John’s walking toward the office building he works at. The ground shakes, something has grabbed on to the world. John’s body shoots into the air diagonally at a terrible speed. He’s too afraid to even scream. He’s 10 miles above the ground! Everyone else in the world is too. Their bodies zigzag past each other, but never once do they touch as they fly in every direction possible. John has now flown half way across the world. His body starts angling towards the ground, he’s going to die! John’s eyes are as wide as can be as he crashes into a jungle. Somehow, incredibly, he’s still alive! He looks at his hands, he can’t even think. How did he survive? His body doesn’t even have a scratch on it. John hears a large crash nearby. He runs using his hands to cut through the jungle to see what the crash was about. As he walks into the clearing he sees that it’s a female, probably around his age at 35. She’s on her knees looking at her hands as he had just done. She looks up and they lock eye’s, neither of them can think of anything to say.

“Hello.” John finally squeaks out.

“Hello.” responds the lady as she slowly and shakily stands up on her feet. 

“What’s your name?” asks John, trying to think of something to say.

“Jill, what’s your’s?”

“My name is John, are you okay?”

“I seem to be, at least physically, are you?”

“I’m fine too, though I don’t know how.” John chuckles a little bit. 

“Me neither.” says Jill, who chuckles a little bit as well.

“Where are we?” asks John.

“Earth, I think.”

“Hopefully, maybe we’re in Indonesia.’

“Or maybe the Amazon.” Jill approaches closer to John.

They both look each other in the eye’s. For the first time they think about what just happened.

“Is this a dream?” asks John rhetorically. 

Jill pokes John, “I guess not.” John pokes back, just to make sure.

John feels a crushing sleepiness hit him, so does Jill. The adrenaline from flying half way across the world seemed to have worn out. They both lay down on the ground and collapse into sleep. It is only now that they enter into their dreams. It is a few hours before either of them wake. When they do they act more surprised than when they first landed in the jungle. They touch each other again to try to wake themselves up, but it fails.

“Where should we go?” asks John, feeling his tummy rumble.

“I don’t know, whatever direction you feel is best.” responds Jill, who feels a panik John is also experiencing.

“How about this way.” John points in a random direction, trying to give himself some hope. 

“Let’s go, the sun will be setting soon.” responds Jill. But then she looks at the sky and sees that the sun is rising. She realizes then she’s thinking of the time back in her home country, the place they are in now is in a completely different time zone. “Actually, we have all day, now that we're half across the world and all.”

“It’s still a good idea to get moving.” says John as he starts walking.

The bugs are brutal as they make their way through the dense jungle. Neither of them have experienced such conditions before. They walk for miles, but don’t see any signs of life. As the sun lowers in the sky they start to feel tired from the journey. But as they think about settling down for the night they see a clearing. In it there’s a small village with huts made of leaves and jungle wood. They look around the small village but are unable to find anyone living there.

“The same thing must have happened to them.” says John as he looks into another hut and finds it empty.

“Yea, I think it happened to everyone.” responds Jill as she looks into another empty hut.

“Hey, there’s some stuff left in this hut.” says John as he looks into the final hut. 

“What’s in there?” asks Jill. 

John ducks under the low doorway and enters into the hut. Inside there’s an interwoven leaf covering over what look to be objects of different sizes. Jill now looks into the hut as John bends down and takes off the leaf cover. There are two small bags that look full, a primitive ax, a piece of jewelry, and two bugs that start flying around the hut. John grabs one of the bags, it feels in his hands that the bag must contain a lot of tiny pieces. Jill is now beside him, this could be their only hope.

“Nuts, it’s nuts!” yells John, kissing the bag.

Jill grabs the other bag, “This one has nut’s too!”

“Were saved! Were saved!” screams John, who starts eating handfuls at a time.

“This is the best food I’ve ever tasted!” hollers Jill as she starts downing nuts as well.

They both stop moving, they hear the crunching of leaves from outside the hut. John quietly walks over to the entrance.

“I know you’re there.” says a man with a hoarse voice from outside the hut, “I heard you screaming about something.”

John emerges from the hut.

“I mean no harm.” says the old man who now stands in front of John.

“Me neither.” replies John.

“Do you mind if I take shelter with you tonight? You’re the only people I’ve met so far.” asks the old man humbly.

“I don’t mind, do you Jill?”

“I don’t, he can even have some of our nuts.” responds Jill from inside of the hut.

John gestures toward the hut, signaling the old man can enter first. The old man makes a grunt as he bends down to make it under the low clearance of the entryway. 

“I’m Jill.”

“I’m Patrick, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you too, this is my… my acquaintance John.”

“Nice to meet you too young man.”

“It’s a pleasure.” responds John, “Do you want some nuts?”

