They arrived at a large, imposing building, which they recognized as a government facility, the kind of place that most people only saw on TV or heard about in whispers. The doors were wide and heavy, and as they entered, the atmosphere changed. Inside, the hallways were much grander, with high ceilings and polished marble floors. The sounds of their footsteps echoed through the vast space, making everything feel unnervingly empty.
The old man led them into a large conference room. It was cold, clinical, yet opulent, with a long table at the center and chairs neatly arranged around it. The young men who had followed him stood by the door, their eyes never leaving the group.
Once everyone was seated, the old man took his place at the head of the table. His gaze was sharp, his every movement deliberate. Without wasting time, he turned to the group and began speaking.
"I know you're confused, and I understand why. What you've experienced... the things you've seen... they are not part of the world we know. Not anymore. You've crossed a threshold. What you think you've been through, what you think you've escaped, was not just a dream or hallucination. It was real. And now, the world is paying the price."
The words hung in the air like a heavy fog. The group was silent, each person processing the gravity of what the old man had just said. Serena's eyes widened, and Dorian clenched. They hadn't yet had time to think through everything they had learned, but hearing it spoken aloud made it even more real.
"I'm sure you have questions," the old man continued, "but right now, you need to listen carefully. You are part of something much bigger than yourselves. You have been selected... no, chosen... to survive an event that, as of this moment, few people have had. The others who vanished... they weren't so fortunate. We don't know exactly why you survived, but we do know that you are the key to understanding what's happening."
A ripple of unease passed through the group. Kade shifted uncomfortably in his chair. He was usually the one to crack a joke in tense moments, but now, the weight of the situation kept him silent.
The old man's piercing gaze swept over them. "You'll be given the resources and information you need. But make no mistake, this is only the beginning. The world as you know it is gone. And something worse is coming."
Liam leaned forward, his voice low but insistent. "What are you talking about? What do you mean by 'worse'? And why us? Why us specifically?"
The old man's expression didn't falter. "I will explain everything, " The room fell into a heavy silence. The air seemed to thicken as they all processed the implications of his words. They weren't just survivors. They were something more. But what? And how much more was at stake?
The old man stood, signaling for the younger men to move forward. "We'll begin with what we know. And we'll need your cooperation."
The group sat in stunned silence, their minds racing with questions that couldn't be answered. Yet, despite the fear and confusion, one thing was certain: they had survived something that had wiped millions away, and whatever came next, they were now a part of it. There was no going back.
The old man's voice grew more serious as he leaned forward, his eyes locked onto the group. "This is where it all began," he said, his tone heavy with the weight of the truth he was about to reveal. "About a month ago, something happened. A sudden, bright light appeared in the sky. At first, we thought it was nothing, a strange celestial event, maybe just a fluke. But then, things started to change."
He paused for a moment, as if collecting his thoughts before continuing. "At first, there were only 15 people. Their bodies began to glow, just faintly just like you, at first. It wasn't like anything anyone had ever seen before. No one understood what was happening. These people were brought to hospitals, examined, but no one could make sense of it. We couldn't even figure out what kind of radiation was coming off of them, but we knew it wasn't normal. It started out weak, barely noticeable. But as days passed, it got stronger.
The group listened intently, their minds trying to wrap around the growing horror of the situation.
"The weirdest part," the old man continued, "was that after this event people started suddenly disappearing one moment you see them the other moment is like you were talking to yourself.
He looked around the room, his eyes filled with the weight of history. "First, it was a couple hundred. Then thousands. And then hundreds of thousands. People vanished overnight. No explanation. Just... gone. At first, it was hard to link the two events, the glowing patients and the disappearances. But as it spread across the world, some countries began to make a terrifying connection. Some of them thought that the radiation coming off these patients was causing the disappearances."
Serena, who had been quiet until now, spoke up, her voice filled with disbelief. "So, what happened? What did they do?"
The old man's expression darkened. "They decided to test their theory. In one country, they killed one of the patients, their theory was that by removing the source of the radiation, they could stop the disappearances. But they were wrong. They were horribly wrong."
He took a deep breath, as though the weight of the next part was too much to bear. "Killing that one patient... triggered something. A chain reaction. And that's when millions of people began to vanish in an instant. Entire cities, entire countries... they just ceased to exist. People disappeared from every corner of the world. And that's when we realized: this wasn't just some fluke event. This was something much larger."
The room fell into a heavy silence. The group was still trying to process what they had just heard, the enormity of the situation settling in like a cold weight in their chests.
Dorian, always the pragmatic one, spoke up. "So... that's it? That's the cause? It's all connected to this... this light and these people?"
