“Ryker….”

A sweet worried voice filled my ears. I looked towards the source of the sound and saw Sasha and Leo standing there with slightly troubled looks. It was no wonder why they were troubled after all we were all sent to this unknown world for even an unknown purpose. Sure we were told to fight and survive but why did they kill us in the first place?

What did they need us to accomplish in order to truly leave this world? It obviously wasn’t as simple as looking at the PDA and running to the escape point. Clearly fighting and growing stronger was part of the reason, but what was that reason?

‘No matter how hard I think, I just can not come up with a reason. First of all these powers are simply too strange. I mean how were these Aether particles created in such a world? I might not be a physicist or chemist but I at least know that I have never heard of such a thing.’

I was unable to realize that I failed to even answer my friends as the ideas popped one after another into my head. It was only when Leo grabbed me and put me into choke hold that I was able to realize they were trying to speak to me.

“Are you okay now?”

Sasha came up and asked in a worried voice. Even though she was slightly trembling and even before worrying about herself she was worried about me. I couldn’t help but feel slightly guilty, although I was definitely worried about being in this world and why we were transported here, my first thoughts should be on how to survive currently. I looked at Sasha and Leo with a small smile and nodded.

“Yes, sorry I was just a little overwhelmed.”

“It’s okay we all are confused… But Ryker… What should we do now?”

Leo and Sasha stared at me curiously. Although I don’t stand out much in school, they both think I’ll be able to come up with a solution the fastest. It wasn’t to say they weren’t able of thinking of a solution, it’s just a matter of who can come up with an idea first would voice it. While the others could build on top of it, and most of the time it started with me while Leo and Sasha were able to perfect it. I thought for a moment before coming up with a sound conclusion.

“I think we should stay in the area and look for any food and shelter for now. That masked man said there was no time limit and if we rush through things it would just be more dangerous for everything.”

It may have been simple and obvious to people who were calm but under such circumstances most people are unable to think logically. First of all when you get lost the best plan for action is to not move and set up a base. Someone lost would have no sense of direction and could end up going in circles wasting energy and soon passing on before rescue could come. This was the same idea, except instead of rescue coming to us we knew where rescue was yet the dangers in between were unknown. Thus it would be better to scout the areas before we set off and having a base would be the best way to start off.

“Sasha can you gather the girls and look for a place to stay? Take a few guys with you just incase you find something one of the buildings. If you find a wide enough area make sure to start cleaning it up. Leo gather a group of guys and immediately look for food and water in any stores. Make sure to check the expiry dates, we can’t have people getting sick here.”

“Alright.~”

“Okay.”

Sasha and Leo immediately answered. They knew that because of their status it wouldn’t be very difficult for them to gather a group. If one could delegate to others who could do the job better why wouldn't they? Naturally no one would be happy with following my orders so why not get Sasha and Leo to? As they walked off to do the jobs I assigned them, I couldn’t help but ponder about this world some more.

Can we even get sick? Do the rules of the common world still apply here? What kind of creatures live here? There’s too many questions that I just can’t answer!

“Okay, let’s just focus on surviving for now any problems that arise we can just deal with them then.”

As I softly muttered to myself to calm myself down the street. We were teleported into a 4 way intersection and thus I could have chose any direction but I didn’t think going to the sand was going to be too easy and it was the opposite direction of the escape point anyways.

When i started to leave the area I noticed that someone was following me. I carefully turned around and saw a young man. He was similar height to me and his bleached blonde hair gave off the feeling of a rebellious child. He had his left ear pierced, and his normal gaze looked like a glaring delinquent. He wasn’t big, instead he looked to be completely toned and fit. We stared at one another for a s olid minute and I guess because he realized we both weren’t very good at starting a conversation he first spoke up considering he followed me.

“Are you going to check out the outskirts?”

Blunt! Straight to the point, just the kind of guy that makes a conversation easy.

“Yes I am. Did you want to come?”

“Ya…”

“Alright let’s go.”

“R-really not even going to think about it at all?”

“Well I don’t see the problem of getting someone to watch my back.”

“That is true…”

As I started to realize his personality didn’t qute match up his appearance, I couldn’t help but smile as I began to open my mouth to tease him.

“Quite the rebellious one aren’t you?”

“S-Shut up!”

“Haha.. My name is Ryker, what’s yours?”

“It’s Tyler.”

“Nice to meet you, but seriously if you’re such a good little boy why do you dress up like that?”

“....My older sister is the rebellious one. Because she thinks if I do it too our parents won’t care as much she kind of…. well you can see the result.”

“Haha!”

“S-Stop Laughing!”

I couldn’t help but laugh so hard my stomach was hurting. After all the guy was helplessly forced into looking like a delinquent but he’s as harmless as a lady bug. Simply seeing to complete opposites was enough to make anyone giggle uncontrollably.

----------------------------------------------

We had already left the area and walked for some time. Although I teased Tyler before we left, the moment we did we both didn’t say a word. Even though Tyler seemed harmless he was in fact quite tough. I noticed it when we started to leave the starting point but he was cautiously looking around and ready for action at a moment's notice. I felt it was if he was trained to be a natural survivalist or something. Thus I couldn’t help but ask quietly.

“Do you know survival skills by any chance?”

‘Yea.. My dad is an ex military officer. Thus he made sure to teach me all about survival tips and what not.”

“Hm that might be surprisingly helpful right now. Where do you think animals would gather in a world like this?”

I asked Tyler, and he stopped while putting his finger on his chin to think. It didn’t take long before he came up with an answer.

“If this world is similar to ours, I feel like whatever is here would be near a water source of some sorts. After all this world seems pretty barren so straying too far off wouldn’t be helpful.”

I broke down Tyler’s conclusion and though it made a lot of sense. It wouldn’t be realistic to run around finding prey far away from your territory. And having a territory would naturally be around a source of water that you could drink regularly. It made sense to me, and that was good enough for us to come to the conclusion of finding a water source in the city.

Because it was a city it must have some sort of sewer and water source that it connects too, or at least assuming that the desolate era hasn’t changed that at all. I mean with all the sand it's possible most of the water sources have dried up. But it was at the least a starting point for investigation.

Tyler and I walked another street and a few more turns, looking for an signs of life or water. All the buildings, small shops or malls were all practically destroyed. The scene felt like an apocalyptic world, it was unknown what happened but clearly it was devastating enough to bring a city of this size to such a state.

CRASH!

As we were walking carefully and silently we both heard a giant noise close to us. We both stared at the direction it came to and then to one another. With a nod, I walked forward to the mall where the sound came from. I wasn’t stupid enough to directly enter, so I stayed off into the distance hoping that noise would later be found out. To my surprise just waiting a few minutes, something did come out. But I immediately regretted wanting to find out about it.