What is the strangest situation you have found yourself in?
The answer to this question could be funny, tragic or plain weird depending on the person you ask. Jacob remembered that he was asked this question when he was in primary school by his friend.
At that time the answer he gave was seeing 2 dogs making it out with weird noises. Sex is a foreign concept to a kid at that age after all. Jacob found it the most mysterious thing at age 8 and found it the most natural thing at age 20.
His answer at age 20 was much different. Finding your parents brutally murdered laying on the couch. İt was tragic yet strange. How many people in world would wake up to see their families murdered? Why would the culprit spare you and only kill your family?
How would you feel after that happened? Grief, Anger, Confusion? Jacob remembered that he felt all that at the same time. But there was another feeling that overwhelmed them all.
Madness.
Leaving your collage, your job and your chance to live a normal life to find out what happened. Arming yourself and getting ready to kill the culprit yourself. This could also be considered a strange thing. Normal people would grief, complain to the authorities or just suicide. But arming yourself and going after someone with the intention of killing him... İt couldn't be considered normal.
Getting away from your friends, stalking the police station all day. Discovering the promises they told you are not true, that they are not even searching that case. Following the clues covered by the culprit and searching him for weeks, months... 2 years later, finally catching him in an alleyway with your gun pointed at his head. Wanting to kill him and end your obsession but you can't because of the burning question in your head.
'Why?'
This was the first thing Jacob asked. He didn't expect to get a real answer. The reason could be money or a meaningless grudge or something stupid. He didn't expect the person he hated so much to smile and answer to him with confidence.
'Justice'
Telling you about your familie's misdeeds. Showing you irrefutable evidence. Learning that when you are away and studying for your school, your parents were stealing money and killing innocent people. The warm smile on their face, the love they gave you contrasted with their misdeeds that you can't even continue to read about anymore. Learning that your obsession, the reason you gave up your life was to learn you were not even in the right at the first place? Learning your parents killed this man's entire family as well?
Can you pull the trigger?
Jacob couldn't. He could only look blankly as the man stood up and left.
' Sorry, kid. Truth is hard. I didn't kill you because children are not responsible for their parent's crimes.'
Jacob faintly remembered these lines and didn't know if anyhthing else was said. What would the next normal action be for someone in Jacob's situation? Crying in grief?
But Jacob clearly remembered that he was laughing. İn fact he had never laughed that hard in his entire life. The rain hit on his face and his throat hurted and his voice became strained as if reminding him the current situation. A normal person should stop laughing at this point and reflect his life. Unfortunately Jacob kept laughing. He laughed until he was out of strength.
The next time he woke up he couldn't laugh anymore. Jacob didn't like this feeling. The moment he stopped laughing he was getting reminded of his pain. Jacob decided to kill himself to end it all. He thought his life was a joke so it would be better if he died in a funny way. Maybe that way people who were watching from tv would laugh at it or he would become a meme that would brighten people's days. This thoughts could definitely be considered very strange. But Jacob didn't realise what was strange anymore. İn his mind this was the perfect ending for him.
Jacob who was thinking of ways to kill himself didn't know that the life that he has lived until now was not the strangest part of his life. As he was searching 'fun ways to die' at the web he finally drifted into a peaceful sleep for the first time in his last 2 years.
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'' Hey, kid. Wake up.'' A nearly 2 meter tall man with a pale face looked at a boy around 22 years old who was sleeping peacefully on the snowy ground. On the man's hands was a coat as he examined Jacob's body. Jacob was 1.8 meter tall, he had short black hair, athletic body and a relatively handsome face.
'' Dying by eating carrots... interesting...''
Jacob murmured some nonsense as he turned around on the snow.
'' WAKE UP!'' The man finally lost his patience as he screamed at Jacob. The first thing Jacob saw after opening his eyes was a penguin. Thus, he immadiately waved at it. Penguin looked at Jacob, burped and left. Jacob looked at the man who was nerveusly watching him and praised him.
'' Uncle, you are very handsome. I heard everyone you see in your dreams are someone you really saw before. Maybe you were a model and I saw you on tv!''
The man looked at Jacob and sighed deeply.
'' Young man, I wish this was a dream as well. But this is reality, even if it is hard you must face it. We are at Southern Pole. Stand up. I will explain everything to you.''
' You must face reality.' This sentence stabbed Jacob's heart like a nasty knife as his eyes turned cold for a split second but then it turned into a happy smile as if nothing happened.
The man looked at the boy who was sitting on the icy ground with a deep gaze.
'' Boy, what are you waiting for?''
'' This dream to end?''
'' AH!'' Jacob was kicked on his stomach and managed to confirm that this was not a dream. He was in South Pole... Somehow. Jacob stood up, took the coat from his arms and wore it. His hands were red from frostbite. They walked in silence for a few minutes before Jacob asked.
'' So... Why are we at South Pole?''
'' I don't know the answer to that question. I just know everyone that remained from humanity is here at South Pole right now.''
'' Oh...'' Jacob didn't ask anymore and followed the man. For a mad person who was not interested in living, the survival of humanity was not very important. He just found this interesting. After 10 minutes of walking they reached a massive camp area. Many people had tents and were anxiously speaking among each other.
