Chapter: 1
The sacks of rye weighed heavily on my arms as I walked briskly through the halls, though the bags certainly never got any lighter they had become much easier to carry with time. I was almost to the third wing of the building when an alarm began to blare,
"Security alert, all security personal to the 3rd wing" "Security alert, all security personal to the 3rd wing"
The lights had gone red and the alarm only got louder, armed men had begun sprinting into view. I would have run away, but if I didn't deliver this food my supervisor would have me on poop duty. Even if death waited on the other end of these doors, I would find that to be the preferable outcome. I followed them through the entrance to the wing, and what I saw was less severe than I expected. 5 stray chickens where attacking staff members. There was Mark from accounting, and a fellow animal tender Steve.
What really took me off guard was when the security team began to assemble full on rifles before shooting the chickens to death. The lead guard told me to, "drop your bags and run we'll handle this!" while waving the others off to the door.
"My supervisor will put me on poop duty if these aren't delivered." I replied voice shaken voice. The head guard gave me a somber expression before reaching for his side arm.
"I understand, even still you'll need to protect yourself, take this." he presented the gun to me, and I awkwardly reached for it while trying not to let the bags slip from grasp. I shoot a nod his way before beginning to sprint towards the chicken coops.
As I turned the corner the hall began to shake violently and a heavy rumble sounded in the distance. The faint screeches and clucks of chickens could be heard throughout the distressing noise. I dropped the bags and ran back to the security personal who had already flipped over filing cabinets and desks from the office. I vaulted over the barricade and pressed my back up against it, panting.
"What the hell was that?" I rasp as I try to catch my breathe.
"That, is what we are here to deal with." The lead security guard says as he places his hand on my shoulder. "You are here now, and its too late for you to escape."
"But what was it?" I asked
"It's them damned chickens." he said, turning away from me for the sake of dramatics, "First the horrid conditions, then the breeding of horrendous diseases, we took the ones that survived and modified their DNA. It was all to get a bit more meat and a few more eggs, at least thats what was intended. But the side effect was the chickens have evolved. No matter how we lock them down they always escape." the man was fervently ranting and raving by now, spit flying from his mouth. He then immediately regained focus saying only two words, "they're coming!"
The clucks and the rumbling had grown even louder and a wave of chickens reaching halfway towards the ceiling was approaching quickly. The security guards all took grenades from their vests in tandem and threw them into the horde, causing burnt chicken to rain from the sky. My two co workers struggled to each light a molotov that they were given, and I pointlessly shot the 11 bullets in my pistol into the horde.
As the flaming chicken shrapnel rained down from above, the heavy artillery had arrived. They plopped down mortars and began launching shells, creating several lines of deployable cover to fall back behind. The chickens creeped ever closer, those that survived the blast of the grenades sprinting past the walls of our defense.
Mark fell to the chickens and was dragged out into the mortars line of fire, his body burnt to smithereens. Steve was locked in mortal combat with 5 chickens who had blocked of his retreat. I ran to assist him and pistol whipped the largest and most skilled of the chickens attacking him. The others set their sights on my, but Steve used their switch in focus to grab to of them by the neck and swing them into the wall.
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I brought my foot down on another while the last chicken begin to climb up to my face. Steve gripped its head and twisted, an audible pop sounding out as he did. "You alright?" I ask the giant of a man
"Thanks to you, I didn't think they'd be smart enough to go straight for the eyes. They caught me off guard." He said in a stoic manner
"Lets fall further back, the wave is getting closer by the second."
"lets"
As we start sprinting past the pop up barricades a misfired explosion knocks one of the metal plates straight into me, launching me straight into the wave of chickens. the pain is unbearable as sharp talons and beaks puncture all of my soft parts and tear at my flesh, my eyes are crushed and my clothes are shredded, blunt bodies rolled over me one after another. I was pushed and pulled, lifted and dropped, I hit my heads so many times the only thing I perceived was pain. The worst part was the suffocation, because no matter how much they tore away at my body I wouldn't die. I was subjected to 20 minutes of agonizing torture before I finally died of oxygen deprivation.
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It felt as if I had simply blinked and ended up here, despite all that had happened I felt no lingering sense of distress or unease from the events that had just transpired. I looked around to find myself in one of many lines, and they seemed to move at a somewhat quick pace. From what I could tell there were about 15 people in front of me. I rubbed my eyes a little as I looked back around, it took me a moment to notice I was walking on water. In the direction of the line there was a stone wall of immeasurable magnitude, the top was not even visible from where I stood. Away from the line was an endless expanse of flat and clear water. I moved through the line automatically, if I tried to resist I couldn't and was pushed along anyways. At least it kept the line moving fast.
"Next!" The gatekeeper shouted and the person in front of me moved towards them.
the gate keeper than asked a set of questions, "Name"
"My name is Hannah Winchester dearie" the aged woman said
"Cause of death" the gatekeeper inquired jotting down notes
"I died of natural causes, I'm so lucky my whole family was with me as I passed on" the woman said
"And one wish you'd like granted." the gatekeeper continued
"Is it at all possible to be with my dear husband again?" the woman asked
"Sorry, we can't bring him here till he dies" they said in their monotonous voice
"Well then I would like to be able to watch over my family, to make sure they stay safe until they do meet me here."
"granted" The gatekeeper said while opening the gate
"Next!" The Gatekeeper shouted
I was compelled to walk towards them
"Name" she said briefly
"Thompson Fletcher" I responded in kind
"Cause of Death"
"Suffocation by chickens" I stated in monotone
The gatekeeper let out a snort, "I'm sorry, I think I misheard you."
"I drowned in a sea of chickens." I said once again.
"That is certainly a new one." The gatekeeper looked down at her form
"I'm gonna need to know how that happened." she said grabbing a different paper
"Well a few hundred thousand chickens attempted to escape the farm I worked at so we had to try and kill them all before they killed us."
"And?" she urged me to continue
"It ended about as well as you think."
"Ok, well as you were such a valiant hero in life." The gatekeeper says, her voice as sarcastic as they come, "You shall be gifted one wish in the life after death."
"Well that is an interesting proposal." I said as I placed my hand on my chin, "Give me a moment to think."
The gatekeepers slightly more lively demeanor quickly returns to the more tired and disinterested one from before, "No need." and as she uttered those words, the dream I so strongly wanted as a child was forcibly pushed through all of the more sensible things I was thinking of.
"I want to live in a fantasy world that's like an rpg!" I shouted as the words were forced out of me.
"Granted" She said as she took out a gavel.
I begin to say "Wait you aren't opening the door." but she strikes the gavel before I finish, and as she does a hole opens up beneath me sending me plummeting through.