No sooner had Sophie proclaimed that the four members of Cabin Gemini needed to talk than her bunkmates suddenly stood at attention, ready to listen.

“What’s so important right now, Sophie?” Jessica asked. “I just want to go to bed! I’m so tired!”

Marie glared at Jessica. “You know, I’m surprised you even want to sleep here, given how much you complain about how uncomfortable the bed is.”

“Whatever” Jessica replied, rolling her eyes and stomping the floor.

Sophie sighed. This was a conversation she needed to have soon. Ideally, tonight. She’d noticed how Judd seemed drawn to Mizar somehow, even if the two men had different views on religion and other matters. But something else stood out as well.

Mizar seemed genuinely surprised by his score. Like he didn’t expect to have done so poorly. I mean, he’s been here for a year, so I’m shocked too. And he didn’t just FAIL - he didn’t even come CLOSE to sixty.

But questions about how Mizar had managed to fare so badly needed to be cast aside for the time being. Ultimately, the universe had given Sophie a decision to make, and she elected to err on the side of transparency.

“You see,” Sophie stated, “I happen to know what banishment entails.”

Marie and Jessica both gasped in what might have been disbelief. Judd, on the other hand, scratched his head. “We already knew what it entailed. You’re sent Elsewhere, aren’t you?”

Sophie realized that in order to make the others take her seriously, she had to divulge more information than she’d initially planned. But if it served a greater purpose (even if not a supernatural one), then it would be worth it.

“Well, yes. But Elsewhere isn’t a land full of sunshine and rainbows. Elsewhere isn’t heaven, Judd. In fact, it sounds a lot more like hell to me.”

“Only the Good Lord decides who goes to hell” Judd stated curtly.

Sophie snorted. “Judd, your God doesn’t decide who goes to hell. Hell doesn’t exist. I said Elsewhere was like hell, not that it was hell.”

Marie shivered, but Jessica held up a hand. “Well, then?” the latter girl announced. “Continue.”

“The other day I woke up really early and couldn’t go back to sleep. And I didn’t want to wake any of you, so I went outside for a walk. I climbed one of the cliffs and overheard Lucas and Toriel talking about the most recent set of banishments. And I’m sorry to tell you all, but it’ll make your skin crawl.”

“What happens if you’re banished?” Marie asked. Sophie noticed that Marie’s face was incredibly pale as she made that inquiry, making it look rather like all the blood had drained out of it and been replaced with milk.

Sophie would not beat around the bush, at least not on this matter.

“According to them, as soon as you’re banished, you’re taken to a cavern to be prepared for the journey. Then you get on a train and you’re headed for the Eternal Night Mine.”

Marie grabbed the edge of her bed as though scared she’d faint otherwise. Judd, meanwhile, grimaced. “That’s not exactly reassuring, is it?”

“No. It’s not. And Judd, unless you forgot who just got banished, it was your friend Mizar. He’s about to be put to work in the mine. That’s the punishment for those who score in the bottom three on any given week’s mission.”

“So?” Jessica wondered aloud. “We just have to keep scoring higher than at least three other parties. And once we’re veterans, we will be naturals at the Isekai challenges.”

“Saying that is all well and good,” Sophie pointed out, “until you get a challenge you just can’t overcome. Take a look at Judd - he was clearly given a much harder task today than he was last week, as evidenced by his failure to get a mission accomplished message.”

“To be fair,” Judd muttered, “that’s probably partly because I told Lucas he was a loser and a sucker.”

“Even so,” Sophie stated, “they’re going to keep making it harder for us. Maybe you’ll be provoked into getting angry eventually, maybe you won’t. But the tasks will keep getting harder and harder, and then one fine morning you’ll wake up and there’ll be a challenge you just can’t overcome.”

Marie nodded vigorously as she processed this information, now looking quite nauseous. Judd, meanwhile, scratched the trace of beard scruff on his chin.

“What if someone’s just that good, though?” Jessica asked. “Like Mizar was until today?”