“Yes, please.”

John hands Patrick a bag of nuts. Instead of chomping down right away Patrick sits down and starts eating the nuts slowly. He then takes off his cowboy hat and sets it inside up on the ground. John and Jill slowly sit down as well. It feels good to sit down after the long and hard day they had just gone through. 

“Do you know where we are?” asks John, not really expecting an answer.

“No, I don’t.”

“Do you have any insight as to what happened?” asks Jill. 

“I do, but are you sure you want to hear it?”

“We’re sure.” responds John, who desperately seeks an answer.

“I’m sure you felt it, when the Earth shaked right before we went flying.”

“We do.” respond John and Jill.

“It was like something was grabbing onto the world, something beyond our imagination. Only something all powerful could have taken us and thrown us around the world at blazing speeds. I’m sure you know where I’m going with this, I’ve been a pastor for 31 years and I’ve learned to see God when he’s doing something. Though I am far from perfect, this one seems clear to me.”

“Why would God do this to us?” asks John.

“We may never understand completely why, but know that he did this out of love for us.”

“How is that possible, he’s destroyed everything we had.” says Jill.

“Jill, what was your profession before all this?”

“Actor, I have 19 credits on my acting CV.”

“And John, what was your profession before all this.”

“Businessman, pretty successful one at that.”

“Both of you have had pretty charmed lives. Jill, I bet there’s never been a role you couldn’t play. And John, I bet there’s never been a profit line you haven't turned green. Both of you had mansions and were able to retire whenever you wanted. But tell me if I’m wrong, all the success you experienced became your life. When you think about yourself that’s what you see above all else, this image of a perfect person taking on all tasks. But now it’s all gone, I guess your pride might remain but what worth is that anyway. God has taken everything from everyone, including me. But that can also be seen as a good thing. No one has anymore excuses about their moral lives, no more distractions from their conduct. Everyone has been stript down to their very core. The only thing people have left is the conduct of their character.”

“You crazy old man, you know nothing.” responds John, grabbing the bag of nuts from Patricks hands. 

Patrick stands up, “I guess it is my time to leave,” he turns toward the entryway and starts heading out.

“Wait, we need this sir.” Says Jill, who can’t even believe what she’s saying.

“Please stay, I didn’t mean what I just said. I’m sorry, it just overwhelmed me to hear that.”

“Alright, I’ll stay.” Patick walks back over and sits down again, his hat hadn’t moved the entire time.

“What’s next?” asks John.

“I can’t tell you what’s next, but I can tell you what’s going on right now. All across the world people are scrambling for anything they can get their hand on. In open spaces and where more people have landed fights are breaking out across the world. Houses are burning, grocery stores are being pillaged. Think of the person who landed on Mount Everest, he or she has already died of freezing cold. See, were the lucky ones, landing in this thick jungle. Since the amount of materials to gain is small we have nothing to fight over. But one prediction I do have is that society will rebuild. New bonds will form, new leaders will take power. Some societies will be good, others will be bad. You two might even get married, it’s not like there’s any other options to choose from.”

“But I’m still grappling with why.” states Jill.

“I think everyone is, including me. One thing to remember is that the value of our lives doesn’t depend on the material value of our lives. We have no entitlement to anything we have obtained in this world, including our family. Though we will see them again in Heaven it is clear that we most likely won’t see any of them again on Earth. The hearts of many people are hurting right now, including mine. The only people we have right now are the people God has chosen to put beside us. The three of us, we are family now. If we choose to do so we can form our own society, producing for each other. Or we could choose to destroy each other for the small amount of possessions we might still have with us. What do you think, John and Jill?”

John and Jill look at each other, even though it’s getting dark they can still see the large details of their faces. Saying yes to this meant they would be married and give birth to the next generation. But what other choices did they have? They could only survive together.

“Yes,” they both say at the same time.

“Alright, tomorrow will be your wedding day, and I will preside over that ceremony as the most qualified person around to do that. Oh, I also have one more thing to form our society on.” Patrick reaches into the cowboy hat beside him, he pulls out an old thick book with a hard cover.

It’s the Holy Bible.

“What should be the name of our society?” asks Patrick, looking at the two new lovers.

John and Jill look each other in the eye’s. 

“How about… Newtopia.” says John.

“I love it.” responds Jill.

“We can always change it later.” says Patrick, though neither John nor Jill turn to look at him. 

“I think we should do it tonight.” says Jill to John.

“Yes, I think we should as well.” responds John, who inches closer to Jill. 

Patrick stands up and holds the book out with his hand. John and Jill follow his lead and stand up as well. They both put their hand on the book, their two pointer fingers barely touching each other in the center.

“Shall we begin?”

“Yes.”