Version 2.0

See chapter 46 for more details.

Hope you like it!

And thanks to everyone that requested this to be continued! I’ve received all your messages, but couldn’t reply to everyone. So thank you for the support so far!

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‘I should have stopped earlier… I can’t waste the whole day sleeping tomorrow’ he thought as he laid down on the bed.

Relaxed and on his back, the feel of the soft pillow and comfy bed sheets enveloped him as the breeze of the air conditioner caressed his skin.

He smiled confidently to himself ‘I’m tired but should do this more often, it's been too long since I got a whole weekend just to myself’ he turned on his side and prepared to sleep, the sun was about to rise in the sky as the light began to shine through the small crevices on the window..

It wasn’t easy to have some time for himself, at least not like it was in his youth. Now older and full of responsibilities there was always something going on that required his attention, again and again, there was just no time or energy to step out of his routine.

But not that day, that weekend he managed to ditch everything and everyone. He took a day off work, said he was going to travel and turned off his phone and blocked all communication to friends and family.

He wanted a whole weekend to himself, just to indulge in his old hobbies. Something he craved for a long time.

Friday was spent playing old games to exhaustion, or better yet, to satisfaction. And Saturday wouldn’t be much different. He was now on his bed, rejoicing with that thought.

He checked his cell phone to ensure it was on airplane mode, mentally counted the sodas and pizza slices on the fridge to be sure there was no need to leave the house for supplies.

Everything was carefully planned out with plenty of time.

Sleepiness was finally catching up to him.

He could feel it taking over his body, slowly falling asleep.

Suddenly, in the blink of an eye, a strange sensation sent his mind into disarray. There was someone there, or something… he felt with conviction that he was not alone in his room anymore.

That feeling of fear threw him on edge, instantly. Adrenaline rushed through his veins. He was wide awake searching for it. His eyes were instinctively fully opened, with all his senses he looked for the source of that strange feeling.

His eyes moved slowly, he sat down, searching the pitch dark while his ears waited for any source of sound.

But he could not find anything, there was nothing there.

Cursing his brain he smiled to himself, finding that whole situation funny, after all there could be nothing there in the room with him.

He forced himself to calm down, but something was not right.

His eyes just refused to stay closed.

His senses were still on edge and could be messing with him. So he went through them one by one.

First, he couldn't feel his bed anymore. He could swear he was laying down on it just now. But his back and hand are feeling a large tree root sprouted above the ground, with its hard and unmistakable shape and texture.

It made no sense.

He reached out for his wall or nightstance, hoping to find some explanation to that thing ‘Maybe the bed broke somehow and that's some odd shaped wood piece from it?’ he tried reasoning as he searched around with his hands to find nothing..

He then searched more around his body, looking for the mattress and the sheets. Any of the familiar objects of his room, but his hands found just the rough surface of the hard and rough root.

Not moving, he focused on his other senses, his sight should be used to the dark by now, so he tried looking for something.

‘Where are the leds? A blackout? Then why is the air conditioner still on?’ Despite being able to feel a cool breeze, softly caressing his cheeks, he couldn't hear its usual noise.

In fact, all he heard now was just the rustling of thousands of leaves on a nearby tree.

“What the fuck?” he gets concerned. It was pitch black in all directions he looked at.

He once again searched for a beacon of sanity, any sign that indicated he was still in his own room.

He slowly moved from his spot, stretching his arms and using his hands as eyes to guide through the black veil. There should be something nearby, but his hands couldn’t find anything.

But the moment when his feet left the large root and touched the dirt, a deep concern filled his mind and heart..

His hand finally found something. But the familiarity of it only helped to bring up more questions than answers.

Instead of the smooth wall, his hand found a tree. Nothing made sense anymore.

Confused, he sat down against it.

Suddenly the sensation of something big crawling over his shoulder sent his senses into overload once again, before he could think, his hand slapped it by reflex.

He hit something quite heavier than any insect or spider he could think of. And what was worse, he knew it couldn’t have fallen too far.

