Now that I was down on the ground, I could see the station clearly. This was the first time I’d actually seen the place where we’d grown up. It was much smaller than I expected, its plain grey surface devoid of any markings or windows.

I always believed the station was huge. It had to be, to house all the other kids who were dismissed. Otherwise, where would they go?

But this station was merely a grey ball with a single door and it was barely large enough to house the cafeteria, our ten rooms, the training grounds, and the observation station where the five Occisio lived. There wasn’t space for anything else. Where did the other 94 children go when they were dismissed?

A chill ran up my back as I watched the ship ascend, making a slow journey back into space where we’d lived for ten years. If the ship couldn’t hold his friends, Gregis must have gotten rid of them…

I looked up at the blue sky and pictured Congo floating up there, his frozen body sitting among the stars for eternity. Ninety-four children dead, some of them no older than ten.

Everyone else must have come to the same realization. They started firing their paint pellets at Gregis as the door closed over him, shielding him from us.

“Those bastards!” Zealand shouted. “Leaving us here with no weapons, no cities, no people…” He gulped as he looked over his shoulder at the forest. “Seriously though, where is everything? All the stuff we saw in pictures?” The cities were supposed to be intact but filled with the crimson Calumnia. Instead, this place was barren.

I turned in a circle, my mouth dry. As I did so, I spotted something else moving into the sky a few kilometers away. After squinting for a few seconds, I realized it was another round ship, identical to the one we’d just exited. Then I looked to the right and saw another. They were all Occisio ships, leaving the planet a few kilometers away.

“Have you finally accepted what I’ve been saying all along?” Scotia asked as we stared at each other, stricken with confusion and fear. “You heard what he said. He warned us to avoid building technology.”

“So?” Graec asked but I could tell Libyci understood.

“There was no Calumnia endangering our people. I don’t think the Calumnia even existed,” Scotia continued solemnly. “The Occisio are the ones who wiped out our race.”

“That’s ridiculous!” Graec was the only one protesting now. “We saw the footage. The Calumnia were real.”

“They were fake,” Scotia said.

“Why would the Occisio wipe out our race?” Graec’s face scrunched up, about to cry. “Why kill our people but let us live? That doesn’t make any sense!”

“It does,” I whispered and all eyes turned on me. “Humanity must have become too powerful, too strong, and the Occisio worried we might be able to defeat them, so they wiped us out before we could match them.”

“But that still doesn’t explain why they let us live—”

“Because we’re the worst humanity has to offer!” I shouted, memories of my failures flooding through me. “They killed those of us who were too strong or smart, until only the worst of us remained.”

As I looked in everyone’s eyes, they knew it to be true. We were all weak. We had tempers and cowardice, clumsiness and insecurity. Strong leaders like Congo or skilled combatants like Sarmatia couldn’t be allowed to live. They would pose a threat to the Occisio by training the next generations to fight back. Gregis needed the weaklings to train the next generation, the cowards who were too afraid or slow to do anything besides survive.

It would be hard enough struggling against the animals and elements down here. How could we fight a technological race when we were barely able to live at all?

“They must have been the ones to level the cities,” Scotia continued for me, more confident than ever. “They killed everyone so we’d have to start from scratch. That’s why we were chosen. We’re special…because we suck at everything we do.”

“They…” Graec lowered his head, then screamed at the top of his lungs, his hands shaking as Libyci tried to comfort him. Zealand did the same a second later, shouting curses at the sky as the ships continued floating up until they were only dots in the sky.

“We’re really all that’s left?” Sina whispered, her chin wobbling. “What about the others? Sarmatia and Congo…”

“They’re dead,” I said hopelessly, sighing and dropping my gun into the dirt at my feet.

Even Scotia looked discouraged now that we realized just how much rested on our shoulders. At least if we came here as soldiers, there would be other humans down here to team up with. Instead, we were alone with very little survival skills besides the basics we’d been taught. We only knew how to hunt dumb things like animals…which was exactly what the Occisio wanted. We weren’t fit to avenge humanity.

Graec and Libyci knelt on the ground, crying and hugging each other. Sina wrapped her arms around her torso, shivering, and Zealand continued pacing and screaming the worst words he knew at the retreating Occisio.

“Part of me is glad I was right after all this time,” Scotia whispered. “But I wish I was wrong. I don’t want this.” She gestured toward our surroundings. “It feels so lonely without everyone else.”

Even Scotia, the brightest and most rebellious of us all, had given up.