I leaned against the wall at the void deck, chest still pounding from the chaos at the market. My legs trembled; my hands slick with sweat and kerosene. The adrenaline hadn’t fully faded, but my body was starting to realize what had just happened.

  The neighborhood stretched out before me, familiar yet fractured. The blocks of Yishun rose silently, their lights flickering sporadically. The streets were littered with debris. Overturned trash bins, scattered newspapers, a lone plastic chair on its side. Faint smoke curled from a fire a few blocks away, and the smell of burnt kerosene lingered.

  I swallowed hard. My wife’s face flashed in my mind, waiting back in Woodlands. If she was even safe. I forced the thought down.

  One step at a time.

  I moved cautiously, every shadow tightening my chest. Only minutes had passed since the market, yet the neighborhood already felt wrong.

  Then I saw a figure slumped near the next stairwell. A resident?

  I approached carefully. “Hey… you okay?”

  He blinked, struggling to focus. “I… I think so… I don’t… know what’s happening.”

  I tore off a strip of my shirt and pressed it to a shallow cut on his arm. My hands shook, but I forced them steady. “It’s going to be okay. Can you remember where you live?”

  After a long pause, he whispered, “One-fourteen… Block 114…”

  “Alright. Can you walk if I support you?” I offered my arm.

  He leaned on me, stumbling slightly, and I guided him down the void deck, careful around debris and overturned furniture.

  “Do you remember what happened?” I asked quietly.

  “I… I was at the market. Something, creatures. I ran… then everything went blank.”

  “Yeah. Same,” I muttered. The memory of their glowing eyes and jagged claws still burned in my mind. “Just hold on. We’ll get you home.”

  We paused to catch our breath. “We should… call someone. Police, ambulance…”

  He nodded weakly and dug out his phone.

  I dialed the emergency number, my heart still hammering. The phone rang once, twice and cut off. I tried again, but No Signal flashed across the screen.

  “Try yours,” I said.

  This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

  He did and received the same result.

  I cursed under my breath. “Great. No one’s coming.”

  He shivered. “What… what do we do?”

  “We get you home,” I said firmly. “I’ll patch you up as best I can. Then we figure out what’s next. But first, we move.”

  I hesitated, then asked quietly, “Did you… see anything? Like numbers, text in your vision?”

  He blinked, looking confused. “What? No. Just… creatures. People running. I didn’t see anything else.”

  I nodded, forcing myself to take deep breaths to calm my heart.

  Must’ve been a hallucination then. Walk. One step at a time.

  We moved through the blocks toward his home. Every sound, a distant dog bark, a rolling can, fluttering plastic made me flinch. Somewhere above, I thought I saw a curtain shift, then go still. Survivors? Or my imagination?

  Helping him slowed me down, but it also made me see the world clearer. All around me were smashed planters, faint smoke and flyers tumbling in the wind.

  “Almost there,” I said, pointing to his block. “Do you have family?”

  He shook his head weakly. “No… just me.”

  He was old, maybe late seventies, maybe eighty. In Singapore, it wasn’t unusual. Too many elderly left to fend for themselves. Sometimes, to die alone. I shook the thought away.

  “Alright. We’ll get you inside, patch you up, and figure it out.”

  Finally, we reached the stairwell. I helped him up, careful with each step, until we reached his flat on the second floor. He stopped and looked at me. “Thank you. I don’t know what I would’ve done alone.”

  “Are you sure you’re, okay?”

  “I think I’m just in shock. I’ll be fine,” he said softly.

  “Okay. Stay indoors. Keep trying your phone. I… I need to go,” I said.

  He nodded and disappeared into his flat.

  I stood outside for a moment, staring down the street. Woodlands suddenly felt impossibly far.

  The chaos was quiet now, like the proverbial calm between storms. Smoke curled from distant fires, flickering lights threw long shadows over scattered debris. My chest was still tight, but I forced my thoughts to focus.

  I had to get home.

  I lingered at the corridor railing, my mind racing. I needed a plan. I needed a vantage point. The lift was dead, so I took the stairs up to the twelfth floor. By the time I reached the top, I was winded, silently cursing my 45-year-old dad bod. My wife had warned me about my health, her voice echoing in my head.

  Block 114 sat on a hill at the corner of Sembawang Road and Yishun Ave 7, leading toward Gambas Avenue, the short highway to Woodlands. I peered down from the twelth floor. The normally pristine highway was cracked and broken, fissures running through the asphalt, faint flames licking from the gaps.

  “What the hell…” I whispered.

  I didn’t know how the town had become this, but I knew my wife was alone. There’d be no buses and no help. If I wanted to reach her, I’d have to walk.

  Normally, it was less than an hour’s trip. But if those things were still out there… the open highway would be suicide. There would be no cover and no buildings. Just me... exposed.

  I traced the route in my mind, recalling every corner, every rest stop, trying to form a plan. But then, a voice spoke to me.

  [Pathfinder Feat Unlocked]

  The voice was my own. Speaking inside my head.

  What the hell... Pathfinder? The game?

  I used to play the tabletop RPG with my friends, even ran a few campaigns. Memories of laughter, dice rolls, and long nights surfaced and quickly vanished as a map unfolded in my mind’s eye. Like a living satellite view, floating just behind my vision.

  A blinking white dot pulsed at the center. I focused on it.

  Chris.

  Me. That was me...

  The map drew a faint glowing line from my location, tracing down the highway toward Woodlands.

  It’s showing me a route home…

  Was I… in a game?

  About void decks

  Chris runs into a “void deck” here. No, he did not phase into the void. He is still very much in Singapore, unfortunately.

  About Chong Pang Market

  Chong Pang Market & Food Centre is a heartland neighborhood hub in Yishun town, in the north of Singapore. It is the kind of place locals visit for everyday life: a wet market for fresh produce and household staples, and an adjoining hawker centre packed with small stalls selling cooked meals. It is busy, practical, and very “local Singapore,” especially in the evenings.

  It looks like this: