ZURI

I jolted awake, or at least I thought I did. My lungs worked, my body moved, yet the place around me wasn’t the room I slept in.

Dry land stretched endlessly before me, cracked earth splitting beneath my feet. The air was heavy, stale, and clinging to my skin like ash.

Just as I looked around, the ground trembled, and thick, dark streams began oozing out of the fissures. Blood. It pooled and spread out, snaking toward me.

“What the hell?” My stomach twisted. If this was a dream, ...