A minute passed, but Zadoc still felt every part of his body, and his consciousness was as present as ever. He opened his eyes, and found himself lying in a white room, on a modern white bed. Bright white lights shone from the ceiling into Zadoc’s eyes. As he could finally gape them open, he saw another Halcyon walking into his room. But this was no ordinary Halcyon. It had smooth, hairless skin, with a constant hue of skin tone and no stripes. It had even decorated its body with long white fabric cloths. Zadoc felt an extremely uncanny feeling. He tried lifting his arms, but realized they were chained to the corners of the bed, along with his feet.

“It’s awake,” the figure uttered as more faces walked into the room. They played an audio recording from Zadoc’s Nilvakian language, which roughly translated to: “We are humans. We’ve saved you.” The volume of the recording made it feel as if it was played directly into Zadoc’s mind, leaving him too shook to vocalize back. He continued to stare around, his eyes jumping from one face to another. Eventually, he heard another audio recording: “We’ve been preparing for your arrival here. It has been a very long time.”

After about a minute, Zadoc was left alone in the room once again as a way of allowing him to recover from the trauma that was still recent to him.

“What a sight that was,” a man spoke, walking through the halls of the facility. “An ancient part of history resurrected just like that? You really think it’ll help us…do it?”

“We must approach this with great caution,” another man responded. “We're dealing with an entity that existed long before us, with knowledge and experiences far different than our own. If this fails…” The man paused, as the thought of their plan’s failure had been one not even considered. 

“You know, their species actually shows higher intelligence levels than us, if they were given more time to exist, develop and conquer, perhaps we may not even be here.” A woman added.

“You think that's a good thing?” clashed a third man.

“Maybe to us the thought of never existing is difficult, but they are the ones whose time was cut short.” She further declared. “A missed potential of nature. Perhaps a mistake. I mean, just look at what their reality was. Life wasn’t a survival game, it wasn’t to hunt or be hunted, it was a beautiful embassy of nature without fear.” 

“Yeah, that’s the whole reason we did this. Nature needs saving, and it needs it now” The third man replied back in a monotone voice.  

The group began traversing back to Zadoc’s room, with a bag of drinking water they brought for him. As one of them attempted opening the door, they found it surprisingly difficult to do so. 

“The door doesn’t have a lock does it?” a man asked.

“No sir.” another replied. The team tried collectively pushing the door open, slowly dragging it across the floor. As they could finally see through the edge of the door, the man noticed a barrier blocking it from the inside. Fully opening the door, the group was horrified. The white bed had been laid in front of the door, while the chains were resting across the ground. Zadoc was nowhere to be seen. The group reached for their transmission devices and sounded the emergency alarm.

“Code red. This is a code red. Keep all personnel inside the building and lock all doors immediately. Do not let anyone leave. Use pillows and blankets to cover yourselves. Hide under beds if necessary. Do not look through any windows. Do not open doors for any individuals. We are unaware of the capabilities of Zadoc. As of 2:34 PM, he is loose within the building. Do not let him witness the outdoors. The world is watching, we cannot let humanity down.” Commotion flooded the research building, and within a couple of minutes, everything went dead silent as all members of the project sought shelter.

The group began treading through the halls, gently and quietly. The possibility of failure was now the only thing running through every individual’s head. 

“We can’t wait till tomorrow, not anymore. Just find this guy and take him straight to the lab,” the group leading man ordered. The squadron of four carried firearms with them, incase they needed to neutralize Zadoc. Minutes passed, and still no trace of him was found. The group peeked at every corner before turning. They climbed up the stairs, only to climb back down without any information on his presence.

“I guess his high intelligence is pretty evident now. Breaking out of chains, and just walking out of his room without a trace seems pretty impressive to me,” the woman lectured.

“I forget whose side you’re on,” the second man uttered. As he finished his sentence, the woman saw a pair of eyes peeking through the window on the front door. The figure appeared to have striped skin and excessive hair around his face. It was obvious to be Zadoc, already standing outside the locked doors, breathing the outdoor air, looking directly into her eyes. The group turned left, but she remained behind them, slowly dismantling herself from the rest and quietly walking towards the front door, where Zadoc still stood watching with his face almost against the glass.

She placed her hand on the door, the only thing separating her from Zadoc standing on the other side. She looked through the inch-thick glass into his eyes, being able to observe every detail of his face from her close up view. She continued to feel an unprecedented level of empathy for his species, and what they had experienced. She then heard a man from the squad call out her name as the rest of their footsteps slowly re-approached her direction. Eventually, they peeked back out of the left hallway, and saw her standing outside with the door half open, Zadoc right beside her.

“Step back from him now Elly,” ordered the men as they pointed their firearms at Zadoc.

“Maybe there’s another way. Maybe we don’t have to do this to him,” she said in a somber tone.

“There’s no other way El. We need him back in that room, alive and healthy. This was our only chance. Going that far back in time took up all of our capsules, and now all but one are drained. We don’t have that much time.”

