The ultimate question: If the world ended, and the Kageson building collapse, did I still have my job?

Probably not.

I walked to the building after looking at the time. I must have slept through my first alarm, I mused. Reaching out, I grabbed my baseball bat, then I hesitated. Going to my duffelbag, I grabbed all of my SD cards for my motorcycle’s camera, putting them in my backpack and grabbing the keys.

Almost forgot my keys. That would have been awkward.

Going to my motorcycle, I started it up. The roar of the motorcycle was strangely quiet. Reaching up, I felt my ears, looking around at all of the shattered glass. Warmth engulfed them, and when I looked at my fingers they came back red.

Oh.

That makes sense.

Pulling my helmet on, I made sure my camera was on before pulling out of the parking lot. I avoided the various speeding vehicles with sirens going around.

My gaze dragged across the different views. Buildings torn asunder, no glass left unbroken. The dark of dawn, stars glittering high above. There were no lights on in the city of New York, I realized. No man-made lights, anyway, I mused as I stared around at all of the fires.

If it was past three, then both the CEO and that one security guard who was always in the gym—Jerry having confirmed it wasn’t a janitor—would have been in the building. Were they okay?

I supposed I would find out. When I arrived deep in the pitch black of the parking garage, I pulled my phone out. It had no signal, but I had no one to call anyway. The flashlight speared through the darkness, and I stared at the rubble around. Getting off of my motorcyle, I turned the engine off, leaving the keys in just in case.

My steps took me throughout the entire building, the stairs not entirely destroyed. There was no one in the building unless they were behind a locked door or used the elevator, I noted.

About halfway through my silent search, I came across the swirling light that cut through space and jutted into the staircase.

It was green and pink in their brightest neon shades, swirling together in an odd mix that looked almost like a twirling cotton candy machine. Cold. The area around the swirling mass was cold, but while it looked like a violent maelstrom of neon, the cold air was stagnant. No movement nor any wind came from the light.

I stared at it for a very long time before continuing on past it.

“Did I lose my job? This building looks like it will collapse…” I said aloud as I walked, not able to hear my own voice, swinging my baseball bat around aimlessly, “Harold wasn’t there… I hope he’s okay.”

A hand wrapped around my arm after a few more floors, and I glanced up. Some guy covered in blood and grime stared down at me, and as I looked at his outfit I realized he must have been the other security guard.

His lips were moving, and I heard a quiet noise, but I didn’t understand anything, and the noise wasn’t loud enough to be recognizable as words.

“I can’t hear you… can you hear me?” I asked.

Based on his blank but intense stare, I realized the security guard probably couldn’t. My hand reached up, and I tapped at my helmet on the side, then at his ears.

After another uncomprehending look, I reached out, hesitating when I saw my hand. Oh, right, I was still in my biker’s gear. I probably looked like a raider or something. My gloved hand reached out and swiped at his ears, my phone’s flashlight shining down on my fingers.

They were red.

Understanding washed over him, and I saw him speak, one of his hands pressing against his chest, ‘Can you hear me?’

“No,” I said easily, shaking my head and gesturing at him, “You can’t hear me either.”

The man looked stooped awkwardly, and when he shifted, I realized one of his arms was braced against the wall. He was leaning heavily. When I looked down, I saw he was injured.

“Oh, you’re hurt. Here,” I pulled out a writing app on my phone.

The man’s dazed eyes read the message.

Hold my phone, I’m going to carry you. You need to point the light at the stairs, I’ll take you down. It will hurt.

His eyes looked back up at me, his expression still slack, and I reached out. I heard a far-off scream as I pulled the man into a bridal carry, seeing that his knee was also injured, white pink and red mixing within the open wound.

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Oh. Oops.

Well.

I did warn him.

In spite of the scream and the very shaky way my phone was being held, the man kept the light on the stairs. I walked down, amazed at how strong I’d become.

Wow, maybe I could do cool parkour stunts, now.

…

Wait, the buildings of NYC were collapsed. There weren’t many rooftops to run across, now, let alone safely.

Damn.

My thoughts were quiet as I walked down, and I watched as the man typed uselessly at my phone.

Who are you?

“Can you even hear me? There’s blood in your ears.”

Yuria?

“What? No!” I said loudly, “I said, there is blood in your ears.”

Your name is Blood?

