A New Generation of Gods
Episode One of the H.O.P.E. System: The Creation Engine

The boy sat atop the cliff, his legs hanging over the edge of the world heedless of the danger. The moon rose huge in all its silver glory beside the boy, silhouetting him on his perch. The boy looked up at it. He was fond of the moon’s gentle light, one of the few timeless constants of the world. So long as the Earth turned in space, the moon would be waiting to rise each night. A small comfort, but a comfort nonetheless. The starlight was even more of a constant, surviving far past the end of the Moon and the Earth. When the Sun died, the stars would still be there. The boy would count them.

Cracks appeared in the dark sky, brilliant white light streaming through from some other place. The boy’s face showed no reaction at all as the world around him shattered apart. The face of the moon split and fell away, and the boy was in that other place. His cliff was gone, and the Earth below it, but the boy sat as he had, his legs hanging off the edge of a massive column of what appeared to be white glass. If anything was below the column, it was hidden by clouds that drifted in an unbroken mat many miles below. Despite how high it appeared to be, the boy felt he could breathe normally.

“Who are you?” The boy turned his head.

If the man standing atop the column was startled by the boys question or lack of fear or confusion, nothing of it showed. He was tall, rugged without being muscular, with a mess of white hair and a white beard, and wore a white robe that looked as if it had seen better days. The man’s skin was white as well, not Caucasian but true white. The boy was unsurprised by that though, as everything in this place was white. The column, the clouds, the sky, the man, the tables and chairs that sat atop the column behind the man, all were pure white, cast shadows being the only mark of depth.

The man nodded respectfully to the boy. “Ah, I am Aryan. I’m glad I was able to find you so quickly. I’m cutting it close as it is. Oh, my apologies, would you like a drink?” The man, whom the boy now assumed to be quite old, ran over to the table, a simple but elegant thing that sat in the perfect center of the column, and lifted a white pitcher to pour two glasses. The glasses and the drink were both as white as everything else in the place.

The boy declined the offer and asked again, “Who are you?”

The old man pressed his hands together. “I am a scholar. This place you see is my home and my prison. It turns out that there are things one should not study, and doing so got me here. Still, it could be worse. I could –“

The boy interrupted him. “How did you find me and bring me here? I assume you are going to send me back, correct?” If the man had thought his guest one for conversation, he was mistaken. That one could find him and lift him from his world so easily disturbed the boy more than he would ever say.

“Yes, yes, of course! You aren’t actually here, you see. This is more a place inside the mind than a physical place. I just waited for the barriers to become loose and then I reached out until I felt a something different.”

“Different?”

“Yes, like how it feels. Most people’s minds are smooth and small, like an eggshell, but yours is huge and feels like a mass of worms or snakes. It’s definitely nothing like anything else I’ve felt.”

The boy looked back out over the endless expanse of white sky and clouds. “Oh.”

“Well, I found you and thought that you might be able to help me, so I kind of pulled your mind into here with me. You aren’t physically here, just your mind.”

“Does that mean that you aren’t really here either? That your body exists in some other place?”

The old man sighed. “No, my body is long gone. My mind should probably be gone with it, but it isn't, I’m still here.”

The boy didn’t ask any more questions down that path, instead asking the one that truly mattered. “Why did you bring me here then?”

“I need your help with something,” Aryan answered. “Tomorrow,” he scrunched his brow in thought, “in the morning I think, something will land in your world…”

***

The boy opened his eyes, and he was back as he had been, sitting on the edge of the cliff, legs hanging over, moon rising beside. The moon hadn’t risen any higher than it had been when he’d watched it crack, so no time must have passed when he’d been in the old man’s prison of white.

The boy looked from the moon’s face to the lights of the nearby city. It looked as though he would be staying in the area for a while after all. He’d better get started then. The boy pushed off from the cliff, and the Earth rose up to meet him.

-Surprisingly Busy. Dropping out-

Jade tapped a evenly trimmed, unpolished and unpainted fingernail against the hard material of the table in front of her with the usual patient tolerance she had during this class. She eyed the surface of the table curiously as she continued her tapping, wondering just what exactly it was even made of. It kinda seemed like wood, but it also had some pretty plastic elements to it. It was one of those long, thin tables that the college used to make rows of desks in some of the classes, just tall enough to get a chair under. Which made actually sitting at them uncomfortable, since there wasn't much room for a student to put their legs. Especially for someone who had a bit more size to their legs than standard, as she and a few other students in the class did. It made little sense to her that they'd pick the most uncomfortable setup for any class, much less one that required memorizing a lot of numbers and regulations like this business course did.

With a frown she shifted in her seat a little, wiggling her legs about in an attempt to get more comfortable. She didn't want to disrupt the class though, since they were in the middle of watching and writing down notes from a informational video being played via projector at the front of the room. She jotted down another note of something that sounded vaguely like it was a good idea to remember, wishing the person speaking in the video would be a lot more to-the-point about what he was trying to teach. Judging from the disinterested way her professor was reading a book at his desk, he seemed to at least agree a little bit. That or he'd simply seen the video so much himself during the classes he taught over the years that there wasn't any reason for him to watch it another time. She wondered if he was as bored as he seemed because it was a business class, and the subject got stale after awhile, or if it was because he was pretty old and had been teaching for so long.