“I’m sorry.” Elly shed a tear. “He doesn’t deserve it.” She closed the metal door right as one of the men turned their weapon and fired at her. The projectile ended up wounding her right hand. Zadoc and Elly stood in silence for a few seconds, until Elly built up the courage to guide Zadoc away from the building, and into the forest it was situated in.

They continued their journey forward, trying their best to avoid the patrol vehicles Elly knew would come looking for her. There were brief moments which make her feel regretful, but the memory of her inside the time capsule, witnessing M’kala was something that always reassured her decision. A few minutes into their walk, Elly started speaking Nilvakian.

“I know unchaining you from the bed was dangerous, even for me doing it in secret, but you’re safe now,” was the translation.

“I don’t understand. What happened to Nilvak and the rest of the Halcyons? Where did your human tribe come from? Where is M’kala?” Zadoc asked in Nilvakian.

“M’kala is gone, and it took the Halcyons with it. It has been a very, very long time since the night you just came from. We called it ‘the night nature went rogue’, and you had perished along with everyone else.”

“But, I am still here.”

“That’s because we saved you.” They continued walking until they reached the edge of the forest, and met a lake with the view of a city skyline above it. “This is a much different time than where you come from, Zadoc. My people managed to find a way to go back to the time you came from just to bring you here moments before your death. I was one of the four humans placed in the capsules and sent to you.”

“Why did you save me out of everyone?” Zadoc questioned.

“Just like how you all would gather at nights to watch the very fate that would end your species, our people had foreseen another threat. M’kala isn’t the only time our world has been devastated, but there was something special about it. It didn’t just demolish nature, it changed it, forever. Before it, fear was nearly non-existent among animals, but the number of surviving species was too large for the trauma to be forgotten. That was the birth of fear, and that fear has been growing ever since.”

“I did feel scared, I felt it the night it happened, before anyone else.”

“And that’s why we chose you. You were the beginning, the origin of fear.”

“How do your people know all of this?”

“They’ve been planning this for decades, as soon as they saw the threat. They put me and a few others in a school ever since I was a kid, just to teach us everything they had learned about your species so we can carry out this mission in the future. It wasn’t our choice, but that’s how I learned to speak your language.”

“What exactly is the threat?” Zadoc’s question was interrupted by a terrified deer leaping through the forest behind them.

Both Zadoc and Elly stared for a moment, before Elly starting speaking again.

“Fear was also the birth of the predator and prey game among animals. Life had adapted to the new emotion for centuries, but eventually, more and more predators began to emerge, extending food chains and dethroning apex predators. Ultimately, this destabilized the food web and fear had overtaken the animal kingdom.” Zadoc stared at Elly for a moment in an attempt to understand her words.

“But, why do they need me?” Elly had anticipated Zadoc asking this question eventually.

“They want you back in that room in a healthy state so they can study you and the origins of your fears. They are trying to eradicate fear and reassemble the broken cracks in the natural system before it starves us.” Elly paused. “It’s not a safe process. You will become their first test subject. They’re going to attempt to alter your emotions, and they’ve never tried it before.”

“Why do you care so much about…me?” Zadoc questioned.

“When I was sent to your time to save you, I arrived slightly earlier than the others. I witnessed you, double-dipping in the Nilvak river, smiling at your tribe neighbors, and getting distracted by a flutterbug. It just felt as if your connection with this world was much greater than ours. ” Elly explained.

Zadoc was at a loss for words, it felt as if this information was too much to handle. He walked up to the shore of the lake and crouched down towards the water, calling Elly to join him. As she crouched down with him, he grabbed her wounded hand, and dipped it in the fresh water. Elly let out a squeal from the stinging sensation, but eventually calmed down, allowing for Zadoc to speak whilst cleansing her hand.

“Your humanity is very similar to the Halcyons. We may have ended with M’kala, but you began with it. You were nature’s second chance, and what is there to live for if not in agreement with nature. If we were given more time, we would have transformed the world into paradise for our people, but the opportunity was never given to us, letting us realize paradise was always in front of us. If nature has began a twisted hunting game, let it play through, and let the results guide the future. Just because a tree’s branches are bent, doesn’t mean the tree is hideous and ought to collapse.” Elly now felt as she was on the receiving end of being at a loss for words. They both looked at each other once again until Elly broke the silence.

“How do I convince the entire world of that belief if they’ve already been convinced otherwise?”

“You don’t need to. I’ll go back to the building, and let them test on me to get rid of my fear instinct. It will allow humanity to make the decision for themselves.”

Elly was extremely disturbed by Zadoc’s answer.

“There is no way I’m letting you go back there. They’re going to ruin you.”

“So be it,” replied Zadoc. “It'll only teach them what they want to know.”

“Are you sure, Zadoc?” Elly quavered in an upset tone.

“Lead the way,” replied Zadoc. Elly slowly got back up alongside Zadoc, and they wandered back to the facility. Two guards standing outside the doors had spotted them from afar, and immediately escorted them inside, handcuffing both of them.

“Realized your mistake El?” the man from earlier stated in a stressed tone, as if he had been worried the entire time they were gone. “I’m glad you made this decision, let’s waste no time.” The group of men joined with other members took Zadoc to a laboratory, and placed him inside of a confinement tube. He was chained to the roof and floor of the cylindrical transparent tube while standing up straight with pads attached to his head. The entire crew crowded the room to observe Zadoc, along with Elly, who nervously watched with her hands cuffed behind her back.

“Begin the attempt.” the leading man commanded. After a few seconds, Zadoc could be seen tilting his head with his eyes squinted and creating rapid movements with his neck. “Stop.” The man moved closer to the tube, to observe the results of the attempt.

It seemed as if the attempt had worked when Zadoc stopped moving. A couple seconds passed, before terror filled the room. Zadoc had started yelling while aggressively banging on the tube walls. It sounded as if they were going to shatter at any moment.  He pulled off both of the chains attaching him to the roof of the tube, followed by the ones on the floor. Cracks appeared in the tube as Zadoc had now begun kicking it with his freed legs. 

“Send in the sleeping gas now!” The leader yelled at the top of his lungs. The behavior of Zadoc slowly relaxed, until he was eventually forced unconscious. “Check for signs of increased anger levels. Something went wrong here.”

“Actually sir, our experiment was successful. Brain activity shows no signs of increased anger, just decreased levels of fear,” the experiment analyst corrected.

“How the heck does that make sense then? Someone tell me.” The leader looked around the room for an answer.

“Because just if a tree’s branches are bent, it doesn’t mean the tree is hideous and ought to collapse.” The entire room gave an uncomfortable stare to Elly, still with her hands behind her back. “If nature has began a twisted hunting game, we must let it play through, and let the results guide the future. What you saw there wasn’t anger, it was the lack of fear fueling the true anger within him. Fear acts as a leash, and without that leash lies the origin of true danger.”

The room continued to listen to Elly. “Removing fear from nature would only result in the deaths of millions of species, not the salvaging of life. Fear isn’t what drives predators, it’s what drives prey. It drives prey to stay alive for just a bit longer to fulfill their job as an employee of nature. This isn’t speculation. We’ve just seen proof of what fear does. It wasn’t a curse placed upon us that night, it was a gift. It was a gift from nature because it knew what was coming next, and what is there to live for if not in agreement with nature?” Silence followed for a few seconds after Elly’s speech. Then, the whole room clapped, including the leader.

“Perhaps you’re correct, Elly. But, how are we going to feed ourselves for years to come with collapsing food chains?”

“If life made it through the impacts of M’kala, I’m sure we can adapt to the lasting effects of it. Eventually, we will adapt to the extended and new food chains rather than the collapsed ones, and nature will continue to guide us.” Elly responded. The attention of the room was once again diverted to the confinement tube as Zadoc was starting to wake up.

“You got any answers for this one Elly? Maybe talk to him in his language?” hastily asked the leader.

“Maybe remove these handcuffs first? They’re really uncomfortable.” ordered Elly. Her handcuffs were removed shortly after.

As Zadoc stood up straight, Elly ordered the tube to be lifted, which it then was. Elly’s presence had kept Zadoc calm, even without the fear of anyone or anything. She led Zadoc to the same room she was in when she was placed in the time capsule. The crowd of members followed them. 

“We’ve got one capsule left, remember?” the leader told Elly.

“Yes, I remember. We’re going to dispose of it, and never create them again. We’ve got enough issues to deal with here.” Elly smiled at the leader.

“No.” Zadoc replied in Nilvakian. “I’m going back.” The crowd seemed confused as they couldn’t understand the language.

“Zadoc, you’re going to die.” Elly replied back in Nilvakian and a worried tone.

“It’s my home, where I belong. I was always meant to die there. I’d like to go meet my family for the last time, perhaps without fear.”

Elly cried silent tears, but she felt she had no other option than to comply with Zadoc’s request. She loaded up and prepared the time capsule as the crowd watched.

“Here it is.” Elly attempted to be strong although she wanted to sob out loud.

“Thank you Elly, and I wish the best of luck to humanity. It is comforting to know that there are people who remember us, and that time hasn’t erased us from the past.”

Elly turned on the capsule’s engines, wiping her tears while doing so.

“You know, time heals all wounds, but time can leave the nastiest scars.” Elly squalled through her crying voice. 

“All good things must come to an end, Elly. Nothing is timeless except time itself. It’s time for me to go.” Elly pulled a lever that initiated the launch sequence of the capsule. Zadoc and Elly looked at each other for the last time. Within a few seconds, the capsule had taken off, arriving back empty a minute later. Upon his arrival back to the Halcyon Era, Zadoc walked up to the Nilvakian river, and plunged his entire face into the timeless stream. He greeted the sleeping sloths, and invited the flutter bug towards him. As M’kala strikes, he continues gently walking towards his camp, witnessing his family reach out their hands once again. Even without the emotion of fear, he still begins to snivel at the sight, resulting in him running towards them like last time. He arrives at his family and bear hugs all of them collectively, pulling them closer to his chest every second until the shockwave reached the camp. Inevitably vaporizing everything in its vicinity. A minute passed, and M’kala had marked the end of the Halcyons, including the Nilvak tribe and Zadoc, the hero of a future civilization.