There was a blinding flash of light as the six college students sat in a private study area at the university’s main library. From the outside it appeared for a moment as a blinding white light filled the entire room and the hallway before turning into a raging burning fire which caused multiple alarms to go off as the sprinkler system kicked on.
When firefighters where able to put out the fire which to the amazement of almost everyone refused to go out no matter what they threw at it until it suddenly died as quickly as it appeared.
When they managed to go into the study room, they found the entire room burned to a crisp, the sound proofing hung from the ceiling and even the concrete and metal around it had been melted and twisted. There where no signs of bodies or any reasonable source of the fire.
Officially it was said a gas leak from a nearby wall combined with an unknown ignition source caused the fire. A fire so hot it destroyed all humans remains and the six students who were inside where sadly killed. It was a black mark on the university as everyone began to grieve for the loss of six innocent lives taken too soon.
In a footnote in every newspaper/news story about it, it was reported that the statue which the students had come to work on for a report had made it through the fire somehow. No one really knowing that it was the source of the light, and the fire was just to cover it’s tracks.
While the fire fighters where fighting the fire, the six students they where trying to save where no longer in the room, in fact they weren’t even on Planet Earth anymore.
They were sent spinning through the light, the ground vanished below them as they where spinning in an unending free fall.
All six where screaming and those who where near to each other grabbed on to each other. Then as suddenly as it had started the light began to fade as they fell a couple of feet onto the soft sandy ground.
“What the?” inquired Emily as she looked around, they where in some kind of city square of some kind. Low buildings, only a handful being more then a story tall where all around them. It also looked very old, maybe even abounded, there was no sign of any real technology it was almost as if they had been transported back in time The sand was everywhere and covered everything, the only sign of life was two nearby pools of water which rose up from the sand covered square like ancient communal wells.
Almost everything had changed, the six of them were together along with some of the items they carried. Emily’s art history notebook was beside her, Diego’s laptop bag rested beside him and so on. Even a chair from the table was now sitting upside down in the sand.
“What the hell?” yelled Lily as she got to her feet, Chloe getting up as well and looking around.
“Where are we?” inquired Olivia
“No idea.” Confirmed Mike as Diego just sat in the sand stunned as well.
Over her shoulder, Emily’s eyes widened as she stopped at a strange figure. It wasn’t alive but it was familiar. There looming over them all was a perfect copy of the snake god from the statue she had been holding. This one wasn’t a couple of inches tall, it was at least 20 feet tall and covered with precise metals and jewels.
“Where are we?” inquired Emily as she wondered what just happened