In the air far above the men, a flickering light slowly expanded into a large top hat covering a large portion of the night sky. A pair of white gloves appeared and reached into the hat. With a large popping noise, the gloves faded, and out popped a smiling puppet man wearing a formal black and white tuxedo with long tails and a large top hat. He waved at them, and then an echoing, loud, clear, almost jovial tone declared, “Congratulations, occupants of planet 38634.” The large man in the sky tipped his top hat and then pointed a formal white gloved hand towards them.

  Morgan tore his eyes away from the scene, thinking he was seeing things. Everyone else was staring into the sky just as he was. Frank’s mouth was set in a hard line. George was also staring up from his back on the loading dock. The entire scene was bathed in a pale blue light from the image in the sky.

  “You have been selected for assessment to be incorporated into the Conglomerate.” The figure then performed a polite golf clap before continuing. “We have done an initial scan of your planet and have corrected any deviations of your base elements. This may impact some elements of your technology.”

  The figure then mimed in big dramatic shrugs, crying into his fists on either side of his face. “This is normal, it happens on every new planet, do not be alarmed. You can recover and rebuild; any sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology.” It then held up its pointer finger in front of its face, “We will begin phase 1 of the assessment shortly, and you will receive two random skills.”

  The view of the man zoomed in on his puppet-like face, and he performed a comically exaggerated wink. Then the perspective zoomed back out, and he was sitting in a tall-backed chair with a long black and white walking stick across his lap.

  “Phase 1 will introduce invaders to your planet.” The figure then dramatically raised another finger, raising its eyebrows at the same time. “Phase 2 will begin 48 hours after the commencement of Phase 1. The phases will get progressively longer and harder until the completion of the assessment.” The figure held up a very large hourglass and then looked at it thoughtfully. “The total time of your assessment is one year. If any humans are left on earth at the conclusion of the assessment, then you pass and will be welcomed to ascend into the Conglomerate.”

  “Are they trying to kill everyone on earth?” Morgan thought.

  The figure released the hourglass, and it faded away. The figure stood and did the classic strong man pose, flexing both of its arms to its side. “Get stronger as quickly as you can. Good Luck!!! The survival of your planet rests in your hands.”

  With the final words, the giant image in the sky performed a sweeping bow and jumped into a large top hat that faded away with a brilliant popping explosion like a firework.

  The same phrase was whispered by more than one person at once. Not just in the parking lot, but all over the world, in a dozen different languages, “What the fuck?”

  Frank motioned to Morgan as they headed back inside.

  “Listen, lad, I think things just got very serious.” He said low and serious tone.

  “That there wasn't no EMP. We are gonna need to take stock of what we have and then plan out what to do.”

  Morgan nodded. This was the Frank he knew and expected. Always planning and working three steps ahead.

  “Let’s go back to the office and take a look around, then hit the loading docks for anything that could be useful. Specially now that our electronics don’t seem to work.”

  The office was mostly useless. Thousands of dollars of surveillance and communications equipment, and the most useful items were the first aid bag, and a small tool kit with a few wrenches and a small hammer. Frank emptied the radio and flashlight from his belt and told Morgan to do the same. Morgan lifted his backpack and emptied two books from his online college course onto the desk. Then they sorted through the huge bag of medical supplies and sorted the most important parts into regular backpacks.

  They had everything ready and were almost to the door. Frank, saying something under his breath, turned to Morgan suddenly and, with an even more serious and grim look than normal, grabbed Morgan by the wrist. With the lighter above his head his his face was broken into deep lines and shadows, and he looked almost sinister.

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  “You’re a good kid. You have been here since high school, so I know you haven’t been out in the harsh world. I don’t know what is about to happen, but I recommend you don’t trust someone unless you know them, be wary of traps, and if it looks too good to be true, it prolly is. Always keep an ace up your sleeve.”

  With a short nod to himself and a satisfied look on his face, Frank turned without waiting for a response. Morgan stood for just a second, swallowing a knot in his throat. This just went from weird to scary.

  “What did Frank mean?”

  He realized Frank was waiting for him at the door, so he took a deep breath and followed. They grabbed their jackets from the coat rack on the way down to the loading docks. It was the middle of September in the northern mountains of Georgia, and the nights weren't really cold, but it did sometimes get windy and chilly.