Sophie narrowed her eyes. “Those words until today are very important. Perhaps he got sloppy, but the point is that nobody’s just that good. Eventually, or in some cases immediately, you’re going to mess up, and it’s going to send you to the Eternal Night Mine. And there’s a force field around the ravine - nobody’s going to escape without permission, not like any of you have probably ever tried.”

“Huh” Marie stated in little more than a whisper. “So we’re trapped here until we lose?”

Sophie nodded. “That brings me to the next thing I realized. And it’s going to sound totally bizarre, but bear with me - “.

Judd shook his head. “I don’t want to talk about it until we figure out a way to rescue Mizar. Is that even possible?”

Sophie gave Judd a side-eyed look. “It’s going to be extremely difficult to do that…”.

“But is it possible?”

“Possible, yes. Probable, not remotely. It would also be extremely dangerous - in fact, I think it’s too dangerous.”

“I don’t care how dangerous it is,” Judd pointed out. “I’ve already been fatally mauled by a moose, so danger might as well be my middle name.”

“Well, I don’t care what you say about it anyway, Judd,” Jessica told him. “I don’t care about that. I don’t want to get in trouble.”

“Mizar’s already in trouble, though,” Judd muttered. “I’d rather get banished trying to free him than live my afterlife with that hanging over me.”

“You knew him for two weeks, Judd!” Marie exclaimed. “Two weeks! I knew Clancy much longer than that!”

“Clancy?” Judd wondered aloud. “The guy who was banished two weeks ago? How did you know him?”

“It’s not important, Judd!” Sophie exclaimed. “But then again, you’re determined to play martyr and sacrifice yourself just because your God tells you to. Why do I even bother trying to reason with you?”

“I’m not going to sacrifice myself. If I get banished, I get banished. At the end of the day, it’s not going to stop me from trying to rescue Mizar. He’s been ten times the friend to me as any of you!”

“We’re allies now, Judd,” Sophie pointed out despite that burn. “I know that’s hard for you to believe, but you need to listen to me. There’s a reason we can’t leave!”

“Everything happens for a reason,” Jessica noted, “except sometimes that reason is very simple.”

Sophie shook her head. “As soon as I was blocked from going beyond that force field, everything made sense. It took me six months to realize it, but I think once you all hear my theory, you’ll know I’m right!”

“No theories until we can save Mizar,” Judd insisted. “And besides, your idea is just a theory. That doesn’t mean it’s true.”

“Well, gravity is also a theory, Judd. In the magical land of Canada, we have not embraced the anti-science ideology that has gripped so much of your own country. And we’re far, far better off for it!”

“Leave me out of this,” Judd remarked. “It’s all for Mizar. If he’s really doomed to work in the Eternal Night Mine for a long time, then we have to save him.”

Sophie had to appreciate the irony of Judd remarking that he should be left out of this, while at the same time being so selfish as to insist that his friend needed to be rescued. Quite frankly, countless other parties had no doubt met the same fate as Mizar, and yet they weren’t worthy of rescue. And why weren’t they? Because Judd never met them!

“Judd, you need to stop thinking the universe revolves around you. I don’t get why your kind thinks I’m arrogant for believing I’m just a speck in the universe who’s here for a brief time and will eventually no longer exist, but that you’re humble for thinking your God specifically has a plan for you!”

Judd did not respond at first; it seemed he was just trying to think of the right thing to say. Unfortunately, he thought too long, because a powerful series of knocks soon came on the door of the cabin.

Jessica rolled her eyes. “What do you all want to bet that it’s one of Toriel’s Lucario assistants about to have us do an interview? As long as it’s not me - I’m just bushed!”

More knocks sounded, and it was soon clear that it was not one individual rapping hard on the door, but rather two or more.

“Guys,” Sophie said softly. “I don’t think it’s an interview. I think we’re in trouble.”

Sophie wanted to pull her hair out. She’d been smart enough to figure out the truth of this place, but she’d lacked the presence of mind to realize that if she was right, Cabin Gemini was probably bugged. Therefore, when she opened the door, the identities of those on the other side didn’t come as a surprise.

