The spiraling, warped, purple lights zoomed past me as I continued falling. My eyelids flapped and my mouth was wide open as the wind and g-forces pulled at me. Then, a small black light appeared at the end of the tunnel, and it began growing in size. I was screaming as the black hole engulfed me.

Suddenly, I wasn't falling through a tunnel; I was falling through the open air towards a road. I hit the ground hard, and rolled up against a parked car.

I groaned and flipped onto my back, squirming from the pain. I opened my eyes to see a bright sun hanging overhead. I cringed and slowly sat upright. When I opened my eyes I saw that I was sitting on the right side of an old, gray road. Shops, buildings, and cars lined the street on both sides. The road split into two opposite directions at an intersection a bit further down the road. A big building at the end had a large sign that read, "Visitors Center".

Where the hell was I? And how the hell did I get here? Just think Josh…where were you before this? Just walking in the door after work, going to get something to eat from the fridge…then, this?

A small, high pitched whistle sounded above me. I looked up to see somebody falling just as I did, straight for me. I pressed up against the car as the newcomer hit the ground about a foot away. They rolled to a stop on the other side of the road and began groaning. Then she sat up…

She, as in, a girl with long, dark-brown hair that had curls around her cheeks. She was a complete goddess from the looks of it.

She turned and saw me, and quickly kicked backwards until she was against a building. She was wearing a clean white-shirt and tight, dark-blue jeans.

"Easy," I said, "That just happened to me too…"

She hesitated, "What?" she asked in the cutest British accent I'd ever heard.

I struggled to stand up, and once I did, my back cracked and I had to lean against the car. I must have been falling for hours…

Then, out of nowhere, another person smacked into the road about 20 yards away.

I looked back to the girl and said, "That…"

A man kneeled on all fours and shook his head to regain focus. When he turned to us, he didn't say anything. Instead, he took a couple more deep breaths, and stood up. He had big muscles that showed easily from his cut off flannel shirt. A worn-out, camouflage hat fell from the sky and hit his boots. He scooped it up and adjusted it on his bald head. The only hair on his head was a brownish goatee. He wiped a bit of blood away from his lips, looked at it, and smeared it off on his already dirty jeans.

Then, on cue, another person fell from the sky, immediately followed by yet another person. This time, it was a man and a woman. They both acted out the event the same way as we all had.

The girl stood up first, wearing a cop uniform. She was also good looking, not as nice as the first girl, but still about an 8 or 9 on my scale. She had tan skin, and straight black hair that was pulled into a ponytail. A police hat dropped to the ground beside her, and she bent down to pick it up.

The other guy just stayed sprawling on his back groaning. He was a skinny guy, with brown hair that came into a small pyramid atop his head. He was wearing a plaid long-sleeved shirt and jeans. One of his shoes had come off on impact and was laying a few feet away. I also noticed a pair of handcuffs dangling from his right arm.

The cop brushed off her shoulders and straightened her outfit. She paused and slowly looked up at me. "Who are you? What the hell…?" the cop asked.

I glanced at the first girl, and then back to her. "I'm Josh Redel, we all fell just like you did…"

The redneck stepped closer to the group and said in a husky voice, "Is'at so? I'm Buddy, Buddy Thomas."

The cop looked around confused, "Okay…I'm Officer Jennifer Dawson, what just happened?"

The first girl looked at the ground and put a hand up, "Yeah, my name's Ashley…"

We all waited for the last kid, who was now in a sitting position pulling on his left shoe. He looked up at us, "Frank…"

Jennifer laughed, "What is this? Am I TV?" she looked around in circles smiling.

I thought about that, maybe we are on TV. I searched the around the area for cameras.

When I looked back to Jennifer she had her hands palm-up. "Are you serious? None of you know?"

"Look Jennifer…" I began.

"Call me Jenny," she cut me off.

I glanced to Buddy who had a smirk on his face. "Ok, Jenny…no, none of us know. I was here before any of you, and I watched each of you come down."

Jenny placed her hands on her hips and pursed her lips. "Ok, well sorry that I don't get teleported somewhere every day like you, Josh!"

I put my hand up, "Alright, alright, I'm sorry. How about we start here…what was it that you were doing before you got sucked through that vortex?"

Buddy grinned and raised his hand like a school student. I pointed to him and he said, "I was with my neighbor fixin' his tractor…"

I nodded and pointed to Jenny.

"Well, I was arresting Frank here, for trying to steal a car!"

Frank slowly stood up, "Now wait a minute! I wasn't stealing the car! I was stealing the iPhone inside!"

Jenny crossed her arms, "So? That's still theft!"

"Petty-theft mate…" Frank protested. I guess he was Australian.

I put my hand up before Jenny could argue. "What about you, Ashley?"

She seemed pretty shy, and she looked around at all of us before answering, "Well, I was driving home…"

That couldn't be good. Somewhere in the world there was probably a mass pile-up and mass confusion.

I sighed, "Well, that doesn't help much because I was just walking in my door. Any ideas?"

Jenny shook her head and began looking around. She noticed the big sign and began walking down the road, "Hey, let's just check this visiting center, they might know what this is all about…"

We all began following her. Ashley was unsure about this whole situation, Frank couldn't care less, and Buddy was smiling like it was Christmas. That was, until we all noticed the thick line of dark red liquid leading from the doors of the building.

Jenny froze and held her arms out to block anybody from passing. Ashley put a hand over her mouth and Buddy's expression went from happy to shocked.

"Oh my God…" Jenny whispered. I leaned over her shoulder. "What is this?" her minty breath hitting me.

I backed up embarrassed, "Uh, looks like blood…"

She reached into her holster and pulled out a Smith and Wesson 5946 9mm.

"Really?" I questioned.

"Better safe than sorry!" she replied.

Jenny slowly crept forward towards the building. It had a small roof over top of the doors and green hedges that neatly lined the sidewalk. We all started moving forward with her, but Ashley grabbed my hand.

"I don't want to go in there…" she begged me with her dark-brown eyes. The pupils seemed to go on forever. How could I say no?

I looked back to the others. They were at the door now and waiting for us.

I gently pulled Ashley closer to me and whispered, "We'll be fine, I don't think this is blood anyway…"

Ashley stalled for a moment longer by taking a deep breath. We slowly caught up to them and I nodded for Jenny to open the door. She pressed her shoulder against the glass and slowly propped it open. We all walked in, and immediately are suspicions were confirmed. There was no doubt that the trail of red liquid was blood. A recently dead body was lying in a heap in the middle of the floor. Ashley gasped and put a hand over her mouth.

"Jesus…" Frank murmured.

Ashley backed out of the door and walked around the edge of the building. Jenny began backing up and ran into me making her jump. I caught her and began pulling her back out of the room. Once we were all back outside we looked up and down the street. It was vacant, and more bodies were visible from this position.

"What the hell is this place?" Jenny asked in awe.

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Chapter 2 coming soon!

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- Legkicker