Everything went black for John, but to his own surprise, he awoke to a metal floor. To the murmur of conversations around him.

"You're finally awake."

He looked up to see a man a decade older than himself at least.

"Who are you? Where am I?"

"I haven't heard much but what I heard from the others. Seems you really screwed the pooch."

"The... What?"

"A saying where I come from." the man offered a hand.

John grabbed his hand. He didn't look like the others in his village, he had darker skin. He was told about how there were diverse peoples elsewhere by the Elders.

"John!"

Carmen ran over and hugged him, John was still in shock of being alive- he hesitantly hugged him back.

"Carmen? What happened? Are we dead?"

"No, turns out the Visitors never left, they were just in space watching. That's what we think this is at least. I mean, they came from space, and look." Carmen pointed to the ceiling.

It was the Earth. Covered in cloud and white. Spots of sickly green and black.

So this place belonged to the Visitors? And they saved them from Earth?

He looked around, everything was gleaming metal. There were benches and tables throughout the room and people were sitting and talking.

His tribe- the village. Mixed in with others. Strangers.

There was a stage too at one end of the room.

"Where's Laura?"

"Oh- don't worry she's okay. Apparently she took some poison and it's taking some extra care to bring her back."

Oh, another thing for John to remember and regret. He starred off for a moment, then snapped back.

"Wait- bring her back?"

"Yep, the visitors are crazy, death is just a sickness to them."

John didn't know what to think, what to feel.

"John? Yeah, I know- take a moment. Here, take a seat."

They sat down. The man who spoke to John first sat nearby. Drinking from a silver cup.

"The Visitors brought us here, saved us, why? I thought they were-?"

"We all did." the man from before spoke.

He placed his cup down and smirked at John. "Emanuel Ramirez" he reached to shake his hand.

John shook his hand. "John."

"John? That's a bit generic don't you think?"

"Generic is easy to remember." Carmen reached his hand out, "I'm Carmen."

"Nice to meet you Carmen. So I've over heard you all, this man killed his tribe?"

Johns heart sank. Carmen grimaced.

"Technically I messed that up too- we were starving, and the deer left the valley. So..."

"You ate a dire beast."

"We ate a dire beast." Carmen nodded.

"Yeah, never eat the cursed. Seems you got lucky. I've seen plenty of people turn into monsters and they never ended up here."

"And where is here?" John asked.

He looked around. Even the boy who was first infected was alive again, laughing with his family as if nothing happened.

It was surreal.

"I don't know, some kind of prison? Our people know about as much as yours do. Y'all lived in one place? Must've been crazy good hunters, or a really good spot."

"I can't speak for the rest but I just might be the greatest hunter alive."

The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

"Mmhmm." the man drank from his cup.

"What are you drinking?"

"Uh, water?"

"Can I get some?" the main raised an eyebrow and looked over to a device on the wall a distance away.

Carmen got up. "You want one?" John nodded, and he walked away.

"Hey, cheer up friend. Like you said, times were desperate- it's not like you knew."

"But it all just happened..."

"Sometimes shit just happens."

John blinked a few times. What an odd saying. Of course things happen.

"Just give me a minute..."

John stood up, and walked over to the center of the room.

"Uh... Hey! Hey everyone!"

The roar of different conversations goes down to a murmur as many of the people in the room looked towards John.

Many faces were angry.

"I just wanted you all to know- how fucking sorry I am."

The faces starred back at him as he stammered to find more words than that, but he couldn't. Beyond that he was sorry.

An Elder stood, the one who spit on him before-

"Sorry doesn't fix anything... But, as my brother had stated, we as Elders were a bit too secretive when teaching children about the nature of dire beasts."

A few murmurs started between some of the elders.

"But that doesn't absolve you completely! There was no reason you should've said it was moose meat! All this could've been avoided if you only told the truth."

"Yeah!", "I can't believe I ate that...", "Kick him out.", "Where? Into space?"

voices around the room quieted as the chieftain stood.

"It's true! John has failed us. But he did not do so out of malice, and has admitted his guilt. He should be allowed to die with honor, and go on his great journey."

John looked around the room, and some others did as well. Where would he go?

"Clearly that is no longer possible. How John will make recompense for his actions, time will tell. After we discover the nature of these... 'Visitors'."

"Okay great! Thank you, please be seated!"

A new voice joined the foyer, every bit as commanding and confident as the chieftains.

A women walked across the metal stage. Displays like the old TVs the Elders books showed were on the walls behind her.

"My name is Sindy Chromwell, that is of course- 'Sindy with an s'." A few S's flashed the screens.

She looked around the room, surveying her audience.

She was dressed in a fluffy pink jacket and jean shorts with high heel boots.

"Are you all from the americas? That's like, so cool. I was from america. Until the Annunaki showed up back in 2024. Now I represent them for other people. 'Cause some people get like, weird about them. So if you want to ask them you can ask me. Any questions? Just like, real quick?"

