The sun felt warm on her skin as she began to move, raising an arm to block the stinging lite. Her body felt heavy, like moving through the water as her senses slowly began to return. Something felt off about the moment as she struggled to sit up and look around, finally seeing the trees.

“What?” she said in a soft tone as her eyes darted all around. “Where am I?” She struggled to get to her feet, only to discover her legs were unsteady. They felt slow, almost unresponsive, as if moving a second slower than they should. It felt as if she was fighting them to get control, but finally managed a stagger forward.

“This is a forest?” she asked to no one in particular as she looked around again. She brushed leaves and dirt from her jeans while trying to make sense of her surroundings. It looked like a small clearing in a forest under a sunny afternoon sky. The air was cleaner than she ever imagined it could be and carried with it the scent of the trees. With a few careful steps, she tried to puzzle it out but had no idea where she was.

“Alright, I am in a strange forest instead of my bedroom,” she said to try and fight the panic. She spun around again and considered the option that this was a dream. Of course it was a dream. How else would she get from her apartment in the city to a forest? The only other possibility was...

“No!” she called out in panic, her eyes searching all around until spotting a small break in the trees. She ran for the gap and found a narrow path that snaked into the dark interior. Her legs worked as fast as they could, desperate to be away as if she could run from the truth. The path twisted and turned, carrying her across a lush landscape but offering no escape. As her muscles began to tire, she cried out in frustration. “No! I don't want to be chosen!”

The forest ended at a meadow of wavy grass and sunny flowers. White clouds drifted lazily on a crystal sky that seemed perfect for a postcard. With legs shaking from exertion, she slumped to her knees, dipping her head as the reality sank in.

“Why do things like this always happen to me?” she cried to the open air. “Why would anybody want me in here?”

She took a few moments to steady her breathing and get her bearings. As much as it seemed a fantasy, there was no denying what was happening. She was in New Eden. A world created to help the visitors learn about humanity. She was one of the chosen who would “help” them by living in this world and participating in the game. They would watch her and learn from the choices she made to help them understand. This was voluntary for most people, but a select few were chosen and more or less kidnapped and thrown in.

“I choose to get out of here!” she shouted to no one in particular, desperately hoping they were watching and would understand. She remembered herself and patted down her pockets. Her purse was gone and with it her phone. In her pocket, she found a dime, a quarter, and an old receipt for pizza.

“Not going very far with that,” she sighed, wondering if a cell phone would work inside here anyway. With a wobble, she returned to her feet, resigning herself to face the current situation.

“Ok, Ok, deep breaths. I’m alive and trapped in a fantasy world made by aliens. I have nothing but the clothing on my back and no idea where to go. I'm in good shape, right?” Her shoulders sank when nothing answered, reminding her that she was alone. “Oh, who am I kidding? How am I supposed to survive in a world like this? I never played video games! For all I know, a dragon will swoop down and eat me at any moment.”

She looked to the sky and wondered if perhaps that could happen. When nothing proved to be stalking her from above, she took a moment to look around. Her brother played games like this, and to her best recollection, they always started in some kind of town. All she saw was endless fields of grass or the forest behind. With no other choices, she wandered into the grassland, watching all around for danger,

“You just need to be careful,” she assured herself while struggling to think of all she knew about this world. She hadn't paid much attention, but it made headlines so often it was hard not to learn something. There were stories of monsters stalking the land, hungry to eat the players who used swords and magic to battle them. She held up her hands, briefly wondering if maybe she could do magic.

“But how?” she asked while wiggling her fingers. “Oh, why didn't you pay more attention to the news?” Her anguish grew as the feeling of helplessness grew with it. She knew so little of these games but did understand a few things. Her brother played role-playing games both on the computer and with pencils and paper. She teased him about it frequently but did manage to glean a few details.

“All right, deep breaths. So am I class or something?” she asked just to hear herself talk. “Maybe I’m a paladin?” She wasn't even sure what a paladin was. All she knew was her brother played one, and he could smite the unholy. She stopped and pointed at a bush before commanding it to kneel before her power. When nothing happened, she felt foolish for trying and refused to keep guessing. The only logical solution was to find a town and get help. With nothing more to lose, she set off on a brisk pace, searching for help and, with any luck, a solution to her problem.

An hour later and she was still walking across the impossibly vast field. She hadn’t seen anything of interest beyond a strange bird with four wings, but now distant hills were growing on the horizon. The whole time was spent struggling to think of what to do. She had been so absorbed in her life that she paid the news about this place almost no attention. Now she tried to remember the bits and pieces she did glean about this place and its purpose. If the news was accurate, then the visitors were watching, studying her every move in some effort to learn about humans. This offered a glimmer of hope, and she decided to try and speak to them, looking to the sky before calling out.

“What is the point of this place?”

…

“What am I supposed to do?”

…

“Where am I supposed to go?”

...

“I refuse to keep walking for no good reason!”

…

“Fine!” she said and casually sat down on a rock. “I will sit here until you answer me or let me out.” She stubbornly made up her mind, refusing to be of any use to their plans. If there was nothing to learn from her, then there was no reason to keep her.

Hours went by as she sat on the rock, growing more and more uncomfortable. The sun seemed to be taking an impossibly long time to cross the sky. Now that she looked at it, the sky was overly blue. Almost as if looking through water at the bottom of a swimming pool. She wondered if that was what it was. Water hovering overhead in some vast blue dome. Her sense of wonder almost got the better of her before remembering where she was. She folded her arms and looked away, refusing to find wonder in anything. This wasn't her home, and she didn't want to be here. She wouldn't find joy in anything, no matter how beautiful.

