I opened my eyes, only to be greeted by darkness. Something was weighing down on me. When I brought my arms upwards they were stopped short by some sort of fabric. Applying more pressure on the material only led to it tugging from underneath. ‘Am I inside a sack?’

‘Were we ambushed?’

No, I doubt that. There weren’t any enemy units around us, in fact, we secured the entire perimeter…. regardless,

‘I need to find a way out of here.’

Groping around in the darkness I found a separation in the cloth. Seeing the possible method of escape, I gripped two sections on either side of the seam, one in each hand, and pulled. There was little resistance as the material parted and freed me from my stiflingly-dark prison.

Accustomed to the pitch-black darkness from before, the sudden brightness burned my eyes. I shut my eyelids until my eyes adjusted. About a minute later the pain passed and I could Iook around without a problem.

My sight was filled with lush, green grass followed by rows upon rows of trees ahead, packed so densely that it was impossible to see beyond ten meters or so. A refreshing breeze flew around my body, interrupting my train of thought. I could feel it all over...

‘What the-’.

Mini me was far smaller, not even comparable to before, and there was no hair! Completely bewildered, I started inspecting my own body.

Lifting and touching my arms I confirmed that there was no visible outline of biceps or triceps, the same goes for my core and legs. I was like a newborn, flat and skinny. Was my life’s work erased as if it was nothing?

After closer inspection I realized that the supposed sack I was in was actually my clothes, clothes that were now several sizes too big!

‘Did I get smaller? No, no. That can’t be. Nevermind that, what happened? Where is everyone?’

A deep breath.

I reached for the button on my earpiece and enabled comms.

“Squad Umbra, do you copy?” A nerve-wracking silence followed,

“Eagle are you there? Over.” I did not receive a response, something was wrong, very, very wrong.

“Charlie, James, Braun! Do you read me?” I frantically called out to my group to my group to no avail. “Is anyone there?!”

‘Just what the hell happened?’

Kcrrrr

Static. No response. Cold sweat formed on the back of my neck as the defenceless situation filled me with a sense of dread.

‘First, arm myself, second, explore the surroundings and confirm my position.’ No point in going around panicking.

Sticking to my plan, I squatted down and felt around my shirt trying to find the pistol. My hand came across a cold surface,

‘Good it’s still there.’

Grasping the gun I performed a three hundred-and-sixty degree turn to further analyze my surroundings.

My little twirl revealed a little more than my initial observation. I was in the middle of a grassy clearing, surrounded by trees roughly twenty meters tall, with a small underbrush circling the perimeter.

Spotting two more piles of clothes on the other side of the clearing, I approached them with caution, gun at the ready. After taking several steps I noticed movement underneath one of the piles, which can now be made out as military gear similar to my own. Instinctively, I froze, raised my gun and took aim. The pile of clothes slowly parted and a figure emerged.

“Eagle!” I shouted, relieved to see someone from my squad,

“Do you know what happened or where anyone else is?”

I asked him a barrage of questions that he left unanswered. His gray hair served as the only indication that the boy staring at me dumbfounded was Eagle.

“C-captain is that you?”

He asked, pointing at me and squinting as if trying to make out the individual hairs on my body.

“Of course it’s me, who else?”

I asked the now shaking Eagle.

‘Why is he shaking?’

I closely observed him as he silently looked around before breaking into a wide grin and began laughing uncontrollably.

“Hahaha- This, this is a prank, right?”

Eagle attempted to play off our situation as some sort of prank, a twisted joke. Holding his stomach to try and catch his breath, a blur of movement came from the last pile of clothes. Cocking and raising my pistol in one fluid motion I took aim in Eagle’s direction.

“Hahaha…huh?”

Eagle’s face turned grim, shock plastered all over his face.

“C-captain, what are you doing?”

Eagle asked with worry leaking from his voice.

“You have three seconds to take three steps backwards and kneel, or your head will suddenly become a lot lighter.” I ordered and began counting,

“You wouldn’t shoot…”

“One…”

“Your friend…”

“Two…”

“Would y-”

“Three!”

