“Another Survivor?” Hiro asked, his voice haggard, throat parched from his recent transformation into a raging wolf. But why are they hunting me?
Thunk!
The arrow sunk into the metal door of the rooftop exit, startling him.
On the move again, Hiro took the stairs down to the top level of the parking garage. He hastily grabbed the wooden box of supplies given to him by the Doom System, and paused for a moment, thinking about natural choke points.
This had been something his father had drilled into him.
Hiro knew if he took the fire exit down to the bottom floor, he could find himself trapped. If he continued along the helical ramp that led down, he’d be able to gauge if someone was coming at him or not.
But this could make him more vulnerable to arrows, an ambush, or a monster…
His phone buzzed and he ignored it.
Hiro decided on the fire escape, not bothering to stop on the first floor, where he had camped the last several days just to get some fresh air. He reached the basement and saw the faded fallout shelter sign.
Safety.
These were all over the city, a Cold War holdover, and some gave access to tunnels that connected to the subway system.
He opened the hatch.
Without another way to climb down the ladder and hold onto his box of supplies, he dropped the box to the ground below, aware that it would be loud, that the sound would echo.
Hiro climbed down after it, reached up, and shut the fallout shelter hatch behind him, locking it tight.
It was entirely pitch black down in the fallout shelter, something Hiro was prepared for. He had spent a considerable amount of time in the subway system and its connecting fallout shelters, and had looted several things, including a bright blue floodlight, and a rusty gas-powered generator that he’d wired up using salvaged car batteries to create a crude circuit.
Hiro dropped his backpack. He turned the generator on, waited for it to whir to life, and then triggered the floodlight. He let out a deep breath. “Fuck,” he whispered as he glanced around to make sure everything was in order.
Various maps were taped to the wall, which he’d pieced together from tourist maps and a subway line poster, and there was the shrine to his family, populated with figurines. He had picked this habit up through his youth in Japan. There were other things he’d gathered since settling here, from a spool of wiring to a broom and a few tools.
He looked down at his arms, the sleeves of his hoodie missing due to this transformation. He wiped his face to find tiger blood smeared across it. While he had more clothing stashed in the fallout shelter, Hiro decided not to change clothes just yet.
He might need {Lupine Shift} again.
Hiro gulped down some of the water provided by the Doom System. He tore open the package of one of the Survivor Tenders and examined it.
“What the hell?” He decided to give it a try just to get the taste of blood out of his mouth.
He sat with his back against the wall and chewed the glorified granola bar. Once he was finished, Hiro took out his phone, the cracked screen glowing onto his face as the countdown timer continued:
02:23:02:55
02:23:02:54
02:23:02:53
He focused on the text.
“Who are you?” he asked almost as an afterthought. He was still reeling from his transformation, the aftereffects not something he expected. A part of him wanted to vomit again, but he kept it down as words appeared on his screen.
“Why?”
“Sentries? Spectators? Hunters? How am I supposed to seek other Survivors if everyone thinks they are the main character? How am I supposed to make friends in the world like this?”
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
“Meet three people in three days.” Hiro stared up at the fallout shelter exit. “What’s with the teddy bear? Why did you have me risk my life for it?”
“How do you know?” He shook his head. “And why are you helping me?”
The text that appeared on the screen didn’t answer his next question.
“My status?”
The information appeared before him:
Hiro Johnson
Level One
Current Title: Wolf Ronin of Wall Street
STR: 1.6 [+1 Roulette Boost]
STA: 2.4 [+2 Roulette Boost]
DEX: 1.3 [+1 Roulette Boost]
REG: 1.2 [+1 Roulette Boost]
MIND: 2.1 [+2 Roulette Boost)
Soul Essence (SE): 1 [10 SE to next level.]
“Fuck, really? Why?”
“So my normal, um, Regeneration, would be 0.2?” Hiro asked.
That’s something I should probably try to improve, Hiro thought as he examined his stats again. “What is Soul Essence exactly?”
“Don’t become a Player Killer. Got it. Where did the first point come from? The tiger I killed?”
“And MIND?”
Hiro thought about this for a moment.
He was familiar with various builds in video games, but the Roulette Boosts and Skills that he would receive in each Interim would shake things up, not allowing him to control them in the way that he would like. “You told me to make friends with other survivors.”
“And they all have Companions like you telling them this?”
“Can you communicate with other Companions?”
“So what should I do now?”
“And you aren’t going to tell me who or what you are? You aren’t going to tell me how all of this is happening? You aren’t going to tell me what the Doom System is? Why, or how it has come here?”
“So it’s alien?”
“Are you alien?”
“Are you part of the Doom System?”
“Thanks for the shitty words of wisdom.” Hiro felt like throwing his phone. Instead, he gripped it tighter, and then shoved it back in his pocket.
Hiro looked back to the fallout shelter exit and heard a muffled scream above.
“Fuck.” He grabbed his katana, turned his generator off, and headed up.
****
Hiro ducked behind a car with flattened tires, windows busted out. Is that the archer? he thought as he heard some struggle, sneakers on pavement, another scream, and finally, what sounded like a body being dragged away.
There was a loud flapping noise that sounded like a kite in the wind.
Suddenly, the tension in the air was gone.
He remained hidden. If anything, he was mad at himself for leaving the fallout shelter. Had he thought this through, Hiro would have stayed below. He would have eaten, rested, and tried to make sense of all this in a few hours.
Just check and see what the noise was, and head back to the shelter. Rest, regroup.
Hiro moved around the car and brought his katana to the ready. He stayed as close as he could to the fallout shelter exit just in case he needed to escape.
What he saw next sickened him.
A trail of blood, a man’s arm, and a clump of viscera.
Maybe not the archer, then…
Above it, red Soul Essence twisting in a spiral. Cautious as ever, Hiro approached the spiral of energy, reached his hand out to it, and absorbed it. The Doom System’s strange voice spoke to him:
[You now have access to a new skill known as {Beacon}.]
{Beacon}
Rank: A
Type: Transformation/Utility
Upgrade: N/A
Description: Establish visible markers only perceptible to you, enabling you to designate waypoints or highlight points of interest.
He pulled his phone out before it could buzz and read the words as they appeared.
“Stolen Valor?” Hiro whispered. “
Hiro heard the click of something behind him, followed by the voice of a woman: “Drop your sword, or my next bolt goes in the back of your head.”
He hesitated.
“Do it, now!”
Thunk!