Into Our Fantasies Book 1 - Watch before you listen

Raided

As Chris was caught up in the chaos of people going to arms and the portal, he was shaken out of his amazement by a spear being thrown at him. Catching it, he looked around for the owner, before catching himself and realizing that that would be stupid. Calling Great Sage to devour the thing and copy it, he turned to Zack. "What's going on?"
"Does it look like I know?" he asked.
A soldier rushed by them, his face coated in sweat.
"Stay back, children." He said, pointing towards the house in the distance, he said "People under the age of 18 don't get to fight against other factions, unless it's to test affinity with mediums and tournament events.
"The house over there is protected by several magic and wards of the like. Head over there and try to insure it, if you feel like a hero. Or just talk, or train or something. I don't know."
Nodding, Chris and company  hurried over to the house, while the soldier teleported. Closing the door, Chris thought about the soldier. He'd either forgotten he could do that , or had just felt like running, but had no stamina outside of his magic.
"Hmm?" Zack said, looking around for whoever had said something.
Or could only teleport small distances away. Or-
"Chris, stop."
"Hmm?" Chris asked, wondering who said that, before realizing that he had been talking aloud. Blushing a bit, he said his apologies.

The group looked around, until, unable to take the awkwardness for much longer, Chris broke the silence.

"So, how did you guys end up in prison? I mean, I know yall got captured, but how exactly?" He asked. This was something he thought would be an ok conversation topic. It was also something that he thought would allow him to know more about them.

The group sat in silence for some moments after, until Zack spoke up." Arika is actually my childhood friend. We met when we were in first grade, and just kind of hit it off from the jump. We're basically inseparable now, even though our relationship had never really developed. Even with all that happened in 2020, we grew closer from it. And then The Surge happened."

"It was unnoticeable at first. Or maybe it wasn't. I was never the type to pay much attention. We were talking at my house, when suddenly Zack noticed that the lights were getting progressively dimmer and dimmer. Then we noticed that our phones were losing charge faster than usual." Arika interrupted.

"Within minutes, our phones were dead and our appliances had shut off. We didn't think much about it though, and just went to go outside. What we saw was . . ." she shuddered.

It was completely catastrophic, Chris thought. He had seen it too: people running about in confusion as electric cars crashed and life support stopped working, killing the COVID - 19 patients that needed ventilators. Even regular cars had crashed, no one being able to know what the person behind or in front of them was doing. 

"We saw someone's bones crushed under their car, as their jack stopped working and the car was pressed onto him. And then, of course, there was the giant electrical ball flying above everyone's head," Zack said, eyes closed. 

At what must have been the midpoint of The Surge, a giant ball that seemed to be a mass of electricity had gathered to the point where it completely blotted out the Sun. At this point, people were just in dread. People thought of it as the end of the world, and some started crying. Some started praying. The catastrophe, looking back on it,  was somehow-

"Pitiful and beautiful," Mia spoke up. "Pitiful because once we thought it was the end of us, we just gave up on everything. It was beautiful because of the irony of the situation. Humanity, destroyed by the thing we harnessed and bent to our will. I personally found it laughable, in a cynical way."

Arika nodded. "And then the thing burst."

"It was almost like dying, and then being made again. I blacked out for what must have been two days, before waking up. It was terrifying. It's like I could comprehend the scope of what happened, and while I don't say it broke me, I can't stop thinking about it.