Mark came awake to somebody shaking him.

“Hey bud, time to wake up and smell the roses, or whatever these flowers are anyway!”

Mark sat up and looked around him. He was lying in a sleeping bag on a roll mat in a forest clearing. Right next to him was a big, black man who had been doing the shaking. He saw that there were four other people in the clearing and as he stirred the black guy had moved on to waking a man that looked like he was from India or Pakistan but for all Mark knew might be from Croydon.

One of the other people stirred and Mark found himself looking at an attractive woman with brown hair. His initial impression was of competence. She didn’t say anything at first but looked alertly around. By this time the person doing the waking had moved on to another woman who woke with a slight sound of startlement and looked about her with a much more nervous air than the first woman.

By this point Mark was out of his sleeping bag and checking out the surroundings. The area would look like a typical woodland clearing apart from that some of the plants looked nothing like any he had seen before. The majority of these odd-looking plants were a variety of different red shades. Not just the flowers and leaves but the stems as well. The rest of the plants looked remarkably similar to those he’d expect to find in a forest at home. There might have had some slight discrepancies between the plants he was used to and these but the tree that looked like an Oak had very similar looking leaves and there was the normal detritus you expect from an oak around its base.

Seeing no immediate threat, Mark looked at the bag of kit that had been placed next to him. It contained everything that they had been shown over the last few weeks during their survival instruction. There were several sets of clothes including waterproofs and thick jumpers. Mark wondered whether he would have to get changed next to these other people or whether the woodlands were safe enough for him to wander behind a tree. The more he thought about that the more desirable and indeed urgent that requirement came.

In the end he grabbed a collapsible shovel, a knife and his clothes. Finding some broad leaves, he rubbed one against his arm to see if there was any reaction and then looked around the group to see if anyone looked useful. The large man who had woken him looked extremely competent but would be needed with the rest of the group. The Asian man looked scared of his own shadow and Mark wasn’t going to ask him to do anything for a while. There was a small, mouse like woman who might be useful, but Mark couldn’t be sure about their reliability. Then there was another person who looked ready to take on the world, Mark wasn’t sure that they could judge who was on their side. Finally, there was the other lady he had noticed earlier and whilst the situation wasn’t the first thing, he wanted to talk to her about she at least looked competent.

“I wonder if you could help and guard my back as I nip behind that tree and get changed etc?”

“Only if you do the same for me and hurry up about it.” The lady replied. “I’m Emily by the way.”

“Mark.” Mark replied as he crossed the clearing and handed Emily the knife before pulling up some more leaves. He ducked sufficiently behind the trees so that he couldn’t be seen from the clearing and quickly dug a hole in the ground before making use of it and a couple of leaves. He filled in the hole and dug another before getting dressed. He made sure he made plenty of noise as he went back to Emily and retrieved his knife.

She quickly ducked behind the same tree and fairly quickly sorted herself out. Mark had noticed nothing much moving other than a few birds and what might have been a squirrel in the trees. It had moved too fast for him to be sure.

As they returned to the clearing, they could see that everyone else was up and sorting through their bags. Mark noticed that there was a lot of repetition of content and knew that they would need to abandon some of it but as he knew nothing about the other people, he had no idea how they would react to any suggestions.

“Has anyone heard or seen any signs of water?” Mark asked the group.

Nobody suggested anything to the positive and so he continued. “Well, we will have to move from here then and find some. I doubt anyone is coming back for us straight away.”

“Who died and made you boss?” enquired the person who looked aggressive. Mark hadn’t determined if they were male or female and their voice was no give away. They did have an accent that Mark guessed was South African.

“Nobody.” Mark placated. “I’m just saying that we can’t stay anywhere without water for long. If anyone of you is a survival specialist, I’ll happily let you take over. I’ve only got the knowledge I’ve been taught over the last few weeks.”

Emily stepped forward and said “I’ve been taught how to track animals over the last few weeks so we can follow one of the tracks out of the clearing and that will most likely take us to water. I suggest that track.” She pointed to what looked the most used of the various animal tracks.

