As Kando and Aya had a private, quiet conversation, Leo focused on trying to communicate with his guide. If there was something he learned from his time playing video games was that it was never good to skip whatever tutorial information he could get his hands on. Although this situation was nothing like a game, Leo thought it was a fitting analogy.

Creativity wasn’t Leo’s strongest point, but he never considered himself to be a dull person. The last five or ten minutes - Leo’s mental estimation - had shaken a little of the confidence he had in his ingenuity. No matter what he tried, mentally or verbally, the guide refused to show up.

At first he had thought it was just a matter of getting its attention, but now he couldn’t help but wonder if Kando’s guide had meant to include him in the message. For all the sympathy he held for the couple, he had not thought himself on the same boat as them, after all, Leo was young, somewhat athletic and smart. He wouldn’t claim to be smarter than the two of them without knowing them better, but they had a clear disadvantage in their old age.

Whatever it was that the figure had referred to as challenges, Leo assumed physical exertion to be involved in some capacity. If that proved to be a correct assumption, Aya and Kando would be at a significant disadvantage. By now, Leo wasn’t quite so sure that was the reason why the guide dismissed them.

‘Is there something I am missing? Some common denominator between the three of us that would make me an automatic failure of some sort?’

Leo’s pondering was cut short as he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to see Aya and Kando standing on the row behind him. Aya’s face was even more flushed red and her eyes a little puffy. Leo was sure she had cried, while Kando was looking away, towards the back of the room.

“Mr. Hall, the people are leaving this place. The doors have opened.” Aya paused for a brief moment before continuing. “Would you like to join us… outside?”

“Ah… Of course.” Leo answered promptly, despite being caught a little off by his lack of awareness about the developments around them.

“That’s good.” Aya said with a smile as she gently squeezed his arm. “Thank you.” Her last words were spoken softly in a whisper.

Leo merely nodded, unsure how to take the unwarranted gratitude.

“Ay ay dear, shuffle on.” Aya said as she lightly patted Kando’s back. “No day dreaming. We need to move on or else we will be left behind.”

“Right, right. Onwards we go.”

Their tone was light and playful, and even though Leo couldn’t help but smile at their antics, he knew it wasn’t effortless on their part. They were doing their best to stay positive amidst this predicament, and the significance of it all wasn’t lost on Leo.

They weren’t exactly the last ones to move out of the theater, but the three of them were definitely on the back part of the slowly moving train of people. Kando walked ahead, followed by Aya while Leo brought the rear.

In that moment, surrounded by strangers, in a strange place and facing the strangest situation he ever found himself in, Leo was grateful for even the tiny bit of familiarity he had with the couple in front of him. And then, he understood why Aya thanked him earlier.

The way towards the exit was slow going, but uneventful. Most people were quiet, and the ones who spoke did so in a subdued manner. As Leo was about to pass the doors, he couldn’t stop himself from glancing back towards the theater from the higher vantage point. It appeared larger from his current spot, and he noticed a few people were still sitting in place. All of them isolated and with different body posture. There was nothing visibly similar between them, but they all gave him the same impression. Resignation.

The people behind him grumbled and he moved forward with a brief bow of his head in apology for his delay. Although some of them also stopped to look back, and he couldn’t avoid frowning at their hypocrisy.

Past the door was a large, and mostly empty, hall with a glass wall opposite where they just left. Beyond the glass doors a subdued red gloom filtered inside. It was hard to see what was outside, even with the red light. Leo couldn’t help but feel anxious as he tried to make out what existed beyond the red veil.

People slowly made their way toward the exit some fifty paces ahead of them. As Leo, Aya and Kando had been at the back of the train of people leaving the theater, there was already a group halfway through.

A young and tall man cut the crowd and quickly made his way towards the glass wall. Everyone’s eyes were glued on the daring young man, and some of the people ahead even stopped, putting themselves at a comfortable distance from the red light. Leo was no exception and he didn’t realize his breath was caught as the glass wall silently opened for the young man to exit. Leo breathed out in an audible sigh as the bold figure passed through and disappeared beyond. The glass wall, or rather, doors silently closed.

Most, if not all of the crowd had stopped to observe at this point. Even after the young man passed, people refused to move forward, as if waiting for some disaster to happen. As the uncomfortable and anxiety filled seconds passed by, someone finally got tired of waiting and stepped from the middle of the crowd towards the front. It was the american man Leo had seen earlier at the steel doors of the theater.

As he passed the front of the crowd and walked towards the door, people started moving. Voices started popping up all around the group as people shared their suspicions on what could possibly await them.

