Sam sat with his back to the hut and watched Krinor dance with his staff. He was lost in thought, but content for the moment as he knew what he’d do, he had a plan. He was going to fight his way up this damned pyramid. Ok, maybe it wasn’t a plan per se as he had no idea how he’d do that, but he had a goal, to return to his budding life on Earth. Having a concrete objective made him feel better.

The ‘natural’ light above him began to fade and as he looked around, the settlement began to quieten down for the night. Krinor walked over and sat beside him, neither spoke, just sitting comfortably in one another’s company. It was the Maheet who eventually broke the silence,

“I’m going to take my trial tomorrow”

“I understand”

“you do?” Krinor looked over at Sam as he asked him.

“I think so, you have two days before the pyramid forces you into a trial and you’d rather go in on your own terms, of your own volition.”

Krinor chuckeled, “you’re smarter than you let on”. The pair returned to their companionable silence. This time it was Sam that broke the silence,

“Don’t suppose I can have your house?”

“Pahahaha!” Krinor buckled over in laughter. “When I take my trial, regardless of the outcome, I won’t return. I don’t believe my approval makes any difference to you”

“Yeah, I was just being polite.” Sam smiled cheekily as he replied, sending Krinor into fits of laughter once more.

“Ah, I’m glad I met you. Better to laugh tonight than sleeplessly worry.” The Maheet sighed. Sam nodded at that.

“Will you let me know when you challenge ascension? I’d like to support you”

Krinor looked over his way, “that’s not how it works. When you take your trial, you will appear in a random settlement’s domed ring. Presumably to stop people teaming up in advance. Well, that’s what we assume anyway. All we actually know is you won’t appear in the middle of this settlement.”

“oh”, Sam felt saddened by the thought, he wouldn’t get to see him fight, to either succeed or rest in peace. The two sat in silence after that, each lost to their own thoughts. One, a human, thrust into an unknown situation and trying to wrap his head around it. The other, a Maheet, reflecting on his life and whether he’d made the most of it.

As Sam was drifting off to sleep he muttered, “I know we met only a few hours ago, but thank you for everything”. He paused before finishing, “Good luck tomorrow”.

---

Sam woke as the light was still increasing in the sky/ roof. He stood and stretched off, cracking his neck to either side before twisting his back.

“Ah, that’s the life” he moaned in pleasure as each vertebra cracked in descending order. He was feeling good, clear headed with a spring in his step. He looked around before calling out,

“Krnior, you there?”

He ducked and went inside the hut. He wasn’t there. Neither was his stave. The only thing left in the hut was a hatchet, identical to the one Sam had hanging round his belt, propped up against the back wall.

“You the human called Sam?”

He spun around, coming face to face with a Maheet looming down over him. Holy crap! That scared the piss out of him, he hadn’t even noticed him approach. Sam was caught off guard but quickly righted himself.

“Yeah, that’s me”

“Krinor left for his trial. He says you can have his hatchet, that he didn’t want it. He also says good luck.” With that, the Maheet spun on his paws and left a dumbfounded Sam, alone and staring at the hatchet against the wall.

“Fuck me Krnior, you know how to make an exit”, he joked to himself, but if one were to look closely they’d see the sadness in his eyes. He looked up and closed his eyes momentarily. ‘I hope you made it’ he sent a silent prayer up.

He looped the second hatchet into his belt for safe keeping and wandered towards the dome, aiming directly for the watering well. Sadly, fate had other plans as an angry Israeli interrupted his path.

“Chasha, for what do I owe the pleasure” he drawled. Not bothering to stop, instead, just continuing at walking pace towards the well. Realising he had no intention of stopping she quickly walked up alongside him, demanding,

“You said you’d discuss and participate in in dialogue. Will you?”

“How many humans have arrived at the settlement?”

“About five hundred, most of us are as a group but there is also a hundred or so like you by yourselves”

That was news to Sam. “Ok, so what do you want with me?” Please just get to the point and leave me alone he wanted to remark. He didn’t. He held his tongue and waited patiently. He knew he’d gotten off to a bad start with her yesterday, but who could blame him? He’d challenge anyone who said he hadn’t had a rough day. It was only natural tensions would run a bit high. He’d had a chance to sleep on it so to speak and with hindsight he knew he’d acted less than admirably.

“Wei said you’d gone to speak with that lio- Maheet. We are all trying to understand what’s going on, has he told you anything new about our situation?” She wasn’t snapping at him anymore which was a good start, so he reached out with an olive branch, telling her some new information that Krinor had mentioned. She asked some questions which he dutifully answered.

