The Mystery Man

"Who are you?"

I said to the man standing there staring at us. He sounded like he was dead and robotic. His arms were lanky, he was slouchy and lazy.

[I'm here to answer your question. Just why are you guys waking up in the future. Well I like to call it a little experiment and a game. I'm testing how quickly someone can adapt into certain situations. How quickly can one person learn on their own without arising suspicion. There's many purposes for a test like this. John you were sent to the future with a loving family and a full time job then later into a different reality with a part time job and living alone. Both realities are significantly different and it can show you how your life choices can impact on the outcome of your future. In the life of a part time job and living alone you didn't bother trying to get used to it because you knew you would've just woken up back in this world. That's gonna change. John Hawkins and Theo Simpson... you have been chosen to play a game. If you refuse to play the game you will die. Don't worry I'm not that evil... in return your family will be paid all living expenses, school, rent and food. I know your living situations are though so at least that'll help you out. You two aren't the only people participating. Here take this meet here by 5pm tomorrow, if you don't show up, you're dead. If you get lost don't worry, I'll know if you're lost or not.]

We didn't even have a chance to respond he turned around left the room and closed the door. I ran after him but he was gone. Just who was he. He handed me a letter with an address on it. I wonder why he wanted us to go to school tomorrow though and go by 5:00pm. Oh never mind here it is. (Break up with Mindy, since you'll be gone for quite some time. Your families know you'll be gone as well don't worry about that.)

Me and Theo decided to have a sleep over that night. He did tell us that we had to be there for 5pm so chances are I'll wake up in this world well, I hope so.

It's next morning, and I was right. Here I am, I'm so relieved going into the next day. I guess its time to get ready to go to school with Theo. I forgot today's the day I had to break up with Mindy, although I do like her she deserves better and since there's a chance I won't survive this I want to end it now. When I arrived at school I told Mindy I had to talk to her after school. It was tough but I ended it with her.

"Mindy listen. We need to break up. I'm really sorry but I'm not gonna be here much anymore and I dont know what's gonna happen from now on so I need to end things with you."

"I don't understand is everything okay?"

"Yeah, everything's fine don't worry about me. I just won't be here anymore that's all."

"Well where are you going?"

"That I cannot tell you. Please trust me. At the moment you're better off without me. Focus on studying and becoming a great success."

Mindy ran away crying I felt really bad, but that was most likely gonna be the last time I saw her. I wasn't technically lying. I won't be here anymore but I don't know for how long. Weeks months? Would I even come back?

Immediately right after school me and Theo raced to the meeting place on the letter, upon arrival what we saw was something I never expect. There were so many people here. Were these people like me and Theo? Did they visit the future just like us? Looking up we see the Mystery man on a podium about to speak to everyone here.

[Attention Attention Participates welcome. My name is of unimportance to you at the moment so for now just call me Mystery man]

I've been calling him that already so it's nothing new.

[All of you people here are here to conduct an experiment. Now that you're all here, There is only one rule! You have one week! To get used to the environment you're currently living in. Failed to do so you will forever remain with that fate. The more fates you visit the harder they will get. Some places you might be sent to are as following

- A world during a zombie apocalypse (Very Hard)

- A world during a pandemic (Hard)

- A world in the middle of a war (Hard)

- A world where food and water is scarce

- A world where you're simply married with children and a full time job

- A world where you live alone and live part time.

These are just some examples of worlds you can be put in. If you can manage to survive any one of these worlds numerous times you can survive anything. How quickly will you learn and how quickly could you become part of that world.

There are things you should take note of. You have to survive without making your peers suspicious about your behaviour. You must not! Tell anyone that you are not who you are and that you merely a human from the past. Some places you will remain the same age, others you'll be older, some places you'll have a broken leg, missing a limb or a terrible disease.

When will this game end? There's no answer to that. It ends when it ends. Some of you may not survive some of you will. This is a learning experience. If you do survive when returning to reality you will be far more advanced as any normal person, physically, mentally and intellectually... that's if you're strong enough. For now you will be put into teams of 4 you will most likely travel together to make surviving 1 week possible. There may be challenges that will require you to remain more then a week. Once returning from a challenge you will be given 3-6 days to rest depending on the reality you were previously in. All you can eat, any game you want to play, anything you want to do. You just can't go outside so make some friends while you're here. Once assigned to your groups, you'll wake up tomorrow in your new reality. I will announce your groups in a short while.]

"Honestly Theo... he may be ruining our lives but if we survive we do get some hefty benefits. I'm not sure if him supporting my family or even them knowing I'm gone is true. Let's just hope we make it out of this alive."

"He did say if we survive this. We'll be more mentally and intellectually capable in life and maybe we can actually grow up with a good life."

"Yeah maybe. That's if we get out of this. If those situations that he said end up being true. This is going to be a lot harder then I thought Theo."

"It makes it easier that we're in groups. So I hope we'll end up in the same group."

"That's if he lets us choose, if it's randomly generated then well. We'll have to test or luck."

"Is everything alright? After what happened with you and Mindy?"

"Honest I don't even have time to think about that. I'm so caught up with this I haven't had my head cleared. Honestly it makes me feel so much better that you also got dragged into this. No offence."

"Don't worry, I understand this would be terrifying if you had to go through this alone. Look around it seems like everyone is talking to one person."

"So you think they grabbed people who already knew each other to make them feel at ease? Just how hard is this challenge?"

"No, it could be something else. There's a chance we could die in any one of these realities. So he probably put friends together so if someone we cared about died it would impact the experiments results drastically."

"Yeah that makes sense. This whole thing is just crazy. I can't believe this is happening. He said there will be groups of 4. I guess we'll be making some new friends."

[If you've observed your surroundings, you might've noticed that everyone here has at least one friend you will by default be partnered with that friend following two other people. I will now announce the groups....]

[For our final group John Hawkins, Theo Simpson, Lily Jones, and Becky Hill you will meet up in room 4B. Making a total of 6 groups, 24 people]

"Hey! Mystery Man! I have a question! How do we know that our families are being taken care of!" Some man shouted in the distance.

[Every week when returning, you will be able to write a letter to your family. On weeks you will be gone for a while you will send them a letter before leaving. If you make me happy, I'll allow a Skype call. End of discussion, head to your room.]

So much for clearance.

Me and Theo headed to room 4B when entering we were amazed. There was everything here, super comfy beds four of them, couches, a small kitchen, TV with video games, and many books to choose from. We no longer had access to the outside world but staying in here felt like a treat.

As me and Theo looked around the room we heard our door open, and that is when we met our new group mates. Lily, and Becky.