Chapter 40
Saturday, September 20th, 2059
26 days to Armageddon
More Trouble
It wasn't bad; it was worse.
In addition to being caught using experimental, yet to be safety tested, gaming capsules they'd been forbidden to even touch, someone had strewn toilet paper all over Jason's lawn while they were playing and spray-painted the front of their house with “LOSER”
At least nobody had threatened to kill him, not in the literal sense, that is.
Leo staggered home, completely exhausted.
Leo's Vitality was down to 2.5. He and Jason had been playing School's Out for over twenty-four hours.
The game capsules had an emergency shutoff, if someone's vital signs, (heartbeat, blood pressure, oxygen levels) dropped below a certain point. Jason's blood pressure had dropped... or something. This had caused their pods to shut down.
Leo had wanted to help clean up the vandalism in Jason's front yard, but Jason's mom told him in no uncertain terms to “go home, now.”
He felt horrible for Jason. The poor boy had positively cringed when his mom and brother started in on him. Unfortunately, there was little Leo could do about it. He hoped the poor guy was okay.
Mom was waiting for him when he staggered through the front door. It was oddly quiet inside. The flat-screen TV was off. “I got a call from Jason's mom. Using untested, experimental gaming pods is dangerous and illegal. Fortunately for you, she doesn't seem inclined to press charges. You are grounded for the next week, and tomorrow you can join your sister in cleaning the garage.”
“Lydia?” Leo asked. Lydia never got punished for anything.
“Lydia is very upset about some fight on the news. She's been sending hate mail to a certain movie star. We don't tolerate cyberbullying in this house.”
“He deserves it!” Lydia shouted from her bedroom. “He's not a werewolf, werewolves mate for life. He's a were-dog, a were-loser!”
“That's enough Lydia!” Mom opened another Bio-Blessed energy drink. She looked tired.
“What werewolf?” Leo asked.
“Those actresses Lydia likes, Maxine and Tomi, discovered they were both dating the same werewolf actor. So during a charity drive where they were supposed to talk about how Jesus Christ has changed their lives, they lost their tempers and had a vicious fight on live TV.”
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“Well, Christ wasn't a pacifist,” Leo said, remembering his conversation with Trent days before.
“I'm pretty sure Christ never clawed his friend's face over a werewolf,” Mom said. “I'm hardly an expert. But I gather a lot of people are unimpressed with the two girls' behavior.” She took another drink, then sighed. “Why are we talking? Go to your room. Dad's coming home soon and your room better be clean.”
There was a bang as Lydia threw something at her bedroom door. “Were-creep!”
Leo chuckled tiredly to himself. It would seem his previous memories of the movie star's fighting weren't wrong after all. A certain honor science teacher must be rather upset.
In the past 48 hours, Leo had gotten maybe 2 hours of sleep. So tired he could barely see straight. He collapsed onto his bed and was out like a light.
***
Sunday, September 21, 2059
25 days to Armageddon
When Leo awoke, it was Sunday morning. Someone had pulled off his pants and shoes while he was sleeping and set them by the bed.
While dragging himself out of bed, it occurred to him that this was the first time he'd had a decent night's sleep in—well; he wasn't sure how long.
He checked his stats.
Subject: Leo
Sex: Male
Age: 12
Strength: 5.6
Vitality: 6.9
Agility: 5.0
Intelligence: 5.4
Charisma: 5.6
Common Sense: 4.5
Class: Undetermined
Qualifies for Swordsman/Common, Swordsman/Uncommon, Garbage-Collector/Common, Housekeeper/Common, and Janitor/Common.
Special skills: None.
Demon Tears: 57
Corruption: 0
So Strength up 0.1, Vitality up 0.6, Agility up 0.2, Intelligence up 0.1, Charisma up 0.1, and Common Sense up 0.1.
There had been some slight improvement in his stats, but with three weeks to go before The Change and no idea how to stop it, he needed to do better. He racked his brain for ways to speed his development, but most of what he thought up was too dangerous. In the previous future, he remembered bathing in boiling salt water to harden his skin and training in combat with club-wielding sadistic bastards to increase his Strength and Agility, but that was decades post-change and his Vitality had been over 40. Taking a severe injury now would set him back weeks. Slow progress was better than none.
The Swordsman/Uncommon was a step forward. As close as he could tell, the Uncommon versions of the different characters were a more elite version of Common. They came with more stat upgrades and better special skills to choose from.
So. Progress.
He put 25 Demon Tears into Intelligence and 25 into Agility.
Strength and Vitality were important, too, but they should go up, regardless. They were less in need of a boost.
Had he eaten at all yesterday? He was starving.
When he went to the kitchen for breakfast, his entire family was waiting for him. Parents sitting at the table, looking at him expectantly while Lydia stared at the table, arms crossed against her chest. None of them looked happy.
Shit