PASSAGE 6: ANOMALY PART II

The rapid-fire changes in the rift left my stomach churning like a washing machine on high spin. "Ms. Selena, any idea what's going fast-forwarding here?" Jacob, our resident Vanguard with a penchant for theatrics, finally blurted out.

Ms. Selena, usually the picture of composure, could only manage a shaky head. Her voice, when she finally spoke, was barely a whisper. "This… this is beyond anything we've encountered. We need to get out of here, now. Report this anomaly to the agency."

A collective murmur of agreement rippled through the team. The very air in this time-warped world felt heavy, suffocating. Had the embassy messed up the tier assessment? A bead of sweat trickled down my temple despite the chill. We turned as one, ready to retrace our steps and hightail it out of there. But where the shimmering portal once pulsed with energy, there was now… nothing. Just the same disorienting, fast-forwarding landscape stretched out before us.

Panic ripped through the team like a sonic boom. "Where'd the rift go?!" someone shrieked, their voice cracking with terror. "It was right here! Behind us!" My own heart hammered against my ribs, a frantic drum solo of fear. A closed rift at the beginning of a raid was unheard of, a terrifying first.

Spinning on my heel, I sought Ms. Selena's calm leadership. But the sight that met my eyes sent a fresh wave of terror crashing over me. The entire raid team, Ms. Selena included, lay sprawled on the ground. Their eyes were wide open, pupils blown, bodies trembling uncontrollably. "Hey! What's wrong?! Ms. Selena?! Can anyone hear me?!" I rushed to their side, checking each one in a panicked flurry. But my questions were met with a chilling silence. It was as if they were frozen, trapped in some unseen horror.

A primal fear, cold and sharp, clawed its way up my throat. I was alone, stranded in a fast-forwarding nightmare, with my petrified teammates as the only witnesses. This wasn't just an E-Tier rift anymore. This was something far darker, something far more terrifying. And I, the Untouched Bagger, was stuck right in the thick of it.

My mind reeled, struggling to comprehend the absurdity of it all. This wasn't just some anomaly, this was a mind-bending nightmare playing out before my very eyes. Fear, sure, it could explain my teammates' wide-eyed terror, but the complete shutdown, the frozen expressions… that was something different entirely. Even Ms. Selena, the ever-composed leader, looked like a petrified statue.

Desperation clawed at me. I knelt beside Jean, our resident Salvator, her usually calm demeanor replaced by raw, unadulterated terror. As I reached out a tentative hand, a bloodcurdling scream ripped through the air. Jean scrambled back, her fear morphing into a kind of primal madness. Before I could react, she was off, a blur of limbs and terror, hurtling towards the fast-forwarding city.

With a heart pounding in my chest like a trapped bird, I watched in disbelief as Jean entered the time-warped cityscape. It was like watching a horrifying timelapse of a life lived and lost in seconds. Her youthful form withered, wrinkles etching themselves onto her face with agonizing speed. Then, in a blink, she turned to ash, scattered by the unforgiving wind.

Jean. Gone. Just like that. Murdered by the very time this cursed rift was manipulating.

A cold sweat slicked my skin. Panic threatened to consume me, but I slammed it down with a mental iron fist. I had to move. Had to save my team. A quick self-assessment – shaking hands, pounding heart, but the primal urge to survive burned bright. I needed to get them out, but how?

Glancing around, my eyes landed on a single path, untouched by the city's rapid decay. It was a sliver of hope in this twisted reality. But how could I move them? They were like petrified puppets, utterly unresponsive to my frantic pleas.

Desperate, I scanned the area, landing on the massive shield Kelvin, our resident Guardian, gripped tightly. An idea sparked. The shield, a perfect makeshift sled to drag them all. But how to get it without a repeat of poor Jean's fate?

Taking a deep breath, I approached Kelvin slowly, carefully. As my hand brushed the shield, he erupted in a flurry of panicked movements, knocking me down with a single, powerful swing. Terror contorted his face as he let loose a stream of incoherent babbles, then bolted towards the city, his form mirroring Jean's horrifying demise. My stomach lurched. Another teammate lost to this temporal madness.

Grief and rage warred within me, but I shoved them down. There were still eight others, and their lives depended on me. But how? Touching them meant a one-way trip to ash city.

My eyes darted to my trusty backpack, a beacon of familiarity in this distorted world. And then I saw it – the rope we used to navigate a pesky sinkhole on our last raid. Hope surged through me like a jolt of electricity.

With trembling hands, I began the grim task of binding my teammates. Each knot was a silent prayer, each secured foot a tiny victory. Soon, they were all secured, carefully bundled onto Kelvin's shield, which I now wore on my back like a makeshift sled. It wasn't elegant, but it would have to do.

With a heavy heart but a steely resolve, I began to drag the sled down the untouched path. The way forward was uncertain, shrouded in the mysteries of this bizarre rift. But for now, all I could do was keep moving, one agonizing step at a time, carrying the weight of my team's lives, and the crushing guilt of those I couldn't save. The path stretched before me, a thin thread of hope in the tapestry of this temporal nightmare.