In return she told him some new stuff. Apparently, the blue demonic people were called the Eomon and despite understanding you due to the pyramid’s translation ability, they lacked the capacity to speak back.

The second race he’d noticed were the chitin covered humanoids. Chasha said they were known as the Shelne and like us, their planet had never previously had any contact from others.

However, the most interesting thing he learnt from her was that there had been a murder. He was leaning over the well at the time and had to be careful not to spray his mouthful of water everywhere.

“Fuck sake, we haven’t been here a day, what happened?”

She looked grim as she spoke, “turns out one of the ascended humans was an ISIS militant, slit an American soldier’s throat in his sleep”

“Fucking hell” Sam was caught off guard. “Then what happened?” he growled.

“Well, the US army guys slept close together and apparently he was praying aloud about his holy mission as he did it which woke the others up around them, they beat the bastard to death”

Sam didn’t know what to say to that except good riddance, so he moved the conversation onwards,

“So, what now? You seem to have established a leadership position amongst us here? What’s your plan?” he asked with genuine curiosity.

She snorted. “There is no one in a leadership position. People respected Wei and I because we could shed light on the situation, but now that everyone has been brought up to speed people are splitting up. We built a shelter and those that came later followed suit. We have water and don’t need food, honestly, there’s no need for a leader, no need to stick together.”

Sam thought for a moment, “it’s almost as if the pyramid doesn’t want hierarchy to form”.

By now, the pair had moved away from the well. Going over to the dome and taking a seat as the first few competitors appeared inside. The Maheet only had a day left before they’d be thrown in forcefully, so it wasn’t a surprise that seven of the eight were of their specie.

Chasha looked over at him, “that not a bad hypothesis, it kind of fits, I think.” They watched the trial in silence. Another brutal affair, the final Maheet slamming the other into the dome wall face first before biting him in the neck, ripping his artery out between his teeth.

Sam spoke next, “I don’t plan to stick around. The Maheet will all be gone by the end of tomorrow and we have no idea what kind of specie will arrive afterwards. The Cecropis will be the next specie evicted and I reckon the best odds of surviving are against them.”

“I came to the same conclusion. I’m just not sure I could do that, risk my life in two days when I know I could live peacefully here for another few weeks.” She made a good point. It just wasn’t what he wanted to do.

“Each to their own I guess” he stated. “Don’t suppose you know anything about those species?” pointing to those he wasn’t familiar with around the dome. She knew as much as he did – nothing. One was covered in a bark like substance, another appeared to have a mellowed grey skin, almost like a rhinoceros. Other than their outside appearance, Sam reckoned they could be mistaken for humans.

The remaining two species were a little odder. One was a tall green skinned species with tusks protruding from either side of its mouth. The closest thing he could think of was a fantasy orc he’d seen in movies. Yet, he couldn’t call them that. Where those were portrayed as savage brutes with more muscle than sense, these people acted rather haughtily, striding around gracefully as if they were some galactic nobility. They also lacked body weight entirely, if they’d been on Earth, Sam was sure they’d be classified as having an eating disorder.

The last group was a light grey skinned people who chose to live in the woods rather than with the other species around settlements. He watched a few of them come for water throughout the day but other than that, they left others alone and were left alone in kind.

Running out of conversation topic, they relapsed into silence. A dozen minutes went by and catching them both by surprise, it was Sam who broke the silence,

“Y’know, it’s actually my birthday today.”

Chasha’s eyes went wide before she just laughed, attracting the attention of those around them. She snorted funnily, that cute thing girls do when they can’t help themselves,

“I’m so sorry Sam, this has to be the worst birthday imaginable” she giggled and after a moment, he laughed heartily too.

“you’re right, I suppose it is” he smiled mirthfully at her. “Shame there isn’t a beer in sight”

“Sadly not, I’d run through glass for a cold pint” Chasha grumbled.

It was Sam’s turn to laugh now. Chasha was quite nice he realised, once they’d calmed down a bit after yesterday. She offered to show him what they’d built, citing that she’d rather not bear witness to another trial so soon.

They reached a clearing on the edge of the settlement where six large longhouses were built and as she’d said, there were hundreds of humans milling around, chatting, joking and relaxing. Honestly, it was rather surreal, so many people acting… normal. Especially knowing that each of them had taken so many lives to reach this point.

