Drake peered out into the outside world. Looking across the street he notice none of the hustle and bustle of normal every day life. There were no children playing, no cars driving, and no neighbors. It was like a dream come true! Was there some sort of parade going on that he didn't know about? Drake lived under a rock, that's for sure but there's no way he wouldn't know about an event big enough to draw away the entire neighborhood, right?
"I know I told them I wanted to be left alone, but this is ridiculous!" Speaking to himself as usual Drake stepped out of the door.
"There has to be somebody around here." Drake continued outwards stepping into the sun for the first time in over a year. Onlookers would have sworn that they heard a faint hiss as the sun's rays hit his skin. Crawling his way down the the street he took note of the fact that all of the cars were still there. Yet, strangely enough there were no signs of people. Drake instantly dismissed any outlandish thoughts assuming that everybody had just stayed inside. After all, it is hot outside. This explanation, however, didn't last long. When Drake turned the corner he saw something that completely caught him off guard.
"Holy shit!" He looked at the turn off into the main road, seeing what was probably the worst car wreck in human history. Drake looked at the mangled mess of mechanical carnage expecting to see at least a few corpses. He soon found his expectations betrayed. Not only were there no victims around, there were no people anywhere: No onlookers, no police cars and not even an ambulance in sight. There wasn't even the sound of a distant siren. In spite of the carnage, everything was eerily calm. It was then that Drake understood. He looked around becoming more assured in his assumption.
"Aliens!" Aliens, it had to be, of this he was certain.
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3 Hours Later: Earth Time
A lone angel stood at the gates of Heaven. She had gotten reports from a recently leveled world that somebody had remained in spite of their efforts to relocate the population. If this were true then it would be better to go sooner rather than later because of the vast difference in the flow of time. She quickly stepped through the gate allowing it to transport her to the loacation in which the supposed mistake took place. Reality began to warp around her, as she faded seemingly faded from existence.
In the location of the car wreck which our hero had so valiantly investigated Ripples began to form in space. These ripples grew progressively large almost as if something were trying to break it's way though. Suddenly in the place of these distortion a single woman appeared. She looked around surveying the situation.
"Wow! We really have our work cut out for us on this one." The angel let out a sigh. She felt bad for the one stuck with clean up duty on this backwater world. After viewing the carnage for a while longer she noticed something. One of the car doors had been opened, not by the force of the crash but by obviously human hands. She could sense the residual heat on the handle. Looking downwards she saw the impressions left by the footprints of the individual. At least she knew how to find him. So, she followed the trail wherever it may lead.
At the trails end, she found something that left her stupified. What should have been a simple house just like all of the other uniform houses in the area, appeared more like something out of the walking dead. There was a barbed wire fence surrouning the place and as an angel she could already sense the inside. Aside from a cowering male youth, there were several traps that seemed directly inspired by post alocalptic fiction. At the door there was a shotgun connected to wire and pully and in the halls there was an Indiana Jones styled blow dart trap. Honesly it was ridiculous, how in the hell did he manage to do all of this in the time afforded to him?!
"What a pain in the ass." The beautify winged woman let out a slight groan before leaping over the barbed wire like a gazel. Knowing of the trap behind the door, rather than open it she decided to take a more direct approach. With a Chuck Norris roundhouse kick she knocked down the door breaking the trap in the process. She casually walked through the door without even a hint of warriness in her step. As she neared the hallway her step never wavered. When the darts shot, she did nothing and in the aftermath she was left unharmed. It was as if her skin were made of steel. She continued onward, dealing with several other traps along the way. Finally she reached the room where the cowering man hid and just like all of the other doors she kicked this one down with unmatched style.
"Die you alien scum!" Drake's battle cry rang throughout the entire neighborhood. He let loose a volley of fire with the rifle in his hand, but to no avail. The Alien dodged the bullets like it was nothing.
"No way you're probing my anus!" Realizing his bullets were having no effect he fled into the basement. However, before the angel had the chance to enter, he clutched at the small mechanical device in his hands. He knew what he had to do. Even if he died with it, he was taking down this alien scum. Drake took a deep breath and after what seemed to him like an eternity, he pressed the button.
*BOOM!* A lound explosive bang shook the room. The reinforced concrete walls of his basement held up against the blast but that did nothing to bolster his hearing. Drake was left deafened by the blow and was not left untouched by the blastwave. He had taken some internal damage. Drake knew he likely wouldn't survive. With great resistance his vision faded to black, but not before he witnessed a dark silhouette closing in on him.
"Damn." Upon realizing he had failed to eradicate the alien scum, his heart went cold. He had died in vain. With that thought, his consciousness left him.
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"What is with this idiot." The angel couldn't help but question the lunacy of the moron in front of her. He had turned his house into a death trap within a period of no more than 3 hours, and then proceeded to attack her under the assumption that she were an alien. She began to heal his injuries with her angelic powers.
"I can't believe the stupidity of this man, he blew up his own house!" The winged woman couldn't help but think that if there were a nobel prize for stupidity, he would be it's recipient.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
After his injuries were healed, the angel tied him up so that he couldn't do anything else dangerous, after this she pulled out a book and began to read. If she had to wait for this idiot to wake up, she was at least going to be entertained while doing it. Moments passed once again, and finally Drake awakened.
"Aliens!" Drake cried as his eyes sprang open in a fearful way. He relished the fact that he was alive but the terror was bone deep, there he saw it, that deceptively beautiful face, those terrifying wings and those deep dreadful eyes. Drake struggles to escape his binding for moment, only stopping at the words of the alien.
"Oh, you're up." The alien spoke to him in a non-committal manner. Closing her book she looked Drake straight in the eyes, he felt as though her eyes were sucking him in and he was powerless to stop it.
