Lucas woke up to the sound of something slowly dripping with a slight echo and the stale air draping over his apparently naked body. The second his conscious slowly filled in the stench hit his nose causing him to cough and gag. The smell of rotting carcasses and death was all that he could smell, it stained the inside of his nose. Lucas couldn’t see a damn thing and he felt the blood in his head swelling up, he was hanging upside down that he was sure of as his hands flailed about. They were dangling just far enough for the tip of his fingers to scrape across the ground, it was hard and rocky with sharp jagged edges that pricked at his fingers. Flailing around was getting him no where and he was about exhausted, coming to a rocking stop he slapped into something.

Something that made a gushing sound like a moldy piece of carpet bubbling up water, using the bit of ground below him he spun around to the object. He still couldn’t see but he kept one hand on the ground holding him in place using his other hand to feel around. Their was large clumps that fed into small stringy pieces of something that he couldn’t quite tell what it was. Feeling around he moved down the object dangling besides him and felt some large poking bits sticking from the gushy feeling stringy bits. Lucas gave up, he couldn’t tell what he was touching but honestly he’d rather not know. Now he had to figure out how to get out of here, wherever the fuck here even was.

He was going to have to cut himself down, which meant pulling himself upright so he didn’t accidentally cut off his feet. Which was going to be a workout in itself, god he wished he did more work outs back home. The avatar they give you in this world reflected the one at home to a certain extent and he was weak as shit. He grunted slowly pulling his inflexible ass upright and gripping his ankles with left as the stale air tinged his ass cheeks. Releasing his right hand he made sure it was placed above his feet so he didn’t accidentally chop of his own foot. Drawing the circle a soft glow was given off as the runes filled the circle giving him a glimpse of his tied up feet. Quickly closing his hand he shifted the array and the small wind blade came out the bubbling golden circle with a silent hush it cut the rope. The echoes of the loud thud and groan he let loose rung around the cavern as he hit the ground cutting his back to hell on the sharp rocky ground.

Slowly pulling his feet up he fumbled around in the dark till he got them untied. Once he finally got himself free sprawled back out panting, that was the most flexible he had to have been in years and it took all he had to just get upright. After a few minutes he collected himself enough to fumble into a standing position. He wasn’t going anywhere without any light though and he had just the idea. It would strain him but he could use the soft glow of the beginning of a shift when he draws the circle to see. He would just leave it blank and feed it ether to keep up the soft glow. Drawing the circle the slow glow of the beginning stages of a shift came into his dreary eyes. The soft golden glow it gave off illuminated the immediate area around him and not a step further. It wasn’t much but that was all he needed to get the hell out of here, he circled around looking for an exit stumbling along. Running into one of the dangling things next to him his eyes went wide and his nose curled while his stomach churned.

“Fuck!” He cursed in a hushed screech in between his gagging.

The sight of a tortured and dissected body with its guts ripped out was hanging from the ceiling. Their ribcage was ripped open and the head removed leaving behind the white bits of the spinal cord to drag on the floor. Mucus and membrane from the decay of the body eked out puss from every orifice of the now mutilated woman’s body. Lucas stumbled back still gagging and tripped over something falling onto his ass end. His head slowly rotated back to the item he tripped over. Had he been able to puke he would have, limbs torn off of bodies laid in a neat pile. Heads beside it of people with eyes wide open and mouths agape in shock. Lucas looked away sick to his stomach, he couldn’t stand to look at the tortured bodies.

Lucas eventually got back up and used the soft glow to stumble around the cavern looking for his clothes. He finally found a large pile of clothes and shoes. Rummaging threw them he found his trench coat and onesie along with his gloves and boots with nothing but some blood stains on them. He thanked the heavens throwing them on and felt a little bit more secure even if it was a false sense of security. It was some hope and right now he needed all the hope he could get his hands on. With his clothes and boots slipped back on he slowly worked around the outside wall of the cavern looking for an exit. Eventually the soft glow stopped reflecting of the grey cavern wall giving way to pitch black again and he found his exit. He slowly worked into the narrow passage way obvious built for smaller creatures bringing back unwelcome memory of being dragged along earlier. The horrible green monster that dragged him down here haunted him, it was based on a goblin he had no doubt. Lucas wanted nothing more then to get out of the cavern without running into another one of those abominations.

