Chapter 1: Prologue
On a lonely street, a handsome young man with a fit body walking on the street while pushing a food cart. He looked like he was packed up for the night and ready to crash onto his bed.
His well-toned muscles with military hair made him look like a perfect candidate for the ladies to date. But most would strike him off their list because of his profession.
Suddenly, he felt slight tremors hit him, which made him lose his balance.
He started looking around for signs of whether an Earthquake hit the city. But one or two people walking on the streets didn't act out of the norm. They were fine like they didn't even felt the tremors.
"Guess, I am dizzy from the hard work," he mumbled and pushed his thoughts aside.
He turned his head down towards the cart was suddenly hit by surprise and felt down. Sudden dizziness hit him. He looked at the front, but there was nothing in front.
"AHhh.." he screamed in surprise.
He looked at his hands, which started wiggling in a wave-like motion. His head started to spin, and the things around him also started acting in strange motion.
The world around him suddenly felt like a scene viewed from a distorted glass. When he looked up, he watched the stars starting to fell from the sky and moved towards him at the same time.
"Arghhhhh...." with a mouth full of screams, he vanished from the spot. The people walking on the street felt something different and looked back and got a little surprised to find the familiar food vendor disappeared from the place. But they pushed the thought away, by thinking he might have turned back for some reason.
A full 24 hours after the incident, a guy looked exactly the same as Greg found standing on the same spot.
Hi, I am Greg. I make my days end by selling Chinese food near the little china town.
About me,
When I was a little kid, I saw my father push off my Mother from the 13th floor of my Apartment to death. Police arrested my father, and the Child services department took me.
Later that day, I heard that my father killed himself inside the cell.
I only got a letter stating, "I am sorry" from him.
It's not like I hated him, or we had more significant problems at home. He was a nice guy and a kind father too. But he had a terrible habit of drowning in alcohol. It was his Birthday, and he drank too much than usual with his friends. My Mom prepared a feast for his surprise, but he came wasted. So they bickered continuously that night, and in the moment of anger, he pushed her. With the slip of her hand, she fell from the balcony and died on the spot.
*sigh*
I became an Orphan with mental issues until I entered high school. Slowly, I regained my usual self and decided to leave everything behind and start anew. So I chose to forget my Second name to stop getting reminded of my past self.
But, I kept the apartment they left me. After some consideration, I left the 3BHK flat for rent to a couple and stayed in a cheaper 1BHK rental apartment.
The money from the rent only allowed me to spend on my rent and food. The money from both of my Parents Bank was sent to the charity by me. In a moment in anger, I clicked transfer and regrets it till now. Guess, its no use talking about it now.
After high school, I joined the military, where I can vent my anger and let my inner beast go on a rampage without any repercussions, but for some reason, they threw me out. Anyways it was my most enjoyable 6 years of my life.
Currently, my life is going on with content and peace. I felt living like this forever but, fate had different options for me.
Looking at the empty streets, I started packing my stuff.
"Looks like the spices are enough till next week. But I still have to make a visit to the shopping district to buy eggs and meat." Greg mumbled while loading things inside his cart. He sighed looking at the sky, again regretting the fact he sent the money to the charity. If not, he could have bought a minivan and wouldn't have to push the cart with a tattered wheel with patches on every end.
Next thing he knew, he got unconscious and found himself in an unfamiliar place.
Greg suddenly appeared on an unfamiliar land surrounded by trees and mountains covered in fogs. The scenery around him looked breathtakingly beautiful and with exquisite looking birds flying in packs around the mountains. But Greg wasn't in the mood or in position to enjoy the scene; rather, he bent down and vomited everything in his stomach.
If anyone was there, they might've thought him of someone swallowed a bug and trying hard to throw it out. But unluckily, no humans souls were there. Only the occasional roars of beasts and chirping of birds mixed with the sounds of insects were heard.
After feeling extremely tired, he looked up to see the scenery around him changed.
"What happened? Where am I?" he clutched his head and looked around.
"Is this a joke? Or am I dreaming right now?" he mumbled, looking at the surroundings.
"Anyone here? Anyone?..." Greg couldn't fathom the situation he was in.
He clearly remembers himself walking on the streets but suddenly hit by a wave of dizziness and woke up here.
"Did someone drugged and kidnapped me? It's not funny, come out..." he thought and shouted while looking around.
Looking around and finding no reply was coming to him. He started panicking. He even tried pinching him so hard to check whether this was a dream. But it only left a red mark on his skin, nothing happened.
"What's happening? This isn't a dream. This is real." he mumbled while carefully checking out his surroundings.
"Let's calm down for a second. Panicking doesn't help in any way." he calmed his mind and arranged his thoughts.
