As if waking up from a bad dream, I opened my eyes and screamed.

My whole body was shivering, trembling in fear and rage. I struggled and thrashed, punching and kicking an invisible enemy, an enemy that was no longer there.

As my mind's turmoil settled, I felt the cold and damp morning breeze, heard the rustling of leaves and birds feeling the ferocious creature screaming naked on the grass. Me. I could feel the blades of grass scratching my back and wherever else they touched.

A lifetime of civilized conditioning kicked in and I covered myself with my hands, doing my best to curl into a ball. I was still angry, I was still shaking. But at least I was aware of my surroundings.

The grass was long and hairy. I felt a mild irritation where it scratched me. The ground underneath was fine gravel and the grass sprouted between the small rocks. The trees seemed like a kind of dwarf cedar and other varieties of smaller and gnarled trees. Spiky shrubs dotted the spaces between the trees. It was a forest but not a temperate forest. The vegetation told a story of seasonal drought and missing nutrients.

I heard a growl and froze. My heart raced and threatened to escape through my mouth. I was naked and had no friendly bath loofah. After some long moments with no other sound or movement that could indicate the presence of predators, I sat up and looked around.

The vegetation and environment were as I thought. The dwarf cedar was the tallest kind of tree and the others spread around. Large rocks sporadically decorated the landscape.

I wasn't in Devil Ridge. What happened? I cleaned up my sector, gathered and separated the trash, ate the boy scout stew and went to sleep.

I could remember that as if it happened yesterday. After trying to remember how I ended up in a completely different biome and weather naked, the traumatic memory of what happened later that night came back to me.

I was assaulted by my advisor. Lightning struck. Then... Did I die? I looked at my chest, shoulders, arms. No Lichenstein patterns. My skin was soft, pliable, unblemished like a baby's. My dark brown hair wasn't burned. Did I dream about being struck by lightning? I doubted. It felt so real.

I took another good look at my surroundings. I could see sparse wisps of cotton-white clouds in the otherwise too-blue sky, the leaves in the trees. I touched my face and found no glasses. I was seeing perfectly without glasses. Or maybe too perfectly because I could see each individual hair in the blades of grass.

What happened? I tried to remember and then it came to me. A weird dream. Of being nothing and talking to a God. The imposing figure of the bearded, tunic-clad, muscular God.

Tarhun, the Hittite deity of thunder and agriculture, chief of his pantheon.

That encounter was real. I really died and met a God. And true to his word, he gave me a new life. And there was something about special powers. Like my vision. I touched my eyeball, afraid of what would happen. Nothing happened. I could feel the tactile sensation, but it didn't bother me like before. Everything seemed normal with my eyes. I could even see the fine wrinkles in my fingerprint. Small squares, the ridges, and valleys of the tip of my finger. I bit the pinky finger of my left hand. It hurt but not as bad as it should. I watched as the bite mark slowly vanished. Slowly but still too fast. Over the span of a minute or two, the finger was as good as new. The pain receded even faster.

I replayed the surreal encounter in my mind several times. Every iteration revealed more details. I spent one or two hours there, oblivious of my surroundings and my exposed modesty. Recalling that conversation, that landmark event was more important. After I was done, I had a crystal-clear memory. He told me he'd send my items with me. Where were they? In the extradimensional storage? How could I access my extradimensional storage?

By thinking of it. Once I got the gist of it, my awareness of the extradimensional storage became easy to reach. If I had to explain it was like you have a jewelry box and you carefully set all the pieces over a felt pad in a way you could pick anything without looking. You memorize and burn the location of everything. Then you'll have a mental picture of the jewelry. It would feel like you know they are there just outside your view with total certainty. All you have to do is reach out and pick it up.

In my case, it is not pick it up but shift the object from the extradimensional space to the real tridimensional space around me.

It took me some time to get used to being aware of my objects. There were too many. I could also feel the bags of trash I collected. They came along for the ride. The folding table and chairs were also there. The first order of business, locating my clothes. My pajamas and the underwear I was wearing were on their own. The clothes I used yesterday were in the dry duffel. I summoned the duffel and inspected the clothes.

