1.1

"Fuck my life!" I yelled as I dodge another rabid super-zombie.

The first clue I was seriously fucked was when someone threw a skyscraper at me.

No more than ten minutes ago I had suddenly appeared, still dressed in my t-shirt and sleep shorts, in the middle of some sort of big parking lot. I was surrounded by dozens of other people, most dressed more weirdly than I was.

Before I could get my bearings, a building fell on us. Or maybe it was thrown as it was not from anywhere near this giant lot. I got incredibly lucky and managed to be standing right were the building wasn't. Maybe it was a window or door or maybe something had already torn that part of the building away, but I was not instantly crushed like almost everyone around me.

Then this guy, dressed in a Geek Chic t-shirt, burst up from the fallen structure and started flying through several of the weirder dressed people who had managed to dodge the edifice of death. They burst like blood-filled balloons.

Something was calling out a litany as he carried out this massacre.

Carnal deceased M4.

Genoscythe deceased M4.

Kazikli Bey deceased M4.

Seir deceased M4.

Stinger deceased M4.

True Blue deceased M4.

As I stood there waiting for my turn, my insides were palpitating in an arrhythmic beat - Boom, boom-boom, BOOM, boom-BOOM. A strange strobing light hit the murderous geek and he seemed to disappear with a creepy effect like an ugly powerpoint slide transition. There was even an odd sound. I looked up to find the origin of the beam and saw a flying man in a teal leotard and green hooded cape. He turned and raced towards the White Lady.

As I was distracted watching the aerial battle, a rat-faced woman slammed into me and started gnawing on my elbow. I pushed her away and ran.

Ten minutes later I was hunkered down under an overturned newspaper truck. According to the Canberra Times it was February 24th, 2011. I had no idea how I'd ended up in Canberra, which I thought was the capital of freaking Australia when I went to bed in my apartment in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The second mystery was the date. I know it was April 2020 when I went to sleep.

The third and most important mystery was the giant white winged alien lady battling honest to god superheroes in the sky above the city. And she was obviously winning. Wherever her mind-jarring scream was heard those same heroes turned on each other and on the panicking crowds of normal looking people. Of course, those same normal looking people were just as liable to grab a piece of rubble or pull out a kitchen know and start making like Jason on everyone in reach.

For some reason, the White Lady's scream, while painful, was not making me insane. Or maybe it was and this whole thing was a massive hallucination. But I was not trying to kill anyone. I was trying to hide.

As I was reading, I heard a savage snarling and a large man wearing an ox skull mask and some sort of body armor shoved the overturned truck aside, exposing me to him and the three other costumed crazies hot on his heels.

He grabbed me. I was able to jerk my arm out of his grasp before he could bring it to his foaming, blood-flecked mouth. I landed on my ass and was trying to scramble out of his way when a shoot rang out and a large hole appeared in his skull mask.

Prong deceased L4.

The Ox man was dragged back by one of the super-zombies behind him. The third surged ahead and chased me as I got to my feet. He was wearing what looked like robes from Harry Potter, though they were torn and bloodied. And instead of a wand he was waving a jagged rod of rebar. Another shot from behind rang out and Mr. Wizard dropped.

Epoch deceased L4. came from a band on his arm.

As my insides pounded – boom-BOOM - I looked back and spotted a tween girl perched on the roof of a nearby shop, working the action on a large hunting rifle. She pointed the weapon at me, aiming though the scope, then moved to target the dark-skinned woman in overalls that had finally cleared the truck. She was racing towards me, red and green liquid flowing out of her hands. Another shoot cracked and she dropped as half her head seemed to splash onto the street.

Tempera deceased L4.

Boom.

Bang!

That last one was the little girl shooting at me. I felt what must have been a ricochet, or a bit of debris from a near miss ping on my shoulder. That got my attention and reminded me running was a good idea.

I have no idea how long I ran. It was like Dante's Inferno mashed up with World War Z. I tried hard not to look at what was happening around me.

"Hey!"

I stopped. A very large, extremely big, extremely broad-shouldered man in a grey jumpsuit, giant work boots, and a hard hat was pointing at me.

"You crazy or sane?"

"Sane, I think."

"Then head towards the shopping centre. They're evac'ing people. But ya gotta hurry."

"Thanks!" I saluted and turned in the direction he indicated.

"Arrrgh!" A twelve-foot-tall saurian biped leapt from a nearby roof. The big man took the attack, sticking his forearm into the giant maw. I was amazed there was no sign that the massive fangs were ripping the flesh from the man's limb. I looked round for some way to help him. I saw a brick on the ground and bent to pick it up.

This is really stupid! I told myself. But the guy was the first friendly voice I'd heard since I woke here. As I straighten and cocked my arm back to throw, a locomotive engine slammed into the ground from on high.

Roughneck deceased L2.

Saurian deceased L2.

BOOM.

I guess I was getting used to this as I only felt one pulse.

Saddened, I moved towards the evac point.

I saw a helicopter take off in the distance. Dozens, maybe hundreds of people were all heading towards the mall. The military or maybe police had cordoned of the area and were letting people through slowly. There seemed to be some sort of examination involved. Two costumed people, one man, one woman, were talking to each person.