Soon enough though, the video came to an end and the professor snapped his book shut, leaning forward to shut off the projector. Giving a small grunt, the man pushed himself out of his chair and made his way over to the door, flipping the lights back on.

“Well that just about wraps up things for today. I want you all to do the assigned reading by next time, understand? Go over the notes you just took especially well as well, as we'll be having a small test to see how well everyone's remembering everything.” He clapped his hands together in a show of energy as all the students, Jade included, set about collecting their books, notes, and scattered pencils and pens. He pushed the door open, kicking down the small little stand screwed to the bottom that kept it from swinging back shut, before returning to his desk and shuffling about stacks of papers.

“See you at lunch, Professor.” Jade bid farewell in her usual way, giving her stiff legs a few get-the-blood-going stretches before getting up from her space with all her things in tow. The professor gave a small smile, with a nod as he looked up from his various stacks of papers.

“Oh I hope not, since that means you won't be on cooking duty today.” He joked. The aged professor was fond of visiting the culinary lab's “simulated restaurant” for lunch, which was run entirely by the culinary students during that period. It had become something of a in-joke between them, even though the chance of her making the dish he happened to order was a little slim even if she was sharing cooking with the half-dozen other students who got that assignment today, that she was one of the few people to ever make hollandaise sauce just the way he liked it. As much as she found his class a bit dull and the set up of the room irritating, the professor himself was a rather friendly old man that was easy to get along with.

Walking out of the classroom with the small flood of leaving students, backpack slung over one shoulder, she hurriedly made her way around the crowded walkways of the campus. Fishing it out of her pocket, she cast a glance at the time displayed on her phone in bright white numbers. 10:13 AM was what flashed dimly, thanks to the bright light outdoors and the sub-par light in her phones screen, back at her. That was a little past ten minutes over when the class was supposed to end, and left her very little time to get an early lunch before class and then changed into her culinary lab clothes. Frowning, she quickly went over it in her head. Class started at twenty after, and students were expected to be dressed and ready to go by then. She could maybe get a muffin or something from the cafeteria and still be on time, but the cafeteria wasn't exactly close to the locker room or the culinary lab. Deciding she'd just have to tough it out today, she hurried on towards the locker room.

Dropping her backpack once she slipped into the cramped, rectangular room lined with small blue lockers that served as the woman’s locker room and change room, she gave a few small nods and smiles of acknowledgment to her fellow female lab students that were hurriedly changing into the ventilated jackets, checkered pants, and non-slip shoes that were mandatory for kitchen work. While she was normally one for jeans, she had heard the fabric was prone to melting at high temperatures that were commonplace next to hot stoves and ovens. Some of the students complained about it, but she rather liked having skin on her legs. The checkered pants didn't look that bad anyways.

Fussing with the lock for a moment, she got her locker open and quickly set about getting dressed. By the time she was done, shoving her casual clothes into the locker and locking it closed once more, all the other female students had finished and filed out to wait for the professor to unlock the lab doors. Poofy chef's hat tucked under her arm and her bundle of cooking tools in the other, she gave one more glance at her phone. It'd be smarter just to hurry on to class, as if she was late she'd only make herself later, but the desire to know if she'd gotten dressed in time was a bit of a compulsive habit. 10:16 flashed back at her, and she briefly gave a satisfactory grin of triumph. That had to be record time of getting to the locker room and dressed up for her.

The smirk was soon replaced by confusion and concern as she became aware of a soft rattling noise, slowly getting louder as the metal lockers clattered and clanged against themselves. The ground shaking was soon apparent, as she steadied herself against the door. An earthquake? That was no fair, it was going to make her late for lab! She immediately found that thought a bit silly, since she should be more concerned if the locker room was considered earthquake safe or not. Except well, lab was her favorite class! She suddenly turned her focus from her worried thoughts to a bright light seeping in from the cracks around the door, briefly thinking it was the sun. She'd seen it do that a few times before, when it got towards sunset or sunrise and there was a west or east facing door. Then she realized it wasn't even noon, and that if anything the sun would be eastward and this was a west-facing door.

Jade felt panic and fear well up, her brain racing for things that could shake the ground and make that much light. It settled on some kind of big giant bomb having gone off, and she found herself worried for everyone that wasn't indoors on campus. Some part of her mind didn't know if the locker room would hold up to whatever explosion could make that much light and the ground shake for so long or so powerfully, but she was definitely sure it would be a lot safer than being out in the open. She was also glad she'd skipped an early lunch after all, since all the sudden shaking and immense feeling of panic and fear was putting knots in her stomach as the light got brighter and brighter.

Sean was up early for the first time in weeks. Early for him anyway, nine-o-clock on the dot, despite being up early his routine didn't change. A cup of black coffee, some ham and eggs drowning in Tabasco and six miligrams of hydromorphone crushed, smeared and chopped into two smooth lines, and insufflated to that cozy mucus membrane in the back of his nose. It was enough to ease him out and let him deal witj anyone and feel like he could do anything for a few hours anyway.

