"Fuck this study guide." Hunched over a small desk a young man no older than 20 can be seen filling out a study guide.
The young man Nolan drops his pen and presses both palms against his face. 'I'm going to fail the test.'
He sat back in his chair, stretching until his spine offered a series of deeply satisfying cracks, and stared up at the ceiling with the thousand-yard gaze of a man contemplating every decision that had led him here.
He ran a hand through his hair. Why did I choose engineering? I could've just been an accountant. He laughed at his pain. I'm good with numbers it would have been so easy.
He pushed himself out of the chair, legs carrying him to the window.
"At least the view makes the tuition worth it." From six floors up, the city sprawled out beneath him in its usual indifferent chaos, traffic, rooftops, the distant glint of the river.
And the cherry on top a sunset at the beautiful hour of noon.
"..."
Wait.
The light hit first.
A wall of brilliant white cascaded outward across the horizon, swallowing buildings, streets, and distance whole, rushing toward him with the patient certainty of a tide. The sound followed half a second behind a single concussive wave that rolled across the sky like it had cracked open, something older and larger than thunder, larger than anything that had a name.
"Oh, shit —"
He stumbled backward from the window falling over on his butt losing control of his legs.
"Fuck — fuck, fuck, fuck —"
Every rational thought dissolved as he crawled along the floor desperate to escape his peril.
I don't want to die. I don't want to die —
The tears came before he even realized he was crying. He was halfway across the room when the light found him anyway.
It came through the walls.
His vision went white, and along with it all sound too. Not muffled, not distant, just…gone. As if the universe itself had gone frozen.
He felt as if his body was floating.
Floating where exactly?
"...Hello?"
His voice came back to him in layers, each echo arriving from a different direction, as though the white void had no walls but was somehow still a room. He turned in place or thought he did. There was no way to be certain. There was nothing to orient against. No floor, no light source, just an endless, even luminescence that seemed to emanate from everywhere and nowhere at once.
Where am I?
He wasn't sure if he'd said it aloud or just thought it very loudly.
And then with no warning or transition as if someone snapped their fingers the world changed.
A sense of gravity returned to his body pulling him down.
He screamed.
Thud!
The impact drove the breath from his lungs and packed dirt into his mouth in the same instant. He lay there for a long moment face-down, arms splayed, the distant birdsong of an entirely unbothered forest continuing around him.
Slowly, he pushed himself up onto his hands and knees.
He spat. Wiped his tongue against the back of his hand. Spat again.
"Oh," he managed. "Disgusting."
He sat back on his heels, blinking hard, and took stock of himself.
"At least I'm alive. Somehow…"
He pressed a hand to his ribs bruised probably, but nothing that screamed broken. His palms were scraped though and he doesn't have any lotion on hand.
"Where can a guy get lotion around here?"
He looked around trying to make sense of the surroundings.
The forest surrounded him in every direction towering redwood-like columns of ancient timber, with needle-thin leaves catching the light. Somewhere in the distance he could hear the rumbling sound of water.
Despite everything, it was "Peaceful."
Nolan sat in the dirt for a moment and simply breathed.
Okay, he thought. Okay. You are alive. You are somewhere. Figure out the rest later. Just take one step at a time.
That was when he noticed the smell.
It came to him on the breeze, a faint smell he almost missed.
Smoke.
He turned towards the smell, his nostrils flaring, his eyes scanning the treeline for the source.
'Found it.' High above the treetop he spots the pillar of smoke scattering in the air.
He breaks off in a jog.
'Hopefully it's other people, maybe they can tell me what's going on.'
As he got closer he started to hear sounds of people.
His jog turned into a sprint.
As he got closer the sounds became more intense as faint shouting echoed throughout the forest and the smell of smoke became more clear.
'Please don't die please don't die I don't want to be alone!'
Nolan broke through the tree line and the sight before him gave him pause.
Below him nestled in a clearing he saw a small village whose wooden wall and gate had been smashed. Along the village much of it had been set ablaze with the hay rooftops of the burning to a cinder.
People ran through the streets screaming, many stumbling over each other with nowhere to go.
Then out of the blue a goblin jumped onto a man's back driving a knife into his spine. Stabbing over and over until the cries of the man went silent.
Nolan's Stomach dropped.
'Fuck…'
'What do I do? What should I do? The village is on fire, that guy just died. Oh my god. Oh my god. If I help them I die. If I don't help them they're just going to come for me next.'
Nolan dragged both his hands through his hair pulling at it.
Screw it. Damned if I do, damned if I don't.
He thought of every scrap of courage he could muster. From the time he asked that girl out at the bar.
Ew I don't date guys who are over six foot.
The other time.
Ew I only date short kings under 5'5.
The third one.
I'm gay.
Three swings, three misses and he'd survived them all.
Today would be no different
"CHARGE!!" He screamed out in a spartan rage mustering all the courage he had.
Nolan ran storming past the falling gates and pasting the dead bodies that litter the ground pushing the sight out of his mind.
'Save those alive don't think of the dead move forward!' Nolan brainwashing himself forces himself to ignore the carnage.
"SAVE ME SOMEONE HELP ME I'VE FALLEN A CAN'T GET UP!" A voice echoes from inside a burning house.
Nolan broke through the door of the burning house. Inside an elderly man lay on the ground with his cane just out of reach, his eyes wide in terror.
"Help me young man. Please save me. I can't walk."
"Don't worry." Nolan crosses the room and hoists him over his shoulder. "I've got you old man, don't you worry."
Dragging him out of the burning house he pulls him around taking him to a house not on fire, setting him behind a bush.
"Stay here, those things are everywhere so just stay hidden. I'm going to find someone in charge who can help, ok?"
The old man grabbed his wrist. "In my house there is an old sword along the wall. Take it, you'll need it to slay those foul monsters."
"Thank you." Running off Nolan breaks back into the house and just as the old man said a short sword was along the wall.
Taking the sword he left in search of someone in charge or someone that could help.
Turning a corner he spots one of them. A Goblin.
Hunched over it was looting a dead body rummaging through the corpse's pockets. It pulled out a coin purse as it juggled it in one hand and spilled coins from the top.
Nolan stops dead in his tracks.
'Goblins. Goblins are real. It's going to kill me if I don't kill it.'
The goblin turned to the noise of Nolan, his head tilted a creeping smile dawning on its face.
'Yup it's going to kill me. It's over. I'm going to meet you Grandpa.' A silent tear fell down his eyes.
"NOT!!!!!"
"DIE YOU FILITY GREEN TURD!" Shaking his head Nolan rushes forward meeting the goblin head on.
Taking the sword he swung it like a baseball bat the blade missed the goblin by meer inches.
'Oh no…'
The goblin lungs it's mace striking Nolan in the chest, the air knocking out of his lungs.
"You bitch!" Nolan is not kind to the goblin as he slashes in retaliation.
SWISH!
The blade catches the arm of the goblin, larping it off in one flew swoop.
'Holy shit I just took it's arm off!'
"ARHRHRHR!" The goblin screams in pain as its blood flows out of its arm. Staining the ground below it as its face contorts in pain.
It lunges in desperation at Nolan, its mouth open, its teeth glaring as it tries to bite down.
'Oh no you don't die mother fucker!'
Stabbing froth he strikes the goblin dead in the chest piercing through the outside
Its body goes limp.