The farmhouse was beautiful. It was made from wood panels painted a lovely shade of lavender. Each of its many windows had a planter bucket filled to the brim with beautiful red and orange flowers. The house had a front porch with several benches and even a porch swing. It was the first familiar-looking thing he'd seen all day. Or at least it would have been, had it not been for the strange lanterns covering almost every inch of it.

The lanterns were made from metal and glass. They were completely out of style for the farmhouse. They looked like something from the 1800s. Mark had seen old lighting fixtures like that in France during the war. He didn't understand why they were here, completely surrounding a farmhouse.

“What's with the lanterns?” Mark asked.

“Those are the kerosene lanterns that we light when night comes. We have to turn them on every night. We can never forget,” Jennifer said.

“What happens if you forget?” Mark asked.

“Then what lives in the corn comes for us. It's something that's best avoided. Trust me.”

Jennifer turned to him when they reached the porch.

“You should stay here for a second. I'm going to go get the others. Let them have time to think before they meet you. It's going to be fine; they're going to love you. They may just be a bit untrusting at first.”

With that, she entered the farmhouse and left him alone among the strange lanterns and cornfields.

***

Jennifer returned sometime later with a group of three people: two men and a woman. They all studied Mark with uncertainty in their eyes.

“You tested him. Made him cut himself?” A tall man with blonde hair asked.

“Of course I tested him. Mark, show them your hand,” Jennifer said.

Mark lifted his hand so the others could see the open cut. That seemed to calm them down.

"Okay, I think introductions are in order. Everybody, this is Mark. He's from World War II, 1944, to be specific. Let's try to avoid a culture shock, okay? Mark, this is Terry,” She said with a gesture to the tall blonde man, ”He was the first of us here and is the closest thing to a leader we have.

Terry was dressed in a button-up checkerboard collared shirt. He wore a pair of denim pants that had more than a few holes.

“And this is Marco. He's a bit of a softy,” Jennifer said as she gestured to the other man.

The man called Marco was dressed strangely compared to Jennifer and Terry. He wore an odd pair of pants made from a black material Mark had never seen before. His shirt was a loose pullover that had some kind of strange cartoon design on the front. He was slightly overweight, but not in a way that was off-putting. He had a friendly smile hidden beneath the thick black beard. He gave Mark a wave. Mark returned it.

“And last but not least, this is Mia.” Jennifer said this with a gesture to the second girl.

Mia wore a brightly colored shirt that left her belly button uncovered. Her pants, if you could even call them that, were so short that they might as well have been undergarments. Her hair seemed to be dyed red and fell to her shoulders. All of them together made a very unusual group.

The one called Terry took a step forward and held out his hand for Mark. Mark shook it. Terry had a firm grip. He'd done some kind of manual labor in his life. Anyone who had worked like that in their life could always tell when someone else had as well.

“I didn't think we'd ever have someone come here again. It's been a long time. More than twenty-five years now. It's good to meet you, Mark,” Terry said.

"Likewise, I suppose,” Mark said.

"Well, you caught us at an awkward time. The reset is about to happen. We have things we have to do,” Terry explained.

“What's the reset?” Mark asked.

“It's when things that have been moved from their original positions here disappear and reappear where they came from. It happens to everything here at 12:01 every day,” Marco answered.

“Wait? If everything you leave out vanishes, what about the lanterns? Jennifer said you have to leave them out or we'd die,” Mark asked.

“Clever question to ask. You picked up on that fast. I can already tell you're smart. To answer your question, we're lucky because the reset takes place in the light. So, we take the lamps in right before 12:00 PM and store them in the cellar until the reset. After that, we bring them back out in time to get them lit before dark. It's a little tedious, but it keeps us alive,” Terry said.

“They don't vanish in the cellar?” Mark asked.

“Anything under the ground doesn't get reset. I don't know why, but that's just how it works,” Marco said.

“I still don't understand. How does this reset happen?” Mark asked.

“Maybe a demonstration would help. Why don't you help us carry the lamps inside? It's almost time for the reset, and we'll use all the help we can get,” Terry said.

Mark nodded.

“Alright, where do you want me to put them?” He asked.

“They always go in the storm cellar. Just follow us.”

Mark and the others spent about ten minutes picking up all the lanterns and moving them into the basement. The basement was almost completely filled with lanterns. It looked as if they had enough extra lamps to replace all the ones they left out, just in case. If it really was so important that they left them out, he supposed that was smart. When they were done, Terry led Mark into the farmhouse.

