Following Julius, the woman in the sleeveless shirt lowered herself onto the grass with a quiet sigh. The teenage boy settled beside her without hesitation.
"Hi. My name is Jesse. Nice to meet you."
She looked at the boy, young enough to possibly be her son.
'Such cruelty,' she thought, frowning.
Whatever was responsible for this world apparently had its principles — visitations only occurred to those fourteen and older. The boy before her sat right at that edge. He seemed unbothered. That was the work of ignorance, mostly.
As expected, the younger ones had an even lower rate of survival than the adults. Even though it was beginning to settle in people's minds as something normal, she couldn't accept it.
'I'll try my best to look after you,' she decided, before answering his greeting. "Nice to meet you too. I'm Sarah."
A few others settled onto the grass. The rest remained standing. Alden was among the latter.
Alden exhaled slowly, watching white mist curl from his lips and disappear. The sky was still mysterious, still unsettling. But the air itself, excluding the cold, was surprisingly clean. Pure, even. A stark contrast to anything east of the city. The sheer amount of vegetation surrounding them was probably why.
Come to think of it, he'd never seen this much green in his life. The main cities had their maintained trees and arranged plots. The east had weeds and a few scraggly things fighting for space.
It felt very open here.
Something else confused him. 'How is it this cold without any snow?'
Considering he was in a different world, abnormal things should be normal.
'I have to adjust quickly,' he thought, 'Or I won't last long.'
A complicated look crossed Alden's face. "Did they see something like this when they first arrived?"
He shook his head. "No. They would have gone through a Sanctuary."
That was how it was supposed to work. New arrivals appeared in a Sanctuary — sheltered, supervised, trained in greater detail than anything back on Earth before their first trial. And even with all of that, most people still ended up dead.
So, on paper, their situation looked very bad. Only the future actually knew what it held.
For now, he focused on the immediate. The grass blades were rough against his skin — almost like sandpaper. He hadn't noticed during the shock. It was very obvious now.
He scanned the field.
"I think I saw some..."
He trailed off, eyes catching something he'd overlooked before. A small cluster of rocks rose above the grass some distance to the left.
"Nice."
Alden weighed the distance from the group briefly, contemplating whether to go that far away. But then, he spotted two figures already there. That settled it. He moved toward them, picking his way through the grass.
His pants covered his legs well enough, leaving only his feet exposed.
"I should've slept with my shoes on," he muttered, treading awkwardly through the rough blades.
Alden arrived at the rock closest to the duo already here.
He didn't particularly enjoy mingling, but isolating himself here didn't seem wise either.
"A couple?" Alden blinked while staring at the figures. A male and female, from what he could make out. The female appeared quite young for a woman. As for the man, he seemed older.
The young woman sat curled up atop the rock, which happened to be the largest one. It stood well above the grasses, probably even taller than him.
Alden doubted the girl could have gotten on it by herself. Especially considering she wore a full length gown. The rock was large enough to accommodate both of them, yet the older male remained standing on the grass with only his back resting against it.
He could faintly hear their voices, so they were clearly in conversation.
'I shouldn't stare too much.'
He turned his attention to a smaller boulder nearby, about half the size of theirs. Large enough. He cleared the top with one short leap and settled his weight onto it.
Within a minute, every other rock—only about six of them—in the area had been claimed by one or more people.
As his mind began resting, both his exhaustion and cold was getting to him even more.
Alden planned to undure all this, but something surfaced in the back of his mind—words from the trial manual he read only hours ago.
'Always rest whenever possible.'
Ironically, he'd come across the same advice years ago, during his research phase, so it stuck.
'It would've been great if I got to bring the manual along... Wait! How is the old man going to get his book back?'
Alden couldn't get the idea that he might be accused of running off out of his head.
"Arghh!! Fuck!"
He spent an unnecessary amout of time disturbed by this,before returning to the issue at hand. "Would it actually be okay to sleep?"
He pondered for a while. The situation seemed to permit it—for now. Whether they'd have another opportunity like this, without it being a permanent one, was harder to say. The shock and adrenaline had faded enough that he could feel his exhaustion again.
After struggling, he decided to take the risk. After all, his body had long been trained to sleep light. If something came, he'd have enough time to react.
Probably.
He made peace with the gamble and shifted around on the rock, trying to find something resembling comfort. After a minute of adjusting, he gave up on lying down and settled instead with his legs folded, hands crossed over his knees, head resting on top.
The cyan glow of the strange night fell across the field unto Alden's slightly shivering body.
Around him, it wasn't quiet. Or at least, he wished it was.
"Lord have mercy, Lord have mercy, I'm sorry, I'm sorry for everything, just please—not here, not like this. Lord, are you there? Are you—please just get me out alive, please, I'll do anything..."
"Arghh!"
---
"AHHHHHH!!!"
A loud scream sliced through the air, drawing Alden's consciousness back into the world. As his head jerked up in full alert, he lost balance and dropped off the rock.
So much for reacting.
He barely registered the landing because right now, on his feet and staring across the field, he was seeing something he'd only ever read about.
Everyone had gone still.
Every eye was fixed on her.
She looked different.