"I bought a wooden whistle, but it wooden whistle."

"I bought a steel whistle, but it still steel wooden whistle."

"So finally, I bought a lead whistle. But it steel wooden lead me whistle" I recalled the dumb jokes I memorised on the internet that went a long way when i was wooing my wife. At that point in time, seeing the smile on her face was a treasure. Right now, it was priceless. I found myself walking aimlessly, well not aimlessly but I had a general direction of where I was going to. Missing the familiar weight of my phones in my pocket, I thought about the happy moments in life, washing away the bad ones in my memories.

There were things that didn't add up. The more I thought about it, the more I found it to be strange. Firstly, the internet was still working. Electricity was still functioning in some places and the dragon in the sky that I first saw had disappeared.

Not to mention the fact that I had yet to encounter any monsters as I headed north. It was as if most of the monsters had vanished into thin air. The same went for the humans. At some point, I found myself back at the bridge. This time, there were no spider monsters. There wasn't the head of a dead snake nor any blood anywhere. The roads were normal, the houses weren't cut into two. Everything was back the way it should be. Except that it was empty.

I looked around. Sure, the world ending was unbelivable but what is going on here? I turned around and faced the office just like I had always done and walked ahead. I didn't know why but something was compeling me to take thoese steps. Each step I took, the scenery changed. From a bustling street in the morning to an empty one at night. From spring to summer to autumn to winter. Time passed with every step I took. As I took my steps into the office, I could see the different people that had walked in here. Going into the lifts, every floor had a different date. I clicked on the 70th floor for my office. I arrived along with the dragon's roar. I could see myself staring out of my office window and Jason typing away on the keyboard. It was wierd seeing myself leisurely walk into the lifts. I passsed through myself as I headed into the office. I sat down on my chair and opened the 3rd drawer of my table. A single wristband with a heart shape sewn into the middle was visible.

"You know, I went alll the way to Thailand to see this mysterious doctor and he told me that the wrisitband I made you would protect you when you needed it most!" I could almost imagine my wife speaking to me excitedly.

"How did he know that I made a wristband for you?! Isn't that amazing? Anyways, you must keep that with you at all times from now on!" my wife cheekily laughed and poked me as she said that.

I guess I didn't keep the promise huh? I laughed as I grabbed onto the wristband and wore it. It was at that moment, I could feel everything disappear into a blur. Like I was waking up from a bad dream, I found myself standing in a daze as a wierd creature had its tentacles stuck onto the sides of my head. I quickly kicked the creature infront of me. It was the same height as me with tentacles squiriming out of the sides. It was shaped like a bucket wiith legs excpet that it was completely blue in colour. It felt surreal staring at the thing. It clearly was out of this world.

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That's right, I remembered...

Right after the building collapsed, I had decided to find a nearby supermarket or covenience store to get supplies in order to get to my friend's house. It was then when this wierd blue creature had latched on to me.

New Title: Soul-Bound ( Your soul will no longer leave your body) [ Luck UP ]

What the...? I could only frown at the words that popped up. The creature was spazzaming against the ground, flinging its tentacles around as it had been knocked over.

I looked around for anything that I could use as a weapon. I found a broken piece of concrete and picked it up. The monster layed itself bare to me as I quickly and mercilessly smashed the concrete into its body, it was a strange feeling similar to that of smashing against jelly, as the monster parts splashed around everywhere. It stopped moving rather quickly and I could hear my own heavy breathing while smashing the monster into pieces.

Still trying to find my bearings, I looked around to find myself a few meters away from where I originally was. The collapsed mall was just to my back. I could barely make out the black dots swarming around it. There were dead bodies littered around the streets, same as the ones near the bridge with monsters being sliced in half and humans who had already fallen victim to them. The sun was still barely rising, I couldn't help but sigh as I looked at my hand now stained in blue liquids. It was probably the blood of the creature. I looked down at my hands and for a brief second, I could've sworn that I saw the bracelet around my wrists. It had a string that led somewhere...

I must've been seeing things.

"Hey" I heard a voice call out to me. It was a high pitched voice, it sounded young. "Uncle" the word stabbed into my heart. "Can you help me?" I turned to my left and saw a young girl. By my guess she was probably around 4 or 5 years old. I widened my eyes as I looked at her.

"My mummy won't wake up" she said with tears in her eyes. In her arms was the head of her mum and she was hugging it tightly. Fuck me. I kneeled down and hugged the child covered in red. "Is it because I didn't hide until she asked me to come out?" the girl's innocent question weight down on me. "Is mummy mad? That's why she doesn't want to reply me?" I could picture what had happened in my head.