“Pick any object in the room. Honestly, it can be anything anything. Whatever you'd like.”

“For what?” Mark asked.

“To see the reset, just pick an item. It won't matter. It's going to go back wherever you put it anyway,” Terry said.

Mark looked around the room, and eventually his eyes settled on a little porcelain statue of a chicken. He walked over and picked up the porcelain chicken statue.

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

“Does this work?” He asked.

“That's perfect,” Jennifer answered.

They had him take it outside and set it on the ground. Now, Mark was more confused than ever. They all sat down around him and simply stared at the chicken. Mark was still unsure of what was going on but he joined them anyway. Any bystander watching would have found the situation extremely funny. That fact seemed lost on everyone involved. Mark was too in bewildered to find the situation amusing.

“it should be any moment now, Mark. Keep your eyes on the chicken,” Jennifer said.

Mark did what she said and stared at the chicken. After about thirty more seconds, the chicken statue suddenly vanished into thin air. It was immediate just like that. One second, it was there, and the next, it was gone.

“What? How is that possible?” Mark asked.

“That's the reset. The chicken will be back where you took it. Sitting on the counter,” the one who was called Marco said.

Mark stood and walked into the house. Just as they had told him, the chicken was back where he'd first picked it up. It was even in the exact same position. It was completely bizarre.

“It's like magic,” Mark said.

“Magic is honestly one of the more reasonable guesses we have. It's got to be supernatural, right? That's what I think,” Jennifer said.

“Are you sure this place isn't hell?” Mark asked.

“Pretty sure,” Terry said, “I've been here a long time, and I haven't seen any brimstone or demons.”

"How long have you been here?" Mark asked.

He wasn't sure he wanted the answer to that question. Still, he had to find out sooner or later just what he was in for.

“That's the thing, Mark,” Jennifer said, “You're from 1944. Technically, you're the oldest one here. Terry's from 1952, I'm from 2004, Marco is from 2014, and Mia is from 1993.”

***

“What the fuck? How's that possible?” Grace asked.

“It shouldn't be. That's one of the things I didn't want you all to know. Each of you was from around the same time period. You all made assumptions. I didn't want to ruin your hope. I know for a fact that time here doesn't pass linearly. The truth is, I don't know what year it is outside those walls.

If we do escape, I don't know what the world will be like when we get there. It scares me," Mark said.

“I get it. I understand why you never told us. This changes things, Mark. It changes everything. How could they have been taken from 2010 fifty years ago? Christ, that's three years after Henry was taken.”

“I don't know. One of the first things they told me when I first arrived was that nothing in paradise makes sense. They were right. It doesn't change anything. Our goal is still the same. We have to get out,” Mark said.

“Tell me the rest. Tell me how they died. I need to know,” Grace demanded.

“I'm getting there. I have to set the stage first. You'll need the context it'll give you to understand what happened next,” Mark said.

***

The others had spent the rest of the afternoon explaining the rules of what they called Nowhere. They'd told him about how each of them had a monster and a section that was their own. Finally, Jennifer had explained the rules for surviving in Nowhere.

“There are only five rules to living in Nowhere. Don't worry; they're pretty easy to follow. The first is: don't go near the cornfields without a fire. This applies to the lanterns, too. They have to be lit every night. The second is similar to the first. Don't follow any fake people into the cornfield, even during the day. If you think someone is fake, make them cut themselves. If they bleed blue, they're not real. You'll see your loved ones wandering out of the corn. Believe me when I say it's not really them. I've fallen for it once before, when I was new. The third rule is pretty simple. If you see a man in a mask, don't talk to him. The last two rules are the most important. Never, and I mean never, enter Hangman's Swamp alone. That's the big one. The monster there won't just kill you. It'll kill the rest of us too if you let it. It can only do that if you let it. And whatever you do, don't go near the wall. You must have seen it on your way over. It's big and purple. It's pretty hard to miss. If you go near it, the monsters come, and they change. Trust me, you don't want to find out how. Follow those rules, and you're going to fit in great.” Jennifer said with a friendly smile.

***

That night, after lighting the kerosene lanterns, they gathered around an unusual-looking television and ate dinner. It was the best thing Mark had tasted in months. He had been eating nothing but K-Rations for as long as he could remember. Having real food again would have made him weep if the others weren't there.

