I have to say. I feel awfully silly writing this down in a torn-up, shitty scrapbook of all things... but here I am, scribbling away, as if the world could fall on me and I still wouldn't even lift my head. Although, to be fair, the "world" did fall down. The world we know. Our world. That's right, could you believe it? Our Earth, our home that we so desperately wanted to see gone... I suppose our dreams have come true. 190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡR6jYQ29QMm
Now, I'm not a very creative person. I'll admit that, at the very least. So I titled this little "introduction" as "Point of No Return", because it really is. I'm not even sure where to start. 190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡlOjF10HEU7
... On second thought, maybe I'll talk about how I got to this point, to this point of no return.
There were heavy storms that day, with the sound of raindrops bashing against our base's sky cap. It was to the point that our sun glitched out, and for a heartbeat, everyone was shocked quiet, with their eyes glued to something in the horizon.
It wasn't the first time turbulent thunderstorms had rocked our base, so no one inside the nursery was really all that concerned. However, Jian, a nurse whose only "work" was to stare off into space through the see-through walls, suddenly widened his eyes and pointed at something beyond. His mouth opened to scream, but before he was even able to mutter a few words, a burningly bright flash swept through the world. What were they looking at? What had scared them so? Before that flash happened, I saw the answer. In between the sky and the sea, the line we called the "horizon" had opened up and consumed us all.
Truth be told, this really wasn't the way most of us thought the world would end. There were so many other possibilities: the sun wiping us off, the ocean consuming us until we could no longer build above it, our continuously decreasing population, and so on so forth. Hahhh... what's the point of discussing this now? In any case, that flash of light and the opening of the horizon had knocked us, the "lucky" few who survived, unconscious, and that's when we woke up to this new world.
We call it "Eucropia".
The moment we first opened our eyes, we immediately realized this wasn't Earth. Huge leaves and well, the color green, greeted us. We knew this sight... in our media that was. It has been centuries since any human has seen a forest, not to mention a forest of this nature. Not even in our database have I ever seen any plants such as those before me. And when I suddenly realized that, I knew something was terribly, terribly wrong.
"Hey! What's going on?"
Others had begun to wake up, their voices forming a chorus of chaos. I finally took my eyes off the shrubbery, and for the first time, stared properly at my fellow survivors. On hindsight, I should have looked over them first... but in my defense, I work in the nursery, and specifically the non-human aspect, so conversing and interacting with humans isn't really in my scope of talents. There were about ten of us here, with each one of us being in a different line of work. Each of their outfits described a different lifestyle, and thus, stereotypes immediately formed between us.
The first one, who had screamed the loudest, spoke up. He had a slightly above average face, with a large but slightly chubby body, and was wearing a dirty suit, and- oh, he was a hermes.
"Everyone, let's not panic! But first, where are we?"
The others seemed to recognize the pin on his chest the way I did. A tall woman's brows began to furrow upon seeing the logo of the hermes, and mocked him: "A hermes? I never knew the government's bitch boys would be here."
"You! What's that supposed to mean? Do you think I had a choice-"
A young girl wearing buns quickly interrupted their conversation, trying to mediate between them. She waved her hands nervously, and said, "Let's not argue! Regardless of who we are, shouldn't we address our situation first?"
The tall woman let out a loud "tch" and crossed her arms, but made no further comment on the braided girl's suggestion. It seems like some others had recognized the protective tracksuit I was wearing, and noticed that I was from the nursery.
A bespectacled man stepped forward, unsure of what exactly to do. It seems like he had a severe eye disease, if he was wearing glasses in this day and age. The man then awkwardly smiled, looked towards me, and said, "Correct me if I'm wrong, but you seem to be from the nursery. Do you mind telling us which branch you work for?"
I paused, and then answered: "No, I don't mind. I'm from the environmental division, specifically dealing with the database."
The bespectacled man pushed up his glasses, seemingly relieved from what I said.