Nine thirty six; Sean steps out into the day a cigarette already sitting in his lips waiting to be lit. Sunglasses hide his sunken, sleep deprived eyes, the hydromorphone easing into his system make his steps are a little sluggish but he's used to it and quickly takes control of the drug in him. His pockets are full of goodie bags filled with similliar drugs, today is pill day for his customers and the candyman has all kinds of treats. The schools are a short walk from his house, college kids are always coming in at different times he'll see some famalliar faces there, but he's expecting new kids from high school he's out in time where the hooligans and misfits like to smoke and by drugs from well... him.

Ten eleven; Sean walks and eventually stands in the nice middle ground of the high school and college. A corner where students from both schools come to smoke from time to time it's a little out of the way, but cops are less likely to roll by there. After standing by himself for a few minutes he noticed someone making their way towards him he leaned against the wall and looked at his expensive looking watch 10:16. Before he could look back to the person he felt the ground shake and a light burn through the heavily tinted lenses of his sunglasses. He couldn't see anything he wondered for a second if he was ODing, had he taken more than he thought? Suddenly everything was blindingly white, and the weight of standing left him and suddenly he felt as though he was laying down.

Shimmer

Shimmer was in her favorite class P.E. She loved playing dodge ball. Since she had cat like reflexes she had a good chance of dodging the balls, flying by like harpies on fire . It also wasn't that bad to have a someone like Mr. Angelino be the gym teacher. A red ball like fire coming from a dragon flew by her. Shimmer moved to the right to dodge the ball and instead it hit her friend Morgan, who was as usual on her phone texting her lame boyfriend. "Ouch!" Morgan whined about to cry like always. "Your out!" Mr. Angelino said and Morgan just went and sat down and waited for class to be over at 10:12. "Good job Shimmer! Keep it up, maybe your friend over there could take some lessons from you." Shimmer started to blush she had a big crush on Angelino, but he was in a relationship. ~If only he was single.~ Shimmer thought in her head, he was only 10 years her senior. She stopped daydreaming long enough to find out that she was the only person left on her team. It was her against her archenemy Janice, they use to be friends until Janice tried to take Shimmer's spot on the cheerleading team and ruin her life. Janice and Shimmer and Morgan were the three musketeers, but Janice always wanted to be the boss. One day Shimmer got tired of it and call Janice out on her bossiness. After that day Shimmer and Morgan never talked to Janice again. "Ok girls get ready, the girl who wins this, I will give a coupon for two at the La Zay Ice Cream Shop!" Shimmer didn't need the coupon her dad owned part of the ice cream shop anyway, she just wanted to beat Janice. They ran for their balls, like two bats out of hell. Shimmer fired first and hit Janice on her hair bun. "You Bitch!" Janice yelled at Shimmer. "I can't believe you did that, you know how long this hair style took?" Shimmer just laughed. "2 minutes?" Janice was about to run and hit Shimmer but Angelino jumped in front of them. "Girls stop this right now." Morgan walked over to Shimmer, "Shim she's now worth it, lets just go change for our next class." Shimmer went into the gym locker to go change, Janice had to wait for everyone to finish before she could go in. "Crap Morg it's 10:16, we're going to be late for Chemistry!" Shimmer said running out of the gym locker, still trying to get dressed.

Then out of no where the ground started to shake and Shimmer fell over. When she got up a blinding white light hit her face, she couldn't see anything. It was like the Heavens had opened up and ate the earth. Shimmer wanted to scream out for Morgan, but for some reason she couldn't talk.

Chris:

Chris sat in the back of math class, trying not to headbang. He had one earbud tucked under his shirt, coming out at the neck to attach in his ear. Metallica’s Kill Them All album was playing to match his shirt.
He wasn’t a fan of math. They were working on trigonometry and he just couldn’t wrap his head around the questions. He would never ask for help though, he knew the teacher hated him, so why bother? The girl sitting next to him - shit, what was her name again? - was the top of the class so he could always just copy off her on the test. The teacher wouldn’t notice, he never spoke up so it never seemed like he was having problems.
The bell rang as Chris as finishing a doodle of his little sister Sarah towering over a sky-line getting ready to fight Godzilla. He gathered his work up, excited to show her when he got home, and waited for everyone to leave so he could be the last out the door. Slinking out into the hallway, he headed first to his locker to drop off his stuff. It was 10:12 so his next class was P.E. He hadn’t bothered going all year, the school had tried calling his mother about it but she was never home.
Might as well get some fresh air.
The air was crisp and fresh, so much better than being stuck indoors. He saw someone over in the smoking section and thought about bumming a smoke off them but noticed someone else was headed that way so instead he began to walk around the school to his favorite tree but as he turned the tree the ground began to shake. Chris reached out to steady himself against the school when his entire vision went white.

---

Billy:

Billy had woken up feeling amazing, as he did every day but this day was special. He had dreamed he was Spider-man, swinging from building to building high up in the air. So high he couldn’t even see the ground and had begun to laugh to himself. It was a good dream, no, the best dream ever had.
Mommy drove him to school again that morning, kissing him on both cheeks and tickling his sides before he ran to join the other kids of the playground. Playing before first bell always tired him out but by recess he’d be so full of energy from sitting that he would just explode across the playground for the swings.
After an incredible expedition, that took him from slide to swings to jungle jim, it was time for class. He always had Ms. Lightfoot first thing in the morning. He liked her, even if she was a girl; she reminded him of his mother, always tender voiced and happy eyes. Ms. Lightfoot waited for all the children to get settled down before beginning the lesson. Billy liked her lessons, this time he was coloring all the letters from the alphabet except some of them were dinosaurs or teacups.
Billy was just getting to A when everything started shaking but it didn’t bother him, he already wasn’t inside the lines very well. Everything going white bothered him a lot though, how could he possibly finish coloring!