They were not new clothes. It was my go-to outfit for fieldwork. The cargo pants, especially, had marks where stiff vegetation scratched it. The boots' soles had clear signs of wear. Not anymore. They looked like brand new. Even those tiny spokes new rubber use to have were there in the boot soles. It wasn't as stiff as a new set of boots. I checked the shirt and other pieces. Even though they looked like new, they were still dirty. I could smell the faint scent of my deodorant. Giving up on wearing dirty laundry, I summoned the pajama and put it in the duffel before sending the bag back to storage.

I took a fresh set of clothes from the carry-on. The suitcase exploded in a spray of clothes and other objects when I opened it. Without any way to put the pieces back, I resigned myself to sending them to storage without being inside a container. Doing that allowed me to find the souvenirs Theresa sent me.

Two packs of condoms, a vibrator, and a tube of lube in a Ziplock bag.

I never thought I'd miss Theresa's playful sexual harassment. But that bag screamed her name. All those memories flooded back to me. Memories of a whole world I'd lost. If Tarhun didn't lie and a century really passed, everyone I knew was dead. Earth might've been destroyed. Maybe we attained trans-humanism and now the species lives on as cyborgs in space.

Who knows? 2010 came and went without us making contact. Klaatu didn't barada niktu on us. Maybe humanity, Earth-bound humanity, was just fine.

After my brief bout of grief ended in a weird tone, I put on some fresh hiking clothes, socks and my trusted and magically-refurbished boots. Then I sent everything back to storage. Just will the object to return to the metaphysical, imaginary, and non-dimensional felt mat.

I was now clothed in the middle of nowhere. My choices were to try and find civilization, to wander the wilderness in search of shelter, or to stop and catalog my things. They were not exclusive and I didn't feel any immediate danger, so I went with three. Empty out the storage and see what I got. I moved around until I found a good and relatively clean rock slab. I had too many things for the folding table and some would have to go on the ground. I summoned the table in front of me and assembled it. This one was made for camping use so its feet could be twisted to set the proper height. It even had a built-in bubble level so you could see what you were doing.

The first thing was checking my data. He brought the devices, but what about the content? My laptop had several offline databases from websites. When out on a field trip, you can't rely on internet access. I had digital versions of all my college textbooks along with a library of a couple thousand other books in Calibre. Mostly public-domain literature. Some technical manuals related to my field, reference guides, Wikipedia, Encyclopedia Britannica. Five Stack Exchange sites too. Outdoors, GIS, Physics, Chemistry, and, of course, Earth Sciences. Everything seemed to be fine. I also checked on the footage of the day I died. The file played without a hitch. The personal files, pictures, and other stuff too. I went through the other devices and they also were exactly as it was when I died.

I went through everything else, including the trash bags. I left my carry-on briefcase for last. It was the only item I hadn't packed myself.

Next to the carry-on briefcase. I had Theresa's care package', a lot of clothes and some personal hygiene products mixed in with the clothes. Soap, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, talc, sunscreen, bug repellent, and moisturizing cream. Also my prescription sunglasses, a hairbrush, a pair of scrunchies, a box of panty liners, a toothbrush, and a nail care kit. No bath loofah but I was already dressed. As for clothes, I had four dresses that shouldn't have come, and enough clothes and underwear for nine days. At the bottom of the luggage, I found a plastic bag with my sailor uniform. With a piece of paper saying "wear this and turn Joshua into a weeaboo!" in Theresa's handwriting. And another pack of condoms in the bag. It seemed she wanted to cover all bases.

I could even hear her telling me to make a reverse harem in that forest. No, thank you. The professor was the culprit. Why did he do that? We weren't lacking in funding. I wanted to know why but I had no leads. And no Great Dane to help me.

I also had three pajamas, including the one I died in, one satin baby-doll, one transparent black nightgown, three bathing suits, and one raincoat. No wonder that luggage wouldn't close.

Theresa's overzealousness was a godsend. I'd even have her babies if I could.

Another surprise were two items that weren't mine. The first one was professor Andrews' night vision goggles. While not mine, it was in my hand when I died. His burnt skin was still stuck to the rubber. The second one was a sandstone tablet with engraved words. It was a message from Tarhun.

This is the list of boons I granted you, as it was our agreement. The last three were those awakened of your own soul. Once you checked them, please say "I agree our bargain has been fulfilled".