'' Gustav, İs this the last one?'' A thirty years old extremely handsome man with blond hair asked. Gustav who was next to Jacob sat next to him on ice as he sighed.
'' He should be. We are a total of thousand people, now. They should come back to give us further instructions. About the border-''
'' Still the same.''
Jacob looked at the people around and was surprised to see all of them were very good looking and athletic. They also seemed very educated. There were people from each race. Jacob saw europians, asians and people from nearly all races. Jacob also realised just now that he didn't communicate with Gustav using english. İt was a foreign language yet they could all understand and speak it very naturally.
The blond man turned at Jacob and smiled sadly. '' Are you surprised? You see... All these people are good looking, there is no sick person nor any children or old person. They are all smarter than average people also all of these people has ages between 20 and 40. There aren't any 19 or 41 years old. Strictly between 20-40.''
Jacob's eyes widened. '' Why?''
The blond man sighed. '' A good question. Why are we grouped like this? Where is the rest of humanity? Why is there a border that doesn't allow us to go further? Who knows. We just need to wait for that thing to show up.''
'' ATTENTİON, ATTENTİON!''
Jacob looked up and saw a 30-40 year old man... flying? On his side was a 20 year old woman flying beside him.
'' I see, you have finally gathered! Good job, numans!'' The man said in a joyous tone.
'' Sir, they are called humans.'' The woman beside him corrected.
'' Yes, yes. Numans, this is a great opportunity for you! I will cut the story short. The United Space Federation has decided to add you to it's ranks. The reason being Galgamars are attacking and wiping out entire galaxies, thus the federation needs more manpower. That's why we decided to select some backwater planets that has high adaptability and grow rate. The federation determined that humans reach the criteria best. You are very lucky!''
'' What are Galgamars?'' A white haired beauty around 20 years old asked immediately.
The flying man looked confused and turned to the woman beside him.
'' Sir, humans are categorized as a third-rate planet that hasn't discovered inter-galactic communications yet. They don't know about outside races. That's why we were asked to appear like them to not scare them. Did you forget?''
The man nodded thoughtfully as he continued. '' Galgamars are bad. Anyways, numans-''
'' Where is the rest of us? Why can't we get out of this limited place!?'' A man with red hair asked aggressively.
The flying man frowned. '' Why does numans raise their voices when speaking? İt is weird. Numan, are you talking about the sick ones?''
People's expression crumbled as they had a bad premotion.
'' The sick ones?''
The flying man looked at the red haired man and explained patiently with a warm smile. '' Of course, the sick ones. They have inferior, genes, looks and intelligence. İt will be hard for them to adapt and evolve. İf any sickness gene or inferior genes remain when the evolution process began, it will be hard for them to survive and their offsprings will also be affected. İt is best if a race is more pure.''
Everyone's face turned pale as they looked at the flying man in anger, shock or disbelief.
The flying man was unaware as he continued his speech. '' There were a total of 10 million people that passed our assesment. Not bad, numans! You are the lucky ones to receive this evolution progress. İt might be painful and %99 of you might die along the way... But when you complete your evolving and look back, you will be very happy to be chosen today!'' the flying man finished in a joyous tone expecting a celebration. The flying man was uncomfortable with the dead silence that lasted for a few seconds and turned to the woman beside him.
'' Hey... Why are they not celebrating? Did I say anything wrong?''
The woman smiled as she explained.
'' Sir, even though humans can be petty, fight against each other for benefits and doesn't want to understand each other, they tend to symphatise with people that are in their close circle. Because of their prejude and selfishness they were still not even able to create an universal language. But they still tend to be symphatic towards the ones close to them. Right now, sir might seem like an outsider hurting their own, thus creating a misunderstanding. They also have a strange concept called family where they breed togather and live their lifes togather as partners and children. Wiping out their children and partners might have caused this outcome too. There might be various reasons that we can't immediately tell. Even though human's intelligence is below average compared to the standarts of the federation, they are classified as emotionally complex creatures.''
The flying man's smile returned as he gazed at the humans who were still in shock.
'' Oh! Emotional complexity... Numans are very interesting! Anyway, let's talk about the evolution progress. Numans, for you to evolve, gain unimaginable strength, increase your lifespan and reach perfection... All you need to do is walk a certain distance. Of course it won't be that simple. While you were here we modified this planet a bit to create some hardships. We made sure to include some creatures from your favorite movies and games! As you can see we are also considering your feelings. We wiped out all the technology from earth. You shouldn't rely on your low-quality technology to make things easier for you. That will only slow you down, so we were considerate enough to destroy it. 30 minutes later the barrier will disappear and you will begin your first test. The other numans are also at South Pole divided at 1000 numan teams. Every test you pass will make you closer to perfection! Don't be discouraged if many numans die. This is the normal procedure. Your end goal is North Pole. Those who can walk all the way to North Pole from South Pole while passing various tests will complete their evolution and will be allowed to join the federation. Good luck, numans! İf you feel alone at some point, don't be. We will be watching you from above!''
Jacob looked as the pair of aliens flown away in a daze. Jacob had a new answer for the question his childhood friend once asked him.
'What is the strangest situation I have found myself in? This should be it, right?'