It’s not fun to be woken up by an alien. Trust me.

“José! Today is the day!. Get up, big boy!”

Muhammud yanked the sheets right from above me and proceeded to smack me in the stomach. Hard.

I instantly was jolted awake. After taking a surprising look at Muhammud, I again had to accept I was in a reality where aliens exist.

I coughed a bit before I started to talk.

“Muhammud, I went to sleep 3 hours ago. You left 3 hours ago. You’re expecting me to run on 3 hours?”

Muhammud gives me an expression I’m pretty sure humans don’t have.

“José, 3 hours? That’s more than enough. I honestly pinned you to be a hard worker. Not someone who sleeps all day.”

I was too tired to correct him. There was no point in correcting him.

Muhammud motioned his arms as if to tell me “we need to go”. At least I think that’s what the motion meant. Because he also said:

“José, We need to get going. Because you slept in, we are behind schedule!”

Like a drunken man, I wobble as I follow Muhammud. He takes out his alien remote and presses it again. A light opens in my simulated bedroom and we walk through it. As we exited the door of light Muhammud looked at me with his awkward smile, almost as if he was trying to look proud.

“Welcome to the facility, José!”

The view of the area I was in tore all the grogginess out of my body. The “facility”, as Muhammud called it looked like it was straight out of Star Wars.

The first thing I noticed was that there were aliens everywhere. I could make out 1,000s of aliens, but all of them seemed to look different. Not like they had slight variations from each other, these aliens had huge differential features. One had flippers sprouting from their legs. One had a huge burly coat of fur across their whole body. And a whole lot had things I’m pretty sure didn’t exist on any Earthian animal. It was hard to believe since there were so many, but they must have all been different species. All from different parts of the universe.

That’s not all the Facility had. There were flying… well everything. Not a singular wheel on anything. The people of the facility even seemed to be using some kinda floating form of travel. Transporting people standing on square silver plates across the building.

I walked next to Muhammad as I looked around the facility in awe.

Eventually, our walk came to an end. Muhammud jutted his arm around my shoulder and pulled me in.

“Most accidents happen on somebody’s first use,” he said.

The ground from under us rose. Muhammud and I were standing on one of those metallic transporting escalator plates.

Muhammud’s voice rose “To room 1345 please.”

The plate we were standing on lit up as if to confirm Muhammud’s order. The plate started moving. I’d assume to room 1345.

Wait.

I’d realized why I’d been following Muhhamud’s game up to this point.

To find a way out.

This was my way out! There must be something like an escape pod!

I needed to act quickly. I tried to move to the right, and jump off the floating pad. I didn’t move. At first, I was confused. All my momentum had just been canceled. It then hit me, I was stopped by Muhammud’s shoulder hug.

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Oh no, Muhammud knew I was struggling. He caught me trying to escape!

I fearfully looked up at Muhammud. He didn’t seem to notice anything was wrong. He just kept looking straight on ahead. He hadn’t noticed me.

This time I planted my feet into the floating plate and put all of my strength into a jump to the right.

Nothing. Neither I nor Muhammud moved an inch. This time I wasn’t so lucky as to not draw Muhammud’s attention. He looked down upon me.

“José, everything ok buddy?” He flashed his awkward smile again. Usually, his attempt at a smile carried a sort of childish wonder. This time, there was a slight feeling of despair within that smile.

“Welp, we’re here José!” Muhammud said as the silver plate stopped in front of another glowing door. Still under his grasp, Muhammud led me into the room.

“I’d have to find a chance later,” I thought. “There has to be another opening. For now, cooperate.”

“José, I’ve pushed this off for long enough.” He took the awkward smile off his face. “I’ll tell you why you’re here.”

I gulped.

“There’s usually a holographic explanation.” He says while signaling to the blank white room we’re in. The room that could generate a reality.

“However, since we’re behind schedule I’ll have to explain this verbally” While he says this from the seemingly never-ending pockets of his lab-coat, he takes out a steel button with an emerald centerpiece and another item that looked like the remotes he had been using. He lays them out on a table in the room.

“You need this for the Universe Shanty.”

“Universe Shanty?” I ask.

He puts back on his smile “I know the name sounds dumb, It translates weirdly acr–”

“I don’t care about the name. What is it?” I ask coarsely.