The old man nodded slowly. "Yes. But it's not over yet. We still don't know everything. The people who disappeared, some of them didn't just vanish. They were taken somewhere. We believe that what you all experienced was somehow tied to that disappearance. And now... you're one of the few who have made it back."
He paused, letting his words sink in. "You've been through something no one else has. You've seen the other side. And we believe that you might be the key to understanding how to stop this... whatever it is."
Liam leaned forward, his voice shaky but determined. "What do you want us to do? We've been through hell. We don't even know what happened to us, what we saw."
The old man's gaze softened, but there was a hint of urgency in his eyes. "I know this is difficult to process, but we need your help. We need you to be a part of this. Whatever it was that connected you to the Lost Civilization, it's still out there. And we believe you may have answers we don't have yet. The light... the radiation... the disappearances, they're all part of a much bigger picture. And we need to stop it before it consumes the entire world."
The weight of his words hung in the air. For a moment, no one spoke. The group sat there, overwhelmed by everything they had just learned. It was a lot to take in, too much to process in one sitting. But deep down, each of them knew they couldn't turn away. They had survived something no one else had, and now it was up to them to figure out why, and how to stop it.
The old man looked at them one last time. "We will give you everything we know. But we need you to be ready."
The old man's gaze grew more intense as he stood in front of the group, his hands clasped behind his back. "Now, I need to know everything," he said, his voice firm. "From the beginning to the end.
What happened to you? Where did you go? What did you experience? And don't leave anything out. Every detail matters."
The group exchanged uneasy glances. They had only just begun to process what they had been through, and now they were being asked to relive it all, to put it into words. But the weight of the old man's request was clear. This wasn't just about their personal trauma anymore. This was about the fate of the world.
Liam, who had been quiet for most of the conversation, was the first to speak. His voice was low but determined. "It all started when we... when we woke up in that place. The Lost Civilization, right? We were just... there."
Serena nodded, adding, "We were all separated at first. We didn't know where we were or how we got there. Everything was empty, broken buildings, wreckage everywhere. It was like some kind of post-apocalyptic world, but it wasn't Earth. Not exactly."
"Yeah," Dorian chimed in, "And it wasn't just the place. It was like the air itself was wrong. Heavy, suffocating. We all felt it. Like something was watching us, waiting for us to figure out what the hell was going on."
Serena, who had been pacing silently, finally stopped and spoke. "I saw things there, things that didn't make sense. There was a monster, something massive. It killed people. It didn't even hesitate. And then there was the cloud... it just kept coming, like it was swallowing everything."
"Wait," Serena interjected, "You remember the cloud, right? The dark one? It felt like it was alive, like it was calling us or pulling us in. I thought it was going to consume us too. But we made it out. Somehow."
The old man listened carefully, his expression unreadable. "And this... 'monster'? What kind of creature was it?"
Dorian looked disturbed, remembering the grotesque image of the towering figure. "It was huge, impossibly huge. It had an axe, a weapon that seemed to hum with power. I don't know if it was alive or something else, but it didn't seem to care about us. It just killed without reason."
The old man's brow furrowed. "Interesting... and you were all alone in this world?"
Liam shook his head, his voice tight. "We were together at first, but then certain people appeared. One of them was unconscious and that one monster killed him, then the darkness came and separated us. It felt like it was messing with our emotions, turning us against each other in some way. I don't think we were supposed to get out. But we did, somehow."
"Somehow," Selena echoed, her voice trembling slightly. "When we were separated, I felt like I was losing my mind. Everything turned into fear.."
The old man nodded thoughtfully. "And you were all conscious when you returned?"
Liam hesitated before answering. "We were... but it didn't feel like we were. Everything was foggy, like we weren't sure if we had just woken up from a nightmare or if it was real. We couldn't tell what had happened. And when we came back, we didn't understand what it all meant. But when the news hit, millions of people had vanished. That's when we knew it wasn't just a dream."
The room was heavy with silence as the gravity of their words settled in.
The old man's eyes narrowed, as though he were trying to piece everything together. "It seems like what you experienced was not just an event, it was a transformation. You are no longer the same people who left this world, and the place you entered is not simply a physical location. There is something more at play here."
"So, what do we do now?" Serena asked, her voice breaking the tension. "What happens next?"
The old man stood tall, his expression resolute. "You need to help us understand. We have theories, but your experience is the key. There is something bigger at work here, something that goes beyond what we know. And now that you've returned, it's time to figure out what it all means, before it's too late."
As the group looked at each other, they understood that this was just the beginning. What they had been through, what they had seen, it wasn't over. It was only the start of something much darker, and now they were part of something much larger than they had ever imagined.
The world wasn't the same anymore, and neither were they.