She gave a polite smile and began looking around the room. Did she say 2024? That was... 72 years ago. But she looks younger than John did.

A chorus of voices erupted with questions.

"Why are we here?", "What is this place?", "Who are the Annunaki?", "Do you have beer?"

"Yep, yep." She nodded her head at the people and waved them on.

After awhile the questions petered out and she waited a moment before continuing.

"Cool, great. Uhm, well... Like, the Annunaki are the Visitors who are uhm, like, aliens and stuff? And there's like, this ship, that's outside space, on the coast of the earth? Coast? Uhm... It's not a prison, and you're here 'cause humanity was like... Going extinct and all?"

She had an inflection in her voice that made everything she said seem like a question.

The crowd stirred again with more questions.

"Where are we going?", "What do they want with us?", "Do we live here now?", "and the beer thing?"

She clapped her hands. "Okay! Nice! Uhm, well, humanity isn't like most things they've come across so far, so they're kinda playing it by ear. Is what they say. I mean they didn't say that exactly but that's like, their vibe. You know? We talked a bit, and we got a good phase one for our new program."

"Where's the fucking beer?"

"Shut up Carl, you fucking alcoholic."

"Don't call me alcoholic you cuck!"

"I'm not offended by that." The angry man just starred at him in silence.

"Uh-huh... Anyway!" she clapped her hands again. "We're gonna go on a little trip, we've kind of worked with the Visitors to organize this, and I'm not one to brag but... I think you'll all be SUPER excited for this."

The screens flashed and showed tropical islands, roaming fields of green, snowy mountains, massive deserts.

The people were enraptured in the screens. Like John they've likely seen the old books and their pictures, but this seemed so much more vibrant.

Then it showed a world from space, three moons of varying sizes floated around it.

"Introducing! -Earth 2 point O. Isn't it great? My friends and I were able to swing a good deal for it. No need to thank us- we did it for the helpsies, cause we all need some helpsies sometimes you know?" she made a look she likely thought seemed sympathetic but to the crowd it was patronizing.

"Why are you showing this to us?"

The chieftain asked.

"Because this is where we're moving you silly.... Here, you'll be out of the Annunakis way, and you'll be safe and happy."

No Visitors, no more cold, or toxic land, just a massive beautiful world? It was all too good to be true, and yet, John felt off about this. As if there was more to it than that.

"What is your price?" The chieftain asked.

The young women looked back in confusion. "Oh you poor thing."

She stepped off the stage and walked over to him. He was a fairly bulky man easily twice her age.

She looked up at him and rubbed his arm. "It must've been like, SO hard..."

"Life is hard."

"It doesn't have to be... If you have enlightenment."

"En..lighten...ment?"

"Yep. If you were just like, enlightened, you could be like, liberated from your worldly desires and worries and stuff." she hugged him.

The chieftain looked at the rest of us in confusion. An Elder shrugged.

After a moment she released him and climbed back onto the stage.

"Why can't we have our own spaceship, and go our own ways? Why should we live contained when there's a people out there in the stars?"

"If you were enlightened you could get stuff like that but... Nah, that would just make your situation worse. I mean, you bombed yourselves because of us. That's like, pretty stupid. Imagine if we gave you worse weapons than that. Like, wow."

Us- has this girl forgotten she's human just like the rest of 'us'? John thought.

"Yeah, we decided it'd be better if we gave you a play pen to sort it out. In the Visitors own words- well sort of- 'Those of you who are enlightened, have a path for ascension.' So we gave you a world worth wandering in. Figuring enlightenment out. Like a cradle."

"This is... Patronizing."

"Like literally, and again, you don't have to thank us. It's all helpsies. But! I do have to tell you- it won't be like it was on Earth 1.0. On Earth 2.0, you get-" she opens her mouth and strikes a 'are you ready to be excited?' pose-

"Fantasy powers! Wow!" she looked back at the crowd disappointed by their reaction.

She sighed.

"When you arrive, you'll be presented with basic class choices, and you can go from there. Like a video game. Make houses, wage war, make babies, you know- human things."

She's sort of lost her interest a bit it seems as she examines the back of her elaborately painted fingernails.

"When do we arrive?" Emanuel asked.

"Anytime you'd like, but there is just ONE more itsy-tinsy tiny-whiney little thing." she pinched the air in front of her.

"We need a tribute. One from each of your groups to enter a special program! Choose whoever."

"What is the nature of this... Program?" The chieftain asked.

"Its a secret."

"Tell us this secret."

"Uhm..." She rolled her eyes.

"No. Yeah, nope. It is NOT optional and you gotta pick someone- sorry, but hey- paradise?" She shrugged and held her hands up like she was weighing something.

"Pick some old person or something. That's my advice. I'm going to stop talking now. I'll come back in like, five minutes."

She walked away, even her walk was irritating to John.

The different groups began arguing over who this tribute would be immediately. You'd think we'd talk a bit about what kind of planet this was. Was their deer to hunt? No, no one asked such things.

Johns village looked towards him. And he just nodded and sat in silence.