The blaring of the car's radio barely drowns out the blasting sound of the AC coming through the vents of the old toyota camry.
Sweat pours down Reginald’s face as the car struggles to keep the 110° temperature outside. The heat from the deserts in Arizona might be dry compared to the humid heat he is used to, but that doesn’t mean it still isn’t unbearable.
Reginald strokes the dashboard of the car while giving it an encouraging smile.
“Come on ole’ girl. We only got another uhhhh.”
Looking over at his phone attached to his dashboard by a poorly rigged phone holder, Reginald coughs when he sees the mileage left.
“Yep, just another 300 miles until we get there. Then just another 2,200 miles back. You can handle that… Right?” Reginald says as he looks down at his dashboard in worry that a check engine light might turn on at any moment.
If he knew that in his mother’s will that she would want him to drive across the country from Tampa Bay, Florida to Phoenix, Arizona to spread her ashes, he would’ve bought a new car a month ago.
Reginald gazes over at the urn currently in the passenger seat, buckled in lest he want her ashes to spill over the car’s 16 year old seats. Tears start to well up in his eyes again, however he holds them back with a deep breath in, and a firm gaze upon the road in front of him.
“It doesn’t get any easier with you being gone Ma. Especially driving with you across the country in the car you bought me when I was 16.”
‘However, it is the least I could do for you after everything you went through for me.’
Reginald reminisces good times he had with his mother once again to try and forget about the hellacious drive across the country he is currently going through.
All the times she would nag at him for coming home covered in dirt and sweat then immediately running and jumping onto the couch to rest his body.
Everytime should would scold him for not doing his homework and instead going out and trying to build stick forts in the woods.
As he got older, she would still nag him about not being able to find a wife, all the way up until the day she passed.
“If I die without a grandkid, I’m bringing your ass to the grave with me!” She would yell as he would rather work overtime than go out and actually try to meet people.
Even though he wanted to do something outdoorsy all of his life, Reginald instead got a job as a Chemist so he could make enough money to support his sickly mother. His tan skin and bulky hands show that he still however spends a lot of his free time outside and being active.
In her last months, even though her body was giving up on herself, Reginald’s mother only fretted about him finding a wife. Reginald remembers one of the last conversations he had with his mother.
“If I’m gone, who will take care of you?! Your ass can barely do laundry correctly, let alone keep your sanity in check! Go out right now and find you a nice girl. I heard Tammie across the street’s husband recently passed away and ....”
The sweet voice of Reginald’s mother slowly begins to fade away as a new, foreign voice forces its way in.
*Commencing Merger into God’s Choice. Manager assigned, Verglix the Dark One.*
“What the..?” Reginald can’t believe the fact that he is hearing such a clear and bell-like voice within his mind.
“Who is Verglix the Dark One?”
*Initializing Transmigration.*
*ERROR, OUTSIDE INTERFERENCE DETECTED.*
*PLANET TRANSMIGRATION INTERRUPTED.*
The world begins to shudder around Reginald as he mindlessly drives with his mouth agape. Reginald’s eyes gloss over as he stares into space looking at the absurdity of the messages in his mind.
*Verglix has initialized God’s Choice Reboot in an effort to prevent planetary annihilation.*
…
…
*System has been rebooted. Planetary annihilation has been prevented for all 10 planets. However, some planets have been misplaced. God’s Choice will be put into emergency mode until assistance is acquired.*
*Message from Manager: “Best of Wishes to you all, sorry I couldn’t do more ^_^”.*
…
…
…
“Whoooooaa, we're half way there, WHOOAA, LIVIN ON A PRAYER.”
The only sound that prevails after such an absurd series of events is the sound of Bon Jovi playing on the radio of Reginald’s car.
Once Reginald finally processes a sliver of what just transpired, he quickly looks down at the speedometer and sees he is going 100 MPH. He forcefully slams on the breaks and the car begins to slip out beneath him and skid sideways.
Reginald holds on for dear life and as the car comes to a halt, his brain cannot comprehend what his eyes are seeing.
The once brown desert with a bright sun has been replaced to a crimson desert, with a solar eclipse hanging in the air.
Reginald blinks a few times before making sure that his mother’s urn is still safe in the car. Luckily, the seatbelt did its job, and his mother’s ashes weren’t spilled across the floorboard of the car.
*Click*
After undoing the seat belt that has been attached to his chest for the past 16 hours, Reginald gets out of his car to try to gain an understanding of his surroundings.
Sand the same color as blood is soft beneath his boots, and when looking back, Reginald understands why he skidded out of control and nearly crashed.
