You know what every story should start out with? Action. The Gospel Light teens cruise through the skies in a private jet.

“Timmy, whatcha readin’ there?” Levi asks Timmy.

“Mark 16:15. I’ve been reading it for three hours straight,” Timmy replies, and after a long pause, adds, “it’s my favorite verse.”

“I can tell.” Levi nods and turns back to his automatic rifle on the table in front of him and continues to clean it, mag out of the gun to display proper handling safety. Meanwhile, Gracie and Kay look back to see what kind of foolery is happening.

“You guys do the weirdest stuff,” Gracie tells Timmy and Levi just as Kay next to her uses a miter saw she had plugged in to sharpen her trusty axe.

On another part of the jet, there’s a coffee shop that happens to be owned by Gracie herself, where Sophie and Kylie are sipping lattes. Also in the coffee shop are Nathaniel and Jacob, trying to get through the likes of unicorn frappuccinos with sugar-free sweeteners without dying from the bitter taste.

“I mean, whenever someone asks me what I’m like, I just tell them I like sugar-free sweeteners in my coffee, as after all, my body is a temple,” Jacob tells Nathaniel, trying not to cringe over the fact that he somehow convinced both himself and Nathaniel to drink the strange coffee.

In the corner of the coffee shop, Brennan and Oliver eat a bunch of Nerds Gummy Clusters whilst playing tic-tac-toe.

In the cockpit of the jet, Josh is looking over Caleb and Cody, who are piloting. As he’s chewing on a glazed donut whilst telling them about eigenvalues and astrophysics, a fracture in the dimensional system of the universe sends the jet shaking. Josh, Caleb, and Cody all let out screams of surprise, with the rigorous shaking continuing.

The sky outside of the cockpit window erupts with glistening lights of many wild and vivid colors. The jet itself is shifted and warped, its composition changing heavily. This makes way for a bizarre figure to emerge in the cockpit. Josh watches the glowing figure envelop Caleb and Cody along with some kind of covered object. With its hostages, the figure moves slightly through higher spatial dimensions, disappearing from human sight with a flash of dazzling green light.

After recovering from the tussling and rumbling of the jet, Josh sees that Caleb and Cody are gone, just as the strange figure is. Panicked, he takes control of the jet, trying to put together how to fly such a thing within the span of mere moments. Looking through the window, he sees that the jet is headed for an island covered with an orange mountain and orange trees, with the backdrop of a green sky and an orange sun.

Josh fumbles with the controls of the jet, but the time he has to figure out how to avoid crashing into the island is minimal. Failing to master flying a jet within seconds, he is forced to accept the fact that the jet is going down. He braces for impact as it crashes into the orange island. Everyone in the jet is flung into all sorts of directions, and numerous parts of the jet are shredded into jagged chunks from the impact.

Flames erupt within various parts of the jet. People scurry to recover from the impact and get each other out. Almost everyone manages to escape the flaming jet, but Josh is stuck in the cockpit due to there being large roaring flames just outside of that part. Levi, using his M4 carbine he had quickly retrieved from the impact, rushes over to the cockpit and is about to fire into the glass to free Josh, but realizes that the gun isn’t loaded.

“Someone! Grab me a mag in the jet!” Levi yells to everyone.

“The jet’s on fire!” Collin responds, not sure what Levi is thinking.

“Josh is trapped!” This time everyone knows that Levi has a good reason to be urgently alarmed.

Timmy, who’s near an opening in the jet, rushes back into the flaming metal carcass to retrieve Levi’s gun bag. He flips over numerous seats and tables, dodging the flames that dance around him. With quick speed, Timmy finds the gun bag and rushes out of the jet just as a large part of it is further engulfed in bigger flames.

He reaches into the bag and chucks a mag towards Levi. With the skill of an elite athlete, Levi grasps the flying mag with his fingertips and puts it into his rifle. He then proceeds to blast multiple rounds through the jet’s cockpit window and breaks it, allowing Josh to escape.