I saw them down check someone, who the soldier types quickly hustled away. Then they down checked another, and another. Suddenly the anxiety in the area skyrocketed as they closed the access point.

"This is only temporary," a soldier said. "We will resume the evacuation as soon as we can.

"No!"

"Don't leave us!"

"Rawrrr!"

Suddenly the crowd turned into a mob as they rushed the gates. The soldiers tried to push people back without harming them.

More people pushed forward. Folk were getting pushed, even trampled. I was getting jostled, but not harmed.

Someone fired a gun. It might have been from the crowd or the soldiers. Whoever it was doesn't matter. Madness bloomed.

I rode the flow of the mob through the check points and past the soldiers. The last helicopter took off, with people dangling from the struts.

"No!" I cried, along with everyone else. I reached for it reflexively.

Unlike everyone else, I started to float after the receding aircraft.

The crowd growled.

I flew away.

I was not alone in the air. Deciding not to follow the helicopter, I flew away from everything I could see in the sky. Especially the White Lady.

At this point I decided this must all be a dream. I had experienced flying dreams before. Making like Superman, I zoomed into the sunset.

At first, I thought someone was following me, but if they were, I outpaced them easily. Or maybe the White Lady got them. Anything can happen in a dream.

I continued to fly as it got dark. There were not a lot of lights on the ground, but I could see some towns in the distance.

Eventually I stopped at the largest collection of lights as I flew west. I landed in a dark area. When I saw the town name, Wagga Wagga, I smiled thinking of Gilderoy Lockhart and his werewolf. Then I noticed how many police cars and army vehicles were moving on the street, with a corresponding dearth of civilian traffic.

"Stay off the streets. Do not approach any strangers. The Simurgh may have controlled any refugees from the Capital. DO NOT approach any refugees." The recording was playing from all the speaker of the various official vehicles.

The Simurgh? I thought. I've heard of that … somewhere.

I stayed in the shadows, figuring that I counted as a refugee from the capital.

Worm!

I remembered that story. Hugh Childers had recommended it so many times I finally tried reading it. I don't recall how far I got. It was so damned depressing. And the governmental setting the writer created really didn't fit any of the political structures or theories I was studying, which just made me want to yell at him.

The name had come up recently. Hugh had asked if I wanted to join his regular group for a Worm-based campaign of some sort. He wanted to use some new system he'd found online, the idea of which really turned me off, even if I'd liked the setting. But he'd kept bugging me saying he needed five players. I'm absolutely telling him no when I wake up.

If I recalled in Worm the Simurgh was some sort of psychic monster. Though I couldn't remember the specifics, I knew she was the stuff of nightmares, even in the story, killing supers by the hundreds.

That must be the White Lady!

I'm dreaming I'm in Worm!

Why? Am I stressing or something?

"Stay where you are!" Lights were suddenly shining on me from three directions. Soldiers were pointing their weapons at me. "DO NOT MOVE!"

I must have twitched. They opened fire.

Suddenly they were not there, though I could hear them approaching.

What the fuck?

I flew up silently and watched as they ambushed the spot I had been sitting.

Too weird.

I flew further west. I needed to wake up. Monsters, zombies, murder girls, mobs, and abandonment. Now being chased by the government. Classic nightmare stuff and I was tired of it. Even if it was also a flying dream. My psych professor would love it, if I could remember enough to write down.

Eventually I got sleepy. Hoping that would end the dream I landed in the middle of some scrub land. I'd always heard Australia was mostly dry plains and desert. I guess this qualified. Dry grass and stunted trees as far as the eye could see at night. I also remember there were lots of poisonous snakes and spiders in this part of the world. I hoped my dream would spare me those.

I sat with my back against a tree and closed my eyes, determined to wake up in my own bed.

A fucking kangaroo kicked me. That's how I woke up. There was a whole troop, or whatever the collective noun for a group of murderous marsupials was, surrounding me. The biggest one had somehow decided I was a threat to their welfare or territory or maybe just didn't like my face. For whatever reason he kicked me. Then he kicked me again. The really fucking odd thing was that I barely felt the blows.

But that didn't mean I was just going to take his shit.

I lunged forward, ready to punch him when spears of light shot out of my body in all directions. They impaled the beasts and sent them flying. Soon they were lost to sight in the grass. One of the spears was embedded in the tree behind me. I reached out and touched it. It felt slick like ice, but not cold. It lasted for a second or two, then absorbed into my hand.

I guess I was still dreaming.

I hoped I was still dreaming. It was day out, probably late morning, and I felt like I had slept several hours. If I was really awake, then something completely inexplicable had happened. I had somehow been dropped into a story. A really unpleasant story.

It also meant I had superpowers. Flight, toughness, light spears, some sort of precog, and who knows what else. I could feel strange energies roiling inside me. I remembered the palpitations I had felt during the madness yesterday. There was something of that same sort of fluttery potential.

I really wished I knew what was going on. Where I was and how to get home.

Flub'oom.

Big fluttering palpitation and suddenly I knew I was not in a dream, or at least not my own dream. I was in Worm, though I had no idea how I got here. And the Geek Chic shirt guy was one of Hugh's gaming friends, so I might not be alone.

As for how to get home. I had no idea.