"Hello? I cant hear you.. Skyy. did he run away?" Kyle groaned, tapping the radio with a deep frown on his face.
"Are you done?" The young man operating the strange machine glanced back.
"Yes." Kyle handed it back. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." The man smiled up at him. "Name's Haris. What's yours?"
"Kyle." He nodded and left in a hurry. "Kaden!" He ran into their room. "I spoke to Skyy. He is okay. He is safe and sound. Oh, thank goodness.
I was so scared that he might end up bitten by those creatures."
"Mnn hmm..." Kaden nodded absentmindedly, looking at the map in front of them.
"What is it? Did you find out where we are?"
"I might sound crazy saying this, but... we are not lost. We are on Earth, in my city." He pointed to the map. "But... we might be in a different time."
"Huh?" Kyle sat down beside him. "Did you drink something weird?" He patted his head.
Kaden glared subtly. "This is not the world I'm familiar with, Kyle. You might not know this, but I do. My cities are filled with green lush trees, and humans are rarely found. But this place is in ruins. The technology they use is backward by a thousand years..." He massaged his brows.
"I think we fell into some kind of time warp hole."
"Do those exist?" Kyle looked at him astonished. All his life, he had been stuck in white-walled rooms, and he had no knowledge of the world. If Kaden was not with them, he would have thought everything was normal.
"No, there has been no proof of such a mystical thing." Kaden groaned loudly. "This map is a thousand years old though..." He slumped down to the ground. "Thousand years! It's crazy..."
Kaden held his aching head. Even he could not believe what was going on. A thousand years ago, their whole world was in a different situation. It was during the virus outbreak that created ability users. He gripped the map tightly. 'If we did end up a thousand years ago, then we are deeply in trouble.'
Their world went through so much stuff, but the virus outbreak in the 2000s was the worst. Humans were all infected, and some developed abilities similar to his. But many died. In the initial years, the human population was able to fight back.
"A spaceship. A space car, anything that we can get to the sky. I want it."
The man suddenly let out a boisterous laugh. "Hahahaha... oh my god... a spaceship! Hahahha, you're hilarious, man." He patted his shoulders and walked past him. "A spaceship... Hahaha.... I can't..."
"What does that mean? You're not giving me one?" Kaden ran after him. "I will find a way to pay you back for it, but we need to leave. We can't stay here. This is not the time we live in."
The man paused. "Sorry to burst your bubble, but we do not have any spaceships or space cars. All we have is cars. That too, we don't have much gas. So, can I borrow you a bicycle if you want? You can ride around the base and have a bit of fun."
Kaden gaped at him. "I'm being very serious right now."
"As am I." Murong shot faced him. "We do not have spaceships, young man. I don't know where you came from, but we don't have any here."
Kaden's breath hitched. 'No spaceships... then how... how are we going to go home? Will we be able to get home at all...' He closed his eyes tightly. "Is... is there any way to get to space?"
"You have to build your spaceship then. Otherwise, there is no way to get to space."
Kaden fell to his knees.
"What's wrong with you?" Shao pulled him up. "Are you okay?"
"I'm not okay... I... I can't go home..."
"It's okay. You can stay here."
Kaden gazed up at him. "Think of this as your home." He pulled him close and gestured to the kids. "And them as your siblings. You might not be able to go home, but you have a new home and family. Don't be too crestfallen."
Kaden dazedly watched the young teens happily play around and scuffle with each other. "What year is it?"
"Huh? 2044."
Kaden closed his eyes tightly.
'He doesn't know everyone is going to disappear off the face of this Earth soon...'