He walked to the kiva and dropped his bag inside it. He stepped down to its earthen floor, still wearing his backpack.
The blue light surrounded him.
He was sealed off now, as if he had left the world already. But he still could see the room around him.
The remaining seconds lasted forever. An impulse flooded him to jump out and stay. But it was easier, at that point, to do nothing.
A burst of light.
The room disappeared.
Chapter 8: The Blight
He fell—
Struck growth on a cushioned slope and tumbled down a hill, his heavy bag rolling behind him.
He came to a stop with his face buried in bright red leaves.
He raised his head, saw an immense landscape before him. Broad, open, free of human life, like high-latitude boreal forest giving way to tundra and distant mountains. The air was
