“Oh, God. Oh, no. This is not good. Oh, no, no, no.”

Holly paces back and forth, pressing her hands to her temples. “We have to get back. We have to go back. Did he just say we jumped three years into the future? What is happening? Also, did you just talk?”

I try speaking again, but it doesn’t happen. I shrug.

“This is all very bad. We’re stuck in the dead plains Julia was talking about. It’s all dead. All the grass, the trees, everything. What do we do?”

Clearly, I don’t have an answer, so I just stand here. Aurora sniffs the air in classic bunny fashion. If she understands what’s going on, we have no way of telling.

“Oh man, we’re stuck in the same position as we were when the plane crashed, and I don’t want to do this again. I can’t do this again. I won’t do this again.”

I carefully approach her, hoping not to trigger any more of whatever mental break she’s having, and plant one hand on her shoulder.

She looks into my eyes for an uncomfortably long time, and tears well up. “I wanna go home, Tes.”

I nod. I want to, too.

I let her cry it out for a while as she sits cross-legged on the ground, which is almost entirely flat for the vast expanse of land. There’s no hill to climb up and get a good vantage point this time, but it also means our range is high to begin with.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter. There’s nothing within a mile of here, if I had to guess.

And where is here, anyway? Sure, it’s a dead plain. But where? Africa? America? Is it even on Earth?

I think back to Julia and the captain talking about it being another world. If it is, it’s certainly not in our solar system. Maybe not even our galaxy.

When she’s calmed down enough for me to talk to her, I point between the two of us and make a sweeping motion with my fingers and head, hoping she’ll understand what I’m saying: we need to get hunting for food, water, and shelter again. And soon.

“Yeah,” she says, “let’s get moving. I’ll have time to fall apart once I get some food in my system. Maybe Aurora has to recharge, too.”

We kick off our journey, walking as a group in a randomly chosen direction. I only hope it’s the right random direction. The dead grass under us flakes and crumbles as we step on it, as if it was charred and petrified.

Since I never had a chance to retrieve my shoes when trying to sneak away from the captain, my socks are now as black as coal. The sensation of stepping on grass like this is not pleasant.

The wind picks up for the first time after half an hour, causing the two or three nearby trees to creak and groan. Their leaves, or little parts of their leaves, shed from the roasted branches and twirl through the air, carried by the wind in a mesmerizing and haunting image of decay.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

“Wait,” Holly says, “off in the distance. Do you see that?”

I make binoculars with my hands, staring off in the direction she’s pointing. The vague shape of something that could be a structure stands tall above the rest of the plains. It could also be a tall, ugly tree. Either way, it’s motivating.

We match towards it with a new vigor, and as we get closer, more of it comes into view. It looks like an outpost or city, and we’re on the outskirts.

“Thank God,” Holly says. “People.”

Above us, high in the sky, a loud shrieking noise, like that of a fast-moving plane, zips by.

“That jet was in a rush to get somewhere.”

No kidding. How far in the future are we?

Another half an hour of walking later, we approach the nearest building. Three of its four sides are caked in black soot, and the fourth is slightly grayed. The wind has probably layered ash on for a long time. Maybe a year, maybe more. Doesn’t bode well for us finding help.

“Hello?” Holly calls out, her voice echoing against the abandoned city walls. The violet sky above us is a much brighter shade now. I can’t see the sun or anything, but it must be daytime.

“Is anyone here?”

The quick pitter-patter of footsteps sounds off from somewhere to our right. We stop moving, and I motion for Holly to be quiet, but it looks like she already intended on it. Hasn’t she learned anything from the airship?

The footsteps continue, rhythmically tapping against the cracked asphalt road, until a figure comes into view. They’re wearing a weathered cloak and dark pants with no shoes. In one hand, they hold some sort of pistol.

Without warning, they get incredibly close to me, offering a chance to analyze them further. They have curly blonde hair, also covered in ash, a darker complexion, and radiant green eyes.

“Who are you?” they whisper. “Where did you come from? What are you wearing? Why are you out here? Do you have a death wish?”

“That was way too many questions,” Holly says at a normal volume.

“Shush,” the person says. “You have to be quiet. They will find us if you’re not.”

“Who is ‘they?’” Holly asks, this time at a lower volume.

“Come with me. We have to leave before the galvaknights get here.”

“The galva-whats?”

“Quiet. We must move.”

The stranger slinks across the street, and we follow, not seeing any other choice.

I soak in as much of the city as I can on our unconventional tour. There are high-tech skyscrapers and other buildings scattered around, but not many roads wide enough for cars. Maybe they have flying cars in the future. Maybe that’s what we saw earlier.

Actually, the sidewalks are as big as the roads on either side. They must have moved past the need for cars.

Off in the distance, I hear a loud metal pounding sound. The guide seems to hear it, too, because they hold up a fist to stop us from moving.

They make some motions with their hands, essentially telling us we’re going underground.

Do you know sign language, too? I sign.

They look at me with a vacant expression. Apparently not.

We slip into a dilapidated building as the pounding gets louder. The guide points at Holly’s feet and motions for her to take her shoes off. She silently protests at first, but when the metal noise sounds off right outside, rattling our bones, she finds the motivation to do so.

As quietly as possible, we are led to a set of stairs and slip down them, the sounds of our steps muffled by our socks. The stairs go down for a long time, but eventually, we reach the bottom, where a large room opens up in front of us.

“Welcome to Omega Centauri,” the stranger says, finally speaking at a normal level. “I have to talk to some of the higher-ups before we can formally invite you in, but we’ll find you a place to rest. Man, they’re gonna be stoked I found more people.”

“Hold on just a second,” Holly says. “What’s going on here? Where are we?”

“Omega Centauri. I said that.”

“No, I mean, where is Omega Centauri?”

“It’s under the city. Used to be called Golebus. Where are you from?”

“California.”

“Wait, like on Earth? I thought Earth was wiped out.”

“What? Oh my God. Where are we? What year is it?”

“Wow, you’re really out of the loop, huh? Did you get a concussion? It’s 5156, you’re on Alpha Centauri, and we’re hiding from the galvaknights.”