The Absolute: Humanity's Second Chance

"..."

A young man sat within his room, and stared expressionlessly at the wall. He seemed dead. Internally at that. And his hazy gaze implied that he was lost deep within his thoughts. Lost within his own world.

Like being stranded within a misty sea, not knowing which direction is which. He sat there strangled by internal troubles.

But maybe it made sense. For his circumstances were not light nor casual. Especially so, with everything that was to come in the near future.

"..."

His vision returned to his room. Empty. He thought.

It had nothing to begin with, so him staring at the wall, was not that strange of an action. The room only had a small futon to lay on, and nothing else.

It was just purely empty. Like a broken man's heart. His heart. And like the mind of a man confused. His mind as well.

"...Haah~" He sighed to himself within the emptiness. It was sudden, gloomy and all out of the blue. Enough to shatter the peacefulness of the night.

His face finally illustrated a trace of emotion. It being a mixture of shock, and slight happiness. Happiness. If you will.

Yet also laced with a bit of bitterness within. He remembered a lot of things, like his name. He was Damien, Damien Gray. One of the last standing humans of his time.

~~~

Damien is a young man from the future.

He was one of the third generational humans, of the now new, and still being explored, world of mysteries and wonders.

From as far as he remembered, fifty years back from now, humanity suddenly found themselves stranded within a world they knew completely nothing off.

Like finding oneself within a dream you cannot relate to. The environment. The feeling. The people. Everything being, just surreal. Like a twisted lucid dream, perhaps.

And, It was a terrible experience, believe that.

For from washing the dishes, to finding yourself stranded in the wild out of nowhere, was terrifying.

Or from preparing for your death, after reaching a certain age in life, only to appear within a completely new world.

Such things occurred worldwide.

A population of almost ten billion humans, regardless of age, or status, or upbringing, appeared within this foreign environment, stranded within the wild.

A world that they came to term, Gaea.

It was a name chosen years later, when everyone realized the similarities this world bore to the Earth they knew.

Yet had a tinge of mythical, and supernatural attributes at its base.

Thus why it was termed after the Titanic Greek Goddess of Earth, and the Mother of All Life, Gaea. Hence, where the name was derived.

Damien thought, and continued to dig deeper into the history of humanity, into this new world. And not about myths he read about, within the records of the central settlement.

'Okay, back to track.' He focused.

The humans of that time, gathered up together to create something similar to a settlement, or a colony of sorts. A congregation of humans.

But with the fear spread everywhere, and the reluctance to accept their new home. It took time for everyone to finally calm down and settle.

After all, the wealthy were no longer wealthy here. What did they have now, that warranted them any right to command others?

Those in power, had none here. What gave them power over everyone, when the rules they set back at their home planet, meant jack sh*t here.

The soldiers, the police or local gang members had none of their weaponry here. What threat were they now?

Everyone was the same. At the same starting point. Thus, it was a chaotic atmosphere for everyone.

Of course, a few who kept knifes to themselves had them on their being. They were considered lucky. Or truthfully, unlucky.

Them, and those with other casual weaponry for self defense. They were armed, yes. But it still helped no one at all. Including them.

And instead, those light weaponry were the very reason some even died during that stage of denial and grief.

Many old, and many young lost their lives. They were attacked by those that deemed themselves worthy of obtaining said weapons.

And as if that was not all, and as if to mock them, a tide of strange beasts had attacked them. Especially when they were at their most vulnerable stage.

They were in the middle of nowhere. In the wild. Late at night. What else did they expect, really? Santa? Unfortunately, they never saw him. Nor any gifts of sorts.

Instead, the group of a thousand or so wolf-like beasts were their beginner gift pack.

And they took the lives of at most a similar number of thousands of people that very night.

Thousands, not just one thousand, but thousands of lives. It could be said to almost exceed ten thousand deaths in fact.

And they, the prideful hunters at the top of the chain back on Earth, could only retreat in self defense.

There were no automatic assault riffles.

There were no atomic bombs.

Or any other weapon they were proud off.

Worst of all, years after stabilizing their foothold, humans got to learn that a thousand beasts or monsters, barely count as a small pack in this world.

It was fear inducing.

Hope extinguishing.

Purely, and utterly dreadful.

Thankfully, at that moment, when they were still unaware of that, things were slightly better. And though a lot had died, and a lot more lost their loved ones.

It was not the end.

Those that survived, were more than happy they went through a calamity like that. Humanity was just like that.

At the end of the day, it was you over everyone else, right? You can mourn for those that died, but deep down, aren't you happy you survived?

Fortunately, there were still billions of humans at the end of the day, so they fought back... someway, somehow.

The first step being realization.

They realized that everything was not a dream, or some sort of twisted joke. They ended up having no choice but to rely on one another.

And that was the second step, trust and reliance on one another. But that was just the beginning.

Days went by, and more attacks just like that one arrived. The world was not human friendly. And that was obvious enough.

And of course, with the humans accepting their situation and coming to terms with their new environment, they also fought back.

They reverted back to the stone age, and made weapons out of nature. Not only weapons, but even clothes and houses.

Let alone weapons and natural traps.

They were quite the intelligent race, especially so, if they could create nanotechnology and matter-reliant weapons, capable of destroying their entire Solar System.

Using their environment to their advantage, and outsmarting some wild animals was an easy feat. And of course, adapting was hard.

More so, when they were previously at an Era of robots and procrastination.

So yes, it took quite the while to get used to everything. Some not even changing clothes after weeks due to denial, but they ultimately succumbed.

Most women made sure the men were well fed. The well fed men made sure the settlement was built, and the battles were fought.

While some women managed the building of the settlement, or management of the entire structure of their race. Both genders acquired neutrality.

Finding worth in the opposite gender, and then respecting said worth. They both individually knew what to do. And women were not stopped from joining the army or the builders.

Men were also accepted as managers and directors. They focused on what you, yourself could do. Instead of what you are or were expected to do.

Thus from days, it went to weeks, and from weeks to months, from months to a year.

And from a year, to years. From years to decades. Time became a stable reminder of how far the humans have progressed.

Everything was stable, and the humans who only lost a billion or so lives during that period, were now capable of fending for themselves against the sorounding beasts.

And the most that died were the old and sick ones, who could not survive the new, and extremely severe environment they were suddenly thrown in.

But thanks to the years of hardwork, humanity reattained their gift of strength, agility, flexibility and the other traits their late ape ancestors had, back in their home world.

They could better survive, and even fend for themselves. Even against terrifying numbers of thousands of wolf-like beasts, with similarly numbered warriors on their side.

The status between both sides lasted for thirty years, where the humans lost and gained more.

And after all that war-filled time, they now had two generations, the second being the strongest and most adept to the world.

And because of them, they even ended up slaughtering the entire pack of wolf-like beasts, and avenged their lost souls. It was truly a year worth celebrating.

It had to be mentioned, the pack was over ten times larger than it initially was. Thirty years were a lot of years after all. So, it was genuinely a day worth celebrating.