Ryo looked at his watch again before continuing to pace around the room.

Soon after, he heard a rapid knocking on his door. He went to open it as familiar eyes greeted him.

“Ryo. Did you see it, too?” The familiar eyes asked quietly as soon as the door opened.

“No shit, sherlock. Why did I ask you over if not for that?” Ryo replied exasperatedly. He sometimes wondered how his friend had gotten good enough grades to get into their college before remembering he happened to be book smart... and filthy rich.

Familiar eyes looked Ryo straight in the face. “Are you sure we should be meeting? I mean… there is still the coronavirus and I could…”

Before familiar eyes could continue, Ryo punched him in the gut and dragged him into the room as he kicked the door shut behind him.

“Don’t you think we have bigger things to worry about right now, Jay?” Ryo berated angrily at the now reeling Jay.

“Fuck you.” Jay wheezed out as he snapped the mask off his face so he could breath a little easier.

Ryo smiled and held out a hand for Jay to take.

Jay took it shakily as a slight glint flashed past his eyes.

Still smiling amiably, Ryo turned his waist horizontally as Jay’s right hand threw a punch at Ryo’s gut.

Ryo jerked Jay’s hand slightly and caused him to fall forward as Ryo side stepped him.

Shaking his head slightly at his friend splayed miserably across the ground, Ryo walked up and offered his hand silently again while still smiling amiably.

Jay looked up and slapped it away with a grunt. “Fuck you.”

“Is that the limit of your vocabulary?” Ryo asked, his smile growing wider. It had been a long time since he had seen his friend due to everything going on. And with even bigger things supposedly in the works, Ryo felt the tension in his shoulder loosening a little.

“Shut up. I get to punch you. You can’t dodge or block.” Jay said.

“Why would I let you punch me?”

“Because you know I didn’t deserve it.”

“Fine. But only on the shoulder. You’re stronger than you look.” Ryo replied lightly.

Jay smiled finally and wound his arm back and threw it forward at his friend. However, as he got closer, seeing Ryo wasn’t dodging, a lot of the power disappated and hit Ryo in the shoulder with a light thump.

Ryo smiled at his friend. Jay really was a good guy despite being not the smartest. That isn’t to say he’s not smart, but sometimes he would say really stupid things.

Ryo pushed the hand on his shoulder down and brought his friend and his brother from another mother, into a big hug.

“Good to see you, bro.” Ryo said as they separated.

“You, too. So… who else are we waiting on? The usual peeps?” Jay asked as he made him comfortable on the futon couch.

“Yep. I imagine it’ll still be a couple minutes.” Ryo replied.

“Wanna talk about it?” Jay asked.

“Not yet. I’m still sorting out my thoughts. I have the message printed out though if you want to give it a look over again.” Ryo replied distractedly as he gestured towards the coffee table.

Jay reached over and grabbed it as he read the message again. The floating message they had seen a little less than an hour ago had long disappeared and been replaced with a countdown.

23:11:10

23:11:09

23:11:08

Time slowly passed as Ryo continued to pace around, lost in his own thoughts. Jay had taken the liberty to start scrawling on the paper with the message as he organized his own thoughts.

Soon, a knock on the door broke them out of their musings.

Ryo was about to go open the door when 3 people walked in without asking.

The three guys walked into the room and gave Ryo and Jay a round of hugs, though they all seemed a bit muted.

Ryo smiled wryly at this. “So I take it you guys were talking about the message before getting here.”

A guy with a strong jawline and shoulder length brown hair tied into a ponytail spoke up first. “Yeah. I was talking with Kyle and Myles. Just the fact that we all saw the message at the same time and have a fucking clock in our vision proves that this is the most elaborate hoax ever or something big is going to happen tomorrow at around 7.”

One of the remaining two guys with glasses spoke up next. “Yeah, like G was saying, this is some pretty fucked up shit. Kyle and I were playing some Smash when we both started seeing it in our vision. Both of us just thought we had played for too long.”

Kyle, who looked similar to Myles, nodded his head in agreement. The two were twins but not identical. Despite that though, they looked quite similar. However, Kyle was generally the more introverted of the two while Myles was more of a party goer.

Jay spoke up at this time from the futon. “Yeah. I was just about to take home this girl when it all…”

“Pfffff” they all laughed slightly and brushed Jay off.

“As if you could ever get a girl.” G laughed lightly in his deep voice, his ponytail swinging slightly.

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Jay blushed slightly and mumbled, “At least I look like a guy.”

G’s eyes squinted slightly as he looked down at Jay on the futon. G was a big guy and could sport a mean look when called for. “It’s referred to as personality.”

Myles quickly intervened between them. “I think G looks good with the ponytail. But I think I might like the look you had before more.”

Kyle nodded his head along with his brother in agreement.

G snorted slightly.

Ryo laughed lightly to himself. G had been his friend since before college and had always had a bit of a weird personality. He is what you would call ruggidly handsome if not for his weird habit of changing his hair style. His ponytail was actually much tamer than many other styles he’d had in the past.

Ryo’s laugh grew slightly louder as he remembered the afro brohawk he had once had in high school. G was always the impulsive type and would often act before thinking. That’s how he had ended up with the brohawk in the first place.

Everyone looked at Ryo as he collected himself.

“My bad. Just remembering some old stuff.” He said as he stifled another laugh.

“Anyway, lets get down to business.” Ryo said as he sat down on the couch opposite the futon couch but not before handing everyone a beer from the fridge.

“So, we all saw it. That means one of 3 possibilities.”

“1: I’m crazy and I’m hallucinating all of this.”

“2: We’re all crazy and all hallucinated the message.”

“3: I think this is the most likely, mostly because I don’t want to be crazy. The third is, the world is about to change. How it will change is what I’d like to discuss now.” Ryo finished as he took a sip of his beer.

