January 1, 2023

I took my phone out to look for a bike route back to campus. One of the routes had a detour that added an extra day of travel time despite it only being a slight deviation on the map.

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I approached a familiar face among a crowd of identically masked strangers. “Are you… from another place?” I asked hesitantly. Thankfully my friend recognized me before the bystanders in the hallway turned their heads in our direction. We immediately turned around and started running as the mob chased us.

We dug out a small chamber in the dirt and I wanted to cover the stairs with a hatch of some sort. However when I walked over the the entrance, the figures following us were slowly wandering inside. I quickly returned to the group to report that “they [had] already arrived”.