The cavern tunnel started to rise up which was a good sign, at least he was heading in the right direction. He worked up the cavern tunnel and the strain of the golden circle feeding off his ether became more apparent and soon he would have to cut it off out of fear of passing out again. Eventually the headache came and he let out a sigh as the circle disappeared, he would just have to feel his way up the cavern tunnel for a while. Running his hands along the side he slowly kept working his way upwards taking each step as cautiously as possible. Every now and then he would stumble on to catch himself with a quiet curse under his breath. He felt like a blind pilgrim on a journey to the holy city of freedom stumbling along. Praying that his next step wouldn’t be off the side of some drop off in the cavern. His journey continued in the dark for some time as he headed upwards. The darkness wouldn’t tell him what time it was or how close he was to being sucked out Oveipa and sent back to his world.

He came to a stop as he realized he had enough points to upgrade a stat, he could upgrade his etherial stat! Something he desperately needed at the moment, he had been so busy trying to survive earlier he hadn’t thought of it. He called out his status panel and the odd golden panel formed in front of him, he had plenty of tokens from finishing the dream and his bunny massacre before passing out. Although oddly enough the status panel gave off no light like his shifting did when he was drawing out ether from his body.

[NN: Prince {+} | Dreams : 1 {+} | Tokens : 1550 {+}]

He gave off an unhappy grunt at that unfortunate discovery, he thought he found a clever way to get around the issue of light sucking away his ether but no it was as if the status panel was overlayed the image of his eyes and not actually in reality. Almost like a HUD in a game if you will, just less detailed and filled with only text. No health bars and magic/ether bars here, even if he would welcome it. Would be far easier to manage how much he had so he didn’t pass out again, just something he would have to learn by feeling he figured. Turning his attention back to his status he selected his stats;

[NN\Stats\ Physical : 0.7/1 {+} | Mental : 0.5/1 {+} | Etherial : 1/1 {+}| Walker : 1/1 {+}]

Well he had completely filled out the etherial stat so that was good at least and his physical stat was going up. His mental stat was still suck at 0.5 which was worrisome as he had no clue how to fill it out. Thoughts for another time though, he clicked on the etherial plus and the words wiggled around for the upgrade menu;

[NN\Stats\Etherial\ +1 : 1000 Tokens {+}]

“Take my tokens you greedy system.” Lucas grumbled clicking the plus button.

He felt a golden aura wash over him and he could feel something in his chest expand and grow. Forcefully almost with a slight searing pain that made him lean against the cavern walls waiting for the moment to pass. Pass it did but only after five or so minutes of his chest being lit a fire. After whatever was happening to him settled down he called forth the ether circle for a shift. It was…much easier to do as if their was less resistance than before. He could even feel less of a drain on that weird area near his diaphragm the ether came from, it was all so vague of a feeling but it was there none the less. He welcomed the soft glow of the circle and the light it gave like a long lost friend as he continued to move up the cavern tunnel. He confined walking for what felt like was forever and he at least figured he had to of been hobbling up the sloped cave for an hour. It wasn't made much easier with him having to cut on and off the shift to keep himself from garnering a headache or worse running out of ether passing out.

Eventually though he spotted light past his shift and at the end of the inky dark tunnel. It was soothing and welcoming calling for him, he threw away his shift and hobbled quickly up the cavern tunnel towards the light. Hope and happiness joined hands today in Lucas’s mind as he was fixing to be free of the wretched cavern filled of death and despair. His hopes were crushed as quick as they came though as he neared the light hearing the harsh screech he knew all to well. It was the same screech the horrible monster that looked like a goblin gave off before knocking him out. This time though there wasn’t one screech or two, hundreds of them echoed in the cavern like a never ending nightmare. Lucas came to a standstill a couple feet from the light ahead of him carefully looking out, it was large cavity in the opening in the cavern that was filled with torches and fires so plentiful it blinded him. The walls and roof covered in soot and the smell of burnt flesh caked inside his nose before the light filtered out giving him a clear view. Of which he almost wished it hadn’t as it was the stuff of nightmares.

Human legs and hands were on long sticks cooked over fires in almost rotisserie fashion as one turned the long crank and the others danced around greedily salivating. Frothing from the mouth the beasts fought with each other over who would get the first bite out of the freshly cooked human flesh, this scene played out over hundreds of fires in the huge cavity. Even worse Lucas’s strained eyes made out that the large cavity was dotted with holes like a beehive, he was in one of thousands of cavern tunnels. Gods knows which one leads out but he sure as hell didn’t and he doubted any of the kind goblin folk were going to point him in the direction. They’d be more likely to boink him over the head and stuff him like a pig before a roast.

