`The Unknown...' Frowned Cage, as if giving the title a moment to rattle around the inside of his mind like some sort of snotty rich person at a wine tasting ceremony. Cage concluded that it might not be the greatest title in the world but it was sure better than "Journey Back To Eden" which was the only other idea he had managed to come up with.

`Mr Jones what is "The Unknown" all about? Asked Cage to himself. He had read somewhere online that many authors used this method to further understand their own story. They would pretend to give an interview, acting as interviewer and interviewee, and ask every question that came to mind to further unlock the mysterious of ones own story.

`Well...' Replied Cage, again to himself. `"The Unknown" is a story about the last human being alive. He had lived to the end of the human race and found that he is the only survivor. The story is set on the tail end of an apocalyptic war, which was so bad that it actually caused the self-destruction of planet earth in the year 2300ad'
Cage took a sip of his lukewarm coffee before continuing. `The story follows the creation of a spaceship which was meant to carry a million or so human survivors from planet earth before it was due to explode. As they knew it is coming from their scientists but due to the terrorists who are using the super-weapons-of-mass-destruction that have killed the planet everyone is killed accept the main character who was locked away inside of the spaceship at the time of the final attack'
`And there is a strange twist about the ship is there not?' Asked Cage, in the character of the interviewer.

`That is correct. You see this spaceship was not designed to travel to some far and distant star, in like a vein attempt to create a human colony on an alien world to repopulate the human race, no. The spaceship was designed to travel backwards through time and the thing about the story is when it starts to jump backwards in time it can only stop once for when it does stop it cannot do any further jumps, in other words the spaceship will be stuck in what ever time it stops in'
`And what time period does the hero of "The Unknown" choose to go back to?"

`The hero of the story planned to go back to a time where he could warn people about the coming war and the destruction of earth, you know, stop it from happening before it ever gained motion but due to the damage caused in the final attack the spaceship is sent right back to the beginning of the human race and our hero inevitably becomes Adam in the Adam and Eve story, thus ensuring that the human race will always exist but his hope is that if he leaves clues and whatnot he can change the course of human history but that's a story for another day.'
Returning his weight to the back of the chair, Cage tilted it back on its two rear legs, placed his hands on his head and stared at the ceiling. `This story makes no sense...' He sighed.

`Steven?' Called his mum. `Steven, are you up there?'
`Yeah, mum, what's the matter?' Replied Cage.

`Can you come to the top of the stairs?'
Cage nodded, more to himself than anyone else, placed all four legs of the chair on the floor and headed for the door. The small figured lady, with short brown hair that had the slight grey strands creeping through stood at the bottom of the stairs, slightly out of breath.

`You alright?'
`Yes' She nodded. `Can you spare five minutes and give me a hand moving some things'
`Sure' Cage started his way down the stairs, giving his mum the usual lecture. `If you need things moved come and get me, your going to injure yourself if try to do things on your own. You should stop trying to be a Marta, the reason I am here is to help you' His mum nodded along, as they moved towards the dining room doorway, she had heard this speech a hundred times over. `What's all this in aid of?' Asked Cage. Where their dining room table had once been stood boxes upon boxes that she had carried out from the garage.

`These are the things I was telling you about the other day'
`The stuff you want to sell?'
`Yes. I believe I can get some good money for half this stuff. Anything I make will go a long ways towards paying the mortgage for the house, at least for a while anyway'
Cage walked across to the closest box and flicked open the flimsy flaps on top. His shoulders dropped on sight of the boxes contents. `You can't sell these' He said. Reaching inside Cage picked up one of this dad's favourite airborne medals and held it up for his mother to see.

`I am afraid I have to Steven, its what your father wanted me to do if...' She paused for a moment, turning away from the medal but Cage could see the swelling of tears in her eyes but like the trooper that she was, his mother fought the tears back before adding `anything like this ever happened.'
`But you know how much he loved...'
`If I do not sell them now, we will loose the house anyway, and where will they go then?' She snapped, cutting him off in mid-sentence. `Your father made me promise him that I would sell his medals if anything happened to him. He knew they would be worth a good deal of money and he would also want them to go to someone who appreciated them instead of them just sitting inside of the garage'
A sharp pain stabbed Cage in the side of the head. Wincing in pain he dropped himself down into one of the dining room chairs, cupping his head in his hands.

`Steven, are you okay?'
After a moment of blinding pain Cage nodded slowly as he massaged his temples with both hands. `Tomorrow you are going to see the doctor' ordered his mum.

`It's only a headache mum. The doc will only give me some tables and kick me out his office. I will be fine don't worry about it'
`Your not fine, look at you, your in agony'
`I'm fine' Cage was not kidding anyone.

`I will get you something for your head, wait here for a minute'
`Okay'
As his mum headed out the dining room doorway for the medical box in the kitchen, Cage reluctantly picked up the first box full of medals, stepped over the dog and headed for the front door. `Back in a second' He called back as he stepped out the house and onto the driveway. The sweet smell of freshly cut grass was the first thing to hit him as he headed for the open boot of his mums car. Looking up into the clear blue sky he watched a hawk fly majestically overhead before diving down into the farmers field across the way to gather it's lunch.

Suddenly the pain in Cage's head struck again. Only this time it felt as if he had been hit in the face with a baseball bat. Spasms shot through both of his arms, sending the box of medals crashing across the driveway. The edges started to go black as the world began to spin. Stumbling onto the newly cut garden Cage tried to keep his footing, he looked like a baby taking its first few steps. He could hear his mother's distant voice yelling in the background but if felt as if he was hearing her from underwater, everything she said came through as nothing more than a muffle. Before he realised what was happening he was falling forward towards the light green ground below him, when all of a sudden there was a flash of white so intense that he thought for a moment that he would be blinded.