- Tarhun.

Disease and parasite Immunity: You are immune to diseases and parasites.

Toxin Resistance: You have great resistance to toxins and corrosive agents. They react half as much and you metabolize them twice as fast. Contaminants impossible to metabolize vanish from your body in 24 hours.

Damage Resistance: You take half damage from any source.

Fast Healing: Your surplus magic power is constantly used to restore your body to a pristine condition. The speed of recovery is proportional to the severity of the wound.

Minute Sight: You can see small details in objects. Increase your visual accuracy tenfold.

Invulnerable Eyes: Your eyeballs are invulnerable. You are immune to blindness and glare.

Limited Dimensional Storage: All items brought with you from planet Earth are stored in an extradimensional space. They can be retrieved and stowed away by thought alone if they are touching you or very close to you.

Limited Item Repair: All items brought with you from planet Earth repair themselves while they are in your possession or in their storage. Pieces removed or broken from these objects decay into nothing after a few moments.

Scholar: Your capacity for remembering and learning is increased fivefold.

Animal Friendship: Animals do not consider you a threat or food. You can form a special bond with sympathetic animals you care for.

Decompose: You have the power to dismantle nonliving matter into their component parts. The degree of decomposition depends on the time you spent focusing and your familiarity with the target.

There it was. The list of my powers. The first eight were the ones we negotiated but the last three had me delighted. The descriptions were vague but I could get the gist of it. I was not better at studying, the wild critters would not bother or be bothered by my presence, I could tame them?

But what was this Decompose power? Dismantle non-living matter? I grabbed a rock. I looked at a rock as if I was going to bore a hole through it. Like William Katt, I had no instruction manual. So I wished the rock to crumble, melt, flake, scale, bend. Nothing happened.

After some time just staring at a rock, I was feeling stupid. I threw the rock away and watched as it vanished between the tall blades of grass. I went off my slab of rock and plucked a blade of grass. Then I wished to decay it. I imagined the process of decay. The water evaporating and drying the blade. To my surprise, it did exactly that. It dried and crumbled. I had a fine dried grass powder in my hand now. I dumped it and cheered.

It could be not much but it was a neat power. What else could I do with it? I touched a still connected blade of grass and tried the same. It didn't happen. Then I tried with some other pieces of vegetation. The bark of a tree. A nut. I took a branch from a bush and this time, I tried to decompose it but keeping the vegetable matter wet. Just break the fibers. I could feel a tingling and the branch was softening slowly. It warped and I checked it. The branch was soft. I crumpled it between my cupped hands and kept the process going. The branch turned into mushy peat after several minutes. Just to make it sure I could do both, I dried it.

That was fun. As a third experiment, I picked up a stick and focused on it. I wanted methane. I turned on the lighter and kept it near the branch. Then I imagined methane from the wood. One carbon, four hydrogens. The flame flickered and flared, setting the branch on fire. I tried to keep my focus on the power but the fear of burning myself made me release the stick. The flames died down as the stick hit the grass. Fortunately, I didn't start a fire. As dry as the vegetation was, it would be a disaster.

I could trigger a number of decay processes on plant matter. That was fun. I also had a sense of what I was trying would work or not. If I focused on the matter, I could feel it. It was not a tactile sensation, it was more of a mental tingle. Did it work only on plant matter? I tried it again on a rock. Silicon dioxide. The tablet did say something about familiarity. I tried to recall what I knew about the rock. It seemed like a sedimentary rock. What I knew better was the oxygen gas and that was my target. Extract the oxygen from the rock. I imagined the oxygen, felt it in my breath. The tingling sensation was all over me. Wherever air touched me which was pretty much everywhere. But I focused on the rock. I could feel the tingle from it. I pushed my will and felt the rock shift.

The rock was wilting, slowly losing volume and becoming darker. I kept my focus razor-sharp and focused on the fading tingle coming from the rock. It took a bluish metallic shade and soon it was half its size. I had a blue-black metallic nugget in my hand. Some faint spots of a dull gray metal too. I tried to sense the nugget in my hand. Squeeze it. Coax from it what it was made of. Silicon, I knew that. The tetravalent atom. Once I locked on my mental image of silicon, I could feel a different tingle from the nugget.

