"I can leave you all now, safe and sound, inside this territory."
John's voice was steady as he looked over the exhausted but awestruck column of survivors. It had been over a day and a half since he had led the humans out of their cradle.
During this, the few thousand humans were destined to experience a journey that entirely shook their lives to the core, fundamentally reshaping everything they thought they knew about the truth of this world.
Even when John had described the nature of the trial in words, seeing the reality in the flesh was something else entirely. The shock had begun the moment they crossed from the southern into the northern territories.
They arrived several hours after John accelerated on his own, and went towards the territory ahead of everyone to clear it. They arrived just as the night ended and a new day arrived.
