“Yesterday, the world changed in ways we don’t yet understand. Across Asia, Europe, Africa, even here in America, entire locations have seen people disappear without warning.

  We don’t know why. But we are mobilizing every resource—scientists, first responders, and our military. I’ve spoken to leaders worldwide. They are looking to us for answers, and we will lead, like we always have.

  I know you are scared. I know families are in pain, desperate for answers. We will find them. We will not stop until we know where your loved ones are—and we will bring them home.

  But panic helps no one. There will be rumors, fake reports. Trust official updates. Support one another. Together, we will face this unknown and come out stronger, because that’s what the United States does.

  Thank you, and God bless America.”

  —Excerpt from U.S. Presidential Emergency Address one day after the day of The Crossing

  Sid POV

  “What do you mean you figured it out?” asked Sid, eyebrows raised.

  Varun’s breathing was still heavy from the run he’d taken moments ago. But there was an almost childlike thrill in his voice. “The skill. I think I know how it works now. Dash. It’s like my body just… moved on its own when I willed it.” He got up and started running in circles around the clearing.

  Mahesh threw his hands up. “Are you seriously doing this now? Running around like some moron while we have an injured man and no idea where we are?” His voice cracked on the last word.

  The injured man eased back against a tree and, with his friend’s help, slid to the ground. “I will manage,” he said, giving her a small nod.

  He lifted his gaze to Mahesh. “He is not wrong. We need to decide where we are going.”

  Mahesh stepped forward, seizing the question as if it were a lifeline. “We find more people, someone’s bound to know something. Maybe there’s a town or a road nearby.” His tone was firm, but his eyes betrayed uncertainty. “Varun, enough running around. We’re wasting time.”

  “Who died and made you king?” Varun shot back, gripping a tree to halt his momentum, pivoting sharply to a stop.

  Mahesh’s voice rang through the trees. “Stop messing around. Our lives are at stake. This is not a game.”

  “Oh sure, so you’re the expert now? You froze back there when the boar attacked. Sid and Rohan were the ones who killed it. You? You just stood there like a damn mannequin,” said Varun, voice dripping with venom.

  “What did you just say?” Mahesh closed the distance, voice was low, dangerous.

  “You heard me.” Varun stepped forward, adrenaline making his hands shake. “You’re barking orders now? After doing jack shit when it mattered?”

  Rohan stepped between them, hands raised. “Enough. We’re stressed, scared, and we need each other alive—”

  But Mahesh’s self-control snapped like brittle glass. He shoved past Rohan, grabbing Varun by the collar and pulling him forward. Varun, already tense, raised his fists in a poor imitation of a boxer’s stance.

  “Don’t,” Rohan warned, but Mahesh’s fist was already moving.

  The punch caught Varun on the side of the jaw—not a clean knockout blow, but enough to send him sprawling onto the damp earth. He groaned, clutching his face as his head swam.

  Mahesh froze, staring at his own trembling hand. For a heartbeat, he seemed to realize what he’d done… then looked away, jaw tight.

  Rohan planted a palm on Mahesh’s chest and pushed him back. “Mahesh, enough. Not here.”

  Aditi knelt in the leaf litter and shook Varun gently. “Varun… Varun… can you hear me?” His reply was a thin murmur lost under the hush of the trees.

  Sid eased an arm behind Varun’s shoulders. “Water, anyone?”

  “Here.” The injured man lobbed a bottle from where he sat propped against a rough-barked trunk, one leg stiff, breath shallow.

  Sid sprinkled water on Varun until his eyes focused again.

  “Piss off, Sid.” Varun swatted at Sid’s hand, kneaded his jaw, then cut a glare at Mahesh, confusion and anger mixed.

  The silence pressed down on them, broken only by the tremble in Aditi’s breath.

  Rohan stepped in, positioning himself between Varun and Mahesh. “This stops now. I don’t care what history you two have—you hit another teammate again, and I don’t care where we are, you’re out. Understand?” His tone was sharper than anyone had ever heard from him in the office.