Both exhausted, Levi and Josh run away from the ignited mess. They look back towards it after getting a safe distance away, wondering what they’re going to do now. They witness the cockpit erupt into flames just like every other part, only mere moments after Josh was able to escape.

All except Caleb and Cody are present. As one would expect, everyone is shook by what had just happened, but none more shook than Josh. He recalls what had first happened, with the violent shaking and the dimensional bending, which he guesses was utilized by the strange glowing figure that had taken Caleb and Cody.

The rest of the teens also watch the jet burn. They’re also unsure what they’re to do next. All they can think about is the fact that they’re stranded on some orange island with no immediate way off. Most huddle together with each other, scared and confused, as almost everyone in the same situation would be feeling. Tyler J. is the first to try to cheer some people up.

“Well, at, at least none of us died!” He receives looks of true fear from different people in the group. He sees the looks of fright on his friends’ faces and realizes that the situation is taking a heavy toll on everyone.

The flames in the jet continue to ravage it. Over time, the jet starts to become less and less recognizable. With the passing time, some of the teens are able to get themselves together, with Levi being one of the first.

“Okay guys, we need to prepare for the night, even if all this stuff is happening. We gotta do what we can to survive,” Levi commands the teens, about to organize different groups for different tasks. However, he realizes that Caleb and Cody are missing.

“Where’s Caleb and Cody?” he asks and scans the area for them but doesn’t see them. He looks towards Josh. “Where’d they go?”

Josh tells everyone what he had seen. “It was like some kind of spirit or something. It bent the dynamic fibers of spacetime and took Caleb and Cody with itself.”

Some of the teens find multi-dimensional bending spirits implausible, but the others realize that they’re stuck on an island with a range of orange hues, including that of the mountain, trees, grass, and sand, so some bizarre happenings aren’t exactly revelating.

Everyone starts arguing about whether or not Josh’s story is realistic, but the discussions are quickly shut down by Levi.

“Everyone shut! We have to focus on what’s at hand first. I’m gonna organize different groups for different tasks.” He assigns all the teens to different groups for the time being.

Levi takes a patrol consisting of himself, his dog Gunner, Josh, Timmy, and Tyler J. to look around the island, trying to find the mysterious spirit that had taken Caleb and Cody. Meanwhile, another group consisting of Nathaniel, Emma, Zoë, and Collin is designated to gather supplies that hadn’t been scorched by the fire from that jet once the flames start dissipating.

The group of scavengers look around the jet for still-useful supplies, but they don’t come up with much. Nathaniel mostly sticks to the coffee shop part of the jet but finds that all but some of the ingredients for coffee had been incinerated. The group collects whatever scraps they find slightly useful.

They bring the supplies to the spot that everyone had originally gathered, seeing that some are already working on making sustainable fire that doesn’t involve the aggressive ignition of jet fuel. Meanwhile, a patrol that had been sent out in search of food, led by Kay, returns to the camp. Kay’s patrol brings forth coconuts along with bright orange mangos that have sharp spikes protruding from them. Kay uses her axe to chop open the coconuts and mangos and sets the cut fruit into piles for everyone.

“There are dozens of fruit trees near camp, y’all.” After Kay has stopped by the camp, she sets out again to discover what other kinds of bizarre fruits the island has to offer.

Sitting around the fire, Oliver grabs a slice of mango, but punctures his thumb on one of the razor-sharp spikes.

“Ow!” he screams, dropping the mango slice faster than if it were a red-hot frying pan. Nathaniel walks over to his brother and picks up the mango slice from the orange sand.

“Don’t waste food.” He hands the slice to his brother, who’s a bit more careful this time, although he still gets pricked a few more times.

After getting some fruit, a group consisting of Nate Katz, Gracie, Steven, and Aurelia set out to search for useful foliage and materials for making a shelter. At the same time, Kay has managed to travel deep into the jungle by the mountain after checking the burnt jet for something she had left. As she travels towards the mountain, she tells herself to turn back before she gets lost, but a strange sensation combats that thought in her mind, and she continues to walk towards the mountain.

