Isn’t life strange? An ambiguous statement to make, sure, I know. And I don’t want to get all philosophical about how flippant life can be. But... Isn’t it strange? One minute, you’re neck-deep in pointless conversation with colleagues about some such nonsense like which colour best suits a logo. A conversation you’ve had four times now at four different meetings, but are still oddly overly impassioned by the pointless debate; Loudly fighting that position of blue and black. You know it’s pointless because you’ll be back here before weeks end to discuss it once more. A true example of fruitless effort… But then. Well. Suddenly you’re running for your life, and you don’t know why. Through corridor after corridor, trying desperately to avoid your dead colleagues' shredded entrails underfoot.

Shredded entrails. Certainly an apt description. If I weren’t so terrified, I’d pat myself on the back for that one. A vivid and accurate description. But how do you process a scene like this? I guess you first ask yourself if what you’re seeing is even real... It certainly feels real, though I can’t deny that I might be having a mental breakdown. It’s certainly more plausible than people exploding into fleshy pieces of stewed steak...

And then. I need to ask why I’m running. And what exactly am I running from? And where exactly am I running to? More importantly, when did I start running? My heart feels like it's going to explode--!

“Oi Chris!”, a familiar voice calls out to me from behind, “Over here! Quickly!”

The abruptness of the sudden call breaks me from my panicked reflection, unfortunately also causing me to turn quickly and slip. I cursed under my breath and looked over to where the shouting had come from to see two figures standing in a doorway.

It was John and Hannah from the partner team. 

“J-John?”

Ah, damn it. I bit my damn tongue.

“Y-you alright?”, John shouts whilst moving towards me, slightly alarmed by my sudden fall. The sudden break in concentration caused by his familiar voice made me miss the served arm underfoot, and I had ended up tumbling to the floor. I never was someone with sure-footedness, even at the best of times.

“Y-yeah”, I climbed back to my feet and rushed into the small room they were holed up in. As soon as I entered the dingey lit room, another figure unfamiliar to me, slammed the door shut and began barricading it with surrounding furniture--

“Don’t just watch me!”, the young man in his twenty shouts, “Help me for crying out loud!”

“Ah. R-Right!”

Standing dumbfounded, it took me a minute to process what I was actually being asked to do. All my uneven tension from a moment ago had started to drain away after seeing wholly intact people. It had given away to pure confusion as I stood panting, exhausted. The events of just moments ago suddenly didn’t seem real. My tiny little brain seems to be struggling to keep up.

“Just what the hell is going on!?”, another man I don’t recognise asks while handing me a chair.

“I don’t know”, I replied, shakenly.

“People just started… exploding? And… falling apart?”, John replied with a perplexed expression. It may sound stupid, but I honestly thought that perhaps I was midst a delusion. That all this was just in my head. But... I don’t know. Somehow, hearing the words out loud from John’s mouth… Knowing others also witnessed the same events I had. There’s no denying it anymore. 

Ha.

I don’t know which would have been better. That this was all a delusion, or that this is reality.

“It’s the same for me. I was with Bob and Sarah’s teams about that stupid logo when there was that ear-deafening siren that lasted, what, ten minutes?”

“Yeah, what was that?”, Hanah shrieks out whilst holding John's arm.

I shook my head, “I’ve no idea, but after it finally stopped and we were joking about the start of world war three… Sarah just exploded, followed by her entire team, and then Bob.. Bob melted--”

“M-melted?” Hannah mumbled.

“Yes…”, It was not something I ever wanted to think about again. The smells. My word, the smells! “Just recalling it makes me want to puke.”

Hannah shrinks away from everyone towards the corner of the room before the man barricading the door with me exhales loudly.

“That should buy us time. You’re Chris, right? Harry. That’s Steve, and the big guy is Jim. We’re from HR.”

He holds out his hand. I take it and shake it without even pausing for thought. Guess it’s like that thing… Muscle memory. Do something often enough, and you do it without thinking. I find myself suddenly chuckling to a room of worried expressions. They probably think I’ve lost it.

“Ah, sorry. It’s just. Well, we’re maintaining etiquette even in a time like this. I found that a little amusing is all. I’m not losing my shit, honest.”

I mean, I was losing my shit prior to seeing you all, but I feel okay now… I’ll keep that to myself.

“Erm”, Harry gives an awkward smile, “Anyway, it seems we all experienced something similar… Something is killing us one-by-one.”

If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

Then something very obvious occurred to me.

“Why did we barricade the door?”

Harry looks at me, confused by the question.

“I mean, who are we trying to keep out?”

The entire room fell silent. At the time, I hadn’t even questioned it. Someone told me to help them barricade the door, so I did. But even before that. Why was I running? People were blowing up, melting and falling apart, but there was no one causing those events. No one to run from. It seemed random. The ‘events’ seemed to just be happening for no particular reason… 

Was I just running out of pure fear?

I completely panicked and let fear control my actions. I didn’t think anything through and just started running out of blind fear. It’s the same with the door. We barricaded it because we’re afraid and believe the troubles out there so let’s keep it out there… What if it’s not!?

“That’s…”, Harry paused for a moment, cupping his chin, “Hm. You’re right. It seemed like the right thing to do, but looking at the facts, barricading the door does seem pointless. Ha. I feel a little embarrassed--”

Congratulations!