Cage didn't remember hitting the floor.

*****
Unable to move and unable to speak Cage stared into the darkness of his eyelids. A sinking feeling tugged at his stomach as panic kicked in. All of a sudden a strange popping sound that was quickly followed by a hiss of air filled his ears, and all in one moment Cage regained full control of his body.

The glass door swung open and all to familiarly Cage fell face first towards the floor. Only this time he held out his hands and landed on all fours. Instantly Cage knew he was no longer at home. Red warning lights flashed on the wall as a Klaxon rang throughout the room. A hand gripped him by the shoulder and pulled him from the dull grey floor. Startled Cage pulled himself away from the person and scrambled to his feet, where was he?

The young woman who had tried to help him up looked as nervous and confused as he did, which was of some mild comfort. If he had met her at any other time he might have said it was love at first sight. To say the woman was beautiful was a complete and total understatement. She had deep blue eyes and long flowing blonde hair, her figure was slim and she was dressed in nothing more than a bra and pants. In fact they all were. The men wore nothing but boxer shorts and the woman were wearing just enough to grant them a bit of dignity.

Cage counted six people standing in the room with him, two woman and four men. The flashing lights and the constant alarm were very disorienting but Cage sucked in a deep breath of air and forced himself to focus. Pivoting on the spot he took in as much of the room as his brain could process. The room was made up with a locker at one end and a hatch that looked as if it belonged in a submarine in the other but the really worrying thing was the six casket like objects that sat on either side of the wall, three sitting opposite one another. What they were and what they did Cage did not know but the one thing he could be sure of was that he had fallen out of one of them.

`Andrew?' Asked a nervous looking young man at the back of the room. He took in everyone's face one at a time but the person he was looking for was clearly not here. Pushing passed the group he reached the hatch and started trying to turn the wheel. For a moment the others just watched, still in shock.

`Help me!' Demanded the young man, whom Cage guessed was still be in his teens. Cage with his toned and well-developed muscles stepped up beside the boy, placed a hand on his shoulder and moved him to one side. It took everything that he had but he managed to shift the handle a little. The woman who had tried to help him moments early came along side him and added her weight to the wheel. The two of them made eye contact.

`Jane' Said Jane.

`Cage' he replied as the wheel finally gave and the hatch swung open.

The first thing that they noticed was the heat that seemed to hit them in the face like some sort of nuclear explosion. All of them pulled back from the door for a moment and took stock at the angry flames that consumed the room at the end of the corridor that sat across the oval room from them. Cage spotted movement from more people in nothing but their underwear, he was a bit weary at first, should he go out into the oval or should he stay hidden? That question was answered for him when the young boy pushed passed yelling `Andrew!'
Cage and Jane moved out into the large oval room together. People were flowing from the four other chambers that were attached to the room, all of which were the exact same design as the one Cage had woken in. A tall slightly balding man with a saggy chest pushed past him calling out for someone he could not find. Cage noted a short fat figure cowering inside one of the chambers, clearly shaken by the very sight of the flames.

`Hey kid' yelled the guy standing just in front of him. Cage snapped from his daydream and leaned in so that he could hear what the man had to say over the general chatter of confused and scared people. `What's your name?'
`Cage' he replied.

`And Jane' Jane piped in.

`I'm Kyle. I need your help if were going to put out this fire' Said Kyle.

`You a fireman?' Asked Jane.

Kyle replied with a shake of the head and turned towards the fire. It was now that Cage knew what it was like for a fish to swim up stream, not a single person in the oval was going in their direction. Kyle didn't seem to have too much of a problem getting by people but it did help that he was six foot two inches tall and built like a brick shithouse.

The corridor on the other side of the oval was made up of several small rooms, all of which seemed to be unaffected by the fire at this current moment in time. It only seemed to be located in one room but there was no way to reach in and ceil the hatch closed for the flames were already licking across the side of the door.

`Scout around for a fire extinguisher or a horse or anything we can use' Order Kyle. The three of them broke off and moved into separate rooms in the corridor.

Cage headed straight into what looked like a food store. There was nothing in here that could put out the fire but enough items to fuel the fire. He instantly headed out and locked the room from the outside, cutting off the pain from the fire-consumed room to the food store. Kyle met him in the corridor and before he could ask the question Cage shuck his head. A few more people from the oval were making their way up the corridor to lend a hand.

`Where's Jane?' Asked Kyle. Cage replied with a shrug of the shoulders and turned away to go looking for her.

Jane was standing on the far side of the room with her back to him. Cage stepped forward to investigate but noticed the row of fire extinguishers packed away inside of a glass box labelled "Break In Case Of Emergency" Cage used a spanner from an open tool box to smash open the case and pull free a fire extinguisher.

`Jane, come on!' Called Cage, but Jane did not reply. `What's the matter, are you okay?' Jane turned to face him, her eyes wide with fear. She gestured with a nod of her head towards the small circular viewing port. Cage stepped up beside her unaware of what the big deal was all about but as soon as he stood there and looked outside that sinking feeling once again returned to his stomach. He was a long way from home.

The view from the viewing port was far and wide and seemed to go on forever. There was no sky only darkness. A deep black pinpricked with thousands upon thousands of distance stars. Cage was no longer at home helping his mum moving boxes to the car. He was on a spaceship in the darkest reaches of deep space.