The street he was driving on completely disappeared and the car was simply driving on nothing but loose sand for who knows how long.
Reginald grabs some sand from the ground and lets it flow through his fingers. It feels no different than ordinary sand, and it also doesn’t seem to stain his fingers, so the sand itself is actually red and not just covered in some sort of dye.
Looking up at the solar eclipse, Reginald tries his best to get a good view of it without directly staring at it, remembering all of those science broadcasts that say if you stare at a solar eclipse long enough you can go blind.
The sun is burning with an intensity around whatever is in front of it to the point where the dark red ball of burning gas looks like it is actively trying to burn Reginald to dust.
A shiver of concern shoots through Reginald’s spine, and he quickly heads to the trunk of his car. Inside the trunk are things that Reginald will need if he needs to survive some extenuating circumstances.
A medical kit, some camping gear, an extra pair of clothes, and the large backpack he carries along with him when going on extended camping trips.
Finally, the one thing that gives him some form of comfort, a wood cutting ax.
Sweat is already pouring down Reginald’s face as the heat of this blood red desert feels to be even a little more intense than that in Arizona.
After quickly throwing all of his supplies into the backseat of his car, Reginald jumps in and tries to cool himself off, both physically and mentally.
Ever since the whole message thing in the brain began, Reginald has been moving on auto pilot. Now that he has had some time to truly process everything, fear and anxiety are beginning to settle in.
‘Whatever happened seems to be supernatural. What kind of fucked up situation is this?’
Reginald looks up once again to confirm there is a literal burning ball of death trying to kill him that is currently being blocked by some large planetary body.
‘And still, who is Verglix the Dark One? What is God’s Choice? What is…’
Reginald takes a deep breath and grips his steering wheel intensely, transferring some of his negative feelings into the car.
Luckily this works and Reginald's eyes become filled with determination.
‘Now is not time for questions. As my outdoorsman teacher always said, get to safety first then start to panic, because then you can panic about one less thing. That thing is predators.’
Thoughts about how the wildlife has also changed flashed through Reginald’s mind, but at least he himself is a big man with a fair bit of bulk. Being 6’4, 280 pounds has its perks. Sure a lot of that comes from his large gut, but the large arms tell a story of someone more like a lumberjack than that of a chemist.
Giving his grizzly beard one final stroke for comfort, Reginald slams onto the gas pedal of his car and begins his descent into the desert.
Unluckily for him, the car doesn’t make it very far.
He was able to traverse the soft, loose sand easily before since he was traveling at high speeds, but now starting from a stop, Reginald realizes the car is sinking more than it is going forward.
Panic starts to set in again, but a quick deep breath quickly pushes the negative feelings back into the depths of Reginald’s mind.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
“Well, I would have preferred dessert, but it looks like instead I have a desert.”
A quick quip gets Reginald chuckling before he grabs all of his belongings from the vehicle.
He safely secures his mother’s urn into his camping backpack and wields the woodcutting ax, just in case something like a coyote tries to take advantage of him.
Reginald says one final goodbye to his vehicle, before deciding to tackle the beast which is the crimson desert.
Looking around, a couple rock formations can be seen a couple miles away, being able to find somewhere to stay out of the sun is of the utmost importance at the moment.
With each step, Reginald can feel himself beginning to sweat more and more. Luckily for him, he always has a couple water bottles on hand, so hopefully that can last him a day or two.
After around 30 minutes of walking towards the nearest land structure that could possibly work as shelter, Reginald hears a rumbling around him.
Thinking that another planetary event is about to happen, Reginald crouches down to the ground in hopes it doesn’t thrash him around.
However, as he stops moving and listens, the rumbling stops. Thinking that maybe it was just a small earthquake, Reginald takes another step before the rumbling begins once again.
This time, when he stops and looks around, Reginald spots a massive amount of sand being thrown into the air.
Reginald scratches his eyes, thinking that he is getting hallucinations, but when they clear once again, Reginald can actually see what is traveling towards him.
A massive worm-like creature with a drill-like nose is currently barreling towards his position at high speeds.
The worm itself looks to be 3 feet wide, and if it is anything like an actual worm, Reginald guesses that it could be 20-30 feet long.
“You’ve gotta be kidding me right. What is this, fucking Tremors?”
Reginald braces himself for the impending bull rush from the worm. As it gets about 50 feet away, a gaping maw opens from within the drill of the worm.
Six rows of rotating teeth accompanied by a deep guttural howl would be enough to make anyone soil their pants on the spot. Reginald grits his teeth and a ringing sound radiates through his head as he tries to keep some form of awareness and alertness.
