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Chapter 4

“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.” – Philip K. Dick

**

David opened his eyes and tried to stand up, shaking away the weird green afterimages in his vision.

David blinked his eyes.

The…block….across the street…wasn’t there…there was….a…forest?!?

David took a few steps out into the street, shock and confusion carrying him forward.

Somewhere in the back of his mind, David was aware that the lights on the buildings all along his side of the street were out. Behind him, that excitable young college student—Barry something or other – was calling out his name…telling him to stop.

David turned to answer Barry. As he did so, out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of movement dart across the street from the ‘forest’ about a block or two to his left. He swung his gaze back to get a better look at it but it had already darted into an alleyway.

“Mr Elias—get the hell back here! What the hell is going on?!”

“I…I don’t know Barry. Stay there!”

“I have absolutely no intention whatsoever of moving!”

David turned back to get a better look at the forest, looking up and down the street as he did so.

The…forest…seemed to be about five or six city blocks across and about the same length long. There were trees and bushes and shrubs and all kinds of plants—only a few of which looked familiar to him.

The forest wasn’t covering up the buildings. The forest seemed to have… replaced? ...the buildings…

David got to the edge of the forest and looked down.

There was a clean and straight break between the asphalt of the street and the forest’s edge. No crumbling of asphalt, no ‘fuzzy edges’ …nothing like that.

On one side of the edge—asphalt. On the other—the forest.

It was almost as if someone…something?…made a big cut-out of a forest and literally just dropped it onto the city….

David was contemplating whether or not he should enter the forest when he heard something deep inside the forest bellow.

Something very, very big….

**

Tuesday Aug 19, 2008 – Dr. Caesius’ apartment – Piscataway, New Jersey

“Janice!” screamed Charles. “Janice—are you there?” he shouted again into the dead phone, glancing around the apartment.

What the hell was that?! Did some plane crash out there or something? Hey—the power is out too…

Dropping the phone, Charles rushed to the window and looked out.

A dark shadow flew over his building. Glancing up, Charles only got a brief glimpse of it before it passed over his house.

You idiot! chastised an inner voice That couldn’t have been a bird! It must have been a good twenty feet across or something! It had to be a …plane…or something…

There was loud screeching…from above….

High over the city…too high to see any details….three more of the….birds…were circling…

Off in the distance, Charles heard screams…and…sirens…

…and gunshots….

**

David awoke to the smell of smoke.

He snapped open his eyes, looking frantically around.

I’m…in….in my seat…on the ground…on the ground?....

David glanced around.

He was in a forest.

Or rather—what was left of a forest….after a plane has crashed into it….

David glanced to his side—there was no sign of the fat sleeping man in the chair next to him—David noticed that the man’s seatbelt was unbuckled, swinging like a pendulum…

The whole forest seemed to be on fire….the smoke was filling his throat…burning it…he could practically feel the smoke corroding his lungs…

David undid his seatbelt and tumbled forwards, gasping in the slightly fresher air that lay near the ground.

Move…move your ass, you débile!

David stood up unsteadily and then ran, leaving the burning forest behind him.

**

Sion opened his eyes, coughing out a mouthful of dirt.

“Dad! What the hel—uh—heck was that? Did something explode?”

There was no response from his dad.

Sion slowly lifted his face off the ground and moved into a sitting position.

“Dad?”

He looked around.

The forest had… changed.

About ten feet in front of him, on the ground, there was a knife straight line that traveled north to south. On his side of the line—the trees were still the same as he remembered. On the other side of the line, the trees, the plants, even the dirt itself, looked…different.

Sion looked frantically around.

There was no sign of his dad or his mom—or even his home.

He was all alone.

“Daddy?”

**

Philippe opened his eyes feeling something wet and sticky on the side of his face.

He…was…on the floor of the subway car….there was a small pool of blood on the floor…his blood!

With a gasp Philippe raised himself off the floor and tried to stand up. It took three tries before he was able to do so.

He noticed that there were five or six other people around him slowly getting themselves up off the floor.

The subway car was pitch dark.

He glanced to his right, towards the front of the subway car.

Where the front of the car should have been….

Philippe’s jaw dropped as he stared, uncomprehending, at what lay in front of him.

The entire subway car…had…been…chopped…in half.

A solid wall of rock had cut the subway car. Philippe glanced out the windows.

…no…not just the subway car—the entire tunnel…

Philippe raised a hand to his face, wiping the blood streaking down over his eyes.

Philippe looked behind him.

The subway car he was in was the last car of the train. This allowed him an unobstructed view of the tunnel behind the train.

It was still there—but there were no lights.

Even the emergency lights were flickering off and on.

He heard one of the other passengers behind him scream—and a moment later, like dominoes, each of the other passengers started screaming.

Philippe turned his head to look what was going on.

One of the passengers—an old lady in a blue dress—was screaming like a banshee and pointing at something on the floor.

