When you voluntarily walked underground, you had no idea how long you’d be there.

People said you were crazy for doing it, but you’d been called crazy, and worse, for years.

Besides, the government said they were doing it for a good reason. When the aliens intercepted our Voyager 1 probe and told us they were on their way to Earth to evaluate us for membership in their confederation, the planet collectively decided to put its best foot forward. If the aliens knew just how many humans were poor, or homeless, or uneducated, or just flat-out broken, Earth’s membership application might be denied.

And that meant sweeping people like you under the rug, at least for a little while.