"I can't do it anymore. . . I can't do it anymore I can't do it anymore." The little kid, Richard, said as his mantra, for the tenth time. His mind was wandering from last night. . . He cut himself. . . he moved the razor over his arms and legs, and feet, even his shoulders. . . and cheeks. . . he was curled up in a ball and crying. . . I can't do it anymore. . . In his right hand was a bottle, and in the other hand was an open hand. . . moving over to his right hand after he was done sobbing and had just opened up the medicine. . . there must have been thirty pills. Sleeping pills. . . Just then, a breeze came in through the window. . .

"NO!" He heard a stranger's voice as he mysteriously was whisked away. . . he looked around. . . "A forest. . . ? I'm not in fucking Terrabithia am I?" He woke up with a start, this time glancing around, noticing he wasn't in his house, wasn't alone. In fact, he was surrounded by students in class, with his head once buried on the desk. Most of these students were staring at the instructor like they were supposed to, and learning. . . it was a good thing he was plenty ahead in class.

"So make a wish.
I'll make it like your birthday everyday.
I'll be your gift.
Give you something good to celebrate"

Elena was singing along to her pop hits radio as she danced out of the shower. It was still early, and she was just glad she was finally up in time for breakfast. Those sausage biscuits were calling her name! Her hair was still drying as she stepped out of the bathroom in her simple everyday wear: jeans and a t-shirt. Her long, auburn hair was pulled back in a ponytail and she went to applying her makeup. If she was to find a nice guy, she had to look good, after all.

As she stared into the mirror, her eyes gazed over a picture of her family. In it were both sisters and her parents. Homesickness overwhelmed her for a moment, and then it was gone. Here she was happy, no one was around to fight with. It was a good existence. Peaceful. Well, as peaceful as things could be around Elena. Perhaps her sister was right, and she was too loud, but she didn't want to change herself just to fit the mold that was expected of her.

She was still staring at this photograph when it began to shake, along with everything else in the room. Instinctively, she grabbed the table in front of her and looked out of the window, trying to find an anchor. Instead, all she saw was a bright light.

Lucy

_____________________________________________

Elena

Lucy found herself dazing as she stared in the direction of the college. It wasn't often that her thoughts were on her sister, in fact, she'd say it was never more than once a month. But sometimes, when Lucy remembered she'd once had an older sister, she wondered what Elena was up to. If she was happy, if people liked her. She never came home, never called, so Lucy assumed that she was. Sometimes, though, she thought it would be nice to hear from her sister once in awhile. Even if they'd never gotten along, they were family. You were supposed to love your family, right?

Turning her attention back to the doodles in front of her, she could hear the teacher in the background droning on and on about some kind of math equation. Was it cross sections? Oh right. The stupid area of a shape on a graph. Like she'd ever use that in her entire life. Why had she decided to take Calculus again? There was not any time to think on this existential question as the ground began to shake and the room lit up as if it were on fire.

Her last thoughts before everything went white were, unsurprisingly, that of song lyrics.

The stars will fall tonight.
Beautiful destruction laid down before our eyes.
The blackest tears you cry.
Fighting out this city as we struggle for our lives.

Adam

Adam stared into the eyes of his opponent and then looked down to the table. The game was as good it gets. He was play a game of Magic: The Gathering with a college friend that happens to play at competitive tournaments all the time. If any normal person would walk by, they would see just two people playing around with some cards on one of the college tables. In reality, it was two gamers fighting for superiority in a game of wit, strategy, and deception. On first appearance, it looked like his friend was beating him, but Adam was just about to make his move. “I will cast show and tell. Response?” He said as he waited to see if his opponent was about to make a move.

“It resolves.” His friend said begrudgingly. He knew what was about to happen and has realized that his chances of winning this game were slim to none.

“I will put into play Emrakull, the Aeon Torn without playing his mana cost, and then equip my Lightning Greaves to him. He will then attack you. Now that he has declared attacks, his ability will activate and you will have to sacrifice the rest of your board. You will then take 15 damage to your life total and be taken down to -7. Good game?” Adam stated. He extended his hand and his opponent shook it without hesitation.

“Damn man. I was so close to getting you. I should have saved my Counterspell, instead of using it to stop your Force of Will.” His friend said to himself as he tried to find out where he went wrong.

“Yea, that counterspell would have won you the game,” Adam admitted,”Hey, uh, I left my watch at home. Do you know the time?” Adam had a big test at 10:30 and he needed to make sure that he didn’t miss it. All he needed to do was pass his History exam and he would be guaranteed a passing grade, and that would result in him getting his much needed associates degree.

“Yea man. Let me check my watch,” his friend said has he lifted his wrist to look at the time, “It’s just about 10:11.”