Once the strange sensation in her mind forces Kay to reach the base of the mountain, she sees a strange figure.

“Greetings, condemned of many,” the figure tells her, its warping eyes focused onto her.

“Well, greetings, child, to you too,” Kay acknowledges the figure. She holds her axe, not afraid to strike the mysterious figure if she needs to. “Now, who are you, though?”

Instead of responding, the figure moves closer, and Kay starts to guess that the figure could be a specific figure. “There’s no way you aren’t the spirit that took Caleb and Cody!” Kay gets in an aggressive stand, axe raised, focus on point, and ready to swing if the figure comes any closer.

“Me? Oh, shut up! That was not me!” the figure complains, appearing a bit offended.

Kay laughs a little. “You sound dumber than ya’ dumb face! Of course it was you! What other strange looking spirit took ‘em?”

The figure now wants to move on and get to business. “Whatever! That’s beside the point. We should just get to the details; I am Venge, and I am a multi-dimensional eidolon. I believe you could potentially wield my power to do what is important.” The eidolon continues to explain various things to Kay, who attentively listens, as the information is extraordinary.

“Now, what’s your name? I want to get to know people before I give them power.”

Kay looks towards the eidolon when he asks her the question, raising her eyebrow. “Wait a minute. How many people have you given power to before? Have there been people here before my group?” Kay asks instead of answering Venge’s question. The eidolon obtains a serious expression upon his warping face.

“I won’t answer that question.”

“Okay, then how about the question of where we even are?”

“A better place than that Purgatory.”

Kay tries to figure out what Venge means by such, but when she asks for further clarification, he remains vague.

“Whatever. So, what powers are you gonna give me?” Kay asks him. As soon as she does so, Venge rushes over to her, twists and turns his eidolon frame, and goes upon her, possessing her body.

“What…have….”

Venge, within Kay, shushes her. “Don’t speak, just do, condemned of many.” He guides Kay back through the orange-colored jungle, marching past the trees efficiently whilst wielding the axe.

“I just don’t think Josh is right. There’s no way that some spirit took Caleb and Cody and caused us to crash,” Steven explains to the others.

“How do you explain that Caleb and Cody are both gone and that we’re on a weird orange island?” Aurelia argues as she collects some small red-orange bamboo shoots.

“Yeah, this stuff is actually happening,” Nate Katz adds. Steven is about to respond and build his case, but Gracie interrupts the debate.

“Kay!” She points towards a small path where Kay is coming from, vengeance in her eyes. As she approaches the group, they’re able to see that something is off about her. She marches towards them, not altering her movement whatsoever. Her eyes warp through higher spacetime, and she has her axe handled efficiently, ready to draw it and use it to eliminate threats.

“Kay? What’s up?” Gracie manages to ask her, shuddering from the sight of her menacing eyes.

“Help…” Kay speaks quietly.

“Silence!” Venge hisses at her.

With a burst of agility, Venge uses Kay’s body to bound from person to person within the group, swinging her axe with extraordinary skill. Aurelia is the first to fall by the axe. Nate and Steven start picking up sharp orange rocks from the ground and throw them at the mad Kay, trying to stop her progress. Her body’s bruised by the rocks, but Venge forces her to continue the slaughter.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Kay is about to slash at Steven, but Nate sacrifices himself by jumping in front of him just as the blade of the axe slices through the air. Nate is instantly killed, but Steven has time to flee. However, Steven only manages to dash away from Kay for just a few moments, as she launches her axe towards him with shocking accuracy, killing him. Within the span of less than nine seconds, three had been killed by Kay’s efficient axe strokes, with just one remaining: Gracie.

Gracie trembles, seeing her friends dead on the orange grass, staining the grass red with blood, whilst another one of her friends stands beside them, possessed and holding a bloody axe in hand from the task. She thinks she’s about to be killed like the rest of them, but Venge doesn’t move Kay.

