Scotia managed to open her pack, pulling a strangely shaped metal cord that split the bag open in two. Inside, we found some wooden and metal tools—something I’d only seen in our lessons—a few grey bottles that would likely hold water and potentially disinfect it, and some paper packs that, once opened by Scotia, contained brown blocks that smelled like food.

“Where are the weapons?” Zealand asked, turning on Gregis. The alien was looking down on us with a serene expression, almost like a proud parent.

“Those are.” He pointed his long arm at one of the tools, a sharp blade we normally used to cut our food. “And you will learn to fashion more with time.”

“What?” That blade wasn’t a weapon. They needed guns! Real ones!

Every one of us jumped as the ground came to a stop, nearly knocking me off my feet from how sudden it was. Then, the wall in front of us started to lower, opening. I squinted as a bright light shone from the next room, blinding me. It was a slight yellow color too, so different from the white and grey light we were accustomed too.

As my eyes adjusted and an unfamiliar scent filled my nose—something fresh and…not stale like the rest of this place—I realized this door didn’t lead to another section in the ship. This was a door to the outside, to Earth! This was the smell of fresh air and I was seeing light from the real sun!

My heart leapt but Scotia stiffened beside me, nervous for the first time.

We had been taught all our lives that the world was filled with cities, places of stone and steel built to house thousands of humans in one place. The ground was supposedly grey and filled with ‘roads’ that helped people go from one place to another.

We were also told that nearly every spot of land was covered with Calumnia now, large masses of red tentacles that covered the ground when they lay dormant. When they saw movement, the Calumnia would join together to form a large beast capable of mimicking anything.

However, what I saw before me wasn’t a city at all or ground covered in Calumnia. All I saw was green and brown like Sarmatia eyes and Zealand’s hair. There was a forest stretching farther than the eye could see and brown ground so uneven it looked like it could fall out from under you.

“Where’s the Calumnia?” Graec whispered, his voice wobbling as they stared at the land. “Where are the cities?”

“How much of what you told us was the truth?” Scotia asked our trainer, one step ahead of the rest of us. He looked down on her with a scowl and I saw her clutch the gun a little tighter. If he said the wrong thing, she might try to use it…though it wouldn’t do much damage.

“Your world needs repopulation,” he repeated calmly, his voice soothing. “And you have been bred to bring that new generation of humans into your world.”

“Where’s everybody else?” Zealand shouted as I studied our surroundings. There were some far away stones among all that dirt. Maybe they were the remnants of the cities in the video.

…But were those images even real?

“Your new mission is to survive here and repopulate the Earth over the next few thousand years,” Gregis said, avoiding the question. “I would advise you to avoid creating the technology your predecessors did.”

“What?” I furrowed my brow but before we could ask more questions, the ground beneath us started to rise, its slippery surface forcing us toward the ground. Only our mentor remained in place, his hands clasped together.

“Give us our weapons!” Graec shouted. Even he’d had enough of this farce. “Gregis! Give us our weapons now! We can’t defend ourselves—”

“It has been a pleasure training you,” the alien said as my feet slipped out from under me and I rolled off the station onto the dirt below. It was soft and didn’t hurt nearly as much as the station did. It also smelled different, not bitter or acidic.

Scotia bumped into me as she fell too, followed by Sina. When Zealand landed on the ground, he immediately leapt back to his feet and ran toward our teacher, but the ship Gregis stood in was already lifting.