  Mahesh let out a tight breath and glanced aside. “Fine.” His fists remained clenched.

  “Everyone focus,” Rohan said, forcing the group to move forward. “Let’s check what we have—phones, water, anything useful.”

  This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.

  Sid tapped his pocket. “Just have my phone with me.”

  Varun raised his hand. “Phone.” Aditi held hers up. “Same here.”

  “Have my phone, ID card, and wallet with me,” said Mahesh.

  Mahesh’s remaining teammate lifted his bag. “Laptop, phone, bottle.”

  The fast-talking girl adjusted her own backpack. “We have our laptop bags, lunchboxes, and two bottles of water.”

  “Good. I dropped my laptop bag when the boar charged.” Rohan pointed through the brush. “Mahesh, with me. We retrieve it and come straight back.” They slipped toward the trampled ground where the fight had been.

  Varun opened his mouth as if to argue, then thought better of it. Mahesh gave him a look—less hostile now, more tired—and followed Rohan out of sight.

  Sid crouched beside Varun, lowering his voice. “Let it go for now. You don’t want to split this group any more than it already is.”

  Varun dragged his hands down his face and sighed. “I thought I’d figured out Dash, but it just didn’t trigger earlier.”

  Sid tilted his head, thinking. “Maybe there’s a cooldown, like in games?”

  “You think we’re stuck in a game?” Varun asked, a spark of hope sneaking into his voice.

  “I never said that,” Sid replied, steady but quiet. He had learned this rhythm long ago—Varun’s excitement, his need for someone to believe him. In college, it used to start after a smoke, when Varun would rant about cosmic hierarchies and humans being playthings of gods. Sid had laughed back then. Now, surrounded by confusion and fear, it wasn’t funny anymore—he swallowed his reaction, letting a blank expression settle in its place.

  Aditi shot them an irritated look. “What are you two even talking about?”

  “He thinks we’re stuck in a game because I can see my character status and even got a magical skill,” Varun blurted before Sid could intervene.

  Sid’s expression hardened. “No, I don’t think that,” he said, voice flat and even, glancing at Aditi. The last thing he needed was her seeing him as part of Varun’s nonsense. “You said you’d figured something out, then ran around like an idiot.”

  Aditi drew a slow breath, trying to wrestle fear with questions. “Why can you see something the rest of us can’t?” she asked. Her voice trembled at first, but softened into a plea for something that made sense.

  Varun leaned forward, eager to answer. “Maybe it’s because of the crystal. I remember seeing the word ‘unlocked’ when I first looked at my character sheet.”

  Sid gave a small, crooked smile. “Fine. Next time we kill a boar, someone else picks up the crystal to test your theory.”

  “We’re not killing anything, Sid. We should try to get out of here, not hunt animals,” Aditi said, furrowing her brows.

  “Did that thing look like a normal boar to you?” Varun shot back, his voice rising. The adrenaline from the fight still clung to him, and her words hit a raw nerve.

  “Cool down, man.” Sid kept his gaze on Varun and lifted a hand, letting the silence settle. “Let’s figure out how you used that skill earlier, yeah?”

  “Fine.” Varun glared at Aditi—she stared back until he spoke. “I was running towards you guys, thought about the skill, and it clicked. I moved like a bullet and crashed into you.”

  “Try it again,” Sid said. “Go back to where you were before and do everything exactly the same.”

  “Alright,” Varun replied, nodding before jogging off in the direction Rohan and Mahesh had gone.

  Sid turned back to Aditi. “You okay?” he asked, tone soft. “Don’t mind him; he says whatever comes to mind.”

  Aditi managed a faint smile. “You two seem close. Were you college friends?” She let the words bridge the quiet.

  “Yeah, same hostel, knew each other,” said Sid, shrugging. His tone was casual, maybe too casual. He clearly didn’t want to say more.

  “But at work, you barely even talk,” she said, curiosity edging her voice. “Honestly, it felt like you were avoiding him.”

