The Converging

Tigressa

I hit the ground hard, groaning as I felt my shoulder crunch against the cold earth. I sit up and rub my shoulder, pain blaring down my arm on a warpath already, looking around the new territory. The grass was all green, and there was no sign of any exotic plants I was familiar with. I heard a weird rumble in the distance. Not a dragon…

I climbed to my feet and trekked toward the noise, which was quickly joined by more rumbling and got louder. I soon came across a road, with something dark instead of dirt. Weird carriages flew by, but no horse was in sight.

I skimmed the drivers, seeing people with weird things on their eyes. They were dark, so perhaps they darkened their eyesight? Some of these things blared at me, a weird noise that sounded close to a horn. It was more high pitched and lasted much longer than any human could breathe.

I followed the new road into a town, but I hadn’t known society began to advance…

Ellis

I laugh with the others as Coach begins to bust a move on the dance floor. Rochelle shakes her head while recordin’, and Nick catcalls him. We were all laughin’, a drink in our hands as Coach keeps dancin’.

“Come on, Coach! Drop it!” Nick shouts, and Rochelle playfully swats at him. They were too cute together- they were basically more mature versions of me and Zoey.

We all met in the Great Apocalypse, and for me, it was love at first sight. Nick was mean about it but I persevered and now I had a beautiful girl to hold at night.

Coach obliges and people in the bar cheer. He begins to shake his hips and starts backin’ up on a young dude with a large group of people. “Come on!” He calls, still groovin’. “Dance off!”

The kid can’t resist smilin’ as he climbs off the stool and starts droppin’ Fortnite emotes. Some people cheer, clappin’ as alcohol sloshes around to the dance off.

“Come on, Henry!” A girl with really dark hair calls, cheerin’ for him. “Do something other than video games. We all know you’re better than that!”

Henry starts to do the worm and Coach scoffs, doin’ the same. The whole bar is cheerin’ and clappin’ for the two dancers and the DJ plays upbeat music. The dance off was pretty epic and Henry gave Coach a run for his money.

Nick calls out, “Coach, pole-dance for us!” and everyone roars with laughter as Coach glares at him. Coach is a bigger guy, if you didn’t already know, so seein’ him dancin’ like that just wouldn’t be right.

Henry stands straight and flexes his reasonable muscles. “I think we both know who wins.” He smirks, and Coach grins.

“You’re just saying that.”

Everyone laughs as Coach sits down, raisin’ his hands in defeat. “Who’s next?”

Zoey

I sigh as I sink onto the couch- another long day of searching for a job here in New Orleans. I don’t really understand why they refuse to accept us survivors into their society.

It’s not like we carry the plague that wiped out almost the entire population of America, we survived it, and that’s saying something is it not? I click on the TV, not paying much attention to the news.

Instead, I’m focused on the group of people at the bar. I’ve never seen that huge group of people, and they were all dressed in colors, one solid color. Henry was in red, and the girl who cheered for him was in all black. Then there was lime, green, blue, white, cyan, and so on. I think there were twelve of them, which is really odd because they looked so familiar. They weren’t quite wearing space suits, but their outfits practically matched. I couldn’t quite place it...

Nick

Coach can dance, there’s no doubt about that. Maybe he was dancing for dinner, it’s always an argument on who has to cook. Rochelle and I lay down for bed tonight, and she simply stares into my eyes with her clear blue ones.

I know they’re gorgeous but does she always have to look like she’s looking for my secrets? I feel like I can’t keep secrets from her, much like I hear just about everything.

Throughout the apocalypse, I caught Ellis’ comments under his breath, Francis’ smart mouth, Coach’s snoring. I hated hearing the things they said under their breath, it was rarely nice, but it’s also a gift. It turns them awkward when I confront them about it.

“Is there something you need?” I ask, quietly.

Rochelle looks away for a second, something I knew she was going to do. We had only been a normal couple for about a month or so, but I’d still picked up on most of her habits. “Nick, those people seemed weird,” She was silent, but I knew who she was talking about. Those people at the bar, the twelve of them. She speaks again, “As if they didn’t belong.”

I smile to myself, leave it to her to overthink the appearance of more people. They might also be survivors, so we shouldn’t be as harsh on them as society has been on us. “They were just a big group of college friends, no need to be worried.”

Rochelle nods in silent agreement before rolling over and falling asleep. I roll over and stare at the alarm clock, adding, “We shouldn’t treat them the way we’ve been treated, it’s unfair.” before falling asleep, too.

