Hundreds, maybe even thousands of creatures and organisms were in a now deepened forest right outside the factory. Just beforehand, however, there was only a desert as empty as a haunted house.

I tapped Steve on the shoulder but he had suddenly been knocked out cold, seemingly out of energy. I was confused about what even happened, why it happened, and everything else for that matter.

I tried to pick myself up but my legs again didn't work so I couldn't. Without anything to cling on to help me up, I attempted to crawl around Steve and look for the rest of my friends. I grunted and paced my crawls as I went over Steve just to get to the other side of him.

It didn't take long for me to crawl my way out of the factory as I glanced around the newly spawned forested area. I observed numerous items about this new region.

I mean, first of all, there were the creatures that I hadn't seen or even heard of before, just like the creatures back in the forest of Colganla. Except this time was different in that I hadn't even the slightest clue of what these animals were. I tried to also observe how many animals there were which I couldn't even begin to count in the first place.

So, there I was on the ground, alone. I tried to get up by placing my hand on the rubble from the factory's roof but I slipped and fell flat on the ground once again. Groaning harshly, I tried to look around once again to see if any of my friends were there or if there was a creature that happened to pounce on me from the trees.

I saw no one apart from Steve.

I went deeper into the forest yet unfortunately, my strength had run out once again and I crawled back slower than before. I was breathing heavily because of the energy I had lost. Whether that was because of the desert or from those... spirits. I had no clue.

I felt like I was dreaming and concluded in my brain that this must've been some sort of hallucination. There was no chance the factory would just blow up a massive crater on its wall, right?! And there was no way that a forest would just pop up out of nowhere from the desert. And no way only Steve would be right beside me right!? This had to be a hallucination.

It HAD to be.

As I crawled back out of breath, I saw Emily near a tree looking at the ground in despair. I called out her name even though my voice was parched from not drinking water for so long,

"Emily!" I shouted in a raspy voice. As she looked down at me, she seemed relieved as she picked herself up and sat down next to me. I said,

"Hey, Emily! Oh my god, am I glad to see you! Are you okay? How have you been ever since those spirits escaped?!"

However, Emily didn't talk and instead pointed at her mouth, then created a cross with her arms and shook her head. I understandably asked,

"What happened? Why aren't you speaking to me?"

She rolled her eyes and tried to do the same gestures again, this time much slower.

"Ohh, you can't speak huh? But... why?" I asked her.

She shrugged and looked miserable, the sweater that Jack gave her was in her hands. I looked at the sweater carefully and asked her,

"Can I see that?" I pointed to the sweater. She nodded and gave me it.

I flipped the sweater on its back and saw the same word stitched on it. Faith.

My spine tingled and I closed my eyes. I HAVE TO BE HALLUCINATING RIGHT!? But everything looked so real! From Steve sleeping in the factory to Emily sitting right next to me, everything seemed so real. A gush of wind blew at my hair and as I felt it, I had an idea that was for sure going to get me to stop hallucinating or possibly confirm I wasn't. I tapped Emily's shoulder and put the sweater on her lap. I looked her dead in the eyes and declared,

"Slap me." She looked utterly confused and her facial expression contorted as if to say,

"Why do I have to slap you?"

"Because I want to make sure I'm not hallucinating. Now just slap me!" I exclaimed. She rubbed her hands and dug her fingernails into the dirt. She tried to shape words in the dirt patch. She was trying to say,

"I need reasons to slap you."

"Oh. Uhm, ah I got it!" I stated, relaxing my shoulders I stated,

"Do you know the real reason why I was able to find this factory at all in the first place? And how I knew you had that dream about this same sweater having this same word?" I asked her. She sat bewildered for a moment and shook her head.

"Well, it's because last night, or well in reality the night before last night, Veronica came to my window. Initially, I kept her out because why would I let her into my house after everything she's done right? But she had some information about the factory and its approximate location so I had to take the chance! I invited her into my house after that and she explained about what happened with the factory, the story behind it, how to get there in the first place, and—"

She slapped me across the face so forcefully that I fell to the ground and lay there for a solid minute or so, groaning. As I got back up she looked furious, her face was all types of red, and her eyes...

Wait what was up with her eyes?

"Emily, your eyes," I stated. She looked confusingly at me as if she was furiously saying,

"What about my eyes!?"

"Uhm, here!" I exclaimed, getting a piece of glass that had been ripped out of the building and passing it to her. She held it up to her face and looked directly at her eyes.

Her eye color had changed from a light green to a deep yellow. She looked in amazement and horror. I also looked at my eyes from the opposite side of the glass and saw my eyes were a tad darker than before.

