We were hard pressed the remaining hours, until finally the stream of monsters turned into a trickle, and then stopped. At first, we waited on our guard for the next wave, but two minutes of nothing later, I breathed a sigh of relief and fell down onto my knees, looking at the blade that probably saved my life and the lives of everyone else at the club. By this point the once perfectly maintained and razor-sharp blade was a dull pointy stick painted in a crimson and black hue. I couldn't make out the detailing of the blade at this point.

It was a hard-fought battle and we had lost one of our friends ... but we were alive, and ... there were words floating in front of my eyes saying something about a class?