Jesse opened his eyes. The pleasant sound of birds chirping greeted him as he woke up. He felt a cool breeze brush his skin. He smelled things that he never had the chance to smell on the desolate earth, things he only read about but could somehow immediately identify. Soil and trees and flowers. The smell of a truly living world.

  “Am I dead?” He said before coughing. Blood splattered from his lips and the feeling of stabbing pain radiated his side. “If I am then I must be in hell.” He muttered. He sat up and looked around.

  “Where am I? What happened?” He said once again. No answers. Then it all came back to him, all of the memories of what happened with the Sleipnir Gate. What had happened to his family.

  “Rebecca?” He yelled suddenly, quickly scanning his surroundings. He was in a forest, which meant he wasn’t on earth. The grass felt strange on his skin. He spotted debris from the lab scattered around the area.

  Golem, can you tell me where we ended up? He asked his AI assistant.

  “Critical power failure.” Was his only reply.

  “Shit, okay.” He said. He then noticed his HUD was down as well and no longer displaying information. “Rebecca!” He tried again. Silence answered. Faintly he heard a yapping in the distance.

  “Aegis?” He yelled, though it didn’t sound like her. Hadn’t he come through the rift holding her?

  He stood, and nearly fell over as his head spun. He waited for the stars in his vision to clear, and then looked around more intentionally. He could see that debris was spread all around, knocking over brush and sometimes even trees. As he watched, a ripple in the air appeared and another piece of debris was deposited a few hundred feet away with a loud crash. His legs vibrated from the ground shaking impact.

  Okay I need to find Rebecca and Aegis. Where should I go first? What do I do? He thought to himself.

  It made him sweat to not have Golem and his database of knowledge available. He had every book, every article, even basically every opinion of all of human history carefully cataloged and stored. To suddenly lose that, well Jesse felt more alone than ever before.

  He looked at the trees swaying in the light breeze. “You know Golem, this would be beautiful under different circumstances.”

  “Critical power failure.”

  “Yeah I know.” He sighed. He started walking. The yapping sound still continued in the background, was it getting closer? He focused on it. He had never heard that kind of noise before, it sounded like some sort of dog. Could it be a wolf or maybe a coyote? Those only lived in zoos, though he had only read about the places. He had always hoped to visit one day. The cost of travel without sponsorship was always the deterring factor.

  Deafening silence suddenly rang through the forest. Jesse drew in a breath, his pulse thudded in his ears as he strained to pick up any noise.

  Something burst from the brush in front of him and knocked him to the ground. It was a massive coyote. Coyotes weren’t supposed to be big were they? It was about the size of a German shepherd but dense with rippling muscle. He scrambled back away from it when two more came from the brush.

  The three rounded on him. Jesse’s eyes widened and his heart tried to beat out of his chest. One launched forward, teeth barred in a vicious snarl. He instinctively threw his hand up to block and it clamped down. No pain followed.

  It had bitten directly on the AI housing implant in his arm. The module, being made of metal, caused the coyote creature to yelp and Jesse noticed a tooth fragment fall away as it jumped back.

  Jesse continued to scramble backward, breathing heavily and in severe pain from his rib and bruises.

  This is it, i am going to die here. He thought. To coyotes of all things. Nearly extinct canines.

  He noticed a ripple in the air nearby. A small rift opened in the air and Aegis dropped out.

  Wait, how? Jesse thought as a wave of concern mixed with relief flooded him.

  She appeared disoriented for a brief moment before taking in the scene with the coyotes. She immediately moved to the attack. Aegis slammed into the side of one of the coyotes, taking it out of Jesse’s line of sight.

  The other two, after being momentarily distracted by the large dog's appearance, turned back to Jesse. It was clear they intended to finish him off quickly and then help their companion fight.

  One launched forward and clamped down on his other arm, the one without the metallic AI module to protect it. Blood welled around the creature's teeth and Jesse felt… Nothing oddly enough.

  Then it hit him, a severe and sharp pain rocketed up the nerves of his arm. He screamed as the other coyote grabbed his leg, though he was largely protected by the sturdy brown work pants that he wore.

  The coyotes pulled hard and Jesse felt like his limbs were going to pop out of their sockets. He screamed in pain as he battered the coyote that grabbed his right arm with his left but it held strong.

  “Let go of me!” He pointlessly yelled at the creatures, kicking at the one with his free leg.

  Suddenly the pressure on his leg was released and he looked to find that Aegis had tackled that coyote. Now she fought two at once and it wasn’t going well for her.

  “Aegis no!” Jesse yelled. He could see dozens of punctures on her skin and she was panting heavily. The original coyote she fought didn’t look much better, with deep scratches and punctures all along it’s body. It poured blood out of a wound on its neck.

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  I have to help her. He thought desperately.

  Jesse slammed his left arm down on the coyote that was still clamped on his right arm, this time aiming with his AI module. It connected with a loud crack and the coyote stumbled back with a yelp. Blood poured from his arm and it burned like it was on fire.

  Jesse scrambled backwards until his hand landed on something hard. He closed his hand around it without looking and swung as the coyote leapt for his throat. It connected with the coyote's head with a wet thump. The creature fell to the side, completely limp.

  That felt so gross. He thought momentarily before looking down at what he was holding. It was a piece of rebar, debris sucked through the rift at some point. It was lined with chunks of concrete and the tip was wet with blood.

  Jesse scrambled to his feet and ran to where Aegis fought. He brought the rebar down onto the less injured coyote with all his strength. The feeling of the rebar connecting with the coyote, the bones crunching, made him sick. He swung twice more, with loud cracks on each swing. The coyote finally went limp.