There was no way he was fighting his way through the thousands of damn beasts so he was going to have to be smart about how he got out. Sneaking was also out of the question as every inch of the cavity was covered with goblins and fires. There really wasn’t a way he could see to get out, cursing his luck Lucas pulled his head from around the cavern entrance and sat back down in the dark tunnel. He could wait it out till his Walker journey ended? Then get sucked up into his world and spit back out like Pan said when he spawned back in the next time at a Walker nest. Not to mention the public Walker nest would be abandoned then, the coalition would of undoubtedly moved to their territories and nests. That was the best possible solution that Lucas could come up with, although sticking it out in this damn cavern for another couple hours wasn't exactly ideal. He was just going to have to make it work, he got up and started to stumble back down the tunnel to get far away from the large cavity of feeding goblins.

He didn’t need one of them accidentally stumbling upon him, the best thing he could do was go back down half way and just be patient. So that’s just what he did, fumbling back down the tunnel he came to a stop when he figured he was at least half way and plopped down taking a seat. Letting out a sigh Lucas let the inky black surround him soak in as his heart rate slowly dropped back down from it’s Daytona race at the cavity’s entrance. He lifted up his left hand and drew a shift circle to see if the one had changed and to his surprise it had. Now it was a solid zero inside the suns center which he figured meant the next day was here and he likely only had hours left in his Walker journey. Letting out a small snort the shifts light faded away as he stopped feeding it ether leaning his head back again the cavern wall, Lucas was both glad to get away from this hell hole he was stuck in but in a way sad he has to leave this fantasy land he barely has explored. An odd Stockholm syndrome if he had ever seen one, he wasn’t to sure what to make of it.

The luck that had favored him so far had seemed to run out as his eyes caught the distant light from a torch coming down the cavern tunnel. Lucas slowly got up cursing his luck and rushing back down to the cavity he was at before hand hoping that the time it would take to get there would run the clock up on his Walker journey. With the goblins following him he couldn’t use his shifts soft glow. Lucas had to blindly stumble down the cavern tunnel. All the while the torch’s from the group of goblins followed him down the tunnel in the distance ominously like the reaper coming to collect. Unfortunately for Lucas he reached the end of his preverbal rope and the torch light still loomed behind him. The stench and rancid smell of decaying flesh welcomed him as he came to the small cavity he was tied up in before. Quickly fumbling around in a half panic he felt around for the pile of limbs he found before. He dug into the middle of them holding back his gags and laid down inside the hole in the pile of limbs he made. He started to cover himself up as quickly as he could as the torch’s lights now flashed inside the cavern and ominous screeches of the goblins echoed all around.

His heart was thumping so loud it felt like a set of cluster bombs being dropped over and over. The light of the torches was now blinding filtering through the cracks in the limbs he found himself hiding under. The ugly and almost horrid screeches like that of dragging a nail across a chalk board were now prominent only a few feet away from Lucas. Glancing through the limbs he counted the pack that had come in, five goblins all armed with various weapons he had no doubt they stole from the corpses around him. Ugly things they were with large carved noses and bulbous eyes with long lanky limbs flippantly moving around. He barely held down his puke as one of them tore through the carcass of the woman hanging pulling out intestines and her innards placing them in a basket. To his horror one of them drew closer to the pile of corpses and closer o him in turn, he started praying to any god that would listen to just keep them away from him.

The limbs shifted above him as the green crooked and pointed fingers tore through the pile pulling out limbs. Thankfully for him the eyesight on the horrid creatures was poor and the beast payed no attention to his body underneath the pile. After four or so arms were placed in the basket they used to to carry the woman’s innards they all cackled making way for the exit. Lucas let out a deep breath he had been holding for what felt like eternity. His chest shifted just ever so slightly and a limb not properly placed back on the top of the pile came tumbling down. He felt a rock drop in his stomach as all five of the goblins stopped in their tracks turning back to the pile. His heart started thumping louder and louder the closer they got to the him inside the pile. Their heads tilted sideways glancing at the pile with odd shifting looks, their cloudy white eyes with large black pupils were shifting about over the pile and to the fallen limb.