The incredible nature of the evening was far from over. When they turned on the TV, Mark couldn't believe his eyes. It was in color. He could see that the dress worn by the actress on screen was red. He'd never seen anything like it.

“It's in color,” Mark said in wonder as he watched the TV.

“Holy shit, he is old,” Mia said, “He's like a fossil.”

“More like a man out of time. He's like Captain America,” Marco said.

“You would reference Captain America, you nerd,” Mia said.

“Who's Captain America?” Mark asked.

“He's a comic character. A superhero, you know. Not like one of those real ones in New York. Anyway, he's a World War II soldier who fought Hitler and the Nazis with super strength. Then he gets frozen in ice until the modern age. He fights bad guys.”

“He killed Hitler?” Mark asked.

“No, erm, no. Hitler did that himself. Captain America isn't real anyway. Just a character,” Marco corrected.

“Right… I think I get it.”

This was one of Mark's famous lies. The truth was, he had no idea what any of these people were talking about. All he cared about was the fascinating color TV. He watched people drive cars that were different than anything he'd ever imagined. He saw airplanes the size of buildings flying without a problem. Perhaps most incredibly, scientists on the TV were using massive rooms filled with machinery they called a computer. It let them do anything they could imagine. Mark had never seen anything like it.

By the time the movie was over, Mark was flabbergasted. It was unlike anything he'd imagined. He thought there'd be more flying cars and spaceships, but there were things he'd never even considered.

“That's what the future looks like?” He asked.

“That? No, that's the '80s.” Mia said, "Well, I guess it is the future for you. I keep forgetting your old.”

“1980,” Mark wondered to himself, “the war! What happened in the war? Did we win?”

It was a question he hadn't thought to ask yet. That actually surprised him. It should have been one of the first things on his mind. After all, he and his men had died fighting that war.

“We won. The Nazis don't exist anymore,” Marco said, “They nuked New York in 1944, of course, but we won in the end.”

“What's nuked?” Mark asked, more confused than he was before.

“Oh yeah. It's kind of hard to explain the future. A nuke is like a really big bomb. Hitler's scientists worked it out before he died. They thought that it would win the war. They were wrong, but New York paid the price,” Marco explained.

Mark laughed out loud. He couldn't help it.

“Private Ray was right after all. That poor bastard didn't even get to live to see it,” Mark said.

Mark felt the somberness creep back into his heart. It was a mistake to think of his men. The ones he had failed. The ones he had let die. He must have let it show on his face because all the others in the room grimaced too.

“Your friend?” Jennifer asked.

“Yes. One of the privates serving under me. He was in the squad I lead. They died right before I came here. It was a German ambush. I should have seen it coming.”

The rest of them fell quiet. It was Jennifer who wound up speaking.

“I'm sorry to hear that. I can't even begin to imagine what you've lived through. Compared to that, all this must seem normal,” she said.

“I wouldn't go that far, but this is calmer than what I had before. I just wanted to go home near the end. Someplace where I didn't have to kill or fight.”

“And you've come to the right place,” Terry said, “You don't have to fight here if you don't want to. This place used to be dangerous, but we've learned to overcome it. Hell, we thrive here. All of our monsters have weaknesses, and we figured them out. The thing that lives in the corn hates fire. The ghost in the old mansion hates salt. The serpent king in the jungle doesn't leave it, so we just don't go. And Jennifer's well... We have an understanding with hers.”

“I hate that,” Jennifer said, “You know what he is. What he did to me. It's only a matter of time before he breaks the deal.”

"Well, until he does, we have peace,” Terry said, “It was impossible to fight him, Jennifer.”

“You said her monster made a deal?” Mark asked.

“Jennifer’s monster is a special case. He's probably the most dangerous of them all, but he can be persuaded with the right offering. You'll know what I mean soon enough.”

***

"Well, what was he? Jennifer’s Ghost Story, I mean,” Grace asked once again, interrupting the story.

“They called him Clone. He’d been a serial killer in the 1990s. Something they called a Geiger. He was some sort of unnatural human who'd done something to Jennifer before she ever came to Paradise. I didn't understand it at the time. All I knew was that he was the same as all the other monsters. It pretended to be more human, but I knew better. I'd seen his kind before in the war. The sort who got a thrill from death at their hands. You can never deal with that kind of man. Terry just didn't see it yet.”