The next morning, we had our next meeting to discuss what to do going forward. By then, our group had increased to forty-two individuals. Most of them were ordinary people without particular skills in combat or survival - some local bankers, a lawyer, some salespeople, a carpenter, a couple of plumbers, and so forth. They seemed like friendly folks, except a few guys that seemed somewhat arrogant and one that gave me the stink eye for some reason.

Before I could ponder more about that, Ben clapped in his hands to gather everyone’s attention.

“Alright, folks, it seems like we made some progress. Jimmy, Brock, Ben, and Ari got another few shopping carts full of food from Price Chopper. Together with the supplies we got yesterday, we should be set for the time being. Even better, turns out that Tom and Jerry, I’m not kidding people, those are their names, used to hunt game in the area using bows. I didn’t even know that anyone was doing it around here, but there you go. They recovered their bows from their homes and have a couple dozen arrows each, so starting tomorrow they should be able to get some fresh meat for us to barbecue.”

“Any news about help from outside?” A woman shouted from the back of the crowd. “Did Austin find anything?”

The murmur in the crowd made it quite clear that this was the number one issue on everyone’s mind.

Ben waited patiently until people quieted down again.

“As most of you know, Austin took his bike and went in the other direction early this morning. It turns out that there is the same type of invisible barrier after roughly twenty-five miles. However, the area on the other side of the barrier looked different from the one yesterday – instead of giant ferns and humongous trees it was an arid landscape, like in the Southern US.”

“Ben, stop talking about shrubs! Is any help coming?” The woman yelled.

That was my cue to chip in something.

“The fact that there are different landscapes on either side of Lake Placid is quite significant,” I said loudly. “First, either we have been teleported somewhere else, or the area around us has been teleported to us. Or, equally likely, there has been some type of time-anomaly that has changed the flora and fauna around us to historical conditions very different from what we encounter today. Since we have all encountered that voice, talking about a transfer, we can safely assume that we have been teleported somehow.”

Collecting my thoughts for a second, I continued. “Second, because the areas around us are vastly different despite the distance of fewer than sixty miles, we can conclude that at least some of the areas around us have also been teleported to this place. Which may mean that we aren’t alone.”

“Third, if we aren’t alone and the areas that have been teleported next to Lake Placid don’t resemble anything we might encounter on earth, there is the possibility of a hostile encounter with different people, or even aliens. As long as the barrier is up, we are, perhaps, protected, but we should prepare ourselves for all eventualities.”

At first, there was silence, and I could see my words sink in. Some people reacted dismissively, others were quite thoughtful, and some seemed afraid. But at least I earned some looks of grudging respect, which was the main reason for me to speak up.

More than anything else, I was scared that the people here would consider me useless, a drag on resources… so I had to make sure that I contributed something valuable to the team, in a highly visible way.

With an appreciative smile in my direction, Ben started speaking again. “Thank you for those valuable tho-“

A vicious sounding drawn-out howl filled the air.

It was unlike anything I had ever heard. The closest I could think of was the noise cats make when they are fighting, mixed with the howl of a wolfpack.

Folks looked at each other, unsure how to react. And then the shouting of panicked people started, and the blood-curling shrieks of individuals caught in the open by whatever had caused that howl.

Someone had to act.

“Everyone, back in the house! We need to barricade the doors and windows!” I shouted.

Relieved to get a clear command, everyone started moving. Luckily, Annie didn’t forget to push my wheelchair. Once everyone had piled inside, Mike pushed a massive table to the door, effectively blocking it, and Ben and Ibrahim stacked some chairs on top of breakfast tables to try and barricade the windows.

Meanwhile, a few other people scrambled to find something that could be used as a weapon, be that a kitchen knife, a granite ashtray, or a two by four leaning next to the door. Whenever someone looked lost or unsure what to do, I gave them some command, usually veiled as a suggestion and, surprisingly, people didn’t argue but started following my orders.

A couple of minutes later, the first creatures came skidding around the corner at high speed. They looked like wolves or big dogs but had much longer teeth than usual, a more powerful built, and forelegs with long, razor-sharp claws that slightly dug into the concrete as they were moving. Blood dripping from their jaws, their beady, bloodshot eyes scanned the buildings, quickly homing in on our hastily secured house.

And then they slowly walked closer, occasionally sniffing the ground, but mostly just scanning the house predatorily. Looking more closely at them, I noticed that they didn’t have any fur, but a mix of scales, interlaced with tough-looking grey skin, akin to what a shark might have. Combined with smallish ears protected by a bone-arch and a split, serpent-like tongue, the creatures looked decidedly different from a dog or wolf.