“Thanks. I have a test soon and I should probably go get ready for it. See you after lunch?” Adam asked while he lifted up his deck of cards. He was hoping to play some more Magic today, but was sadly disappointed when his friend shook his head. “Oh well. Good game. See ya.” Adam said as he turned and walked away.

Adam was walking toward the west exit, when out of nowhere the windows and glass doors began to glow with a blinding white light. Adam was at first stunned by the sudden light show, but quickly recovered. He sprung into a dead sprint towards the door. He had to see what was going on and if anyone needed help. He had a bad feeling about this light and was about to run staight towards it. He passed student after student. Each one running away from the light. What am I doing? He thought before reaching the exit door. Without even answering his own question, he busted through the door and into the light.

---

John

John looked at his class with disappointment Someone, the night before, had broke in and stole todays test answers. John couldn’t say he was surprised since many of his students were apart of a group of teens that the teachers branded as “troubled”, but John didn’t care. This was the first time he has had an inccident with his students and he was going to resolve it here and now. “Okay. I understand that a few of you have been struggling in my class, but that is not an excuse for whoever stole my test answers. I’m sure whoever took them has already sold a bunch of copies to the other students, and has made quite a profit from this ordeal,” he gave a small pause as he let the information sink in with his students, “Okay class. There isn’t going to be a test today, but before anyone starts to get excited, I would just like to state that the next time we have a test will be soon. The next test will be a completely different format, and I will be keeping all copies of paper regarding to the test at my place of residence.” he stopped. John looked around the room and smiled, “Oh and one more thing. To whoever stole the test answers. You don’t have to worry about receiving any punishment from me. Although, I would be worried about all of your unhappy customers. I’m sure all of them are going to demand a full refund, and things will not end up pretty if you don’t comply. You would be surprised what a small, angry, teenage mob can accomplish if you push them too far,” He chucked, “Todays class is over. Go have some fun, and go get your money back.”

The class quickly began to funnel out of the classroom. John watched all of them very closely and noticed that one of the students was acting very nervous. He was constantly looking left and right, and flinched to almost every “accidental” bump that he received. John knew that this was the kid who stole his test, but he didn’t do anything. Even if the students didn’t “mob up”, he was sure that the poor kid wasbt going to sleep for a week.

When all the student left the classroom, John sat down into his seat and looked at the time. It was 10:14 in the morning. School had only been in session for a couple of hours, but it felt like days to John. Today has been one of John’s most stressful mornings of he month, and he had a feeling that it was only going to get worse. He took a long sigh and decided to go take a a smoke break. It was on his walk to the garbage cans, since that is the only safe place a teacher can smoke at this school. when he noticed that tthe ground began to shake. He thought it was an earthquake until all of the windows in the surrounding classrooms began to light up. He ran over to the windows and saw what looked like a white comet falling down to earth. His first instinct was to run away, but he fought it away. He needed to keep his students safe. He began to direct students to find shelter underneath the school. There were a series of bunkers hidden underneath the school just in case something like this were to happen. He spent the next few minutes funneling students into the bunkers, and was just about to check if anyone was left behind, when the light in the windows intensified. Pretty soon the whole school was filled with blind white light, and John was stuck in the center of it.

The boy walked beneath the star as it fell. He was forced to take some detours as it passed over the city, but as it reached the outskirts he was able to stay mostly directly below it. As it dropped towards the ground and he was able to judge where it would be landing, the boy walked ahead of the star. Between the high school and the college, the boy stopped and turned, looking unblinkingly into the blinding light. He let the star come within feet of the ground, and then it stopped. Everything just… stopped.

He hated having to ask a favor of Saze, especially since it was unlikely the other boy would ever allow himself to be indebted to him again, but if what Aryan said was true, it was worth the price. The boy called in his favor, and the blinding white light surrounding the meteor was extinguished as if blown out like a candle. Where there should have been a core of rock or ice there was not. Instead, there was a person, a young man. He looked as old as those who people who were looking out the windows of the buildings, their faces frozen as they squinted to look out at the light.

Looking at the person, frozen with the rest of the world, curled up in a ball and completely naked, the boy was reminded of the strange world of white. The person could have come from there, his skin was so pale and his hair so white. The boy reached out to grab the person, hesitant at first in case Saze had not bothered eliminating all of the forces acting on the fallen person, and then more surely as he felt no resistance. The person was light, though still a heavy burden for the boy to carry.

The boy left his charge where he was, suspended in the air a few feet above the ground, returning a while later pushing a wheelbarrow taken from a store in town. He’d even bothered finding clothes for the person to wear. Not paying attention to what others wore, the boy had simply gotten the exact clothes he had seen someone close to the fallen person’s size wearing inside the clothing store. He didn’t want to put more effort into it than needed, but the boy also knew that how one looked was important. He wouldn’t force the young man to introduce himself to others naked.

It was easier after that. The boy pushed the person in the wheelbarrow towards the center of the city, sometimes on the sidewalk and sometimes in the road, depending on how easy it was to navigate between the frozen cars and pedestrians. In some places the boy was forced to stop and move people slightly out of his way. No doubt they would simply think that they had tripped. Once through the city, he continued onwards towards the East, all the way out of town and civilization. He was forced to abandon the wheelbarrow and just carry the person much of the remaining way. Finally though, he made it to where he was going. The boy set the young man, looking like any other boy his age now that he was dressed the part, down on the grass in the middle of a small clearing deep in the woods.