"And uh, the reason why I knew about your dream is because I had that same exact dream. I wish I could talk to you more about it but since none of our friends are back, a massive explosion might've happened, our eye color changed, and a forest suddenly appeared right in front of us. I think it's safe to say once everyone gets back, I'll explain the dream." She nodded vigorously and once she got up, she held her hand out to help me up.

"Oh, I can't get up. Just like how you can't speak." I grunted while I tried to get into a more comfortable position. Emily seemed like she was about to try to ask another question, probably on why I couldn't get up and why she couldn't speak in the first place.

However suddenly, I heard rustles in the bushes in front of us.

At first, I didn't mind these rustles because there were such numerous animals I hadn't learned about yet I thought maybe it was just a small little creature. Regardless, the rustling became more and more prevalent and quicker. As if the creature was rushing towards us from beyond the bushes.

Emily stood up tall in a panic with me also alarmed too. But as I couldn't pick myself up, I desperately crawled back into the factory. While I made my way up into the factory and nearly pierced my chest with a broken piece of glass. We saw a creature that shook us to our core.

The creature was made up of goop and a solid crystal-like material. It had eighty-ish teeth (I couldn't count because I was terrified of it and actively trying to run away) and eight arms while it walked towards us in a bizarre motion like when a zombie would try to walk to its victim. I began feeling dizzy as it kept walking to us on its hind legs. Its eyes were mesmerizing with a deep purple hue alongside stars all around the edges of its gaze.

Emily suddenly dropped to her knees, also mesmerized by the illusion of the creature upon us. Its eyes were like dipping ourselves into a vast galaxy where we didn't know what would happen. As it walked toward us, I heard voices such as screaming children and adults speaking from the creature's eyes,

"HELP US!"

"YOU MUST ESCAPE!"

"DON'T LOOK INTO ITS EYES!"

However, my brain was already encapsulated in its stare. I didn't listen to these voices and kept looking into the creature's eyes.

But then, I thought I saw another figure out of the corner of my eye behind me. Yet, I couldn't look there since I was still looking at the eyes of the creature. I continued to stare into its gaping gaze and I heard a shout from behind me,

"GEORGE! Get out of there! What are you doing?!"

It sounded like a female voice, but I still wouldn't look behind me as I moved closer to the creature. That was until I suddenly felt a tug at my shirt and I got pulled back from the creature. As I was pulled back, it let out a horrific roar and chased me. While I was starting to crawl away, broken from the illusion of its eyes, I was snatched up and the person who picked me up ran as quickly as possible to the factory with a few stumbles here and there because of the massive amounts of rubble left over from the explosion.

Once we got back to the factory, the creature turned back and hurried to the forest once more. I soon realized after glancing upward that it was Maurice who had carried me there. I was about to talk and say thank you to her for saving my life.

She then projectile vomited on the floor with a mixture of food and what seemed like an acidic compound. I asked her,

"Oh crap, are you okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just dizzy is all heh." Maurice responded. Emily got up and helped Maurice clean up herself while I sat up, confused about what just happened and why I couldn't crawl away from that creature in the first place.

"Uhm, a-alright. Do you know what happened to the factory, maybe with that monster outside? Maurice? Emily?" I asked.

Emily shrugged in defeat while Maurice explained,

"I only know an explosion happened and from what I've seen exploring away from the factory, the forest that spawned in out of nowhere is spreading wildly throughout the desert. I thought I was going crazy at first since I'm so dizzy. But I fell through the opening and that's when I realized this wasn't a dream and I'm not going crazy." I agreed with her on that.

"Where's everyone else?" I asked her.

"To be honest I don't know. I heard from Robert that Alice was doing something along the edges of the forest, but other than that one thing from him, nothing else." I nodded and lay down on the floor. It felt oddly warm for being made of pure, cold steel.

Even with this warmth, I had a horrifying thought. What if that creature had smelled me and had somehow found a way back to Altandor because of my smell? Or what if all of the creatures—including the forest itself with its creatures—got to Altandor!? This thought haunted me until I saw someone familiar enter the factory.

"YOOOOOO!!! Are you guys still here at all?! I brought Peo with me since I saw her at the entrance!" Alice asked. She entered through the massive gap that was at the factory wall.

"Oh shoot! Hey Alice! Long time uh... no see huh?" Maurice said.

"Yeah, it's been uhm, troubling to say the very least. Even getting here was a massive struggle." She said.

"Why's that?" I asked her. Maurice excused herself and hunched down toward the grass through the gap in the wall. Emily went over to Maurice and helped her exfoliate.