He looked at his cart and thought, "First of all, If anyone wanted to kidnap me, there was no need for them to bring the cart with me. So I have to strike off kidnapping for now. Second, the place I currently feel like someone else's camping spot. The fire pit looks like it had been put off a day before. And the footprint on the ground tells me that only one person has been camping here. Which means that guy might be nearby. Good, I have to find a way to learn what happened to me and sitting on the same spot, not going to help."
Just as he was pulling himself up from the ground, the sound of a stream running nearby passed through his ears. With an expression of ecstatic, he jumped off his feet towards the sound. There was a saying that River is a lifeline for anyone stranded in a jungle or anywhere. Without a river, anyone lost in a forest is good as dead.
He felt assured knowing that following the stream will eventually lead him to human settlements.
Within seconds of walking, he found light reflecting from the water from the sun hit his eyes. Squinting his eyes from the glare, he slowly walked towards the stream. With little pebbles and rocks hitting his feet, he looked around.
"Woooww....." he looked at his surroundings with a jaw-dropping expression.
Because of the thick woods covered in, he couldn't probe his surroundings. But now the scene in front of him made him baffle in surprise.
He looked at the seas of green surrounding him with mountains whose peaks couldn't be spotted and fogs surrounding made anyone looking at them feel excited and fear. Greg thought whether he died and went to heaven. But quickly crossed out the thought knowing his cart doesn't have a soul.
He took a deep breath of fresh air rejuvenating his entire body. The chill air filled with the moisture from the running, stream made his skin feel alive and good.
"Haaa...(exhaling), what a Mystical place? Just looking at the scene makes my head clear and active." he thought out loud.
He walked towards the stream and scooped out a handful of water and gave it a taste.
"Delicious... What the hell is this water?..it's freakn awesome.." he greedily gobbled down the fresh stream of water inside his mouth. The freshwater naturally comes flowing through herbs and exotic plants from the mountains. So the goodness of the water cannot be compared to the borewell or tap water of human society.
After tasting the water, he found a puddle of water strayed from the stream deep enough for a baby to swim. He took off his clothes and laid down, treating it as a bathtub.
"It feels good. Wait.." he sat straight and inspected the stones around him.
"This looks like something man-made not a natural puddle of water," he spoke in surprise. The puddle of water is carved at the size fit for an adult male, and even channels are created to make sure the water flows continuously, keeping the water fresh and new.
"Looks like whoever made this is a clean freak. And it's that clean freak who might have the answers to my questions." he thought and felt the urge to find him. But little did he know the clean freak he was searching for is already standing at the place full of mystery and horror to his knowledge.
***************
The person who looked exactly like Greg did act the same way as him. He threw up on the streets and clutched his head in pain while watching the surrounding scenery in horror.
Time to time, he saw people walking around in weird clothes and monsters with metal bodies and humans sitting inside their stomachs. He found the roaring sounds of the monsters very annoying and scary.
He coughed regularly, breathing in the foul air from the surrounding, thinking whether he died, and his soul came to hell. Thankfully, he couldn't see any demons, so he's was not entirely sure whether it is hell or some other place.
"What happened? Did I got assassinated and came into hell?" he mumbled
He slowly got up under the watchful eyes of the people on the streets. He looked at people gazing at his body up and down and someone flashing lights at him with weird instruments on their hands. They directed their rectangle instruments at him and flashing lights at different angles. He felt annoyed and shouted at the people for flashing lights on him. Looking at him shouting in an unknown language, the people surrounding him went away. He was angry at how rude these people were. Mostly, where they smile looking at the device after flashing the light, he felt he was made fun of by these weird people.
He quickly walked away and came to the roads. He looked at the parallel white lines beneath the road and lights flashing red color on top. He slowly crossed while feeling marveled, looking at the high rise building on the distance. Everywhere he looked around was new to him. Slowly an ominous feeling crept inside his head. Is that he may have been transmigrated to another world. As he looked around, the feeling strengthened, because he never felt any strong presence around the area. He felt everyone was quite normal. Thinking about this, a strange glint flashed in his eyes.
While he was in his thoughts, a horn sound came from his left. He quickly turned around to see a white-colored monster raging at him at full speed. His eyes turned cold as he took out his knife and jumped at the ambulance while shouting, "DIE YOU BEAST." The driver had a face of horror and shock. Without delay, the driver pushed onto the breaks, but it was too late. The Guy in weird clothes way laying on the ground ten meters away, and the knife was stuck deep inside his bonnet of the ambulance.
The ambulance driver sighed in relief after seeing the knife, because he could reason with the police that the guy was crazy and came at the vehicle. So he was thankful that it might not be treated as an accident case rather a suicide case.
He quickly checked on the vitals of the poor guy who had psychological issues. Thankfully, there were signs of a pulse. So he promptly carried him inside and rushed to the hospital.