Rumors Of My Death Have Been Greatly Exaggerated {HWC2013}

I know that I've been away for a long time. I know you thought I was already dead, I only wish I was. No, I am alive, and the rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated, but what really did happen was much, much worse. You see it's been a year I've been stuck in a place that wasn't home, it wasn't where I belonged. It was Earth, it was Florida, but it wasn't my Earth or my Florida. This was a place that was like the dark underbelly of Earth. Where things really went bump in the night. There was no President, no leader, at least none that I knew of. I couldn't speak the language, I didn't even look like the inhabitants, and they were horrible, they were wicked, they didn't like outsiders. Strange beings that had gruesome faces, like those out of the Twilight Zone episode "Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder". But even worse with their leathery wrinkled skin, pig noses, grey slagging flesh, they were short and portly and there was not a single species left but them. Their Earth was dead, cities and smog grey skies, no trees, no animals, no fish.The water was polluted so bad that when I flicked a lit match into the river, it caught fire. They drove these little egg shaped, three wheeled cars. Everywhere was concrete and pavement. I couldn't even imagine what they ate to survive (maybe lost travelers like me!) I wasn't about to stay in the open to find out if they would eat my flesh. I hid. I found a place that was abandoned in the city, and it seemed like there were a lot of abandoned buildings.

I bet you're wondering how I did survive. Somehow they did have water purification and the building I was in had running water, but I couldn't use it during the daylight hours. My hours were from dusk till dawn. I guess I was lucky that none of the natives squatted in this particular building, as it resembled an old business type building, so it wasn't meant for living in. The windows were boarded up, I had my flashlight that was on me when I entered this world from the investigation I was on at the cemetery last Halloween. The only thing I knew for sure is I'd have to wait until Halloween here and try to go back to that cemetery, which in this world was a train station, and hope beyond all hope that I could catch the portal again to go home or maybe end up at a worse place. I had to tick away each day on the walls of my prison in that abandoned building, 365 days. I marked it with a crayon I found in one of the cubicles in that building. Lucky for me there seemed to have been an expedited exodus from the building and there was food left in the what I think was their break-room. Though the electric had been off for some time and it was spoiled, but I had to eat something and if I could stomach McDonald's I could stomach that. Besides your survival instinct takes over. And like I said there was not a living thing on this world but those creatures. I wasn't about to eat one of those!!!

The worst thing was wondering if my plan would work. I knew once I got to the train station, regardless if it was at midnight, that I would be discovered again. The train station operated all day and all night. But I had no choice if I wanted to get back home. And the food supply was running low. I finally counted off the last day of the year, Halloween would now be my New Year's Eve and November first my New Year. If all went as planned, well obviously it did, since I am here, but the thing is, I didn't come back alone. I was chased and now one of them is here. Now they know about our Earth, and I'm pretty sure they have technology enough to send more of them here.