Their spaceship had landed three months ago, they called the planet Aurora, due to the radiant, dancing lights that illuminated the night on the day of their settlement.

On the first day, their automated trucks unloaded the mobile housings, and flying drones assisted the construction.

Everything was going well.

Two hundred families, all with one goal in mind, to conquer the new world.

They mowed the high spiral plants that inhabited the place and leveled the place, then raised their steel palaces, wide roads, and winding bridges.

They did no understand.

On the second day, in the break of dawn, their eyes gazed upon the thousands of colossal pillars that appeared on the horizon. They've surrounded them, forming a ring.

The first of them disappeared, they couldn't find him. It was an engineer in his thirties.

They noticed him on the next night, through a telescope, he was sitting on top of a pillar, his silhouette was shrouded by darkness. As he breathed, a white, milky fog escaped his lungs.

They weren't scared. It was a mission, to understand, overcome and prevail. Sixteen men climbed the pillars, in their yellow safety helmets.

What they had discovered, was that there was a hollow ring in the pillars. Inside, was a spiral staircase made of mosaic, glass stairs. The rainbow images depicted a road across many foreign lands, different landscapes were decorating each step, but there always was an element of a road.

They didn't go down there, to search for their man. They needed to vote on their decision. It took a day.

In the meantime, another man and a woman disappeared. On the next night, they were sitting on top of pillars, nude. Man's body was gray, like made of stone, and his head was replaced by a lightbulb. The woman was in a wedding dress, her head was entirely wrapped in bandages, rainbow leaves were swirling around her.

It was decided. They would send a single man. He dressed in his white cloak and ventured into a dense, green forest. On his shoulder was equipped a robotic arm with a camera. The man safely climbed the pillar, then looked at the middle.

There no longer were stairs, this time it was a deep round hole. The man attached a rope to the pillar and climbed down, it was completely dark, but he kept going down, down, and down. It took hours, but the man wasn't returning and kept climbing. Then a day passed, then another, but he kept climbing.

Two volunteers were sent to retrieve the man. They remotely activated the reel that rope was attached, then waited, and waited.

The lost man was out, forty years older than before he entered a hole. He was now blind and laughing hysterically, which resulted in him being diagnosed with insanity and locked down in an asylum, as the first and only patient.

"Yellow squids, yellow squids! They will come to break the mirrors!" - The man was shouting and kept laughing. Nobody understood what was it about until the next day came.

It was a migration of local animals, clouds of yellow squid-like animals flew over the settlement. They started screeching en masse, which caused the glass to undergo violent vibrations and explode. Then following night, four kids disappeared. They were found playing on top of the pillar, their heads were replaced by octopi, their lower bodies and arms became tentacles.

The town couldn't stand idly watching from afar at how their people were taken by the pillars and transformed into random abominations.

They would take an action, and it would be a hostile one. This time, they wouldn't send a scout, instead, it was a squad of elite soldiers, called vampires.

They've approached the pillars with their weapons drawn and to their surprise, the pillars were surrounded by bugs with antlers. The animals mindlessly marched around structures, trotting in a single direction, like some sort of insectoid vortex.

The bugs were huge and their armors were thick, clouds of dust from underneath their feet effectively reduced the visibility.

The soldier would not give up though, they've sent a drone on top of a pillar and attached a ladder to its top, then they made a leap with their jetpacks, over the insects and started climbing.

In one moment, all the animals stopped protecting the columns and walking, then just stared at the soldiers.

In the middle of pillars was a pit with ledges covered in snow. The soldiers traveled down, to an underground cavern made entirely of a glacier. It was like an infinite void filled with nothing but columns of ice.

The soldiers checked If their radios were working, they were, so they split in four directions. Each had a party of two.

In the north, the group encountered an ephemeral rabbit that at one moment existed like some sort of a sparkling ghost, in other vanished from existence. The rabbit jumped towards the soldiers, who immediately switched to charged energy-type ammunition, but the bullets couldn't touch the creature as it vanished.

The rabbit appeared, leaping in front of a soldier. It passed through him and the soldier's body turned into dust.

The west squad traveled for twelve hours, then they encountered an anomaly. There was a steel cube with forty-five heads attached to it, nine at each side, their eyes were closed. They inspected the heads, they looked like those of the east squad, but they were multiplied, cloned and in a good state, they didn't rot or show signs of post-mortem decline.

Then, they noticed that blood started dripping from the ceiling. Drop by drop, until it started raining. They looked at the ceiling, and lower parts of the bodies, also copied, were hanging there, like stuck in the ice from the waist up. The legs were frantically kicking, or rather acting like running and blood spilled from underneath their armor.

One of the soldiers reached for the radio unconfidently and asked. - "East squad, are you there?"

"Yes, we are, what's the issue?"

At this point, the eyes of all the heads opened and stared at the west squad.

"You seem to be dead... and stuck in some kind of an anomaly."

"We are alive and kicking..."

"Did you encounter any anomalies?"

"Only some balanced rocks, tons of them."

"Just watch yourself and return home safely, okay?"

"We certainly will."

"...and don't touch anything strange. Just shoot or blow it up."

"Hah. That's the plan. Let's focus on the mission. Over and out."

The east squad marched forth, a bit more uneasy than earlier. They walked until noticing a sheet of white light, moving parallel to the floor. As it passed through the pillars, it multiplied them.

"Eelie! RUN!" - The soldier shouted to his partner and they turned back, rushing towards the exit, but they quickly realized there was no escape. The floor turned into a soft mush and they were sinking in the ice, which now had the consistency of mud. They had sink entirely, to their necks, when the sheet of light passed through them.

The south squad encountered a chamber full of bells hanging on single threads. As they came closer, they felt like millions of needles penetrate their skin, but they were unable to retreat. Their bodies moved on their own, until they were in the middle of the bells and completely paralyzed.

The east squad found themselves next to a wooden staircase. They traveled up, and up, until they've found themselves on another, desolate planet with a red sun. They were on top of a colossal superstructure. A soldier checked their radio, the contact was cut off. They turned back, but they have found no exit, it disappeared. They were stranded far from home.

"Is anyone there? Michael just died!" - The last member of the northern squad called, but there was only radio silence.

"Shhh!!!" - She overhead a noise. The soldier girl raised her rifle and aimed at a stranger with silver hair. She was about to pull a trigger.

"I'm not your enemy."

"Who are you? Answer or I will shoot." - The girl shouted

"I can't say, I'm sorry." - The stranger whispered out. - "I told you, remain silent!"

The girl gripped her rifle with more fear, but at the same time, more confidence. - "Are you one of them? Are you an anomaly?" - She spoke in a low voice.

"I am an anomaly, but I'm not one of them."

The girl pulled her trigger, but it wasn't enough to fire yet.

"Tell me, would you kill a stranger just to save a single life of your people?"

The girl hesitated, but at last, responded in a resolute voice. - "Yes."

The stranger was sad. - "This place, is a flytrap. It already consumed your friends, it will close after it gets enough nutrition." - The stranger took a pause. - "I'm trapped like you, until it feeds. Shoot. It needs one more."

The girl's hands trembled, she raised her gun and tears started rolling down her face. - "I'm sorry."

"Don't be."

The girl raised the barrel to her own chin and shot herself.