Afraid, he moved away from it, crawling in the ground as fast as he could. He found the big root once again and moved over it. In his hurry, he didn’t realize he wasn’t touching the ground, but a small speck of dirt that was stuck to the root.

Losing his balance to the bad decision, he fell down from the top of the root.

It was quite a fall, but luckily, he didn’t get too hurt from it.

His hands were now at a different ground, it felt just like sand between his fingers.

He tried to calm down, ‘I can’t do shit without seeing where I’m going. If this is some woods or forest, it shouldn’t take long for the sun to come up, then I can get out of here… I just need to wait a bit more.’

And so he did, guarding himself of the things he could tell were passing by, dangerously close to him. Many were the sounds they made, the insect-like legs, crawling in the surface and carapaces scraping on the ground.

Protecting himself, he waited. But time went by and there were no signs of sunlight anywhere to be seen. And no matter how much he waited, his eyes as well, just couldn’t get used to that dark.

He looked up several times, but there were no moon or clouds to reflect the city's lights. There were no stars to guide him. There was nothing, just an absolute, maddening darkness.

Sense of time began to get lost in there, he could swear that hours had passed, at least that was the feeling he had while fending himself against the strangely large insects that roamed in his direction.

He started counting the seconds in his mind, to be sure of the time moving. But still, there were no signs of the dawn no matter how high he counted.

Desperate, he tried to shout for help, time after time, but not even his echo could be heard back. It felt like everything got lost in the darkness.

Desperation grew as he could hear bigger things roaming around, too close for his liking. They appeared way too interested in him despite keeping their distance, he instinctively knew the more he waited there, the more these things would grow curious.

He couldn’t stay there.

But there was no way to follow, nothing to give him a sense of location and moving in the dark is never a good option.

But he was there for too long, the place was already affecting his mind. He even considered the possibility that he went blind. All scenarios possible went through his mind but none made any sense.

Nothing explained where he was and what were those things that were creeping on him.

All he knew was that he had to move. A pitch black veil surrounded him in every direction at every step he gave, using his hands as guides he kept going, carefully, step after step.

Hunger and thirst became a real issue as he moved.

But there was no option, all he could do was to move forward and try to keep a straight line as much as humanly possible without references.

After a while, he felt a different ground beneath his feet, the dirt turned into a forest like ground, filled with grass and branches in the ground.

He walked carefully until he felt something sharp under his feet, he stopped in time before any damage was done. He knees down and uses his hand to determine what that was.

Carefully, he felt it, sturdy, round and stretched, with a smooth surface, broken at the tip with a sharp point turned up. “A broken bone?”

Near it, his hand could feel everything there was made of the same thing. The whole terrain in front of him seemed to be made of bones.

He sat down to rest, picked up a few bones. All clean, no trace of any meat or smell. They were probably very old.

Suddenly, from behind him he hears something from far away *SCREECH* echoes in the distance. The sound sent shivers down his spine. Whatever that thing was, he could only tell it was really big and that it was very hungry.

With a newfound sense of urgency, he stood up and sped up his movement, away from the source of that sound.

He moved as fast as he could in the dark, trying to not get his bare feet pierced by some broken bone. He was also protecting his face with one arm while trying to sense his surroundings with the other. But there were no trees in that bone graveyard, but he just couldn’t risk running into something with his head.

A while later his legs began to feel dry bushes scratching his pants as he passed by. Some bigger than the others but very similar to each other. The vegetation felt dead in that boneyard.

A slithereen sound on the ground nearby caught his attention, something that sounded like a snake was passing near him, big and heavy enough for him to hear it cracking the bones below and having absolutely no fear of him.

A sense of danger made him freeze in place, waiting for it to move away.

Suddenly, the thing slithered away in a rush. He could hear it moving at a fast pace.

His relief was brief as the sounds around him became more and more evident. Like heavy animals running in his direction.

