Screams reverberated through the small space. My Forerunner jolted to a stop; the rubber screeched and burnt on the asphalt. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, did I just hit someone?

“What the fuck was that!” Flynn called from the back. I had felt him hit my seat hard when I slammed against the breaks, hopefully he was alright.

“I— I have no idea…” I was breathing hard. My hands were still glued to the steering wheel, much like my foot was to the brake pedal. “Is… is everyone alright?”

There was a small pause from everyone that was a tad disconcerting. I still refused to move.

“Shit, Katya’s out cold,” Flynn said from behind me, “She looks to be alright, we all had seat-belts on, at least.” I finally managed to move my head towards the passenger seat, checking on my best friend.

Maya was paler than a ghost, still wide eyed like I was. She stared out in front of the car. Her knuckles were white; one hand clung onto grab handle above her door, the other, at my arm with a tight grip on my shirt sleeve. As we made eye contact, she rasped, “Did we…” Her voice came out with barely a whisper, “We didn’t… hit her, did we?” Both of us were in a state of visible shock. I had no idea. I was still trying to process what it was I actually saw.

“What!? Hit who? Shit, was there someone on the road?” Jeremy cursed. He began unbuckling his seat belt, starting to get out of the car.

“I… I…” I didn’t know what to say. I couldn’t say anything. Adrenaline was coursing through my veins; my body’s awareness was heightened to a level I had never experienced before. I was trying to calm down, but my body wouldn’t let me.

Another curse came from Jeremy’s side of the car once he clamored outside, “Oh fuck… Where the hell is the road!?”

The road? What was he on about? We didn’t go off the road, we just… stopped. Fast… very fast. The was road was right in fro—

Where the hell was the road?

I scanned ahead, stunned. Interspersed trees filled my vision. No asphalt, no signs, no barriers on the hillside. No hillside to speak of. No, just a wide clearing in the middle of an entire forest!

I turned off the vehicle, keeping the headlights on, and got out to see for myself. Maya was right behind me. I hoped the woman I had seen jumping out of the way was alright.

Jeremy had been right, we found ourselves standing on what felt like… tile? Yet, it seamlessly blended in with the dirt bordering it. This was not to mention the huge, white, glowing circle that encompassed the tiled area.

I’m sorry, self, what did I just think I saw? A giant glowing circle? I blinked as I tried to clear the hallucination from my mind. I opened them again. Yeah, no it was pretty real, the glowing circle was real. Oh boy…

“Guys, where are we?” I stammered as I checked on how everyone else was fairing. Maya was in front of the car looking around apprehensively. Jeremy had knelt down to investigate the white (again, GLOWING) lines etched into the ground. Flynn was still in the car taking care of Katya.

Oh no, Katya! I turned around and opened the side door, revealing Flynn, who was in the process of gently unbuckling her seatbelt. “How is she?” I asked. It was a moment after he finished checking her over that he replied.

“Not quite qualified to say, really,” Flynn said, giving a noncommittal shrug. “I lifeguarded for three summers, but that was years ago. She’s got a pulse and doesn’t seem to have trouble breathing. Nothing looks broken, and she’s not pale or anything. She might just be unconscious.”

I nodded and began to look around behind the seats, searching for… well, anything that could help. My eyes settled on the comfy fold-out chair I’d been pointlessly lugging around for the last four months.  “I’ve got a camping chair? Would it be better to let her rest in that over the car?”

“Sure? Might as well,” he said. I ran around back to pull it out, then set to helping Flynn get Katya in the chair. As we got Katya settled, he propped up her feet on the running boards of the car.

“Good idea.” I went to grab the blanket that was under pretty much everything in the back, and placed it over her to keep her warm.

As we finished with Katya, Flynn finally got around to noticing our surroundings. Oh, and the glowing circle. “What the hell, where are we? Were we just fucking teleported or something?”

There was more concern than humor in the small laugh I gave.

“You know what’s scary?” Jeremy chimed in, “We probably shouldn’t be ruling that out.” He had gone from investigating the ground to using the flashlight on his phone to look around the clearing. The glow of the circle, which definitely still existed, seemed to be dimming now.

Flynn gaped at Jeremy, “What, seriously?” He looked around, taking in our surroundings again. “Well, shit…”

A call suddenly came from the front of the car. Maya briskly walked around from the other side, looking more than a little frantic. “There is absolutely no sign of that woman, I checked everywhere. It’s like she wasn’t even there!” Her wide-eyed expression was almost unnerving as she said, “You… you saw her right?”

“Yes, I saw her,” I reassured her. She looked incredibly shaken. I closed the distance, giving her a hug in comfort. “Don’t worry,” I said quieter, “I don’t think we’re crazy.” I felt the tension in her body give way a little. I turned back to the group, “Though, the situation certainly is…”  

An alarmed voice rose up from the side of the car, “Guys? Shit, where am I? Guys?” Katya’s voice started to rise into an anxious yell, “What the hell is going on? What is — where are we?”

We all ran over to check on her. We found her curled up in the chair, hugging the blanket I gave her. Her eyes were bouncing all around, trying to take in our surroundings. Flynn knelt by her to calm her down. “Katya, it’s alright, we’re good. You’ve just been out a few minutes. Do you feel okay?”