Toriel and Lucas stood on the cabin’s threshold. The plump guildmistress looked livid, but her lips were shut. She was clearly restraining herself from unleashing a tirade against the cabin’s tenants. The Lucario, on the other hand, licked his lips in anticipation, as though he were about to chow down on a hunk of fresh meat.

“What do you two want?” Jessica remarked in a whiny tone. “I was about to go to bed! Can’t a lady get her beauty sleep?”

“That’s no way to speak to us, Jessica Petty” Lucas snarled. “And even if such a tone were acceptable here, I somehow strongly doubt you were going to sleep anytime soon.” Lucas then nodded at Toriel, who cleared her throat.

“We have heard you four arguing for the last several minutes. We heard everything you were saying about rescuing Mizar. And quite frankly, it’s absurd to think you can do so, or that you should. Everything happens for a reason.”

Sophie’s throat felt hot. They. Know. Everything!

She pointed a finger at Judd (you know which finger). “It’s his fault!” she proclaimed. “He was the one who suggested trying to save Mizar from banishment!”

“Hey now,” Judd retorted, sounding rather like an angry cowboy. “Way to throw me under the bus, isn’t it?”

“They know, Judd, they know already!” Marie all but wailed. “It doesn’t matter how much you try to deny it! You’ll just sound like the desperate liar you are!”

“I’m surprised it took you all so long to figure it out,” Lucas remarked.

“What was there to figure out?” Judd snapped.

“The cabins here at Jet Force Isekai are monitored by audiovisual recording devices twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week” Toriel stated rather pompously. “It’s just like that novel Nineteen Eighty-Four. You can consider the cameras - and, by extension, my Lucario assistants and I - Big Brother.”

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

“I read that book!” Jessica exclaimed. “How could you think that was a good idea?”

Sophie, on the other hand, was not nearly as shell-shocked by that revelation. After all, she’d read all of George Orwell’s novels; she knew how the bizarre propaganda world of Nineteen Eighty-Four operated.

She now felt certain that her hypothesis was correct. She knew she’d been right about why she wasn’t allowed past that force field. Sophie also suspected that the use of the term Big Brother had been intentional.

And now, when Sophie very likely had nothing to lose, was the perfect time to play that card.

“Listen up, all of you!” Sophie announced. “I’ve figured it out!”

Lucas raised one of his aura-sensing organs. “What have you figured out, Sophie Frey?”

“I’ll lay it all out there, and I’ll explain how I came to that conclusion. That is the scientific method, is it not?”

“I suppose it is,” Lucas muttered. “Carry on.”

At least they aren’t escorting us toward that train right away. Then again, if we were to run, we’d have nowhere to go. And that’s because I’m right about what I believe.

“When I and the others first arrived here,” Sophie continued, “you tested us in a simulation. You wanted to see how we’d react to adversity. That was done in lieu of an interview, and you sorted us into cabins based on a compatibility index that we never got to see.”

Marie grunted. “This is some Sherlock Holmes shit right here. You’re just explaining things to make us feel like we’re five years old.”

Sophie glared at Marie. “I’ve got a lot more explaining ahead of me. In any case, we’re in these cabins, and we argue a lot. I’d assume you’ve got plenty of experience bickering with Jessica when she tries to flirt with you?”

Jessica sighed far too loudly, but Marie nodded. “Yes. I’ve been through that.”

“What if I told all of you,” Sophie said with the air of a college professor giving an elaborate presentation, “that the compatibility index was a sham from the very beginning? That it was based on a lie?

“We were told we’d be the best of friends, or at least that we’d get along well. But we’ve been at loggerheads pretty much the whole time we’ve been together. I believe that, far from being put together for the sake of compatibility, we were assigned cabins to create maximal conflict.”

Judd scratched his chin again.

“Think about it, Judd. I’m a hardcore atheist, whereas you’re the caricature of a devout Christian. They didn’t put us in this cabin by accident - they wanted us to bicker about religion, and we’ve been delivering.”

“I know. I know all too well” Judd mumbled.

“And then Jessica keeps flirting with Marie, who wants no part of it. And Marie, I’ll admit that I was pretty inquisitive about the ring on your finger…”. (Marie blanched at those words.)