“I can see…you may be useful to my agenda,” Kay speaks, according to Venge’s discretion. Gracie looks towards Kay, vision shaky. She manages to see that for a split moment, Kay’s eyes briefly become uninvolved with Venge’s higher spatial-dimensional warping effects. Her eyes show sadness. Venge moves Kay away from Gracie and back to the path she walked on.

Gracie is stunned by the event. As soon as she’s able to, she moves over to the bodies of Aurelia, Nate Katz, and Steven, trying to see if by any chance they’re still alive. The gashes in them are large and efficient. She realizes that they’re all dead and quickly rushes back to the camp, telling everyone about what had just happened with all the mental strength she has left from the frightening sight of her friends being slaughtered.

Everyone in the camp is sent into a frenzy upon hearing about the murders. Levi’s patrol soon returns, finding everyone scrambling amongst the camp, fearful that they might be next. Levi rushes around the camp and asks Kylie what’s going on.

“Gracie saw Nate, Aurelia, and Steven get murdered by Kay!”

Levi’s eyes open wide, and he realizes that this is serious business. He takes his patrol plus Gracie and has her guide them to where the murders had happened. Before he sets out, though, he leaves Timmy and Tyler J. with shotguns to defend the camp.

The patrol rushes through the orange trees, coming upon the bloody bodies of the three axe victims.

“Grace! Describe more of what happened!” Levi commands her sister, checking the bodies with Gunner. She explains how Kay seemed to be controlled by some kind of strange being and how her movements were so quick and ruthless.

“This must be an act by the figure that took Caleb and Cody! This thing isn’t going to be something we can easily defeat, especially since it has taken over Kay!” Josh urgently tells Levi and Gracie, the memory of the glowing figure taking Caleb and Cody being brought back up. Levi tells the two others to help him take the bodies back to camp.

As Gracie takes another look at her friends that Kay had killed, she tells Levi and Josh some critical information. “I didn’t escape her. Kay, or the spirit or whatever, actually spared me! From what I heard, the spirit said that I am useful to him.” A fearful expression forms on Josh’s face, which Levi notices.

“What is it, Josh?”

“I don’t like the implications of this.”

Levi asks him to explain, knowing that whatever Josh has on his mind could be critical information.

“From what Grace has explained, this spirit is physically dangerous and possessed Kay and has also said that Grace is useful to him, meaning the spirit could easily take over her and cause who-knows-what kind of pain onto us.” Gracie and Levi look towards Josh, realizing he could very well be right. They don’t like what may happen in due time.

The patrol takes the bodies back to the camp, where everyone can see the carnage that had been let loose. Levi finds a large orange rock to stand on and speaks.

“Everyone! For all of the morons who think there are no spirits around here, observe. Nate, Steven, and Aurelia all fell from a spirit controlling Kay. This is serious stuff!” People gasp at the sight of their dead friends and pay attention to Levi. Some get close enough to the bodies to see the large gashes in their bodies.

The three fallen are buried. No one manages to sleep that night.

During the next three days, Levi and his squad take over the camp and vigorously patrol around it, ready to defend their friends. But whilst they offer protection, they also instill tough labor amongst everyone in order to get the camp going along. Tensions rise significantly in the midst of a milieu of fear.

In order to be allowed to even go close to outside the camp to gather supplies, advanced notice has to be given to Levi himself and be approved in a process where he takes time to weigh the risks and benefits of going near the edges of camp in order to fulfill a task. Many requests are denied, but only after much time has passed when Levi has had time to think about it, which wastes a lot of valuable time for the people who had requested even the simplest of things. Such makes the development of the camp seemingly safe from threats, albeit rigorous, inefficient, and inconvenient.

“This is not working,” Nathaniel tells Tyler S. and Jacob as they work on making shelter from skimpy supplies. They nod in agreement.

“We should do something about this,” Jacob insists, starting to think of some ideas. “We’ll come up with a plan, and one night, we’ll strike.” He explains the rest of his ideas and the specific details of what’s going to happen so that they can be free from the ineffective camp construction.