  At the loading docks as they set down the bags of supplies and their coats. Frank called out joyfully to the loaders as though he hadn't just been all doom and gloom upstairs. They had been searching the loading docks. They were crowding around two other lighters looking for useful supplies. The loading docks were crammed full of useless items like pallets and crates of pills. However, there were heavy three-foot crowbars for opening the large pallets. Frank grabbed one and swung it experimentally a few times.

  “Too heavy to be of much use, even for me. We need to get you something lighter. If we can’t find anything in here, maybe you can use one of the hammers or a wrench from the tool kit.”

  Nodding, Morgan searched farther in the loading docks. Finally, his eyes noticed a bright red box that said in case of emergency.

  “Now is an emergency.” He thought to himself.

  Inside was a fire hose wrapped into a tight coil. Below the hose was a brand new, gleaming fire axe. Morgan hefted it a few times; it felt lighter than he thought it would, but regardless, the weight of it was a reassurance in his hands.

  The group of workers was talking with Frank about a plan to get George to the hospital 10 miles away. Morgan was swinging the axe back and forth, getting a feel for it. He was bringing it over his head and practicing like he was chopping wood. A chime sounded in Morgan’s ears, and a blue screen appeared in front of his eyes. He froze, axe in the air above his head.

  ::Commencing Phase 1, Ready to receive 2 random skills?::

  Morgan instantly thought yes to the two random skills, and the box disappeared. A new small box appeared.

  ::The system is experiencing a larger-than-normal volume of requests. Your response has been noted and will be actioned when resources become available.::

  Startlingly, a bright baseball-sized light appeared floating in the loading area outside the open bay door about 15 feet from Morgan. For a second, the bright light was a small baseball-sized globe, then it split with a ripping noise into a large slash with vibrating edges about 10 feet tall.

  The smell of burning ozone and sulfur filled the air. As the edges of the slash came open, a bright kaleidoscope of colors danced around the very edges as if a rainbow curtain was being pushed aside. A small 2-foot-tall creature stepped out of the rift and onto the pavement.

  The short creature wore fur rags and had dark green skin. It’s oddly shaped, too large a head was framed with large floppy ears, bits of metal pierced through them. The bald head had discolored black spots and was slightly football-shaped. As the head turned towards them, Morgan could see black shiny eyes above a short wolf-like muzzle with large nostrils and a wide mouth.

  As the creature saw George lying on the ramp not far away, it curled its lips into a predatory grin, exposing a lot of yellowed, wickedly sharp teeth. It reached forward with one of its short arms, holding a rusty-looking dagger about four inches long, and started to walk slowly forward, increasing speed with each step.

  Three steps later, the creature, halfway to George, gathered his legs under him to leap and took a deep breath, either to shout a battle cry or say something to his brethren who were just starting to exit the rift behind him; no one ever knew. Morgan, without thinking, did the worst thing he could do in hindsight; he threw the axe overhead with both hands as hard as he could at the little green creature.

  To everyone’s surprise, none more than Morgan, the axe thudded blade-first into the football head of the creature as it leapt toward George. The weight and momentum of the axe pulled the creature out of the air, and both went rolling over and over into the parking lot before thumping to a stop. Morgan stood there, stunned, with his hands still in front of him in a throwing pose.

  DING!.. A loud chime sounded in Morgan’s head, followed by the blue message window he was beginning to hate. The window was displayed for a second before fading away.

  ::System Resource error! Stand by for Achievements when system resources are available.::

  All that was unimportant, as more of the creatures began to exit the rift, brandishing their small weapons, malicious looks in their beady black eyes. They were all about the same size, dressed in ragged clothes or fur, their skin varied in color from rusty red to bright green. Some were bald, some had dark, matted clumps of hair on their heads.

  All of them were grunting and pushing to get their sharp, pointy weapons at the people in the loading dock. They had miniature versions of knives, swords, and spears. Nine more of the creatures exited the rift. With an almost wet popping noise, the rift closed instantly. Part of a creature fell to the ground, dissected in half by the closing rift, oozing a blackish blood around it in a rapidly expanding puddle.