STRANDED, 3000.

While Kayelin was playing the game, Jin and his friends in the Busan campus of WSA didn’t know what was happening outside the world. Jin had already graduated WSA faster than he was planned and was studying further at Einstein Technical University. This school was the only school that didn’t need to play the game because they were the most clever ones who had above IQ of 150. Founded in 2817, it became the university with most reputation after a student of this school made cryonics possible for the first time. Even miners had a chance to change their life completely if they had an IQ above 150 but it was very rare. The head of ETS, Tihomir Brigitte was the husband of the president and so everything in this school was controlled by the government under region of education in every possible way. Mrs. Brigitte had individual meetings with all the students every week and the whole campus was filled with small cameras which couldn’t be turned off. Anything they did wrong would be reported to the president, not the head of the school. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that all the attention of the president was focused in this school than the world itself. Mrs. Brigitte always said the purpose of all of this attention was to raise the leaders who would save the nature. The next goal of this university was to send the humanity to planet Kepler-186f which was a earth-size habitable planet that scientists were certain of. So the challenge the students had to risk instead of not having the responsibility of paying tax was building a spaceship that would attain the goal. This required a lot of time and money but the government supported the students with anything they needed to make it possible. The students could create any kind of spaceship they wanted and could even request the school to get specific types of materials if they needed. Lots of citizens who knew this fact later were angry at the government because they were not happy with giving away their taxes when they weren’t the ones who were getting the benefit. It was until when there was an earthquake of 8.9 that people realized something was wrong. Millions of people died from this terrible disaster in a couple of hours but this wasn’t the end. Small earthquakes repeated in regions where it was known to be far away from the earthquake zone, and tsunamis came together making the situation worse. The government however, didn’t seem surprised. They didn’t spend any money fixing buildings or curing the injured, not even rescuing those who could be alive in the destroyed buildings. When people started protesting for the protection of their lives, the president officially announced that there was nothing they could do. Through the news they announced that this spaceship creating program was more worth spending money for the future. The president even made and passed a new rule that those who were against paying more tax for spaceship invention would get in trouble under the great law. People became silent as time went by, and now because they were too focused on having parties for the new start of a new year. No one cared how much money the government was taking money away from them. One Thursday evening, Jin realized there were 13 voice call messages from his sister. Looking at their phone, using the Internet or even talking with someone on their phone wasn’t allowed until 11pm according to the school rules. This made them rely more on their robots and blocked from the outside world and so they had no other choice but staying focused on their research. Jin had never broken the rules before but today as soon as he saw his phone, he felt something ominous. His sister who was a miner never called him because she knew he was busy studying and she didn’t use her devices much to save money. But soon his roommate suddenly started checking his phone as well. “What..? Why did my mom call me? She left a message?” Regan seemed to be shocked checking his phone. “Did your family also call you, Regan?” “Yes.. Strange… She lives out of this region. It must be hard to connect me. Did your mother call you as well?” “My sister... 13 times… She left a message as well.” They looked at each other in silence and dread. Regan said “I think we should check what they were trying to say. Nothing is more important than our family.” “I agree with you. I will go out and check if there is someone outside. Let’s lock the doors and put some music so they can’t notice we are using are phones.” Jin agreed and went to lock the door. “Sure... I really hope it’s nothing serious... We still have a month before we can go home officially. Let’s listen to the files together.” Jin silently nodded and Regan played the play button on Jin’s phone that he couldn’t press with his shaking hands. The voice of his sister started to come out of the file. “Hi. Long time no see. I am sending this message because I think I cannot see you when you come back in a month. Why didn’t you come...? You knew this the whole time didn’t you? You promised me you would come back when the watch you gave me matches the time of yours. It is matching now. You know what right? The needle of that watch is shaking up and down because it doesn’t know where to go just like me. Daddy lost his mind drinking alcohol and he isn’t waking up. Now I am alone here and I cannot go out because I will be caught. They are killing us. You used to tell me that when your death gets close to you, people you loved suddenly comes into your mind. Please come back… I’m sorry that I wasn’t a nice sister. But I need you right now. I am running out of food and I feel too vulnerable… The government took all our robots and melted them to use for the materials of the spaceship. Please tell me what is happening. I hate you. No, don’t come back. You betrayed our family.” “What did she just say?” Teardrops fell from Jin’s eyes and he was shaking so hard that Regan had to hug him to calm him down. “My parents are both dead and people are being killed? What is she joking about?” Regan looking desperate opened his phone immediately and started the recording his mom sent. “Honey, when you come back from you school next month, mommy and daddy