Chapter 14
Monday, September 15th, 2059
First Quest
31 days to Armageddon
Leo was having another nightmare.
“It's one of them!” a man shouted as Leo scurried away with his small bowl of watery soup. The only food he'd been able to get in this damn refugee camp in over a day, and he was starving. It had been a week since the Change and all he wanted to do was find some dark corner of the city stadium to huddle, where he could eat his damn soup and feel sorry for himself. But Leo's stolen, oversized hoodie didn't completely conceal his deformed features, and the other refugees were understandably paranoid.
Several large, well-armed men surrounded him.
“Please! I'm not one of them. I can't help how I look,” he said, his voice high pitched and quavery from fear. His mouth had elongated since the Change and his teeth were larger and sharper, making it harder for him to talk. “I got an implant.” He raised his left arm and made his wrist glow violet. Showing off his implant had gotten him out of a few scrapes already.
Pre-Change, implants had been illegal. Now, having one was a badge of honor. Refugees were looking to implant users to get them out of this mess.
“Hey! What's going on?” A large man wearing a brown canvas jacket stepped out of the shadows.
“It's one of them. We're going to kill it.” One of the people surrounding Leo pulled out a gun.
“You dumbasses. He's just a kid. If he was one of them, he'd have taken a bite out of you already.” The large man moved his jacket to the side, revealing a gun of his own.
“Does he have red irises?” an onlooker asked. “If he's one of them, he'll have red irises.”
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A man checked, bending down and shining his flashlight directly at Leo's face. “Nope. He's just ugly.” There was some laughter. “Did you know Mr. Osmond?” the man asked. “Taught at Destiny Middle School. Heard he died saving a bunch of kids.”
Leo shook his head.
“Come over here, kid. You can hang with me,” the large man said. “I want to be with someone I can feel sorry for.”
Leo knew a lucky break when he saw one and headed in the large man's direction. The people surrounding him moved away, letting him go. Soon he was sitting next to the other man in the shadows, gulping down his hard-earned, horrible-tasting, watery soup.
“Name's Trent,” the man said, handing Leo a protein bar. His hand had a tattoo of a cross on it. “You're an ugly bastard. What happened?”
“When the Change started, I ate my parent's stash of Bio-Blessed 'cause I was hoping it would make things better. I didn't know Bio-Blessed was what was turning people into monsters in the first place.”
“You ate the devil's elixir,” Trent said, shaking his head. “But you're only part monster. Don't know if you're lucky or not. It might be nice to be one of them. To kill and eat, not care.” Trent extended his left arm, making his left wrist glow violet. Tears ran down his face. “You know what I wish? What I'd sell my soul for?...”
***
Leo's alarm clock went off. He woke up with a groan, somehow raising an arm to smack the clock and shut it up. Every one of his muscles was screaming in pain. In addition, he had bruises all over his body from hitting himself with his bat until he'd leveled up twice in “taking blows to the body”. This should harden his skin, protecting him in the future.
“Good morning, Leo,” came Imp's annoyingly cheerful voice. “I'm giving you your first quest. You must find this man named Trent and help him. The reward for completing this quest is 20 Demon Tears and the satisfaction of a job well done.”
“So you saw my dream?” It seemed his going back in time was bringing back memories he'd been happy to forget.
“I've interfaced with your consciousness, Leo. I experience everything you do. I should also tell you that your new Brain Augmentation Device, or BAD, comes with a game. Completing these quests is essential to gaining a good character build that will, in turn, allow you to survive. If you do well in this upcoming game, you might even win valuable prizes. It is recommended that you choose a character build before the game begins.”
“That game wouldn't begin this October 16th, would it?”
“I'm afraid I don't have that information, Leo,” Imp responded.
Leo rolled out of bed with a loud moan. His muscles had stiffened up. Every movement brought a fresh wave of pain. “I want to help Trent, but I never even got his last name.”
He dragged himself to his laptop. Opening the search engine, he typed, “Looking for a man named Trent with a tattoo of a cross on his right hand.”
“Get a free Bio-Blessed energy drink with every tattoo you get with Passion Tattooing!”
“Get a tattoo at Apocalypse Tattooing! Thousands of tattoos to choose from!” Followed by twenty other ads for tattoo shops around the city.
Shit.