"No way!" He looked up for a window, and found a venthole above the toilet. He climbed it and peeked outside. "What the ..."

It was an open ocean. So, he was on a ship now? But that wasn't the main star to send him surprised. His jaw almost fell from the view of such a colorful ocean. It had many neon-glowing creatures swimming and jumping out of the water, making it look like a Night SeaWorld Carnival.

Patrick could say that he was a smart student in the class. He was good at science, physics, and math. No. He wasn't just good at them, loved them! He liked the brain exercise that was usually considered as brain torture for most kids.

And as for this scenery, it wasn't something normal in this world. He had never heard or read about rainbow colors in the sea. He had never seen a whale-sized animal that had a glowing green color and torch-shining eyes, even on the internet. Was he dreaming?

Rushing out of the toilet, Patrick approached the mermaid man. His face was death-pale and cold sweat drenched his body, but at least he had cleaned his butt.

"Sir! Sir!" He shouted, running.

"What? Is your winnie get bitten by the fish? - I forgot to warn you about that," The mermaid man asked. His brow frowned a little because Patrick's voice disturbed his focus.

"No! We are in the ocean! And there are strange creatures outside!" Patrick couldn't hold his scream.

"Yes, we are!" The mermaid man rolled his eyes. "Now, calm yourself down, you skinny baby!"

"Hey! I'm not that skinny!" Patrick said. Then he clucked. "More than that, I want an explanation about this place. Why am I here? What kind of place is this? What do you want from me?"

"Haven't I told you already? You are in the world after the apocalypse. And you will warn the human race about the incoming apocalypse and save my family - That's the most important thing in this mission. I'll work with my machine again so you can go back to the past and do the mission."

"What? So, we are in the future?" Patrick's eyes bulged.

"Yes. We are 70 years after the Toranger hit planet Earth. From what year you are coming from?"

"2023," Patrick answered.

"Hm. So, it's 78 years ago, huh? Well, not bad," The mermaid man mumbled.

"Oh, God! I can't believe this! Are you playing with me now?" Patrick grabbed his hair.

"Didn't you just cry around, asking me about the weird creatures you saw outside? Or, I was right about a fish had bit you?"

Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

Patrick fell silent for a moment. That man was right. If he wasn't crazy, it must be true that he was standing on a different condition of Earth now.

"But, why me? I don't even know you. I can't do anything useful."

"Yes, you can. I believe ... YOU CAN." The mermaid man said.

Patrick just huffed silently. That man didn't know how useless he was - worst, he was also a coward, if he should be honest. However, it seemed like the mermaid man wouldn't buy any rebuttal he made. That man needed to be sane enough to see that he was unreliable.

"I just want to go home. My aunt will freak her ass out if she finds me disappear like this."

"That's one of the things that I want to talk to you about; You can go back home only if my new machine is complete. Now, you are trapped here." The man grinned.

Patrick looked at the man in disbelief. "How could you say it like it's nothing? It might be that I can't be going back at all, right?"

"Correct." The man snapped his fingers.

"You ... really ..." Patrick squeezed his hair.

"By the way, we haven't introduced ourselves, have we?" The mermaid man said. "What is your name?"

Leisurely, Patrick held his hand out. "Patrick Harberton. What's yours?"

"Wow... Shaking hands, huh? You're really from the past!" The mermaid man laughed.

Rolling his eyes, Patrick muttered, "You're the one who dragged me here from the past,"

"My name is Pictos Mahmund. I'm a genius inventor!" The man shook Patrick's hand excitedly.

"Oh, it's kind of nice to meet you ... Pictos." Patrick said. "Then, what should I do so I can go back?"

"It's not just you - because it's a hard task. We have a team in this mission. Our main goal is to collect Xstone to power up my new machine."

"Just it?" Patrick asked.

"Yep. There are some other goals but not so-"

"No, it's not."

Hearing another man's voice, Patrick turned around.

A long, black-haired man walked into the room. He had about 2 meters of body height, powder-white skin, and large, black irises that almost covered the white space of his eyes.

"What ... the hell are you?" Patrick muttered, staring at the alien-like-man.

"Power up the time machine is not our main goal. Power up a rocket is." The black-haired man said.

"Wait. Hold up, please!" Patrick hung his palms before his chest. "Can somebody explain what the hell is going on in this place and with you guys? You don't even look like a human!"

The black-haired man stared at Patrick. His eyes, which looked like a possed human in horror movies shivered him.

"I see; Pictos must have confused you with his random talking," The man said. Then, he continued, "I'm Solo, the leader of this team. Now you are standing on the same planet Earth but at different time - It's year 2.101. 70 years ago, a comet containing viruses and radioactive material hit our planet. Then, the DNA of most living things on this planet changed and also the climate, drastically. As the outcome of the climate change, the ice on a place called Antarctica melted, making the Earth 95 percent water covered."

Bulging his eyes, Patrick stammered, "S-so ... it means you guys are ... mutated?"

"I believe humans didn't look like this in the past," Solo said.

"I hope his explanation answered your question about why we are on a ship," Pictos added.

Patrick took a moment to digest all the crazy information. All this time, he never took the apocalypse seriously. He believed it would happen someday, but not when he was still alive. The fact that it happened just eight years after 2023 was shocking!

Suddenly, a thought came into Patricks's mind. If the comet was still emitting radioactive radiation and the virus was still here, didn't it mean he was in danger?

"Wait," Patrick stared at the two men in turn. "Doesn't it mean my life is in danger? Will I turn into an alien like you guys? Oh, NO! Please tell me the radiation and the viruses are no longer here!"

Smirking, Pictos answered, "What a shame, boy. They are still here and very active,"