Inter Active

Josh had no idea how long he’d been walking. Was it a few minutes? Had it been hours, even days? He couldn’t say. He’d passed through a variety of woodlands and grassy meadows, seeing the types of wildlife one would expect on a walk like this. Some things he hadn’t seen were soldiers shooting at him, snakes (he was glad of that) or flying monkeys, as he’d half-expected, given the nature of things. It seemed very unlike a video game and very much like a simple walk in the country. It reminded him of his summer days, rare as they may have been, playing at his grandparents’ farm. He could almost hear Grandpa Paul quoting some wise saying.

Josh would spend hours romping through their 160-acre homestead, one moment hunting dragons, the next fighting aliens, the next storming an enemy machine gun nest. As he remembered those times, his dream-disposed mind couldn’t help but fantasize. He forgot that he had been transported into a video game (as if it were no big deal), and suddenly imagined himself as his beloved creation, McCallister. His hands instinctively assumed the position of carrying an assault rifle, as he scoured the terrain ahead for enemy troops.

All at once, Josh stopped. He heard something that sounded very familiar, yet here it seemed out of place. It was a faint rumble that seemed to be coming from far off in the sky. He looked up, shielding his eyes from the sun, which seemed to be directly overhead, as it would be in the late morning or early afternoon.

Sure enough, there was the glistening image of a jet, leaving a familiar-looking contrail across the deep blue sky.

“They have planes here?” he wondered aloud. Of course, maybe it wasn’t a simple plane, maybe it was something more, something you’d expect to find in a place with a name like Resnica. Perhaps it was a spacecraft, back from the far side of the galaxy, or better yet, a mystical dragon springing into battle against the dark forces of Gast.

Whatever it was, it certainly looked and sounded like a conventional airliner.

Once again he continued on his way, wondering at this development. Maybe it was all a bad dream, and he was at Grandma and Grandpa’s again.

It couldn’t have been more than a few minutes later when his ears again heralded a change in his surroundings. It was an airy sort of sound, like a rushing wind, combined with a very low, faint rumble. Traffic? After he’d walked just a few yards more, his pace quickening, he caught sight of a very ordinary-looking power line.

As pleasant as his walk had been, he was happy to see some signs of civilization. The road appeared to be a typical two-lane paved thoroughfare, complete with a yellow dashed line down the middle. Just up ahead was a road sign, announcing the distance to the next city. It seemed ordinary enough, but upon closer inspection, it differed slightly from those he’d seen back home.

Instead of the white letters on a dark green background Josh was accustomed to, the background of this sign was a dark earthy color, more copper than brown. Just past that sign was another, smaller sign with dark red letters on a field of white. The colors of the signs were Josh’s first clue that something was different. As he approached the first one, the names were nothing he’d ever heard of before. Celane. Noma. Haida.

It was the first of many such discoveries that Josh was to make in Resnica. Things were very close to what he knew from back home, but just a little different, kind of like when an American travels to Canada or Great Britain.

He couldn’t have looked too out of place as he continued on his way walking along the side of the road. The level of traffic was what you’d call average--not rush hour, but not deserted, either. The vehicles that passed were like everything else: the same, yet, just a little different.

His eyes soon fixed upon an approach to the highway—a driveway. There was a mailbox, just like he might see at home. As he got closer, the shape of a house slowly materialized from among the trees.

The house seemed like both an opportunity and an obstacle. Maybe if he went there, the inhabitants could help him get out of this mess. Or, he might find something weird or even threatening. The unknown nature of the situation began to pull his stomach into knots.

Maybe he should just keep going and avoid it. That was the easy and familiar way for Josh. He didn’t like losing control, and right now, that house was a big loss of control for him. If he just kept walking, at least he felt a little more like the master of his destiny.

Yet, he was strangely drawn to the dwelling. The approaching structure looked as ordinary as ever, but with each footstep, something made Josh yearn to be inside that house. Or maybe it was because he was finally realizing just how hungry and thirsty he was right now.

Josh stood at the end of the driveway facing the house, an occasional car zooming past behind him. Mechanically, his feet started carrying him up the gravel path to the nondescript front door. Half hoping no one was home, and half desperate someone was, he watched as his finger pressed the button for the doorbell.

His insides leapt as he detected the low resonance of footsteps approaching the door from somewhere in the house. His eyes caught the shadow of a shape passing behind the curtain in the door’s window, and with a click of the latch, the door fell slightly open.