"Great then! Do you recognize any of the plants around us? And uh, are we in some sort of experiment or garden or-"
I cut him off.
"We're not on Earth."
The expression on all of the survivors' faces immediately dropped, except for a silent few. There was a thick tension in the air, and for a while, no one said a word.
"M-maybe," an overweight worker spoke up. "These could be evolved creatures, or undiscovered?" Before I could interrupt him, he continued: "It just seems s-scientifically impossible we could ever be transported into an entirely new dimension."
"Then how can you explain what's before your eyes?" A young master, and I say this because this young man was covered in luxury brands, ridiculed, clearly annoyed. Then, he turned towards the rest of us, glancing over the ones who have not yet spoken. "Here's what I think. Let's introduce ourselves first, shall we? I'm Leon Thornberg, you might have heard about me before."
"The youngest billionaire in the world!" the braided girl burst out.
Leon smiled, and replied: "Yes, that's me. We'll get to know each other better in the future, so let's keep this short and simple. How about we go in a clockwise order?" Then, turning towards the tall woman to his left, he gestured, "Please."
She seemed slightly pleased with his courtesy, and so began her own introduction. She was wearing a nice silk scarf over her red cocktail dress, which she wrapped around her neck after it almost slipped off.
"I'm Helia Takahashi. You can call me Helia... if it were not for us being stranded, it would be Ms. Helia." She chuckled slightly at her own joke, and then said, "I'm the secretary of Ethicaleaf, so I know my way around people, I suppose."
Ethicaleaf. Now where have I heard of that before? Ah... now I remember. It's one of the largest organizations lobbying for environment-friendly restrictions. I guess she has a reason to be so aggressive towards that hermes.
After finishing, Helia looked at the person besides her. It was one of the few that have yet to speak, a woman carrying a large backpack. Her neat dreads contrasted with the grime on her face and baggy clothes.
"Ah, is it on my face again?" The woman smiled, trying to wipe the dirt off her face, but her sleeve was dirty as well, so her actions just made it worse. She shrugged it off, and then said, "My name is Jerica. I'm not like you elites, so I have no last name. This bag?" She patted her hefty backpack. "It's full of tools, which is quite helpful considering we might have to return to cavemen in here. I'm a mechanic." She ended with a large grin.
It was now the bespectacled man from earlier's turn. He once again pushed up his glasses, and greeted, "Nice to meet you all, I'm Isaac... I, too, don't have a last name, just your average worker."
After Isaac was the braided girl, who seemed both nervous and excited to introduce herself at the same time. "Hi!" she piped up. "My name is Ivie, and I'm currently, I mean was, a senior at Central High." She looked around, and upon noticing she was the youngest, became slightly shy.
It was a good thing that the person after her was the complete opposite. The hermes, upon noticing it was now his turn, tightened his tie, and spoke: "Hello all. You can call me by my given name, Ramon, although I would prefer if you call me by Jason. Just a personal preference, really. As you might infer from my badge, I am indeed a hermes, a speaker for the government. And!" He raised his eyebrows, glaring at Helia. "Might I add, I am quite proud of what I do."
Before the two of them could argue again, I quickly coughed, drawing attention to myself. "Hello," I started. "I'm Julian Liu, although most people just refer to me as Jules. As you may all already know, I work in the environmental nursery, so I'm familiar with plants and animals. Oh, but just to clarify, my job has to do with the database, so although I recognize a lot of species, I'm uh... not actually all that great with biology..."
"That's alright, kiddo," Isaac smiled encouragingly. "Becoming a nurse is hard enough."
"I-I guess it's my turn now?" Before I could reply to Isaac, the overweight man spoke up. "Hey guys, I'm Thomas, and I'm a game designer. You know those characters in the virtual games that were on the rise lately? Y-yeah, that was me."
