It had been a long day, but he couldn’t really complain, Mike had just finished his first semester at University and had come back home for his break to spend time with his family. They had all been excited to see him when he arrived a few hours ago at the airport, having flown halfway across the country in a cramped airplane seat never left him in the best of moods, but seeing both his mom and dad, Pauline and Joseph Winset, waiting for him when he got off the plane, his mood immediately turned around.

His first semester away had been the first time he had been living away from his family, he was 18 and he had been excited to take his life into his own hands and make something of himself. The first few weeks away had been hard, he had missed his parents as they always knew how to bring out the best in him. Every time he hit a roadblock in his studies or even his training, one conversation with them and he felt like he could overcome anything life threw at him.

Since he was a kid he had been drawn to all types of sports, swimming, football, rugby, he even took up martial arts for a time and boxing. He had managed to get a scholarship into a good school for track which he worked hard on along with studying a science degree. The workload was a lot, but his parents had taught him how to balance his activities with his academics since he was young.

What made being away from them so hard was that he couldn’t rely on them to pull him out of his darker moods, he had to learn how to be independent and push through by himself. He still called his family every few days, but it hadn’t been the same as being able to sit down and talk with them.

“Looks like you haven’t let yourself go yet.” Mike looked up at who had just entered the living room of his parent’s home and he couldn’t stop the smile that broke out on his face.

His older brother Daniel, or Dan, had just walked in. He hadn’t seen his brother in a while, it had been over a year since they had both been in a room together. Dan, like himself, had also been away at uni, unlike Mike, he was in his third year of an engineering degree and usually spent his breaks in internships or traveling with friends.

Getting up from the couch he had bene sitting on he greeted his brother fondly. Mike was just over 6 foot tall with blonde hair, green eyes and a slim but muscular build. His brother though stood a foot taller than he was and had brown hair and hazel eyes.

After they released each other from their hug he looked up at Dan. “It’s good to see you again, brother.”

“Dan is that you?” His mother poked her head out from the kitchen, in the middle of preparing for a big welcome back feast.

Their entire family were coming together for the first time in over a year, even his little sister, Jessica, who was currently out with friends, would be home shortly. His mom was going all out for dinner, her excitement could barely be contained now that all her kids were coming home.

He watched as his mom hugged his brother with all of her strength, gushing over him like only a mother could. His dad eventually heard the commotion and came back in from the barbeque outside, a smile splitting his face when he saw his oldest son.

Being back home again was exactly what he needed to reset after the months away. He wasn’t ashamed to admit it, his family were his closest friends and he had missed them more than he would admit aloud. He had made a few friends during the first semester away, but none that he felt really close with. Between studying and training he didn’t have much time and usually when his track friends wanted to hang out he either had study group or classes to attend. On the flip side the friends he made in his classes usually didn’t want to hang out with his sporty friends.

Things had been easier in high school, everyone had known each other for years and it was easy to have a close group of friends. Going off to a school across the country where he knew nobody, it had not been easy in finding people that shared both his interests in sports as well as had his work ethic when it came to his classes.

Eventually his sister came through the door, being two years younger than him she was at that stage of her life where she could be a nightmare to be around, thankfully, today was not one of those days. She rushed over to him and hugged him like he had been gone for much longer than he had been, doing the same to Dan afterwards.

“You know, now that I am the only one living here, I am the favourite child.” Jess said it with all the confidence that only a 16 year old could, having no doubt in her words.

“Stop saying that to people Jessica. I have told you more than once that we love you all equally.” Mike couldn’t help but laugh at the exasperation in his mom’s tone. This was clearly not the first time his sister had said that to someone.

The afternoon passed quickly for all of them, when they sat down for dinner he saw just how much food his mom and dad had prepared for their big family reunion. They weren’t a religious family, so there was no delay in eating once food hit the table. Having two teenage boys in the house, trying to stop them from shovelling food in their mouths as soon as it was presented to them was next to impossible anyway.

There wasn’t much talking while they ate, for their family, when food was severed it was practically a race to eat before there was nothing left, not because there was never enough food, but since Dan hit teenage years he had turned into a black hole where he would just eat everything and anything without thought. It only got worse when Mike started hitting his own growth spurts. Between the two of them food turned into a hot commodity in their house, that hadn’t changed as they had gotten older, if anything, it had gotten worse.

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

When they had all finished with their dinner, everyone helped clear the table before moving to their living room to get comfortable and just enjoy each other’s company. They spent hours just catching up, Dan spoke about his new internship he would be starting in a few days while Jess told everyone about the new gossip at her school. Mike joined and shared what he liked about his first semester, how he was going in classes and how he was balancing his studies with his training.