Then Sophie continued. “I still am curious what it means, but I asked far too many questions. And I’m sorry about that. I don’t believe in fate, but it seems like we were meant to fight endlessly about the smallest things.”

Marie nodded again. “A week or two ago, I remember thinking that there’s no way four people in our age group could get along less. It’s like all of this was preordained, like it was set up this way.”

“Exactly,” Sophie replied. (On a different note, she noticed that Lucas and Toriel had not moved an inch since she’d started explaining everything. If there was any emotion on either of their faces at all, it could only be described as satisfaction. Likewise, it only increased Sophie’s conviction that her guess was correct.)

“So what else?” Jessica asked. “Are you going to tell us that there’s something suspicious about all our interviews?”

“As a matter of fact, I am. Have you ever wondered why we’re asked so many questions in the interviews about each other? That’s because they want drama. They want us to be paranoid. And the interviews are private.”

Judd nodded. “Lucas called my first interview a confession.”

“Well, if I’m right - and I’m pretty sure I am - the term for such an interview is pretty similar to that word. It’s called a confessional.”

If she hadn’t understood it before, Sophie now completely grasped where the saying about a light bulb going off in someone’s mind had come from. Marie’s face instantly lit up as she appeared to piece together everything her bunkmate was saying. “Are you telling me…” she began.

“We go off for these confessionals with Lucas or another Lucario, and they get us to spill the tea as much as we can. If we know we’re each telling our hosts things that we’re not telling each other, that’s only going to make us trust one another less.

“And then there’s the banishment ceremony. Haven’t you thought it’s so weird that we carry torches to each one? Hasn’t it been suspicious that Toriel says almost exactly the same words each week? Doesn’t it resemble a rather familiar franchise in which they vote each other off the island?”

Marie shrugged. “Sounds like a live-action version of Total Drama Island.”

Sophie glared at Marie. “I cannot tell you how much that hurts. Literally, that’s the worst thing you’ve ever said to me!”

“Sorry” Marie mumbled, but Sophie wasn’t convinced Marie was sorry at all. In any case…

“So we light our torches, and they get snuffed if we’re banished. Doesn’t that sound just a little excessive?”

“Hey, I guess Toriel and Lucas have a flair for the dramatic,” Jessica pointed out. “Can you really blame them?”

Sophie didn’t answer. “And then there’s one last thing,” she muttered. “When I went out exploring last week, I mentioned the force field. However, as I was climbing those cliffs, I couldn’t shake the notion that I was being watched, that the cliff had eyes. I could hear what our hosts were saying, too, as though they were projecting their voices through the cliff itself. I was over a hundred meters up - meters, not feet - and they sounded like they were right there. The cliffs have to be enhanced somehow.”

Judd glanced dumbfoundedly at Sophie, but Marie didn’t seem too shocked anymore. She clearly knew what was coming.

“So what you’re saying is…” Marie began.

Sophie nodded. “I believe the reason I thought I was being watched that morning was because I was, in fact, being watched. In fact, they’ve been watching us ever since we arrived in these ruins.”

Toriel scratched the backs of her goatlike ears, whereas Lucas was now practically grinning. If Sophie had harbored even a speck of doubt that she could justify her thesis, said doubt vanished in that very moment.

“And why are they watching us? Why did they put us together to cause as much drama as possible? Why are we sent off to give confessionals like they do on a game show? And why does the elimination ceremony so closely resemble that of a game show?”

Silence now hung in the air, and that’s when Sophie presented her thesis.

“That’s because we’re on a game show.”

For a moment, nothing happened. In the immediate aftermath of Sophie dropping that bombshell, it seemed that said bombshell had yet to explode. Judd and Jessica both had their jaws on the floor.

And then she looked at the Lucario’s face, which was curling up into a grin. Lucas squirmed a bit as though he were in great pain from trying to hold something back, then burst into laughter.

It was a horrible sound, not the sort of good-natured chortling that might have been associated with watching an episode of Survivor heavy with interpersonal drama. But once the Lucario’s laughter started to abate, Toriel gazed at Sophie.

