I spent the next few minutes describing in detail all of the strange landmasses that had appeared throughout the city. All the while, the newly changed seemed to stare off into the middle distance as they accessed their personal status screens. As my explanation wrapped up, the severity of the situation started to dawn on me.

Everything, in the whole world, was in a different place. What’s more, if the patch notes were accurate, everywhere on planet Earth was now at least two and a half times as spread out. Traveling from Austin to San Antonio, the closest major city, used to be about 80 miles away. Now, that was closer to 200 miles.

On top of that, the landmasses didn’t appear with any sense of rhyme or reason. They grew randomly, pushing the old earth around in strange, inconsistent ways. Some streets that used to be parallel were now at right angles. Because of that, we couldn’t accurately tell where anything was anymore. The entire planet would need to be remapped from ground zero.

The electricity was gone, and it wasn’t coming back. The water system and sewage systems were gone. Satellites were either gone or were simply non-functional. In one fell swoop, all of humanity had been set back over a hundred years.

I needed to sit down.

----

Night fell quickly. I sat next to a softly snoring Cindy and Taylor around a fire with a blanket wrapped around my shoulders. Wind swept across the grass, filling the air with a gentle rustling that threw embers into the sky.

After the initial chaos had settled, everyone just seemed lost. Instead of searching for their homes, the people sheltered inside the hotel now set up campsites throughout the grassy plain out front of the store. Cindy, Taylor, and the Garcia family had managed to stockpile a good amount of food, tarps, and tents, as everyone seemed about as content as they could be, given the situation.

It was obvious that most people didn’t know how to feel about their changes. Most people hadn’t actually changed that much; beastkin, which was a magic race that looked like a person with various animal parts attached, was by far the most common transformation. A few others had become elves or dryads, like Taylor and Cindy.

Of the forty-ish people that took shelter in the hotel, 35 had become beastkin. The rest were a combination of monsters and superhumans. They seemed to be taking the transformation the worst, though for very different reasons.

The sole superhuman looked almost exactly the same as he did before the wave. It was good news for him, but being the outlier seemed to come with its own risks. The looks of jealousy he was getting were problematic.

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The ones on the other end of the spectrum were the monsters. They looked nothing like humans, at all. Two families, one of three, and one of four, had been transformed. The family of four became Goblins; green, short, and ugly. Their daughter, who I believed was around 14, still hadn’t stopped crying. The other family of three became kobolds, and though they were clearly dissatisfied, they seemed to be taking the changes well enough.

Hearing footsteps behind me, I glanced over my shoulder to see who was approaching.

“Hey, Ms. Garcia.”

She raised two perfectly groomed eyebrows at my comment. She, along with the whole Garcia family, had become Kitsune. Their hair colors differed, but clearly, they were all the same species. Or was it fur colors? I didn’t actually know.

Ms. Garcia’s three fluffy tails flicked in annoyance.

“Victoria, I’ve told you many times. Call me Jessie.”

“Sorry… Jessie. Do you need help with something?”

At her name, the tall, pointed ears at the crest of her head twitched to the sides. It was strange talking to her like this, as she looked very different than before. Jessie was never an unattractive woman, but she was well into her fifties, with a daughter that was almost my age. The wave had washed away at least twenty years and made her look practically identical to her daughter, Elena.

She chuckled slightly.

“No, Victoria, nothing like that. I just wanted to check and see how you were doing. It’s been a long couple of days for everyone.”

“Honestly, I don’t really know. It all just feels so surreal; we’re days into this and I still can’t believe what’s happening.”

“I feel the same way. These… changes. They make little sense, but at the same time, they feel so natural. Like it’s always been this way.”

I couldn’t help but agree. I turned to look into the fire.

“Ms. Garcia, do you feel like you’re losing yourself? That these physical changes are making you into someone entirely different than who you were?”

She paused, silently considering my question. After a while, she answered, her voice almost a whisper.

“It’s funny, Victoria. You never stop feeling young, you know? I’m approaching my fifty-second birthday, and I feel like exactly the same person I was when I turned thirty. But I have changed. I’ve made new opinions, new friends, and even new family. Calling me the same person I was twenty years ago, maybe even five years ago, is so laughably untrue. Time takes its toll, even when you don’t notice.

“Life is full of change, just typically subtle enough that you’d never bother worrying. I don’t think this one big change is anything different. Just faster, maybe. I still have my friends and family. We have prospects and a home. We just have to work out what this new world means for us, and our loved ones. Problems, even those as big as what we currently face, have a way of working themselves out. Just as long as people are willing to put in the effort that these problems need.”

As the flames crackle in my vision, I turn over her words. Could I take this new world in stride as she did? I didn’t know. I did feel a bit better, though.

“Thanks, Jessie.”

“Anytime, Victoria. Don’t keep your thoughts to yourself so much. There’s being strong, and then there’s being stubborn. Pride is a sin for a reason. Get some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning.”

As she walked away, I wrapped the blanket closer around my shoulders and lay down on my sleeping bag. My eyes closed; I fell asleep without even trying.