won’t be here. We are going on a very long trip. And we won’t be able to come back… Just a trip so don’t worry. We love you so much and we will always, forever. Don’t believe anyone in this world and don’t let them choose your life because they will choose wrong. We love you.” The recording ended but none of them believed they Regan’s parents were going on a trip. This time Jin had to help his friend not fall down. “Jin, something’s going on. I think we should go out and find out to see. Did you use your pass to go home this year?” “No. I think we should. Right now.” Regan and Jin sprinted of the room and passed the long corridor toward the office. They were not the only one. At least 100 students were lined up, waiting to use their pass to go home. Jin could smell something was going on. Suddenly, the office announced none of the students were allowed to use their pass this month. The office soon became uproarious. Students were angry and were asking why but the office didn’t answer any questions asking them to return to their dorms. A student who was in the first of the line threw his bag at the officer and screamed “What are you trying to hide from us? Let us go home. We should see with our eyes and see what is really going on.” The other students in the line started joining him shouting “Reveal the truth!” marching around the information desk. The officer picked up the bag and wiped the blood from his mouth and said “We are already dead. Forget about your family like I did.” Then he started calling somewhere, probably the school principal and the president. Regan grabbed Jin’s hand and went out of the office. Soon, 6 other boys followed them to Jin’s dormitory. It wasn’t allowed for the students to go to other rooms but they didn’t care. The 8 boys sat around in a circle and started discussing about their own stories. Some of them were even crying. “She said that he wanted to go fishing with me when I came back” “My grandparents were shot and my parents were in front of them. They said they couldn’t do anything because they were miners” The room was filled with sound of weeping. Listening to their stories, Regan suddenly stood up and walked towards the windows. This whole time, the students were never interested about the world outside and the world wasn’t interested in them either. He opened the windows slowly with a squeaking sound and as he touched the handle, the dust moved to his fingers. When Regan finally opened the windows, all the boys looked outside. Now the sun was falling down which meant it was getting closer to the dark night. As they watched out the windows from a long distance away, one by one, the boys went to the window next to Regan. They looked at the sky then to the ground slowly trying to imagine what was happening outside. Then Jin noticed something strange. The ground wasn’t black because of the rocks. Something was moving continuously. A group of ants, hundreds of thousands were all moving together toward the hole in the ground. “Oh my god… Those are ants? Guys, look here…” “Is there something going on?” asked Regan. “Those are all ants. There wouldn’t be a place to walk.” “Oh my gosh.. That is gross… But strange...” Someone else shouted in urgent. “Guys! Look there! Look at the sky!” The sky was full of birds. Not a single space left for a cloud. All the different kind of birds and bats were flying everywhere chaotically. It seemed that they were moving from south to the north. Jin asked Regan. “Why are all the animals moving away?” Regan just stared out the window sighing. Instead, Oliver replied. “I learned in high school that animals have well-developed senses. They would hide or move when they knew something will happen like an earthquake or a volcano eruption. If that is true, something is about happen and that might be related to our families getting lost and dying.” Jin faced Oliver and set in front of him. “Really? Why do you think the government is spending so much money on us? Because we are boys?” Oliver grabbed Jin by the collar. “Dude, wake up.” Everyone in the room looked at Jin. Oliver continued. “They are making us invent this machine because it is the only way for them to reach ‘Kepler-186f’. They have the money, the power and everything but are dumb. We are their slaves and it seems we will be forever. They are giving us a choice: To be free and die here or to survive by supporting them. We have to remember, the enemies are always those who are close to us.” Jin lost his words and went back to where Regan was and sat down. The mood of the room was filled with hazard and turmoil of the young blood that was about to explode. No one dared to talk back which made them feel they were getting split from each other. Regan, who now felt sick of this said “We all knew this at some point. Go back to your rooms. We know that we cannot solve this legitimately. They will try to strew our friendship and power. And don’t tell anyone about what we talked about and found out today.” All of them nodded promising everything that happened will be a secret and headed to their dorm. While Jin was closing the windows and the door, Regan was checking his e-mail inbox to check if Kayelin sent him anything from Hong Kong. Regan was also a friend of Kayelin because of Jin’s introduction before she left. There inbox was empty. Regan truly hoped nothing was happening to her. Regan however, couldn’t hide his anxiety and started talking to himself. “Calm down, Regan. She is a big girl. She will be okay. Even if she plays the game, I am sure she will win it. She is smart. The president needs her, remember? She probably educated Kayelin as the psychiatrist in the new planet.” Jin looked at Regan who was talking alone. “Who are you talking to?” Regan answered, “To myself. It is because I am just worried about Kayelin.” “Kayelin? You talked about her last time. Who is she?” Regan didn’t know what to say to his friend that couldn’t remember his love after the accident. He didn’t want Jin to blame himself. “She… Kayelin is my mother’s friend back in another region. Forget about it. Let’s go to bed. Tomorrow will be a long day.” Regan lied about Kayelin to Jin because he knew Jin would never understand himself.