"Its alright okay? You can let your mum go now... she needs to sleep" I brushed my hand on the head of the girl. I didn't even hear her approach. But I could see the trail of blood and the bloodied footsteps behind her. I gently removed the head from her hands. It was heavy, imagining a young girl carrying it as she walked around left my heart feeling sour. "Mummy..." she wailed as she was in my embrace. I decided to carry her in my arms as the head was left behind. She saw, but she didn't say anything and continued to cry. She's a strong girl isn't she.

"Its okay" i patted her on the head. "Its okay now" I repeated while stroking her head. Soon enough, the child fell asleep. She smelled of blood and I could see large bruises on her arms and legs. The head of a human wasn't something so light that a child could bring around like a teddy bear. Looking at her, a random child that had appeared asking for my help. I couldn't help but wonder how many more children are there that are in the same situation as her. Now that I think about it, I really needed to get somewhere with food, water and a nice comfortable shower.

Walking with the child in my arms, the rising sun in the distance felt like a new beginning. I who had no children nor experience with children could only bitterly smile as I stroked the girl who had fallen asleep in my arms. Let's start by looking for an abandoned house nearby. I saw monsters starting to notice us as they looked over. With that as a signal, I began to run.

Jason POV

We could only look at what had happened in amazement. Rachel looked back at me, shocked that the first aid kit simply disappeared.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

"You can try saying status or just think of the word" I told Rachel. The next thing I knew, I found her staring at her status. "I didn't even know I had skills! I could've used these in my resume!" she joked, as she stared at it. I nearly let out a chuckle. I was surprised at myself.

"Where do you think we should go now?" Rachel asked.

"Aren't you worried about your parents?" I replied her, but saw the look in her eyes and decided not to press any further.

"Well... we can head to my house first, I have some food and water over there... it should last us for a while" I decided. Furthermore, I can also hold a mini funeral for boss. I made up my mind and stepped on the accelerator. The car began to move as I drove up and out to the streets. I could see the tail of the giant white snake, it made me froze for a second before I quickly went off at speeds twice that of the limit. "Hey... was I seeing things or was that a really huge snake?" Rachel's voice trembled as she asked. I couldn't help but think that her reaction was normal. Boss that ran forward towards it was the abnormal one for sure. Gripping harder on the steering wheel, I cut through piles of overturned cars and ran over monsters. A horde of zombies were blocking the way towards my apartment. I could only apologise to boss in heaven as I stepped on the pedal. The splatter of bodies against the car made the windows crack and the dead bodies slipped off to a side. Thankfully, the speed of the car was good enough that the bodies didn't clog up the wheels. Rachel was looking around horrified.

One way or the other, I found myself back home. The car, splattered with blood had black smoke coming out of the engines. I lived in a 2-storey house, with ample space to fit an entire family. Leaving the car further away from my house, I urged Rachel to follow me. I had parked 5 houses away, thinking that the smell of blood would lure the monsters towards the car. Looking around, I could see walking corpses of rotting flesh everywhere. There were thoese that looked particularly fresh and I could recognise some of my neighbours amongst them.

"Let's go" . I could see the visible fear all over her face as she paled looking at the situation around us. There were zombies everywhere, it was something straight out of a horror movie. Not only that, I could see monsters rampaging around the area. There were orcs, goblins and lizard men along with many others I couldn't name. They were fighting roughly 8 houses away to the right and I could see zombies rushing towards their direction. My house was 5 houses up north so we had some leeway. We crouched down and hid behind an overturned car nearby. I watched as the zombies toppled over each other as they moved. It was a good thing that they were dumb creatures as compared to the ones they showed in movies. With overall slower reactions and a much much slower speed while moving, the creatures didn't seem like much of a threat. However, their numbers were unrivalled. I could see the fighting monsters break up at the sight of the zombies. Using the chance as the zombies were distracted, I grabbed Rachel by her hands and was about to pull her along when I remembered that she was still barefooted. I checked the floors for a clear path.

There were glass shards from the shattered car windows and broken pavements. I wondered if I could use a simple plaster in my house to heal her. Maybe it would glow once again.

Rachel obediently followed along, as we ran towards my house. I could see the zombies nearby turning their heads towards us for a brief moment when we passed by, only to be attracted to the sounds of battle once more.

It took less than a minute, but we arrived at the doors of my house. I could see her legs being completely fine and I realised that I was worried over nothing. She gave me a curious stare noticing that I was looking at her legs. Opening the doors with my facial recognition, I entered my house.