Could I move the silicon away? I tried. Push the silicon away from the nugget. To my surprise, the nugget seemed to flow like molasses, losing its sharp features and becoming rounder. I tilted my hand and true enough, the silicon flowed away through the crease in my hand. Ever so slowly. It dripped and formed a rod as it regained its solidity away from my hand. Once the silicon ended, the rod fell to the side. The tiny flecks of metal remained on my palm. I focused on them, trying to feel a tingle from them too. What metal was this? It was dull grey, it was probably iron.

The moment I thought of iron, I could feel the tingle, tiny pricks of awareness coming from the pellets. I willed them to flow but to gather together. I got a slightly bigger pellet of iron. Other smaller dots of shiny white metal were stuck to my hand. I picked the pellet of iron and then cycled through the metals to see what were these glittery particles. I got a faint reaction from aluminum. I turned my palm down and struggled to catch the tingle from the aluminum. Once I did, the glittery flakes fell away from my hand.

This power had wonderful potential. If I could separate elements and compounds like that, there was no limit to what I could do. I just extracted metals from a rock!

My mirth was tarnished by a loud grunt. I looked around and found the source of the sound. A pair of silverback gorillas that seemed more humanoid than they should be running through the forest, going eastward and closing fast. They were walking upright and seemed like some kind of bigfoot. I could see the claws in their hands. Long, curved and sharp. Talons made to rend on the most muscular limbs I'd ever seen on a primate.

They would come to my location soon. I had to go back to the folding table to store it and everything I left on it. My tools. Irreplaceable tools. I ran in the direction of the table despite my instincts telling me to hide. The two monsters stopped and watched me run. They beat on their chests and one of them grunted and pointed east. The other shoved the first and both went on their way.

I reached the table and just willed everything into the storage. Only then my fear of the creatures became greater than my fear of losing my stuff. I should be sturdy, shouldn't I? I had no idea what half damage looked like but when I bit myself, it seemed my teeth couldn't sink as much as they should. It was a stupid move but they had seen me before I ran. Not too hard to miss a person standing on a grass field even though the grass reached my knees.

But one thing bugged me. Where were those two critters going with so much haste? Were they going to war? They seemed pretty angry. What should I do? Should I follow them? I was curious. They ignored me but unless I had more data, I couldn't know how they'd react and not knowing could be more dangerous than trying to learn. I would proceed with caution.

Feeling adventurous, I ran after the two upright gorillas. Terrible name. Silver Kongs? Clawrillas? Whatever. I just ran. I wasn't as fast as them, a good reminder that I could not run away from them. But following them meant going after the trail of trampled grass. Easy peasy, even more, because they were running side-by-side.

I paused to summon the GoPro, set it on the headband mount and start recording. Reviewing the footage later could help me pick up a detail I missed. As I went after them for a quarter of an hour, the effort of moving through the grass exhausted me. I slowed to a walk.

And then I heard it. Sounds of battle. Human shouts, metal clashing. Growls and roars from the monkeys. The two silver Kongs were assaulting a group of people. I moved carefully. I had no idea how these humans would react to my presence and I already knew the Kongs ignored me even though I was running. It made a big difference. Most predators have an instinct to go after running creatures. I was smaller than the Kongs and alone. If they wanted to hurt me, I'd be dead already.

I ducked into a crouch and moved behind a bush. The combat was fierce and I could hear people moaning and crying. People were wounded. Dying maybe. Trembling, I reached out and pushed the branches of the bush aside. I got a glimpse of the terror.

The two silver Kongs were hurt but still going. A group of eight men, wearing metal armor and wielding spears clustered around each other to present the pointy ends of their weapons as a deterrence to the advance of the more powerful monsters. Now that I could see them near each other, the Kongs were almost three meters tall. Their arms must be more than a meter and a half long then. The two Kongs split and circled the warriors.

The men were fighting on a road, a wagon trail made of packed earth.

Their armor was a mix of scale, chain and lamellar armor. Their armors looked much like the Lorica Squamata or the Lorica Hamata from the roman empire. The lamellar one had straps of leather holding the credit-card-sized plates together. They were wielding the long spears with two hands.

