2 TWO: THE LAND OF THE RED

Looking around the large space I was in wasn't helping either. I was trying to locate where the sound was coming from but I couldn't, it seemed to be coming from everywhere.

"Earthlings, welcome to your greatest heart desires; where every one of your deep desires will be granted. But it all depends on you!"

'Earthlings? That doesn't sound weird at all.'

The voice continued speaking "You all were chosen out of a million people that called out to us from your dimension to ours. Please make your selves comfortable. Enjoy"

It sounded as though the floating voice wanted to make all the people there relax but it did next to nothing and instead made everything worse.

From the other end of wherever it was that we were, a scream was heard which filled the air with fear and apprehension.

"Get me out of here!" It sounded like a woman's voice and her accent was American.

The question ' Why did they bring us here? ' was what kept on resounding in my mind as I gave in to the rising panic that filled the room. What was all that about? Did our hearts yearn for this?

People were either running outwards to escape from that space or turning to each other to ask questions that no one knew the answers to.

Then there were people like me who just stood observing, with the fear that gripped our bodies.

"One step out of the green line and you will be sent out to the land of the red" The voice spoke again. It seemed to be silent for a while, probably observing the confusion.

I could see a couple of runners that had put a huge distance between where the bunch of us were and themselves.

It looked like a better option to run if what happened to us had happened to anyone. And I wasn't even sure if we were all brought to the place the same way I was brought.

Or maybe I was hallucinating and none of that was real? But my legs couldn't bring myself to run. Escaping shouldn't be done when your captors are looking at you. That would be such a foolish thing to do.

"Land of the red?" I murmured under my breath. What was that? It sounded like a threat but in a metaphorical way.

The words managed to stop some of the runners but some people continued even after a huge green line appeared in the outer area of the field.

After crossing the line nothing happened to them. No one came to take them to the 'land of the red' they just kept running.

It started to look like a wise thing to do. Get away now and think about any other thing later. But that thought was squashed just as soon as it popped up in my mind.

Large stone-like creatures materialized out from the air just in front of each of them and held them.

My heart was beating faster and my mind felt like it was going to explode because it couldn't fathom what craziness it beheld.

The stone creatures were at least twice the height of an average human. They had the form of humans but had square features: square noses, square eyes and mouths, and square bodies.

Appearing from nothing they made no sound but when they stepped forward to grab the escapees the whole ground trembled threatening to send all that stood on it on their knees or butts.

They all worked in synchrony as they held the people on their heads and legs and stretched them in a horizontal position till their upper bodies were torn apart from their lower halves and the contents of the upper bodies came rushing out of their insides onto the floor.

My knees gave in and I found myself on the floor with tears clogging my vision. What did I do to deserve this? 

What was this all about? And where did all these other people come from?

As I thought all this with tears falling from my eyes like the continuous stream of water down a water slide, I noticed a different commotion.

People started to murmur after the moment of shock and quietness. I looked to see that the stone figures were no longer there and that the bloodied humans whose insides lay on top of their lower bodies had flowers sprouting from them. It was as if they were becoming plants.

In a few moments, they all disappeared turning into a fence of flowers just outside the green line. Suddenly the land of the red wasn't so strange to me.