I woke up with the rise of the sun, the rays of light penetrating my eyelids, forcing me awake. I looked around, checking my surrounding to my relief our tree was not surrounded by zombers looking to have a bite of tasty lil ol' me. I heard the groans as Reg got up, putting a hand on his ribs with a grimace. He gently stretched, wincing as he stressed his cracked ribs. He looked at his arm frowning, then with a sigh sat up, rubbing the sleep from his eyes with his good arm.

“Mornin'” I said lookin over at Reg, he looked back at me and sighed, “Here I was hopin you had been a figmant of my imagination.”

I laughed as I looked at my brand new, currently sulking, friend. “Nah, you'd miss me!”

He chuckled softly and glanced over, “Who knows, perhaps I would.”

“Course you would, don't often find a friend as handsome as me!” We shared another chuckled, I climbed down the tree. Smoothly hopping from branch to branch, I moved smoothly for a while before I stumbled when realization hit me. I rolled up my pants and checked my calf. The bite that had been plaguing me was gone. My leg had darkened, not as much as it had been when the infection spread, but up to the knee where we had stopped the infection, my skin was a dark grey. Orange glowing veins were barely visible beneath my skin. I marveled at the sight and gently tested my leg. It felt fine, in fact it felt better than fine.

I glanced up to see Reg climbing down, moving smoothly despite not being able to use an arm. When he dropped down from the lowest branch, grunting in pain as the move put pressure on his ribs, I motioned him over.

“Reg, check out my leg!” He walked over and glanced suspiciously at my leg, swiveling his gaze back to me then to the leg. His brows furrowed, he stared at me with worry.

“Is it spreading?” He asked with a frown.

I shook my head, “Pretty sure it's not.” On a random surge of idiocy I walked up to a tree, I swept my leg back and unleashed a kick on the tree. To my great surprise, my shin actually managed to smash the bark, it did not put a dent in the tree but it was definitely more powerful than should be possible. I was decent in a fight, even if I said so myself. I had been practicing Sikaran from a local master who decided I had the aptitude. My kicks had a great deal of force behind them, and my shins had hardened from my training. A human should not be able to smash bark apart like this, not in one kick. Yet here I stood, having done exactly that.

I screech broke my focus, me and Reg twisted towards the sound seeing one of those kabane running towards us. Then the hill behind it revealed more of the creatures. With a curse I watched them come.

“Run or climb?” I asked Reg.

He broke into a run, heading towards the opposite direction. “Run!” He added, I broke into a near sprint, keeping up with him. “We are so fucked!” I yelled at him while running, “We haven't had anything to eat in a while, we won't be able to keep this up!”

“I know!” He roared, frustrated, “If we climb we will be surrounded, who knows if those shits can climb!”

I nodded to myself, agreeing with his assessment. Then sighed, no fucking way would we outrun those things, I glanced back and saw the Kabane, at the same distance as when we had started running. We were not gaining any ground, and neither were they. I was pretty sure however that those things could run forever, whereas we could not.

We kept running, our breath turning ragged, the Kabane where still only about a kilometer behind us, I was screaming a string of curses in my head, I glanced towards Reg, huffing I spoke up. “We can't outrun them.” I said, stopping.

He stopped, hands on his hips, breathing hard, he walked over to me frustration etched into his face. “Then what do you propose we do, I have no other fucking ideas.”

I nodded, then sighed. “You keep running, I distract them.” I told him, my face stony. I was trying to keep the emotion off my face, I was nervous, perhaps even scared. Honestly, the thought of me being scared shook me more than I would like to admit. I had always been fearless, I had done things without hesitation, ran across cranes hundreds of feet above the ground, feeling nothing but excitement. Yet here I was, nervous, a pit in my stomach I had never felt before. Then I noticed Reg was glaring at me, oooowh shit did he look pissed off.

“You think imma keep runnin and leave you behind, fuck that!” He said, growling. “You stay, I stay!” I nodded, turning to face the ever closing horde, there had to be at least fifty of the things. More than we could take on for sure. Reg stepped next to me as we stood to face the horde. I felt like I was in the scene of an epic movie. Standing to bravely face the horde, under the assumption of certain death. Only to be saved at the last minute by some random event, although I was pretty sure there would be no fancy random event to save my life.

“Well if I'm gonna go out, I want to take at least one of those fuckers with me.” Reg muttered, I glanced over at him and grinned.

“If you're killing one, then I'm killing two.”

Reg glared at me, and issued his challenge.“Then I kill four!”

I chuckled, “You're on!”

The screech of the monsters took my focus, I roared at them, fueling it with my nervousness, my frustration, and my overall determination to fuck up their day. I saw Reg tense, as the creature neared the two hundred meter mark. I decided to one-up him, in a moment of sheer madness I started running towards the Kabane. I saw Reg stare at me for the briefest of moments in confusion, then I heard him curse and saw him sprinting to keep up with me from the corner of my eyes.

