I took Angela's hand, pulling her forward toward the pulsing green rift in the sky. The ground beneath our feet was soft, covered in wild grass and scattered trees, the atmosphere eerie and charged with an otherworldly energy.

The closer we got, the more the hum of the rift vibrated through the air, like the low thrum of a machine powering something beyond our understanding.

Then, we heard them—voices.

Confused, panicked, yelling over one another in a chaotic chorus of fear and disbelief. We pushed through the last line of trees and stepped into a vast, circular clearing, the grass beneath our feet trampled and scorched in places. Above us, the green hue slit in the sky pulsed ominously, casting an unnatural glow over the scene below.

The clearing was littered with debris—broken buildings, twisted metal frames of cars, and shattered futuristic structures scattered across the ground as if tossed aside by some unseen force. And in the middle of it all were people—dozens of them, their faces pale with shock, their clothes torn and dirty, their eyes wide with confusion.

"What's going on?!" a man shouted, his voice cracking with panic as he clutched his head, looking around as if expecting the world to make sense.

"I don't understand!" a woman cried, her hands shaking as she stared at the rift. "One minute, I was in my apartment, and the next—this!"

"I thought it was an earthquake!" another man yelled, his voice raw with fear. "But this—this isn't an earthquake! Where the hell are we?!"

A young girl clutched her mother's arm, her eyes filled with tears. "Mom, what's that green light in the sky? Is that the same one we saw before… before everything went wrong?"

The air was thick with panic and confusion, the green rift pulsing above us like a living wound in the sky.

A woman pushed through the crowd, her face twisted with worry, her body trembling. She was stunning—dark hair, sharp features, and a mole above her lips that made her look seductive, even in her distress. Her eyes locked onto us, desperate.

"Did you guys know anything?" she demanded, her voice cracking with fear.

I stepped forward, taking the lead. "I don't know," I said, my voice calm, blending in with the others. "We all saw the green light… before we came here. Then we were here all of a sudden."

The woman suddenly ran the other way, yelling, "Nicole! NICOLE! BILL! BILLL!"—her desperation echoing through the crowd. Around us, people clutched at each other, their faces pale, their eyes wide with shock and terror.

I leaned in toward Angela and Lisa, my voice low and controlled, barely audible over the chaos. "Stay close. Follow my lead. We don't know what we're dealing with yet, but we're going to find out." My gaze swept over the crowd, assessing, calculating. "And whatever you do—don't stand out."

Angela nodded, her fingers tightening around my arm, her voice barely a whisper. "What is this, Dexter? What the hell is going on?"

I didn't answer right away. Instead, I turned my attention to the group of people nearest to us—a man in a torn suit, a woman clutching a child, a teenager with wide, terrified eyes. I stepped forward, my expression carefully neutral, my voice blending into the panicked murmur of the crowd.

"Hey—did any of you see what happened? Before the green light?" I asked, my tone casual, like I was just another lost soul trying to make sense of the madness.

The man in the suit shook his head, his hands trembling. "I—I was in a meeting. One second, I was talking to my boss, the next—" He gestured wildly at the broken structures around us. "—this. The ground split open. I fell. And then… I woke up here."

The woman with the child nodded frantically, her voice shaking. "Same. We were at home. The floor just… collapsed. My daughter saw the green light first. She screamed, and then—" She trailed off, her eyes darting to the rift above us, her face pale.

The teenager swallowed hard, his voice barely above a whisper. "I was at school. The ground just… opened. Like an earthquake, but worse. And then I saw the light. And now I'm here."

The green rift pulsed above us, casting an eerie glow over the chaotic scene. The people around us were disoriented, their voices overlapping in a frantic chorus of confusion and fear.

From the fragments of conversation we'd gathered, it was clear—all of them had been in the same place, wherever that was, when the ground cracked open like a fracture in reality. They fell, and as they did, they saw the same green light. And then—they woke up here, unharmed, but utterly lost.

A man pulled out his smartphone, his fingers trembling as he stared at the screen. "There's no signal here," he muttered, his voice thick with frustration. "No bars. No Wi-Fi. Nothing." He looked up, his eyes scanning the broken structures and the pulsing rift, his face pale. "What the hell is going on?"

My gaze shifted to the woman with the mole above her lips—the one who had approached us earlier. She was now standing with two young adults, a boy and a girl, both in their early twenties. They clung to her, their expressions a mix of fear and relief.

"Are you two okay?" she asked, her voice trembling as her hands moved over their arms, checking for injuries. "Did anything happen to you when you—when we fell?"

The boy shook his head, his voice rough. "No, Mom. I'm fine. Just…" He gestured at the chaos around us, his face tight. "This. What is this?"

The girl nodded, her eyes wide. "I don't understand. One second, we were together, and the next—" She trailed off, her gaze lifting to the rift. "—this. Where are we?"

The woman pulled them both closer, her voice steadying, though her hands still shook. "I don't know, kids. But we'll figure it out. Together."

I watched them, my mind racing. These people weren't just random strangers—they were families, groups, people who knew each other. And yet, none of them seemed to understand what had happened. None of them knew where—or when—they were.

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