One of them got closer and closer, it was soon almost on top of the pile and it’s face was mere inches from Lucas’s body. Its rancid breath now washed over him and with all the might he had he couldn’t hold in his gag. The gagging noise let loose out his throat the goblins head jerked back, the goblins all started jumping around pointing to the inside of the pile making horrid screeching noises. The cat was out of the bag now, Lucas wasted now time drawing two large shift circles filling them with the wind gust array and it’s intricate runes. Putting every inch of ether he could muster into the two shifts he collapsed then closing his hands under the pile and the limbs blew apart as the mighty gale shot out. The first goblin that had discovered him was cleaved cleanly in two as its innards spilled out onto the floor. The two goblins behind it had their heads chopped off as the blasts were angled upwards falling over dead on the spot with blood shooting out from their neck stems like a fountain.

The torches extinguished and dropped to the ground but the last three in the far distance we’re behind them protected by their corpses. The torches flickered and the beings were blown back against the walls of the cavern crushing their bodies into a mangled mess. The cavern grew silent with only the two torches in the distance that the gale missed sitting on the ground flickering wildly illuminating the horrid scene. Lucas panting as he laid on the mess of limbs watched the golden stream of mist rise from the corpses and slams into him. The message appeared before him as if to mark his survival;

[‘Goblin Grunts’ killed! X4 | + 600 T]

Four…Shit Lucas saw five of them, quickly getting up on his feet he glanced around the area looking for whether the fucker had ran off too. However the only thing that greeted him was the silence of the cavern, he picked up one torch waving it around. The cavern was empty sept for the body’s of the goblins and human corpses, where did it go! He wouldn’t have to wait long for that answer to grace his ears. The entire cavity filled with the echos from the tunnel growing louder and louder. It sounded like the entire mass of creatures he saw in the large cavity was coming down to clobber him into tiny pieces.

“Shit..shit..SHIT!” Lucas said to himself in a muted panic as his ears were ringing from the foul screeches.

Looking around for an idea on how to get out of this mess his eyes fell on the large pile of bodies. He started to grab the corpses and drag them over to the tunnels entrance stuffing them in like plugging a hole. One after another he frantically lifted the limbs and corpses onto each other stacking them to the ceiling, using a small wind gust he cut down the other bodies hanging from the ceiling to use as well. He threw a torch onto the other side of the wall to see when they were close and then threw the last couple bodies on the pile. Soon the entire cavity was empty with every body being used to plug the hole of the cavern tunnels entrance in a grotesque wall of humans and goblin bodies with only a small window in the middle to see out of. The torch outside in the cavern tunnel flickered as the screeches of the foul beasts grew louder and louder with each passing second. Soon it was so loud it shook his chest and his mind as thoughts of his death looming ever near.

This was it, he was going to die here was all he could think. That was all he could feel, I mean how would he survive this one? There was no way but still he would fight to his last breath, he would do his best to hold out and pray that the Walker journey ended before the beasts broke through his wall. He put his hands in the small window ready to shift spells and stared out at the torch in the tunnel illuminating the cold dead grey rock of the tunnel. Soon shadows were thrown on the wall of the coming tide and a tide it was. One shadow turned into two and two turned into three and soon the first fleshy green monster stepped into his sights. Followed by another and another, like a mass of green wiggling flesh and bulbous eyes the horde came into sight. He had to wait, wait till as many as possible came into range.

Soon as they got close enough for him to reach through his flesh wall and grab them he drew two circles filling them with the wind slash array as the runes spilled from his palm into the circle. Collapsing his hand down he felt the ether pour from his hands into the shifts and the bubbling spring of golden goop pop out as the gusts of wind were formed. The beasts carrying rusted swords and clubs stood no chance as the two mighty gusts he put his all into cut through the horde cleaving them in half. The fresh corpses of the goblins helped form a wall from the onslaught of the goblins behind having to crawl over their dead comrades but they didn’t care crawling over them all the same. As if Lucas had not just cleaned them out and reaped their souls, they moved with a panicked frenzy that’s was inhuman. Massive amounts of golden mist slapped into Lucas but he had no time to pay attention to the notifications the system was giving him.

He felt a headache forming but had not time to head the signs of loosing to much ether. For now he just had to fire shot after shot, so with the warning signs in his head pushed aside he drew two more circles waiting for the newly drawn in horde to close the distance like before. Soon as they were close enough he collapsed his hand throwing as much ether in as he could just like last time, the mighty golden brooks spewed forth forming gusts of wind in the shape of long slashes cutting through anything in its way. Another fresh batch of corpses took to the grounds filling up the cavern half way now forcing the fresh meat to crawl as the cavern roof was ever closer from the piles of corpses raising the floor higher and higher by each wave. His headache now forming into a migraine he knew he at most had another couple shots before passing out, the pain in his chest started to well up and the warning lights in his mind blaring.

