They all stood in a circle. It was dark outside, and nothing moved. All the hustle and bustle of London past had disappeared, replaced with an eerie silence. A lone car sped up the street, completely ignoring the speed limit.

Rules mean nothing right now.

That filled him with a sense of fear, what rules would there be after they teleported. The TV was still repeating the same message.

“All British citizens select the number 4 from your status screens.”

Dad’s hands briefly left Kyrie’s shoulder as he reached for the remote to switch the screen off.

Mum brought their hands together, “Dear God. Please protect this family. Keep us safe through everything we will go through. Help these boys to be happy, kind, lovely people and keep them safe from anything that might want to hurt them. Please we pray. In the name of the father. . .” Even Jalen, the passionately self-proclaimed atheist was praying. Dad was crying, and, though he didn’t want to admit it, so was Kyrie.

After we teleport, will I ever see my family again.

Mum clapped her hands together, “Okay Luc you go first, so the kids will have someone on the other side. Remember. Nine, eight, six, eight, eight.”

“Nine, eight, six, eight, eight,” Dad repeated. And in a flash, he was gone.

Damian let out a soft moan, his gangly older brother was not the bravest soul and he fervently disliked confrontation, “It’s real. Oh God, it’s real.” Kyrie was thinking the exact same thing.

“Pull yourself together Damian,” Mum snapped then realising her tone, more softly, “You’re the eldest. Be strong. Nine, eight, six, eight, eight. Dad’s waiting for you on the other side.”

Damian let out a weak smile, putting on a brave face, “Nine, eight, six, eight, eight.” And he was gone too.

Kyrie started breathing heavily and Mum came over and put a hand around him.

“Okay you next Kyrie. Remember, do not panic. All your family is already there. Now repeat after me. Nine, eight, six, eight, eight.”

He took a deep breath.

Here goes nothing.

“Nine, eight, six, eight, eight.” Kyrie repeated pulling up the blue status screen with his mind and mentally filling it in. How did this arcane technology work. Had the aliens managed to infect all humans with some kind of augmented reality system. But what was their goal, and where were they, there were no reports of spaceships orbiting Earth. A shiver ran up his spine and ice filled his veins. Who knew what destiny had in store for him.

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Then he was gone. Falling, teleporting, moving but not moving.

And all at once he materialised. His knees were weak after the sensation, and he fell to the ground. Kyrie felt jumbled up inside, nauseous, and dizzy.

Then hands on his back and smiling faces. Dad and Damian pulling him into a hug and behind them his aunts and uncle and his cousins ranging through all sorts of ages.

“We made it,” his dad was saying, crying, “We made it, we’re all here. Your mother is a logistical genius.”

Kyrie wanted to cry too, but he was too disorientated and getting pulled around by various family members.

A minute later Jalen appeared, then finally his mum. He heaved a sigh of relief, joyful that they had all made it. There must have been around 70 of them. Five sets of grandparents, 10 couples (aunts, uncles, and his parents), around ten single men and women (older cousins and younger uncles or aunts), and around 30 kids from Kyrie’s age to as young as new-borns.

Having observed his extended family, he finally looked around to get to grips with this so-called “teleportation base”. And he fell to his knees again his heart racing. The platform was reminiscent of a cloud when you flew over it on airplane. Ephemeral, wispy and in constant movement. From a plane however it might have looked beautiful, standing on top of it was a terrifying experience.

It looks as if I could drop right through.

But drop where?

Surrounding them was the infinite magnitude of space, all-encompassing. Looking up he realised the only light available was from the millions of twinkling stars on the galactic horizon. But it was below the cloud he saw the true beauty.

Earth, the home world. The planet that had sustained life for millions of years. Stretched out with its lapis seas, emerald plains, and golden savannahs. A wondrous, perfect marble lost from its thread bag in the endless sea of space.

“Beautiful isn’t it,” Uncle Kai had walked up behind him, grinning, still in his aviator sunglasses and chic black suit, “24 hours ago I was trading stocks, now I’m looking down at the earth from some kind of space elevator. This life. You really can’t predict it,” He checked his gold-chased watch, “Fifteen minutes until the 24 hours is up, I’m going to say hello to the other families before this timer runs out. Make some good first impressions you know.”

Kyrie nodded, smiling back, and surveying the area he realised they weren’t the only family there. There were twelve other large family groups with a couple smaller ones interspersed. It was quite a varied bunch with people of all colours, shapes and sizes. Though they had all clearly gone through something similar and were keeping their distance.

“How do you know if they even speak English though?”

Kai chuckled, “Good point. But almost anyone understands what ‘hello’ means right.”

Kyrie watched as Kai approached each group in turn and, after a few minutes with each, their faces brightened considerably. Kai was a natural at cheering people up and seemed to have endless charisma.

Kyrie smiled and watched in silence. As the timer ran down people began to congregate. The words of the system had piqued their curiosity. He saw family members staring into the distance.

Checking status screens, he realised, we’ll probably have to get used to that.

1:20 remaining

“What do your think’s going to happen,” Jalen asked leaning on him.

“I don’t know,” Kyrie grunted staring at his status screen, “Maybe it will explode.”

0:24 seconds remaining.

And Kyrie watched in silence as his home world blew up.