The Rent

Knowing the familiar figures making their way to him were Chris and the twins he quickly ran over making sure to not fall over the rubble filling the courtyard. The courtyard itself was split apart like a large spider web with the cement foundation having clearly not survived going into the Rent

As he got closer to the boys, he was able to finally make out their faces in the greyish dark surrounding them. Unsurprisingly they all had sombre looks as if they were lost and they new it, which obviously reflected the situation quite well. What did surprise him however was the clear sheen of determination in Chris's eyes as he looked at him. He didn't know why but the look made him feel anxious.

"Ah sleeping beauty finally woke!" Chris said with a wry smile "we were worried we might have to carry you ha-ha!" despite the situation Eadwulf couldn't help but chuckle at Chris's attempt to live the situation

Admittedly that was how it always been for the group Chris had brought the group together and they saw him as someone they could rely on when things got tough. He had always been following Chris and the twins as they were the only friends he had and the only ones who had ever stood up for him when the bulling got bad.

Even now when they had literally gotten thrown into another dimension, they could rely on each other

"ha-ha very funny, now I don't suppose you have any way to get any way out of this do you?" Eadwulf decided to get serious as he knew very well how dangerous and unpredictable Rents could be.

Whenever an exploration was commenced by either Human or Drey soldiers they were required to live stream it to the masses as much as possible for reasons such as allowing the Populus to understand the dangers the soldiers or Drivers as they had been dubbed by the people of his sector as well as to ensure there was no foul play amongst the Drivers.

"I was hoping you might have an idea about that, seeing as you know allot more about rifts than us" responded Chris looking at him hopefully. "I mean we all assumed that this would never happen to us before we graduated so you were the only one to pay attention to Conquest Classes."

Conquest classes were the classes where they taught about how Drivers or their actual name Rent Divers were able to explore foreign worlds and what sorts of threats they would encounter or challenges they may have to face once in a Rent. Although so far, the Drey had only been able to Conquer seven of the Rents and the worlds behind them within Eshax's history the class was supposed to be named after their continues "Success and Glory"

"Well as it stands no person or structure has ever been recorded to be thrown further than about 5 miles from the Rent, we should be able to see it if we can get to a high vantage point" Eadwulf reasoned

"What high point?"

"This is a forest Ead, nothing but trees" the twins countered pointing a large whole in his logic. They were right there was no vantage point above the trees, and they had no idea what may be resting within the leaves of the trees.

"There should be some form of a sign hinting toward which way we were displaced, if we can find the direction we were sent in we should be able back track and make our way to the Rent" Eadwulf answered but then another thought crossed his mind "but are you sure we should try to leave here, I mean there is a chance we could be discovered by the first team of Drivers?"

Sadly, Chris shook his head "No you know that's to risky, there is a low chance that they would even set off in this direction and we all know how random the time a Rent stays open is, I'm no expert like you but even I know that around 30% of Rents close before the Drivers can even set up a dimensional stabilizer… it's too risky"

"Sigh you're right… okay then let's start looking" Eadwulf acknowledged sombrely knowing the risks of staying where they were. "Do we have any form of light?"

"Thankfully Pengrim couldn't throughout something if he wanted to" Billy said as he pulled a small box over that Eadwulf hadn't noticed "who knows how old these things are!"

Inside the wooden crate was three small lanterns made from glass and metal along with a few boxes of matches

"We stole the matches from the fat Basterds smoke stash so they should work and the lanterns were in one of the supply closets so they should work seeing as they were kept as backups for his torches" William said as he indicated each item in turn.

Taking one lantern between themselves with the twins sharing one they began lighting them one by one. Then they began to slowly and extremely gingerly walk towards the front gate. As they reached the large arch, they noticed one of the actual gate doors was missing and as they looked out they saw it sitting on the ground discarded about ten meters away

As they stepped over to the clearly unhinged gate, they saw more rubble in a piece-by-piece tail leading into the woods. "I-I g-guess we found out trail huh guys'' Chris stuttered as he tried to to make a brave face

It didn't work

Taking a deep breath Chris looked at each of them and after giving Billy and William a nod he began walking towards the dark with his lantern aglow