I shouted whilst pulling the trigger and watched as the blood began to flow. The pistol’s recoil quickly spread through my arm and I flexed my muscles to help disperse the shock. Despite my body being nearly half the size of my old one, I was able to handle the recoil almost perfectly.

Eagle spared no time in jumping to the side in order to distance himself from the attacker,

“Thanks, but there was no need to get blood all over the place, I could’ve handled him myself just fine.”

Eagle reprimanded me for saving his life.

“And how were you going to accomplish that? You look like a child fresh out of kindergarten.”

I retorted back.

“As if you’re any better. You resemble a chef’s cutting board given legs, arms more than a normal child, with those scars running across your skinny body.”

Eagle snapped back and turned towards the guy who took him hostage. He was a child same as us, his face was contorted in pain. I took a good look at it. It was a child, much like us, yet there were visible scars and unnatural blemishes showing age and…experiences a child wouldn't have gone through.

Possessing no idea who the person was, I pondered,

‘Why is he here, and where is everyone else?’

“You know him?” I asked.

“No clue, tie him up?” He answered back.

“Yeah, then you and I will have to talk.” I responded and both of us got to work.

Pulling a rope out of the pile of clothes, its loop went from my shoulder all the way down to my waist - once more reminding me of my body’s small size. Throwing it over my shoulder, I walked towards our captive and started tying him up while Eagle made sure he didn’t try anything as a final resort.

I took extra care to make sure that his elbows, knees and feet were securely tied. Having him escape would mean the loss of our only clue as to what had happened. Satisfied with my knots, I checked on the stranger’s injury, searching for a hole on the backside of his shoulder.

‘Good, it’s there.’

“Eagle, could you rip some pieces of his clothes to tie around his wound, we need to stop his bleeding, the bullet went through. Can’t have him dying just yet.”

I said, casually giving the order, pointing at the blue clothes the guy jumped out of.

Eagle went over to the stranger’s pile, ripped several strips off and used a few of them to wipe the blood off his body. Finished, he approached me and passed the remaining clean strips.

Outstretching my arm to receive the strips of cloth, I carefully wrapped it over and under the man’s shoulder. By the time I finished, the kid fell quiet, most likely unconscious.

“Must have passed out.” Eagle commented, ‘as if I didn’t see that’.

“Anyways, do you have any idea what’s going on?” I asked seriously.

“No clue, but my best bet is that we are far away from our previous position, as to how we’re transported, yeah, not sure. I checked the compass while you were patching him up, well… look at it yourself because I threw mine away.”

As Eagle said that, he pointed over his shoulder with his thumb at a patch of underbrush located along the edge of the clearing. Intrigued, I shuffled over to my own camo gear and knelt down. Reaching for the the pocket where the compass should be-

‘Hot!’

I immediately jerked my hand backwards, away from the unexpected heat.

“You OK?”

I heard Eagle asked me from behind, a low chuckle accompanying the question.

“Yeah, I’m fine.” I answered right back.

Clenching my teeth I brought my hand back to the burning button and fumbled as I tried to open it. A strange whirring noise came from inside after I opened the pocket. I reached in and quickly pulled out the compass to observe it. My hand was pounding as it was being cooked by the compass, almost as hot as a cup of coffee, but I continued to stare in amazement. The needle was spinning faster than the eye can perceive, in fact, I’m willing to bet that the heat was caused by the friction of the needle spinning.

‘Just what is going on?’

Coming back to my senses, I dropped the compass and looked at my hand, it was now tinted red and a slight imprint was left where the compass once was.

“Just perfect. We need to find shelter but can’t even tell North from South.”

Regardless, it was crucial that we find out more about our environment before making further decisions. Perhaps there was an area-wide EMF around here and we weren’t as far from our original locations as Eagle predicted. I began to formulate a plan when my thoughts were interrupted.

