It happened on the first Saturday of the new year, a sight unlike any other.  The sky was illuminated with a brilliant white light, tinged with blue.  A wave seemed to emanate from the moon, rippling outwards with a force impossible to ignore.  Expanding and sweeping away satellites in its wake, frying their electronic systems. Auroras danced and multiplied, painting the sky with vibrant colors.  The wave of energy breached through the Earth’s protective atmosphere, springing forth towards the surface. 

The people witnessing were immersed in the beauty, unable to comprehend the scale and ferocity of the phenomenon.  Tingling ran though their bodies.  Children cried out for their parents, and those parents reached out for their kids.  Their bodies glowed bright, and with a flash of light and a soft pop, everyone vanished out of sight.

A chilling voice called out to me.  My vision was blurry and my mind was foggy.

“Wake up,” commanded the voice.

I gasped for air. 

“Your soulis alive once again…  Everyone from your era in history has vanished, but there is a way to save their souls.  First, you have more pressing matters.  Your presence is known.  There is a group heading this way and should arrive within the minute...” the voice paused.

“Survive, and continue to survive, until the day we meet,” the voice echoed, fading away.

I snapped back to my senses and found myself lying on my back in a dense forest, with the sun shining through the trees above and birds singing away. 

What was happening?  How am I outside?

A moment ago, I was in my home office working on pushing the next architecture changes we needed for our new education software.  Allie will probably be upset I didn't tuck her in.  I'll have to bribe her with ice cream to forgive m-

A sharp twang echoed through the air, followed by a swift whoosh. With a thud, an arrow landed just inches from my leg, the impact sending a ripple of vibrations through the ground. Flinching, as time seemed to slow down, I rolled to my side to try and get up, but found myself quickly surrounded. Standing in front of me, a man brandishing a long sword reflecting the forest on its surface and another holding a bow with an arrow knocked, aiming directly at me.

“Who are you people?” my words barely escaped my throat. 

There was no response.

The swordsman raised his blade high above his head, the steel glinting from the twinkle of sunlight flashing through the trees.  With a fierce cry, he brought it down in a swift and powerful arc towards me.  

My heart was pounding.  Why was this happening?  I did not want to die.  My family is somewhere out there, waiting for me.  I must get back to them.  I gritted my teeth, shifting my weight and swung myself to roll towards the arrow.

The blade sliced through the air as it connected and slammed into the ground, blasting away dirt high into the air.  My hands reached out, I grabbed the arrow planted in the ground and lunged myself towards the swordsman.  I could not hesitate, ignoring the danger, my arm swung and stabbed, with red engulfing my vision.  Before I realized what was happening, there was blood spraying from his neck. 

Still slumped onto this dying man, a flurry of piercing arrows rained towards me.  Using the dying man as a shield, the man’s torso vibrated from each arrow piercing clean through, as the sharp points reached towards my face.  Quickly shoving the man off myself, I ran towards the trees.  The echo of arrows smashed into the trunks exploding their bark behind me. 

A path appeared ahead, but the clearing of trees was too wide.  I was reminded of playing war games in the woods with friends.  We would always catch the newbies walking out in the open.  I had to go further into the forest. My new jeans and t-shirt were continuously getting caught and ripped in the heavy brush, with bugs gnawing at my elbows and legs.  Inside my tennis shoes, dirt and splinters were grinding and stabbing at my feet. 

The promise to my family echoed in my head.  I missed the first few years of her life, when she was most vulnerable.  Doctors had given her a slim chance at survival from her rare disease.  In order to pay for the medical bills, I was forced to continue working away from home on a defense project.  Technology helped let me see them each day, but it was not the same as being there in person.  Sacrificing time and space to keep her going each day, it was not easy on my wife Ellis, living alone and taking care of our daughter.  After the experimental medication helped improve her life, she grew up so fast. 

I eventually found a lower paying remote job, which let me hug my family every day.  I still remember that one special day, when Allie was four, the doctors announced she had finally been cured!  It was the happiest moment of our lives.  Hugging them tightly, I promised I would never leave them alone again.  