The motion of falling jarred her awake as her perch on the rock failed. She had to reposition herself to resume her sit-in until they let her go. With a bored sigh, she blinked and looked up to see the sun had hardly moved, or maybe it hadn't moved at all. Surely she was asleep long enough for a little movement?

“Did I sleep a whole day, or are days here a hundred hours long?” she muttered, trying to make sense of it. The pain in her rear told her that it was time to get up, so she relinquished her perch to stretch with great reluctance. A quick look around revealed nothing else had changed while she napped. The landscape was still a field of gently swaying grass and flowers broken up by random trees.

With a butt sore from sitting on an awkward stone, she resigned to use the ground instead. The stone now became her backrest as she folded her arms to resume her angry grimace. Once again, she replayed events from the last moments of her memory, trying to convince herself this was a dream.

Time slipped away until she lost sense of it. She awoke from her anger to realize she had been watching a couple of ant's meander across the ground for what seemed like eons. Her only method of judging time was unreliable, but she looked to the sun anyway to see it had finally moved. In fact, it seemed to be racing across the sky. To her amazement, it dipped low until the sky streaked with reds, oranges, and pinks before stopping to hang in place again.

“What the? The sun doesn’t move like that! This isn’t how time works!” she yelled at the uncaring sky. “You can’t just move it to specific moments with nothing in between!”

...

Jumping to her feet, she growled in anger and kicked the rock that was her only companion, instantly regretting her decision.

“Ow!” she cried, hobbling around and cursing her luck. “Aren't I supposed to be a superhero or something? Shouldn't rocks break when I kick them or fly off into the sky?”

...

Seething in anger and pain, she stood motionless as her foot throbbed. She was about to scream obscenities at the aliens she knew were watching when she heard a noise and looked over her shoulder. Panic filled her senses, and her stomach sank when she saw something she would rather not have.

It stood at least twice her height with a body that resembled a green caterpillar. It had a ring of long rope-like tentacles around a gaping circular maw. It inched its way across the open field, making a deep rumbling grown as it went.

“Get me out!” she shrieked in panic, causing the monster to lurch. The creature reacted to the sound and turned its gaping maw her way. She could see the mouth was filled with rows of hooked teeth and ringed by black eyes, all looking at her with hunger. It reared up and let out a terrible cry before inching with surprising speed her way.

The hills echoed with the sound of screaming as Heather ran in a panic on her injured foot, limping as quickly as she could.

“Let me out! Let me out! Let me out!” she panted with every breath, her adrenaline carrying her to new heights of ability. Running despite the pain, she glanced back to see the monster was following, that horrible dark maw large enough to swallow her whole.

Minutes later, her sides began to hurt nearly as bad as her foot. She wanted to stop but could hear the beast growling from behind. Wild with panic, she ran over a hill and saw a group of stone structures in a yard below. A twisted metal fence surrounded a stony yard with several gnarled and barren trees.

Without hesitating, she ran for the yard, hoping to find shelter. She glanced over her shoulder to see the monster was falling behind but still pursuing its meal. She pushed on as the pain in her foot and sides grew and finally reached the gate of the graveyard.

“Oh, wonderful!” she groaned while running inside. “This is the perfect place to be eaten and die.”

She could see now that the stone buildings were mausoleums. In her terror, she ran for one with an open door, and without thinking, threw herself inside the narrow opening, tumbling to the floor. A few moments later, the beast was at the door, bellowing with a hiss from outside. It was too big for the doorway, but to her shock, several of the long tentacles reached in.

“Eww, no!” she cried. “Tentacles never end well for girls in manga!” They reached in with a hungry lust, nearly wrapping one of her legs. She kicked at them violently while hurrying back to avoid being dragged to that maw. Just as she was about to escape, the ground suddenly gave way, and a new problem arose.

“Ow! Oof! Ow!” she cried while tumbled down a flight of stairs, rolling over every step.

Everything seemed to hurt as she opened her eyes to the light. She slowly sat up and looked around to see a surprisingly well-lit room. The walls were a stone brick, stacked in a haphazard pattern. Many were cracked or crumbling, and spider webs hung in every corner. The floor was caked in dust, and so was she as she struggled to sit and see more.

The room was empty except for a flight of stairs up and an arched doorway behind. There wasn't a visible source of light anywhere in the room, and while it all appeared to be dark with shadows, she could see just enough to make it all out. It reminded her of the stories of the Greek underworld and the places the dead went to be judged.

“Maybe I’m dead,” she said out loud.

“I don't know about you, but I sure am,” a voice answered.

Her heartbeat was audible as her body froze in shock. Slowly she turned in place, glancing behind to see the speaker. There, not two meters away, stood a hunched and gangling creature. Its skin was rubbery and gray, blotched with black and green in places like horrible bruises. Its hair was ragged and thinning, growing in tufts like weeds in a garden. The sickly yellow eyes had no lids or brow to speak of, and jagged crooked teeth jutted from a slit of a mouth. It had hands with unnaturally long fingers that ended in black hooked nails that scraped the floor.

“Hi, I’m Frank, the ghoul,” it said, waving one of those terrible claws.

Her screams echoed down the tunnels of the crypt.