Sunday - October 19th, 2121:

  My head was pounding with a piercing pain that stabbed into the back of my skull. I reached instinctively to touch it, but my hand caressed only the dome of my helmet. "Where am I?" My muffled words came out in a rasp, part dehydration, part confusion.

  "Sunday? That's impossible!" I blurted out after lowering my eyes to the SmartScreen embedded into the wrist of my suit. My breaths quickened, exiting the voice projection box like gravel scraping against steel. Was I unconscious for four days? No, but that's not the problem! Where am I? What happened after the eruption of light?

  My eyes darted immediately to scan the environment. All around me, bright blue bioluminescent fungi grew like overgrown stalks piercing into the clouds. Their presence was suffocating as they surrounded the small outcrop I lay in. My hand reached to my visor and tapped on a small, built-in button.

  'Scanning Commencing - Unidentified Matter.'

  'Unidentified - Unidentified - Warning Critical Failure Detected.'

  'Anomaly - Anomaly -'

  "What the f-" My words choked in my throat as I gawked at the fungi. It began to sway and move. Dragging away from my position the moment the visor's robotic voice sounded out.

  'This can't be happening.' I forced the incredulous thought out as I stared blankly at the charred ground that remained around me. Craggly rocks jutted in deformed shapes. Crooked and bent over one another. 'The rocks won't start walking too— will they?'

  I found the notion amusing but couldn't help but walk away— just to be safe. As I turned around and took a few dozen steps— behind, rustling noises sounded. 'Shit—'

  My steps hastened, and I darted away— I didn't know where I was going— all around me, all I could see was charred red rock that resembled Mars more than Earth. Was this even Earth in the first place? How the hell was one supposed to know? I lurched forward as a stone struck the boot of my suit, barely propelling myself to a jog as I regained my balance.

  The sounds around me were amplified, unsettling, and foreign. The noises trilled and thrummed, sometimes closer, sometimes further away. "HELLO? IS ANYONE THERE?" Impatience overcame me as I blurted the words out.

  Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  But it was a mistake.

  The ground shook tremendously— I could barely keep my feet on straight as my body wobbled side to side. I ran— desperately. Behind me, stones bounced and rolled, their craggy bits digging into the ground like the plowing devices our ancestors used hundreds of years ago. There was nothing: no emotion or feature visible on them— they were nothing but stone, yet that fact became a dreadful realization.

  Whether this was Earth or not, something was wrong. Something had changed, and it was for the worst. My friends, family, and crewmates on the O.S.S. Their fate was something I desperately needed to know.

  But there was no time to think. Not about why my body was moving so well nor why the once cumbersome spacesuit felt so light against my body. All I could do was run. After a few minutes, I saw a tree whose branches perched upward. 'Could I climb it and get away from them?'

  The stones were catching up, but none surpassed a meter in height. 'Surely, they can't climb trees...'

  It was a silly thought, but— I jumped.

  As my hands reached for the branch— the stupid thing moved away from me. Maybe I should have expected something as absurd, but instead, I tumbled forward. The ground split before me like the parting red sea of stone, and my body rolled violently into the unknown.

  When I reached the bottom, I sprawled like a starfish bent over. There was no pain to speak of, only uncomfortable awkwardness. My hand reached up toward the visor's scan button.

  'Error - Error - Critical Malfunction Detected.'

  'Anomaly Detected - Report to Orion Command - Anomaly -'

  "Damnit, broken down junk." I groaned out dryly before picking myself up into a seated position.

  I wanted to scratch my head in contemplation, but after everything that's happened, I was too scared to risk taking the helmet off. My scanner was busted, and if the atmosphere was breathable or safe, it was up to my guesses. But seeing how the environment itself was already attacking, risking it seemed silly.

  I had to figure out what was going on. Four days passed since I was on the O.S.S, and the light erupted from Earth. So, surely I must be on Earth, right? But everything I'd seen thus far did not resemble Earth whatsoever.

  My thoughts flowed like the tides during the lunar relapse. From alien destruction to the downfall of humanity due to the experimental regime of the ruling government. Perhaps this was not even Earth. Maybe my lunacy was wasted on meaningless hyperbole. I could not know.

  Despite my irrational thoughts, I still picked myself up. No matter what happened, I had to survive another day to find out. If the world was ending— or if it ended already, I had to discover why that was.