Ahmed waits with bated breath for the next bomb to drop, and then he waits some more. Somehow though it just keeps not coming. The planes stopped for some reason. He breathes a sigh of relief and goes to check on the damage.

Silence. At first it feels deafening. There was a tornado just outside only a few moments before. She didn't have a basement and so she had been hiding in the sturdiest room in her house but she has known without a doubt that it wouldn't be enough.

It takes her a couple minutes to get up the courage to look out the window and confirm that the tornado is in fact gone. Not just diverted to destroy someone else's home just gone.

For the first time in a week Philipe's breath comes easily and clearly. He doesn't feel like he's burning alive either. He crosses himself and mutters a short prayer to God before realizing he can move easily and taking his knees to make a longer one.

In a nice but generally unassuming house in a mostly unremarkable suburban neighborhood a relatively young person appears just where they left.

"Hello, I'm back."

Simultaneously, he uses his new implants to emulate his old phone and send variants on a single message.

Hi, I'm back. Today is going to be crazy for everyone but I'd love to meet up soon. Let me know if you're up for it.

Dr. Gupta watches with disbelief as the tumor he was in the process of removing disappears before his eyes, the nearby tissue repairing itself and regenerating. A gentle but insistent force pushes his scalpel out of the incision and the patient's skin fuses back together before his eyes as if it was never cut. Over the next few seconds their skin regains a healthy tone losing the slight but absolutely present signs of ongoing chemotherapy.

"Everyone else saw that right?"

The other doctors and nurses in the room all nod, voice curses or otherwise indicate that it wasn't just him.

Satisfied he nods and then scrutinizes the patients vitals and generally sets to the important task of trying to determine whether whatever just happened had any harmful side-effects.

His parents emerge from their preferred corners of their house and he happily embraces them with hugs and words of reassurance that yes he's doing great, better than ever.

Charlie watches with astonishment as the plastic the ship he's serving on is here to cleanup simply disappears as if it was never there.

Jacob watches with not a little hysteria but now tinged with a slowly growing amusement as the man pushing him against the wall once again tries to stab him only for it to once more slides across his clothes without penetrating. The man screams with frustration and runs the other way leaving Jacob grateful that this close call wasn't his final call.

In the depths of the Australian outback a Lesser Bilby pokes its head out of a burrow that wasn't there just a minute before.

Amy stares at her daughter, Jennifer as she repeats her first word in more than five years. "Mommy, what's the matter why are you crying?"

"Nothing's the matter honey I'm crying because I'm happy." She hurries to embrace her daughter in her wheelchair and for the first time in at least as long, her daughter hugs back. It's everything she's wished for for so long.

Elizabeth scrutinizes the results of the latest carbon content measurement. It's twenty parts per million lower than she's expecting. That's not too unusual but it's worthy of note.

Kiku pauses on a rock as she makes her way across the creek. The water was never that color before. Is water supposed to be that clear or that blue? She's much more used to it being a murky brown. She turns back and goes to ask her mom.

Amani blinks and stops as a warm feeling fills him and his tummy expands. He can't see his ribs anymore and the gnawing emptiness that has been a constant for as long as he can remember feels entirely sated. He cries with relief.

Greta feels really really good. It's just like she's young again, all those aches and pains that have been plaguing her for years seem to have just melted away and she feels, not quite strong that would be saying too much but she doesn't feel weak. Just to be safe she still grabs her walker as she stands up but she quickly lets go as she confirms that she wasn't just imagining it. She walks unassisted for the first time in at least a year and she see Doris emerging from the room next door.

"I see the miracle visited you too." Doris says.

"Indeed it did. Praise God."

Iris watches with a bit of incredulity as the near dead plant, that one she never can quite get around to watering enough, perks back up and uncurls its leaves.

Doug stares slack-jawed as the piles of trash in the dump are slowly replaced by large blocks of metal, glass, plastic, wood, and what transparent bins filled with what looks like compost. The blocks stack themselves steadily higher and higher until the last of the piles are cleared away.

After about thirty seconds with nothing happening he calls his friend. A random perk of the job is that they're allowed to take any bits of trash not slated for recycling. He has a few bits he wants to take before that policy changes.

Katelin breaths an unsteady breath on her dorm room bed, her heart still pounding in her chest. She sits up and sees the clothes that He tore up and pulled off her are neatly mended and folded in a pile beside her. They are very specifically and visibly sewn up. It definitely happened she didn't just imagine it. She looks down and sees none of the blood she was expecting, nor any of Him. She gets up and puts on normal plain underwear sweatpants and a sweatshirt then curls up on her bed to cry some more.

Liu looks around to find where that strange chiming sound is coming from. There's a twinkle of light around her wrist and shortly after she catches sight of it that disappears leaving behind a silky bracelet. Stitched into the fabric is a simple but baffling message: what you seek is through the gates.

"What gates?" She asks wondering if anyone will respond.

On the sidewalk of a popular shopping district there's a sound of a loud bell ringing like an old church bell and then a shimmer of light that leaves behind a sparking blue-black freestanding archway big enough for a two people to step through side by side.

Golden letters are etched into its surface. Scattered lines with no obvious order.

This is a gate some are as obvious as this others are more subtle.

Adventure's risk is always and only what you accept.

Forest paths and hidden glades.

Fix what you seek in mind.

Rituals can replace gates when you believe.

Your answer may not be what you expect.

Adventure is here to stay.

A haven, a blessing, a revelation all can be found.

Adventure's gifts are personal.

Gates only take those who wish it.

Unfamiliar streets and secret passages.

Carl stares at the pile of blankets in the center of their encampment. He's pretty sure that he would have noticed a pile as tall as he is if it was here five minutes ago. He takes a couple for himself and then yells out "Hey free blankets. Not sure where they came from but there's a lot."

Maria stood outside and gloried in the rain, it had started gently early in the morning and it seemed to just keep coming. And by some miracle the ground was drinking it up as if there hadn't been such a drought. She had seen on the news that strange things were happening all over the world. Some people were scared. But she knew deep in her soul that this had to be good. That this was a new beginning.

Zachary crouched to the ground at the gentle shaking as the glacier slowly but surely grew beneath his feet. Well, slowly on a human scale but centimeters per minute was unbelievably fast as glaciers went. Their instruments weren't designed to track changes this fast but with some quick recalibration they had been adjusted. Everyone wanted to know exactly how much they had gained.

Samuel has listened to the news and perhaps unwisely decided that since these miracles seemed to be protecting people from harm now was the time to climb the tallest tree he could find. That was where he was when he heard it. "This day is ending and many miracles with it. Tomorrow is a new day and the future is yours to shape. As one final gift you need but ask and you'll be returned to where you last slept."

He thought about it for a moment and looked down at the ground so very far below. "Yes please."

And then he was back in his room standing next to his bed. He hurriedly took off his shoes he wasn't supposed to wear those in the house. Thankfully they seemed to be clean.