“Reaver Dogs,” Jimmy said quietly. Usually, his comment would have been drowned out by the myriad of background noise common for larger groups, but at the moment it was deadly quiet, everyone holding their breath when the creatures had rounded the corner.

“What do you mean, Jimmy?” A young woman next to him whispered. “How do you know what they are?”

“I can see it,” Jimmy responded hesitantly. “I guess it is a skill I have!?”

Before we could get more information from Jimmy, the first three Reaver Dogs moved up to the door and began sniffing around. Suddenly, there was a loud bang, and the door shook in its frame. A good number of people in our group were going pale. The sniffing noise was soon coming from all sides of the house as the Reaver Dogs searched for a way to enter.

Everyone clustered to the middle of the room, trying to maximize the distance between any of the outside walls and themselves. And then it happened. Without warning, a huge Reaver Dog crashed through the glass of one of the big dining room windows, scattering the make-shift barrier behind it all over the place.

Panting, and covered in a myriad of small cuts the Reaver Dog stared at us, oddly enough not attacking immediately. And rather than taking advantage of the brief respite, all we did was stare back. Perhaps it was fear? While that certainly played a role, the main reason probably was that none of us really knew how to deal with a life-or-death struggle like that – the whole situation was too sudden and too dramatic for us soft city-dwellers.

And then it became apparent why the Reaver Dog had stood there unmoving - another two jumped through the shattered window and joined the first one in the living room.

Head lowered, growling menacingly, they advanced slowly on us.

The people around me started to shrink back, ready to turn around and try to escape – the flight instinct finally kicking in. But running would inevitably lead to disaster. Faced with a pack of dogs or other predators, the worst thing you could do was show fear or turn you back on them… we needed to fight.

Immediately, I tried to take charge of the situation.

“Mike, push that heavy table and topple it over to box them in. Jimmy and Ben, grab a chair and use it as a shield. Everyone else… throw stuff at them and strike them hard. Anyone with an actual weapon, wait for your chance to finish them off. They are just big, ugly dogs!”

A couple of the most fearful people kept on retreating, but the others realized that taking concerted action to fight the Reaver Dogs was our best bet. And things worked out mostly the way I had predicted. What I had not realized was how strong some of our people really were. Mike pushed that table over with such ferocity that it slammed into the dogs and caused them to shrink back for a second or two. And then he grabbed one of those huge armchairs and heaved it at them in a stunning display of power. Not to be outdone, Jane and a guy whose name I didn’t know pelted the Reaver Dogs with heavy stone ashtrays with such force that they broke bones on impact.

The Reaver Dogs made a strange moaning noise and began to slink back, but the others weren’t having any of that. Brandishing cleavers and makeshift clubs, numerous men and women from our group jumped forward and laid into the dogs with an almost primal fury and ferocity.

The ugly dogs had no chance. Quickly they were clubbed down or stabbed to death, with only a few deep scratches and one bite wound on our side, all of which Annie was able to heal quickly.

While I was glad that we had won, but I also felt a pang of intense jealousy. Yes, I had been instrumental in the fight in planning a sounds strategy, but I couldn’t participate in any of the execution. And the strength that some of the people had put on display… it was mind-boggling. All those with a green core or a white core had gained an impressive amount of raw physical power or speed.

In contrast to that… I had mana vision?

So. Fucking. Useless.

Out of curiosity, I focused on the Reaver Dogs and immediately noticed a cloud of diffuse green mana evaporating, for lack of a better word, out of their bodies.

What came next surprised me, even though, given the roleplaying-like setting, it perhaps shouldn’t have come unexpectedly: The mana slowly split into many small, diffuse floating spheres, and each one drifted to one of the members of our group that had been somehow involved in the fighting. For some, the mana orbs were slightly larger than for others. In my estimation, the size of the orb roughly corresponded to the contribution to the fight.

Interestingly, a decent-sized cloud of mana also approached Annie and myself, even though neither she nor I had been directly engaged in the combat action. I figured that this was akin to the experience system in most roleplaying games, only that instead of experience, people got mana. And one could get mana for actions that contributed to the group but weren’t damage based… which was huge, especially for me.

I held my breath when the sphere reached the first of our group, but all that happened was that the mana simply got soaked up by the body of the person and disappeared. I was waiting for some indication that the person had noticed what had happened, but none of them showed any sign of discomfort, elation, or, really, any reaction. Clearly, none of them could see what was going on either. When the orb reached me, I observed carefully what was happening, but all I could feel was an almost unnoticeable boost in energy.