The group gathers around a secluded patch of sand two days later, finishing up the last pieces to their plan. Jacob draws some designs in the sand.

“Alright, to recap, Tyler, you will get my cat Fudge to be a distraction to Gunner away from Levi’s hut. As Levi is patrolling around the camp, he’ll come back to see Gunner investigating what Fudge is up to on the other side of camp. At that point, Nathaniel, you’ll surprise attack Timmy who will just have had his shift changed to guarding Levi’s hut.

“With the element of surprise, you’ll do whatever to subdue Timmy and grab his shotgun. Then from the trees, I’ll come with you into the hut, and we’ll snag all of Levi’s guns and ammo he has stored in there. With good enough timing, Tyler will cut through some trees to meet us in the spot in the jungle where we had discussed, and we’ll book it through. We’ll find a better place to make camp, away from Levi’s harsh conditions.” Nathaniel and Tyler nod, understanding what they will do.

The group thinks they’re in a hidden-enough location by camp to not be heard, but they’re wrong.

“I want in on the plan,” someone tells them from behind. The group looks back, seeing Kylie standing to their backs.

“Where’d you come from?” Tyler asks her, wondering how she found them. Instead of Kylie answering, another person walks up to the group from behind a tree.

“I also want in,” Sophie says. Nathaniel stands up from the patch of orange sand.

“Okay, now hold on. None of you better tell anyone else about this—”

“We also want in.” Clara and Zoë move past another tree and reveal that they had also been eavesdropping. Nathaniel’s mouth drops to the ground.

“All you have been eavesdropping on our plan?” he asks them, laughing nervously. Sophie nods.

“Yep. And we all want in on this glorious plan.”

Nathaniel, Tyler and Jacob all turn to each other. They all realize that if the others all know about their plan, they may as well team up with them.

“Okay, as you guys have heard—” Jacob starts to tell them, but Clara jumps in.

“We attack at night!”

“Attack…” Jacob says. “Attack. Yes, we’ll attack at night and make a new camp where we aren’t subject to unproductive rules.”

With the new group, the plan is redeveloped. The intricacy of the operation is enhanced with more people to work on different roles. Before the group heads back to camp, Jacob is about to ask Sophie and Clara a question regarding their sister and if she too will want in on the plan but remembers that she hasn’t even been seen since the crash.

The new group returns to the center of camp, although making sure to not all go back at the same time to avoid suspicion by Brennan, who has been hired by Levi to be a prober.

“If you guys don’t get back to work, there will be punishment from Levi,” he tells Nathaniel and Tyler when they come to the campfire.

“What kind of punishment?” Tyler asks, doubting the validity of such. Brennan makes a whacking motion with his hand, hitting Nathaniel.

“Severe punishment.” Nathaniel winces from the strike.

“Okay, whatever. When do we get our rations?”

Brennan tells them in a few hours.

Because of Levi’s strict rules regarding going near the outskirts of the camp, food hauls are little, even though there are plenty of fruit trees around the entirety of the island, such as those of coconuts, spiked mangos, translucent plums, and glowing cherries. The rations for everyone could very well be more plentiful than they actually are.

Everyone gets back to work around the camp, with Brennan overseeing the further construction. About an hour later, he finds Emma and asks her a few questions.

“I realize that morale around camp is kinda low nowadays, and I’m thinking that some people are against Levi. I’m asking you what you know about any of that,” Brennan asks Emma, counting some glowing cherries in a sack pouch he has.

“I don’t know much about who’s against who,” she replies. Brennan takes a few glowing cherries out of the pouch.

“Perhaps some of these will sweeten the deal.”

Emma looks at the glowing cherries and then at Brennan.

“Are you trying to bribe me?”

Brennan shakes his head. “It’s not a bribe, it’s just a bit of friendly encouragement.”

Emma shrugs. “Okay, what I know is that some people are very upset with Levi’s authority, but I’m trusting that he has a plan to find my sister and rid her of the evil spirit,” she admits. Brennan hands her a few glowing cherries.