And then the boy turned around and walked back to where he had just come from to make the trip all over again, and twenty-thee more times after that. He worked his way slowly through the buildings, making sure not to miss anyone. He found the first in the elementary school, a young boy frozen in the act of filling in the letter A red. The boy didn’t bother with the wheelbarrow; instead he just picked the boy up and carried him all the way, setting him down on his back on the still-damp grass. He picked the crayon from the boy’s frozen grasp and made sure to return it back to the room. He searched the rest of the building, but that boy was the only one.

He moved to the middle school, and like the elementary school, he found only one there. The boy probably could have carried this one as well, but he hated to put more effort into things that necessary. The wheelbarrow moved the boy most of the way there, and it would be used for all of the others after that. The high school was more fruitful, which also meant more work. Two girls, one boy, and a teacher of all people, were picked up by the boy and placed in the wheelbarrow and pushed miles away from the city to be deposited on the grass in the small clearing in the middle of the forest. He was not going to carry people that weighed more than him, so the boy build a road all the way from the edge of the city to the clearing with planks of wood. The boy was puzzled as he pushed the teacher into the wheelbarrow. Some of the quicker students had started funneling into bunkers beneath the school. How idiotic. No more so than hiding under a desk from a nuclear bomb. If the falling person had made impact, with his size and at the speed he had been falling, there would be no survivors for miles and miles. The teacher was still a pain to move though, and the boy found himself exhausted by the time he laid the man on the grass.

The boy allowed himself a short rest in clearing beside his unaware guests, waking what felt like hours later to resume his task. The boy almost walked right past one of them, a man standing by himself between the high school and the college, but only almost. Inside the college itself he only found two young men. Two more trips. In the dorm building he found one more, a young woman in the bathroom. The boy couldn’t have cared less if she had been on the toilet, he’d lost any care for modesty long ago, but he was glad at least that she was dressed. He didn’t want to have to dress another person. He set her down in the clearing with the rest. Was that all of them?

The boy went through each of the buildings once more, and this time found someone he had missed; a girl hiding inside the locker room. After brining her to the others, the boy carefully checked every inch of the four schools and their grounds, searching all of the buildings within a half a mile of where the meteor had landed for good measure but finding nothing more.

The boy returned what he had borrowed to where he had taken it from, the road of planks taking many hours to replace into their pile behind the hardware store and then the wheelbarrow, it looking only slightly worse for wear. The boy made his final trip to the clearing slowly, partially because he was tired and partially because he was picking the blades of grass up from where the boards had pressed it down. He was finally done when he made it back to the clearing where a dozen faces lay frozen staring up at the leaves. The boy considered unstopping time then, but he was tired. It could wait until he had slept. It was impossible to tell how long he had been asleep when time failed to exist, but he felt it was longer than he had slept before. The boy stretched out his muscles, took his place in the center of the clearing, and set the Earth turning once more.

The first thing the people in the clearing would see would be the underside of leaves, the branches of the trees covering all but the center of the round clearing. They would probably see each other next. He would stand silently, a boy not possibly yet in his teens, body and face covered mostly by a deep green cloak with its hood up over his head, unmoving in the center of the ring of people, and watch their faces as their minds rush to explain away reality.

Chris:

As quickly as the light overcame all his senses, it disappeared. Chris was laying on his back, blades of grass tickling the back of his neck, staring up at a web of branches and leaves that obscured the sky. He must of passed out by his favorite tree.
What a weird dream.
He sat up, expecting to see the school, and sucked in a harsh breath. Where the fuck was he? The school wasn’t anywhere in sight, instead he appeared to be in a clearing flanked on all sides by large trees.
And he wasn’t alone.
Waking up - was I even asleep? - around him other people were waking up. At first he didn’t think he knew any of them, they looked like college students mostly, but he caught sight of his science teacher and a blonde girl he’d seen around the hallway. He thought about asking his teacher what’s going on, but decided to stay quiet for the time being, let the others ask the questions.

---

Billy:

Billy blinked. The dinosaur that was also an A was gone. The light was gone too, so was the shaking ground and his desk and his crayon and the classroom. It was all gone and instead there was leaves, gently rolling on a soft breeze that carried the smell of the forest. Billy knew that smell from the time Poppa had taken him fishing, they had had to walk along the hiking trail to the lake and it smelled almost the same.
If Billy was older he would of asked himself if he was dreaming when he sat up to see where he was but alas, for children the distinction between dream and reality doesn’t exist the same way it does in an adult. Children are artists with imagination, the shackles of age and reality yet to take hold of tiny limbs to crush alternate perceptions of the core tenants of living.
So it was, as Billy stood up, looking at the unfamiliar faces of older people, - one that looked the same age his Poppa, another with red hair almost matching Mommy - that a smile cut across his face. Excitement welling up inside to bust out at the seams in giggles and playful glances at the people around him.

Adam

Adam burst through the college door and automatically found himself on his back staring at a bunch of leaves and branches. “What the bloody hell?” he asked himself. He sat up and began to survey the area. He was in the middle of a field surrounded by trees. People were with him, but by the looks of them, they were as confused as he was.