But something is out there, forcing me to break that promise.

It felt like half an hour running through the thick brush when a steep rise of dirt, reaching several meters high appeared in front.  The dirt was soft and seemed to crumble but it was still able to hold my weight as I climbed up digging in with each hand and foot.   Reaching the top shelf of dirt and spreading my fingers wide to climb, the soil became softer and breaking apart nearly crashing me back downwards, as I continuously swam up the dirt finally reaching the roots of a tree that hardened the earth up on a perch.

This is where I must make a stand. 

A violent shake of the brush below reached my ears, as the archer popped out flying up high, far surpassing human capabilities.  What is happening!?  Frozen, staring at the graceful landing onto the decaying dirt, as the archer simultaneously pulled back on his bow.  The string hummed with tension as it dug deeper into the flesh of his fingers.

Suddenly, a loud rustle from above in the trees came shooting down, as an enormous dark creature pounced towards the archer.  His eyes wide, he rotated the bow upwards and released the arrow hitting the creature, but its momentum kept on moving forward, tackling into the archer and knocking them down the dirt cliff. 

I did not hesitate to run in the opposite direction, as the sweat was dripping down my face, dirt caked inside and outside of my clothes, as I was breathing rapidly down the hill.  My foot caught a branch as the world started spinning, feeling dizzy as an abrupt stop shot needles into my shoulder and legs.  Stumbling to get back up and hopping off the throbbing in my ankle as a flat clearing laid ahead.  

Looking back to see what is happening, screeching, yelling, and soft flesh being ripped apart echoed through the air.  Without warning, my footing was lost and my knee jerked in the air.   I realized there was nothing below my feet.  It was too late, my body swung forward, the wind eating at my face, the freefall tugging at my bones made my heart rise, as I slammed into the water below.

The world around me grew quiet, calm, and dark, as if time had frozen. 

Ding!

 

Staring back at me inside an endless darkness, was a screen floating in the air, shining with orange text, showing my survival rank. 

Am I inside a game?  Is this connected to that voice I heard when waking up?

Questions kept popping up, but being alone, there was little hope for me to find answers.  I was growing concerned for the safety of my family. Are they safe at home, or were they kidnapped?  

Why do I have to play this survival game? Survive against what, hunters? What's next, monsters?

I should take caution with my decision.  But wait, what did that voice say, 'the people of my era in history have vanished', and 'they can be brought back', does that mean something happened to Earth… to my family? 

The two attacking me earlier were human, but thinking about it now, their clothes were not camouflage, but a more heavy leather based outfit that didn't fit with hunters I knew from Earth.  The man swinging the sword was completely out of place too.  I mean who uses a sword?  Then, there was the archer who jumped several meters into the air, and I can’t forget the monster looking creature that attacked, which appeared like a panther covered in the skin of an elephant.  

Fiction is becoming reality.  Does that mean there is magic in this world? 

Looking back towards the screen, my eyes staring at one stat in particular, as my mouth blurts out, “What are Conversion Points?”   

 

 

If what the voice mentioned is accurate, that would make me and the people of my era the ‘ancients’.  What concerns me is the warning, which must be similar to why I was attacked immediately upon waking up.  If the people of this world are hostile to ancients, I must find out why.

In any case, I don’t think surviving alone is possible, but with no idea how this conversion works, it may cause innocent people to get hurt. I may be forced to attempt this conversion at least once, perhaps a clue will arise to find the way back to my family.  My family… they must be waiting for me out there.  

“Yes, convert,” I commanded.

The screen disappeared abruptly and twinkling stars faded in, as my footing was lost.  

I found myself falling into an abyss of darkness as I watched the stars grow distant and dimmer.  The pressure tugged at my chest, as I desperately reached out for something, anything, but I felt nothing.  Falling deeper, as I yelled for help, but my voice grew silent.  Drifting away, helpless, as time went on.  Has it been minutes or hours? 

Lost, sinking further into the endless void, the stars long engulfed by the emptiness.  Feeling weightless, as I succumbed to my fate.  Scanning the world around me, but there is nothing.  Moving my hands to my face, but there is nothing.  Trying to smell myself for my existence, but there was nothing.  My sensations being absorbed by the null.   Memories were my only direction.  Has it been days or weeks?  

