Lys was stuck at home for the next week.
Her 'kidnapping' had 'traumatised' her family members and they had not let her outside of the house without any of them present.
Great… How was she to explore this new world now?
Turning her comms on (Mat had taken her comms and fiddled with it saying something about improving the tech inside), she started surfing the net to learn more about what happened to Earth. And her too, for that matter.
Mat had sat her down the morning after she got home and taught her how to use the comms. He had even tested her on the basic functions after the 'lesson'.
Comms were the phones of the past. Only they were partially embedded in the body and had more functions. Calls, texts, surfing the net, most were only sent to the user of the phone and not heard through sound or sight unless the receiver selected to share or broadcast it. It was the epitome of privacy protection unless the user was hacked.
Since Lys was stuck at home, she decided it was a good time to find out more about the past and how she was to live in this world.
All humans had left earth due to an apocalyptic event that happened after a meteorite crashed into it. The meteorite had unleashed a latent virus hidden deep under the Earth's surface which led to the mass death of the Earth's residents.
Oh, and Zombies. The dead had 'resurrected' into Zombies and could not die. Even if one was hacked into pieces, the pieces, they would continue moving and try to infect others. A scratch, a bite, just the simplest touch with an infected, could cause one to mutate and turn into a Zombie. Or parts of it.
This wasn't just the humans. It was also the animals, the insects, the microorganisms. Everything. The only thing that didn't seem to mutate was the plants. And maybe the animals underwater but no one had the time or effort to care about those. Even those long dead and buried, stood up and re-walked the Earth.
This led to the discussion that the dinosaurs may have died to the Zombie virus (Z1 from now on), that the Z1 Virus was somehow activated by the 'meteorite' that was said to have struck the Earth in prehistoric times…
The popular theory was that the 'meteorite' had activated the Zombie Virus that lay dormant, deep within the Earth's crust. The Dinosaurs got infected, then died out, leaving the Virus to go dormant again.
The new 'meteorite' that struck back in 2019 did the same and activated the Z1 Virus again, leading to the (almost) wipe of everything living on Earth.
No one could find out how to clear the undead. The only way to stop the Zombies, it seemed, was to chop them to pieces and burn everything to dust. But the survivors had not enough supplies (or had no access) to kill the zombies and therefore, left Earth with the remainder 1% of the population that was not infected.
It was just as they left the Earth that they met a kind alien race that was dying out who offered to 'take them in' on the condition that both races combined their genes to try and ensure the continuity of both races.
The other race, the Nibs, were a powerful, gentle race that had been dying out due to their lack of diversity and had a population that was smaller than that of the human.
After the human leaders learned that they were weaker than the other alien races in the vast universe, they accepted and procreated together (their genes were surprising compatible), hoping that this would lead to them surviving in the vast universe.
Along with the genetic experimentation with the genes of the other aliens in the galaxy, the humans had evolved into something that had abilities and could at least protect themselves amongst the vast number of aliens in the unknown.
And so, the Humans became the Nibilians…
It was a few thousand years later (the calendar had changed by then, the year 4019 was that of another calendar), that the ex-humans missed what they lost and decided to go back to Earth and have a look. The zombies had died out due to the lack of food (if everything is a Zombie, what did the zombie have left to eat? Not to mention it was thousands of years later), and they could visit Earth (safely) again.
Tests from the samples they had brought with them when they left Earth proved that the Z1 Virus was weak to fire and was able to hibernate for long periods. How the Z1 Virus came to be and how it 'activated' was not known and remained a threat to those thinking of reoccupying their home planet. Therefore, they had the entire planet burned.
For 10 years, the Earth burned. Eradicating all traces of the Z1 Virus (that they could detect), along with the heritage and history of the humans that they had not managed to save.
If they went back later after investigating more, they could have saved some of the past. What their impatience cost them was yet unknown.
As time went on, the Nibilians were curious about what they left behind on Earth, and teams were sent to see if they could repopulate it. If not with the humans that left, why not the animals that had died out?
Research teams popped up and attempted to re-create or clone the animals and plants using data that the humans had brought with them when escaping Earth. For those that were successful, they had some released back on Earth, to see if they could "create" the thriving eco-system of their past.
This had continued for years and currently, the Earth is now basically one big farming planet. Mostly for the Elites as the costs of the Earth grown food was higher than that of those grown locally. It was apparently, better tasting as the 'conditions were right' for everything to grow.
Come to think of it, the year the meteorite fell, seemed to be the same as that of her flight. Maybe she died when it hit?
At least she had one part of the history figured out.