How did I get here? I could have sworn that I was at the college he thought to himself. He decided to stand up and try to get his bearings. He began to study who was with him in the field. He saw his a couple of his college classmates, an older man, and a couple high schoolers and two kids. It was the two kids that confused him. One was smiling with excitement. That was normal for most kids that age, but he was more concerned about the one that was hiding underneath what looked like a cloak. His face hidden by a hood, Adam was slightly creeped out. He thought about speaking up, but he thought it would be best to let things play out and have the appearance of weakness.

---

John

John found himself laying on his back in the middle of the field. The last thing he remembered was being completely blinded by light in the highschool, and now was in the middle of god knows where. He quickly stood up and frantically looked around. He was slightly relieved when he saw that other people were there with him, but he was still on the verge of a panic attack. John looked around to see if there were any signs of civilization. To his dissapointment, there wew none. He was both curious and scared. He had to figure out was going on here. "Um. Does anyone here know what is going on? Where are we? What happened to the meteor like object? What about all of the people that were left in the schools, what happened to them?" John asked question after question Each one needing an answer that he wasnt sure he was going to get. He stopped and started to take deep breaths. He then waited. He waited for an answer.

Sean began to panic almost immediately, he ripped his sunglasses off of his face and his now extinguished cigarette fell out of his mouth. "What the fuck?! What the F- who are you people am I fuckin' dead, what's going on?" Sean shouted while looking around at the other people in the field, he could only assume he was dead, he recognized one of the people a teenager, some punk kid he smoked around him sometimes he was sure he sold him drugs once but he tried not to remember customers.

He didn't believe in then after life so he tried to convince himself that maybe he ODing and just having a fucked up dream. After turning his head rapidly looking from person to person he finally looked forward and saw a young kid wearing a hood looking pretty ominous he wanted to start asking questions but he didn't know what to say and he couldn't convince himself that asking would make sense.

Elena stood long before her sister. The new environment fazed her, as it had everyone, but she was up and yelling in no time at the only person in this whole clearing that did not look confused. Granted, his face was covered with some kind of cloak, but still. "You!" Her voice was raised so that probably everyone around her could hear it, but that didn't stop her from speaking just what she had been thinking. "Who are you? Are you the one who brought us here? What the HELL is going ON?" Only then did she stop and start looking around the circle.

There were people she recognized. Her science teacher from high school, some boys from the college, and a girl that she could have sworn did some kind of weird cooking thing. But the person that caught her attention the most was a blond who was still sitting on the ground. And then she was yelling again.

"And why the hell did you bring her here?"

_____________________________________________

Lucy heard her sisters voice before she noticed anything else. It's just like her, she thought, to start a confrontation without even knowing what was going on. For a moment, Lucy laid there, trying to get a handle on where she was. It didn't help much though, so she moved to a sitting position. Everywhere around her was green, and in a circle around a hooded figure, were people. Some she recognized. Mainly her sister.

But there was also a teacher, and a man she'd seen at school dealing drugs. Not to mention the weird loner rocker drug? boy. The third adjective she wasn't sure about, but he certainly looked like one. Lucy suppressed a groan as she recognized another figure. The one with even brighter hair than her sister. Shimmer. What a dumb name, and an even dumber personality. This girl thought herself above everyone else. Though herself invincible. It was people like this that Lucy couldn't stand. Unlike her sister, though, she kept this to herself. In fact, she kept all of her questions to herself and, instead, tried to think of a song that would possibly fit this situation.

My blood is pumping, heart is racing as I enter the nest.
Well I bid you all farewell, and I hope that you'll remember my face.
I'm leaving this world I know behind.
Goodbye to all the filth that is mankind.

Richard (Dick), looked around, noticing he was now sitting on a log, that was a turned over tree. The beautiful sounds of chirping birds and the smell of fresh air from pure nature filled his nose. He looked around, noticing there were boys and girls, even adults around him. He wondered if he was on a field trip or something, and somehow got high. If he did, it would have been a big surprise, he didn't do drugs. He looked around to whomever would answer, "Do you guys know what? Um. . . happened? I was in class, and all of a sudden I fell asleep. I was dreaming of something and now. . um, it looks like I'm asleep again, but this is all so real."

Shimmer
After calming down, Shimmer found her self in the middle of a forest like place. Leaves were everywhere green like her eyes. "Where am I?!" She yelled out to anyone that would hear her. Shimmer started to try and stand up but she was too dizzy to do anything but rest. When she felt better she could here people yelling in a commotion a few fields away from her. Shimmer walked over to them and saw some familiar people. She saw Lucy, the quiet girl who goes to her high school, everyone knew that Lucy didn't like her even if Shimmer didn't want to believe it, Shimmer was the type that she wanted everyone to like her. Then she saw Lucy's psychotic sister Elena, yelling as always. She also recognized the older, way older guy, he was the school drug dealer. He would go to her school and give her friends drugs. She really didn't like him, he was the reason her brother was in rehab now. She recognized Billy her neighbor's son who she babysat when he was about 2 or 3, he probably didn't recognize her but, he still had the same bright smile, that only Billy had. Shimmer saw the loner who no one knew a lot about freaking out, he doesn't look so cool now Shimmer thought. "Does anyone here know what is going on?" Shimmer asked still trying to fix her hair and get the leaves out of her skirt.

