I stared at it. Stared at those new words long and hard. Stared until a part of my soul started screaming that I needed to get back inside because my stamina was getting low. They were coming, and I needed to save every bit of stamina and sanity I could.

Because they were going to break through the fence tonight.

I heard a snarl way too close to me. I spun around and saw the wolf staring right at me. The creature was sniffing around the storage unit when he spotted me. Adrenaline shot through me, and I bolted toward the front of the house. The wolf snarled before it started to run. The rain might have masked its feet, but it could not mask that sharp crunching sound as the spine broke.

I let out a terrified shout as I kept running. I ran around the house to the front porch, leaping over the dead flowerbeds. I heard it snarling, its hot breath hitting my neck.

I dropped to the ground out of instinct, and the wolf on its two legs tripped over me. I wasted no time scrambling to my feet and running through the front door. I slammed it shut but didn’t stop my momentum until I rammed against the wall of the living room. I was gasping for air, trying to keep back a sob. I couldn’t think. I almost didn’t want to. The only thing that brought me out of it was when I heard Killie hissing.

I turned around and realized I hadn’t shut the door as hard as I thought. It swung open, and I saw the wolf standing there, right at the edge of the front porch.

I covered my mouth to keep in a scream, but I kept staring at the thing. It was such a horrifying sight I couldn’t help but stare. Those hind legs shouldn’t be able to hold up that creature, yet it was. The creature was well over six and a half feet tall, the fur matted yet soaking wet. It was snarling at me, saliva dripping from its jaw. In an act of bravery, I turned on my flashlight and pointed the light at its face.

The wolf had beady black eyes. There was emotion in those eyes, mostly rage and murder. The wolf was programed with only one function. To kill me. It didn’t even bother looking at Killie, even though she was the easier target. Killie kept hissing at it, but the wolf ignored her.

The creature remained at the foot of the two stairs at the front porch. It was clear it couldn’t go any further. That alone made me brave enough to keep a light on its face. To see those beady, murderous eyes. See an insane amount of teeth that seemed stuffed in its mouth like someone was trying to cram as much teeth into a jaw as possible. It snarled at me again, batting at the air with its claws, trying to get at me. I was so focused on seeing this creature that I didn’t realize how much my sanity was dropping until a huge chunk of it disappeared with the wolf trying to get at me.

I jumped, then headed toward the door and slammed it shut. The wolf snarled again as I clutched my chest, trying to breathe.

I still didn’t want to think. They were attacking, and the fence wasn’t done. Twenty shattered glass! I didn’t have enough. How many times would I fall for this? Thinking I was done on the task I was working on? Even if I ran out right now to get sand, I wouldn’t have enough. Glass took an entire day to finish in the tool.

I started softly banging my head against the door. I could have put all those bricks in the storage unit and had it complete by now. I could have saved all those points I spent on figuring out if the clay could be cooked under the furnace. I wouldn’t have been in the negative.

My thoughts returned to the alien overlords, and I tried not to be bitterly angry at them. They knew shattered glass was another task. Perhaps it was my own fault for not asking if there was any more, but I was so focused on the bricks. I was so close.

Too close.

I thought about just how lucky it was that I had forty-five bricks already done. Lucky how the furnace could only do five, the exact number of bricks left that I needed. It all worked out a little too perfectly. It was tied in a bow a little too neatly. Like my alien overlords dangled a carrot over my nose to get me to do this.

Maybe they didn’t set me up to fail, but it was certainly suspicious how it all seemed to work out.

Until it didn’t.

I was back to that familiar feeling of being a rat in a maze. Whatever I did was being closely monitored, and tests were being injected into the maze that I didn’t feel like I had originally agreed on.

So, why? Why did I agree to this? Why did I subject myself to something like this? Was I tricked into it? That seemed like something the male would do.

Killie walked over to me, checking to see if I was okay. I patted her on the back, staring at my sanity. I had maybe thirty percent. Thirty percent to face them when they attacked. I was not going to survive the night.

I felt her fur on my skin and frowned, glancing down. I touched my reflective vest. There was a large gash in it, and I tried to remember where this came from. I remembered dropping to the ground to trip the wolf, and remembered the size of the claws on its feet. It must have cut into the clothes.

Warning, clothing damaged. Will not work until sewing machine has repaired it. Will take six hours.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

I groaned, resting my head against the door again. It was better to know this now, rather than later. I needed my building clothes, as I was pretty sure I needed all three levels to upgrade buildings.

I got up and crept up to the second floor, taking off the vest and setting it on the sewing machine. It started working fast, and I crept down the stairs again, my heart hammering in my chest. Would it matter? I was undoubtably getting attacked by them tonight.

Before my panic took over completely, I tried to soothe my thoughts. Information. I would see what happened. See if I talked to the male again when they sucked all my sanity and stamina out of me. Maybe I could spin this to my favor. See if I could get more information from this male being. Would I be able to function well enough after an attack from them?

My foot hit the final step, and I let out a shudder. I felt the pressure on all sides, an indication that they were coming. Already the tears started to fall. I could do this. It was a talk with the male alien overlord. That’s what would happen at the end of all this. I’d get more information.