“Physically? Yeah, sure. Psychologically, I might be seeing things. Is the ground seriously glowing?

“Somehow, yeah it is…” I trailed off. “We aren’t quite sure what happened, but we’re definitely somewhere else.”

“What do you mean?” She started to get up, tapping her foot on the smooth ground beneath her. “Somewhere else entirely? The whole car, just like that? Like magic?”

The four of us didn’t know what to say, an uncomfortable silence now hung in the air.

“Wait, hold on, no. Magic is not real.” She protested; this time incredulity lanced through her words.

A few more seconds of silence passed.

“I mean, it could be incredibly advanced technology, Clarke’s laws and all that.” I said with a mixture of humor and worry.

“Frankly, either way is terrifying,” Maya said, “but we’re here now, so what do we do?”

Yet more silence arrived, until Flynn answered, “Well, we’re in the middle of a forest. How far from civilization do you think we are?”

We tried to get a better handle of the insane situation. It was pretty dark so we couldn’t get a great look at our surroundings. It occurred to me that it was just after sunset. That unsettled everyone when I mentioned it, as it was supposed to be well past midnight. That was at least four time zones! Where did that put us? New Zealand? Australia? Japan? Of course, it would be Japan.

I suggested we spend the night where we were in order to get our bearings in the morning. It wasn’t a terrible idea. It was late, and they had been drinking, though the shock of everything had sobered them considerably.

Katya proposed we see what kind of resources we were working with. So, I opened up the car, turned on some of the lights, and we started taking inventory.

We had the girls’ two purses with odds and ends, including pepper spray, a wine key, some pens, and some… well, feminine hygiene products. We all had our wallets with what remained of our tips from the night, and we all had our smart phones. I had a charger in the car that could power them up again if needed. Though, we weren’t getting any signals so who knew how useful they would be. My first-aid kit was in my glove compartment, along with some napkins, a flashlight, and some Chapstick. Neat, I had been looking for that.

Of the hiking (now camping) gear I had coincidentally pre-packed; I had a big backpack with my hunting knife, some climbing rope, a compass, a swiss-army knife, a lighter, and a wind-breaker. I also found my climbing shoes, as well as my hiking boots, two empty water canteens, and a pack of granola bars. Some food, Good, but no water, not so good.

We also had the large blanket we used to cover up Katya earlier, along with the chair as well. I ended up finding a bottle of sunscreen under my seat, along with a long-lost baseball cap.

So, all in all, not much, but a lot more than we had expected.

Some of us were hungry so we divvied up the granola bars, two for each of us. Jeremy told us not to eat them all in one go, as we didn’t know how long we would be without proper food. That realization hit us pretty hard. Where were we?

We began to get our sleeping situation in order. It must have been one o’clock for us, and I felt it. We put down the back seats so two of us could lie down in the back. Katya seemed to have taken to the chair she had been in previously so she nestled in that. Flynn and Jeremy decided they would use the blanket to sleep on the ground by the car, which relegated Maya and me to the back of the car. I put the front windows down, in case we needed to be woken up by them for any reason.

Thankfully, it was a relatively warm night. We were all fairly exhausted from everything that had happened so we were quick to get settled down. I used my sweatshirt as a pillow, Maya used her jacket. Once the two of us had gotten comfortable, she whispered, “What do you think is happening?”

I didn’t answer right away. Obviously, it had something to do with that woman, but I couldn’t see how. Barring magic, which I wasn’t quite ready to wrap my mind around, it just didn’t make any sense.

“I’m… not sure, but we’re still alive at least. Whatever that circle is, it means something, and someone had to have made it, right? Maybe it was the woman,” even if she might have been the cause of this mess, I hoped she was alright. “I hope I didn’t hurt her…”

Maya gave a sympathetic smile as she rubbed the side of my arm, “You did what you could, you can’t take full responsibility. She was in the middle of the road, besides. In the middle of the night, too. You can’t ever prepare yourself for that.”

I nodded and went silent for a minute, then whispered back, “Whatever is happening, I’m glad that you’re here.” I paused, thinking about my wording. “Not that I wanted you to get teleported through a magic circle, or anything! I’m just… I’m glad you’re here.”

She gave a warm, understanding smile, not unlike the one she gave me when she told me I was going to be beautiful. “I’m glad you’re here too, I'm not sure I would have handled myself well if you weren’t.”

I smiled, shifting to my back. I ended up staring at the ceiling for a few minutes, sleep evading my mind for the time being.

Then Katya’s voice came from outside the window, “Guys… the stars are different.”

“What? What do you mean?” I heard Jeremy call back.

“The stars. I can’t find any constellations I normally see. Orion was up there, clear as day, earlier tonight. Now I can’t find any I know of, none from the southern hemisphere either. The stars are completely different, though the lack of light pollution is nice… This night sky, it looks nothing like our own sky.”

Everyone went quiet after that, too afraid to talk about the phrase that had stuck out. Our own sky… Earth’s sky.

This can’t be happening…