I was somewhere green.
The plain but wrong, the sky the color of something that had never existed, a sun burning down in a shade I had no name for.
Sherry stood above me. Her face, home. Soft features framed by dark hair that caught the alien light, her eyes full of quiet urgency and love. She reached down toward me. I strained, lifting my arm, but the distance between us refused to close. My limb felt heavy, boneless, like it belonged to someone else. No matter how hard I tried, our fingers never touched.
[LEWD LEVELING SYSTEM]
[Open your eyes. Infected can find you if you stay down long enough.]
The sand arrived before my eyes did. The heat of it against my back, the specific burning of plain ground that had been absorbing sun all day and was giving it back at full temperature.
Someone nearby made a muffled, urgent sound.
I tried to open my eyes. They didn't cooperate on the first attempt. I tried my hands. Also stuck.
Second attempt. My eyes opened.