After Thomas, there was only one visible person left. A tall and handsome young man stood in the corner, with a lean muscled body, which was quite strange, especially as no one nowadays really exercised. However, what was more strange was not his facial appearance, but rather the clothes he was wearing. Robes. Not like a bathrobe or anything, but...
"The strikers."
I'm not sure who whispered that, but it doesn't really matter, because as soon as those words were uttered, everyone immediately became on guard. If you can anger a whole crowd with just the word "hermes", you can scare a whole crowd with just the word "strikers". With the virtual world almost intertwined with reality, the fact that there existed a specially trained task force of "soldiers" seems almost unbelievable. Yet that is exactly what the strikers were. Brilliant with all weapon types, from cyber warfare to the ancient swords and spears, not to mention all of the endurance and three worlds (the sky, ground, and sea) challenges they had to face and pass just to be considered for the strikers... anyways, what was the possibility of one being among us? Can we be considered extraordinarily unlucky, or lucky?
The young man finally looked up towards the rest of us when he heard those two words. He looked a bit too young to be part of the strikers, but that uniform... anyone could recognize it anywhere. Uh oh... he really reminds me of that main character from "Reincarnated into a Psychotic World of Monsters as I Aim to Become the Absolute Emperor".
Everyone was waiting for him to introduce himself, and honestly, their (mine included) patience was getting thin. Perhaps he, too, got annoyed at all of the staring involved, so he finally surrendered and spoke one word: "Atlas."
And that was it.
After Atlas "introduced" himself, Ramon (or should I begin referring to him as Jason?) clapped his hands and spoke up.
"Alrighty then, everyone! I'm no survival expert, but we should find shelter, food, and water before the sky turns dark. After all, this isn't Earth; such nutrients aren't just dropped to us."
"Agreed, but how shall we split roles?" Jerica inquired. She stretched out her arms, ready for whatever was about to come.
"Hold on!" I exclaimed. "Let's establish some rules before we distribute work. And-" I noticed a couple of the survivors' eyes twitch. "What I mean by this is, survival guidelines."
At this, Isaac stepped up. "Good idea. We can't become little lords of the flies now, can we? How about this, we'll follow the following rules. Anyone who disagrees or wants to add can say so."
Here were the rules we eventually came up with:
1. No violence of any nature between each other or any other survivors we may chance upon.
2. No touching or interacting with any kind of plants or creatures in this new world. In addition, no one is allowed to bring anything related to the new world on them or in other survivors' vicinity.
3. No abandonment, targeted lying, betrayal, or purposeful separation or lack of acquired information from the group. If caught, this will result in a trial (done by vote).
4. No matter what, do your tasks, and return when the sun sets.
5. Any new information of any nature shall be reported to the rest of the survivors.
Neither Atlas nor Thomas really spoke in our exchange of words. I just hope it was because they agreed with everything, and not that they either didn't care, or wouldn't follow.
After recording these five points down in the notepad Jerica brought, we began to discuss roles. Finally, Atlas declared, "I'll take care of hunting. Have four scout for shelter, an empty but small cave will be the best. Three will look for fresh water. The last one will be on the lookout."
Leon raised an eyebrow. "Hunting. All by yourself? Do you even know what creatures are here?"
Helia then quipped. "That's true, Atlas. Maybe in our world that's possible. Right now though, we don't even know what plants are safe, let alone animals."
We all shivered. It was true. So far, we've barely stepped out of the little empty space of bare ground we had initially woken up on, nobody daring to become the white lab rat of this new world. It was life and death, and we wanted to live.
Atlas frowned. It seemed like he didn't really care for the "new world" or whatnot, but since this was a majority vs. minority situation, there wasn't much he could do to convince us. Eventually we agreed upon having one of the four assigned shelter-seeking people work with Atlas to spy on some new creatures, and find out which plants seemed to be edible. Those that didn't have any special traits and seemed relatively harmless will become our new diet, and well, we would have to risk it.