With the worm about to reach him, Reginald waits until the last second before he leaps to the side, just narrowly dodging the horrifying beast.
After landing, Reginald finally gets a good look at the beast currently hunting him down.
Its body spins in sections, like a mechanical beast. Plates made out of what looks to be pure metal jut out from the sections, helping the worm move forward like it is a spinning propeller.
The worm itself is about 25 feet long, and Reginald has to do everything to not just go into shock.
Adrenaline is one hell of a drug, and Reginald rapidly gets up and starts sprinting towards the shelter.
It would take him hours to get there normally, but now having to dodge the worm, it will take even longer.
“Might as well make you work off the calories you’ll get from eating me you bastard!”
As Reginald continues to flee, the worm makes several attempts to devour him. Reginald barely dodges the rows of teeth every time, however the pain in his lungs and legs will soon render him unable to do so.
After about 3 minutes of playing a game of cat and mouse, Reginald can feel his body begin to slow down with each step. The sand beneath Reginald’s feet feels like it is pulling him under, wanting his blood to seep into each single grain of it. The blazing eclipse above seems to also be thirsting for his death as sweat pours out of every orifice of his body.
Thinking that he has to do something now, Reginald wonders if his ax could actually even pierce the sturdy looking carapace of the worm.
As the worm makes another pass, Reginald makes a fruitless effort at trying to swing his ax at the beast. The metallic carapace of the beast lets out a loud ring and Reginald watches in horror as his ax goes flying into the air.
The rotating sections of the worm's body sent his only weapon out of reach, and all Reginald can do now is pray for a miracle.
Not wanting to give up just yet, Reginald’s eyes dart around, looking for anything that could help this current situation. Soon, about 150 feet away, a black sphere comes into view. It is lodged into the ground, and whatever it is, Reginald cannot make heads or tails of it.
‘Might as well fight supernatural with supernatural.’
Using his last burst of strength, Reginald high tails it straight toward the black sphere. His hope is that it is made out of something dangerous and the worm kills itself when ramming into it, or that it is super solid and the worm concusses itself from the impact of slamming into the sphere.
Knowing that this could be his last chance, Reginald sprints as fast as possible, trying to ignore the fact that with each step, his foot sinks into the sand, making sprinting even that much more laboring.
Right as he is about to reach the black sphere, Reginald hears a low guttural roar from behind him, and after turning around, the man sees his predator deciding that it has had enough and it’s time to finish this.
The rotating sections begin to rotate at a higher pace, increasing the pace of the worm by nearly double. The drill on its head splits into four different points, making a makeshift net in hopes to catch even a small bit of its prey.
With lungs full of mucus and pain, Reginald makes one last attempt to dodge the most terrifying and evolved predator he has ever faced. To be able to split its head open to catch dodging prey is something straight out of a fantasy novel, and it seems that is what Reginald is living.
As Reginald jumps to the side, a wave of sand and wind flies past. A loud screeching pierces the air, and Reginald can feel the ground shaking around him. A searing pain throbs from his leg, but that’s not important right now.
The fact he can feel the sand on his face, and the wind on his back, Reginald knows that he managed to dodge one last time.
‘Real question is, did that monster die or not?’
Turning around, Reginald is greeted with a pleasant sight.
The black sphere looks like it has melted on the side that the worm hit, and sparks of electricity shoot out from the corpse of the massive worm that has been chasing Reginald.
A powerful stench permeates the air, a smell that Reginald has experienced once before in his life.
Memories of one of his fellow employees being electrocuted to death flash in Reginald’s mind. Mix that with the horrendous smell, the recent events, and the excessive exercise, Reginald violently vomits onto the blood red sand.
After emptying his stomach out, Reginald does his best to pull himself together, not wanting to waste a minute out in this hellish new environment.
First he replenishes the fluids lost from the last chase and quickly gulps down a lot of his water storage. After finishing off a water bottle, Reginald finally realizes that the sound of screeching did not come from the worm itself, but something inside of the black sphere.
Wanting to see what is making all that racket, Reginald tries to get up before the searing pain reminds Reginald that maybe he should check for injuries.
Looking down, Reginald sees that the boot on his right foot is shredded to the point it is unusable in the desert. Luckily, he had been wearing boots so whatever the worm hit his foot with, not much injury was sustained.
Unfortunately, the worm seems to have at a minimum sprained Reginald’s ankle.
Two choices flashed into Reginald’s mind.
Try to limp away as fast as possible and get away from whatever is within the black sphere.
Try to see what is in the black sphere, and hope it is some simple creature that is scared that Reginald could kill with his bare hands.