  Jesse looked to Aegis, who had the last coyote by the throat and was shaking it side to side violently. It too went limp and she released it. She ran over to him, panting heavily, and he looked at her wounds in horror.

  “Aegis… you saved me. Look at you though. What are we going to do?” He said to her, kneeling down. She bled deeply from many puncture wounds. He didn’t know the first thing about how to deal with them.

  Do you stitch puncture wounds? Where would I even get the thread? I should have taken those first aid classes the company offered. Jesse thought. Golem would know. It could also just scan her and tell me if she was going to be okay. I can’t lose both of them.

  Jesse felt his heart sink and a tightening of his chest as he looked over his beloved dog, who had tried desperately to defend him. A moving red blur caught the corner of his eye. He turned and saw an ethereal red mist rise from the first coyote's body. It curled in the air as if it were smoke.

  “What is that?” He frantically whispered to Aegis.

  Suddenly it shot towards him, moving far too quickly for a gas sitting outdoors with no wind. He fell backwards as he tried to move away. He desperately started crawling away but that wasn’t nearly fast enough.

  What the hell? Why is everything here trying to kill me? He desperately thought.

  Jesse felt, well not pain, but something. Warm and cold at the same time as the gaseous substance was absorbed into his chest. It was oddly soothing.

  Well that’s unexpected. He thought.

  His heart thundered as he looked down at himself. The holes in his arm began to knit back together. He gasped as the pain from his injuries instantly disappeared. Even his broken rib seemed to move back in place with a click that made him feel somewhat uneasy. Bones shouldn’t move like that.

  Wow. What is that stuff? He thought, bewildered. That’s amazing.

  Jesse looked toward Aegis and saw a stream of crimson mist enter her, just as a second entered himself. He watched her wounds close and breathed a sigh of pure relief. He began to laugh uncontrollably at the absurdity of their situation.

  What was this? Magic? Wait, Bradford had done some unexplainable things back in the Gate room hadn’t he? He broke the glass of the control room and flew! Either way, magic is just a word for things we haven’t explained scientifically yet. His mind raced through the internal dialogue in rapid succession before snapping into the only thing that mattered. Rebecca. Someone else can find the answers to these questions.

  Jesse stood, his stomach churned slightly. Something strange was definitely happening, and while he was sure there was a rational explanation, it did defy the science he knew. All his life the world behaved in a predictable and measurable way. It couldn’t just suddenly change and make no sense.

  He found standing was easier than he remembered it being. At his 48 years of age he had grown a bit stiff. He wasn’t unfit per say, but he didn’t work out or work a particularly physically demanding job so he did have a small gut and wasn’t particularly muscular. He picked up the rebar, now his improvised weapon. Was it lighter? He gave it a little swing and found it came easily.

  Huh, I wish I could have Golem see what’s happening. Jesse thought to himself. He felt strangely alone without his constant companion.

  Jesse looked to Aegis. “Thank you girl! You saved me! I’m so glad you’re okay.” He said it in that voice that people use when talking to pets. Almost like talking to a baby but also not the same. She wagged her tail happily and licked him, leaving streaks of blood where her tongue met his skin. Gross.

  “Now we need to find Rebecca.” Jesse said while eyeing his dog. Was she bigger than before? Fewer white hairs?

  He looked around at his wooded surroundings.

  “Well I guess we'll just pick a direction. She can’t have gotten too far” He said to Aegis. He shrugged and started walking.

  “Maybe we do some sort of grid search. The debris is spread pretty wide so I think this side is unstable and doesn’t deposit things exactly where they came in. Surely it’s not too big though. We will know the edge when the debris field stops.” He thought through their situation aloud.

  As he walked he didn’t notice any particular pattern to the debris, nor did he see any tracks. Though admittedly tracking wasn’t a skill Jesse possessed so unless tracks were obvious, he assumed he would probably miss them.

  Aegis trotted along happily next to him. She occasionally ran off to chase a squirrel or other small forest creature. She didn’t really try to catch them though and was content with the chase. She would occasionally dart back in front of him protectively at a nearby noise or a distant yap from more coyotes. The sound sent a chill down Jesse’s spine.

  “I’m so glad you’re with me girl. This place is so strange. So colorful. It would be beautiful under different circumstances. And if it wasn’t trying to kill is.” Jesse said to her. He made sure to stop frequently and give her good scratches.

  “We will find Rebecca soon and we will get to Kara when she comes through. Somehow.”

  Something about how Aegis appeared was eating at him though. It felt off. He just couldn’t quite put his finger on what. As he walked he considered it but couldn’t figure it out so he decided to move on.

  The land was getting more hilly and the sun was beginning to set in the sky, but still he hadn’t reached the end of the debris field. How big is this debris field? Maybe mapping it out isn’t going to be so easy. He thought.

  He could already feel his mouth growing dry from the few hours of hiking. “We are going to need to find some water. And food.” He said aloud.

  He approached a cliff face that appeared to go up about two dozen feet. On the side of it was a wide opening. A cave it seemed. “Should we go in? She wouldn’t be in there would she?” He asked Aegis, who didn’t reply. She let out a soft whine and shied away from it. He felt a slight breeze from inside the cave. Something felt strange about it but Jesse couldn’t place it. He squinted, trying to see inside. Was it glowing blue? Yes it definitely was. It was faint, perhaps deep inside, but there was a distinct blue glow to the cave. Maybe a bioluminescence? Some sort of plant?

  Jesse stepped into the mouth of the cave.