Mark was shaken awake for the second time since arriving on New World. This time the person doing it was somewhat gentler and he opened his eyes to see Jo looking at him. She motioned for him to get up and go outside the cave. As they passed the fire, she added another log to it.

Stepping through the crude door, Mark was amazed by the night sky. As used to life in cities as he was, he hadn’t realised just how much light pollution obscured the skies at night and the starscape was overwhelming for a moment. After a while he was able to pick out what seemed like similar constellations to the ones, he knew on Earth, but he wasn’t sure.

Jo coughed lightly and he turned to look at her. Over the last day he had learned very little about her as she had been part of the group that did the exploring whilst he had been panning. He knew she was Australian as she and Emily had exchanged a couple of jokes on the subject. However other than that he knew nothing.

“I’ve not seen anything during my stint,” she said, “but I get odd vibes from the other cave and I’m sure I’ve heard something moving around in there.”

“Yes, I got a weird feeling from that cave earlier. Didn’t think much about it at the time.”

“I don’t know about you, but I’ve felt just a bit more connected to the world today. Sitting here on my own it felt like I could feel some sort of energy that connected everything. Could just be my imagination though and I’m not into any third age crap. Anyway, just wanted to mention my worries to you. Have a good watch, I’m off to bed.”

With that Jo passed Mark the watch and headed back into the cave.

As he sat there, looking into the darkness, and with the warmth of the fire on his back, Mark felt a connection to everything around him. Like Jo had said, he could almost feel the plants, trees, small animals and even the rocks and cliffs were joined by some sort of force. He even felt that it would be possible to reach out some way and connect with this force, but he did not know how.

The connection wasn’t over any great distance. His connection to the world seemed to fade about three metres or so from him, although he could feel the rocks around for a bit further. The weirdest part was his connection to the things behind him. The fire was the easiest thing to sense, and he could distinguish the warmest parts. He could also tell where his compatriots were sleeping. He pondered how such an affect was achieved in a VR game and could only assume that it was some direct brain stimulation.

Rather than let himself get sleepy, Mark stood and wandered around a little. He could hear odd animal noises in the distance, but nothing seemed threatening. He wondered how guards who regularly patrolled the same areas could maintain any sort of concentration. From the fiction he read he was constantly being told that guards were easy targets which didn’t make him feel any safer. The dichotomy of feeling in no danger but also knowing that he was actually very vulnerable kept him alert and so he didn’t startle when the door opened behind him.

“Just need to make use of the facilities.” Mike announced quietly. The big man moved surprisingly quietly as he entered the next cave. He soon returned, “What’s the time? I’m taking over at 4.”

“It’s only quarter past three.”

“Guess I’ll wait up with you. If I go to sleep again, I’ll be extra tired when it’s my turn.”

Mark was happy to spend the remaining time not on his own. He and Mike spoke quietly and exchanged recent history. It turned out that the American had been an involuntary addition to the game. He’d gone through a similar course at was probably a different army base, but the emphasis had been very different. Where Mark had all the problem-solving tests, Mike had been getting weaponry lessons. The days had been just as disrupted and Mike didn’t know how long he had been at the base before he had been dumped with the rest of them. He added that the number of people at the base they were at was a lot larger and that he had seen Charlie in the distance in the past but before that morning had never communicated with them.

“Did you learn anything about Charlie today, when you were exploring together?”

“Well, I can tell you that they are fluid and that is very important. I’m surprised you don’t know this as I was told this at least twenty times.”

“I’ve mainly not been near them to be honest. I doubt if we ‘ve exchanged more than four words. I guess we will all get to know each other very well by the end of this.”

“I’m not sure how much more I want to know about Charlie.” Mike said with a bit of feeling. “Jo on the other hand…”

“She did seem quite interested in you. Not saying a lot but she always seemed to be near you.”

“That’s true and sometimes I wasn’t expecting her to be close. That girl is really quiet. You can barely hear her move.”

“You’re pretty quiet moving through the woods yourself.”

“That’s growing up in upstate New York. Everyone learns a bit about life in the wild. Deer hunting with a bow in the fall was my favourite. I’d spend weekends with my old man, and he’d teach me how to track, how to move, how to shoot. I miss him.”