Pushing them all aside he struggled with shaking hands and faded breath to draw out two more circles. They were wobbly fading in and out of existence but there all the same. Slowly the runes formed the wind cutter array and the last bit of ether he could muster was sent into the two shifts. Collapsing his hand the bubbling brooks sucked him dry and the wind slashes cut through the crawling goblins forming a seal around the tunnel of bodies. Lucas stumble back from the hole in the top of his flesh wall and slapped down onto his ass end panting. The world around him was spinning and he felt every single muscle in his body turn into lava. His chest felt as if it was kicked in and his mind split in two, he could barely keep a straight thought in his head. The torch next to him dancing around giving off its last bit of shine as if to represent Lucas’s last attempts at saving himself. Soon the torch went out and so to did his hope of making it out alive or being saved by the Walker journeys end.

He fell into his back panting as he stared into the inky black. This was it, he could hear the goblins tearing at the flesh wall on the way to kill him. Soon he would be cut apart and served on a stick like some fucking human barbecue. The light from the torches the goblins were carrying beyond his flesh wall finally reached his sight. This signified the final collapse he had as they had broken through his wall, he felt the grab of one of the goblins ripping him back up. Another grabbing his feet yanking around, he felt the slam of a club into his side crushing bones as he coughed out some blood. One of them began gnawing at his flesh ripping bits off, he would of screamed had he been able to. His body was numb and his mind warped from all the ether being sucked out of his body. Closing his eyes in resignation at his short journey into this realm coming to an end he felt an odd feeling well up inside him.

He almost cried seeing the sun pop into his vision, the sun spun around as a triangle formed around it. The triangle fogged over with a cold silver sheen and when it was removed a crescent moon was now spinning in the suns place and slowly came to a grinding halt. The half crescent moon pulsed as the triangle faded away and he felt his conscious being sucked into the abyss. His mind went blank and when he came to his eyes flickered upon in the all white room of the hospital. Lucas laughed that devolved into cough as his hoarse voice could barely speak from the years of silence. He made it back, just in the nick of damn time too!

Lucas glanced over to the glass panel giving out a readout of his vitals and looked at the time in big bold letters. One minute past twelve in the afternoon….only one minute passed in back on earth how about that. It was insane to think about, he couldn’t help but wonder if it was all some bad dream. However a quick glance down at his hand told him that it sure as hell wasn’t, the black crescent moon was still imprinted there ominously waiting for his next journey. Waiting to him to return to the world that conflictingly captivated and scared the hell out of him. Lost in thought Lucas jumped at the slight scare of the door opening and in came Dr. Naresh with his normal bright smile etched on his tan skinned face. Lucas glanced back up at the clock to see an hour had passed by while he was stuck in his thoughts.

“Hello Dr. Naresh long time no see.” • “It’s only been an hour though no? I didn’t take too long getting these time slots for you did I? • “Haha no your right right sorry I was just stuck in my thoughts and had a quick nap so it felt longer then it really was it seems. What’s up?” • “Got those available surgery times for you so we can get that schedule moved along and send your brothers lawyers.”

Dr. Naresh said holding up a clipboard, he handed it over to Lucas. The first bit of future tech came into Lucas’a sighed as the clipboard was actually a black and white tablet with the pen stuck at the top. It was almost like small pieces of paper stuck together and he could peel up the screen and flip it over with more screens underneath. It was…intriguing, Dr. Naresh laughed at his interest and Lucas just bashfully smiled.

“Seems the world didn’t stand still.” Lucas said scanning over the documents while the doctor hummed in agreement.

“That’s technology always marching forward whether we want it to or not.” Dr. Naresh said with hints of melancholy in his voice.

Now that Lucas had paid more attention to his surroundings he could see the future tech everywhere. Obviously the glass pane on the wall monitoring him but the bed even moved around constantly conforming to him, something he hadn’t noticed in his drugged up state before. Now that it was wearing off slightly he could get a clear mind and picture of what was going on around him. Lucas glanced for a second before he looked back down to the clipboard and clicked on the closest available time set for next week on a Tuesday for the surgery, a box popped up for him to sign with the normal line and X from virtual documents from way back. He took the pen and signed away then a finger print thing popped up. He raised a brow pressing his finger to it and his print was left behind, snazzy he thought to himself. He handed the clipboard back to the Doc, he looked over it giving a nod and signing away his certification on the surgery putting the clipboard down letting out a sigh.

