Emma and the man with her have been brought to a house shaped like a hut connected to a very enormous trunk of a huge tree. It's a one-story house, with the ground level mostly consisting of a living room and dining room with an open kitchen attached to it in the common studio style of Earth.
They hadn't been given a tour or any sort of instruction. The men who brought them here pointed at large chairs in the living room and left, leaving behind one man at the front door of the house guarding them, and he stood there without a single word just looking at them.
Emma didn't ponder much about the feeling she had been having. She knew exactly what was missing. She remembers the face of her brother when she saw him last. She doesn't know where he is now, but she has a feeling that he is not far, and that he is with her in this world. For some reason that she hasn't figured out yet, they have been suppurated. The memory of what happened after they entered the cabin is still vivid in her memory.
While Emma is still holding her brothers' hands, she remembers entering the cabin, and immediately a bright light engulfed both of them. At the door of the cabin, it looked dark. There was nothing visible to her. Yet the sudden bright light came from where? That is what she wondered, holding her brother with one hand and covering her eyes with the other. Though she closed her eyes right away, she still sensed the light. Luckily, it didn't last long.
When she opened her eyes a few seconds later, or actually what seemed like a few seconds, she found herself strapped in a bed. Looking around, starting with herself, she noticed that she could only move her head, the rest of her body was tied with belts to the bed she was on. The first thought that came to her was, "Where am I at?".
Beside her, She saw her brother laying on a bed next to her. The strange thing she noticed was that he was dressed in a different outfit than the one he was wearing. That made her look at herself, and she saw that she was also dressed differently. Confused at the situation she found herself in, she continued checking her surroundings. Then she noticed that they were in a large room with a lot of strange equipment that looked like it came out of a science fiction movie, and in a corner, a few men were standing behind a transparent glass window. Another group of men and women were standing above them, also behind a large glass window.
They were all dressed in long white lab coats, and all of them were watching her and her brother, like they were waiting for something to happen. Upon noticing their gaze was on her brother and that no one even noticed that she was a wake, she turned to her brother, and she was shocked at what she saw.
An octopus-like machine with possibly more than twenty arms is operating on her brother. Each arm ends with a long needle, and some are entering some parts of his body, injecting something into his body, and changing positions instantly with incredible speed. Other arms are shooting laser-like beams on his body.
At the same time, the body of her brother was changing in front of her eyes physically. He was becoming taller; all the muscles in his body and their appearance were changing; even his face was undergoing changes. When it was done, which actually didn't take more than five minutes, and that whole time she was in shock, looking at her brother, If she had seen with her own eyes what was happening, she wouldn't have believed it and even wouldn't have recognized her own brother.
She woke up from the shock that filled her whole mind. When she heard some voices beside her, a man stood beside her. There was an emotion appearing on his face that looked like pity. Her shock changed to a fear when he came close to her head, putting his finger on his lips. She understood that he wanted her to be silent. Even though she tried to scream, nothing came out of her the entire time.
Then he pointed to his eyes and closed them, then pointed to her eyes. Without even giving any thought to what would happen or what his intentions were, she obeyed after giving one last look at her brother. After that, she heard the man say something in a language that she couldn't understand.
She was anticipating that something similar to what happened to her brother would happen to her too. Fear was dominating her, holding even her breath involuntarily. What she felt next made her relax a little bit. The man was creasing her head a few times. That was something that she used to do, a behavior that was a habit for her mother and father, though she wasn't fond of that action and always protested, saying, "Stop it please, I am not a child anymore." She wished they were here, and if she could feel their hands over her head one time. Deep down in her heart, she had a feeling that she would never see them again. Although she had no idea about the event that led her and her to run out of their house or what caused the fear she saw in her mother's face, she wished she could have more time with them, or at least to have an idea of what was going on.
