Relics of the Past - Chapter Five

John sat at a large table. There were several other people who sat around the table. They were all looking at him like he was a museum piece and they were anxious to study him. The only person he recognized was Mark. Mark was the only person he had any real contact with since he woke up. The program director spoke first and she talked in a very business-like manner that made John nervous.

“Can you tell us anything that would help us understand how you got in the structure we found you in?” This was the first question that was asked and it came from the director.

“I was abducted by aliens. I was put in some kind of cage as a pet. When I realized I would never see my family again. I asked them to let me die. I thought that they had done that but you can see I was mistaken.”

“Did you see the aliens?” This question came from another person sitting around the table and so Mark looked at the questioner.

“No. The aliens appeared to me as illusions in human form.”

“Did the aliens tell you that you were a pet?” Came a question from still another person.

“Yes.” John responded.

“Were you mistreated while you served as this pet?” Came yet another question from another person.

“No.”

“What year was it on Earth before you were abducted?” Came a question from still another person.

“2012” John replied.

“That was over 3 hundred years ago.” Someone else commented.

“Did you see anything while you were in this cage that you think might be helpful?” Another person asked.

“I saw a planet, it was blue and green and it had life on it.” Mark replied.

“If you’re referring to the planet we are orbiting, that is unlikely.” The director answered.

Mark walked over to a window which allowed him to view the planet. The planet was like a huge rock floating in space, like all the other huge rocks floating in space, it was devoid of life. “But that’s not possible.” Mark responded, bewildered. “The stars seem to be in the right place. How can this be possible?”

“It could be that it was all in your head.” Yet another person John did not recognize spoke, “You say you were in some sort of cage yet we found you confined in a chamber which from what we can tell, there was no room for you to change your position. The evidence suggests that everything you thought you did while you were in this cage was all in your mind.”

John had a hard time believing what he was hearing. Everything he did in the cage felt real, seemed real. It had seemed that in the last few days he had been abducted, killed but not killed and now he is 300 hundred years in the future. This was hard for him to process. “I need some time to think about all this.”

“Of Course”. This time it was the director speaking, “We can talk again later.”

Mark walked with John down the corridor to his room. “You have to understand.” John told Mark, “That I was with my wife and children in what seems to me to be just a few days ago and now you’re telling me over 300 hundred years has passed.”