Several bodies laid on the ground. Mangled. Broken. I could see three of them still moving. Crying for help. I felt my stomach churn. I hadn't eaten anything yet.

The grey-furred Kongs circled around and the one with fewer spearmen pointing weapons at them lunged, screaming like it was possessed by a demon. Maybe it was. He moved forward but withdrew immediately after. The spearmen watching the other Kong do nothing did the mistake of turning around, afraid the ones defending their back would fail. It was their doom.

The second Kong took advantage of the distraction its partner caused and went in a low run like they say ninjas run. He ducked under the spears and pounced upward, raking the claws underneath the flaps of armor, catching two men in their thighs or crotches. I couldn't be sure from where I stood.

Without losing forward momentum, the second Kong crashed into the circle of men. One warrior dropped his spear and drew a pair of daggers. He was screaming and frothing, his eyes bloodshot and he too seemed possessed. I couldn't understand what they were saying. He went for the kidneys of the second Kong and started to stab with a ferocity that would make Sharon Stone look like a nun.

The Kong backhanded the soldier and I heard his neck vertebra splinter. The humans were doomed. Without reach, the soldiers dropped the spears to draw scimitars and maces to combat the monster in their midst. The first Kong waited for this. He returned to the fray and swung his arms ferociously. Four more men were down, with only three standing up. They were going to be massacred.

The Kong pincer was brutal. The cunning monsters would feint and strike at the backs of the soldiers. The second Kong was bleeding profusely from his stab wounds and was slowing down. The last soldier standing buried his sword in the chest of the first Kong and was killed by the second one.

I heard a shout coming from a bend of the road. A faint sound of a string snapping taut and an arrow buried itself on the first Kong's eye socket. There were more people. Maybe there was hope. Second Kong didn't like a bit that its companion was dead. He roared and ran out of my sight. I heard shouts and the sound of wood breaking. Horses whining and the Kong roaring.

I wanted to get up from where I was crouching and check on the wounded men but my legs were putty. I couldn't move and I knew I'd leaked a bit. The sight of all the carnage was making me dizzy. My knees gave in and I fell, sitting in the w position. I retched and nothing came. I had nothing in my stomach. I felt some acid climbing up my throat but that was all.

I fainted.

When I came to my senses, It was already late afternoon. In the west behind me, pastels of orange threatened to tarnish the wisps of clouds. I was still behind the bush and it seemed I was not hurt. My stomach, however, desperately needed sustenance. I took the cooler bag and my canteen. My first meal in another world was a bag of chips, foil-wrapped burritos, a can of soda, and water.

Awkwardly climbing back on my feet, I moved past the bushes and into the carnage. I counted fifteen soldiers and one dead Kong. None of them moving. I had failed my fellow humans. Steeling myself, I moved forward to where Kong two went. After getting past a thick copse of trees, I could see three wagons broken, and the corpses of three people. These were wearing colorful clothes, stained by their own blood. A broken bow and some discarded weapons told the story of how these civilians did their last stand when their company of guards failed.

Moving past the wagons, I found two dead horses and Kong two next to them, also expired. Probably from exsanguination. The stabs on its kidneys must've ruptured an artery. Just guessing. I could hear a horse nearby. Maybe hiding. It sounded distressed.

"Hey, are you there? Horsey?" I called out.

The horse whined, probably hurt. I broke into a trot and went after the animal. I found a horse dragging the broken traces. Its bridle snagged on some plants and it was unable to break free. The horse was panicking.

"Hey, girl! I'm not going to hurt you. Let me break you free! Come on, who's a nice girl?"

I could see it was a mare now that I was close. A caramel mare with midnight black hair and tail. I reached from the side, afraid of getting kicked. Slowly, I laid a hand on her. I brushed her aside, singing a nursery rhyme. I could sing very well. I was part of a choir for four years, three of junior high and my freshman high school year. I quit when I moved to Japan to spend my sophomore year of high school in Japan.

Instead of learning the piano as my mom wanted, I chose my own voice as my musical instrument.

The mare calmed down. I could feel her heartbeat slow down back to a normal level. I worked the straps of her harness, untying them. The taste of freedom made her buckle and try to break free on her own when I was halfway down.

