Water...

The sound of running water is heard nearby...
Wait... Water?

"AGH!"
Desmond suddenly wakes up from his unintended sleep and frantically looks around... Wait, somethings not right.
'This place, i'm supposed to be dead to the contaminated river! How... How?' He thought as he tried to get up, but he felt a pain in left leg, not sudden but enough to let out a moan of pain.

"Hngh..."

He looked at his leg, it was impaled by a branch, goddamnit luck, atleast he knows how to handle this thanks to his late friend Rowan, that medical knowledge came handy after all, he's gonna have to thank him once he dies and enter afterlife... if there is one.

[Minor Timeskip]

After a few painful minutes that felt like hell, he finally got rid of the branch but with some minor blood lost, he curses at the pain still lingering but he can't be a picker, he just wants to survive.

Finally dealing with that problem, he surveys his surroundings, it's mostly barren with a few trees and there along with multiple hills, from the looks of it, he might be also on a hill as the river goes downward from here... Wait, if memory serves right, from one of the wilderness survival guides is to always stick near a river for water and potentially food, even better, the water isnt contaminated! It's a godsend for anyone who is lost out here, especially him but where should he settle? Maybe he should go down and make a camp down there, he won't have the hassle to fight off the cold but the wilderness is still dangerous, natural selection might just choose him.

Another option is to go up, the cold will prove to be a pain in the ass, but he can get a good view of the surronding area if he can reach the top, and hopefully, not alot of wildlife up there that could hit him.

The last option is pretty much settle down here in the same area where he appeared, both dangers will be present... Wait, he remembered something.

'My PDA! I forgot about that!'
Desmond looks at his right arm, and there it is, his trustworthy PDA is still there, but theres something odd, theres no cracks on it like usual, but he doesn't complain, it's in good condition and he turns it on.

[PDA - 1.3]
[TIME - 1457]
[CALENDAR_]
[CONTACTS_]
[INVENTORY_]
[STATUS_]
{NOTIFICATIONS}
-Alert! [Recieved 37 minutes ago]
-Mission Status. [Recieved 3 days ago]
...

'Inventory and Status? What the hell are these? And a Alert message? Just what the hell happened to this?'

Desmond pondered, before opening the Alert message that has popped up, it seemed important.

[Alert!]
-Warning, you have now entered a unknown space of reality, there are currently no known records about this space, proceed with caution.

Update - 36 minutes ago
The PDA has detected that the rift has been closed, making exit from this reality impossible.

...
WHAT!?
What the fuck? Now he finally realized his situation, he remembered falling down the bridge and saw some spherical rift thingy before he blacked out, this had taken him to where he is now, this is a big problem, BIG problem.

If that rift is closed? How the hell can he get back? Who knows what kind of reality this is, be it a false reality that is mimicking the pre-war world of his, or just another Dark zone! But...

His Geiger counter isn't going off the charts like crazy, usually when entering portals to alternate fucked up realities, there would be a blast of dark radiation that emits within, but this is a exception, theres no traces of any dark matter that affects the reality. Wait did he travel back in time? No no! Calm down, he thought, he can't just jump directly to conclusions, he needs to investigate and so he did, after nearly spending a hour up on the chunky large hill, he made his way to the top to observe his surroundings, to his surprise, its like the world isn't struck with any disaster, but he noticed something odd, something large in the distance.

Originium

...what in the epicenter toasted beefy cheesy fuck is that giant black spike in the distance?

His jaw just dropped, seeing the large spike of black planted on a mountain, as if its gonna touch the damn sky!

'Focus! Desmond, okay... let's see...'
Desmond observed his surroundings on the hill, he sees a forest to the north where the giant black spike is, to the west is the river he has seen before, east is more barren hills and the south... Wait, is that smoke over the horizon?

Wait wait wait. He couldn't be possibly alone in this world, signs of smoke means civilization! Yes! Wait calm down, he can't just jump to conclusions again, its probably a fire but curiousity got the better of Desmond.
'Alright, guess i should head to the smoke, but before that, i should check these 2 new functions on my PDA that i previously ignored.
He looked over the PDA menu and selected the Status.

[Blood Type - O-]
[Afflictions]
- Injured Leg
Walking Speed will be hindered and running will hurt alot.
Reccomended Treatment
- Rest (Guaranteed Effectiveness, Heals in 5 days.)
- Cauterize ( 73% Effective, Heals in 2 days.)

[Blood 98%]
[Vital Organs nominal]

Is this... PDA... monitoring his health now? 'Hell Yeah! This shit is revolutionary! Probably...' He thought before tapping the next selection, Inventory.

The PDA displays a humanoid wearing a outfit that is similar to his, to the right are 40 boxes, in which 8 boxes are filled with items.
[M1911 - 136/200]
Huh? A counter? Is it supposed to represent something like ammo counter or durability?
'Feels like that one survival game i played before the war, ah right, Last Day on Earth.'
After that thought, he looked over the 7 items in the boxes.
[Grenade 2x]
[Pre-war Canned Beans 4x]
[Water Canteen 48/100]
[Broken M1911 Parts 2x]
[Smoke Grenade 1x]
[Uzi 3/200]
Thats all the regular items he has in his so called inventory, but what stands out from the rest is a weapon he stole from the Decayers, or what he calls brain dead cultists.

[Burning Hail]
[200/200]

Now, he has to give credit to those cultists for having good weapons such as these, if he recalls, this thing can set people ablaze all in a while blasting half their bodies apart, he hasn't touched this since he nabbed it from a dead Decayer Sentinel from a raided outpost he took advantage of back in his world.

'Now we have all those aside, i think its time for me to head towards the smoke.'
And now, Desmond Arkadiy begins his adventure Into Unexplored Territories.

Heya, author here, thanks for giving this story a read, now our guy has seen the rock that gives magic rock cancer and civilization, he now begins his trip in Terra, and as always, please rate the story if you somehow enjoyed it and leave criticism in the comments for me to read to potentially increase my understanding and writing, thats all for now, stay tuned and see ya!