“Now, who are these people who are very upset at Levi?” Brennan further probes Emma, but she shakes her head. “Figure it out for yourself.”

…

“Alright, as we discussed,” Jacob speaks to the group during the night in a spot decently hidden from the view of Levi and his troopers. He looks towards Kylie and laughs with a smile on his face.

“And as we re-discussed because of y’all being eavesdroppers, Tyler and Kylie will lead Fudge to distract Gunner, which in turn will distract Levi. Then as Timmy is switching shifts by Levi’s hut, Nathaniel, Clara and her dog Macy will take out Timmy. Then Sophie, Zoë, and I will come in and help snag Levi’s gun bag. Afterwards, we run to the spot and escape.” Everyone nods, ready for action and ready to end tyranny.

Clara wants to draw a smiley face on her hand and everyone else’s to seal the alliance but doesn’t have a marker. Jacob pulls out a sharpie and tosses it to Clara.

“I always have a sharpie in my pocket.” Clara’s able to draw smiley faces on everyone, and the whole group does a phenomenally cool smiley-bump kind of thing.

The plan starts off smoothly, with Tyler and Kylie setting Fudge loose by Gunner when he’s patrolling the camp like a good authoritarian doggo, and he chases after the cat. Just as predicted, Fudge scampers off in unpredictable zigzags, making a big ruckus. Gunner tries to capture him but can’t. Levi hears the sound of Gunner’s barking and rushes over to the loyal pooch.

“What’s up, boy?” he asks Gunner, quickly noticing Fudge chaotically rushing around the area.

“It’s just a cat, boyo,” Levi assures him. He takes him by the chest and lightly pushes him back, telling the muscular dog that Fudge isn’t a threat. “Get back to your patrol,” Levi tells him, finalizing the interaction. He quickly travels back to his designated patrolling spot to pick up on lost time, but the small chunk of time that he did lose was enough for the group to sabotage Timmy.

“Just a few more minutes,” Nathaniel whispers to Clara from behind some orange foliage before the others had let Fudge run around. They keep Macy from prematurely running by Levi’s hut, where Timmy is switching shifts with Tyler J., armed with a sawed-off shotgun and a pump-action shotgun, respectively. While hiding, Nathaniel and Clara wait patiently for Tyler to leave.

“I better, well, get going with my new, my new patrol,” Tyler stammers after a few more seconds pass. Once he patrols a bit away from Timmy, Nathaniel and Clara hear Gunner riled up due to chasing Fudge at just the right time and launch their attack.

“Let’s go!” Nathaniel whispers/laughs to Clara as quietly as he can whilst still getting into an attacking-frenzy. They take Macy and spring into action, sprinting towards Timmy. With the element of surprise and their blazing speeds, the squad is able to overwhelm him. Nathaniel leaps towards him and takes him in a chokehold. Timmy tries to resist, but he can’t do so without using his hands, so he lets go of his sawed-off shotgun and uses his hands to try and free himself from Nathaniel’s grasp. But this was Timmy’s mistake.

Clara picks up the shotgun from the orange dirt whilst Macy bites onto Timmy’s leg with a grip stronger than the grip you have when you’re doing dumbbell bench and you have the dumbbells raised above your body and you most certainly do not want to let go of those dumbbells because if you do then your face would be crushed.

Clara aims the shotgun at Timmy’s face, at just the right angle so that he can see the shotgun in his peripheral vision. He stops struggling, and Nathaniel does a martial-arts kind of move on him and slams him into the orange ground. Nathaniel makes it a combo move by striking Timmy’s kneecaps, sending pain through his system. Now, the squad invades Levi’s hut, searching for his gun bag.

Macy finds and leaps onto the bag, biting the leathery straps. Nathaniel and Clara open it up, finding numerous firearms, magazines, and a lot of ammunition. Once they find it, Nathaniel makes a bird call, which signals to everyone else to come and help gather the many guns. Sophie, Zoë, and Jacob rush into the hut, past the injured Timmy, and quickly help gather as many of the goods as they can carry.