"Oh, I got launched pretty far away. But believe it or not, I'm unscathed! Just a bit shaken up from the noise I heard while coming over here." I was perplexed by what she said. Not the noise she heard but the "launched pretty far away"part.

"Hey, why do you guys seem so calm with all of this?! It's not like you see this every single day!" Peo asked and to be fair she had a point. Apart from encountering that creature with its deep purple eyes, in reality, I wasn't exactly the most panicked person in the world for releasing a forest throughout the entire world. This wasn't just some small forest too. It was a whole jungle!

"Fair enough, we should be more afraid. But for me, for some odd reason. Something inside me is just keeping me from feeling afraid at all. Hell, even when I was being chased by that beast I didn't feel exactly afraid, more or less confused and curious. Not particularly at the creature, but onto why I wasn't scared." I responded. I looked at my hands and saw that they weren't shaking at all when I saw Maurice barf. Usually, I would be worried for her and everything else around me but I just wasn't.

"Yeah, by this point I would be shaking in absolute agony and fear if I ever saw the monsters and creatures we've seen today. However, I didn't feel anything other than this vomit on my clothes. It's strange and stinky." Maurice said. Emily wiped her clothes down with a piece of cloth that she ripped off from her shorts. While Alice sat down, Peo had a harder time sitting down.

"Do you need help?" I asked her.

"No. I just can't exactly sit down right now. Anytime I try to I get dizzy, maybe I'm just worried about my brother." She said, distancing herself from us as she looked at her brother lying on the floor asleep in concern.

"Don't worry Peo, he's gonna be fine. He just needs some rest, we all do." I stated. Alice got out from her pocket one last candy bar and went around, sharing it with us.

"Thanks," I said. Peo and Emily also thanked Alice but once she got to Maurice, she held her hand up.

"Can't, I'll just throw it up again." Alice nodded sympathetically and sat down next to her, eating the remainder of the chocolate bar.

"Shit," Alice stated as she spat out the chocolate in her mouth.

"What is it?" I asked her.

"Can't taste for crap. It tastes like literal cardboard."

"And how do you know how cardboard tastes?" Peo joked.

"Uh-huh, says the person who can barely find their balance to sit down." She said, gulping down the candy bar hard and setting it back into her pocket. I ate the piece of chocolate Alice gave me and chewed it. Maurice tapped Emily's hand to signal she was good, for now.

All the while we were having this conversation, Emily proceeded away from Maurice, placed Peo down gently on the ground, and rubbed her head up and down.

"Why won't she speak?" Peo asked no one in particular. Likely just a thought that escaped from her brain.

"We never figured that out," I said, trying to sit up straighter next to the gap. Alice looked miserably at her candy bar, I felt bad she couldn't taste anything.

Emily went to Alice and pointed to Steve like she was asking what happened to him. I stated to her,

"He's out cold, I'm betting that the thing that probably knocked himself cold was a brick. I found him like this when I woke up."

That was a lie, in reality, he suddenly collapsed on the floor right after we stared toward the jungle. I didn't know why I lied.

It sort of came as second nature.

"How did you even get back here anyway?" Maurice asked Alice, sitting next to me. I would've accepted that any other day but since she was prone to vomit, I didn't want to be in the blast radius. I moved away from her.

"I don't exactly remember all of the details. I just traveled aimlessly to where I thought the factory was through a thick jungle and had to traverse a whole river to get her here, well not a whole river but you get my point." Alice replied. Emily nodded her head and went back to both Peo and Steve to rub their heads. I think Peo appreciated that.

"Anyway, when I traveled through that jungle I heard a noise. It sounded like a roar and as I followed it, I saw Peo and found the factory too."

"Hm. I wonder where that roar came from?" Maurice looked at me in contempt.

"Alright, you don't understand that the creature was pulling me in WITH ITS EYES! You didn't even see the creature in the first place."

"Wait was George the one that made that roar?" Peo asked us all.

"No, the creature I saved him from made the noise," Maurice said. Alice nodded understandingly.

"And I wasn't the one that stared into a creature's face and eyes anyway! You should've known better." Maurice said.

"Oh, I should've known better!? Excuse me Maurice but we've just dealt with possibly the single most wild card event in human history! How the hell am I supposed to know better!?" Maurice went quiet after that while I puffed out in frustration.

After I argued with Maurice, she and Alice went staring out the massive hole through the factory which I exited beforehand. They were likely looking at the scenery and were rather joyful, or so I thought. Once I got a look at their faces though I saw the worry in their eyes. I never saw Alice worried throughout my two days of knowing her but she seemed genuinely afraid, for her brother or from that creature. I didn't know. I would've said both.

