This is unreal, Edwin thought in wonder. The blue screen hovered in the air before him. His eyes scanned through the words on reflex. The last word crossed his mind and at the same moment the box disappeared. He stared blankly and thought, Was that just a figment of my imagination?
As quick as the first one vanished, a new message appeared to take its place. The same chime-like noise sounded and Edwin was elated to find he was not imagining this whole thing. Well, he hoped not anyway.
Upon reaching level 5, your dormant racial trait will now be activated.
What? He wondered.
Until a searing pain coursed through his veins. He tried to move, but his body just convulsed and he fell to the ground. He felt his lungs lock in place and he mouthed a silent scream as he shook.
His strange actions alerted Ava, the professor and the teenager to his new plight. They were still focused on running away after that last strafing run had been too close of a call. Yet, Edwin had stopped fleeing. Instead, he was on the ground having a seizure or something. Their instinct was to continue running, but they each skidded to a halt and found themselves frozen between indecision.
Edwin’s condition persisted for half a minute. At that point, it receded and left his body feeling tender all over. He groaned and felt his muscles trembling from the exertion. With voluntary control reasserted he made to sit up. However, that same little, jingling, chime sounded and notified him of a new message. Lying limp on his back he found himself skimming through several messages. They would disappear and be replaced whenever he finished reading them.
Dormant racial trait activated.
New skill acquired:
Telekinesis: The ability to influence objects around you.
New Sub-Skill acquired:
Terrakinesis: The ability to influence geological materials, such as dirt, stone, and minerals.
New Tertiary-Skill acquired:
Concrete Manipulation: The ability to influence concrete.
Huh? Terrakinesis, concrete manipulation? Edwin thought in a daze. Things were happening too quickly for him to keep up. He was barely retaining what he was reading, yet the messages did not care. They just dogpiled him one after another. This one was larger, and it contained a lot more information.
Status Window
Name:
Edwin Stein
Title(s):
N/A
Age
23
Gender
♂
Level
5
Race
Human-1 (Psych)
HP
150
Psych
170
Strength
9
Capacity
12
Vitality
10
Acuity
13
Agility
9
Endurance
10
Dexterity
8
Luck
9
Unspent Points: 25
What!? I now have stat points? His mind marveled as he read the first part of the screen. He continued to read through it, and at the end, he saw he had quite a few unspent stat points.
Whoa, this is surreal, he thought. How should I spend them? He started to ponder. But of course, like all the other screens, once their message was read completely this one vanished. Astonishment filled him. He had not even spent the points. Would he not be allowed to? He had not even checked the stats for descriptions. He wanted a better understanding of what the stats did.
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Edwin focused on the air in front of him and tried to will the screen back. But nothing happened, the screen did not reappear. Instead, the quick barrage of screens seemed to have ended. Which left Edwin full of questions and with no answers. He clambered to his feet, strength returning to his legs. Glancing around Edwin found the other three further up the road. They were staring at him warily.
“Hey,” he tried to greet them. But the siren was still blaring and his voice did not carry. He realized he looked like an idiot trying to speak. The little wave he added conveyed his intention, however.
The professor grinned, breaking the tension slightly. He opened his mouth to respond, but Ava cut him off. She threw her arm up in front of the professor and stepped ahead of the others. “Edwin,” she called out. Her voice was hard, her tone icy. It left no room for nonsense. When she spoke again each word cut through the noise around them. “What was that back there? You fell to the ground. We watched you shake, and scream. Is there something wrong with you?”
It was an incredibly awkward silence that followed. The siren did not cease, and the battle overhead continued to rage without a care for their issue.
At that moment the professor could be restrained no longer and he pushed through Ava’s arm. “That light, what was that light?” He called out curiously. “How on Earth did you get a light to flash around yourself?”
“I don’t know Ava,” Edwin yelled back. “And I doubt you guys would believe me if I said what I thought it was.” The professor crossed his arms and looked upset when Edwin ignored him. Ava likewise seemed unimpressed.
She sneered with scorn. Edwin felt too tired to try and argue and instead an uncomfortable staring match ensued. How long it may have lasted no one would know. Because a stray round slammed into the concrete sidewalk nearby. They all flinched and the tension broke as the need to act overrode all else.
