The world ended on a rainy Thursday morning. There wasn’t anything particularly special about that morning. The superpowers weren’t threatening nuclear annihilation, there was no deadly virus ravaging the population, not even one measly shark-filled tornado menaced our cities. The world ended that day because that’s when it was scheduled.

  Judd didn’t know the world was going to end in eight minutes and fourteen seconds. He was only worried about making it to work on time. Traffic was backed up and he squinted through his water-slicked windshield trying to judge how far those taillights really were. His sugary dunkin donuts coffee was starting to kick in but it was too damn cold and too damn early to fight through traffic so he could spend another day in data entry.

  Shock jocks blared from his battered radio, testing his patience with their overly chipper presentation. As annoying as they were, they kept him awake, so he suffered through the fart jokes and electronic buzzers. That’s why he thought it was just another dumb skit when a new voice cut in.

  “Greetings… Earthlings, I am Congentrak Vognert, official ambassador of the Helios Friendly Transport Conglomerate. We can get it there! It is my pleasure to inform you that your solar system has been chosen for a new regional headquarters. Congratulations!”

  Judd tried to change frequencies. It was a little too early for this.

  ”I’m sure some of you are wondering, what does this mean for me?”

  He changed the channel again and again but the same game-show-host voice continued speaking unhindered.

  “Well, as mandated by Intra-Galactic Trade regulations, your entire system will be sterilized to prevent the spread of unknown pathogens.”

  Judd wouldn’t admit it to himself but he was starting to get scared. He turned off his radio but Congentrak vognert’s silky smooth voice kept on explaining.

  “But don’t worry! As class 2 awarenesses, your species is entitled to certain post-mortem protections. Genetic scans have been completed and your lines will continue after the transition period is complete. The process will begin in five minutes. Thank you for your cooperation.”

  Cars around him were starting to swerve erratically. A minivan clipped a red sports car and sent it spinning into the next lane to get t-boned by a station wagon. You never expect a crash to be so loud, but it was like, well it was like several tonnes of glass, plastic, and steel getting dropped from a building and landing on several more tonnes of glass, plastic, and steel. Judd felt the impact more than he heard it and he jumped, instinctively swerving out of the way even as a hummer rolled and then bounced past, widening the junkyard in the middle of the interstate.

  Judd swerved all the way into the median and slowed enough to pull a u-turn before getting on the road back home. The message was probably a hoax, but what was the point in stocking a survival shelter if you ignored the aliens coming to sterilize the whole goddamn solar-system? Judd swerved past slower cars or those that had pulled over as he raced down the interstate. After the first minute of accidents, things had calmed down considerably but it was still too dangerous to go as fast as he needed to. Luckily, he lived close by and knew the area.

  Ramming his truck through the pad-locked gate got him onto an access road that would have him home in three minutes.

  The wipers sloshed the rain back and forth. Judd’s four wheel drive could handle the dirt road but he had to push it to its limits if he was going to make it into his shelter.

  At the worst possible time, a black shape loomed in the middle of the road. He pulled on the wheel but his tires lost traction and he spun into the mass with a crunch. Somebody screamed. Judd tried to go into reverse but after lurching a foot, his truck got stuck. Judd threw the door open and leapt into the cold rain hammering down on him. He quickly saw the problem. The car didn’t have tail-lights because it wasn’t a car.

  Judd had half-crushed an Amish horse-drawn carriage. His car was tangled in the wreckage and the horse was the one screaming so loudly. A bearded man with a nasty cut across his scalp moaned from the wreckage. Judd checked his wristwatch and sat down, leaning against his car. He was a mile from his shelter. There was no way to get there in less than a minute.

  Judd looked up into the clouds and wondered if they were hiding an alien ship. He tasted the rain for what he thought would be the last time and took a deep breath. He began reflecting on his life up to that point. A slideshow of screwup after screwup flashed through his memory. There was some relief that it was over like this. At least he didn’t fade away, bitter, old, and lonely. Just before a searing light tore apart the sky he thought: What I wouldn’t give for one more chance.

  A moment after that, he was sitting on a circular blue couch surrounding a black marble table streaked with veins of gold. Creamy walls backed the couch and there were no doors. Another five people sat around the table. One was the Amish man Judd hit with his car. Another was clearly his brother but the rest were a complete mystery. A frightened-looking mother pulled her two children close as she eyed the three strangers she was trapped with.

  “Good morning Ma'am.” Said one of the Amish brothers, completely unfazed. He removed his hat before continuing. “This is a strange room isn’t it?”

  “You could say that again Isaiah. The last thing I remember, we were on the road. Do you think this is…”

  “I dare say it must be Amos.”

  The identical brothers shared a meaningful look and shook each other's hands.

  “Whatever happens from here on out. I want you to know that you were always a good brother to me.”

  “And you to me. I have no doubt that we will pass the trials ahead of us.”

  “Excuse me!” Interrupted the dumpy soccer mom “Can one of you please explain what is going on here?”

  Amos nodded slowly and deliberately.

  “If I don’t miss my guess, this is likely purgatory. We have died and are waiting on the lord's judgment.”

