Soon the three headed out of the sinkhole and into the pines. Without a trail, Caleb just followed the path of least resistance out of the trees. The sky was already brighter than the previous three days and the air warmer. The clouds still prevented them from seeing the sun, though.

“Why didn’t you wake me for my shift?” Caleb asked. The three now walked side by side out in the open.

Spence had hoped the incident with Trey was behind him. “Uh, I just wasn’t very sleepy, and I figured you could use the rest. I was going to wake you once I had the fire going good. Of course, that’s when Trey attacked.”

“I always knew he was a bully, but I had no idea he was that evil,” Morgan spoke for the first time that morning. “What a loser. I’m so glad to be done with him.”

“Oh, I doubt we’ve seen the last of him. He’ll follow us,” Caleb said.

“How do you know?” Spence glanced over his shoulder but didn’t see anyone behind them.

“Deep down, he’s a coward. He has no idea what to do or where to go.”

“Do you think he’ll try to attack us?”

“Hard to say. If we stay alert, Trey won’t be able to. You can fry him with your staff, or Morgan can shoot him in the head.”

“I hate him but don’t know about killing him,” Morgan replied, also looking over her shoulder.

“Well, that’s your choice. If you’d rather, you can let Trey kill you. But you’d better hope he doesn’t try other things first.”

“Ewww! OK. I’ll kill him.”

The mist rose from the river to their left, although they couldn’t see the water. The land was still open but with more trees dotting the landscape. The bleak brown finally started transitioning to green. Spence kept his eyes roving, looking for their next fight. He noticed Morgan and Caleb did the same.

They all fished around in their packs and ate a quick breakfast while they walked. Spence was tired of eating the same food each meal, but he stayed hungry, and the fare was better than nothing. He washed it down with water and kept trudging along. Spence was still sore all over, but he was glad for the warmth. Everyone’s mood was lighter than it had been the day before.

“What do you think they’re saying about us back home?” Spence asked.

“Probably wondering how the football team will do if Trey doesn’t return,” Morgan said.

Spence smiled. He still wasn’t sure how to take Morgan, but he assumed she was joking. “What about your parents?”

“I doubt they’re shedding too many tears. I’m sure my father is off on some important business trip. Mother is probably at the spa.”

“Oh, you’re a rich kid,” Caleb said.

“My father makes a lot of money, and my mother spends a lot of money. So, not much trickles down to me.”

“Any brothers or sisters?” Spence asked.

“I have an older sister, Jade. She’s studying premed at State. My parents were pretty much done when she went away to college. You know, she was super smart and super good—the perfect daughter. Then I come along and muck it all up.”

Spence had forgotten about her sister, Jade. His sister, Kayla, had graduated with her. Jade was one of the first students to come out of the closet at their school. “My parents are probably pretty worried. They’ve taken much more interest in me since the accident,” Spence said. He tried to envision how his parents might have reacted when they heard he was missing. Did everyone think they had been abducted? Or that they were lost in the desert? His father most likely still went to work. He was an aerospace engineer—a genuine rocket scientist—and loved his job. His mother might have found a substitute teacher for her for a day or two. “And my brother and sister, when they hear about it.”

“What are they like?” Morgan said.

“Well, Andrew is twenty-six and is a nuclear engineer in the navy. We don’t see him much. Kayla is twenty-four and is a schoolteacher in San Diego, so I don’t get to see her much, either.”

“What about you, Caleb?” Morgan asked.

“My dad will be missing me. Although he knows I can take care of myself. I assume they all think we’re lost in the desert,” Caleb said.

“I’m sure they know nobody would abduct a bunch of misfits like us,” Morgan added.

“Or maybe no time has even passed there,” Spence said thoughtfully. “Like in Narnia. This world might be in a different place in space and time.”

“Interesting…it does seem to happen a lot in books, anyway,” Morgan said.

The warmer air was much easier to breathe and hike in, but Spence’s legs and butt soreness wasn’t easing much. He cursed himself for not having exercised more since mandatory PE classes ended two years ago, before the wreck. If he’d known he’d be on a genuine quest and not just sitting at the computer guiding a character through a video game…. His feet were also blistered and hurting. The boots were rough and hard, unlike modern hiking boots on Earth. He began sweating beneath his coat and robe as he struggled to keep up with Caleb. Caleb seemed unaffected, even wearing the chain shirt, sword, and shield. Morgan was hard to read. She mainly kept quiet and trudged steadily along. If she suffered, she didn’t show it.

Caleb eventually strode ahead of Spence and Morgan. Spence was tired of being lost in his thoughts and focusing on his discomfort. “So, Morgan, what is a Goth, exactly?”

Morgan turned and stared at him for several seconds as if gauging if he was making a dig or asking an honest question. Her face finally softened some. “Personally, I hate the term.” She paused as they walked, gathering her thoughts. “People lump a bunch of kids into the Goth category. Having a class of Goths is like saying we’re all the same and not individuals. I dress the way I do and act the way I do because I don’t want to fit in with everyone else. I hate all the cliques and squads and class bullshit at school. But even when you want to be different, you’re still thrown into a class.”