Rochelle

He thinks I’m asleep, I know he does. He always thinks I’m asleep when I roll over. Truth is, I’m thinking. It’ll be the death of me, because I scrutinize every detail on every event until things don’t make any sense and are all blurred.

Tonight I’m thinking about those kids, the ones from “college”. It’s unfair of me to be skeptical of them, they haven’t done anything wrong around here and I’ve been treated the same way I’m treating them. But there’s this vibe I got from the one- Henry- when he was dancing against Coach.

Sure, they seem fun-loving and nice, but they don’t look like they belong here. They look like they’re from somewhere else, but I couldn’t describe it. Not quite this world but maybe another. It doesn’t make any sense, I’m going to have to find a way to get to the bottom of this.

Henry

Taylor and I had ended up in a hotel room, the Shuttle had deposited us here. Or so we thought. But there was no Instructor to tell us what to do or where to go, so we ended up exploring the city.

Turns out the whole crew was here, so we ended up in a bar drinking and having a good time. Some guy had challenged me to a dance off so I had accepted. He was pretty good for his age and size. His friends, however, seemed to disapprove of us.

I kept my eyes to myself from that point forward, I suddenly knew we were no longer in our safe little world… we were in someone else’s territory.

Taylor

Of course, more weird looks, and more weird people. I don’t know what happened, but Henry’s on to something, even our screwed up government didn’t send us here.

Like Henry and the others, I tried to ignore the other unknown people, though I have a feeling most of these others shouldn’t be here either. At least, they’re not comfortable with their surroundings. We should use it to our advantage.

Josh

“At last, the entirety of my existence’s power comes into my hands!” I exclaim, observing my new friends from a distance. I haven’t yet met Taylor and Henry or their friends, but I’m sure they would be pleased to meet me. I don’t know who to stay with, since I was close with my brother and sister from the world of the Green Flu and whatnot, but I also hold lots of power in Skyrim. It’s a tough choice…

I turn to face my humble servant, Cicero. I brought him from the folds of Tamriel, Skyrim, even. He had followed me through lots of things, and he was a very loyal man. Tigressa knew him, but she most likely didn’t know he was here with us. She came by herself, falling from the sky as if she had slid down a mountain.

He nods vigorously, he hasn’t an idea of who I truly am. I am a time traveler, and I have seen our medieval fantasies, and lived through them, stopping dragons and casting spells, something we do not have in this surrealistic future. I have also moved on to be born into a world full of chaos and disease, surviving that only to disappear and become a founder of the Space Betterment Program, refusing to meet my users because it could cause harm to them.

“I need to get them together,” I mumble, watching the crowd once more. Tigressa walked in and was drinking, but she looked confused to see the drinks we had in this time period. It was before Henry and Taylor but after Tigressa. Right where my friends who knew me best lived.

Cicero claps. “We could invite them to a party, humans here throw parties! They love parties!”

I nod thoughtfully, he does in fact have a point. I remember my days of (normal) high school, and the fun it was to go to a party. Especially with alcohol.

“Very well, we need to deliver invitations. Cicero, take these.”

I quickly scribble out invitations, hoping Cicero can do the job, one of a courier, had this been Skyrim, and return to my thoughts. I hope to show them the world before and after their times, maybe even showing the Crew Mates a world after they’re long gone.

I have the powers to open up a portal, one to send them back to their preferred realms, and they shall live happily ever after. It’s also nice to have all of my friends (and creations) get to meet each other.

Although Tigressa saw Sovngarde before I did, she may hesitate to go back, unless her lover’s painful cries touch her heart the way Delilah’s does mine. Speaking of, I’m sure she misses me just as much as I miss her.

Despite loving Delilah, I also hold a special spot in my heart for Rochelle, not quite love but more than friendship. But nothing will come of it, especially since she has Nick now. Cicero turns and skips off, bound to deliver my summonings to my friends.

I return to my office and sit on my desk chair overlooking the city and sigh to myself.

Tigressa

I’m surprised to see Cicero quickly approaching me, his bells jingling with every step and causing people to look at us funny. They weren’t dressed the way we were, they were wearing harder pieces of clothing, not armor, but the pants restricted their leg movement. What if someone attacked? And some of their shirts only covered their breasts, what kind of protection does that offer?

“What are you doing?” I hiss, but I’m happy to see I’m not the only one who was brought into this foreign landscape. He doesn’t look too terrible, moreso out of place than confused.

“I’m here to deliver a message from Josh!” Cicero exclaims, clapping and handing me a tied up message. I open it and my heart leaps to see Josh is here, too.

I look up to say thanks but Cicero is gone, having cartwheeled away. I decided to journey to this place called Apartment 402.