He woke to the sound of wind.
Not the hum of an air conditioner, not the muffled whir of traffic—just wind. Crisp, unfiltered, and carrying the scent of rain-drenched earth and pine sap. The kind of scent that hit the lungs in layers. Alex groaned as he shifted on the cold ground, his back aching from the twisted sprawl he’d landed in.
Then came the noise—branches creaking, birds chirping, leaves fluttering. He opened his eyes and saw only green. Canopy above, moss below. His hands trembled slightly as he pushed himself upright.
More people were scattered nearby. Dozens, maybe more. A hundred?
A woman stumbled past him, wide-eyed, hair tangled. "Where the hell are we?" she muttered to no one. She held a phone like it was a lifeline. Others had started to wake as well, coughing, gasping, looking around with confusion. Someone—a guy in gym shorts—was vomiting in the bushes.
A voice cut through the quiet. "Hey! Anyone else from Seattle?" It was a man in his forties, beard streaked with gray, wearing a REI jacket and a hiking pack that looked more useful now than it had probably ever been.
No one answered. Not yet. The silence between the trees held a tight, wary tension.
Alex got to his feet, brushing dirt from his jeans. He had his phone too, though it had slipped into sleep mode. Still at 47% battery, checking for any signal, of which there was known. He could see others walking around trying the same, raising their phones into the air in a panic.
"Hey, anyone else got no signal", "Where are we?" "What the hell is happening."
Panic starts to set in quickly, aided significantly by the paranoia and unknown, screaming and crying children compounding to the sense that had settled in many peoples guts, that something was very wrong.
--
It took an hour for most of them to accept it wasn’t a prank or a dream.
They did a headcount. 100 people exactly. Ages ranged wildly. There was a girl who couldn’t have been more than twelve, and man in his 80s clinging to a walking stick. It appeared that whatever had happened bringing them all here, was a random event. But most were adults, mostly in their twenties to forties. Some were clearly fit—athletes, hikers, maybe ex-military. Others looked like they hadn’t seen sunlight in years.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
By midday, they'd started calling the place "the Clearing"—a break in the forest where the trees formed a rough circle, just large enough to fit all of them with some breathing room.
In the center stood the Obelisk.
It rose ten feet high, pure black, matte like obsidian, but with no obvious seams or markings. Nobody could dent it. Nobody could scratch it. Its presence was domineering, an odd structure that appeared to be the only clue as to what has happened to them.
It was warm to the touch.
A woman named Miriam, who had been a high school biology teacher, had taken the lead. She was calm. Too calm, Alex thought. Maybe she was just trying not to unravel. She was authoritative enough that most listened, in particular as she spoke sense. A courtesy look around their position presented no inclination to any roads or the like, any hope that they can be saved.
“Anyone with medical training, come here,” she called out. “We’ll need to set up some kind of base triage. I don’t know where we are, but we can’t afford to panic. People will be looking for us, we just need to stay here until they can find us.”
Four people stepped forward. A nurse. An EMT. A paramedic. One guy who’d done two years of med school before dropping out. They started to assess a number of people with minor injuries, nothing too serious luckily.
--
By evening, a fire had been made, having has a number of people collect firewood, a few people had lighters on them, so starting a fire wasn't an issue. A woman had found berries and bark she swore were edible, but few joined her in eating them.
The observant ones, realised that hours had passed at this point, at no help had arrived. They themselves had no idea how they got their, but what really sealed the deal for most was the second moon in the sky. This brought on even greater panic.
"What the fuck is going on, how is their two moons?!?" a guy screamed
"Shut up man, your not helping"
It took 30 minutes before people had finally settled down after others tried to calm them down. People through out theories as to how such an event is possible. Some rationalised they were kidnapped and placed into a state of the art Virtual reality engine, others that they were on a different world altogether.
But the Obelisk still drew their eyes.
“Anyone else feel sick when you look at it too long?” someone muttered.
Nobody replied.
Alex sat with his back to a tree, knees drawn up, flashlight resting in his palm. He hadn’t spoken much since waking. He was watching people now—trying to get a read on the kinds of personalities that were forming. Leaders. Followers. People who would break under pressure. People who would take advantage of others. He was always quite practical minded. Already cataloguing the items that he has on hand:
Samsung phone - 30% charge
Wallet
A ring
A watch
And the clothes on his back.
He had no food on him at the time, which presents its own issues.
There was already challenges over food, as Miriam has tried to pool up whatever resources people had, such has food and water. Many had been hesitant to give up anything that they had, but luckily, people still haven't degraded into a purely survival mindset yet. Most where persuaded to give up food, which could then be rationed with persuasion, though no doubt many had hidden a few scraps for themselves.
Alex, tired from the days activities nodded off, under the silvery glow of the two moons above.