“You’re right,” the plump woman stated simply. “It took you six months to find out the truth, but you are right. Quite frankly, it should have been obvious from the get-go.”

“I had my suspicions from the beginning” Sophie stated in an effort to do some damage control.

“Perhaps you did. Oh well - better late than never” Toriel stated.

“Admittedly,” Lucas said, “it’s been rather enjoyable watching you all figure it out for yourselves. But yes, ‘Jet Force Isekai’ is in fact a game show.”

“Then who’s watching?” Judd wondered aloud. “And for that matter, what channel is it being broadcast on? What are the ratings?”

“Judd Asgard, nobody watches network TV anymore” Toriel snapped. “Are you so old-fashioned that you still tune into your favorite channel at a specific time so that you don’t miss the show?”

Judd tilted his head. “If living a good Christian life, and afterlife, is old-fashioned, then I don’t want to live your modern way!”

Sophie rolled her eyes. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“It has nothing to do with the matter at hand,” Toriel told her coldly. “But to answer your question, Judd Asgard, Jet Force Isekai is broadcast on every streaming channel on Planet Nexus. An episode drops each week depicting the missions and the elimination ceremony.”

Now she’s saying “elimination” instead of “banishment.” She’s not even trying to hide it anymore - she deceived us this whole time.

“But that’s not all!” Lucas announced with a snap of his claws. “There is also a live feed for those who don’t want to wait for the weekly episodes! That way, viewers can get as much or as little of Jet Force Isekai as they please!”

Jessica snorted. “So there are actually people - or Pokémon - who have so much free time that they watch us for like twelve hours a day?”

“I’m sure there are some Nexus residents like that, yes” Lucas responded.

Judd grimaced. “You’re saying that they can watch us whenever they want?”

“Yes.”

“Even when we’re on the toilet?”

“Yes. Of course, anything sensitive is blurred out, since this show is meant to remain strictly PG-13. But yes, they can view any part of cabin life they want to.”

Judd pursed his lips. “Is that really supposed to make me feel better?”

Sophie pointed her index finger at Judd. “You know, within the bounds of your theology, your God is also watching over you at times when you’re doing something personal. But you’ve never seemed bothered by that, so why is being watched by Toriel and Lucas suddenly a bridge too far?”

Judd paused, seemingly unable to come up with an answer that he thought would satisfy Sophie.

Eventually, Toriel cleared her throat. “As entertaining as this argument may be for the audience on their living room couches, it is not the reason Lucas and I came here tonight. There’s another matter we must attend to.”

Marie frowned. “What might that be?”

“It’s no secret that you four were discussing how best to save Michael Rainsford from banishment. Of course, it’s a secret to the other cabins, it’s even a secret to Michael himself, but it’s not a secret to us because of the cameras. Such actions cannot be allowed to stand without consequences.”

“ Consequences?” Judd remarked. “Like, are we in trouble?”

Lucas glared at Judd. Any amusement the Lucario might have been feeling earlier had been banished to the proverbial shadow realm.

“You’re in a heap of trouble, boy.”

----------------------------------------

Mizar tried not to panic as he was led away by one of the Lucario guards.

I’m going Elsewhere, he told himself. For all I know, Elsewhere is the next great adventure. And if I weren’t an adventurer, I could hardly have climbed those mountains on Earth, could I have?

The Lucario, whose name Mizar did not bother to ask (not least because he figured the question probably wouldn’t be answered) remained silent as he led the young man away from the amphitheater where he’d been sitting when Toriel had announced the people to be banished.

I don’t understand!

That had been his first reaction when he’d seen his score. The mission had been complicated, to be sure. But considering how many dozens of them he’d been on before, Mizar had expected a challenge. More importantly, he’d gotten into the groove at Jet Force Isekai. He probably had the most seniority in this ruined land, and that didn’t happen by accident. Not when there was this much turnover.

He’d gotten a 45, and normally he would have accepted such a fate. After all, when you climbed Mount Everest, you had to assume the risk that you wouldn’t make it back down the mountain. Even seasoned climbers had to turn around from Kilimanjaro all the time when they got altitude sickness. Likewise, the chance you got a low score here simply went with the territory.