I decided to check around for any damage. I didn't want to let down my guard thinking that the area was clear only to be attacked. To my right was my living room. It seemed to be undisturbed as I could see my single sofa facing the television. The table had documents scattered around everywhere. Behind it, was my kitchen. I headed over to the area and took a look around. Opening the cupboards as I went by, the piles of packet drinks and biscuits were still untouched. My house barely had any plates or kitchen utensils, as the most I ever did was microwave food or boiled canned soup.

Rachel looked at me as if she was amazed.

"Did you know that there would be an apocalypse?" she made a casual comment as she saw the amount of food I had stored up. I couldn't say anything in response as the amount of food really was crazy. There was more in the fridge though...

I opened the fridge doors to see it filled with different types of wine. I had recieved them as gifts from people during gatherings and social events, it was only now that I realised that half my fridge was filled with it. Accompanying the drinks were soft drinks and all sorts of unhealthy snacks. I then checked the storeroom behind the kitchen that was pretty much filled with cup noodles, instant noodles, more canned food and a few large bottles of mineral water.

"So you really did predict the apocalypse didn't you?" Rachel sounded impressed. I tried to smile at her remark. It was true, my house really did seem too well-equipped for an apocalypse. Perhaps my horrible lifestyle was in fact good for something. I wonder what boss would say if he had seen me living like this. He'd probably tell me off to take care of my health and then proceed to spend his entire night in the office. He was a strange man that didn't seem to care for anyone but himself. Shaking my head to not let my heart turn sour, I carried on investigating my own house.

I went up the stairs to the 2nd floor, with both guest rooms being as empty as ever. The toilet was well the same, and my bedroom was rightfully how it should be. Undisturbed as usual. How long has it been since I had laid down on my bed for a good nights rest? If people didn't know any better they'd probably think that I was working for a "Hey is our company secretly a black company?" Rachel's voice cut in.

I laughed as it was as if she had read my thoughts. "No, it isn't " I gave a gentle smile and looked at her. We were practically strangers and yet she felt so comfortable to be around. Perhaps this was the cause of the suspension bridge effect? Then again I wondered why she had stayed at the office until the wee hours of the night.

"Hey, I've been meaning to ask, but why were you in the office until it was so late at night?" I decided to just ask.

"Well... I had lots of work to do!" I frowned at her reply. From what I know, the HR has been saying that most employees refuse to leave because of its comfortable, free and easy lifestyle. The reputation got so bad that others in the industry are saying that we spoil our employees to create a monopoly over talents.

"Is that so?" I asked again.

"Well truth to be told, I was snooping around the office to find out if it was true that my supervisor and the secretary were doing this and that after office hours" her face flushed red as she spoke.

"Which department are you from?" I asked, I couldn't help but find the woman infront of me to be quite peculiar.

"Sales and marketing..." she replied while looking down.

"Aren't the two of them married?" I recalled Henry and Hailey from the department. "They are quite famous you know" the employees had made a huge fuss when they found out. In a way, seeing how tightly knitted the employees were, I could only think that it was a great company when I heard the news.

"But I was trying to catch some in-office romance... I told the others that they were definetly doing it after office hours and they wanted evidence.. " her head sinked further and further down the more she spoke. With how interested she was in these kind of things, It was so nostalgic that I couldn't help but ask. "Are you a virgin?"

She then proceeded to turn around and run away. It reminded me of myself when the company was still a starting up. I, who was the manager was staying back to see if my two employees were doing anything funny. It wasn't to punish them or anything. It was merely for my own personal curiosity. I remembered boss asking me the same exact question when he heard about it, and I got mad.

"So what if I'm one?!" I shouted at him.

"So what?!" she shouted from downstairs. I smiled and laughed out loud. Just like boss was to me, maybe I should treat her the way he treated me. Deciding that I'll at least help her through the apocalypse, I headed into my room to find a picture of boss. It was easy enough since I had printed out many company photos. I decided on one where the boss and his wife was cutting the ribbon to the office. It felt fitting somehow. She was someone who I was also indebted to. If I might be so bold, they were the parents I never had.

Taking a picture frame and slotting their photo inside. My heart felt a sense of devastating lost. I could feel it hurt physically as I recalled the moments I had spent with them. How they had invited me into their family dinner, spoke to me, encouraged me to get my degree as I worked. Scolded me for smoking, making me quit and were there for me during the moments where I was lost. I had thought that perhaps they were angels sent down by the gods. Their warmth didn't feel human, and it was unbelievable to me. I had purposely checked up their past and how they overcame it. It made me feel like mine wasn't anything too big and yet they still comforted me along the way to where I am.

I found myself crying as i looked at their picture. Then I remembered that there was someone who I now needed to take care of. Wiping the tears with my sleeves, I brought the photo down to the living room.