As it turned out, Kwan wasn’t from Earth. He hailed from a world called Azorhia. He told Nina and Kirk that a deadly plague ravaged his homeworld, killing millions of people all around the globe. Nobody knew where the plague originated from or how to stop it.

He’d found himself in his world a few weeks ago. This strange place was just as alien to him as it was to Nina and Kirk. Just like the two of them, he’d woken up in a cave, having some general memories about his homeworld but unable to remember anything about himself. He’d been dressed in fine clothes that only rich people could afford. He also knew for sure that he wasn’t afflicted by the plague from his homeworld, having none of the symptoms. All of this indicated that his family must have been quite rich, and they most likely either had lived in some isolated area or had been able to distance themselves from the general public to avoid any contact with potential disease carriers. He survived in the alien forest all by himself for a few days before meeting Michael. They decided to team up, and since then they’d faced the dangers of this world together.

Michael already knew all of this, so he silently listened to Kwan telling Nina and Kirk his story. Now that Nina knew that Kwan was from a different world, she finally realized what struck her as odd about his voice. She now understood why his voice had sounded funny to her when she heard him talk for the first time. The reason for that was that Kwan was speaking a foreign language. However, Nina perfectly understood everything he was saying as if correlative English subtitles were popping up inside her mind.

When Kwan finished, it was Michael’s turn to tell them about himself. Only there wasn’t much he could tell them. Just like Nina and Kirk, he hailed from Earth, but sure enough, he didn’t have any memories about himself. He told them that he’d awakened in a cave a few weeks ago, dressed in a business suit. He added that in one of the pockets he found a wallet with an ID, which revealed his name.

“In the wallet, I also found a picture,” Michael added as he reached into his pants pocket. He was no longer dressed in the business suit in which he’d been teleported to this world. Such clothes weren’t of much use in this place. Instead, he now wore a leather armor set, which he’d found in a cave a few days before.

Michael took out a photograph and showed it to his new friends. Nina leaned forward for a better look. In the picture were Michael, a dark-haired woman who appeared to be about the same age as him, and two young girls standing between them, one of them about Nina’s age, the other one a few years younger, probably in her late teens.

“It must be your family,” Kirk said.

“Yeah,” Michael replied as he glanced at the picture in his hand.

All of the people in the picture were laughing happily as if they’d heard a joke or something funny had happened just before the picture was taken.

“Looks like you have a lovely family.”

“You know what sucks, though?” Michael said grimly. “I don't remember them. I have no recollection of my family at all. I look at the picture and see three strangers with me.”

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“You may not remember them, but they are still your family,” Kirk said, trying to calm him.

Michael nodded. “Yeah.”

Nina gave him a sympathetic look. “And they are safe at home, and not here, in this scary place.”

“But you can’t know that for sure, though, can you?” Michael responded a bit harshly. “They might’ve been teleported here as well. They might be wandering in some other parts of this world at this moment while we talk.”

Nina was caught off guard by his last words. Michael could be right. Since they had no memories about themselves, they had no idea what had happened when they were suddenly plucked from Earth and brought to this world. Had they just disappeared into thin air in front of other people around them? Or had the people who were next to them at that moment been taken along?

They didn’t know anything for sure, and everything they assumed was just guesswork. Nina went silent because she didn’t know what else to say. She wanted to comfort Michael but was afraid to say something inappropriate and unintentionally add to his worry about his family.

“I think you may be right,” Michael said. “At least I hope so. Whatever has brought us here probably chooses people at random. I don’t think it teleports whole families to this world.”

“Yeah,” Kirk said. “If that was the case, your family would most likely have materialized in the same cave with you. There wouldn’t have been much sense to take your whole family from Earth only to teleport you all to different parts of this world.”

Michael nodded.

But we can’t know that for certain, Nina thought. Whoever brought us here may not think the way we do. We don’t know for what reason we were teleported here. We don’t know anything for sure at all.

But she didn’t voice her thoughts. There was no reason to worry Michael further. Nina suddenly realized she was glad she didn’t remember anything about herself. She most likely had parents, maybe a boyfriend too, but not knowing about it made it easier to survive in this world. With her head devoid of any memories about her past life, she could focus solely on surviving in this dangerous world.

“I only wish I could get in touch with my family to tell them that I’m fine,” Michael said. “They are probably worried sick about me.”

They went silent for some time after that. Then Nina and Kirk said a couple of words about themselves. When Nina found herself in this world, she’d been dressed only in a nightgown and hadn’t had any personal belongings on her. It was the same with Kirk. He’d worn something like workout clothes when he woke up in a cave. His pockets had been empty, and the only thing he’d managed to remember about himself was his name. So unlike Michael, they didn’t know anything about their families and couldn’t tell much about themselves. Instead, they told Kwan and Michael how Kirk had saved Nina’s life on the first day of her appearance in this world and how they’d been surviving together since then.

After that, Kirk suggested they all team up.

“We should stick together, guys,” he said. “You told us that you’d been attacked by some gang at night, right?”

“Yep,” Kwan nodded. “A bunch of brutes who were bossed around by a naked sorceress jumped us.”

“And they are still somewhere out there,” Kirk continued. “So we should all stay together. This way, we’ll have better chances of defeating them if they show up again and attack us. There’s safety in numbers, right?”

Everybody agreed with him.