  Sid gave a short laugh. “I’m a serious guy at work,” he said, lifting his brows in mock authority. Aditi chuckled, the sound faint against the backdrop of the quiet forest. It was enough to ease the air for a moment, but not enough for him to open up.

  Sid came from a family of overachievers: his father had received India’s Arjuna Award, a national honor for elite athletes; his mother’s clinic had grown into a small hospital; and his brother seemed to collect academic medals as if they were souvenirs. He was not where he had thought he would be after finishing college, and he blamed himself for that.

  That version of him, who joked through nights in the hostel, was left behind. He had been trying to rebuild, to find something that looked like success. Somewhere in that process, he had stepped back from his old friends, and part of him still was not sure if that was growth or escape.

  “Ahh…” Varun’s yell interrupted them as he zoomed past, barely slowing down before stopping far ahead. “I figured it out!” he cried out, jogging back toward them.

  “Varun, what the hell was that?” Rohan asked as he and Mahesh walked up to the group.

  “I think I figured out the Dash skill—and even leveled it up!” Varun said in an excited voice.

  “Dash skill? What are you even talking about?” Mahesh asked, genuine curiosity replacing his earlier hostility.

  “I think it came from the boar. Remember how it moved like a bullet. I can do that now. Let me show you,” Varun said as he started jogging. He looked straight ahead, then suddenly bolted past everyone and zoomed through the forest, then skidded to a stop several meters away.

  Almost everyone had his or her mouth agape watching this stunt, despite having seen it three times already.

  Mahesh’s teammate broke the silence. “That’s… insane.”

  Sid crossed his arms. “Or it’s exactly like those games. Monster drops an item, item gives an ability. The only difference is… we’re in it now.”

  Aditi’s voice trembled. “We’re… we’re not supposed to have powers. This isn’t normal. We should focus on leaving, not… not using magic.”

  “It’s not magic,” Varun said, then paused. “Okay, maybe it is. I don’t know. But ignoring it won’t make it go away.”

  “So you think he’s not imagining words appearing out of thin air?” Rohan asked Sid. He was still having trouble believing any of this was real and had concluded that Varun was imagining things.

  “Let’s have someone else pick up the crystal next time. Then we’ll know for sure if it’s causing this,” Sid said, laying out his reasoning.

  “I hope there’s no next time. We barely made it out of the first one alive,” Rohan voiced his inner thoughts.

  “Rohan and I were talking—we need to find shelter. Standing around in the open will make us easy targets for whatever is out there,” said Mahesh, speaking to the group.

  “Oh sure, maybe we’ll find a cozy cave with a bonfire already waiting,” Varun said sarcastically, heading back to them.

  “Varun, not now!” Rohan cut him off before another argument could start.

  “Everyone, grab something to defend yourselves—sticks, sharp stones, anything you can use,” Sid said, already scanning the ground for anything useful.

  The group fanned out. Varun chose a thick branch and began shaving one end into a point with a sharp rock. Rohan found a sturdy Y-shaped branch and handed it to the injured man for use as a crutch.

  “Take this,” the fast-talking girl said to her friend, passing one of the branches she got from Mahesh.

  Sid walked up to Rohan in silence. “Should we split up to look for people or shelter?” he asked.

  Rohan shook his head. “No. If we run into another monster, we’re finished. We move together. Slow and careful.”

  The injured man nodded, clutching the makeshift crutch.

  When they regrouped, tension still lingered. Varun avoided Mahesh’s gaze, jaw tight. Aditi kept her distance from Varun, eyes flicking toward him every few seconds like she wasn’t sure whether to be impressed or terrified.

  Sid noticed and let out a quiet sigh. The group was hanging by a thread; one misstep could shatter it.

  “Alright,” Rohan said, picking a direction. “We move as one. Sid, mark trees as we go. Keep your eyes open. No surprises.”

  The nine of them set off slowly, Varun leading with Sid bringing up the rear. Their improvised weapons were crude, their footsteps cautious - unaware of the many eyes tracking their every move, waiting for the perfect chance to strike.