#omgitsfirefox

Chapter 1 - A Whole New World

The fall through the void warped their sense of time. The heroes knew they’d been falling for a while, but there was nothing that actually showed the passage of time. They didn’t get hungry or tired, which was a blessing as their items had disappeared the moment they jumped into the opened void in Ruxomar.

They lost Andor to the darkness after he’d tried to glide off and find something in the pitch darkness of the void, and both Mot and Dianite had disappeared as soon as they’d started falling.

They were stuck. And there was a weightless feeling in the pit of their stomachs, which would seem to indicate that they were falling. But there was no air whistling past their ears - or maybe there was, and they’d long grown used to it. It was silent, but an agreed upon silence - they could try to talk if they wanted, but it felt wrong to break such a complete quiet. Like there was something the void itself had to say, and only by quieting themselves could they even begin to try and hear and understand.

The heroes fell in a circle, holding hands so they could be assured of each other’s presences’. Jordan held tight to Tom and Martha, Wag to Martha and Tucker, and Sonja to Tucker and Tom. They weren’t able to talk to each other, as the darkness of the void pressed into them, invading their lungs and silencing their vocal cords.

Then, Tom squeezed his hand and pointed down, with their fingers intertwined, and coughed out a single word.

“Light.”

Jordan immediately looked down, and squinted against the tiny pinprick of blinding light beneath them. It was smaller than a star, but brighter than the sun. As they watched, the pinprick grew to the size of his thumb, then his fist, then the diameter of his arm

Was this it? Would they finally leave this darkness?

There was a bright flash, and they were falling through a blue sky.

--

A menagerie of color assaulted their eyes as they each flailed their limbs and tried to orient themselves. The group broke apart as a sudden blast of air ripped their hands apart. Someone was screaming, and based on prior experience Jordan guessed it was Tucker or Tom.

Martha and Wag shot past the rest of them, their limbs folded and hands connected, aiming for the ground below. Jordan squinted and managed to make out a few blocks of blue, possibly a water pool they had spotted.  It was amazing they had, considering it was only a couple blocks wide. He didn’t spend much time surveying the land for another one; they were coming up on the ground fast and there was no time to waste if they intended to survive.

He spread his arms and legs wide to get to Tom, still kicking and screaming his head off. After his own shouts were whipped away by the wind, he resorted to grabbing Tom’s hand and aiming them both towards the water. Tucker and Sonja saw this, and clumsily flapped towards each other, grabbing at each other’s arms and linking themselves together.

The ground came up to meet them fast, and Tom and Jordan just barely managed to glide over enough to land safely. The resulting splash was explosive, and it took all the air out of Jordan’s lungs. He struggled desperately to pull himself up above the surface, but Tucker and Sonja’s landing sent him spinning around again. The man kicked as hard as he could, but as soon as he was about to break the surface, a foot came out of nowhere and hit him straight in the chest. He cried out under the water, sinking as he failed to rid his lungs of the water he was inhaling. Jordan watched as his friends got out of the pool, and seemed to not notice him still underneath in the explosion of bubbles.

His vision started to go hazy. He was still sinking. Was this pool really that deep? He hadn’t thought so. He laughed as his nose burned with water. He lives that whole drop through the abyss, and then he drowns in a puddle. Ha!

He felt cold. His arms and legs had stopped working, so he floated serenely under the filtering white light. Half lidded eyes and a cold blue smile looked back at the sun. Had he been scared before? It was so beautiful down here, why would he need to be scared?

Bubbles suddenly disrupted the calm waves of the surface, and his last vision before it all went black was of an angel descending from the light above him,

--

“Ughhhhhhhh!” Tom groaned as he flopped halfway out of the shallow pool, breathing hard as he kicked furiously to get his legs out of the water. “That hurrrrt!”

“It’s gonna hurt more if you don’t stop kicking water in my face!” Tucker shouted at him, coughing and spluttering as he hauled his deadened body onto dry land. He held an arm out for Sonja, but she managed without it, kicking hard against the water to haul her body out.

“Is everyone alright!?” Martha asked, her voice scratchy from swallowing water. She clung to Wag even now, their hands intertwined as he rung out his robes and she her hair, sending a cascade of water back into the pool.

“I’m good. Man, that was awesome!” Tom grinned widely, his eyes glinting with excitement at the adrenaline rush they’d just experienced. Tucker punched him in the arm. “Ow! Shit man, my muscles still hurt!”

“That’s for splashing me,” he shot back, taking off his fingerless gloves and wringing them out. Sonja pulled her hoodie over her head and did the same, then stopped cold and looked around.