I neared the first kabane, I kept up my momentum, and at the last moment kicked off with my infected foot, with a twist of my body the heel of my foot whistled through the air, crashing into the monsters screeching face. The hardened heel of my foot caved in its face. The monster crashing towards the ground, with a glance I noticed that it was down for the count. Unexpected, but very welcome. I had no time to linger in my moment of glory, another kabane sprinted towards me, it reached towards me, with a snap of my foot I kicked it back, knocking it into another Kabane, sending the two of them tumbling to the ground.

I spun into another roundhouse, my foot smashing into another head, crushing its skull. Killing another of the foul creatures, I turned into a whirlwind of motion, sending roundhouse kicks out like Santa throwing presents on Christmas. Then a scream of pain disrupted my motions, I saw Reg go down from the corner of my eye, one of the creatures came up behind him and was biting into his neck. To my surprise, there were two unmoving kabane next to him. With crushed skulls, my split-second of hesitation at hearing the scream of my friend cost me. As I was tackled to the ground by another kabane. I screamed in pain as it bit my shoulder, other kabane swarmed me, their viscious teeth piercing my skin, pulling flesh, tearing muscles, crushing bone. I screamed as I never had before, countless snapping jaws tearing into my body.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

The light dimmed as I felt the streams of blood, the piercing presence of pain trying to keep me conscious. To my regret, I remained conscious for a lot longer than I would have liked. The pain of being eaten alive etched into my body before blackness settled over my eyes.

I woke with a jerk, surprised that I woke up at all I stared around. I was in what looked like a rather large furnished room, in fact the room was eerily familiar. Wasn't this Mcleesh's pub? I sat up staring around the pub in surprise, I knew this place. I knew it very well, I lived here, together with my two sisters and brother. We had built this place, pouring our money into it, to give old man McLeish a place. He had taken care of us for years, so we had decided to buy the old man the pub he always wanted, from the money we had snatched.

I sat up and stared around at the meticulously clean, yet glaringly empty pub. The fact that it was empty made it feel otherworldly. The pub was never empty, there were always people here. Either it was us and the old man, who also lived in the area upstairs. Or there were customers, which roamed the pub nearly eighteen hours of every day. Sitting up I started exploring the empty pub, running my hand amongst the beautiful mahogany counter, its gleaming dark wood striking my hearts chords. I walked behind the counter, my eyes running among the shelves filled with booze, most if it an Irish whiskey that McLeish fancied. My eyes roamed from the cozy interior to the stairs, I headed over to the stairs, opening the door that connected to it.

I walked up to the open area above the bar, unlike normal houses there was only one separate room. We had built a room for McLeish on the second floor, it was nicely furnished with a stout wooden bed. The rest of the floor, however, was dominated by what we called the playroom. It had fat boys, worn couches, gaming stations, shelves of books. Hammocks that hang from the ceiling, which we slept in. My eyes ran over the room with a feeling I had never had before, nostalgia. I sank into one of the fat boys, holding back as I felt tears pressing behind my eyes. I buried my head in my hands. “What the hell is going on.” I muttered to myself.

I suddenly heard a knock on the door, To my shock the booming sound was audible as someone knocked on the front door to the pub. I frowned as I headed downstairs. Despite the front door having a window, to my somewhat growing concern I could see nothing in front of it. I don't mean like there was no one in front of the door, I meant nothing. It was simply black, the windows into the street, however, showed the familiar streets of his neighborhood. With a frown I opened the door, my jaw dropping as I saw who it was.

“Reg?” I muttered as I stared at the blond-haired, short bearded, goofily grinning man that just appeared in front of me.

“Figures you live in a pub, looks like a cool place though, I bet you have a shitton of alcohol.”

I stuttered as I tried to find words. “W-well, yeah, we got tons of drinks. Wouldn't be much of a pub if we didn't.” Reg nodded, as his gaze wandered the pub, frustration started bubbling below the surface as I glared at him. “Reg what the fuck is going on! You died! I saw you die! I died! I got torn apart like a fucking chew toy by those zombie sons of-” I continued to unleash a string of curses as I though of the way I had been torn apart by zombies. Reg let me finish my tirade with an amused smile on his face. Once I calmed down he motioned for me to follow him.

I walked through the door and saw to my amazement that we ended up into a hallway, it was similar to a hallway in a hotel, I looked back at my door to see a regular wooden hotel door, that looked nothing like the front door of the pub. I furrowed my brow in confusion as I saw the plate that adorned my door. {Zoa's Room}

I cursed under my breath as I stared around the hallway, at the end of the hall was a room with some kind of glowing contraption. I stared as I recognized the faces that surrounded it, all of them looking over at me and Reg. Reg walked over to them and motioned me to follow, once we stood around the glowing contraption, I stared around in confusion.

The doctor spoke up, “This thing said it would not start its explanation without everyone present, so Reginald walked over to get you. Most of us rushed outside our houses in surprise as when we appeared in them. Imagine our disappointment when it was not our street we ran out into.”