“Well, you don’t get to do much of any of that in England. I spent one afternoon being taught archery as a scout. My old man didn’t want anything to do with us at the weekends. He would be out playing golf with his friends. We only saw him for meals and in the evening when he was watching tv.” Mark couldn’t quite hide the bitterness in his voice.

Just then Mark noticed a sense of wrongness behind Mike. He started to call out but before he could anything other than an incoherent syllable, Mark had turned and drawn his axe. In one swinging motion he was aiming at a patch of darkness behind him and hit something that started to make an ugly screaming noise.

This caused Mark to draw his dagger, and this was just as well because he rapidly became aware of more patches of darkness which filled him with unease. One of them moved rapidly towards Mark and he held his dagger out to intercept it. He felt something strike against the dagger and then move rapidly away also making the horrid cry.

Mike had swung at another patch of darkness and soon there were three sources of a distressing sound. The noise was loud enough to disturb the others sleeping in the cave. They could hear the movement within whilst sensing the moving patches of darkness nearby. Another swing from Mike and another scream. Mark couldn’t tell if anything was injured or just making a noise as a distraction.

Just then the door was thrown open bringing with it the light of the fire. Mark sensed to patches of darkness moving away and as the others emerged into the night the sounds stopped, and the attack was over.

Bringing a burning branch with them Charlie stepped over towards where Mike had been fighting and they could all see that there was blood on the ground but no corpses. The group decided that they had enough wood to build a second fire outside to help protect the cave until morning. Reasoning that the light was the reason the conflict ended. Everyone also agreed to take watches in twos for the rest of the night. Mike and Mark continued the guard duties whilst the others re-entered the cave to get what sleep they could.

Mark had noticed that Mike turned around too quickly to not be aware of the creatures around him and as soon as the others had gone into the cave, he asked the larger man about it.

“I felt what I can only describe as evil approaching me at some speed.” Mike said. “I was only aware of it for a fraction of a second, but the feel was so bad that I turned immediately. All the rest was trained instinct. Seems like the last few weeks haven’t been wasted.”

By probing a bit more Mark was able to determine that Mike only spotted the creatures maybe two metres away from himself. He also had a much lower perception of the land as a whole than Jo had suggested or Mark himself felt.

The rest of their duty passed without incident, and they handed over to Charlie and Kajal. There were no more disturbances during the night as Mark quickly determined when he woke and saw the sun streaming through the door and people moving around.

The second day was productive. They spent some time making the three caves more defensible. They constructed a wooden palisade of sorts but it was difficult to drive the wooden stakes into the hard ground and so they essentially dug a small trench, made a fence panels worth of palisade that rested in the trench and was braced both by the soil they had removed to make the trench but also by longer poles that went into the ground uphill of the trench. It meant that the palisade was strong if you were outside, it and easy to push over if you were inside.

Mark had put the gold flakes he had found the previous day in some clay which he had then thrown into the fire the previous night. He was rewarded in the morning with a nugget that whilst small was easier to look after.

Jo, Kajal and Mark worked together to collect food for the group, there were fruit trees that the others had found and located on a crude map, and they were able to follow this and some helpful signs that the other three had used to mark the grounds to find the fruit. They also had a slightly better idea as to what plants had tubers they could eat. Jo also managed to catch a few more fish, whilst Mark did some panning. Neither were even half as successful as they had been the day before and eventually, they swapped. Jo proved to be lucky at panning, but Mark was not a great fisherman with just a single small fish for his troubles.

When the others came back from their explorations, they had with them a couple of different types of grains that they had found as they walked. Hopefully one would make a good flour. Again, they were careful with what they ate but as they had fewer new things to try most of them weren’t tasters and could have a full meal.

One thing that puzzled Mark was that he was sure that Mike and Charlie had both grown a little and this was noticeable because it seemed like Jo had grown smaller at the same time. He wasn’t sure and so he said nothing, but he kept glancing over at the three trying to see if there was any way to determine the truth. In the end he gave up on the thought and instead wondered as to whether they would have a disturbed night again.