Currently clocking into his workplace at around 9:30 in the morning, was an exhausted man with one leg of his pants drenched in an unknown substance. He would almost look presentable if not for the ugly scowl on his face, which more than presented his bad mood to the world. This was Jacob Bates.

Jacob is an example of a person both completely unique, and totally ordinary. He was a 22-year-old retail worker, with a cynical view on life, and a muscular condition that further cemented that view.

Back in his high school days, which weren't too long ago, he was a fairly popular guy in the aspect that he was above average in the looks category, and was never thought to be anything less than smart.

Jacob preferred not to even attempt to socialize, as he didn't enjoy it in the first place, but found himself forced to by a number of individuals that claimed to be his "friends." One of the female individuals seemed to be interested in Jacob as more than a friend, so he decided to just go with the flow. He had started to warm up to her, as well as a few other people, and had it going pretty well. That is until he found his girlfriend and one of his other male friends, interlocked in an ancient ritual of passion and sweat, in the bathroom.

That was years ago, so he didn't think of it much anymore, but even if he did, he wouldn't be all that bothered anyway. The way he saw it, those two were just strangers now.

Jacob's day started off...quite shit. He had awoken to the feeling of the cold, hard ground that was his floor. When he got up and glanced towards the alarm clock that was currently blaring its obnoxiously loud banshee screech at him, he noticed that it was 9:00. He would have to get to work in thirty minutes or he was going to be late. Jacob was understandably hungry, but that would have to wait until later.

Surprisingly, getting to work was a smooth course, easily beating his other records by a solid five minutes. This astonishment, however, couldn't keep Jacob's attention for too long, as he was still going to be late if he stayed in his car. So, getting up out of the vehicle, he started pacing through the parking lot, towards the back door of the establishment.

"I'm sick of today already. I wouldn't even be surprised if I-" Jacob couldn't finish his sentence, as he had stepped into a comically deep puddle, drenching the left half of his pants in parking lot water. The thought of "parking lot water" made Jacob shiver.

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Now, this brings us to the present. Jacob was loitering around, dazing off into the distance that is the gardening aisle until his daze was swiftly broken by a figure in front of him.

"Mornin' Jake!" the man exclaimed with a thick accent that Jacob didn't recognize.

This was one of Jacob's many co-workers, in which he took the utmost effort into remembering the name of, yet couldn't bring his brain to think about this man any more than it had to. Now that he got the chance to examine him, he noticed an array of details that he was sure to forget.

The man had short ginger hair and a strong, yet friendly face. His stature was a good 4 inches taller than me, beating my moderately tall height of 5"10. He looked to be about my age, maybe older. I couldn't tell if he was muscular or fat, but he was sure to be leagues above me in fitness.

"Oh, good morning...Paul?"

The large man's smile died down a little, but he forced himself to laugh.

"Haha! You're joking, right? My name is Carl. Also, why do you look like you just got out of a bar fight?"

Jacob had just heard the man's name, yet he had already forgotten.

"Your mug isn't much better...Chris?"

The nameless man simply smiled, before he walked away into the beautiful horizon of shelves and gardening supplies. Why were there so many gardening tools?

He almost drifted off again, until he remembered that he had a job. That job was one of the less exciting ones, but he had one nonetheless. He was to clean the floors, take out the trash, and restock the shelves. Why is the gardening section on the restock list? The shelves are practically overflowing with trowels!

Setting down the "chore list," Jacob goes to the staff room and grabs himself his trusty mop. Then, using his treasured tool, he goes to town. His mopping technique was like no other, with each stroke removing even more dirt and grime off the ground than even the most masterful moppist.

'Truly a prodigy,' he thought.

He wasn't even halfway done with his cleaning frenzy before he noticed a slight nuance. There was a blue speck on the ground. He mopped it up, with the intention to destroy, and it disappeared from the floor.

'There truly is no stain that can compete with the likes of me!' Jacob thought to himself once more.

He continued his conquest, in order to take out the forces of grime once and for all! However, about a minute later, Jacob noticed it again. A blue speck on the ground. But this time, it started growing. It grew to a perceivable size and was now much more clearly a square, or a box. The anomaly was growing towards Jacob at an alarming rate.

Jacob was far too tired to comprehend what was going on.

The box finally grew to full size, practically obscuring Jacob's entire view. The box simply read:

Countdown until Earth Assimilation:

1 minute, 58 seconds...