The group doesn’t have much time, so they rush out the hut, sloppily leaving a bunch of supplies behind. All of them sprint to the jungle. Levi and Tyler J. have started running towards them, gaining on them by the second. To gain more speed, Clara hops on Macy with her sawed-off shotgun she took from Timmy, becoming a formidable cavalry. The group runs by Brennan, who tries to stop them, but Clara, riding Macy, rushes by him and blasts him with her shotgun. She utterly obliterates Brennan’s leg.

“YESSSSS!!!!!” Clara yells, adrenaline filling her system.

The group thinks they’re about to be in the clear, but Levi, from a decent distance away, gets out his dragunov sniper rifle. He steadies his position, aims at the group patiently, and in a spot-on Russian accent, says: “The Doomsday Prepper strikes tonight, comrades.” Levi fires off his shots.

Tyler is struck just before everyone manages to make it to the cover of the orange jungle. The rest of the group hear the sniper fire and turn back to see Tyler bleeding on the ground. Zoë is the first to react. She drops the gun and ammo she had been carrying and helps Tyler up, and they go towards cover as fast as they can, despite Tyler’s severe gun wound being to his leg. However, whilst Zoë helps him, Levi manages to fire multiple rounds through her side. The rest of the group helps them along, and they manage to all make it to cover without any of them being hit additional times.

The group tries to move through the jungle as fast as they can, but Zoë and Tyler have a hard time keeping up, even with the assistance of some of the others. The group knows that Levi won’t try to follow them for the time being because he’d be outnumbered and because they have the advantage of initial cover and more firepower, so they gladly take that advantage to get some extra time and distance away from him.

Back at the original camp, Levi checks what had happened at his hut after the group traversed through the jungle for a while. He takes a glance at the blood-soaked moon, then looks at Timmy on the sandy-dirt ground. He realizes that something’s off about the moon.

Upon a second look, Levi realizes that there’s a hole in the moon and that its shape is nothing like the moon he knows. He helps Timmy get up onto his feet and tells him about his findings.

“Tim, we got ambushed, and there’s also somethin’ wrong with that moon.”

Timmy takes a look for himself at the red moon.

“Well, it’s a torus,” Timmy concludes, analyzing the intricate shape of the moon.

“A torus? A donut.”

“Which is in the shape of a torus.” Timmy makes some hand motions to represent the shape.

“Okay, besides the point. This means that there’s something wrong with this place,” Levi explains to Timmy, who isn’t fazed by the remark.

“Yeah, I know,” he speaks nonchalantly. “This planet isn’t Earth.”

Levi looks towards Timmy. “And you knew that for how long?”

“Since…we got here. I thought it was obvious, with the sky being neon green during the day and all of that,” he tells Levi, who’s a bit taken aback.

“I thought I was just seeing things, because no one was saying a word about the strange colors and strangeness of this island,” Levi says, articulating the last part in a slightly miffed tone of voice. “So, where is this place, then?”

Timmy looks at Levi seriously as he speaks the words.

“I’m sorry to say this, but I believe it’s a large possibility that where we’re at now isn’t a question about where but about what.”

“Explain please.”

“It could very well be that all the things around here are made out of a type of dark matter that doesn’t interact in any way with regular matter such as what we know of Earth. In other words, the spirit thing caused us to shift from being able to interact with Earth and all of that stuff to us only being able to interact with the stuff of this world. We could easily be by the surface of Earth, but just being made of the wrong kind of matter.”

Levi nods a few times along the way, processing the information.

“I’ll give it to you; that made enough sense,” he admits, and continues, “but that just makes this situation more disappointing. We’re all probably gonna end up killing each other until everyone is gone, since we have no escape,” Levi points out to Timmy.

“But there can be a way to get off this island and back to our home planet Earth,” Timmy optimistically tells Levi. “Are you open to unorthodox strategies for getting out of this place?”

Levi looks towards Timmy as he speaks, and in his Russian accent, says: “Let’s hear what you got, Tim.”