Figuring that even if he ran, if it was something that could kill him, it could probably catch up anyways, Reginald decides to investigate what’s in the black sphere.
On top of that, being able to obtain any sort of meal on his way to a safe place is perfect in his current scenario considering how many calories were just burned.
Climbing onto the corpse of what potentially ate him from lunch, Reginald finds himself looking into the inside of the black sphere.
A strange scene is laid out before his eyes as 4 people covered in cloaks and rags lay across the deep red sand. Silver liquid runs out of their bodies and one of them is the source of the screeching.
On the chest of the one in the direct middle of the now melted sphere, a bundle of blankets is screaming.
‘A baby?’
Reginald ignores the pain in his ankle and climbs down from the body of the worm, and limps his way past the other bodies towards the screaming bundle of blankets.
As he approaches, the screams don’t slow down, and Reginald finally gets a good look at what had been tormenting his ears for the last minute.
A baby is within the bundle of blankets. However, it doesn’t seem to be of human origin.
Its dark ashen skin stands out to the eyes at first, but soon the small horns protruding from the top of its head gives Reginald the idea that this is a different species of creature than he is. Inside of its mouth is a row of sharp teeth. Not quite those that the worm had, but obviously a set of sharp teeth that would belong to a specifically carnivorous creature.
“A demon?” Reginald accidentally says out loud.
Hearing a voice of some kind, the demon baby stops screaming and opens its eyes.
Two pitch black pupils stare at Reginald. The irises of the baby shine with a bright gold, mimicking the eclipsed sun above. Beyond the irises, instead of a pure white, the demon baby’s eyes just have a dull gray color.
Reginald and the baby simply stare at each other, acting as if they are looking at the most foreign creatures on the planet.
Before Reginald can react on what to do next, an image appears in front of his eyes.
*Special Quest has been triggered by Verglix the Dark One - To Be A King: You have been chosen by Verglix to become a potential king candidate of the humans for being the first human to kill an F Grade Monster! Now they will give you a simple choice which will let you begin the path to royalty!*
Choices:
Kill the Child: If you kill the Child of the Demon Lo-*
Reginald completely skips a long text box that belongs to the first choice of the quest.
*Save the Child: You simply save the kid and do not get the buff from killin-*
Without even having to read the rest of the second option, Reginald clicks it, signifying his choice.
*Are you sure? You cannot undo this decision and your life with be-*
Getting tired of the bright blue light in his eyes, Reginald quickly clicks the *Yes* option. Thinking that everything is over, Reginald tries to reach his hand out, but another text box appears in front of him.
*Verglix the Dark One is confused by your choice, but is interested in you nonetheless. Your decision for the quest has been accepted. 5,000 Points have been awarded to you for your achievements. These can be spent in the shop.*
Clicking one last *Okay* text box, Reginald once again finds himself having a staring contest with a demon baby.
He slowly approaches the baby to try and not startle it. Reginald was never good with babies and has barely any experience with them, however that won’t stop him from trying to help a defenseless creature in this horrible situation.
Unfortunately, his slow approach turns bad for Reginald and the baby’s eyes begin to well up with tears. Reginald can feel his heart strings start to tighten as the little creature looks horrified at what is going on.
As the tears pour out, Reginald doesn’t know if he made the right choice and possibly scarred the baby for life.
The baby does its best to free its arm from the bundle of blankets and with a scared expression, it reaches out towards Reginald, its hands opening and closing signaling that it wants Reginald to pick it up.
Seeing the big eyes full of tears and the hands reaching for him, Reginald can’t help but wonder if this baby actually sees him as some sort of guardian figure.
‘If so, that makes things a lot easier for me.’
Reginald gently picks up the baby off of the chest of the dead person, presumably the last guardian of the baby. Reginald says a silent prayer in his head for the corpse before taking one last look at the child.
Its tiny hands grip at the fabric on his shirt tightly, as if never wanting to let go. Its eyes shiver in fear and the tears continue to flow. Reginald steels his will and holds the baby close.
“I don’t care what you are, all I know is that you do not deserve to die like this out here. I will protect you. I will get us both out of here. I promise.” Reginald speaks in a low, soothing voice while wiping the tears off of the baby’s face. After hearing his promise, the child seems to calm down a little. Only the occasional snivel comes out now instead of the whole water works.
Reginald gently strokes the fragile head of his new friend, wondering if he is fit to be taking care of a child. However, this no longer matters. He has forgone the easy path to becoming one of the most powerful creatures in the world and now must face one of the most challenging trials a human can face.
Being a Father, and not only that, being a Father in the apocalypse.