Maurice gingerly stepped around the hole to not attract the creature that tried to attack us earlier. I decided to go to the entrance, or well crawl my way to the entrance, and waited by the now destroyed gate, seeing if there was any sign of a person nearby since we were still missing most of our friends. As I crawled, I scoured my head for all of the people that we were missing as of now.

Alright, there was Jack, Robert, Fron, Aquafene, and Angel. Wow, that was about half of us. I hope they're not...

Dead.

I grabbed onto one of the pillars and breathed heavily. I had crawled through the staircase down onto the ground and I was getting understandably weary. I took a small break at the base of the pillar before getting up on it by using my hands until I semi-stood on the pillar itself. I now had to wait and hope that anyone other than Ethan would come here. But considering what just happened, I would bet he was scrambling through the jungle. That made me somewhat happy.

As I waited, I had time to think. What even happened here? One second we were being consumed by some extraordinarily vengeful spirits. The next second there was a massive hole that extended from the ground to the wall to the ceiling of the factory. Then, I almost got killed by some creature that was so close to encapsulating me in its eyes.

And what even was that thing? Was it some beast I didn't even know existed in our world before? It had to have been here beforehand since there were so many people crying towards me from its eyes, yelling and warning me to not stare. I had to remind myself to thank Maurice after all of this.

Yet, even with the serenity of the environment, I suddenly had a surge of... I don't know how to explain this but, a surge of energy I imagined? This energy ran through my body and it felt weirdly hefty on my heart. I thought maybe it was because the shock of all that's happened had finally gotten to me and I was finally having a panic attack. Or maybe eating that chocolate bar pushed my heart past its limit and I was having a heart attack.

I tried to calm myself down but that just made the energy grow stronger. I still felt numb in my legs but it felt like I had full control over my whole body. I didn't have any clue on what to do so without any thought, I tried to stand up without the pillars' help, hopefully using all the energy I had inside my body to stand.

It kind of worked with the help of another pillar beside the factory's entrance. I pulled myself up and leaned against the pillar. The energy then ceased away just like that, in the blink of an eye. I nevertheless wondered where that energy even came from. I mean it was so sudden, I wished it didn't happen again.

If it ever did, I hoped I was well prepared for it. It felt like getting electrocuted, except in a contained manner.

As I was deep in thought, I glanced around the region surrounding the entrance, hopeful someone might come, no matter whether it be a friend or a stranger.

I wondered what Steve would say in this situation. Probably something stupid like, "See what you did George!? You created a whole new world!"

Yeah, he would've said something like that. I would bet Fron and Robert somehow found each other in this deep jungle. They always found one another no matter it be on our first day of school or when we went to that Waterway. As for Jack, he was likely all alone trying to build a fire...

That made me chuckle. He would build a fire in a humid jungle like this. Aquafene would be struggling right about now. She would be the next person to find that creature, she was just that unlucky. It's not like I wished she would get unlucky enough to encounter that creature either, I wouldn't even wish Ethan to encounter that creature!

Okay that's a lie, but you know what I mean.

And Angel... I was the most worried about her. What was going to happen to her if she didn't come back in time!? I could imagine her wandering around the forest like Alice did, except without a clear direction.

Yet again, I wondered something, something that I should've wondered when Steve suddenly slept.

Why couldn't I walk?

Why couldn't Emily speak?

Why does Maurice barf every other minute?

Why couldn't Alice taste anything?

Why couldn't Peo find any balance?

Why was Steve sleeping—actually, that's normal for him. He could sleep through virtually anything. I remember one time during class he slept through a whole lecture directed at him by Maurice. I wheezed throughout that entire class. Those were the good times...

Could we ever go back to those times?

But seriously, why can't we do all of these things we did so easily in a couple of... minutes? Hours? Maybe even days ago? I couldn't tell by this point. Were the spirits trying to punish us for breaking their capsules? Did they even want to be freedfrom this factory in the first place? Is that why we were losing our senses, our minds? This was a bad idea after all. A truly bad one.

But that still doesn't explain why there was suddenly a jungle here. I needed to figure that out and make sure my family was okay before anything else. Well, of course, not before I made sure my friends were okay.

I watched the sun shine brightly in the sky. It had to be noon time since it was right above my head. I looked at my body and clothes to see if anything was ripped or torn but all I saw was just my right pant leg being ripped to shreds from the explosion.

Was I worried? No.

Should've I been worried? Well, I wasn't sure yet.