Emotions dissipating, thoughts sluggish. The darkness consuming my mind.  Only one memory remained.  Family.  Has it been months or years?

I became nothing.

A single spark invaded my barren domain, passing me by, far out of reach.  

One.  

It does not matter, for I am nothing.

Two.  

Another spark passes me by.

Three…

One-hundred…

It was drawing a picture, but for whom, for I am the void.

One-thousand…  

A smile dancing in darkness, a foreign thing in this hollow existence.

Ten-thousand…

Hundred-thousand…

A familiar face, a familiar word, ‘Daddy’.

One-million…  

Gasping, a thought emerges, a familiar emotion, ‘Family’.

One-billion.  

Envy built up.  A spark was grander than nothing.  For I was nonexistent, the blackness of the night.  But, they had life.  A future, a present, a past.

They are approaching, calling out for me.  But, who wants whom? A spark dove into me.

“Johnny, you did not finish your school work!”  

“I’ll do it after I play with my friends. I promise!”

Family.  Their life echoed into me, guiding me to the next spark.

“Grandma, I love you so much, the doctor says you only have a few days, but I don’t want to see you go!”  

“It’s ok dear princess… it is my time to go…  P-please… live and enjoy life… as I have done” …

Loss of family, was it my family, what is this emotion, as another spark flung into me. 

“Honey, I just got a promotion at work, we have to celebrate!” 

“Congratulations!  We should throw a party with our friends!”

This foreign feeling, is it happiness, lasting only a moment in time, as I grasped towards another spark.

“How could you cheat on me!  We have been together for years!  My mother was right about you!-” …

Anger surrounded me, am I forgetting something?  Family.  Where is my family?  Swimming through the moments of joy and sorrow, love and loss, success and failure. The emotions and perspectives of countless others flowed through me.  But they were not my family.  

Has it been decades or centuries?  The sparks of life stretched into eternity, but I endured in my search for them.  

“Daddy, I colored this picture of you and me!” A familiar voice spoke out.  

Is this you, my daughter?  The vision reflected myself, as I felt my heart beat for the first time.  Sensations returning.  Memories flooding back.  This nothing had its own spark, simply lost, but again lives.

Survival.  I remembered now.  I was meant to endure a new world.  The sparks showed me the humanity of the past, the connections to the future.  They did not fight for survival from death, but survival of life.  I endured the endless, for the sake of my family.  

Longing to see their smile, their laugh, in this sea of feelings.  I finally found it.  I did not want to let go.

I saw myself sitting down from a low angle.   I remembered this moment.  My heart was fluttering. I knew these were the memories of my daughter.  She got caught up in this mess just like the rest of the sparks.  

There would be no happiness for her in survival, until more could be found out about this world.  My love for her is endless.  

I must survive.  I must strengthen my resolve and find a way to safely bring them back.  But, I cannot do that right now.  Needed right now was strength, of those who can help me endure.  Perhaps, soldiers or hunters who lived in the wilderness, people with resourcefulness and survival instincts.  

Her memories were fading away, as I reached out to stay, just a moment longer, but I was thrust back into the darkness with a screen at my face.

 

 

My mind was in a daze, still racing from the infinite emotions that flowed through me, guiding me to my family, only to be ripped away.  The ‘Sea of Feelings’, was a vast and endless dream of hope and nightmare.  

Calming my breathing down, I stared at the screen again, with my resolve renewed.  

“Soldier, kill, live,” I whispered.  

Without warning, the screen changed.

 

 

Am I forced to accept whatever ancients come out?  My hands felt tied by an invisible force, laughing at me.  

To show me the Sea of Feelings and the sparks of all those trapped people, even my own daughter.  There is no doubt someone, or something resides at the other end of this terminal.  In movies and video games these rewards would be beneficial, but this is reality.  Only a devil would play these games with this power and technology which shouldn’t exist.  I will survive, but I will survive with my own spark.

“No!” I shouted towards the screen.