A quick back and forth ended with the group fleeing towards the underground tunnels between the dorms and the dining hall. On the street behind them, the main body of the wreck continued to burn fiercely. But the flames were spreading and several buildings now burned in the area.
They moved quickly back up the road from where Ava and Edwin came from. The two of them had originally been trying to flee. However the streets were too dangerous to stay out on, and it should be safer underground than in one of the surrounding buildings.
While they ran, Edwin's thoughts churned. Had he really just seen those blue screens? Why did he have a seizure? What the hell was going on with the battle in the sky? There was too much happening. He wanted to see those screens again, he especially wanted to know if he now had telekinetic powers.
Edwin tried to summon forth the panels. But no matter what he imagined there was no reaction. He dropped to the back of the group and let a gap open up between them.
“Status!” He exclaimed quietly. “Ok, uh, open status,” he muttered under his breath, “no? Then how about, open character screen? Damn. Maybe inventory? Options? Menu? Observe, identify, appear, reappear, level up?” He tried each one out and nothing worked.
They were nearly to a side entrance into the dorm hall. One quick card swipe and they would be several steps from the stairs to the basement. As Edwin followed the group towards a wide, and short set of ascending concrete stairs; a huge boom rippled across the city. The volume of noise caused the entire group to flinch once again. They all nervously glanced around. The noise was deafening, their ears rang. Yet as loud as it was, it seemed to come from far away.
Edwin saw it. A huge ball of smoke and fire filled the air in the distance. A massive explosion billowing up from downtown. A tremor shook the ground. Edwin and the others staggered. Then a series of rolling waves pulsed through the earth below them. A continuous quivering seized the world around them. A gust of warm air blasted past, it tingled against their exposed skin. The streetlights cut out, the illuminated windows went dark, and all around them, everything electronic stopped functioning.
The concrete shifted beneath their feet and sections of it cracked and splintered. Edwin sidestepped a growing crack and hunkered down by the railing set into the staircase and held on. The others, already below the building's overhang past the stairs, pushed themselves flush to the building’s exterior and crouched down to make themselves smaller.
The earthquake ended as quickly as it started. Glancing around Edwin saw cracks everywhere and one of the light poles in the intersection behind them had fallen. Clambering up, he jogged to meet the others.
“I hope that didn’t mess up the tunnels,” he said as a way of filling the now eerie silence.
The ringing in his ears lessened, as it faded, he noticed the sirens had cut out. In fact, there was an audible silence through the streets. Only the sound of wind filled the night air.
Ava was back on her feet and at the side entrance trying to gain access to the building. She ignored his statement as she swiped her ID card through the card reader. Her breathing came heavier as she swiped her card, a second, third and fourth time.
“This. God. Damn. Lock. Is. Dead!” She said through clenched teeth. Each word punctuated with a vigorous card swipe. With an unarticulated noise of anger, she stomped off to the small grassy lawn between two of the dorms and the cafeteria. Her feet slapped loudly against the concrete before she began to pace along the barely illuminated grass. Edwin stopped tracking her moonlit figure as he went to investigate the door.
Indeed, the electronic card reader was not working. Apparently, there was some sort of EMP dropped on the city? Don’t those usually follow nuclear blasts? The giant fireball was frightening, but it was not the infamous mushroom cloud associated with an atomic explosion. Something else must have caused the lock’s failure.
Peeking through the tall, and thin rectangular pane of glass he could see the silhouettes of several of the residents with their arms full of blankets moving down the stairs. So he knocked and got the attention of one of them. He stepped back and the door opened a moment later. A warm yellow light briefly blinded Edwin.
Until a voice he recognized called out, “Who’s there? Oh? Edwin! Shit dude. What happened? You look…Rough. Oh, where’s Ava? You guys were on patrol right? Do you know what’s going on? Oh, what am I saying, let’s get you inside dude.”
The light beam was aimed to the ground once the carrier realized he was blinding Edwin. As Edwin’s vision returned he caught sight of a familiar face. It was one of the new RA’s he had met during the past week. The guy’s name was Ralph or Richard or something.
Ava came over and cheerfully called out, “hey Roy, I’m right here.” Then she giggled. Edwin wanted to stare in disbelief and scoff, but instead, he managed with an eye roll while they were busy talking.
“Oh, ok cool Ava. You’re alright as well. Do you guys know what’s going on? You were on patrol right?”