He rushed, but those things quickly caught up to him. He stood still, hoping they would not hit him. If he had something in his stomach, he’d vomit it by the stress and fear induced by that moment. The smell of those beasts were mind numbing. They reek like an old, wet fur rug with spoiled vinegar. He could feel them moving by him in great velocity, like buses and trucks running dangerously close in the middle of the street.

If those things hit him or stepped on him, he was done for. Best option he had was to trust that things were able to see him and would avoid him somehow.

As soon as the situation began to calm down, he began to move again, but it was a bit too soon.

As he began to move, something hit him hard throwing him to the ground.

He blacked out.

*SCREECH* a nearby deafening sound wakes him up.

*CRACK* the unmistakable sound of bones cracking under a very heavy weight followed by the ground shaking. It was dangerously close.

Adrenaline rushed in, the fight or flight survival mode activated. And there was only one option.

He sprinted in the opposite direction of the sound without any care, as fast as he could, his life depended on that.

He felt like fire was running through his veins, each step felt quicker than the last one. He could swear he was running faster than humanly possible. He could feel the bones piercing his feet, but he didn’t care, he just kept at it.

But behind him, the thing was making chase, stomps of its steps were sparse between one another but they were getting louder and louder, it was on the hunt and he was the prey.

There was no option but to give it all.

Running at the top of his lungs for a while, his legs were about to give out, but he pushed through the feeling. Stopping there would mean death.

He could feel something close, despite the distance of the sounds of its legs, its head was much closer than he thought, there was no chance for him to win that race if that continued.

His attention was quickly caught, his eyes saw light for the first time. Immediately he breaks a sharp turn and with all his left energy reserves he runs towards it.

The light was dim and seemed not to be that big. The black veil seemed to have an open in its very fabric.

As he approached it, he noticed his chaser was slowing down.

It looked like a door, open to a lighted room. He quickly passed through it. The pain in his eyes was strong because of the light in there. They weren’t used to it for far too long.

Looking back he could not see the passage anymore. It seemed to have closed the moment he stepped through it.

He couldn’t believe it, exhausted he fell down to the ground in the middle of a forest, full of green, brown and gray colors and their shades. He could finally see.

Gathering his breath, he sat down.

The adrenaline was vanishing, the pain on his feet and body quickly brought him back to reality.

He then looked at himself, he was still wearing his pajamas: a very old black shirt with some holes in it and sweatpants. He had nothing on his feet… And they were in bad shape. Blood dripping from wounds, blisters and cuts on his ankles and even his legs. There were also a few pieces of bone pierced on them as well.

He removed the bones from his foot and managed to rip the thick fabric of the bottom of his pants to create a bandage and some protection for his feet.

Rested and patched up as much as he could, he was now able to move again.

He searched for a higher place to get a hold of his surroundings, but all he could see was a sea of trees on an endless plain field.

Time passed and strange enough, the sun seemed stuck on its pinnacle. It was always noon and all the shadows were perfectly aligned to it. And despite how much he walked or waited it continued that way. And what was worse, he couldn’t use it for guidance. There was no way to tell west from east, north or south.

Deciding on a random direction, preferably away from where he came, he picked up a small rock from the ground and used it to mark the trees as he moved on.

And the mystery of what could have happened to him, just seemed to increase.

‘Is this a dream!?’ his mind wandered off. He loses track of the ground and ends up stepping on sharp rock.

He feels no pain.

Finding it very strange, he sits down and removes the bloodied cloth around his feet.

Only dirt, no blisters or wounds could be seen anymore.

He found it to be strange, not only that, but nothing was hurting anymore, his body felt fine. Even after such a long walk. ‘Maybe that thing got me… maybe I’m dead’ he pinched himself on the arm to make sure, but that pain was still there.

He picked up the rock and hit himself with it lightly, he could feel its touch.

Again with more strength “Ouch!”

He was certain now, he was not dead, nor dreaming, but he couldn’t figure out what happened to him.

