What just happened?
I swear, one second I was sitting at home, in front of my computer, half-asleep, half-genius, trying to create a bug to increase the skill cap in a game. Nothing illegal—okay, maybe a little illegal—but strictly for research purposes.
Then everything turned blurry.
And now—
"…by the way, where the hell am I?"
Tall bushes. Trees everywhere. Not park trees. Not forest-reserve trees. These were wrong—too thick, too tall, leaves the size of car doors, vines hanging like they were alive and waiting for permission to grab me.
My heart started pounding.
"Okay… okay… have I been kidnapped?"
I turned in a slow circle, scanning the jungle.
"By who?" I asked the air. "Because let me clear this up right now—I'm just an internet hacker for games. I'm not rich. I don't know secrets. I don't have crypto hidden anywhere. You definitely grabbed the wrong guy."
The silence pressed in.
Nervous laughter bubbled out of me.
"Alright, this is enough playing around," I said louder. "Whoever you are, you can come out now, okay? We'll just laugh about this in a while, yeah?"
Nothing.
Then—
BOOM.
The explosion rolled through the distance like thunder with teeth. Birds—no, things—took off screaming from the canopy.
"What the fuck?!"
My brain snapped straight into survival mode.
"Terrorists. Great. I've been captured by terrorists."
I didn't wait for confirmation.
"Nope. Nope, nope, nope."
I turned and ran.
Branches whipped my face. Vines snagged my clothes like hands trying to pull me back. Roots tried to trip me. The jungle fought dirty, and my lungs burned almost instantly.
"I can't stay here—can't stay here—"
Another distant roar echoed.
That… wasn't an explosion.
That was alive.
Panic shoved adrenaline into my veins. I ducked, swerved, leapt over fallen trunks, following what looked like a clear path through the foliage. My vision tunneled.
Then the trees ended.
I stumbled forward—
And nearly ran straight off a cliff.
I skidded to a stop, heart hammering, chest heaving, and slowly lifted my head.
The world opened up beneath me.
A vast, endless land stretched out—jungles rolling into plains, rivers cutting through the earth like scars, mountains clawing at the horizon. The sky felt bigger than it should be, heavier, older.
And moving across the plains below—
My brain refused to process it.
"…fuck."
Huge shapes moved through the trees.
Long necks rising above the canopy. Massive shadows shaking the ground with every step. Winged silhouettes circling lazily in the sky.
"…are those dinosaurs?"
My legs went weak.
I laughed again, this time sharp and hysterical.
"Okay. Okay. That's not possible."
I looked around wildly.
"Where the hell am I?" I whispered.
Because this wasn't America.
This wasn't anywhere.
And deep down—past the fear, past the disbelief—I felt something else settle into my chest.
A cold, undeniable certainty.
Whatever this place was…
"This is the world," I muttered, staring at the ancient land below, "I'll be calling home soon."
And I had absolutely no idea how to survive it.