“You sure you you don’t want to visit our Mental Health center Mr. House?” • “I’m sure Dr. Naresh, thank you though.” • “Alright, well I signed off on your bill of mental health don’t make me regret it please. I’ll always be available if you feel like talking.” • Lucas smiled. • “Thanks Doc, i gotta ask though. If you got all this advanced fancy tech how come my brother couldn’t get a new organ I don’t know printed out or something. We were close to that stuff before I went under.” • “Ah from what I can see of his file he has and they didn’t seem to take due to his particular disease or just from general organ failure. Those printed organs are well flimsy at best honestly, even with our futuristic technology in a sense we are still just as limited as we were the day you went under. You seem to be a Hail Mary, a last ditch effort if you will that his doctors believe could work if the kidney takes to his body and the disease is able to be suppressed with treatment.” • “Makes sense I doubted he would of kept me on life support otherwise.” • Dr. Naresh frowned at the comment. • “..… Anything else I can do for you Mr. House?” • “Yeah actually, I got a good nap in and I’m not really as tired as i thought I was. I’d like to watch some TV or you know browse the web catch up on the worlds state of affairs. Plus I’d like to get this damn IV out my arm.”

Lucas said holding up his right arm with a tube running from his arm to the IV pack hanging on the bed head rest behind him. The doctor came over sitting down his clipboard on his bed and motioned for him to hand his arm, Lucas handed it over and he slowly slid the IV out with a quick pinch. He rolled up the IV and stuck it behind his head rest and threw away the needle in the trash and picked back up his clipboard tapping on his headrest next to him.

“See this panel on your bedside arm rest. Just tap it and the monitor will slide up from the foot rest of the bed. Turn it sideways and it will act as a control for the bed. I’ll get out of your hair and get these documents filed away.” Dr. Naresh said giving Lucas’s feet a tap of assurance before heading out the room, the strong latch on the ICU rooms door clamping shut.

Lucas glanced down at the glass panel to his side built into the arm rest, tapping on it a variety of buttons like apps popped up and the screen slid out from the foot rest just as Dr. Naresh had stated. He tugged on the glass tablet on the arm rest and it slung out into a horizontal slab across his lap. The orientation of all the apps changed and the glass panel at his feet mirrored whatever he was doing on the tablet. Impressive he thought as he swiped across the tablet looking for the internet app. A small icon with what he could only guess was some futuristic chrome all was slapped on the screen. He clicked on the app and it slowly folded out into the normal web browser app he came to know and love.

“Well some things don’t change.” Lucas mumbled with a cocked smile.

He clicked on the address bar and a small keyboard folded out from the bottom of the tablet. The glass screen at his bedside mirrored the exact same actions, he pecked away at the keyboard entering in ‘Latest News’. The glass gave a slight buzz back with each press of the button that was tactile and satisfying. The page didn’t even take time to load as it just instantly popped up by the time his finger came off the enter button. He was already liking the future, he scrolled through the webpage powered by a search engine called ‘inform’ something he had never heard of. It looked kind of like google but far more modern and simplistic with no search bar just displaying the contents of his search in a neat filed order.

‘First American woman landed on the moon.’ Was the first thing that caught his eye, dated four years ago at that in early 2024. He couldn’t help but smile, how bout that always good to see some progress. A new flag was planted on the moon in almost sixty years, he could only imagine the celebrations going on then.

‘Moon city Jamestown and first orbital city Gavi forming the back bone of americas space territory with the work horse SpaceY Starship rocket.’ Only three years later in mid 2027 which raised his brow. Holy shit, things had escalated fast. He skimmed through the article and it detailed how SpaceY built the first reusable rocket changing history. America ventured out into space and all sorts of technology was spun off back on earth, one of them was the printed kidneys his brother ran through before falling to him.

‘Russian Democracy holds its second elections since the summer revolt.’ Lucas raised a brow at that, it seemed the Ukraine war went so poorly the Russian people kicked Putin out of power. Something he would of never thought would of happened, the people finally took charge in russia. How crazy was that, almost as crazy as the space city.