You have survived the great awakening of a new age!

You are qualified! Again, congratulations!

To cut Harry off, a sudden message box appeared in front of my face. I think we all stared off silently dumb-founded for the same amount of time before everyone at the same time, out-stretched their index fingers to touch the floating message.

The true face of this new realm will now be revealed to you, o qualified one!

A grand enlightenment has been bestowed onto you by this great being!

“...We’re all seeing this, right?”, I ask hesitantly.

“Y-yeah”, Hannah replies with a troubled smile.

Now awaken!

And!

Be reborn!

Suddenly a bright light shines out, blinding me for a few seconds. When my vision finally returns, I see everyone else looks to have been in the same boat. Blinking repeatedly.

“Anyone feel reborn?”, Harry asks sarcastically.

“Nope.”

The big guy at the back who clearly spends way too much time at the gym retorted quickly. 

...Wait, gym? 

I suddenly found myself bursting out laughing. His name’s Jim. 

Ha. 

Oh dear. I might be losing it after all.

“It wasn’t that funny”, Steve shakes his head over to Harry, “And no. I feel the same. Nothing feels any different.”

“What about you two”, Harry asks, gesturing over at Hannah and John.

“No, nothing”, they reply in unison as Harry flows his gaze over to me.

“No--”, I was mid-reply when my eyes were drawn to something unusual, “But… What the hell is that?”

I point over at the window in the barricaded door where some ‘thing’ stood staring back in at us.

I don’t want to be cliche and say it was an orc. An orc-like those orc’s you see in games and movies. But it really did look just like one, what with its deep green skin, thick muscles and tusked teeth--

“Wha! AH! Keep it away! What is that! What is going on! I can’t! I can’t--”, Hannah started screaming loudly and repeatedly while Jim wasted no time at all to overturn a table. 

He immediately kicked a leg off to make an impromptu weapon and took to the front of the group, pulling Harry away from the door.

“You should all find weapons.”

Jim throws the comment away bluntly. As if he felt he shouldn’t have needed to say anything at all.

“R-right”, I said, hurling my eyes around the room as Harry and Steve took to kicking off the remaining table legs.

“Barricading the door. See! Glad we did that now then, huh?”, Harry quips at me. Seems he was holding some minor resentment at my previous words.

“Although I agree, I don’t think that’s going to keep that thing out for long--”

As if I was controlling the creature like some kind of puppet, the monster known as ‘orc’ began violently charging into the door. With each consecutive slam, Hannah’s annoying screams got louder and more high-pitched.

“Someone shut her up!”, Steve shouted angrily, “She’s going to lure more of them!”

“Hannah, you’ve got to calm down!”

John rushed over to hold her in his arms. This does little to shut her up, however.

W-Wait. More of them? ...Steve’s right. There’s bound to be more than just one of those things out there! Oh. Oh my god. We’re going to die. We’re going to die here, aren’t we!

“Chris. Catch”, Harry throws one of the table legs over to me, snapping me back out of my panic attack. The broken-off end is a little sharp, but I can’t see this being of much use in a real fight. It’s bulky, heavy and hard to grip properly--

“It’s getting through”, Jim states at the same moment the door flings open, throwing furniture everywhere. Jim doesn’t even hesitate at the creature's visage, rushing straight to engage it.

“Ha. Get him Jim!”, Harry laughs nervously as he gestures for Steve to get on the left side of Jim, as he takes a right, “Me and Steve have your back!”

The orc grunts once at the sight of Jim and charges straight at him without hesitation. Jim, who had also decided to charge straight towards the orc, stopped suddenly just before it, bracing his chin into his right shoulder and planting himself strong causing the orc to barrel right into him with a meaty thud.

To my surprise, Jim didn’t budge an inch. Instead, the towering orc went flying backwards, stumbling back at least three feet as Jim immediately began swinging his table leg at the unbalanced orc.

A left. Followed through to the right. Right following through to the left. Quick and heavy hits to the orc’s ribs and neck left small cuts wherever they landed. The orc seemed to be unable to resist, at least, at first.

Suddenly the orc lifted its right leg from its unbalanced stance and unleashed a spartan-style high kick to Jim's chest, sending poor Jim hurtling through the air and through the rear wall of the room. The speed at which Jim flew was almost too fast for me to even follow.

“Gac Gac Gac. Omah toov lic! Gac Gac Gac”

It spoke!? No, not just that. It’s laughing!

“Shit. Steve, now!”, Harry shouts and Steve nods singularly in agreement as they launch simultaneous attacks from either side of the orc. But the orc just catches their impromptu weapons with each of its hands instantly and snatches them from their grip.

“Toov du va”

The orc seems unimpressed by their efforts, dropping the weapons while shaking its head in disapproval. 

After glazing once between them, the orc suddenly slaps the two of them with something resembling a chuckle and without any real force. It’s like it thinks they’re some naughty children that need to be taught a lesson.

“Omah! Toov. Toov!”

The orc shouts, gesturing towards me. No, wait, it’s not me.

“This fucker”, Jim steps through the hole in the wall while dusting himself off. 

I think I finally got it. The orc wants to duel!?