-reserved for FriskyBoots- (PM me your post and I'll add it here)

Jade did stuff that was either uneventful or easily ignored.

The boy didn't bother looking up at the girl who seemed to enjoy the sound of her own voice. She obviously enjoyed it so much that she felt the need to make sure everyone else within a dozen miles could hear it. The boy didn't dislike loud people, but they conflicted with his personality. He hated to have to talk over another. So he waited for her to shut her mouth before answering her.

"Yes," was all he said, though to which question he was saying yes to was anyone's guess, and even then the yes sounded as much like a question as a statement. He might have simply been ignoring her questions. The boy turned, stopping to look in the direction of an older man. "Nothing happened to them," he said. Then, to all of the gathered people, he said, "Please follow me. It's only a short ways from here." The boy didn't wait for any commentary, already slipping between the trees towards some unknown destination, his cloak covered in random patches of darker and lighter greens making him seem to blur as he moved. He paused and stared back to make sure he was being followed, but otherwise just continued on through the forest.

In the clearing, the last person to sit up was a young man. He looked like he could have been from the high school or the college. He had pale skin and pure white hair. When the boy walked away, the young man pushed himself onto his feet carefully and shuffled after the boy, not interacting with anyone, not even looking at the others. He didn't appear to be confused or scared like the others, just blank. When he came close to running into a branch, the boy stopped, stared at if for a few seconds, and then lowered his head and continued shuffling forward, not picking his head back up once the branch had passed. If anyone watched the young man with the white hair, they would likely assume he had some sort of mental disability.

After a short walk, made difficult only by the lack of any kind of path to follow, the people from the clearing would emerge into a open area, clear of any trees. Directly ahead was a short cliff, thirty feet at the most, with a small waterfall rushing over the side into a pool of clear water. The water continued on its way down a small river that wrapped around the left of the clear space and disappeared beneath trees in the distance. To the left was a rise of rock, dark granite sticking up from the earth. The boy sat atop the rock, though none had been close enough behind to have seen him climb, just above head level as he waited for everyone to arrive. No doubt some would have reservations about blindly following a being they knew nothing about, even if he appeared to be a harmless child. The boy would wait for them to come, following being their only option.

Billy:

Billy watched the other young boy address the group before walking into the woods. He watched until the boy was almost out of sight and then he ran to catch up, not noticing the branches catching his shirt as he laughed.

The woods broke way into a clearing where a waterfall crashed down tumultuous violence. It looked wondrous to Billy, as if the only thing that could stop it was Superman’s might. Billy ran towards the pool of water to see if there were any fishies swimming around like in the mall. There were tiny fish swimming beneath the surface but they didn’t look anything like the ones from the mall, it made him frown.

Nearby the boy who Billy followed was sitting atop a darkly coloured rock. Billy walked over to stand next to the rock, head tilted back to look up at the boy whose name he didn’t know. “Hey! I’m Billy! Cool rock, can I join you?”

Chris:

Chris had watched silently as the people around him reacted to the situation they found themselves sharing. They were all taking it in their own ways though too many of them were yelling for his liking.

“Yes.” That brought Chris’ head around to focus on the weird kid addressing the group. What the hell is he wearing cosplay for? The kid was the only one that didn’t seem disturbed by what was happening as he said, “Please follow me. It’s only a short ways from here.” Wait, not the only one… there was another kid laughing and running after him through the woods.

Chris stood up, taking another look around. I’m getting the fuck out of here. He thought about asking if anyone knew where they were but everyone seemed caught up in their own metaphysical struggles to cope with the situation so he just started walking into the woods. He headed off in the opposite direction than the kids.

The trees provided a nice break from the sun overhead as he broke through the line bordering the clearing. He paused briefly to fumble with his mp3 player, he wanted tunes, but it wouldn’t turn on. “Stupid battery,” he said to himself, “always dying.” He had no idea how long it would take him to get home and see Sarah.

He had only been walking for a couple minutes when he broke back through the treeline, hoping to find a road, and found himself…. back in the clearing. I must of got turned around. Chris walked through the clearing, ignoring the stragglers left behind and headed back out the same way he had started with.

Minutes later he was back to the clearing. Jesus, okay...different route. This time he turned around the way he had just emerged from in order to backtrack and find where he got turned around.

A few of minutes later he was back in the clearing.

“WHAT THE FUCK!” he shouted.

Shimmer

Being the adventure she was, Shimmer followed the weird looking boy to the waterfall. "Wow." Was all Shimmer could say the waterfall was beautiful. It was crystalline blue and the fish were all shapes and colors. Shimmer loved animals and the way they reacted to the environment. She was so transfixed on the water, that she didn't notice that Billy was talking to the mysterious boy. Shimmer walked over to the two boys, "Yeah what is your name?" The boy had the most freakiest eyes, they were big and, they looked into your soul. He looked like he knew everything about someone, just by looking at you. It crept Shimmer out, but she still wanted to know why she was here, why everyone was here, especially Billy.