Everyone silently digested what Ryo had just said as they nodded their heads in agreement.

“A floating message seems pretty impossible. Maybe it's option 1, and I'm crazy” Jay spoke up soon after.

Ryo laughed. “Again. That’s what makes this interesting. We’re pretty much forced to believe this is all real. If we don’t, then we’re admitting that we’re crazy.”

“Interesting. I don’t find this interesting. More disconcerting.” Kyle spoke up for the first time as he adjusted his glasses which looked just like his brother Myles’.

“I think it’s both. It's definitely interesting. Also definitely disconcerting.” G spoke up in his characteristically deep voice.

Myles shrugged his shoulders. “I agree with my brother on this one, but that’s neither here nor there. The question is… what’s going to happen now? I mean, if we have only one day left, I’d like to go home and be with family.”

Ryo mimicked Myles and shrugged his shoulders. “Don’t know. But I can safely say we at least shouldn’t die when the timer runs out. The message makes it seem like something will change. The world we live in. Maybe the government will suddenly collapse. Maybe an even worse pandemic will spread. Hell, maybe we’ll all get superpowers.”

Everyone laughed lightly at this as they imagined themselves with superpowers. Their group often played role playing games together so it wasn’t too surprising that they would find superpowers enticing.

“Maybe it is superpowers.” Kyle interjected again with his characteristically quiet voice. This time though, it was laced with a slight tinge of excitement.

“Why do you say that?” Jay looked over and questioned.

“Well. We’ve already experienced the impossible, right? Also, the message seems to want us to make a choice between the group and the individual. The message also said that we have 1 day until we say hello to the new world. So, it’s possible, right?” Kyle replied tentatively.

Ryo nodded his head. “I also noticed this. Though I'm the one that brought it up, I wouldn’t go as far as superpowers, but it does seem like the person wants us to pick between this concept of "I" and "We"; the individual vs. the collective."

"For now, lets call the person a he. The thing that bothers me the most isn’t necessarily what he’s directly telling us, but rather from the context of the message, it almost sounds like he’s suggesting he's from the future and is trying to change it because something happened.”

"Things like 'my world' and 'change what is meant to happen' make that pretty obvious. So he's probably dillusional which makes it a bit harder to trust his words and predict what they mean."

"Then again, like Jay said, that message and this floating timer in our vision suggest the impossible becoming possible."

Ryo took a sip of his beer to let what he said sink in before continuing. He vacantly watched the timer count down before taking a breath and starting again.

“For now, let's assume he's sane. He was also talking about the potential in us. Logically speaking, this would mean we need to use the full us of our physical and/or mental capabilities to accomplish something. That something should become clearer when the countdown is finished.”

“Finally, that something may be dangerous. He spoke of sacrifice and fighting against all odds. That’s the truly disconcerting part.”

Everyone’s breath hitched slightly at this point.

Ryo gave everyone a few more seconds to process what he said before continuing.

“So my guess is that something big is going to happen to the world like all the governments suddenly going to war or disappearing entirely. Maybe an alien invasion like the movie Independence Day. But as far as superpowers go though, I really doubt that’s a thing. Science is still a thing, and I believe that the message can be explained in a logical way."

Everyone’s breathing continued quietly, albeit slightly laboriously.

Kyle’s eyes seemed to dim at Ryo’s guess that magic and superpowers weren’t going to come of the change.

…

Everyone continued to discuss the topic as the time continued to tick down. They all ended up staying at Ryo’s apartment as martial law was declared across the country.

Luckily, the phone lines were still usable and everyone was able to call their families. They were in agreement that for now, it was best to stay in-doors and wait to see what would happen.

Before they completely locked everything down though, they decided to grab as much supplies from their houses and rooms as possible and brought them all to Ryo’s place.

By the time they were done, it was nearing morning and they were all exhausted but unable to go to sleep as the timer loomed in their vision.

Instead, they browsed the internet with their phones and spoke to each other in an endless loop with no answers.

Many of the internet denziens had come up with similar thoughts as their own. Others had come up with even crazier ideas or claimed to know what was really going to happen.

Searches for things like “Floating Message”, “Apocalypse”, and “Robert Frost” were obviously trending. Surprisingly or unsurprisingly, erotic sites were crashing left and right as people attempted to “release some stress”.

…

Time continued its relentless march forward as 7 P.M. approached.

Everyone was gathered in the living room. They all had fully charged phones and bugout bags by them with some essential supplies.

Myles, who would usually joke around in tense situations to help alleviate stress, was surprisingly quiet as he sat next to his brother Kyle. They nervously adjusted their glasses as the timer turned red after passing the 1 minute mark.

G adjusted uncomfortably in his chair.

Jay wiped some sweat from his forehead.

Ryo looked up at his friends and furrowed his brow slightly.

“Everyone.”

Everyone looked up at him quickly with a slight jump as he broke the silence.

“Calm down. You’re jumpier than the time we almost got caught in the girl’s dorm during freshman year.”

Everyone relaxed a little as Myles chuckled slightly.

“Whatever happens, I know you guys will be fine. You’re the smartest people I know. Yes. Even you, Jay.”

“Fuck you.” Jay responded with a laugh as everyone smiled slightly.

Ryo took a deep breath as he focused on the timer. On top of being red, it started blinking as well.

00:00:10

00:00:09

00:00:08

00:00:07

00:00:06

00:00:05

Ryo felt his heart form a lump in his throat.

00:00:04

00:00:03

Ryo took a subconscious breath and held it.

00:00:02

00:00:01

00:00:00

His heart felt like it stopped for a moment when a new message replaced the timer.

Actually, rather than a message, it was 2 buttons with a short message below.

[I]  [We]

[Pick the road you will take.]

[00:05:00]