“Hi, Gwen,” I say, looking down at the sickly woman lying on the makeshift bed before me.

She looks up at me wearily, her eyes coming into focus. “Cobb?” she says, squinting. She’s sweating, and covered in blankets.

“Yep,” I say. “Long time no see,” I say, coughing.

Bert, who’s built like an ox, is helping me stand.

“I’m so sorry,” says Gwen. I was always so cruel to you. You were just such an a—”

Jim shushes her, and takes her hand in his own. “He’s here to send us to paradise,” he says, gently. “We’ll be able to nurse you back to health there, hun. Just hold on a little longer. He lets go of her hand, and she closes her eyes.

The trek here was brutal, but I made it. Angelica and Bert elected to help escort me down the stairs, maneuver me into Jim’s electric speedboat—yes, a speedboat—and help me climb a few of the stairs to the top levels of the Elysium. Jim had managed to get one of the private upper floor elevator

working so that took us the rest of the way up, thank the progenitors.

“Let me walk you through this one more time,” says Jim, escorting me to the center of that room. The whole place reminds me of the server room I stumbled upon during my first attempt to escape Dugway. Save for the domed ceiling and small living quarters over there. There’s a flourishing hydroponic garden in the corner colored, I notice, jammed in between all the crystals and machines.

“After we’re gone, all you have to do is stand here on this platform—recognize this?—and place your hand in these two crystals,” says Jim. “I’ve already programmed everything for you. You just have too …” he pauses, searching for the words.

“To sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride?” I offer.

He smiles at me, nods. Then he looks around at the culmination of his life’s work, puts his hands on his hips. Then he sucks in a deep breath, and lets it out slowly. “Well, okay then,” he says.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

“Okay,” I say, wincing as Bert directs me back to Gwen.

I watch Jim pick up Gwen’s hand, then offer his own to me. I pick up Gwen’s other hand making a circle of handholding. Bert steps back to join Angelica.

“Any last words?” I say.

Jim snorts. He’s about to say something flat and sarcastic, I can tell by the look on his face, but he doesn’t get the chance because in the next moment, he’s gone. His tracking device clunks to the floor and Gwen’s sheets go flat, reminiscent of Yoda transcending in Return of the Jedi.

I let out a sigh and brace myself on the edge of Gwen’s bed. Then I turn to face the two cannibalism.

“Well?” I say. “You two ready?”

They both walk up to me, slowly. They look nervous. They look at each other, then back at me and nod in unison.

“Just promise me one thing, okay?” I say.

“What?” says Bert.

“Don’t eat anyone in Paradise?”

Angelica scoffs at that, and gives me a slightly hurt look.

“Okay, okay,” I say, give me your hands.

Each of them offer me their hands and I send them both with zero fanfare. And just like that, I’m alone again in the world.

I take a moment to consider my life and every step that brought me here. It’s an overwhelming sensation, and I’m too exhausted for something as emotionally weighty as that at the moment. So I limp over to the huge windows and peer out over the vast ruins of the Vegas skyline instead. It’s beautiful, in a weird kind of way. No, who am I kidding, it’s as pretty as a clogged toilet on New Year’s Eve. And I’m glad to be rid of it.

“God,” I say, “if you’re real, please let this work.”

I push myself away from the window, a Herculean effort given my current condition, and stumble my way back to the center of the room. The two crystals on top of the waist high pillars are softly glowing.

I take a deep breath and place my hands on them, just as Jim instructed. “Here goes nothing.” I close my eyes and … nothing.

I open them, look around. Did I miss something? I squeeze the crystals, hoping that might help.

Still nothing.

“Um …”

I let out a nervous chuckle.

I let go, then grab them again, leaning into them this time.

“Huh …”

Well, maybe I am doomed to remain on this planet forever after all, forbidden to enter the promised land just like Moses.

I’m about to accept that notion as my ultimate fate, when I start to hear a hum. I look behind me. Something is running back there. I feel a pinch at my fingertips. The crystals are turning white now. Tendrils of liquid light start to emanate from them, wrapping around my wrists. Then the room begins to spin. Faster and faster and faster until the room is gone, and all I see is white around me.

“God,” I say out loud, “You really have a sick sense of humor, you know that right?”

The world stops spinning, the crystals in my grips disappear, and a moment later, as purple trees start to come into view, I get the strangest sensation that I’m not in Kansas anymore.