‘How long has it been since I drank or ate something? Shouldn’t I be starving by now?’

But the hunger and thirst were gone, the tiredness and the pain also quickly vanished from his body.

He knew that was just impossible, but that was his reality. And there was nothing else to do but to walk forward.

And as time passed he began to realize that something was definitely wrong with his body.

Surges from inside his body began to happen, slowly at first. Like a wave breaking from the inside of the body. An unnatural and unpleasant sensation that began to increase in intensity over time.

It was very concerning.

It went to a point that it turned into something else. Like thousands of needles were poking his skin from the inside. But it didn’t stop there, the needles became nails, big and nasty that felt to come from deeper within his muscles piercing and pushing through everything.

No matter what he did, it would last for a while and then vanish on its own.

The only certainty was that the intensity and duration increased every time it happened.

Unable to do much about it, he forced himself to continue in between their events.

And before he realized it, the terrain finally had changed, the plain was far behind him and he was now going uphill. It was a small inclination but enough to bring hope to him, if he was moving up, eventually he would reach some kind of peak.

Another thing bothered him greatly as he moved in that forest. Even in the dark place, there were things moving around. But now, in that new place, there was nothing but the trees.

No animals, or even insects, absolutely nothing but the trees.

Not a single mosquito to pester him.

But that realization only aggravated the eerie feeling he got whenever his mind went on pondering about that place, there was something about it that wasn’t right. He sensed it wasn’t safe to be there either and he had to get out of there as soon as possible.

Time went by, his body seemed to be getting heavier. Even his mind seemed to be affected somehow. It was getting harder and harder to focus, his mind quickly wandered into daydreaming without his control

He was spacing out while moving forward, there were few moments of clarity, most of his short memory now felt missing.

‘I don’t feel too good… how long am I walking? How long since I was in my bed? Oh my bed… yes, I’m sleeping, maybe I should get up, take a nice shower, get a pizza and watch something’

He shook off his head, strengthening his will “I need to control myself! I need to focus on the task at hand! Where the fuck is the top of this godforsaken place?! I should have walked the whole Andes Mountain Range by now! And why doesn't the sun ever go down? Why the fuck can’t I get out of this damn forest!?”

He managed to stay conscious for longer periods now. Which did not help for the surges of pain that now were all the way to the bones. An Excruciating pain to which there was nothing he could do about but wait to pass.

If he let it, his mind would wander off and flee the pain and the present situation. But he feared what could happen if he allowed himself to do that.

That was not an option, he had to stay focused as much as possible and that meant withstand the pain.

So that was his labor, accepting it when it happened and continuing on his path up without giving in his consciousness.

After a while the pain seemed to have changed again. Like a pressure ripping him from the inside, every fiber of his being was feeling it. And then it suddenly stopped and in its place, a dangerous numbness took over.

Something was happening to his body, he knew it but just couldn’t put his mind around it. All he could do was to focus on his task, to move forward on his path.

At that point his body was moving on its own, he could not feel his feet touching the ground nor his arms waving, nor anything. His mind was somehow present, blank, but focused forward. Like he was in some sort of trance.

His body was getting heavier.

When the difficulty to move became too much, it broke him of the trance and brought him back to the moment.

The strength he was now having to exert to move was far beyond normal. The struggle anchored his mind to the present as his limbs felt as if they were immersed in water. He looked forward and managed to see something, there was the end of the hill and on top of it there was some sort of light coming straight from the sky and it didn’t seem like sunlight.

The more he approached the top, the harder it was getting to move.

He smiled to himself and took a deep breath. He could see a big lonely tree right at the top of the hill, as if it was there waiting for him to help him rest.

Gathering some strength, he moved towards it. The moment he touched the tree, he felt as if everything he was feeling, just doubled in in intensity.

He leaned against it to take shelter on its shadows and rest while calmly observing the the top

To his surprise, the top was rather short, a few steps and there was nothing, he couldn’t even see the decline of the hill from where he was standing.

