Initial Arrival 5

Date Unknown
Yakutsk, Siberia, USSR

How did I even get here? What happened? Her memory of the events still felt surreal. She remembered what happened before ending up in the clearing. Joshua was driving them to the airport. They were lost. Joshua knows the way. Getting lost like that due to geography changes, it's like a dream. Maybe there was an accident and everything else is false. Or I am still sleeping and anticipating tomorrow. But this didn't feel like a dream to her. It was wrong, but too real.

She continued to recall what had happened next. She had gotten out of the car to look for help. Her brother had as well. I don't see Nicholas or Joshua here. What happened to them? They had walked into the forest. Everything felt surreal at that point. There were voices in the distance. They went towards the voices. It was cold and it was snowing. It had turned cold fast. Jennifer hesitated, thought about turning back to get her coat. She had gotten very tired suddenly. She had slowed and Nicholas had gotten ahead, out of sight in the snow. She was so tired, but pressed on, panicking after loosing sight of her brother, being left alone in the cold.

She couldn't recall seeing either Joshua or Nicholas after that.

She did remember hearing gunshots in the distance, where she heard voices before. She ran there, to a clearing where she came to a man on the ground. He had been shot, injured. There was nobody else there. They talked. Argued some, maybe. She wanted to help, but she was so tired she collapsed and eventually lost consciousness.

She remembered something else. Something insignificant at the time. The trees changed color. They were green as it was summer, but when it got cold and the snow started, they were yellow as if it were autumn. … Pine trees maybe, yellow pine trees covered in snow. … But pine trees don't change color. And they aren't usually that common. … I am just imagining things, misremembering things.

It is like I stepped through a wormhole. But there wasn't an in-between. I was there, then I was here, a different place and time. Differences which would be subtle in transition are obvious right next to each other. … And it sapped my strength. As soon as I stepped through I was tired and disoriented.