Things only got worse. By the time Jory and her mother reached the store, it was bedlam. Shelves were empty, broken packages littered the aisles, crowds of people jostled for anything and everything they thought they might need. Fights were a common sight and there were no employees to be found.

“This was a mistake,” Jory’s mom said before they were more than a few steps into the store. “Back to the car.”

Jory was relieved. Just the idea of trying to enter that mess was overwhelming. The parking lot wasn’t much better than inside the store as fights began to break out as latecomers fought those leaving the store in an effort to take what they had. No one attacked Jory and her mother, though, since they clearly didn’t have anything to steal.

As they pulled out of the parking lot, police cars began rushing in, voices booming over their loudspeakers to quell the mob.

“Let’s hope things calm back down,” Jory’s moms said.

The radio was mid-song when the music cut out and the emergency broadcast alarm began to sound.

“What now?” her mom sighed. “I hope they’re not gonna try instituting martial law or something.”

“People of Earth,” a slightly accented voice said, making the hairs on the back of Jory’s neck stand up, “now that we have identified what mutations you are able to accept we will be relocating you to worlds suitable for you. Ten percent of your population will be selected to remain here, in a preserve. Transport to your new worlds will begin immediately, starting with those of you who have already been sufficiently altered.”

“Does that mean,” Jory began, turning to her mother, but no one was there.

She wasn’t in a car anymore. Instead, she was sitting on a cold rock. The sky above her was dark and there were faint, glowing creatures some distance away from her. Her own bio-luminescence illuminated the area immediately around her. There was what looked like brown grass covering the ground. It waved slowly in a strange manner without any wind that made Jory suspect it wasn’t grass as she knew it, but perhaps more like the fur of some large beast.

Looking around she couldn’t see any other people. It was possible that one of the distant, glowing shapes was a person, but it could also be any number of things.

In almost the worst possible way, she’d been right. The aliens weren’t interested in furthering humanity. They only wanted the earth for mining or something. Maybe they were going to colonize it themselves. It didn’t really matter now. The only way things could have been worse was if they’d killed everyone instead of shipping them off planet. Though, as Jory looked around again, maybe a quick death would have been better than this. What was she supposed to eat here? And what about clean water, or shelter? She knew nothing about this world she was on.

“Hello?” a distant, female voice called out.

Looking up, Jory saw one of the glowing shapes moving her way, resolving into a human form as they drew closer.

“Hello!” Jory called out, waving.

She climbed down off of the rock she’d arrived on and began making her way to the other unfortunate person who’d been sent here. She was glad it was a woman she ran into first. She didn’t like the idea of having to team up with some random guy who may or may not suggest the need of ‘continuing the species’ or something idiotic like that.

“Hi, I’m Cass,” the woman, Cass said. She was close to Jory’s mom’s age. “Are you alright?”

“Relatively speaking,” Jory shrugged.

“There’s a group of us gathering over there,” she said, pointing towards a patch of glowing figures. “You’re welcome to join us.”

“Thank you,” Jory said.

Cass turned and began leading her towards the group.

“Only some of us speak English,” Cass said. “And someone found a baby boy. He can’t even walk yet.”

“How could they do this to us and expect us to survive?” Jory asked.

“Why would they care if we survived?” Cass asked darkly.

“They could have just dumped us into outer space instead of another planet,” Jory pointed out.

“Maybe they don’t want to kill us outright, but aren’t concerned with what happens to us now,” Cass said, shrugging. “Like trapping an animal and releasing it someplace else. Either way we’re here now.”

They reached the group of what turned out to be seven people, ranging in age from a few months old to a senile man in his seventies. There was a boy about Jory’s age who was curled up on the ground, crying, while someone crouched beside him, stroking his back and trying to comfort him. Jory didn’t think it would do any good. Their situation looked pretty hopeless.

“Alright,” Cass clapped her hands together. “We need food, water, and shelter. Right now water is our main priority. I don’t want anyone getting lost, though, so we’re going to move as a group.”

It took some effort to get the young man to stop crying enough to get him up and walking. He clearly didn’t speak any English and no one else here spoke his language. Thankfully, pantomiming was enough for now to get everyone on the same page.

Such was Jory’s introduction to her new home, her new world. She didn’t know if they would survive, but they weren’t going to just lie down and give up. She wondered what would happen to her parents, if they would be sent here as well or to some other world. Even if they came here, what were the odds that the aliens would place them anywhere near where she was? She’d deal with those thoughts later. For now, she just needed to focus on surviving.

The End