Ava started to fill Roy in on their little adventure. Her tone was sweet and innocent. She hugged herself, like some sort of vulnerable little girl. Edwin took this time to notice Roy was not holding a flashlight but instead held an honest to god oil lamp. Whatever killed the lights and card reader apparently fried even regular batteries. That was one hell of an EMP, Edwin thought. He fished his phone from his pocket. It was dead. Phone flashlights were out of the picture as well.
Where did Roy even get some archaic thing like that anyway? Edwin wondered.
Apparently, Ava was curious as well because she asked Roy about it. “Some weird kid from my floor collects stuff like this. They had a couple lamps with them and brought the things when the siren sounded. Everyone was moving up and down the stairs when the lights died with that earthquake. So I asked to borrow it and you guy’s knocked a bit later.”
Edwin wanted to find this weird, but he had been dealing with residents for the last two years. He would not even count it in his top ten list of weird things he had seen residents do. Roy then noticed the other two hovering behind them. Ava made to introduce them but fumbled when she realized she did not know their names. The professor was good natured about it however and introduced himself as Donald Chen, physics professor at the university.
The teenager was coaxed forward. Her eyes were wide and Edwin figured she was probably still freaked out about the whole people burning to death thing. Actually, he was still freaked out about it. But it was at the back of his mind. He could break down or something later.
Her name was Zoey Wright and she had said she had been nearby and came over to see what had happened. With those two introduced Ava returned the favor and proceeded to introduce herself and Roy. When she mentioned Edwin he nodded his head absently.
With that out of the way, Roy ushered them inside and shut the door behind them. Up close, Edwin found himself studying the oil lamp. As the only source of light, it drew attention. The lamp itself looked like just a small shaped lump of steel with a handle. But it cast a warm glow through its glass window. A line of residents moved down the stairs. Each one held blankets and pillows. Roy mentioned the building manager decided that everyone should spend the night in the basement. But after the earthquake, he wasn’t sure what condition the place was in.
Edwin realized that as one of the RA’s he would probably have to spend the night helping the residents out with whatever small matters bothered them. That was a great thought, it was not like he would have much preferred to spend the night face down in his own bed. On that line of thought, he realized all the rooms would be locked and the card readers would not function. So only the physical keys would work. Luckily as an RA he could just walk behind the counter and grab his own.
Edwin seized the chance and said something about needing to go change his clothes. It was not even an excuse, he was filthy. He split from the group and picked his key up before walking across to the stairwell on the far side. This one did not connect to the basement so he expected it to be less congested. The staircase was pitch black, except for the faint moonlight that spilled in through the grubby windows. Edwin navigated the staircase with the skill of someone who had lived there for three years.
With a hand touching the wall, he counted each floor as he made his way up. He did not meet anyone and soon found himself at his door. He fumbled the key several times, but eventually felt it find purchase in the mechanism.
Upon entering he made for his stashed flashlight. But it was a no go. It would not turn on even when he tried new batteries. He dropped the worthless device and moved to the bathroom. Turning the tap on the sink a little bit of water trickled out but nothing else. “Just great,” he grumbled. He grabbed a hand towel and used it to absorb whatever droplets were still in the sink. Rubbing it against his face he tried to methodically clean every inch. Unsure of how successful he was, Edwin moved on to his arms. Ash, blood, and sweat were congealed across his body. The disgusting mess was sure to ruin the towel. Yet there was nothing else he could do but switch to a new one when he felt his current one was too filthy. Eventually, he stripped his clothes off and scrubbed away at any remaining spots he could feel on his body.
He felt cleaner afterwards, so his efforts were successful. He then moved to re-dressing himself with some clean clothing he found in his dresser. Edwin walked over to his bed and fell face first onto the sheets. He felt absolutely exhausted. Between the CPR, and whatever the blue screens had done to him. He could barely keep his eyes open.
He crawled under the sheets and got comfortable. His mind turned to the ridiculous string of events he had just undergone. He was not even sure that he was safe right now. The aerial battle seemed to have ended, but would the victors of the fight switch targets to the civilians? While important he discarded that line of thought since it was outside his control. What he really focused on was the blue screens. He drifted off to sleep with a single thought filling his mind. I'm definitely going to get to the bottom of this terrakinesis business when I wake up.