The Chosen: aftermath

In the year 2042, a life-altering event took place that shook humankind. This was when more than half the population of Earth were dragged up into the sky in a blinding light and then just disappeared. Without a trace as if God reached down and plucked up these souls and for whatever reason left everyone else. These people were of every color, sex, religion, and from many different countries. Nothing could be proven as to why or how these people were selected. Some were criminals, many were of different faiths, and every color under the sun was represented.

The scientist tried to run simulation after simulation and the world came together to study all the people who were chosen and they could not come up with an answer. From this people started distrusting science, they wanted to be chosen as well, and science seemed to not be able to answer how to make that happen. A large sect of the remaining population decided to put their faith in religion, they created a grand unified theory that included all previous religions in an attempt to stumble upon what made these people chosen.

As time went by and the church's power grew, more people were chosen in 2062. Each year on that date the believers would line up in hopes that would be the day. Some became disheartened and left after few years had passed. They believed the event was never going to happen again and they were just left behind to be forgotten. 10 years to the day that the first blinding light occurred to the amazement of the human race, it began again. Just like before there seemed to be no rhyme or reason to humans being whisked up into the sky on beams of light. This time many of the Unified faithful were chosen though, more than half. Other people were selected at random but just the slight increased ratio leads the unified faith to become even more powerful. They had proved something science could not prove that they were doing better than the rest of us. Governments, people of wealth, and influence funded the church they wanted to buy their way into being chosen. As the power and influence of the church grew the more unbelievers were treated poorly. In an attempt to increase their odds and decrease the unbelievers' odds the church began to take action against humanity. If only a certain number of people were selected they wanted to make sure that it was of their numbers. With governments and power behind them, no one lifted a finger to stop the violence and bloodshed. Greed and self-interest replaced actual religious ideologies and began to corrupt the Unified faith.

I was 8 years old when the first light came down and took my mother and father. I was left as an orphan and went into the system and eventually was matched up with parents who lost their child in the same event. As the world tried its best to piece together some normalcy, but it wasn't normal. You don't just get a new kid or new parents and go on about your life. People didn't know if they should be sad, or happy, or scared. Was the chosen taken to a better place? They were not dead so it was hard to process the grief without a body or funeral. At that time my mother dropped her heart-shaped locket and told me that she loved me in the moments that she had before she disappeared in the sky.

Even now I carry that locket with me, one of the only reminders of my parents that I lost 10 years ago. Again why was I not chosen? Was I not good enough? The thoughts of missing the chance to see my parents again after 10 years made my eyes well up. As I calmed down over the next few days, I realized at least there is a chance that I might see them again. The event happened again so it was time to prepare for the future. Though I didn't agree with the methods or what Unified Faith stood for it was the only method of survival and increasing the odds to be chosen. I was willing to take the chance there were only 9 years 11 months and 6 days until the 10-year mark came again if it came again and I could only hope it would be my turn.

As I rose through the ranks of the church, I always tried to stay true to myself and leaned on my mother locket for support. I worked within their system of greed, money, bribery, and wickedness to keep my enemies close and unaware that I would tip off unbelievers or release prisoners to escape. It didn't always work, I couldn't come directly out and stand up for them but I knew some survived. That was the most I could ask for.

It was almost 10 years to the day of the last event, I prayed even if I didn't know who or what I was praying too I just needed to be chosen. It was hard to sleep that night not knowing what the morning would bring. Would it be another long wait or was it finally going to be my turn? I woke up after getting 15 minutes of sleep, went to try to eat but my inside was filled with butterflies. As I took out my mother's heart-shaped locket, I opened it and looked inside, it was pictures of me and my parents. All smiling and happy, in each other's arms. Then it began I felt warm, and my eyes were soon blinded with the brightest white light. I clutched the locket in my hand and held it as tight as I could, as I began to rise and was pulled away at great speed. Just don't let go I thought, this was all I had and all I needed in this world.

I was laying on what seemed like a hard metal floor, when I opened my eyes everything was blurry but slowly began to gain back focus. Was this where the chosen went to? Did not appear to be heaven or a great and wonderful place of the gods and the special people. This place was cold, sterile, and empty. Did I go to the right place? Did something go wrong? I experienced the same event that my parents had so this had to be where they were. It was the only thing that made any reasonable sense.

As I explored, my surroundings I noticed markings that I could not read but seemed to be etched into the metal. It wasn't for few hours until I found another person, they were as shocked to see me as I was to see them. We decided to stick together as two heads seemed a better option than going it alone. Eventually, we found a large room with many other people who had converged. Everyone was a little frantic and didn't understand what was going on. I could relate, nothing from the church prepared me for this. The only thing I knew for sure was this was not god but was it the devil? We made groups of 10 people to explore our surroundings as it would take a very long time to search alone.

It wasn't until the next day that things started to go wrong, with no resources and no idea how long it was going to take to get to them, people started acting manic. It soon became free for all on survival of the fittest, no one was working together. I was young, fast, and in good shape so I just tried to avoid all the chaos and found my way along the maze. Some others were not so lucky they were killed by the bare hands of other humans who became know as ravagers. It was disturbing how humans were no better than rats in a cage when it came down to it.

Finally, I found the exit of the maze with few other people who did not lose their minds, it was a huge grassy field, and an apple tree, and a running river. We quickly took to the water and drank until our stomachs hurt, never have I ever been that thirsty. Once the pain subsided, we helped ourselves to apples from the tree. It was so delicious we were so thankful for the food and drink.

That was when we heard a voice, not in our ears but inside our heads. The voice greeted us and welcomed us home. With some confusion as this looked nothing like cities where most of us were from. Where greed and power and corruption ran rampant. This was just like the beginning before humans left their marks on the world. We were directed to a settlement, something you might have seen in the history book with log homes and cattle, wagons, and water wheels. Plainclothes and no one owned an electric device of any sort. The air was clean and the sky was clear, you could see the tops of the buildings and people were not living on top of each other.

The voice explained they were coming to earth to try to save the human race and relocated as many people as they could. Humanity was on the verge of using up all its resources and contaminating all the water and sky within the next 100 years. They needed to provide and help humanity settle before they could go back to earth. It also used many resources for the alien species to move so many people so far.

I searched around the settlement it had been established 20 years prior so we were much better off than the very first people selected like my parents. I researched historical documents to try to find what happened to them. I managed to find an address out the outskirts of town, on a farm that was thriving. I was so excited to see them again, I went up to knock on the front door. A boy of the age of 12 and a girl of 8 was at the door, they said Hello what do you want. I asked if their parents were home? They left me standing on the front step, they seemed like nice kids my parents must have taken them in. A man came to the door, he looked very different than I remembered, my father now at the age of 45 was grayer and had little more wrinkles around his eyes. The twinkle remained, he says howdy stranger, what can I do you for? I guess this happened from all the years away from home but I could still tell that it was my father. I couldn't muster a word all I could do was hold out the heart-shaped locket in my palm. My father looked down and saw the images inside and burst out crying, he wrapped me in the biggest hug and called for my mother. When I saw her fall to her knees and smile I knew I was home.