Richard, dressed in a new cotton shirt and boots, walked out of the hospital building and shielded his eyes from the sunlight.

  “How long was I out?” Richard asked.

  “Hardly a few hours.” Dmitri sounded as though he wasn’t worried about their conversation inside the hospital. Or healer’s place. Whatever it was called here. “Even a basic healing potion is strong and somewhat easy to make.”

  Richard glanced at him, frowning. “How do you make them?”

  “Most potions have three ingredients. For a basic healing potion, you need the basic of a heart or essence of a creature, something from the outside of that creature, like its fur or eyeball, then some basic root. The more complex, the stronger the healing potion. We don’t have many advanced potions anymore, but a storage room full of the basic ones.”

  Richard stared at him as this information entered his head and settled on his soul. “I’m sorry… did I just drink the eyeball of a creature?”

  Dmitri glanced at him, raising an eyebrow. “Our potion makers get it right so you won’t taste it.”

  It didn’t help. Richard dry-heaved before covering his mouth. He didn’t want to vomit again, but the thought of what Lucy had given him to drink made his stomach roll.

  “Oh, come now. Lucy and Amrynn work together to make sure it doesn’t have a flavor. I’ve been told out there—” Dmitri jerked his head toward the forest, “—a scavenger will make a basic potion in a pinch. One you can drink sometimes, and it actually has a taste to it. Oh, but I’m not supposed to encourage you to drink it. Not unless Lucy makes it.”

  Richard wasn’t sure what else to do but stare at him. He still had many questions sailing through his mind. He was promised answers, but now that he was here, he wasn’t sure which question to narrow down and ask. One thing was certain. He wanted to change the subject fast.

  Dmitri patted Richard on the shoulder as though sensing the overwhelming feelings.

  “I’ve given this basic introduction to base two a hundred times, Richard. Let me give it to you, and then answer the questions you have left,” Dimitri said.

  “All of them? Because I have a lot.”

  Dmitri smiled, and it almost looked genuine. “As many questions as I can answer, I will give you. We’ve been in an apocalypse for thirty years. You’ve dropped into the middle of a war zone. After thirty years of this, the best way we can help you is to answer all your questions.”

  And yet Richard couldn’t help but remember that Dmitri and Lucy would lie for him. That alone made Richard uncomfortable.

  They walked on a dirt road, with Dmitri at first pointing out the buildings. He knew the hospital that Dmitri called the healer’s, but Richard was then introduced to the mess hall, the armory, and the potions-making building. Richard opened his mouth to ask a question, but Dmitri held up a hand.

  “Yes. Potions. And the armory has several magical weapons the warriors can choose from.”

  “I’m sorry, magic? Actual magic? Like magic wands?” Richard asked. Dmitri grunted, then pulled out a paper and made a mark. Richard glanced at the paper that was covered in scribbles Richard couldn’t read. “What are you doing?”

  “I’ll be honest because it’s helpful.”

  Richard did not like the insight that small sentence hinted at Dmitri’s character.

  “This planet is named Kaelune. Because it’s in a state of apocalypse, people from other planets travel here to help stop it.” Dmitri folded the paper back up and placed it in his back pocket. “How you react to knowledge about magic says a lot about where you came from. Aliens find it easier to settle here when they get a better idea of which planet they arrived from.” Dmitri studied Richard. “At least… people usually don’t remember where they’re from.”

  Dmitri glanced around to make sure they were alone before studying Richard again. At first he didn’t understand, then he realized what Dmitri meant and shook his head. No, he did not remember where he had come from. All he remembered was his bedroom covered in machines that kept him comfortable as he died. And that man. Something he honestly wanted to forget.

  “And… you’re from…” Richard prompted.

  “Shudesh. I don’t remember it at all. But when the moons are gone and the stars are bright, I can point to the planet in the sky. Later tonight, as part of the welcome ceremony, we’ll bring out Timick’s famous telescope so you can see your planet.”

  “Welcome ceremony?”

  “You’re not the only one who was sent here to help,” Dimitri said.

  Right. He remembered the guards saying they needed to help other people out of the forest.

  “So… since I can’t read the language Lucy wrote, does that mean I’m not from her planet?”

  Dmitri shook his head. “We already tested that theory. The language we write is native Kaelune, even though none of us have ever studied it before. We’ve got to deduce where you’re from the old-fashioned way.”

  Richard glanced around this narrow area of the camp. This seemed more like the town part. A few people ambled around here and there, but most were deeper into what looked like the farmlands. Most of the area inside the walls was dedicated to farming.

  Dmitri kept walking, so Richard followed.

  “How’d we get here on this planet?” Richard asked.

  “All of us were chosen by Order.”

  Richard scrunched his nose. “Who’s Order?”

  “She’s Order.”

