In late twenty first century it was common consensus among historians that this is not a good century for the human race. In all honesty, they were right because many travesties happened. to list a few in 2020 a pandemic, in 2038 the third world war happened and lasted as eight years of irrepetible damages to the world and economy, in 2048 an new drug hit the market and led to a massive increase in crime and bloodshed, in 2056 the entirety of Canada was taken over by a insurrection of an AI in a experimental military mech, and more. But the century only got worse in 2056.
In 2064, a strange occurrence shook the earth, this occurrence was named the happening. An event so devastating that a planet that had been torn apart from nuclear, was shocked to witness. The event lasted the course 30 minutes in 5 stages. These stages were called the warning, the precursor, the attack, the revelation, and the message. Each went as follows:
the warning lasted only 3 minutes, so people weren’t very shaken by it. During these 3 minutes all signals were lost world wide, including internet, (ok, the gamers were very shaken about it, but gamer’s opinions don’t count) a low hum could be heard that transitioned to a high pitch ring over the 3 minutes. People thought it was a cyber attack, but most lived through nuclear annihilation, and hence, weren’t impressed, until the precursor began.
The precursor happened 7 times within 17 minutes, all equally 3 minutes and 24 seconds apart with the first strike happening at the end of warning. It was a sight to behold, the annoying ring was ended and replaced by 19,695 pillars of purple light forming in random spots around the world, with an area of 10 by 10 feet (like 3 by 3 meters) and and an silent explosion at the base of these pillars. Everything within these pillars were destroyed. So put that in perspective, thats 196,950 square feet obliterated. ( or 59,920.632 square meters of devastation). The event occurred 5 more times, each time with the pillars in a different spot. to quote phil swift, that’s a lot of damage. the last occurrence was different though, only 1,969 beams apeared that time, but instead of purple, they were blue, they were the start of the third stage, the attack.
the began when the blue beams were expected to explode, but instead of exploding, the beams released a shockwave that traveled for 355 square miles or 919.446 square kilometers, the shock waves were like a slow moving blast wave of an nuclear blast, without the fire and radiation, toppling buildings and throwing busses off overpasses (cough). the waves gradually lost force as they traveled and eventually faded away. The time of the attack lasted 10 minutes. Simultaneously to the wave, the revelation or fourth stage occurred.
the revelation caused powers, unexplainable by science or logic to form in 0.01% of the survivors of the wave (1 in every 10,000 people) some were immediately apparent, others discovered later. The event placed a metaphorical bomb on the pillars holding society together, and if the revelation was the bomb, the message was the detonator. A message that pushed the world into chaos;
PUBLIC MESSAGE FROM 000-A TO All
The time has come, the collapse starts today. UNLESS SOMEONE IS TO BREAK THE GATE WITHIN 17 YEARS, ALL OF HUMANITY WILL DIE. The timer begins with this message:
This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
Travel forward followers of the path
To break the gate and avoid my wrath
so perceiver through the trials ahead
If you are not careful, you'll be dead
some will gain strengths unknown to those
powers titled the lidiemos
with these powers, lead the people
but be warned not all are equal
will the gifted walk the path with stride,
or will they fall to their pride
the end of every path leads to the gate,
we will be watching you and we shall wait.
the message remained indefinitely, until the viewer acknowledged it. Where it then disappeared. This message was all it took for the world to fall to anarchy, not everyone fell to anarchy, but enough to throw the world off balance.
the anomaly was titled the happening because it, well, happened. Quotes like “What’s happening”, “the thing that just happened”, “that happened to be a shit storm”, “well that just happened”, “I can’t believe that this is happening”, “it happens to be a government ploy”, does anyone happen to know what the fuck that was?” And others, all condensed down to The Happening, which became the new name for the event.
Over the first year one thing was certain, the first wave was not the last and there are more to come.
----------------------------------------
2067- 14 years until end of humanity
Mal can barely memorize anything, even as a child their memory sucked, and from medications to therapy, nothing seemed to help. Despite their bad memory, one thing is ingrained in their mind: dying sucks and they always go back in time to when they were last safe whenever they die. With the world ending in 14 years, they will be stuck in an infinite death loop, unless they- ‘shit, what was it again?’
In the ruins of a neighborhood, standing next to a broken lawn gnome, Mal looked down at their notes, skimming until they found what they were looking for.
TO DO
> figure out what the gate is (14yrs left)
> stop dying
> try to break any gate you come across, whether it is a gate to a yard, lot, or any other kinds of gates.
> break bill gates legs (might be what the text meant)
> call mum
> find new base
“Fuck” Mal sighed “ why did I write these obvious things down? Wait- why do I need a new base again?” And at that moment, a broken table leg to the back of the neck reminded them, knocking them to the ground. “Oh yeah, the collision¹ expanded their territory again”
And before the next thought could arrive, the table leg did, planting itself into Mal’s skull. And everything went black.