I sighed, muttering to myself, “Why yes. My name is blood. What a great, normal, human name to have. What am I, a superhero? Jesus. I’m uploading this video to YouTube later just to show you how stupid you are. Or, wait…”

The thought stuck with me as I focused on the not-very-stair-like section, glad that they were made of cement as the rubble-laden steep slope almost made me slip many times.

As I slid down, watching the man cry out and whimper in pain, one of his arms wrapping around me and holding my shoulders tightly, I thought of it.

Those glowing things looked like portals.

Wouldn’t it be cool if I went into one of them and uploaded that? It’d be a scientific discovery! Sure, one that I presumed fifty million others were currently doing, but I mean my video would be cooler than theirs.

I saved a person, after all.

The others would probably just be them skipping in and out of the glowing things.

Nodding to myself, I wondered if the internet was even active in any of the various buildings. My apartment building was untouched by the fires or other collapsing buildings so far, but I’d forgotten to check whether my internet was still active.

Or, wait, wasn’t the entire city blacked out? What if this was like one of those stories where electricity just never worked again?

That would suck.

Only a few million people alive knew how to rebuild society from scraps, and they might not be so alive anymore if the glowing things I really hoped were portals appeared worldwide.

The man in my arms asked more questions, but I didn’t even bother responding, just shrugging. After the twentieth shrug the man got the message and stopped typing, realizing I had no answers to give.

I stared at the man for a long moment. His skin was dark, though I wasn’t sure if that was grime or not, blood and ash covering him. Then I almost slipped and focused back on the ground.

No checking him out. Bad idea. Got it.

As we came upon the glowing portal, I noted the fog of white escaping the man’s lips as he shivered, the arm that he’d wrapped around me tightening further, his head resting against my shoulder as he curled up as much as he could.

The cold didn’t last beyond two floors, but the man remained shivering, still wrapped around me as his body shuddered.

…

Didn’t people do that when they were about to go into shock?

I panicked, opening a door and rushing in. Floor 38, wasn’t that accounting? I knew exactly where the first aid kit was, then!

Setting the man down, I didn’t notice my bat clatter to the floor as I sprinted to the kit. Grabbing the fire blanket that really wasn’t meant for people, I ran back.

I slipped on blood that I hadn’t noticed the man had been steadily losing, setting the first aid kit down.

Damn it, damn it.

“You can’t watch this later and realize how stupid you were if you die, you asshole,” I snapped helplessly as I shuffled my way through the first aid kit, hearing the panic in the sounds I made far off in the distance.

Bandages,—no, wait, blanket—I grabbed the blanket. My hands shoved at the man’s upper half before I was content in wrapping it around him. I stared helplessly at the profusely bleeding wounds.

He wouldn’t survive.

I threw the bandages away. Searching through the first-aid kit, I couldn’t find an alternative, grabbing the weak white fabric. My hand undid the bandages as I tightly wrapped above the wound, explaining as I hurried as if he could hear me. As if I could hear myself.

“You’re going to lose a leg, which is great, because the alternative is dying. I hope that helps, because, um, well your leg is fucked anyway. I know you’re always in the gym exercising and shit but like being a cripple is better than being dead—at least for you—right?” I said.

The bandages were as tight as they could go, probably painfully so. I stared at the pale face of the man. His eyes were closed.

“… portals… Portals appearing out of nowhere, there are stories like that. Monsters, dungeons, magic. What if it was prophecy?” I managed, standing up and looking around. My bat was a bit far away, but I grabbed it anyway, slipping on the blood as I ran back to my phone, “That means there’s healing potions, right? Healing… items? Health. Magic that can heal! I’ll save you, I promise guy.”

I stared at the man, wondering if he was still breathing. Then my hand reached out, grabbing my phone as I sprinted.

Fuck.

Fuck.

The stairs went by in a blur, and I found myself sprinting into the glowing thing without another thought.

My feet slowed down as I looked around at the entirely different area around me. All around were torches glowing a cold blue, and I could feel the chill within my bones as I stared at the giant moving shadows within.

My heart was racing, and my breathing was loud enough that I could hear it. Actually, I think my hearing had been restored. I was pretty certain I heard myself yelling at the unconscious man earlier, right?

The sound of clicking reached my ears, and I realized my hearing didn’t return as I spoke, not even knowing what I said as hundreds of shadows stepped into the light.

“Oh, fuck,” I said, my voice unheard by my own ears.

Before me, an army of skeletal soldiers stood.