Chapter 6

First Quest

Monday, September 15th, 2059

31 days to the apocalypse

Leo was having another nightmare.

“It's one of them!” a man shouted as Leo scurried away with his small bowl of watery soup. It was 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.”

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. Followed by twenty other ads for tattoo shops around the city.

Shit.

***

With a sigh, he pulled up his implant stats.

Subject: Leo

Sex: Male

Age: 12

Strength: 5.3

Vitality: 3.9

Agility: 4.4

Intelligence: 5.1

Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.

Charisma: 4.9

Common Sense: 4.1

Class: Undetermined

Special skills: None.

Demon Tears: 5

Corruption: 0

Strength was up by 0.1. Considering he'd had the implant less than a day, this was astounding progress. But he needed to do better. Vitality was down to 3.9. This was caused by the punishment he'd inflicted on his body the night before. If his Vitality went below 1.0, it would be difficult for him to remain conscious. If it dropped to 0, he would, of course, be dead.

Leo dragged himself to the bathroom. He started showering with the water as hot as he could stand it, to relax his muscles, then switched to cold water to shock his system. By the time he'd finished his shower and gotten dressed, Lydia was pounding on the door to the bathroom.

“Finally,” she grumbled, pushing past him as soon as he opened the door.

Mom had come back from her graveyard shift early that morning. But Leo's memories told him he and his sister were expected to fend for themselves, eating breakfast cereal and walking to their respective schools.

He thought about skipping school, but honestly, he had no idea where else to go. Maybe school would give him some ideas, or raise his intelligence? Unlikely, but possible.

He inhaled a couple bowls of cornflakes. He'd forgotten how good cornflakes were with cold milk. Then he grabbed his pack. His school was only ten blocks away. Even sore as he was, he made the walk in less than 15 minutes.

Stepping onto the school grounds, he immediately wanted to turn around and go home. A boy stuffed in a metal garbage can rolled by him, shouting something Leo didn't understand. Two others fought nearby. He walked through the school's main entrance, passing a sign that said “Home of the Destiny Dogs.”

Three boys in the hallway surrounded a smaller boy wearing glasses.

“I'm giving you your second quest, Leo,” Imp said. “Defend the defenseless. Stand up for the boy who's being picked on. The reward is 10 demon tears.”

“I remember this quest,” Leo said quietly, doing his best to remain unobtrusive. All three boys in question towered over Leo. He was pretty sure they were eighth graders. The small boy wearing glasses was Jason, his best friend since the start of middle school. This made the situation more difficult. “If I stand up for him, who's going to stand up for me when they pound my ass?”

“I don't know, Leo, and if you don't try, you will never know either.”

“Over the years I've learned cowardice suits me,” Leo said.

“Does it really? I sense the shame you feel when you say that, Leo. I think you would find bravery suits you much better.”

Last time around, he'd refused this quest and skulked past them. Friendship only went so far after all. But he needed those Demon Tears, and Imp was right. Cowardice might suit him, but he sure as hell wasn't happy about it.

“Okay, Imp. I accept your quest, but if I die, it's your fault.” He walked over to the four boys.

***

“What's the matter? Scared?” A large blond boy with the beginnings of a mustache pushed Jason against the lockers.

“Chicken,” said boy two. “Bauk, bauk, bauk.”

Boy three held Jason's pack. He slammed it against the lockers with a loud bang, making Jason jump.

“Everything okay?” Leo said, walking up to the four. They all ignored him.

They all ignored him.

Blond-mustache boy held out a pill bottle. “These aren't even illegal, just Bio-Blessed mixed with all-natural herbal extracts. I charge ten bucks apiece for these, but the first one's free. Take it.” He held out a large green capsule to a frightened-looking Jason.

Without thinking, Leo lashed out at the pill bottle with his fist, knocking it from the larger boy's hand and sending it flying across the hall, bouncing off the floor, green capsules scattering through the hallway.

“Aaugh!” Blond-mustache boy cried out, desperately trying to pick up the green capsules before someone stepped on them.

“That shit's bad for you,” Leo said. “Stay away from it.”

Leo never even saw the fist that collided with the left side of his face.

“Congratulations,” came Imp's annoyingly cheerful voice. “You completed your quest and defended the defenseless. The three boys completely forgot about their victim. In addition, you have leveled up in getting punched in the face and head and have received 15 Demon Tears.”

Leo groaned.

After they kicked his ass, the three boys forced him into a locker and locked him inside. Then they pounded on the locker for what felt like forever until they got bored and left. His vitality was down to 2.8. He was surprised it wasn't lower.

“Mr. Osmond doesn't like Bio-Blessed?” A man's voice said from the hallway, either not noticing Leo stuck in a locker, or not caring.

“Yeah,” came a second adult voice from further down the hall. They were walking away from him. “He's anti-Bio-Blessed. Thinks it's some alien hoax or something. That man is living proof that smart doesn't equal sane.”

“Crazy,” the first man said as they walked away.

“Leo. Leo. Are you okay?” It was Jason this time, from just outside his locker.

“What do you think?” Leo said.

“What happened? Are you trying to commit suicide?” Jason asked. “Once you messed with that guy's stuff, they forgot I existed. That was insane!”

“Please get me out of here.”

“So what happened yesterday?” Jason asked. “You were supposed to come over, but then you didn't show, and you didn't respond to my phone texts. I even sent you an e-mail. What's going on?”

“I had a run-in with Brick on the way to your place,” Leo said. “He destroyed my cellphone. The last day has been really difficult. Sorry.”

“Give me a sec, Leo. Need to figure out these bolt cutters I borrowed from the janitor's office.” There was a bang and a thunk. The locker door opened and Leo fell out. Groaning, he slowly pulled himself to his feet.

“Man, you look like shit,” Jason said.

“I'm fine,” Leo said. He spat some blood onto the dirty, white-tiled hallway and grabbed his pack from Jason. A couple of teeth felt loose, but he was pretty sure they were baby teeth.

From the gum wrappers and coke stains on his backpack, he guessed Jason had rescued it from the garbage. “Where can I find Mr. Osmond?”

“The honors math and science teacher? Why?”

“I'll explain later. I need to talk to him,” Leo responded.

“Down that hall, farthest classroom on the right,” Jason said. “That or the teacher's lounge.”

“Thanks.” Leo took off, walking as fast as his aching body would let him, dodging other students trying to get to their homeroom classes. He spotted a short, chubby man in his thirties with short dark hair and a friendly smile walking in the same direction. “You're Mr. Osmond?” he asked. It was a good guess because if the two people who spoke earlier were right, Mr. Osmond didn't use Bio-Blessed. And one of the first things Bio-Blessed did was remove excess weight.

“Yes, I am, Leo. Are you okay?” he looked concerned.

Leo was pretty sure he'd never had a class with this man. He wondered how the man knew his name.

“I'm fine,” Leo said. “I need to speak to you about something important.” He moved in front of the man, so other students wouldn't see, and activated the violet band around his wrist.