“So Captain-”

“Eagle, that’s enough. The only reason I'm above you in rank is because of my higher body count. And even then, that's due to your position as the top sniper - taking out otherwise impossible key objectives and targets instead of raiding bases and gangs. Besides, no need to pretend here.” I interrupted Eagle, tired of being called something I never was.

Recollecting my thoughts, I started pacing around, thinking of a plan of action.

“Fair enough, so what are we going to do now? I mean our situation is pretty messed up. A dream perhaps?” Eagle voiced his concerns.

“No, definitely not a dream, you can go ahead and shoot yourself to confirm it. The sensation of shooting my own gun assured me of that. As for the rest. I don’t know.”

I took a deep breath and looked around.

“I mean we are in a place where compasses go crazy, in bodies of children, no memory of how we got here or the person who had you hostage.” I recalled everything that has happened so far and noticed a strange glint in Eagle’s eyes.

“You know, if I didn’t know better then I’d say that we got teleported into an alternate world. Perhaps with magic, and special skills, and gods, and heroes, and devils, and monsters and, and, an-“ Eagle got overly excited and went off into his own little world while listing all the possibilities on his fingers.

“What the hell are you talking about, ‘and magic and monsters’? Explain yourself!” I demanded with an ice-cold tone, perhaps something was done to our brains without our knowledge in which case we are in deep shit.

Paying complete attention to what he said and listening for any discrepancies in case we were brainwashed and a part of some twisted experiment.

Eagle’s cheeks turned pinkish hue and he looked in my direction but his gaze not focused.

“I-I like to read comics in my pastime and our situation kind of reminds me of those stories, I never told you guys this because I knew this would be the reaction…” Eagle looked down at his feet and mumbled. I could barely made out what he said.

I let out a sigh and spoke up,

“The top sniper and recon agent is getting embarrassed over something most of us had guessed anyway. Listen, I don’t care what it is you do for you outside of work as long as it's legal.”

Eagle looked up with surprise,

“Seriously, you guys kne- Wait, how did you guys....?”

“Let’s not worry about that, instead go put on your shirt, it should mostly cover you up.”

I cut him off, told him to get somewhat dressed and followed suit.

“Anyways, tell me, what is the last thing you remember?”

I asked him across the clearing..

“Hmm, we were about to infiltrate that building. I was located ninety degrees from it compared to your position, watching your back...then nothing. Except for a white light. A really bright light”

Eagle turned towards me as he finished throwing on his shirt. I just finished putting on my own but it was far too large,

‘I’ll take it compared to just flopping around naked.’

“Alright, seems like we remember the same thing.” Pausing, I formulated my earlier plan into words,

“Climb the nearby trees, have a look around and explore the area to the left. I will explore the area to our right. In case of an emergency or the comms malfunction, we will use a gunshot to signal a regroup back here. The comms are to be used sparingly, I don’t know when we will be able to get new batteries. Questions?” I gave out the hefty order and awaited a response.

“If I should encounter people?” Eagle asked.

“Observe, but under no circumstance should you reveal your position.” I replied.

“Wouldn’t resorting to gunshots alert anyone to our positions?” Eagle pointed out as he gestured with hands at our surroundings.

"That is true, but it is also true that there is just no way we will be able to find each other in an unknown location, what will we say? I am by the 25th tree from the first two, below our clothes?” I responded with an exaggeration,

“Moreover, the gun is to be used in a situation where your life is at stake. By the time anyone alerted by it comes to investigate, you should be long gone. Understood?”

“Roger.” Eagle confirmed with a short nod.

“Good, we will meet up at dusk.” I finished the order,

“Or we find ourselves tired and unable to continue.” I added while beckoning at my body.

Eagle gave me a confused look and looked downwards,

“Right, in bodies of children, totally forgot about that. Somehow it just doesn’t feel like it, more like everything got bigger.” I tried to decipher what nonsense Eagle spewed before completely ignoring it.

“Alright, it’s time to depart.” I took a final look around our clearing before heading out, pistol in hand.