Ray had no idea where he was.

  The trees packed tight around him, choking out the light. He stumbled through the damp woods, his mind completely blank with shock. Every snapping twig sounded like a gunshot. One minute, he had witnessed something too horrific to process. The next, he was here.

  His fingers were locked in a death grip around a pistol. It wasn’t his. When he first noticed the unfamiliar weight of the gun, he had squeezed the trigger by accident. The crack of the gunshot echoed through the timber, drawing the attention of something massive.

  A giant spider burst from the undergrowth, charging straight at him. Panic taking over, Ray emptied four rounds into its mass until it skidded into the dirt in a heap of dark blood. He had felt a strange, warm tingling wash through his body as it died, but the fear of more monsters lurking in the shadows pushed him to run. He was down to one bullet.

  This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

  He ran until his throat tore and his legs throbbed with pure exhaustion. With no destination in mind, he practically collapsed when he stumbled into a small clearing and heard the trickle of water. It barely qualified as a stream. It was thin and ridiculously shallow, but to Ray, it was salvation.

  He dropped to his knees, plunging his hands into the cool current. He cupped his palms and greedily gulped it down.

  Ray realised his mistake instantly.

  The liquid tasted nothing like water. It was sickly sweet, almost like a bubbling carbonated soft drink. Then, the burning started. It seared down his throat like acid. His vision blurred, his legs gave out, and the blackness rushed in.

  Faintly, as the world faded, a sterile voice echoed in his head.

  [System Error…… Breaking Glitch Found….. Rollback Start]