“Yeah, tell me about it. If you look like me, you’re a nerd regardless of any other traits you have,” Spence said. Maybe they weren’t so different. “What do most Goths believe?”

“Well, as I said, we’re all different. I hate the class system of modern society. The rich get richer, and the poor get poorer. And nobody cares about the poor. Politicians use them for votes and to pass along their agenda, but no one genuinely cares about them. The middle class is only looking for a way to become the next upper class.”

“What about racism?” Spence asked, a little nervous at Morgan’s possible reaction.

“Oh, don’t even get me going there! But that’s a big part of our caste system. Who are the poor? Go to the poorest section of any large town or city and tell me what you see. It ain’t a bunch of Spence’s, Caleb’s, and Trey’s.”

Spence swallowed hard. “Well, at least the United States is better than many countries. I mean, look at China and Russia and how they treat people,” Spence replied.

Morgan rolled her eyes. “Debatable. But we should be much better. We call ourselves the greatest country in the world, so we need to back it up and act like it. I mean, we have the money and resources to do much more than most countries.”

“Yeah, I guess. What else?”

“I hate we’re destroying the environment and Mother Nature, yet nobody cares. And half the people are out there spewing lies and claiming it’s not happening. Nobody has a true idea of what kind of world we’ll leave behind when our generation is gone. It will be a wasteland. But somehow, the rich will still survive and thrive. The poor will suffer and die, and the middle class will become the new poor.”

“Well, we have made a lot of changes in the past few years, with getting away from coal and pushing natural gas and alternative fuels. Cars are much more efficient, and electric vehicles are getting more popular. And the US can’t do it all by themselves,” Spence said.

“Now you sound just like the people I’m referring to,” Morgan said, scowling. “Again, we should be doing much more. We can’t worry about how expensive solar and wind power are. You can’t put a price on saving the Earth. Big oil still has all the money, power, and influence. We must stand up to them and really change the status quo. Then we can lead the way and pressure the other counties that depend on us.”

Spence realized that she wasn’t looking for a debate, and he wasn’t armed well enough to win it, anyway. “True. Is that all?”

“I don’t know. I guess I just don’t like conformity. Somehow, I want to make a difference and not be a sheep like everyone else. I’m just not sure how.”

“I actually agree with a lot of that. Maybe I’m kind of a Goth, without the makeup and black clothes,” Spence said. Hopefully, he could win some brownie points.

Caleb stopped walking and turned around to face them. “OK. I honestly don’t care about either one of you or your beliefs, but you’re both full of crap. Morgan, you say you are a nonconformist, don’t fit in with society, and don’t want to be classified as a Goth. Yet every day, you put on your Goth makeup and all your body piercings, dress up in your Goth clothes, and hang out with a group of Goth kids. If you were such a freethinking, nonconformist loner, you wouldn’t hang out with any group and truly try to stand out in the crowd.

“Spence, you’re the biggest pretender of all. You’re not a loner or a freethinker. Before your wreck, you just wanted to fit in with any group other than the geeks. If you could be a jock, you’d be Trey’s lapdog. If you could be a preppie, you would. Now, you’re thinking about being a Goth. You’re both as bad as Trey and all the other sheeple.”

“So, should we just be loner freaks like you, with everyone scared we’ll come into school and shoot it up someday?” Morgan said.

“At least I’m an original, baby. And if you are sincerely passionate about the evils you mentioned, you’d be doing something about it—protesting, writing Congress, writing to the newspaper, writing a blog, running for class office…something. Look at Greta Thunberg. I don’t care for her, but she’s at least doing stuff.” Caleb turned around and continued walking.

“Don’t pretend you know me like that! Fuck you!” Morgan shouted.

Spence fumed. Every time he began to feel good in the new world and his new situation, something or someone dragged him back down. This time it wasn’t even Trey. Deep down, though, he wasn’t sure if he was mad at Caleb for his words or because he had a tough time internally debating him. He didn’t want to be like Trey! Although he couldn’t deny how often he’d wished he could be the popular star athlete growing up. He hoped that he wouldn’t pick on kids like himself, but he wouldn’t mind the rest of it. He was changing, though. He felt it. He was gaining confidence and getting stronger. He would be his own person soon.

***

“You were right about this group,” Odin said. “They are most acrimonious.”

“I must confess, I was growing concerned,” Artemis replied. “They were beginning to bond.”

“It is time for some more action, though,” Ra interjected. “They are in my realm now.”

“What do you have for them?” Artemis asked.

“I have been working on something special. I call it the Guardian,” Ra replied.

“It is not too powerful, is it?” Enki asked.

“It will be a tough battle and not won by one shot from the staff. But it is theoretically survivable.”

“Well, let us introduce them to this Guardian.”