Soon, what he was most afraid of came true, the normal people were starting to feel tired out of nowhere and most of them reported feeling cold. They were starving.
But Jean had thought about this for a while, if he couldn't prevent a future from happening, he could still delay it. Theoretically, he could just go to a different continent and hunt for some crabs, lest they attract the Zirtues.
However there was one big problem to this, and that was he was but one man, to hunt and carry food for over two thousand people across continents, was possible, but would take a long time.
The normal people would die before then.
He quickly discarded the thought of cannibalism and tried to come up with more creative solutions.
'Eating the dirt won't even work, it had no nutrients at all.'
The best but temporary solution that he could think of right now involved Aceso. But he still had to think of a better solution. Erika was totally useless, he had tried to do something about that immersion of hers.
He tried kicking the book away, which led to Erika literally biting off a big chunk of his foot. He also tried taking it away normally but she injected something into his arm which made it 'collapse' on itself into a ball.
He just gave up after a few hours. Night came and his eyelids became heavy again, he could skip these dreams by turning off his brain but why should he?
He then closed his eyes, embracing the deep darkness.
***
It was the same sight as the last ones, however this time everything was silent. It took less time to adjust to the dream since he had already braced himself for it.
Closing his eyes once more, he concentrated on everything around him, every speck of dust, every movement in the air. However, he felt nothing.
'Maybe this one isn't a puzzle one?'
Thinking that, he opened his eyes, and didn't die. He stood up and looked around the shelter, still exactly the same sight as what he had seen before.
He climbed up the stairs, still the same moon. He called out to it the same way but it didn't react.
'Alright, this definitely isn't a puzzle type.'
He dropped back through one of the tubes and tried to pick up Abel, just for fun. But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't move it by an inch.
'This is quite different.'
He then got into the middle of the shelter, where Erika was flipping through the stone book, and just sat down.
'What am I supposed to do here? I take it back, this is a puzzle type.'
He looked up at the ceiling, there were no holes. He had checked it already but it wouldn't hurt to check again. He then lied down on his back and closed his eyes.
'Can I sleep inside a dream?'
'What is happening?'
'What is this?'
'Who am I?'
'...'
'I didn't fall into some trap and thought it was a dream, did I?'
'Did I?'
He opened his eyes and climbed the stairs out of the shelter once again. Once out, he stared at the moon, he noticed that it hadn't moved since he last saw it.
Looking on the ground, he still saw the endless darkness, however somewhere in the distance, he saw something bright.
Instinctively taking a step into the darkness, he was surprised both by his action and the fact that the darkness acted like a floor, allowing him to walk on it.
He walked and walked and walked, but the light still seemed so distant, almost like he was never meant to arrive at that light in the first place.
'Wait.'
He looked back behind him, and everything was black. He quickly tried his hardest to get back to the temporary shelter but to no avail, he turned back again but the distant light was no more.
He looked up, but the moon was also no more. Everything was black, pitch black, he couldn't even see his body anymore.
***
Pushing the book away, Erika wiped away the sweat that accumulated on her forehead. It took an awful long time but thankfully it was done.
Much to her disappointment, nothing about the Platonics was mentioned in the stone book. Looking at Anastasia a good distance away, she then tried to pick the stone book up to return it.
However, everything suddenly turned black.
***
'Is he having another one of those dreams again?'
Anastasia was currently with her followers, all 19 of them. She had informed them about what Jean told her but they refuses to leave her side, seemingly scared of what would happen.
She then looked to the center of the shelter when she saw a lone book on the ground and a trace of blood, Erika was nowhere to be found.
'Isn't this?'
Moving immediately, she threw a maggot in the book's direction, trying to make it pull her to the center. But then her vision went black.
Shocked gasps echoed from around the maggot which was now on the floor as slowly but surely all sound exited the shelter.
***
Having heard screams, Aceso immediately turned on her brain. It actually automatically turned on, as a type of insurance in situations like these.
Looking over to the source of the screams, she suddenly heard a screech from beside her, from Iris. She tried to turn her head to look in her direction but her consciousness faded.
Similarly, all the occupants in the shelter experienced the same thing, except for two people. Both dreaming of something, someone.
Above ground, the sky suddenly shook and shifted, the stars left their original positions and aligned themselves, looking like a Witch's Knot.
Then something flew in the sky, before stopping abruptly and curled up. It then shone bright and brighter before stopping.
It and the Knot stayed a distance apart, looking like a pair of eyes, looking at the Earth.