  Judd blew a raspberry.

  “Yeah right. Aliens just came to visit and this,” he indicated the sealed room “looks a lot more alien than holy to me.” Isaiah laughed.

  “Aliens? Please, you’ve been watching too many picture shows son.”

  Of course, their horse-drawn buggy had no radio so they didn’t get Ambassador Vognert’s message. That just left them less prepared for what followed.

  A hologram flickered into existence over the table and Isaiah’s tone changed quickly.

  “Mary, mother of god.” He crossed his chest, clapped his hands together and began whispering furiously. Judd didn’t scoff this time. His balls had climbed up into his chest and were making it hard to breathe.

  If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

  Five long, skinny grey legs supported a small, blue, furry body. Each leg ended in three clawed fingers, two facing forward and one pointing back. Kind of like a bird. It had a face too, but no neck. A long beak designed for tearing sat between three beady red eyes. It only stood four feet tall but the table more than made up for that particular shortcoming. It loomed over the seated people who suddenly felt very trapped before bobbing in a sort-of bow and addressing them.

  “Hello, former people of earth. The sterilization is going quite well and a full eighty-two percent of your people were compatible with our sentience-support systems and are now safely in our custody! That’s an exceptional outcome.”

  The alien used two of its feet to scratch under its beak. Purple membranes slid over its eyes one at a time in an expression that might convey contentment, or smugness, or some emotion humans simply couldn’t understand.

  “It will take some time for our construction teams to build your new cloning, housing, and work facilities so until then we have devised a virtual testing ground. Your actions here in the hub will remain private but your actions during testing will be monitored and may entitle you to greater considerations when the Helios Friendly Transport Conglomerate is prepared to hire local labor.”

  The hologram flickered off and the room was completely silent until one of the kids shouted “Cool!”

  Judd crossed his arms.

  “I don’t buy it. Why wouldn’t they listen to us in here? I bet they’re only saying that to lure us into a false sense of security!”

  “That’s your problem with what just happened?” scoffed the little girl “Are you just going to gloss over the 18% of humanity that was just wiped out? Or all the whales and pandas… and ponies.” She broke down crying and everyone in the small room glared daggers at him.

  “Rule number one, if someone burns down your house and takes you prisoner, you don’t believe everything they say.” Judd shot back unapologetically.

  “It is a test” Amos said with certainty.

  “It was a god damned alien!” Judd answered without thinking about the curse he was using. The Amish brothers went very quiet and Judd slowly raised his hands.

  “I’m sorry. This is a little stressful. I’m not used to having all powerful overlords.”

  “No, I think you’re on to something. You really shouldn’t speak.” The mother said icily before turning to the brothers.

  “I am Susanne, ,,,

  PART 2

  “I’m Susanne, and these are Sammy and Caroll.”

  Caroll kept sobbing into her mother’s shoulder but Sam hardly seemed to notice as he strained to look under the table. Susanne let him squirm out of her grip so she could pat Caroll on the back.

  “I’m not sure what’s going on here but I doubt this is the afterlife. I was just clearing up breakfast when I heard a crash outside. By the time I got the kids calmed down and got to the front door… well I was just suddenly here. Why we’re here doesn’t matter to me though, not nearly as much as keeping my kids safe. Can I count on your help?”

  Amos and Issaic nodded together almost like it was choreographed.

  “Of course we will help you” Amos promised without hesitation.

  “I can’t imagine the lord putting innocents in danger but you will have our protection should you need it.” Issaic agreed a moment later.

  Judd rolled his eyes, were they knights now? His lackluster response drew new glares from the brothers so he straightened, made the boy scouts sign for truthfulness and drawled sarcastically.

  “I promise to fight to the death to keep your widdle babies from getting owies, completely ignoring the fact that we’re already dead.”

  “Hey stupidhead!” Caroll shouted “What if you’re right?”

  “Huh?” Judd asked

  “I asked, what if you are right? What if they are listening and judging you based on what you’re doing here? How do you think your snarky unhelpful attitude is going to work in the alien equivalent of a job interview?”

  Judd stewed on that for a minute. He would have loved to snap back with his own retort but she was right. What if they were watching. Who even knew what social rules they would judge us by, but proving himself to be a troll was probably a bad overall strategy. Man, if only he had his own space. The cramped room felt like it was closing in on him. He needed room to breathe, somewhere away from all these people where he could get his head on straight.

  The moment the wish crossed his mind, the wall behind him ballooned outward. After a moment of vertigo when it felt like he was being launched forward, he turned to see the room inflating for a few feet before a silver panel appeared in the creamy wall like it was emerging from a bowl of milk. In the stunned silence that followed Sam dashed out from under the table and laid both hands on the panel.

  “Wooooah” He said, stretching his mouth wide and making faces in the reflective material.

  “Sammy! Get away from that!” Susanne screeched, lurching to get up from her cramped seat. After only a second of struggling the entire room ballooned out leaving six chairs around the central table and several feet between them and the walls. The distressed mother scooped up her child and carried him away, torn between inspecting him for harm and watching the panel suspiciously.