  Richard waited for him to elaborate, but Dmitri stared back as they moved past the last of the brick buildings.

  “Order personified,” Dmitri tried again.

  “A god? Goddess?” Richard asked.

  “Not necessarily a god or goddess. She’s not even necessarily female. Female is simply how she presents herself to our universe. The only way I can describe her is that she’s pure Order. Everything that has brought some amount of organization to the world is because of her. It’s her touch. Her essence. Building a house, creating something from ingredients, all are because of her.” Dmitri paused at a building. “As you can expect, being in the middle of a chaotic apocalypse, she wants to stop it. She gave us her system to help us fight back. We try to be as orderly as possible to please her, so she can grant us powers and skills to help us in our aid.”

  This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

  Richard tried to comprehend this as Dmitri gestured toward the new set of brick buildings. “And these are the living quarters. There’s another set of living quarters on the other side of the village. We have the farmers here. On the other side of the street are the guards, scavengers, and everyone else.”

  Richard accepted this information, assuming he’d get more answers later. In all honesty, he felt a bit dazed with it all, so he remained quiet.

  “Still thinking about Order?” Dmitri asked.

  “I… suppose.”

  “How do you feel about her?”

  “Confusion, mostly. It… Order? A real, living being who follows rules? Strictly?”

  Dmitri shook his head. “She doesn’t just follow rules. She is rules. Order is the reason you plant a tomato seed in the spring and get tomatoes in the fall.” Dmitri picked up a stick, showing it to Richard. “The reason why, when you throw this—” He flipped it in the air, “—it comes back down again. When her brother Chaos gets too out of balance, she is there to straighten him out. Chaos’s influence on this planet has been going on for too long, and she is doing everything she can to bring balance, including sending those of us from different planets to stop it.”

  “Chaos?” Richard asked.

  “The foil to Order. They are brother and sister, or at least that’s who they are to our understanding,” Dmitri said.

  “That’s… okay,” Richard said, giving up.

  “Okay?”

  Richard scratched his head. “I’m sure it will make sense, eventually.”

  “Eventually?”

  “I just… I don’t know, man. It’s… weird. But if that’s the religion you all believe, that’s fine.”

  Dmitri grunted again, then pulled out the same paper. He then crossed something off. Dmitri then smiled at Richard’s confused look.

  “How you react to Chaos and Order also gives a hint as to where you’re from.”

  “And you…” Richard trailed off.

  “Order makes sense to me.” Dmitri slipped the paper back in his pocket. “Like I’ve always known who she was. It’s the same for anyone from Shudesh. If you’re using the label of religion because you think it’s made-up bullshit, I will warn you now that you’ll meet Order in two weeks.”

  Dmitri started walking again. Richard was so surprised by what he said that he was frozen for a few seconds in place. “Wait, wait, wait. I’ll… meet Order?”

  “Yes. If you decide to stay. We don’t want to force anyone here who is not willing and ready to help keep base two running as a community.”

  “And what will you do if I don’t want to stay? Throw me out?”

  Dmitri shrugged. “We’d make sure you aquired Order’s system first, give you some supplies, point you in a direction outside the wall, and wish you the best.”

  Richard clenched his jaw. There was a certain harshness that came with an apocalypse. “That’s not really a choice, you know.”

  “There are four other bases on this planet. We lost contact with the last one four years ago. Perhaps you’ll get lucky and stumble into one of them to help you with the system, but no one really survives outside the gates at night. Not recently, anyway.” Dmitri sighed. “If we can ever get past the line of monsters, I would like to see if we can contact a base again. See what happened and if they need aid.”

  That sounded genuine. Dmitri was concerned about what had happened at the other base camps. It also made Richard worried. This apocalypse had apparently been going on for thirty years, and it sounded like things were getting worse.

  They walked in silence for a bit. His mind drifted back to the man he had seen in the corner. Was that perhaps Order’s brother? Chaos? The nurse didn’t see him. He pushed the thought aside. He didn’t actually believe in Chaos and Order, did he? Maybe he’d have to wait until he met Order.

  They passed other buildings that Dmitri mentioned were for training.

  “So, like, magic school?” Richard asked.

  “Certainly one of these is to help those chosen as potion makers or weapon enhancers to learn what they need to do,” Dmitri said. “But there’s also training for scavengers. Guard drills, things like that. For farmers, their study is going out and planting in the field.”

  Richard studied the farmland. He hadn’t thought about the weather before, but he got the impression it was spring. Most of the plants barely poked out of the ground.

  “Do farmers use magic?” Richard asked.

  “Absolutely. Some can grow as many crops as possible in a small area of land. Making fertilizer to speed up production is a popular method. We even had one woman open up a portal into another area of land that helped double our resources in a time when we desperately needed food.” Dmitri’s shoulders fell. “We lost a great farmer when she passed away. I pray to Order at least once a week to bring someone with her abilities here, but such abilities are rare.”

