There were no crows in or around the field when Jens arrived there the next day. He kept a wary eye out for them, but as the day wore on and he finished planting the next several rows he came to the conclusion that the crows were gone. Whether it was because they’d found someplace else to be or if it was because he’d called them his pets he didn’t know. Part of him hoped it was the former since the latter meant that someone or something was paying that close of attention to him.

“Am I like an experiment or something?” he asked the empty air around him. “Like a rat in a lab?”

That was an idea he hadn’t fully considered before. What if it wasn’t that everyone else was gone, but that he was in an artificial environment. What if he’d been plucked out of his real apartment and placed into an artificial environment. Maybe the distant mountains weren’t real. Maybe if he walked far enough he’d run into a wall or something, like in the movie “The Truman Show”. How bizarre would that be?

“That would spoil the experiment, wouldn’t it?” he thought out loud.

What would they do with him if that was the case? Put him back in his real home, or just terminate him? He didn’t like the idea of risking it all like that and dropped it.

“Let’s assume this is an experiment,” he said, partly so he could hear a voice speaking. “What’s being tested? Survival skills while dealing with isolation?”

That would explain why pets weren’t even allowed.

“But why leave me here in the city?” he asked. “Why not drop me off in the middle of nowhere? Not that I’m not grateful to be where I am,” he added quickly since the idea of being left without easy access to food and water, not to mention shelter, was not one he wanted to endure.

“Maybe it’s more about psychology than actual survival skills. See if being all alone makes me go crazy.” That seemed like the most probable answer. “So I’ve just got to keep it together…for science.”

Not ideal, to say the least, but having even a guess at why this was happening helped make sense of the situation and calm his mind. That didn’t mean he liked the idea of being experimented on, but at least this put his situation into perspective.

Jens spent the rest of the afternoon tilling up the last of the field. He had about half of the field planted now, and the rest of the seedlings were sprouting and would be ready to plant soon. As he walked the tiller back around the field towards home he noticed how many weeds were popping up around the field. That would be his task for tomorrow, he figured, and made a mental note of it.

His back and shoulders were sore from all the physical labor he’d been doing, and he grimaced as he admitted to himself that he wasn’t even working that hard. Just a few hours everyday in the field, from late morning to mid afternoon most days. Barely a part-time job. And yet he wasn’t used to the physical labor. He was more accustomed to spending his days behind a desk.

“Well, this is one way to get into shape,” he sighed. “First time I’ll have any decent definition to my muscles since…ever.”

He tried out a flex to see if there was much of anything yet but his arms were still quite amorphous. It would take more than a week of work to see any results, he figured. Then again, what was keeping him from going to the gym and working out there? He had plenty of time in the day and there were a few gyms within reasonable walking distance. The lack of electricity wouldn’t matter since he’d just be using the weight machines and they didn’t require power.

“Why not just disassemble them and move them to the house?”

He had an entire spare room he didn’t need, he just had to clean out the dirt and things he’d put in there for Charlie. There was a decent collection of tools in the house, and it wasn’t as though he lacked the time. There was no rush for him to get things moved over. It could be a nice way to pass the time, too. Keeping busy was about the only thing Jens had to stay sane. Otherwise he would just sit and stare at the wall.

“Alright,” he said with a brighter attitude, “tomorrow I’ll do some weeding and clean out the room to get it ready to become a home gym.”