In the Journalism class this week, students produced fictional pieces based on a global infection such as featured in HBO’s ongoing hit series The Last Of Us. As such, this piece is a work of fiction.

Today’s date is March 1, 2023.

It’s almost funny to think that for so long we thought we were the smartest beings in the universe, just to find out we weren’t even in our original universe, not to mention one of the least intelligent species in the frame. 

The Frame is a massive alien compound built to hold and convince entire planets worth of intelligent life that nothing had ever changed. Humanity only became aware that we were in the Frame a few years ago, but it’s speculated that we’ve been here since as early as 2014. 

I believe I know the exact date we were taken.

On December 12, 2012. It was the day that the Ancient Mayan civilization predicted the world would end, although we weren’t wiped out by a devastating natural disaster or anything like how our translators foretold. I believe the Mayans received help to build their magnificent cities from the aliens and the calendar was meant to predict the return of the ancient civilization’s mysterious benefactors. 

Only, when the aliens returned to regain contact with the Mayans, the advanced civilization they had once grown to understand and respect had been replaced by a worldwide society of self-absorbed, corrupt people.

I don’t know why they decided to collect us, maybe because they were angered by the new “advanced” civilization, or possibly because they hoped to fix our civilization and bring us back to the virtuous people we once were. I am certain, however, that in all our years of blissful ignorance the only sign we received from the aliens was the bomb cyclone. 

A massive global storm that wiped out multiple cities, most would’ve just seen it as an unprecedented natural disaster. When analyzed by scientific experts, however, the storm’s targets were clearly patterned.

The storm hit over 20 cities worldwide, and while some residents were unconcerned by what at first seemed to be a typical interference, when it made landfall in Switzerland and Alaska, chaos began to roil. 

With all the information I know and all these questions that need answering, I feel like it is my duty to go out and find the answers, and that’s exactly what I will do.