I picked up my axe, tears still streaming down my face as I clung to my thirty percent sanity. I ate the last of my fried fish to fill my stamina up to about seventy percent, just to be safe. The grayed out cap was still there, so I couldn’t get to the full hundred percent even if I tried. I was out of food. And I was quite sure I would not last the night.

Thud

I closed my eyes, shaking my head. Not a monster. More just a blob thing. I could do this.

Thud

So what if they broke through?

Thud

I’d just have a conversation with the alien overlords. I wouldn’t give up.

Thud

I would figure out why I was here. I would.

There was silence. My palms started to sweat. I refused to feel terrified.

An explosion rocked the house, and I fell to my knees, recoiling from the sound. That was the fence. The fence just exploded. I kept a grip on my axe, trying not to sob. My sanity took a hit. This was going to be a very short night.

A blackness started to pool at the base of the door. I let out a gasp, backing away. Killie ran, disappearing into the bedroom. I wished I could follow her. To just go to bed. To ignore this all. But I couldn’t.

I backed into the kitchen, my breathing hitched. Despite knowing I couldn’t survive the night, my self-preservation kicked in. They were headed straight for me, the black sludge of teeth and fur. I didn’t know how to kill them. I wasn’t sure they could be killed.

I kept backing away as the sludge followed me, gaining speed. I whimpered, knowing if I stayed in this house I’d be trapped. I didn’t want to be trapped.

In a desperate attempt to last as long as I could, I threw open the back door and stumbled into the covered back porch. The black sludge lifted up, gaining no humanoid like features except to fill the void of their mouth with jagged teeth. I stumbled out again before slamming the screen door right as they attacked. The sludge hit the door, but specks of them landed on me. I let out a cry, trying to shake it off as I backed into the rain. I couldn’t see, more feel them all around, breaking down the fences, the greenhouses. Entering the house and the storage unit. I was gasping, trying to hold my axe.

“Get out! Get out!” I couldn’t help but scream.

Another pillar of black sludge reared up before slamming into me. I tried to cut it with the axe, but it didn’t work. It was like trying to cut a wave in hopes that it wouldn’t get me wet. I felt them hit my chest as tiny teeth started to bore into me.

“No! No.” I tried to shout, but the energy was sapped out of me. The rest of my sanity disappeared, and I waited for blackness to come. Instead, it started draining my stamina.

I fell to my knees, feeling more of the sludge coming around the corner of the house to find me.

“Leave me alone,” I mumbled. I tried to grab the sludge from my torso, but every time I got a bit out, the teeth simply transferred to whatever sludge was still there. I was on my hands and knees, the axe to one side as I tried to breathe. My stamina was dropping fast, dipping below fifty percent as my vision turned wabbly.

I knew this would happen. They were strong, and the fence couldn’t hold them back. Yet still I tried to fight, a primal instinct to keep me safe. But I no longer listened to it now. I simply closed my eyes, ready for the darkness. Ready for that white room. To see if my alien overlords would punish me for failing.

In the distance, I heard something that I at first couldn’t register. If I had to put a word to it, it sounded like a chainsaw of all things. For whatever reason, that noise made them stop burrowing.

All at once they pulled away from me. From the house. From everything. They found a new target, and I was too busy panting, trying to figure out what was happening to focus much on anything.

I was against the wall of the storage unit, hearing that chain saw as it cut into them. There was no shrieking, no crying from them. Just the wet slap of them falling to the ground before reforming again. I was breathing deeply, not sure what to think. The chainsaw got closer, and I needed to leave. Meeting up with a crazed chainsaw murderer was not something I wanted to experience right now.

Whoever it was approached, the chainsaw dying down. I had spent so much time focusing on getting the energy to enter the house that I didn’t realize how close this person was.

A beam of light hit me right in the face. I lifted a hand, trying to block the light. Worried I wasn’t going to die from them, but from a chainsaw murderer.

“Quinn?”

I recognized that voice in an instant. It was the one constant in all my memories. I dropped my hand as he lifted the flashlight that seemed to be attached to his head by some sort of contraption. I was breathing deeply, the rain falling less. With the light not in my eyes, I saw his face. Saw the hair, the eyes, the person now my age. Saw the torn, rugged tactical gear he wore and the chainsaw in his hand.

“Theo?”

Theo stared at me, brows furrowed in confusion. He glanced around at the back of the house, backing away. “What… what…”

He was here. He was here in this world too. But… how? Why? No doubt he had a million questions himself.

Theo’s head jerked to the side before he lifted his chainsaw, starting it up again.

“Theo, wait!”

He didn’t stay. He sprinted away, holding his chainsaw ready, no doubt leaving to attack more of them. I wanted to follow him, but a darkness flitted around my vision. I gasped, fear taking me as I glanced at my stamina, but I wasn’t nauseous. I had about five percent left.

Attack is finished. Force sleep beginning.

“No!” I shouted.

I stumbled forward as darkness appeared in the side of my vision. I had so many questions. Theo was here. He had answers. He was off, fighting them, but I needed answers to my questions. Even with him here, a million more questions formed.

Darkness surrounded me as the game forced me to sleep.