“How did you guys end up here?” I asked, staring around the room, I noticed three somewhat unfamiliar faces that I had not seen before. Then realization hit me, these were probably the people that had died upon impact when the train cabin had crashed. “Wait nevermind, “ I quickly added. “You all died like I did?”

I saw nods around the group, “We could actually see you and Reginald in this contraption. The three that had died in the cabin, where already sitting here watching. The rest of us died shortly after you fell down the hill. We didn't even make it to nightfall. Then we saw you and Reginald in this thing.” He said motioning at the fluid that was suspended in, he couldn't even tell what it was suspended in. It was a construction of metal arms, and bars and it somehow held the floating fluid. It reminded him of ferrofluid.

The doctor continued his explanation, “The fluid turned into a TV of sorts, we saw you and Reginald make the hammocks, climb the trees, and sleep. It all went fast, as if it was being fast-forwarded. Then when you were set upon by these... Kabane. Time suddenly passed normally, and we could watch you run, then turn around and fight the creatures.”

I frowned as I looked at the fluid, “This thing showed you what we did, but it changed the time? How long have you guys been here?”

This time it was the doctor's turn to frown. “We have been waiting for you perhaps half an hour? The other three about fourty-five minutes.” I blanched as I stared at him, he nodded. “I know, it means time was warped, that plus the fact that we are all pretty sure we died, leaves a great many questions. Once you two died, this thing told us that it would start its explanation once all 'Scriptors' had arrived. Scriptors refers to us apparently.” I had so many more questions to ask but I could tell the others were impatient to hear what the fluid had to say for itself. The very sentence sounding weird in my mind, regardless I sat down and awaited answers to my questions.

The fluid burst into motion once I sat down, creating a somewhat humanoid figure. The ferrofluid remaining colorless, the lack of colour or any strict forms, it was hard to judge if the figure was male or female. Its strange voice made it no easier to discover this thing's gender, should it even have one.

The fluid figure spread its arm around, “Welcome to your Minor HUB.” It looked at them one at a time as if ascertaining they were truly there. I was skeptical if the creature actually saw we were there, or if it just reacted, it was not like I could see its eyes. So that question would remain unanswered, at least for now.

“You are part of the group of humans that have been chosen to represent your race, Your group has ten Scriptors. After six months of HUB time has passed, you will be integrated into a larger group containing a hundred human Scriptors in total. After another two and a half years time. This group will be integrated into another larger HUB. This will contain a thousand human Scriptors. The entirety of Scriptors the human race will have representing itself.”

“What do you mean hub! What are scriptors!” The young man asked the fluid, frustrated. “Where ARE we?!”

The fluid turned to him, “Please keep your questions to yourself until the end of the explanation. Further interruptions will be ignored.”

The young man huffed but sat back down, glaring at the fluid. The fluid continued, “After a total of six years HUB time has passed. Humanity will be integrated into the Central Hub, and will make first official contact with other races.”

I frowned at that, other alien races. Something else I nodded created a new question. It said official contact. Did that mean there has already been unofficial contact, or that it was possible to contact other hubs before they were integrated?

“The Hubs have been created as preparation for all races that are soon to see the Nihil. The Nihil are an intergalactic enemy that focus purely on absorbing or destroying everything and anything. The hub prepares a group of warriors from a certain race that must help in the intergalactic war. The hub will protect the race during its incubation time, but requests their help in fighting off The Nihil as soon as they are capable.”

I groaned at the implication of an intergalactic super-enemy. This was really not what I had been expecting to do with my life. Stealing some minor jewelry, or some fancy painting was one thing. Fighting a never endless war against an all-consuming enemy was quite another. The fluid, oblivious to my inner turmoil continued its explanation.

“Missions have been set up bi-weekly. Based on time survived, enemies killed, or other tasks performed you will be rewarded for with currency. This currency can be used at the center shop, which is run by me. You will be able to buy inventions, creations or biological enhancements that have been invented by other races, or your own at the shop. The system is very similar to the games humanity has created. There are classes you can choose from, from the regular warrior to the bioengineered, Genetic Imperialist. Classes can be bought at lower levels, they will grow and evolve upon higher levels. Each class branches into multiple possibilities. Stats can be bought that will genetically improve your bodies capabilities. Many individuals choose to either Biotically or Technologically enhance themselves. With a few of them choosing to do both.”

My head swam with the information, I could enhance myself? I had to admit that sounded awesome, I had always dreamed of becoming a superhero, or a partly cyborg enhanced super soldier. I mean who hadn't?

“Missions can be chosen to gain points, missions can be run as a group, or as an individual. There are Three available choices when it comes to missions. You can choose from either the Mission list, picking something you feel would fit you. This would gain you the regular amount of points upon completion, or per day of survival. Or you can choose to be assigned a random mission, giving you an increase of fifty percent in currency gained. The last type of mission is called a Special, this mission cannot be avoided and will be assigned to you or your team, at random times.”

Missions huh, I sighed to myself. My life just became a lot more interesting than I had expected.