Hours had passed in what felt like minutes, at points they laughed till they cried at some of the stories and jokes that they all shared. He had missed this while being away, the relaxed atmosphere where he could be himself without worrying what others would think of him or having to try to impress new people he met that he hoped would someday be his friends.

Before they knew it, it was the middle of the night and everyone went their own way to their rooms. Mike like, Dan, still had their old bedrooms ready for them, their parents always keeping them ready for when their kids returned. The moment his head hit his old childhood he fell asleep with a smile on his face.

……………………………………………………………………………………………….

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Groaning, Mike rolled over and found his phone on the beside table, quickly turning off the alarm which he had forgotten to turn off before going to bed. He looked at his phone and saw the time. 6:30am. He had a reoccurring alarm set for that time every morning, its when he got in his morning training. Not today though, he fully planned to sleep in.

He tried to get back into a comfortable position, forcing himself to go back to sleep. After what felt like forever, but couldn’t possibly have been more than 10 minutes, he was still awake. He had conditioned his body to wake up at this time every morning for his morning run, and now that he was awake, his body was screaming at him to get up and do what he was supposed to do, go for his morning run.

Grumbling the entire time, he cursed his phone, then himself for not remembering to turn off the stupid alarm. He hadn’t unpacked anything the day before but he knew where his workout gear was in his bag. He quickly changed, went into the bathroom and got ready for what he promised himself would be a quick workout.

As he made his way out of the house he made sure to be quiet, no one else in his family was stupid enough to have alarms set for this hour of the morning when none of them had to go to work and he didn’t want to wake them.

As he got out onto the front porch of the house he made sure to spend a bit stretching out his muscles and warming up before he set out on a jog. He knew exactly where he was going, what paths to follow and how long it would take. He had grown up here and had been running the paths through the forest near his house for as long as he could remember.

As he moved from a job to a run, he entered into the calm state he always did when his body took over and knew exactly what it needed to do and where to go. Running was one of his favourite things to do, it let him completely clear out his mind, letting go of every worry and but of anxiety he had. He had been out for 30 minutes, the halfway point for his workout when he broke out of his calm state and nearly fell face first on the ground.

He had no idea what caused it, nothing had changed in his surroundings and he couldn’t see anything on the path that would have made him trip. Shaking his head he was about to start running again when his head started to hurt and his eyes started to go fuzzy.

System message

Hello humans of Earth, your planet has reached the population threshold and has been connected to The System.

The planet known as Earth, however, does not meet the requirements needed to foster the Champions needed to fight back the demons that would soon invade this planet. Due to this your planet shall be harvested.

All humans shall be relocated to other planets within the sector using the energy from the harvesting in the hope that some of you will grow to help fight back against the demonic spread.

You have 5 minutes before the relocation will take place and the harvest completed.

As soon as he finished reading the weird message in front of his eyes his headache disappeared along with the message. For a moment he thought he was imagining what had just happened but something inside of him told him that it was very, very real.

Taking out his phone he called through to his mom, knowing of anyone in his family she was the most likely to pick up. When he heard the call connecting he let out a relieved breath.

“Mike, where are you? Did you get it, the message? It appeared in front of all of our eyes. Tell me you are close Mike.” His mom was frantic, but she confirmed it, the message was real.

“I…..” He was still 30 minutes away from home, maybe 20-25 if he ran at his top speed. He wasn’t going to make it back to them in 5 minutes. “I am too far away to make it back in 5 minutes.” The idea of being separated from his family once the 5 minute countdown finished nearly broke him, his voice cracking as he finished his response to his mom.

“We will get in the car, we will all come get you. Where are you Mike?” He knew, even if he ran and his family got in the car as quickly as they could, they wouldn’t make it to each other in time.

“I am in the forest, on the same trail I always take mom. You…..you guys wont make it in time, I am too far away.” He felt the tears threaten to drop from his eyes, but he held them back. “Don’t worry, I am sure it is all going to be fine. I love you guys. Tell everyone I love them. Okay?”

He waited for a reply from his mom but he heard nothing come through. Looking at his phone he saw the call was disconnected. He tried to call again back but his call refused to go through. He tried everyone else in his family as well but no matter who he tried to call the damn phone would work.

His family were altogether, that was a positive at least. If it had happened even a day earlier everyone would have been split up. At least now they were all together at home. He would have been their too if he had just stayed in bed this morning.

He knew the 5 minute timer was coming to an end when the ground underneath him started to shake. He tried to call his mom one last time but before he could even hit the call button again his world went black, time was up.