“I trust you,” she says as his knife points to her throat. A tear streamed down her cheek.

“Just do it!”

“Jade, I don’t know if I can…Just because you think you’re right…I don’t want you to test it.”

“I don’t think I’m right, I know I am! And regardless, I’m the only one who should test it! If I’m wrong, I should be the only one to suffer the consequences. We don’t have time for this, they’re gonna get to us. Just do it!.”

_I hope she’s right_, he thought.

“Peter, it’s okay. I’ll see you on the other side.”

“I…Good luck Jade.”

“Don’t forget to look for the signs.” Although more tears streamed down, she smirked.

He took a deep breath, and slashed her throat. Blood came pouring down as she gagged and grasped at her throat. Jade fell to the ground, Peter quickly catching her. After a moment, the struggling stopped, and she fell still.

Peter stifled a sob. “Keep

it together Peter, look for the signs, look for the signs.” He peered closely at her corpse. The blood, which was still pouring down Jade’s body, had an odd glimmer to it. Except it wasn’t just a glimmer, it was the blood, glitching. Looking closer, he could see her pixilated eyes, slowly opening and closing again. In her eyes was some sort of weird symbol, that kind of looked like an “S”.

“She was right! Thank God!” He looked at the water, which he swore a moment ago was sea blue, but now sparkled green.

_That’s odd, _he thought. As he approached the cliff overlooking the water, something grabbed him forcefully from behind. He struggled, unable to see what had caught him. He managed to elbow his attacker, but in the process, lost his footing and fell in.

Drowning. He was drowning. There was no getting out of this. There was no Jade to come and save him, at least not in time. He fought to the surface, but his efforts seemed meaningless. He could feel himself beginning to lose consciousness…

His eyes opened, and he sat up frantically, gasping for air.

“Hey, hey, it’s alright. You’re alright.” A voice said.

He looked up.

“Jade!” He jumped up to hug her. “I got pushed in the water. I thought I was a goner. Is this-“

“The real world? Yeah. Not so sunshine and rainbows is it? Take a look.”

They were inside what appeared to be an abandoned building, the windows boarded up. As he stood, he turned to see the chair he was laying in, along with a computer monitor surrounding it. There were four chairs identical to his in the same area.

Jade opened the door, presumably leading to the outdoors, and he stepped through.

The first thing he registered was the smell. Fire. It smelled like fire.

An enormous grassy valley lay ahead, except all the grass was brown or even black, most of it clearly burnt. In the distance, a tall building, although far away, seemed to loom over them.

“What’s that?”

“Let me show you what I found.” Jade led him back inside and to a table filled with papers.

“Do you see the S-shaped logo that’s on all of these? That same logo is on the building, and have you seen it anywhere else?” Peter’s eyes went wide.

“The world we were just in. They made it.”

“Exactly. And I bet the things that were chasing us work for them. And if they took Alex and Jonah-“

“They may still be alive!” Peter felt hopeful. Their friends, who were taken and presumably killed while they were all in this fictional world, might be alive. And if they were alive, they’d be in that building.

“I still don’t understand. Who is after us? What do they want? How did we even get in that matrix thing?”

“I…I don’t know. I don’t have any memory before being in that world two days ago.” Jade looked into the distance. “But I know one thing. That’s the place we need to go to get answers.”

“Okay, well let’s get moving.”

“It’s getting dark, and traveling at night is too risky. We could also use some rest. Let’s leave in the morning.”

“Okay.” Peter hoped their friends could wait a little longer, if they were still alive.

“We’re gonna get them back.” Jade said, a comforting hand on his shoulder.

“Let’s try and get some rest. I’ll take first watch.” They found some torn up blankets to keep them warm, and now, all they could do was wait.