  “It couldn’t be…” Judd muttered as he inched towards the reflective panel. He stretched out a trembling finger and the moment it touched the surface it disappeared, revealing an open, well lit space roughly the size of a basketball court. He thought it looked a little too sterile, like a hospital. The room instantly began transforming. The creamy walls melted and reshaped themselves. Bean Bag chairs sprouted from the floor like mushrooms. An enormous sofa faced an unchanged wall as a projector lowered itself out of the ceiling along with some track-lights. On the other side of the room, a ping pong table grew from the ground and a row of arcade cabinet-games pushed themselves out of the wall. Finally, a purple shag carpet emerged from the ground as the remaining walls were covered in mahogany shelves holding many fine leather-bound books. Judd fell to his knees in the deep carpet.

  “It’s beautiful.” he whispered. Sam managed to squirm free of his shocked mother and darted for the magic room. He bounced off of an invisible barrier at its entrance. Susanne was there in a flash, but Sam was completely unharmed. If anything, he was even more enthusiastic.

  “How are you doing that?” Susanne demanded. Judd thought for a moment how sweet it would feel to tell her to figure it out for herself but Caroll’s question came back to him. What if this was part of the test?

  “All you have to do is want it. I’m guessing that you wanted more room to get to Sam when he touched my door. That’s why the room expanded. I just wanted my own private space and… well you saw what happened.”

  Before Susanne could question Judd further the walls of the hub pulled back and an ice cream parlor manifested.

  “Best day ever!” Sam yelled but Susanne kept a tight grip on him and kept him from diving into… yes that was a whole kiddie pool full of soft serve. Instead, she squeezed her eyes shut and a very ordinary door appeared opposite Judd’s room. She led her children into her room without another comment to Judd but she turned to Amos and Issac. The brothers’ jaws were literally hanging open, forgotten as they watched the proceedings.

  “I’m going to try and fall asleep and see if I don’t just wake up back in my own home.” She said, her voice starting to waver “It was nice meeting you both even if I hope this never really happened.”

  “But mom, free ice cream!” Sam looked like he had just suffered the ultimate betrayal as Susanne pulled him into what looked like the foyer of a small suburban home.

  Judd manifested a cowboy hat, put it on, and tipped it to the brothers.

  “Neighbors,” he said in a western drawl before letting the silver panel reappear. He’d let them deal with their existential crisis on their own.

  An hour later Judd was enjoying a yard-tall glass of imported beer along with an endless platter of bacon-wrapped scallops. One of the leather books lay open in his lap, revealing the comics within. His new spotted, cruella deville style fur coat cascaded down the beanbag chair he was currently slouching on.

  It had occurred to him that if the room could react to his thoughts, that meant the aliens could read his mind. The invasion of privacy didn’t worry him all that much though.

  Normally he would be livid about something like that, but if these aliens hadn’t swept in, he’d be hunched over a keyboard, not lounging in style. So long as they kept granting his every wish, he’d let them rummage around in his head. It’s not like he could do anything to stop it anyways. There was no need to fight the aliens, they already won and improved his quality of life. The only problem was the new roommates.

  Even with Pink Floyd cranked up to chest throbbing volume, the crashing, too regular knock was seriously eroding his chill. With a long suffering sigh, he dogeared his comic and went to the panel. He nearly pissed himself when the panel faded to reveal a brass capped treetrunk speeding towards him. It bounced off the invisible barrier inches from Judd’s face with a clang before rebounding. It was part of some giant mechanical pendulum and Judd wished it away before it could swing again.

  The contraption would never have fit in the hub before but what had started as a tiny space with only enough room for a single table had transformed into an open sunlit field stretching for miles in every direction. Emerald grass waved in the breeze as fluffy clouds drifted lazily in an otherwise crystal-clear sky. Judd’s door was now set in a small shack, way smaller than his room actually was on the inside. As he watched it became less rustic and more like the entrance to a bunker as concrete replaced the wood and corrugated steel. Susanne’s door had transformed into an entire suburban home and a farmhouse had appeared at the end of a mile-long dirt track, complete with barn and silo. presumably, the Amish brothers figured out the knack of wishing for things.

  The black marble table sat in the middle of the field with its blue cushioned and cream-backed seats. An ancient-looking oak tree shaded the table and Caroll swung from it on an old tire, pushed by Sam. His other neighbors were all sitting around the table. The little town was apparently having a meeting. Judd sauntered up to the serious group in his cowboy hat and fur coat, giant beer in hand.

  “Sup?” He asked.

  Susanne facepalmed, Caroll giggled and Sam looked on in awe, frozen mid lick on an ice-cream cone. Issac and Amos only looked on stoically.

  It’s about time

  We’ve been knocking for thirty minutes

  We’re about done here, here’s some reading, catch up and we’ll meet again when you’re done. → have to go in as a team.

  The amish bros feel uncomfortable having everything handed to them, Susanne’s being pragmatic, Sam wants an adventure and Caroll is just curious.

  Maybe change Caroll to Chloie?