The three that were assigned to find the shelter were Jerica, Isaac, and Ramon. I was assigned with Atlas, as I was at the very least more familiar with organisms than the rest of them. Helia was to be on the lookout, while Leon, Ivie, and Thomas would look for fresh water.
Even as we separated, I could hear Ramon worry about what would happen if they accidentally touch a killer plant, or a killer animal, or a killer mix of both a plant or animal. Jerica not-so-jokingly replied that if he kept blabbering, he'd have to deal with a killer mechanic.
The path to find food with Atlas was excruciatingly unbearable. He didn't like to talk, and I was not one to make idle chit-chat. Thus, we walked in utter silence, with the occasional "watch-out"s and "heads-up"s. All of us were lucky in that this was a rockier side of the forest, with more ground than plants. In that way, none of us would have to touch a single plant, and perhaps be killed instantly.
Soon, I found out that the path was excruciatingly unbearable in more ways than one. My legs began to feel greatly sore, and I became unable to keep up with Atlas. Finally, I couldn't keep it back anymore, and complained, "Where are we even going?"
To that, Atlas finally paused, and walked over to help me out. I simply plopped onto the ground, leaving Atlas's stretched arms awkwardly in midair. Ignoring this, he then replied, "Before you all awoke, I looked around the land myself. There seems to be a rabbit-like creature roaming around, that digs up this spiky-leafed plant and eats the soft root." As if remembering something, he then paused.
Noticing this, I asked, "What is it?"
He then curly replied, "The root looks like a hand."
"What?" I jumped up, regaining the energy I lost prior. "You mean, it looks like a human hand?"
When Atlas nodded at my comment, I eagerly pushed him to the location of those plants. He seemed surprised at my sudden excitement, but it wasn't like he could understand. I am, first and foremost, a researcher! Honestly, I expected more from a guy like him. He even knows what a rabbit is, and that's better than a good amount of our base's civilians.
"Now that I think about it, what base are you from?" I stepped over some rocks, carefully trying not to trip and die. "I just realized we assumed we were all from the same one."
"Base 7. Agora."
"Oh. Well that makes sense, then, you all are known to be more militant. I'm from Base 3, Wonderland."
When I finally managed to trip and in the midst of Atlas catching me, I suddenly cried, "Hold on, we're from different bases? Then the horizon eating us up was really the entire Earth, and not just our base?"
Atlas sighed (I really was about to punch him for sighing) and nodded.
With this revelation in mind, I kept quiet all the way until we reached those hand-resembling roots. It seemed like our world really did end, but in a completely unscientific and unrealistic way. On the good side, we did manage to find a temporary source of food.
Although I wasn't quite sure if this really was edible, it was the only choice we had in this completely new world. In any case, it looked like a carrot... somewhat... all we needed to do was have Atlas start a fire and roast the roots.
I have drawn this newfound plant below:
I have named it "Thorny Hand Root" as shown. Don't question my spectacularly creative naming conventions. In any case, Atlas had borrowed a flat piece of metal from Jerica, and bent it into a shoveling tool, quickly digging up the thorny hand roots. Gathering about a dozen of them, and marking the spot for future use, we left the scene.
Upon returning, we were extremely lucky to find out that Jerica, Isaac, and Ramon had indeed found shelter. A naturally formed small cave, without any strange creatures or plants. As for Leon, Ivie, and Thomas, they did manage to find a small pond, and had brought back an expandable tank of water, enough for the night. As we huddled into the cave, with a certain edgelord sitting at the opening (I mean, even Thomas, the self-proclaimed antisocial nerd, was with us), and began roasting the thorny hand roots, our anxieties for one night seemed to cease, our thoughts stilling in the mindless chatter of the night.
The thorny hand roots, although bitter and downright disgusting, were indeed edible. The nine of us took turns that night to stand guard outside the cave. It was beautiful. The moon and stars stretched in the night sky, and we trusted each other.
Day 1, end.
190Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡ5oZEuJRbUr