“Ok, so we now have a direction and a purpose. Has anyone got any useful knowledge or anything in their packs that lets us know what we are meant to be doing?” Mark enquired.

Again, nobody said anything but when Mark and Emily started to empty their packs, the others did the same. Even as he started to empty it Mark could tell that it was so heavy that he couldn’t carry it any great distance. As he got everything out of his pack, he separated it into stuff that they needed and stuff they could do without. The majority of this was clothing. Mark cut it down to one change of clothes but with extra underwear. He reasoned that you can always wash clothing but wet socks or underwear that you had worn for so many days that it started to rub was going to be dangerously unhygienic.

He ditched the umbrella but kept the jumper and waterproof jacket. He had one pair of trousers but two pairs of shorts. It would still feel like quite a weight if he wasn’t wearing it, but clothing was one of the three essentials along with food and water. Speaking of which they had good quality water filters and carrying flasks that fit together but only a minimum of food. If they were expected to fend for themselves, they would need to sort out food quickly.

Everyone had a set of cooking pots and pans, but it was quickly decided that they would leave most of these and split the rest between the group with the bigger people carrying the heavier bits. They had a selection of stoves and threw out those that used gas containers whilst keeping two that were capable of using different fuels, of which they had a limited supply. They did have a few lighters and a flint and steel each. There were also a few S-hooks for hanging pots above a fire.

For Mark some of the best equipment were the hand powered torches and the rope and string. He made sure that everyone had some of each. He had been a Scout in his younger days and knew that rope was endlessly useful. Also, how dark it got away from towns.

Mark kept his gold-panning gear even though others suggested it was inessential because he reasoned that they wouldn’t have been given it if it wasn’t going to be useful. Apart from a few knives, a multi-tool and some wire that was pretty much everything Mark kept. There was a pen and notebook in one of the side pockets and some toiletries in another. At the bottom of his pack was a single piece of paper. Mark’s read “the guard, he will help”.

After everyone else had emptied their bags, they had a full message which read. “Make your way to Torin and find Keith the guard, he will help you. Make sure you can pay his fee. Trust nobody else.”

“Well, that’s helpful.” Said the large, black man, whose name was Mike. “Could have left us a map!”

“At least it’s something.” Mark replied. “We now know that there are people, that they have jobs, that there are places, there is an economy, and we have a destination of sorts. That’s more than we had before.”

“Aren’t you the upbeat person?” came the sarcastic tone of the South African, who turned out to be called Charlie. “Didn’t you notice that they also wrote to trust nobody.”

“Well, I for one am going to trust all of you unless you show me otherwise.” Said Mark. “We seem to be stuck in the same situation and a group makes all tasks easier and safer.” Mark looked at the various weapons that the group carried. Jo had two large knives that were almost short swords. Emily had a large knife but also a bow and a quiver with 10 arrows. Mark just had a few knives but was planning on finding a long piece of wood to use as a staff. The other woman who was called Jo had a much shorter pair of knives that were painted black as well as three throwing knives. Only the Asian man Kajal lacked weapons.

“I am not a fighter; I am a taxi driver. I don’t know how to fight but I will pray that we don’t need the weapons.”

As a contrast the big man had a large axe. It looked heavy and Mike had slung it from a loop on his belt. Mark wondered how big the bruise Mike would have on his leg would get. Emily in contrast had the quiver of arrows tied to her leg as well as her belt so that the arrows were easy to reach but not constantly hitting her.

So maybe an hour after they had woken up, they set foot on their journey. Those belongings they left were buried beneath the roots of one of the trees, sealed in a large refuse bag. If they ever came back, they could dig the stuff up if necessary.

Emily led, with Charlie immediately after her. Kajal followed them and Jo stuck close to Mike, which left Mark to guard the rear. He regularly glanced behind them but soon the clearing was hidden and there was little to see other than the woodland around them. The undergrowth grew high where sunlight penetrated the forest canopy and so they soon felt isolated.

Mark wondered as he walked whether they were really part of a computer game. Everything felt completely real, even though they regularly saw plants, bushes and trees that had no equivalent on Earth. Were they on a new world or in New World? He could only treat it as if everything was real.