This is Pathetic…

That was the single thought flowing through Wyatt Walkers head as he lay in a pool of blood and vomit. Not his blood of course, he would be screaming if it was. The vomit, however, was his. Perhaps it was when the stranger punched his gut... Or was it when a pot of some sort hit the side of his head? That night was mostly a blurr, honestly, only bits and pieces remained.

At least the pain was mostly gone. His hand no longer hurt as much and his stomach seemed to have calmed down. Save for a minor headache.

Anyways, that wasn’t the issue.

No no. He was currently laying in a puddle of blood that he knew wasn’t his. In fact, the owner of said blood was the man laying next to him with wide, vacant eyes. Who, weirdly, also happened to have a broken arm and six bullet wounds in his chest.

Holy shit.

What little thoughts he could string together ended up as a curse. Why process your thoughts to analyze your environment when you could pour your frustrations into two whole words? Words that perfectly encompassed Wyatt’s current situation.

With a quick start, Wyatt sat up only to instantly regret it a second later. The world spinned and swirled around him, almost throwing up for the thousandth time. Clearly, he could have executed that a little better.

Nevermind that, he was finally taking in his surroundings. Looking around at his shabby one room condo, he found the place to be an absolute disaster. A light breeze came from his now collapsed wall, opening up the night sky to him. His torn up couch was knocked over and had a missing leg, the small table he had had a hole through the center while also sporting a broken leg, and his many cups of instant ramen were no longer on the counters. Instead they opted for chilling on the floor of his kitchen, mixed with broken glass and his one set of silverware. The leftover ramen broth and noodles just casually rot in the kitchen, leaving Wyatt a little depressed over the wasted food.

But not enough for him to get up and clean the mess. A problem for future Wyatt.

Cleaning the ramen off the floor is going to be a pain in the ass… ugh…

Ignoring his blood stained body, Wyatt picked himself up from the floor and slowly walked over towards his knocked over couch. His couch was, arguably, Wyatt’s only friend. The poor thing was a couch, his bed, and his friend. Sad ain’t it? Wyatt thought so too.

After a full minute of trying to figure out the best way to pick up the couch, he managed to get it up and mostly intact. It was still missing a leg so the couch was leaning considerably, kind of awkward if you ask him. No matter, Wyatt still sat his ass down on the couch with a grunt and moan. Damn, even if the world ended and he died, Wyatt would always hold couch-san in his heart.

Oh fuck I am really pathetic.

With a final sigh, he laid back down on his couch and closed his eyes peacefully. Much more comfortable than the hardwood floor.

In silence, Wyatt slowly drifted off to sleep again. At least he wasn’t alone, which was a huge accomplishment for him. The corpse of an unknown man was napping, peacefully might he add, with him a little ways off.

Finally, he was sleeping once more in silence. Blissful silence.

***

It was a normal day for the inhabitants of ERT-5901, more commonly known by the populace as Earth. A beautiful planet with lush resources and fertile land, well at one point anyways. Children were born, the elderly died, and Man was as corrupt as ever. But hey, what can you do about that? Can’t change human nature… But that's not the point. Basically the planet was peaceful, for the most part. Certainly they were better off than the species on FTL-3470… We don’t talk about them. Better to leave that book unopened.

Anyways, that was all until January 5th of the year 2025. When the sky broke. Fractured.

Stunning ocean blue cracks were spotted in the sky all over the planet. A spiders web of cracks and crevices littered the blue skies, tearing all that global peace to shreds. The largest of said cracks being in weatern Europe, China, and the western coast of the US and some of Canada.

Governments and countries across the globe, naturally, had a massive panic attack in the form of atomic bombs and missiles. Thankfully, not many people died. Only a couple small countries obliterated, total deaths figured somewhere in the 2 millions. It wasn’t until a week later that the rest of the world could rein in all the panic stricken people. Mass panic was still in effect, but the countries of Earth seemed to have it almost all under control. Good on them!

Frankly, they could have numbered within the top ten million planets with that efficiency score. If only that one country above kpop nation would’ve stopped throwing around missiles like candy.

Again, not the point.

ERT-5901 was beginning to stabilize after the initial 2 month “Introduction”. Something not many planets can boast about, only a select few planets can even qualify for the “Introduction”. Many requirements are needed before they can be “filtered” through the system.

The webs increased in size, slowly crawling to encompass the Earth, over these 2 months. The inhabitants of Earth slowly but surely started to accept their existence. However, humans are paranoid creatures by nature. No matter how long the cracks stayed, humans would no doubt become curious of their existence.

Why are they there? How did they get there? What does this mean for mankind?

Such questions will float around the hearts of men, and sooner or later governments would uselessly throw bodies at the cracks and scientists will hide in their labs. Curiosity always kills the cat.

Before the humans started to meddle with the cracks in the sky, it happened. A message inside a blue box appeared in front of every sentient on Earth detailing the same, albeit limited, information.

[ Welcome inhabitants of ERT-5901 to The Synchronization! ]

[ Your green Earth has been chosen among the mass of planets inhabiting galaxy MW-86! Congratulations on passing the Filter and may the [System] have mercy upon your species! ]

Time left until the first Horde:

[ 2:00:00:00 ]

[ 1:23:59:59 ]

[ 1:23:59:58 ]

[ 1:23:59:57 ]

…