  Richard wasn’t sure if he was supposed to make a comment.

  “So, everyone has a magical ability?” Richard asked.

  “Yes. Order would not expect the scavengers or guards to traverse those dangerous jungles without a gift from her.”

  Like the ability to restart a day. Richard kept his mouth shut. Yes, Dmitri was giving him a lot of good information, but the thing Richard wanted to keep quiet about dealt with this restarting. If he asked for more details about whether hints of what his gift might be were already happening, Richard might get questions he didn’t feel comfortable answering right now. He didn’t feel like a paranoid sort, but he found it better to keep this information to himself for now.

  Dmitri walked toward the center of town. Richard saw a pole about waist high, and floating on top was a blue orb. If he had to guess, that orb could fit in his palm. Dmitri gave Richard a look, one that made him wonder if this was another test. If he reacted to the orb, would it hint at what planet Richard might be from? Richard took a breath to ask about it when two people walked past him. He glanced at the movement, but then took a few steps back when he saw that one of the people passing him was a centaur. It was such a surprise that he didn’t even register that the man next to the centaur had pale yellow skin. Richard kept staring, unable to comprehend what he saw. The man with the pale yellow skin turned, and Richard saw completely white eyes. The man cocked his head to one side, his mouth ajar. In the blink of an eye, the man’s face changed to Richard’s, no doubt matching his exact awed face. It startled him so badly that he almost fell over. The centaur and the shifter man laughed as they kept walking.

  Richard glanced at Dmitri, who crossed something else off his list.

  “Are they… is this…?”

  “You are clearly not from the Shrouded Domain. No one there bats an eye at a centaur or a changeling. I thought you might be from there, since Lucy said you didn’t act surprised at Shrub, our forest goliath who carried you to safety.”

  Richard glanced around the base. “I’m sorry, what?”

  “Hard to miss his dark green skin, let alone being over eight feet tall,” Dmitri said.

  Richard remembered that guard was tall, but he did not remember the green skin.

  “Hard to miss unless you were distracted because a demon leopard tore your back open,” Richard mumbled.

  Dmitri shrugged. “Fair enough.”

  Richard gestured toward the paper. “So what planet do you think I’m from?”

  Dmitri slid the paper into his pocket. “There’s two options left. We’ll make a few more tests, then—” Dmitri stopped as the gates screeched open. Richard detected a deep anxiety that hit Dmitri’s face as the gates opened wide. Richard turned, curious. This clearly wasn’t part of the tour.

  The gate doors were wooden. Richard wondered if they would last, considering he had just found out mythical creatures were real. Would their base even survive if dragons were discovered here?

  A lone figure walked through the doors, and Richard blinked. It was that jackass who used him as a meat shield. Dmitri’s eyes darted around, but Richard focused on how the man glared at nothing.

  The man was torn and bleeding. Blood matted his hair before, but this time he looked soaked in it. He glared ahead, passing through the gates before they closed behind him. It was a short walk to reach the orb, and Richard fought the impulse to run the other way as the man approached.

  “Elias,” Dmitri said. The man broke his gaze from the floating orb to Dmitri. “Your team?”

  “Dead.” Elias pulled to a stop at the orb. “All of them dead.” He gestured toward Richard. “Obviously, since he’s here. I’m assuming there’s more.”

  “Yes.”

  Elias grunted, then reached into the small of his back, and pulled out a handful of flowers before dropping them on the ground. Richard checked to see if there was a pack or something tied to Elias’s back, but there was nothing. Richard watched as the man, Elias, pulled out a neon green fruit, his fingers disappearing into a dimension somehow inside his back, and dropped it on the ground. Transfixed, Richard kept watching this man pull out item after item until a small pile was at Dmitri’s feet. Elias stepped over it, then grabbed the orb, pulling it close to him. He let out a relieved sigh as the orb turned orange. Once it went back to blue, Elias turned around and tossed it over his shoulder. Richard watched as the orb moved so that it was floating above the pillar, even though Elias threw it nowhere near it. Richard then watched Elias disappear into the living quarters for scavengers and guards.

  Dmitri stood with his hands on his hips, shaking his head. “We lost a lot of good people today.”

  Richard broke his gaze from the door to look at Dmitri. Dmitri stuffed all the items Elias inexplicably pulled from the small of his back and put them into his own. How was that even possible? This was such a strange world.

  Dmitri sighed, stuffing the last thing into the small of his back. Richard stared at Dmitri, wondering where it all went. It wasn’t like he was wearing a backpack or anything. He simply placed things into the small of his back. “Let’s drop this off at the potions building. I’ll introduce you to Amrynn while we’re there.”