The seats blocked Philippe from seeing what it was, so he took a few steps forward, vaguely noting that the other passengers were ashen-faced and turning their faces away in terror.

Philippe stopped—and felt the hot bitter taste of vomit reach up into his throat.

There—on the floor—was a man.

Or rather—half a man.

He had been sitting in one of the side facing chairs and the ...wall of rock…had come down…

….and split him in half from head to toe….

**

James’ head burst through the surface of the water, lungs frantically gasping in air.

He looked around in confusion as he desperately tried to keep his head above water in the surging surf while coughing up what felt like an entire gallon of water.

He noticed the water was filthy and filled with debris of all kinds….and human bodies….

A wooden street-sign—marked ‘Diamond Avenue’ - floating by him, carried swiftly by the current. James lunged at it and managed to wrap both arms around it in a death’s embrace.

Clutching for dear life, James was carried onwards by the tidal wave….

Victor woke up to the sound of screaming.

A woman screaming…

Later on, Victor looked back and realized that he was never able to ascertain exactly how he had managed to go from a prone position to a standing position without actually making any intervening moves in between–but somehow he did.

Shantala was lying on the ground, about 30 feet away from him, blood streaming from a cut on her forehead. A large bloodied rock lay on the ground at her feet.

Victor covered the distance in less than second, grabbing Shantala and pulling her close to him, tears welling up in his eyes and mingling with hers.

“It’s okay! It’s okay! It’s okay!...” he babbled, clutching her tightly.

“What the hell happened?!”

“I don’t know, hon—I honestly don’t know! Are you alright!?”

Shantala nodded her head, wiping the blood from her face with her sleeve “I…I think so…”

The Aussie hiker screamed.

“Oh…my …God!”

The rest of the hiking group turned and stared—and saw the Aussie shakily pointing a finger at the forest to the north….

…the forest that used to be to the north…

Starting about 50 feet in front of the Aussie and extending for what seemed like several miles at the least—the rainforest was now a massive…swamp?

There was a large moss-encrusted rock about 20 feet long and 10 feet high, located about 100 yards away from them that was resting right smack in the middle of the swamp.

The rock began to move…and shift position…

…and rise up….

**

Lucien woke up to the sound of the telephone ringing…and ringing…and ringing…and ringing…and….

“Oh—for fuck’s sake!” he screamed as he picked up the phone.

“What?” he yelled into the phone

“Lucien Robichaud?” said a voice

“Yes—who’s this?”

The voice on the line let out a sigh of relief.

“Oh thank God! Sir—this is Captain Michael Angel of Canadian Forces Base Petawawa. You are to stay in your cabin and wait. I have two helicopters en route towards your position as we speak.”

“Huh? Captain? Base? Helicopters? What? Why?”

“I am not a liberty to discuss that with you at this time, sir. All will be explained once you are picked up. For the moment, it is imperative that we get you to a safe location as soon as possible.”

“Huh? Wha? Look, what the hell is—“

“Sir—I’m going to have to insist that you repeat back everything I say to you now.”

“Uh—okay”

“You are to stay in your cabin.”

“I am to stay in my cabin.”

“Under no circumstances are you to leave your cabin.”

“Under no circumstances am I to leave my cabin.”

“You are to stand away from any windows and doors.”

“I am to stand away from any windows and doors.”

“Once helicopters arrive, you are to remain in your cabin until the area is secured.”

“Once the helicopters arrive I am to remain in the cabin until the area is secured.”

“You are to follow the instructions of the soldiers.”

“I am to follow the instructions of the soldiers.”

“Helicopters will be arriving at your position in approximately eighteen minutes. Good luck, sir”

“Huh? Good luck? What—“

Lucien found himself speaking into a dial tone.

Eighteen minutes later two military helicopters landed in a clearing next to his cabin.

Jeez…they weren’t kidding…there’s six soldiers jumping out of those copters… uh… make that eight…. ummmm… twelve… fifteen… twenty soldiers….?

The soldiers took up positions around the cabin—all of them pointing their guns outwards—into the forest….

One of the soldiers banged on the door, shouting out his name.

Lucien opened the door—and was practically physically carried into one of the copters by several soldiers.

Barely 30 seconds later, the copters were back in the air and flying at high speed over the forest.

“What the hell is going on here?” said Lucien to the pilot, screaming over the din of the helicopter.

“We have an emergency situation, sir. I have orders to take you immediately to an emergency command centre that’s been set up at Smiths Falls.”

“Smiths Falls? Why there? Why not Ottawa?”

“There has been an…incident, sir.”

Lucien noticed for the first time that all of the soldiers were nervous and sweating.

“An incident? What do you mean—an incident? What the hell happened to Ottawa?”

The pilot swallowed a lump in his throat.

“It’s….gone”

“Gone? GONE? What the fuck you mean -gone? What’s happened to it?!?”

“It’s … vanished, sir.”

“WHAT?!”

~~

On to Chapter 5

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