‘China invaded Taiwan and severs ties with the free world.’ Labeled 2025 and he let out a sigh, there was the disparaging news he come to know from his days. Well shit they finally did it, the next article was even less appealing.

‘China claims the dark side of the moon for themselves says US purposely encroaching, US shoots back saying they dispute the territorial claims and says they stole SpaceY rocketry.’ Yikes that wasn’t good, seems tensions were as high as always with China. No surprise there though, he knew two super powers wouldn’t get along. Just how it works sadly, each one was vying for their own piece of the…solar system it seemed.

‘EU reusable rocket system gets off the ground in the race to the stars.’ Was dated 2027 and Lucas chuckled. It seemed space had dominated the news headlines in the past couple years. That seemed obvious in hind sight, humanity was close to breaking from the mold that was Earth. He moved on reading scrolling down the list of news articles skimming the headlines and snippets underneath.

‘SpaceY under fire from US senators for the private city on mars. Senators claims it’s under US jurisdiction and must pay taxes, Forlon Husk ceo of SpaceY fires back saying the US payed not a single cent to form the city.’ Well Lucas could see that, the US was always looking for theres. Not much of a shocker they would want the private city to pay taxes to them in some convoluted work around of the actual facts.

‘Edison first self driving car delivery to Amazin, stunning the world.’ That was three years ago in 2025 and he raised a brow at that. Self driving cars, the world sure was getting weird. He couldn’t imagine what it would look like when he got out this hospital and back..somewhere. Lucas doubted he still had a home, if that place even still existed the way it use to. Hell maybe the trailer park was torn down and a high rise was there for all he knew. He figure that was a problem for another time, didn’t do any good stressing over it right now. On to the next news real, in his endless spiral of amusement at how much and little has changed.

‘US economy hemorrhages as worker bots replace most of the menial tasks in America. Unemployment at an all time high of twenty percent. Senate to look at universal basic income.’ Jesus Lucas couldn’t help but gape at the number, he knew robots would take over but not this fast. Hell that was ridiculous, twenty percent! That was two out of every ten Americans were unemployed and likely soon to fall into homelessness. Seems the future wasn’t all the beds of roses it was made out to be.

Lucas was interrupted as a nurse knocked bringing in some of the lifeless food of the hospital. Some types of mashed peas, sausage and bread, it wasn’t great looking but he was hungry so it would do. He slid the tablet back to the armrest and the glass panel at the end of the bed slide back into the bed. She was a pretty petite thing in her twenties and with blonde hair pulled up in a pony tail and deep blue eyes. He took the trey fostering the best smile he could muster.

“Thanks Ms..” Lucas said and she smiled shifting a hand to her side.

“Now your interested in my name. Before you just wanted to make sure I didn’t charge you with anything in I quote ‘this god damn expense trap.’” She said with a raised brow and huff. Lucas puckered in his lips in a bashful manner and she chuckled.

“I’m teasing sir, I’m Sarah I didn’t take it personally. Most people waking up drugged and groggy aren’t exactly amicable. I wouldn’t expect someone under six years to fare any better, although I gotta say your mood did a quick one eighty over the past few hour or so.” Sarah said with a slight smile.

“Nothing in this world a good nap and mind reset can’t fix.” Lucas said feigning a smile as his past day of survival excursion flashed in his head.

“True. True. Dr Naresh wanted me to inform you we will start physical rehab tomorrow since you have a surgery so close he figure it’s best to get to it as soon as possible. We have some steroids and regerons we use after each session to speed up the recovery to help this.. unorthodox situation you have going on. Anything else I can do for you Mr. House? Any questions?” Sarah said with a slight smile.

“Nah I’m fine, I got the gist. Thanks.” Lucas said, she left and he couldn’t help watch as she swayed out the doorway in the white nurse outfit. He needed to get laid, badly. Six and half years of pent up tension were bound to spring off into problems later.

Scarfing down his peas and sausage he ran over the thoughts of the Walker journey. The magic, ether rather and the crazy creatures trying to hunt him down straight out of some fairy tale. Everything about it was so bizarre yet so..familiar. He just couldn’t believe all the dreams with king, was…him. It was something straight out of a novel, something he still could barely even fathom or believe. Lucas finished the last bit of his food and sat his plate down next to his bed at the table side letting out a long burp.

“Sleep walkers huh… “ Lucas mumbled holding up his left hand staring at the mark embedded on it in the shape of a crescent moon. He let out a soft chuckle into the empty ward, his life was getting interesting.