Maybe her brother, who came along with her mother, knew something. During their running, she wanted to ask him several times, but she understood well enough that it was not the time, but hoping to reach their destination after escaping their pursuers, she would be able to ask him, but now even that hope evaporated.
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The seconds moved slowly, like minutes, and the minutes were even slower, so it felt like hours. While she was laying on the bed without a single movement, anxiety took over the fear. She still felt nothing, expecting the needles she saw poking through her brother's body, but she felt nothing so far. She couldn’t tell how long had passed, but finally she felt the hand of the man squeezing softly on her hand, hesitating on what to do, because she simply couldn't understand what he meant by doing so.
Finally, she made up her mind and opened her eyes slowly. The face of the man smiling at her was what she saw first. His face came closer to her, and he whispered to her now in English, "Be brave, strong, be wary of the mist, good luck." With that final word, her vision became bluer, and she lost her consciousness.
When she opened her eyes, she was laying on the ground, beside her a stranger who was apparently unconscious, because no one with any sanity could sleep in a jungle-like place, with huge trees everywhere and strange sounds coming from all around them.
That was when she realized the danger around her. Thinking back until that point, Emma looked at the man sitting beside her and asked, "I know you told me, but I have to ask again." Do you remember how you came here? " He looked at her with a blank eye and said, "I don’t remember anything, even my name." She sighed for the tenth time, then realized she was asking him the wrong question.
"What is the last thing you remember?" He paused for a moment, then shook his head and said, "However I think about it, there's nothing. I think I'm having amnesia." She insisted, ideas and questions racing through her mind, "You sound American, but you look Asian." "Where are you from?" He shook his head again, but instantly his expression changed and he said, "I know I am Asian American. Both are familiar. I remember many cities in Japan, and I also remember being in New York City, but I don’t remember anything personal."
He suddenly realized something. He asked her, "I didn't ask you, but do you remember what happened, and do you have any ideas about what's going on with us?"
The exception was evident on his face, and the transformation was visible on him. "I do remember everything, but I know very little about our situation." She paused for a few seconds, then continued, "I know for a fact that me and my older brother, and apparently you too, have been kidnapped from Earth." "Believe it or not, we are in a different world.
When she said the last sentence, she looked at his face and noticed that he was not surprised at all, nodding at her to continue, "As for the reason behind it or where we are, I have no idea. The other fact I am sure of is that whoever abducted us looked like humans, and they had technology far beyond ours by centuries. Remaining captivated by the way they changed her brother's appearance within minutes, she said, "I can't comprehend what I saw about their technology, but it's even more impressive than our science fiction movies, but for sure they had a reason for what they did."
Curious about the way she explained everything to him, which was apparently far from the way regular children spoke, he couldn't help but ask her, "How old are you, by the way?" The question he asked threw her off; she was surprised why he asked her. He smiled and said, "Apologize, never ask a lady her age," and laughed, infecting her also. She started laughing and said, "Why do you think that?" He asked, "One of those who abducted us felt pity on me, and gave me a clue." Whether it was an act, or he felt what I thought I saw in his face, he told me to be wary of the mist. "
.................
The entire continent of this planet's southern continent, known as the "Evil Desert" by its inhabitants, is a desert with not a single tree on its surface. Many kingdoms and countries tried to survey it or explore it, but no one came back to report anything. That is how it got its name.
But if anybody knew that under the surface, the whole continent is inhabited and there is a population equivalent to that of two other continents combined, they wouldn't believe their eyes. In the western part of the continent, in a huge city under the surface with a population of over two million, in a large mansion visible from everywhere in the city, inside that mansion, in a huge hall that can accommodate over two hundred people.
Although only twenty people were sitting, all their attention was focused on a large screen. Although nothing was showing on it, everyone's attention was focused on it. When suddenly, a large number started to appear, it had five digits, which were 000.00
"Ladies and gentlemen, the countdown will start shortly." At that moment, all of the focus was back on the screen. After a few minutes, it began at 000.01.