“Guys...?” They all looked at her, panic building in her eyes as she spun around and looked at all of them with fear stricken eyes.

“Where’s Jordan?”

Martha immediately started looking around to see if he’s somehow gotten out and started walking without them. Tucker, Sonja,and Tom all ran to the water’s edge, where Sonja saw a dark shadow deep in the water. “The-“

Before she even finished the word, Tom dove in headfirst and frantically started swimming downwards.

His clumsy dive sent up a plume of water and bubbles, but he pulled against the water with hard, fast strokes. Jordan was sinking further, his eyes closed. His glasses had fallen off in the crash and sunk to the dark bottom.

If there even was a bottom.

‘Just a little further!’ Tom told himself, even when his lungs burned for air and his eyes stung. Jordan was only ten feet away... five feet... three feet...

Tom collided heavily with Jordan’s still form, wrapping one arm around his waist and the other across his chest. He wasn’t anywhere near the bottom of the pool to push off of, but he kicked over to the side of the pool and pushed off that with a powerful kick.

He did it again when he slammed into the opposite wall, and once more to break the surface. Tom coughed hard, wheezing and gulping as much air as he could get. Tucker, Sonja and Wag all reached out for them, with the two men grabbing the unconscious Jordan and Sonja helping Tom out.

He took only one deep breath to recover, then was on his knees besides his friend. The zombie skinned man put his ear to Jordan’s chest, and after hearing nothing, he started pushing firmly against his chest.

“Do you know CPR, Tom?” Sonja asked, watching as he tried to save him.

“No, but I have to try!” he reasoned harshly with her, before tilting Jordan’s lolling head back, pinching his nose, and tightly sealing his lips against cold blue ones. He absentmindedly thinks that the sight would be extremely awkward if he weren’t attempting to save his friend’s life.

Two breaths, 30 chest compressions. Those were the numbers he remembered from the class he took a long time ago, so that’s what he was going with. As he pushed down harder, Tom felt his friend’s ribs give under his hands, and he forced himself to not stop. Ribs were supposed to crack, he thought to himself, that's how you get to the lungs. He could only hope he didn’t somehow injure Jordan permanently.

Everyone searched their pockets for something to help but nothing had stayed with them in the cross between worlds. Not that they would have had much to help anyways, but the feeling of helplessness was only amplified with there being no need to search for something.

So they stood and watched as Tom went back and forth between chest compressions and breaths, holding his ear to Jordan’s chest in between each set. He could hear the air rushing out of the unconscious man’s lungs, but that came along with the bubbling of the water stuck inside his body.

Silent minutes passed, with no change. It seemed wrong to make noise while one of their friends was possibly dead.

Martha was the first to crack, burrowing her head in Wag’s shoulder and quietly sobbing. Wag wrapped an arm around her small frame, and Tucker and Sonja reached for each other’s hands, eyes fixated on the ground.

After countless amounts of repetition later, Tom sat back and watched his friend’s chest. Beyond the breath he’d given Jordan, there was no movement… except…

Yes! It was slight, but Jordan’s chest rose! “Jordan!” Tom cried, attacking his chest with new hope.

The rest of the group had started at Tom’s shout, but they gathered closer and watched Jordan’s face. Was that a grimace, or just a fake movement made by Tom? Did his lips just move?

“Come on Jordan, wake up! You can’t die on us that easily!” Tom encouraged with a grin, trying to hide tears.

Jordan’s eyes snapped open, and he rolled over onto his side and promptly vomited. Tucker, in the line of fire, jumped out of the way with a yelp, but the rest of the group cheered his name. Jordan was alive!

Tom and Wag helped the weak man to his hands and knees to avoid vomiting on himself, then Tom gently rubbed his back as he let all the water he’d breathed violently leave his body.

Even after the majority of the water was gone, he continued to dry heave, tears coming to his eyes as he whimpered and cried. Finally, he sat back on his legs, putting his face into his hands and sobbing heavily.

“Oh, Jordan, you’re ok, it’s ok. Shhh.” Sonja cooed, sitting down beside him and wrapping her arms around him, sharing her half-dry warmth. Martha accidentally hit a tender spot on Jordan’s chest and he yelled in pain. She immediately apologized and he accepted it with a small nod.

Tom stood, swaying, and motioned to Tucker.

“Gimme your glove.”

He paused in the middle of wringing out his hat he had smartly stashed it in his pocket before they’d all jumped. “What?”

“Gimme your glove.”

“Why?”