“Oh. It’s a Death Match that has participants from all across the universe. One participant from almost every known living planet in the universe to be exact. A competition held on a planet used only for this event. ”

My voice is shaking “D-Death Match?”

“Oops. Sorry, José. This is why I wish we had time for the whole presentation”

He continues “That pill you ate yesterday gives you an amazing innate healing process. You can’t die. And better yet, since you’re a Gambit species, you heal twenty times as fast!”

As soon as I hear “you can’t die” my anxiety levels drop below sea level. I’m still not completely fine with the situation though.

Muhammad opens his mouth “Well, as your proctor for this shanty, I am now able to answer all questions you have”

I instantly perk up. I have a million questions.

“You called me a Gambit Species, What was that about?”

Muhammud raises two of his long fingers. “There are two paths planets can form evolution. The most common form of evolution is for a species to simply grow stronger than the environment around them. The tried and true survival of the fittest. Species who evolve as such are called Stable species”

He lowers one of his fingers and points his remaining raised finger at me. “The second type of evolution leads to the type of species you are. Instead of gaining pure power to destroy opposing forces, your type of species evolved with a hack.”

He reaches over and creates a cut on my arm with his fingernail. I wince.

He continues, “The power of healing. With it, your species could survive minor cuts and injuries without completely dying. Thus eliminating the need to grow strong enough not to be damaged by one’s environment.”

I look at the cut he left on my arm. It’s gone. I look back up at Muhammad.

“Why label them Stable and Gambit? Also, does this mean aliens can’t heal?” I ask.

“It is true that without the pill you consumed, aliens can’t heal. Don’t count on this fact to win the shanty José. All participants receive the pill. You can just heal faster.”

“As for the reason your species is called Gambit,” Muhammud’s eyes grow distant. Out of all the times I’ve seen his attempt at human facial expressions, this sad look on his face was as clear as day. It had a truly genuine aspect. This was a face that transcended the species barrier.

“Most Gambit Species don’t live long. Eventually, they build weaponry that does damage much faster than they can heal. Even before we can supply them with healing pills. Surviving Gambit Species are one in a trillion. Because of the high chance of these planets going extinct, interaction with these planets has been ruled out.”

He corrects himself “Well, until now. With you”.

Muhammud puffs out his chest “I think it’s wrong to let species die just because of their evolution. Not many agree with me though. Let me tell you, it was hard to convince them to enter a human. Even harder to learn your species’ weird expressions.”

He looks at me and wears his awkward smile.

“You’re one in a trillion, José. You’re representing your planet out there. You win this and you gain a wish for your planet. You can rewrite the rules José.”

For the first time, I felt connected to Muhammud. He’d instilled me with a strong sense of duty. A sense of patriotism towards Earth as a whole. Maybe we could’ve been friends if this isn’t the scenario we met in.

Although I can’t picture how we’d meet outside this scenario. Definitely not at my local grocery store.

I snap back into reality and look at Muhammud, but this time with a sense of respect.

“One thing not adding up, Muhammud. If we can’t die how does one get eliminated?”

Muhammad grabs the button with an emerald centerpiece and hands it to me.

“Essentially, if this breaks your out. You must keep within two feet of your body at all times. If you are ever not within two feet of a perfectly intact button. You lose.”

I grasp the button with my life. Until minutes ago I was dead set on leaving. Now I had a purpose. Every day humans were dying due to actions that could be easily prevented if we just had the pills Muhammud gave me. If I could win this “Universe Shanty” humanity could be saved.

I grabbed the remaining device of the table, determined.

“Muhammud, what does this remote do?” I ask with a new found confidence in my voice.

Muhammud points a finger up, matter of factly, “It works like the phones you humans use. You can use it to contact me at any time during the Shanty.”

For the first time, I smile at Muhammud.

In a confident voice I ask “When does this start Muhammud? I’ll need time to train.”

Muhammud smiles back and takes out his tried and true remote.

He talks. “José, I said we were in a hurry all day. It starts now.” He presses a button on his remote.

“Wait wha–”

The floor beneath me disappears and I start to fall. I’m falling towards a big blue and green planet. I’m falling towards the Universe Shanty.

And I’m still in my Mickey Mouse PJs.