But something just didn’t add up. He specifically remembered completing all the objectives, and Mizar balled his hands into fists as he entered a separate cavern with the other people who were to be banished.

“None of you are to speak to one another,” the Lucario guard stated, “until the train arrives.”

A young woman with relatively short hair took advantage of a loophole in that command: “We’re still allowed to ask you questions, though…right?”

The Lucario frowned. “I suppose you are. But I may refuse to answer them if I deem them inappropriate.”

“Where are we going?” the young lady replied. “You said Elsewhere, but where is Elsewhere?”

The Lucario shook his head. “Until you board the train, that information must remain classified. Quite frankly, if I told you the answer, you’d probably run away. But you wouldn’t make it far.”

You’d probably run away, but you wouldn’t make it far.

Those words chilled Mizar like the winds of a blizzard on Mount Aconcagua. The guard seemed pretty confident that even if the condemned tried to escape, they couldn’t. Unless he’s lying to us.

Mizar decided instead to accept his fate, just like he had at the banishment ceremony, and he waited silently in the cavern with the others. It was a strange realization to come to, but after the initial shock and indignity of being banished had faded into the background, it was replaced with boredom.

Please. I don’t care where that train is going to take us. It just needs to come soon.

He slept off and on for what felt like forever. The third or fourth time he woke up, Mizar heard the chugging sound and occasional horn from an approaching locomotive. It sent dust throughout the cavern, and the young man was forced to cover his eyes.

“All aboard!” the Lucario guard exclaimed. “All aboard the Miner’s Train!”

Mizar obediently got in line and climbed the steps into the railcar. At first, the thought of riding a train reminded him of the rail travel he’d done in Europe during his capital-A Alpine climbs. However, the fact that both trains were attached to a set of tracks was where the similarities ended.

The train’s floor was covered in a fine layer of dust, and Mizar could barely resist the urge to sneeze. Rather than being covered in cushions, the seats were rock hard, making the cots in their Jet Force Isekai cabins seem like the world’s softest mattresses by comparison. There were no power outlets, dining cars, or even tray tables to be found.

Before he could spend much time pondering this train’s lack of amenities, however, a bell rang, and the train swiftly gathered speed, nearly knocking Mizar off his feet. He was forced to grab the back of the nearest seat in order to avoid injury.

This train is no U-Bahn, and it’s certainly no Shinkansen. Hell, it might even be worse than Amtrak! How sad is that?

Oh well. I’ve dealt with discomfort before. I can deal with this too. It can’t be a terribly long journey, can it?

The conductor’s voice, which was deeper than the center of a planet, sounded right then and there as though said conductor had read Mizar’s mind.

“All aboard Miner’s Train Ride 1, our flagship route, with service to the Eternal Night Mine. Travel time is roughly seventy-seven hours, forty-five minutes, so make yourselves comfortable. Sit back, relax, and enjoy your ride!”

Enjoy my ride? Yeah, right.

That was Mizar’s first thought, but then he realized just how trapped he was. For three days and nearly six hours, he would be stuck on this rock-hard bench. Oh, the cramps he would endure. And it was even worse than that, because the name of their destination didn’t exactly sound like fun.

Eternal Night Mine. Are they going to put us to work or something?

When you looked at it from that perspective, of course, maybe the three-day train ride would pass faster than he wanted it to. Perhaps he had three days of excess to look forward to - and by “excess”, I mean “excessive dread.”

So Mizar lay across the row of seats and tried to get comfortable. The seats may have been made of metal, but Mizar could close his eyes if he ignored just how much he’d ache when he woke up. But he didn’t drift off for the longest time, because whenever the train turned a corner, he had to brace himself to keep from falling off his “bed.”

It wasn’t long before he gave up on sleep entirely. Instead, he decided he’d wander the train for some time. His stomach growled, and while there was clearly no dining car here, that didn’t mean there wouldn’t be food if you knew where to look.

Then again, where DO I look?

Mizar gazed down the railcar’s corridor, where the other banished people were similarly trying to sleep, and decided that he’d just need to go for it.