An Apocalypse in Another World

Date: 8/15/2021

I'm trying hard to hold onto this dream, but it's not cooperating. There was a world where some kind of evil government had created a specifically, intentionally manufactured apocalypse. It seemed like they were either trying to kill off everyone who was "too weak," make whoever remained stronger, or both. It manifested as a disease that they injected into people and then let the injected infect others with by contact. If you got sick and didn't survive, you became some kind of zombie monster. If you survived, you got more powerful somehow. But it wasn't obvious. You didn't know you were more powerful. You just knew you'd survived. There were a bunch of people -- basically a town's worth -- who got transferred from Earth to this apocalyptic world somehow. They were all very shocked, and had a hard time navigating the new apocalypse they'd been thrown into. Even as things settled, everyone was still confused. They didn't know the name of the country or world they were in, they didn't know the native language (though luckily, people here also spoke English), they didn't know how they'd got there. They just knew that they had to survive. The details of how they did that escape me. They ended up making two small towns (more like villages, really) of their own that were each situated in what they thought were safe places they had to protect. I'm not sure if that was true. Most town residents were from Earth, a handful were from this world, and there was a vague knowledge in both towns that a random assortment of residents had memories of both worlds -- as if they'd lived in both places, the same souls split between different bodies and timelines. I was one of these people. I was attacked by one of the monsters and it triggered more memories of this world. Desperate to talk it out and solve some of the mysteries our towns had been working hard to figure out, I went to the neighboring town from the one I was in at the time. I found my sister helping to clean the artificial river this town had made as a reusable water source. I tried to tell her what I remembered, but it was hard to keep track of where or who I was by that point. She said that I was getting too caught up in this world, and joked that at this point I knew more about this place than I did about Earth. I tried to say that wasn't true, and the name of this world came into my mind at that point. I got more confused than ever and, desperate to communicate my realization, got frustrated that the thing I forgot in my confusion was how to speak English. I kept switching between the native language of this world and the little bits of Japanese I managed to learn through half-assed self-study, lots of anime watching, and a college class I hadn't been able to take for more than half a year (which is, truthfully, how much Japanese I know in the waking world and how I learned it). I tried hard to tell everyone there that the name of this world was "Rashima" and that knowing its name had also given me memories that explained how everyone was stronger after surviving the monster illness. It seemed... elemental in nature, I think? Like having lightning or earth element powers. Somehow. I don't remember well. I remember going to the river's guard station and saying "This! This world is Rashima!" in the native language and then in Japanese. The guard, who was also named Rashima, just smiled and nodded and said that was his name. He didn't understand the Japanese at all. I got frustrated and ran to others, but they didn't understand either. When trying to explain things to my sister and to the town mayor who had just arrived, I accidentally fell into the source pond for the river while shouting "Ugh, English is impossible!" in Japanese. Falling into the water brought on more memories. I clearly remembered myself as a young boy in a village on Rashima, rather than the adult I was when I got transferred from Earth. I couldn't have been older than 14, at most. Maybe 13. I might've also caught a glimpse of myself at 16, though. Whatever my age, I hung out with a friend who was a stronger and older man than me -- named Lance -- who I looked up to and trusted as well as a playful girl who liked to wear long dresses and who I only called Princess and treated more like a younger sister than even my Earth self did with his own sister (who gets treated more like a mom than anything). I think they really were a Rashiman princess and her guard. They were my best friends. I spent all my time with them, when I could. I remembered that, and the day when we were all captured by the government officials who'd been causing chaos in our town. Lance and I tried to fight them. Tried to protect the Princess and each other. We didn't really succeed, as far as my memories told me. I woke up being pulled from the artificial pond, kicking and rolling around. When my eyes opened I tried to get to my feet, but wasn't steady enough. I shouted -- in English this time -- "Where am I? Where's the princess? Lance! We have to find her! Did they take her?" I wanted to know how the people from Earth, especially my sister, reacted to that but I wasn't able to since I woke up at that point. There were other details. Other plots, all taking place in these same worlds and this same setting. A woman who became addicted to some kind of drug. A man who fell for her. Someone who fell for someone from Rashima. A stone house. A round window. Monsters. Powers. Town construction. Conflicts. The ongoing apocalypse of Rashima. So on and so forth. But they're hard to hold onto now, and harder to bring into focus. For better or for worse, these memories are all I could grab onto as I woke up and I can't even really tell how much is edited by my waking subconscious at this point. I think I like it as a story idea, though. It would just need a little polishing. Until Next I Wander.