[Welcome, to The Land of Nowhere.]

[22:17:38]

"No... where...?"

Lucian sat up groggily, finding it almost impossible to keep his eyes open due to the radiant words floating in front of him. He wiped the sweat that had built up on his brow and dragged his body haphazardly to a nearby tree.

"Oomph!" His arms gave out, and his head brushed against the bark on its way down.

Blood trickled from his hairline, running into his eyes and obscuring his vision. Lucian groaned, rolling onto his back and scooting up the tree, not unlike how a worm crawls across a branch.

Once he managed to get himself in a seated position, he wiped the blood from his eye. His arms were weak, shaking as he brought them up to his face.

"What the fuck is going on..?" He mumbled. "Where are my clothes?"

The air was hot and muggy, not helping with the sweat flowing from his pores.

His eyes shut tight, trying to ignore the floating words in front of him. It did him no good. The blood-red phrase showed just as brightly behind his eyelids as it did in the air before him.

Lucian sat with his back against the tree, trying to recall anything that could give him an inkling as to what was going on. He ignored the flashing timer as best he could while retracing his memories.

'I'd gone to the bar to... celebrate something?' His mind was still fuzzy, and he was having trouble focusing.

An image of a small boy and girl hugging him goodbye flashed in his subconscious. He remembered a pair of red lips meeting his while a pregnant belly threatened to push him away.

"Sarah!" Lucian cried out, his eyes snapping open as he gained a moment of clarity. He could still feel where his wife and children had embraced him.

Looking around the clearing, he found himself in an area not too dissimilar from the woods behind his house, only... bigger.

Shadows covered the area, the canopy of leaves above blocking the final rays of the setting sun. It was peaceful, quiet... eerily quiet.

Lucian tried to focus on anything in the distance, but a stinging ache flooded his mind once more. He fought against the pain, but after a brief struggle, it overtook him, and he begrudgingly slipped back into a state of unconsciousness.

.....

Lucian woke up sometime later, his back still pressed against the sharp bark and his neck stiff from the way his head had been hanging. He didn't bother opening his eyes... he was afraid to bring life to his current thoughts.

'It... wasn't a dream?'

[Welcome, to The Land of Nowhere.]

[13:48:09]

The strange timer continued to countdown with the same message floating above it. A sense of foreboding took root as Lucian stared at the timer that was slowly ticking down.

"Get ahold of yours- cough! cough!"

Coughing heavily, Lucian leaned onto his shoulder, an overbearing pain burning in his chest and stomach. Though his arms still faltered, he managed to prop himself on his elbows as the contents of his stomach were tossed to the ground.

His body convulsed at the smell and sight of the liquid before him. Another round of hacking quickly followed.

'What is this!?'

The bile erupting from his stomach was something putrid. Instead of being the beer from the night prior, thick black goo burst from his mouth and nose.

Struggling to breathe, Lucian shoved his fingers into his throat to force the vile liquid out faster. Another discharge of the rotten black gunk poured from his orifices.

Luckily, his quick thinking did the trick, and he succeeded in swallowing a few breaths of the sultry air before losing all of his strength. His arms buckled, and his face planted itself firmly into the tar-like substance that covered the ground.

The smell was rancid, and he came close to losing his stomach again. If there were anything left, he was sure that he would have.

His only solace was that his clothes were gone, so the slimy substance simply rolled off his bare skin.

"Uuuugghhh," Lucian groaned and rolled his sore body until he was a few feet from the black puddle. His mouth was dry, and hunger and fatigue washed over him.

'I... can't fall asleep again,' He thought. Fear and anger crept into his mind as ideas of his current situation flashed through his mind. He remembered now.

After completing a large construction job, Lucian had taken his friends out for drinks. They'd finished up a luxury condo on the oceanfront, having added a small rooftop spa and bar area.

The job paid well. After sticking some cash in his children's college funds, he'd headed to the local bar with a few of his employees.

He bought shots for everyone at the bar and handed his guys a nice bonus for a job well done. Lucian had only had a single beer himself, planning on heading home to celebrate with his wife.

'Was my drink... drugged?' Lucian seethed. 'No, it couldn't have been. I popped the cap myself and drank it in one go.'

That wasn't a likely explanation. Even though he'd had some cash on him, he knew everyone in that place.

'Someone from a rival company, perhaps?' He also threw away that thought, 'What would someone from a rival company gain from stripping me and dragging me into the woods?'

Vomiting that crud seemed to help restore him, though the difference was minuscule. He felt that he could stand if he had something to brace himself with.

Lucian's eyes darted around while his eyes adjusted to the darkness, and he discovered a few fallen branches nearby. Most had an irregular shape, but there were a few straight enough to act as a crutch.

He pressed his elbows into the ground and dragged his body to the nearest one. A few twigs extended from it, but they would be simple enough to snap off later.

'Some of this can be explained away,' Lucian thought while dragging himself up with the support of a nearby tree, 'But...'

'What the hell is up with this message?'

[Welcome, to The Land of Nowhere.]

[12:11:52]