Sure, there were others, a few dotted around the outskirts of the group who were visibly shaken. One man clutching his knees, rocking back and forth, but he was left alone. No one approaching him or others who looked to be in a similar state. That was sad he supposed, that the sorts of people who’d made it this far weren’t the sort to aid another in their time of need. Sam grunted and wondered what that made him, seeing as he didn’t fell particularly inclined to step in either.

Sam spotted Luiz and Julia who’d apparently stuck together amongst the crowd, but Wei wasn’t is sight. Chasha led him through to a small circular area in which it appeared close combat lessons were being given. A few individuals were instructing a crowd around them on how to utilise a knife in combat whilst dozens of people watched, asked questions and participated in demonstrations.

Sam didn’t like it. This was why he hadn’t come here the previous night. All these people… they just brought memories of what he’d done to get here to the forefront of his mind. Stomping on the unconscious lady’s head, bashing the Indian man’s head against his knee and Jake. Yes, Jake.

“I’m sorry Chasha, I can’t be here” he stuttered out. “I’ll be at the dome”. He turned and walked back the way they came, even as Chasha called out after him.

He sat there the rest of the day. He watched dozens of trials, each one as devastatingly savage as the last. It didn’t bother him. Why? Why was he so broken over killing those people, yet not fazed in the least by watching hundreds die before him?

He sat there all day, nobody bothered him and before long, the sky began to darken. He got some water from the well and then headed back to Krinor’s, his hut, alone. He hadn’t done much today. He’d spoken to Chasha, seen where the other humans congregated and then watched a few trials. There really wasn’t a lot to do, which reaffirmed his decision to attempt the trial early, least he turn senile, he joked.

He sat there in the same position as the previous night. Back against the hut, only, this time there was no Krinor. He wondered how he was doing, if he were still alive as he drifted off to sleep.

---

Waking up was an odd experience. He’d taken over a hut in the Maheet area of the settlement, but as he woke, he realised they were distinctly fewer in number. He absentmindedly wondered if they’d chosen to go or been whisked away against their will.

He made his way back to the well and dome. He’d noticed a few common tactics yesterday as he’d spectated, ones he was considering the application of himself. They were simple yet effective. For example, acting small and unthreatening so that others ignored you until the final few were left. Conversely, acting aggressive and insane so no one wished to go near you also held an appeal.

As the day went on, boredom set in. That was until Wei ran up to him, panting,

“Sam! You won’t believe it, a human appeared on the edge of town! Said she was on the first floor for almost two days!”

“Two days?” he muttered. Sam couldn’t even begin to imagine what that must have been like. “That is a long time, when did the last person arrive before her?”

Wei thought for a minute, “Not entirely sure, I spoke to a guy that appeared yesterday morning, said he spent eight hours in that hell hole. Said the problem was that all the remaining people became stretched far apart. That at one point he had to walk for twenty minutes over the dead to find another living person”

Sam paled at the thought. That would have been revolting. The two walked away from the dome, up towards the human encampment where there was a huddle of people surrounding a woman in her twenties. They approached to hear as she spoke to the group,

“…I was alone, for a whole day I was by myself. I limped, trying to pull myself. I needed two kills left and I was missing some fingers that were bitten off. I wrapped my sweater around my hand and…” She sobbed. No one pressured her to continue, giving her time.

“…I thought I was the last person left, the only reason I made it was because I heard people, half dead, moaning in pain in the mud. I was thirsty, weak… “She stifled more sobs.

“Poor women” Sam said to Wei, getting a few nods from others around them who agreed.

“I reckon she’ll be one of the last to make it here. In a few hours it’ll be exactly two days from when we were dragged in here. That’s a long time to survive without water”. Sam continued.

Wei replied, “It’s weird isn’t it? We’ve spent almost two full days here and other than the murder yesterday, we’ve mostly reverted to acting peacefully”

Sam nodded, “I imagine this will act as wakeup call, that this isn’t a place to take lightly”, With that, he turned to leave, raising a hand to wave in Wei’s direction,

“Don’t know if Chasha told you or not, but I’m taking the trial tomorrow. It was a pleasure, Wei.” He walked off, back towards his hut, not waiting long enough for a reply. He spent the rest of the day stretching, shadow boxing and mentally preparing himself before drifting off to sleep.

When he awoke to the light the next day, there were no Maheet left in the camp. He drank some water, stretched his muscles and removed his hatchets from his belt loop. Once he was all set, he spoke aloud,

“I seek ascension”