"Calm down. I'll set you free. Then you can go where you want. Stay quiet, please. Don't hurt yourself, girl!"

All that was left was the breeching around her hindquarters. The most dangerous part as she could easily take a step sideways and kick me. But I knew she wouldn't. "We are friends, aren't we?" I told the mare.

She broke free and trotted away. After looking behind her back and checking she was really free, the mare turned around and returned to me. She bashed me with her head. I hugged her. Her ears were turned forward, toward me. I could feel her gratitude.

And something snapped. I could feel her mood. Her dislike of pulling carriages. Her wish to run free across the plains.

"Are you going to stay with me? I could use a companion."

I tried to send her a feeling of staying together. I could tell she liked it. I let go of the mare and checked her body for any wounds. I found none.

We went past the dead Kong and back to the ruined wagons. I inspected the bodies, they were already cold. Would I've saved at least one if I did not faint? I'll never know and the guilt was oppressing. There was only one thing I could do. Bury them.

I needed a shovel. The spade I had was a portable one with less than a meter in length. While it was sharp, I'd break my back if I tried to bury eighteen bodies with it. I might break it even with the perfect tool. I rummaged around and found no shovels. I was sure the crates of cargo had none inside. They had silk and spices, why would they trade shovels? Even if they did, at most it would be shovelheads. There was no profit ferrying wood around.

The ground was rocky. I couldn't make a pyre because it would spark a wildfire even though I could cannibalize the wood from the wagons. I checked on the cultural rites of Mesopotamia. Burial it was. They believed that the deceased should be placed where they would be closer to the underworld. Leaving the bodies would attract scavengers. I had the wagons and the cargo to check. I might find the rightful heirs of the cargo. Finally the matter of dealing with their personal belongings. They did not believe in the afterlife so the bodies were buried mostly for the first reason.

I took a pair of gloves from storage and went on with my work. I cut off the armor of the ones wearing Lorica Hamata and lamellar armor. The chainmail was riveted and I had to undress them. I took their bloody belt pouches too, leaving them only with the linen padding they wore underneath their armor. The weapons, armor and personal items went into separate piles.

Night came and I set the lantern on a low branch and the LED headband on my forehead. The mare I bonded with stayed with me although she kept her distance from the dead.

Smart girl.

I dragged the bodies to a depression I found next to where the mare was stuck. I had no idea how long I'd been working as I wasn't following the movement of the sky. The stars were all wrong. I couldn't see any constellation I recognized. After I was done with the guards, it was time to check the merchants.

The three bodies were of an old man, with gray hair, a younger lad in his twenties and a rugged man maybe in his thirties. I'd say in the forties but this was a harsh world. I was sure people aged fast. I removed their pouches and dragged them to the depression with the guards. I hadn't searched inside their clothes. If they had any hidden compartments, it was going with them.

My idea was to bury them inside the depression. Dig up gravel, dirt, and rocks around it and cover the hole. Felt a lot easier when I had the idea but after a while, my arms were burning. But I owed these people that much. I was looting the bodies so the least I could do was give them a burial. Notice I didn't say proper. When I felt I was hating the spade, I made it vanish into storage and checked. The bodies had a thin layer of gravel and dirt over them. I could still see the ones at the bottom.

But there was no way I could keep working. I sent the bloody and tattered gloves to storage as well and felt dried blood on my hands. I was covered in dust too. My eyes were heavy. I had to sleep. I used a trash bag and put the pile of pouches inside. I retrieved the lantern and without thinking sent the plastic bag with the pouches to storage too. To my surprise, the pouches went with it.

I was sure the tablet said only items I brought from Earth could be put in storage. I summoned the bag and yes, the pouches were inside. Back and forth, no change whatsoever. I could store items in storage if they were inside a container from the earth.

Using the last of my strength, I did exactly that. I took the sets of lorica Hamata and piled them inside a bag. Storage. At the wagons, the crates of merchandise that could fit inside the hundred-liter bags were stored too. I saw bolts of silk wrapped in vellum. I took the canvas of my tent and placed the silk and some boxes of spices inside. Off to the storage. That was my limit. The larger crates and barrels would have to wait.

Now that I had no pressing matters keeping me alert, my overworked body shut down.