Max took the fourth ring from the fifth column. It was a wooden ring, with a emerald that had a rich, almost plant-like color. Before Max could try it one Zack stopped him.
"What?" Max asked. "You know that your turn is after mine."
"Yeah, I know," Zack rolled his eyes. "But I think there's something written on the ring."
Sure enough, there was a line of words that stretched across the outside of the ring. Examining it closely, the four read it as thus:
"Try me on, if you so dare
But there may come a bit of despair
Say farewell to your townspeople
And travel through life after people."
"Okay, that last rhyme is a bit weak," Mark said.
"And who says 'townspeople'?" Max asked.
"Wait a minute," Luke said. "I've heard those last three words before."
Luke opened his computer on the desk next to the ring box and showed something that he had shown his friends before. They had watched "Life After People", a series from the History Channel that speculated how the world would change in time in the case of instantaneous disappearance of all humans. Luke was wondering if this ring had some connection to such events.
"And what does it mean by travel?" Luke asked. "Does it mean teleportation? Time travel? Or just...?"
"Calm down, Luke," Mark said.
The three looked to Max as he held the ring. Max wondered what to do.