He looked up, the strange light was above him and seemed to align with the end of the hill.

His body began to slip down as he was falling asleep. “No!” he said out loud to himself, forcing him up once again. Fighting that sensation that was trying to take him over. “Not now, I need to see what's going on here.”

It was bad, he could barely walk now, the effort of a step was exhausting him due to the effort put on it. But there was no other choice, he knew he couldn’t risk losing his mind or falling asleep at a place like that. Not when he was so close.

Taking his time and using gravity as much as he could to pull him forward, he managed to reach the very edge of the hill.

To his surprise, it was just a death wall, straight down to the ground. And the ground was very far away from him.

“No, no, no, no… not this!”

Amongst his despair, he suddenly had a moment of hope, he saw that the forest ended on the ground down below. He also could see large plains without trees for a long distance and in there, white smoke was going up into the sky.

“Smoke? A city? That has to be people!" he said out loud smiling at himself with a renewed hope.

He needed to get down there, so he looked on the cliff to his sides trying to see a way down.

But all he could see was that the death wall kept on going until it disappeared in the distance. As if the Light had cut it and pushed it down to the ground somehow.

“This is impossible! Why? Why is there no end to this thing? How can this be so high? And where the hell is this light coming from?”

Wherever he looked, it was too steep to climb down even if he was feeling fine.

“there must be a way down, there has to be” he needed to see it better, so he got even closer to the edge to look straight down.

He laid down on the ground and began moving closer to the edge.

Differently than before, the weight on its body was getting exponentially heavier now as he got closer to the edge of the cliff, he couldn’t tell why his muscles were so difficult to move, he really felt as if something was pushing him down.

When he reached the edge, he felt as if the weight of the world was on his back, crushing him at such a force that he was barely conscious.

He gathered everything he could, all his remaining strength, energy and mental power, he mustered it all to pull himself forward a bit more… his hands reached the edge.

*CRACK*

The loud sound of the rocks cracking and breaking below him, it echoed and rumbled everywhere around him and even to the ground below. But he couldn’t give any attention to it, all his remaining focus was set o a single objective, to move forward.

And so he did, his hands finally grabbed the edge of the cliff and touched the strange light.

As if a threshold was crossed, he suddenly felt as if struck by an insurmountable and unmeasurable force. The weight on him spread into his surroundings, creating a crater with him at its center and breaking everything around it.

He had spent all he had left and then some more, couldn’t do anything. His mind had finally reached its limit.

He glimpsed the world spinning around him, completely weightless until all went black and his mind fell into a deep slumber.

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He is woken up by the sound of people talking nearby.

He slowly began to regain his sense after a deep sleep. The sensation of being on a bed enveloped him completely, the pillow behind his head and the sheets covering him embraced him softly, he felt like sleeping more.

‘Ahh, so it was a dream after all… more like a nightmare to be honest’ he smiled and relaxed on the bed, getting even more comfortable to sleep more. Completely relieved.

"Kamu... " he hears a male voice. Still sleepy he forces himself to open his eyes but it wasn’t that easy.

"Kamu... zt.." - he hears something again, there was definitely someone there, it was not a dream... so he forced himself up, fighting the slumber that didn’t want to leave him

"Kahn-mus?" - he spoke mindlessly, repeating what he just heard while rubbing his eyes so he could open them.

"Khamus!" The voice said again, this time he could tell its tone seemed rather surprised, he opened his eyes and finally was able to see what was going on.

Looking around he could see he was inside of a wood cabin, a simple room with just a bed and some sort of small table near it.

Near him was a tall man, clad in plate armor with only his helmet off. A dark hair and a perfect clean shaved face, he was definitely very strong. His presence and appearance gave him a very austere demeanor, one could clearly see he was an officer of some kind of army.

‘Armor as in medieval times?’ On the chest of the armor, there was a crest of two lions standing up with purple flags behind them.

"Iz et kornoss lo Khamus?" - the man in the armor said while looking straight at him.