Light rushed in, then it disappeared as quickly as it came. The surrounding environment had completely changed. 

I was standing on a stone plain. The hard granite floor was clean, without flaws or fissures. Stormy weather with wild clouds covered the sky. A strange blue light seemed to come from the terrain a little farther away, but I couldn’t pinpoint where exactly it originated from.

Where was I?

As I looked around, I realized that nobody had changed their position from just a moment ago at the bus station. George Kruger stood still next to me.

“Ahhh!“

A shrill scream resounded and echoed in the hollow terrain.

Some people, including myself, turned to make out the source of the scream. 

I was thunderstruck. My arms suddenly felt weak and numb. The lump in my throat, which formed when the light hit, became bigger and paralyzed my ability to speak.

Two feet away from me, there was no ground anymore. The floor dropped at a 90° angle. I couldn’t even see the bottom of the cliff, because thick fog obstructed the view, tens of meters below. 

Just one step, just one carelessness and I would have fallen!

The woman, who screamed, was hanging on the cliff and could barely dig her fingers into the brittle edge of the clean cut stone.

Her eyes had filled with tears and her mouth distorted from the exertion. “Help,“ she exclaimed, voiceless.

To my surprise, George Kruger moved to the edge, knelt down, and took one of her wrists with both hands. He pulled her with all his might, but he didn’t have the power to heave her up alone. At this rate, she would pull him down with her, rather than him succeeding in this reckless rescue. Other people also slowly awoke from their confusion and rushed to the scene to help as well. They all together pulled her, and she stemmed her feet on the wall and climbed up. As she was up, she knelt down. George Kruger smiled apologetically when he saw the grazes at her underarms.

Yet the woman had no reaction at all. She sat there staring as if she could see through everything. Her eyes didn’t focus. Then she hugged her legs and started crying.

George Kruger knelt down, waiting next to her. His face bore a light smile, as if to say: ‘Everything will be all right.’ He patted her back and only got up after she calmed down and looked at him with gratitude. He was truly a good person. ‘I really hope he retains that trait,’ I thought with a bitter smile.

The people, who had been in a state of shock from the cliff, slowly recovered, and the crowd around the woman dissipated.

At that moment, I heard a barely audible sound. For some reason, I felt addressed by this quiet chant.

{Oh, what do we have here?}

I span around. It was a light, happy, kind of childlike voice. But it didn’t sound like a human. It was as if a thousand ant-sized people talked at once in the same tune. I felt a chill rolling down my back.

{Oh, you hear me? Well then~ Be careful and listen well, will you? It is very important~} It said playfully.

“What?” I whispered to the air.

{We will meet. Just wait~}

“Wait!”

But I couldn’t hear the voice anymore, and people started talking over each other.

“What is this? Where are we?”

“Mom, I’m scared.”

“Is this a scam?”

“Hello? Police?”

Effectively, only a few moments had passed since we arrived in the surreal setup.

The old lady from the station was still next to me, and the other people also hadn’t changed their location much… at least based on the distance to me. A few people sat on the ground where the street has been. George Kruger had come back and stood next to me. We had both moved a few meters away from the edge after the commotion. Where were we?

We were clearly teleported somewhere, no matter how unlikely that was. There was no other explanation.

Many bolts of lightning crashed down, followed by the loud thunder sound. George Kruger crouched down and pressed his hands on his ears. His shoulder-long hair flew up and only descended to perfectly frame his face. If not for his ashen-pale face, it looked as if the scene came right out of a commercial. 

He probably had been putting up a strong front before. He was just as confused as everyone. But now, everything came back with the lightning. I admired him for his compassion. 

“Are you okay?”, I asked him. His body was stiff. Only his eyes were shaking while staring at the floor. 

I could see the couple with the golden retriever in the distance. There, the floor was darker, almost black. In another direction, I spotted the thin man who was walking fast and relentlessly talking to the phone in his hand.

“Hello, sir.... Please pick up the call. Hello, hello! Hello? Come on, I know I am late, but please pick up the call! I don’t want to lose this job-”

A loud crash shattered the sky again. Multiple lightning bolds had combined to a blinding light, that was accompanied by an apocalyptic, deafening sound.

From the corner of my eye, I saw George Kruger jolting together. The loud sounds clearly made him uncomfortable.

Other people also reacted and reflexively looked at the million lines that were zigzagging in the faraway sky.

In the distance, a tower loomed over the scene. Its massive body of stone grew from the black and white tiled floor like a magical tree. Its organic form did not fit the plainness of the floor at all.

I was wondering if the bluish light had its beginning in the tower.

Subconsciously, my hand patted George Kruger’s shoulder a few times. The rhythm seemed to calm him down a little. After his expression relaxed, he took a step back, brushing my hand off.

“Ah, thank you,” he said, slightly embarrassed.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

He could not answer because a thunderous and brassy voice interrupted our exchange.

{Welcome to the world. Words are truth. Fate commands the truth.}

It was a different voice than the cheeky one before. It was also a lot louder. Turning heads told me that other people heard it too. The gust of wind, which came with the mysterious noise, gave me goosebumps. George Kruger shivered as well.

The commotion from a moment ago had quieted down immediately. Stock still and mesmerized, everyone was glimpsing around to make out the origin of the sound.

Eventually, the mass of eyes rested on the tower.

{The world stands still. The light flares up.}

At this moment, the occasional flashes of lightning between the clouds stopped, and the sky remained like a painting of a stormy evening.

What the fuck was happening?!

A few tiny white lines flickered far above us in the sky. Then another crash shattered the silence. George shrugged together again.

{Some are worthy to live, and some perish}, said the voice.

A few meters away, a man’s face lost all color. His girlfriend next to him clung to his arm as they were both staring at the sky. George Kruger next to me didn’t seem to be as taken aback. Compared to how he reacted to the thunder, he was rather calm. He stood there as before, unmoved. Only his moving Adam’s apple showed his nervousness. 

{Don’t challenge fate. We retaliate} continued the voice, {The humans divide into two groups of a dozen each. Get the ruler’s love.}

So, there should be twelve in each group. Right now, there were over a hundred people. What would happen to the others? But before I could finish my thought, the voice answered,

{They make decisions about who lives or dies. 900 seconds are left. Break it apart. Humans choose wisely.}