"Please don't lay your eggs in my stomach." A meek voice escaped his mouth. At those words the angels face froze, what the hell is this guy talking about. She couldn't seem to comprehend what he had just said. It was absurd, he really thought she was an alien. She couldn't help but be amused at this development. Most felt an instinctual reverence towards higher beings but with him all he felt was fear.
"I'm not an alien." The angel let out a quick sigh. "I'm an angel." Stating this fact she began to lightly flap he wings as if trying to display them. Drake simply wore a dubious look on his face that screamed, 'That's what an alien would say.' The confused man mumbled under his breath at the ridiculousness of the statement. After seeing the wings, and realizing his own situation, he decided to hear her out. It's not like he could say no. Drake confirmed that he was listening with a quick nod and she continued speaking.
"Let's start with introductions like civilized individuals. My name is Michelle." Michelle said in a patronizing manner, gesturing towards the youth.
"D, Drake." Drake managed to stammer out his name in confusion.
"Good." Michelle responded like talking down to a child. "I'm just going to cut to the chase, time has been frozen on your world and the people have been relocated."
"Relocated?" Drake repeated the word, unsure of the exact nature of this 'Relocation.'
"Yes, it means they have been taked from this location to another location." Michelle spoke slowly as if trying to communicate with a class of handicapped children.
"I know what relocated means. I just wasn't sure of the exact nature of this relocation." Drake spoke with just a hint of indignation in his voice. "I'm not stupid."
"Could have fooled me." She let out a laugh of derision. She saw the look of annoyance on his face and thought to address it. "I'm sorry, but everything you've done since I've arrived has been incredibly stupid."
Drake's face flushed, he knew he had been rather hasty. A moment of awkward silnce passed, broken when Michelle began to speak once more.
"To answer your question, they have been taken to a dimension so that they can prepare for what is to come." Drake thought over Michelle's words, 'what is to come,' that phrase sounded ominous. As if to respond to Drake's worries Michelle began to speak once more. "Your world is about to go through a qualitative change. Energies and materials never seen by your people are going to appear in mass and it is going to change the landscape of your entire world. Monsters will appear, there will be individuals with power great enough to single handedly topple governments and people will die-"
"Wait, energies, monsters? What is the exact nature of these changes?" Drake held his breath, fearing that what he had imagined was true.
"The closest approximation from your world I can think of would be RPGs." Drake was flabberghasted and began to stare at her mouth, hoping to see a sign that she really was an alien. Anything would be better than this bullshit. Fantasy is where science and technology go to die, and as much as he loved a good fantasy, he loved computers even more.
"Can I opt out?"
"No."
"Why are you looking at my mouth?" She poke hastily while trying to cover something unsightly. "Is there something in my teeth?"
"Just checking." Drake's eyes focused. Michelles gaze sharpened at the realization of what he was doing.
"I am not an alien!" She roared like an angry bear. With annoyance she began to advize Drake. She was reluctant but it was her job. "Look! you are trapped here, frozen in time. You may not have the opportunity to learn magic like your peers, but you won't age and you are going to be here for a while." Michelle crossed her arms indicating that she wasn't going to take any more of his shit. "I suggest you spend your time here picking up new skills. Otherwise you won't survive." The angel took a deep breath, realizing she was letting her anger get to her. Realizing now wasn't the time to make any more inane statements Drake took on a more serious outlook of the situation. He had finally managed to accept that this was real, mostly. With that acceptance, more than a few question sprang to mind.
"If everybody was supposed to go then why am I still here?" This question became the tipping point of the conversation. Upon hearing this question Michelle began to avert her eyes, unwilling to look straight at him. "Why!?" Drake yelled in the sternest voice he could muster.
"We made a mistake." Michelle whispered turning her head to the side.
"What was that?"
"We made a mistake!" Her embarrassment flared up and her face turned red.
"Then why have you been angry with me!? I tried to shoot and blow up a nigh invulnerable being, you trapped a feeble human in a time barrier!" Michelle couldn't retort, she was obviously ashamed of her previous behavior. Drake yelled once more, loving every minute of it. "How does that even happen!?"
"I'm sorry! We let a newbie take care of the relocation this time to give him some experience. I know that's not an excuse, but there's nothing we can do about it now." Michelle truly was sorry. She hung her head and waited for his response.
"So, how long is this going to last?" Drake put his hand on his chin while he contemplated what he would do with his time.
"We don't know." She said flatly.
"Not even an estimate?" Drake couldn't help but wonder how incompetent heaven really was. They set up a barrier and didn't even know how long it would take.
"It shouldn't be any more than 100 years." Michelle stated in a way that was obviously trying to gloss over the details.
"100 years!!!" Drake's eyes nearly popped out of his head.
"Give or take." The room went silent. Drake was at a loss for words, how do you respond when an angel tells you that you are going to spend a century or more inside of a time barrier? His thoughts flashed to the movie Castaway, was he going to end up like that?
"Well." Seeing the distraught look on Drake's face Michelle decided it was time to take her leave. "I'll be going for now. I will come back every now and again to check on you, so bye." Taking advantage of Drake's shock she used the moment to make her leave. "See you tomorrow." With that, reality began to distort around her and in the blink on an eye, she was gone.
"Wait!" Drake yelled in a futile attempt to keep her around. With no response he was left alone, nobody in the whole world but him. As he was falling into the depths of despair he heard the light sound of a ringing bell, followed by a loud meow. Looking over through the wreckage of what used to be his house, he saw a little siamese cat making it's way towards him. This was indeed his cat, Seanna. With a soft purr, she began to rub herself against Drake's body. He reached down to pet her, feeling the comforting feeling the her soft fur he let out his final sigh for the day.
"At least I'm not completely alone."