Leo followed in silence after the elderly couple. Aya held firmly the left arm of Kando as he walked in a sedated pace. Leo was happy to go along in their rhythm, he felt no need to rush towards the unknown. The last words of the figure were still on the forefront of his mind, but there wasn’t much sense he could make of them at the moment.

After the events in the theater, Leo had thought himself ready, at least prepared, to more surprises during the day. He couldn’t help but feel silly for thinking such a thing as he took the view outside. Rusty broken cars and garbage littered the street. The asphalt was cracked with grass, vines and weeds filling the inbetweens.

Squat buildings interspersed taller and narrower structures ranging from three to six floors. Broken windows, rotting door frames and trash decorated the structures as far as Leo could see, which wasn’t far considering how dark it was despite the strange red light coming from above. The scene in front of him might just as easily have been a location for the filming of some generic apocalyptic flick.

The street stretched both to the left and right directions and Leo could easily see multiple narrower perpendicular streets leading away, even some tighter alleys.

‘Are we in some sort of main thoroughfare?’

Leo wondered as he turned back to look at the building they had just exited. He took two steps back to take a better look at it, but kept Aya and Kando in the left corner of his eyes as they stared in silent shock at their surroundings. The outside of the building was just the same as any of the other squat buildings, if not for the intact glass panels and well lit interior.

“What the fuck is that?” Someone swore, and Leo’s eyes darted around the crowd looking for the source. What he found was people gasping and turning to look up above as they pointed at something.

“Is that a red sun?” Leo heard as he also turned to look above.

Right on top of them a red orb shone in the otherwise completely dark sky. There were no stars, no moon, no sun. Or maybe there was a sun, a red one. The red glowing orb was the source for the red hue that covered everything, but failed to disperse most of the darkness.

Just as Leo thought it couldn’t get anymore weird, bright red numbers appeared right under the red sun. He audibly gasped as a wide variety of reactions spread throughout the group at the same time. The bright number was organized in a familiar way and changed in a rhythmic manner, almost like…

‘A clock!’

00:02:53

00:02:52

00:02:51

“No! I am not going to do that.” Someone’s loud voice cut through the mutterings of the crowd.

A space opened in the middle of the crowd as two men appeared to be locked in a hot blooded discussion.

“Oh fuck, I told you to keep quiet about it.” Leo saw the tall young man who had been the first to leave the building face palming in an exaggerated manner.

“Would you really do that? Just leave these people when you have that information?” The man who had been the second to leave was on the other side of the argument and he looked furious.

“Why not? They are not my responsibility, and neither are they yours.” The young man spoke as straightforward as talking about the weather. People started muttering at his statement and I couldn’t help but sneak a worried glance at Aya and Kando beside me.

“That’s not true. I am an officer and I swore an oath to protect the people!” The older man shot back as he raised his chin with pride.

“Oh please. Do you really think you are still in your city?” The young man finished by spreading his arms and motioning to our surroundings.

“I don’t know where we are, but I am still a decent enough human being to not turn my back on all these people.” The officer’s voice boomed and people mutterings became louder. A couple people going so far as audibly proclaiming their agreements.

“Fine, fine. Do as you want.” The young man sighed and shrugged his shoulders dramatically. “I just thought of inviting you because you seemed like someone with potential, but if you are going to be stubborn as a mule, you are not worth the effort.”

The young man turned and started walking away. The policeman’s face of stoic determination cracked a little as he called back to the young man.

“Where are you going?” He called back with authority in his voice. “You can’t just leave without telling the people gathered here what you know!”

“Why not?” The young man stopped and only turned his face a little as he glanced from the corner of his eye. “I can do whatever I want, you have no authority over me, or any of these people.”

The older man stood his ground alone, but didn’t move or said anything further. When no one else said anything, the young man turned to leave. The crowd parted to let him move, and he spoke loudly as he walked past them.

“I don’t think you should be worrying much about what I know. You don’t have the time, in fact, you are all almost out of it.” He finished as he pointed up with one finger.

Almost everyone turned to look up, but Leo kept his eyes on the back of the young man as he moved further away. The decision turned out to be the right one, as Leo would surely have missed as two people among the dozens gathered discreetly moved away and followed the young man at a distance.

The three of them soon turned on a nearby street and got out of Leo’s view. It was just in time for people’s voices to anxiously start talking about the clock running out of time. Leo turned to look up and as he squinted at the red sun, the numbers popped back again. He couldn’t help the feeling of tightness in his chest when he saw the clock ticking down.

00:00:23