Tom rolled his eyes. “Cause it’s the closest thing to a rag around here, and Jordan needs to wash his face and mouth. Actually, gimme that too.” He snatched the hat out of his friend’s hands, and took the glove from where it was sitting on the ground. Tucker glared at him for a few seconds, trying to gather the energy to yell at him, before huffing and continuing to try and wring out his clothes. Now that Jordan was breathing and conscious, Tucker put his energy into scanning their surroundings.

Sonja and Martha had managed to get Jordan sitting up on his own, hugging his knees and breathing heavily. The man stared at nothing and Tom wanted to cry. Those eyes shouldn’t be that vacant, not ever. They should be bright, full of light and happiness.

He dunked both Tucker’s hat and glove into the pool, filling the hat as much as he could with water his friend could wash his mouth out with.

Martha immediately took the glove and gently gave it to Jordan, guiding his shaking hand up to his mouth. He barely responded to her touch, allowing her to wipe at the vomit on his chin and cheek.

Tucker cringed at the sight of his soiled glove, and quickly turned around and began digging into the wooden planks stuck in the ground. Wag ran up the hill in search of trees, or houses, or any sign of someone living from the land. Already the sun was halfway across the sky, and they needed to find a place to hide from the monsters with Jordan in his current state.

“Here, Jordan. Cup your hands, and you can wash your mouth out,” Tom nudged his friend’s legs as he kneeled and held out Tucker’s hat, still decently full of water and dripping.

Jordan’s reaction was immediate and surprisingly explosive. He jerked back, knocking Sonja down and cringing. “No!”

Tom’s heart broke at hearing his cracked voice laced with fear. “Come on Jordan, don’t you want to get all that nasty stuff out of your mouth?” He shook his head, his body shaking both from cold and fear.

“No water. I’m... I’m fine.” He tried to fake a smile, but his rapid breathing devolved into a cough. Afterwards, he spat on the ground in front of him, a watery yellowish color.

Sonja and Tom exchanged glances, realizing that fighting this battle probably wouldn’t be worth it with Jordan in this state. And a gross mouth wasn’t that big of a deal anyways, if Jordan didn’t mind. The zombie skinned man sighed, dumping the water onto the ground and trying to wash away the vomit, which was already starting to stink in the still air.

The girls quietly mumbled kind words to Jordan, rubbing his back and brushing his wet hair out of his face. Jordan focused solely on bringing his breathing back under control. With nothing else to do to help until they found or made shelter, Tom stood and finally surveyed the world they’d arrived in.

They had landed in what he assumed was the base of surrounding hills. In the distance, weirdly shaped cliffs scraped against the sky. He tilted his head all the way back, as if he would see a dark hole in the sky that they had fallen from. All he did was blind himself.

What caught his eye once he blinked away the sunspots was the odd colors that popped out at him from the land. There was almost no green, and instead his eyes were drawn to the odd transition between the sand beneath his feet and the course dirt a few meters away. Stone poked out of the earth in odd places, and there was podzol and grass side by side.

After glancing back and reassuring himself that Jordan would be alright, he trekked up the steep hill to get a better survey of the land. “What a great start we’ve had already,” he groaned to himself, vaulting over a jumble of loose cobblestone and gasping at the sight laid out before him.

The ground was mismatched, five by five patches of different blocks splattered across the ground like paint, and most didn’t even match the environment. His eyes bulged at each new oddity. There were wooden planks of all kinds built into the ground, but the pattern was too random to be anything but a coincidence. Blocks like sponge and obsidian sat side by side, and there were gold blocks sitting right out in the open!

Tom spun to call out to Jordan and the girls about this odd and interesting world, but something stopped him.

A flicker of movement, so fast he wasn’t sure he’d seen it. Then another, across him on the crest of the opposite hill.

Then a sharp whistle from behind him, and four wolves leapt from their hiding places and raced own the hill towards his friends.

Tom started to shout a warning, but something swept his legs out from under him and he crashed to the ground, hitting his back so hard it knocked the wind out of him. He vaguely heard excited yipping nearby.

Gasping, he tried to heave air into his chest. But the sight of a person appearing out of nowhere and starting down at him knocked it out again.

The figure wore a hood, and as such their face was in shadow. One thing stood out despite that, and that was the stranger’s eyes. They glowed with energy, bright as a star, and they were enchanting. The figure stretched out a helping hand, and Tom took it without breaking eye contact.

Once on his feet, the stranger glanced down into the valley where the rest of the heroes were surrounded by wolves, on alert but not attacking. Then they turned back, and spoke in a lilting voice that somehow suited the rest of their appearance.