The day my life changed looked like any normal day for me. The sun was shining on a hot spring day in the middle of October. This summer here in the southern hemisphere already looks to be a very hot one.

Sitting up in bed I give a large yawn, I had like many nights before stayed up till very late. I have always felt comfortable at night. I grab my phone and check the time. 8:15am is displayed on the screen in a large font.

“Looks like another hot one today. Mmm, schedule not too bad today.”

I proceed to also check the weather and our loadshedding schedule for the day. It is rather hot for the middle of spring, even for South Africa at 34° Celsius. My country has also been plagued by electrical supply problems since the 2000s. It has become so regular they actually publish a schedule for when certain areas will be shut off in order to overburden the system.

“Same shit, different day.” I mutter to myself as I rub the sleep out of my eyes and stare blankly ahead.

Deciding to start my day I transfer to my wheelchair and proceed to the bathroom to clean up and take care of my bladder. There is no haste or excitement in any of my movements. This is just another day in a long line of similar days.

Finishing up in the bathroom I move to the kitchen to grab a bottle of water from the fridge and return to my room skipping breakfast again. These days I do not have much of an appetite in the mornings.

My place is small, consisting of a combination kitchen/living room, the bathroom that has a toilet, washbowl and shower and lastly my bedroom. My bedroom is a 3-meter by 2-meter room with a desk and a ¾ bed. This small is where I spend the majority of my time.

Since my area is only scheduled for this afternoon, I move to the desk and switch on the computer. While the computer boots up, I take my pills from a drawer and swallow them down with the water I took from the fridge. Finishing the login, I get ready to check my emails. The screen is filled with large font text.

My place, including all electronics, has been set up to accommodate my medical conditions, which includes the weakening of my eyes. I also suffer from ‘photophobia’, a sensitivity to bright light. That’s why my phone and computer use large fonts and ‘Dark Mode’ to make it possible for me to read the text.

Since I live alone and rarely leave the house, I generally do my shopping online. It also helps to keep me busy; I browse the net, do a little bit of programming and play around with CAD and 3d modeling, eyes permitting.

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I was born and raised in a typical middle-income household as the firstborn, growing up I had a typical upbringing with only two things standing out to me. First is that I have always been around weapons.

My father was in the Airforce working as an armorer and part of a team that regularly attended exhibitions and shows where they set up displays showcasing the aircraft and munitions used in them. Sometimes they worked together with other armed forces at shows.

My first clear memory is of me sitting in the cockpit of a fighter jet. My family regularly received tickets to these shows and exhibitions, and we would attend them as much as we can. After leaving the Airforce he continued as a Gunsmith, Instructor and Firearms Dealer.

A lot of his friends were also involved with weapons. From other instructors, police officers and even bladesmiths. I was fascinated by all types of weapons, modern and ancient and learned a lot from them, how to subdue suspects and handle a wide variety of weapons.

Together with my father, who specialized in accuracy for sport shooting, we also participated in various disciplines of sport shooting and hunting. From a young age I have learned how to use and be safe with firearms.

Later after school I tried a few different things from security work, tell sales and working as a draftsman. Eventually I made a career of something I love by becoming a Firearm Instructor myself. I did this till my medical condition made it impossible to continue when I had to have my legs amputated and my eyes became too bad for me to see the sights and targets.

The other thing was more a feeling than anything else. I have always felt something different about myself. It did not feel evil or something like that, just different. Once when I worked as a security officer, I had a strange feeling of danger and changed my patrol route. By changing my route, I found a group of men waiting in ambush where they would have cornered me if I stayed on that rout.

A few rare times, three to be exact, in my youth I have also gone into a blind rage when someone I cared for was hurt. This scared me as I have no memory of what I did during that rage. I dubbed this ‘going berserk’. Those who were the cause of my rage all ended up in the hospital.

Luckily, I never got in trouble because of this as there were always witnesses that indicated that the other party was the aggressors, and I was defending someone. I didn’t give a shit about them, they deserved whatever they got. What scared me was losing control.

In school I was mostly a loner with few friends, unfortunately being the quite type made me a target for bullies, I however could take a lot of abuse since I has a high pain tolerance and mostly ignored them.

Because of my personality and preference to be alone I did not have a lot of interaction with the opposite sex, made even more difficult by being in a Technical High School with very few girls. In my whole life up to my mid 40’s I have only had three girlfriends, the last one more than 16 years ago.

Obviously, I haven’t had any sex in a long time, not that it really matters now, one of many symptoms my medical condition causes are Erectile Dysfunction. Even if there were a woman in my life there is not a lot that I can do with her as mini-me does not want to play and enhancement pill interfere with my medication.

Another thing I love is to read, since a young age I have read books and comics, in a wide range of genders. From sci-fi, fantasy, action, adventure even historical dramas and mysteries, I have read a lot. This has fueled a vivid imagination that has come in handy when my eyes and migraines act up.

This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

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At about noon and getting frustrated by the frequent internet outages, which is strange since it is usually very reliable, I decided to have a light lunch and do some light cleaning. There is not a lot to clean since the maid was here yesterday.

There is never a lot of washing to do since I mostly only wear shorts in the hot months, it is rare for me to wear a shirt. My philosophy when it comes to clothing is to wear whatever feels comfortable, I don’t care what other people think of me. The few people that come to see me are all used to seeing me like this.

Because I’m not very active these days and because of the side effects of the medication I have to take regularly I have become overweight and have to be careful of how much and what I eat. So, for lunch I just grabbed a premade salad.

Finishing the salad, I quickly rinsed out the container and fork that I used. Taking a glass, I pour some fruit juice for myself. I decided to relax a bit and switch on the radio to listen to some music to break the silence. Silence is nothing new to me, I have gone for weeks without talking to anyone before.

Suddenly while sitting and listening to the radio and sipping my juice I am struck with a feeling of dread. I quickly switch off the radio and listen carefully to my surroundings. All I can hear is the normal sounds of the neighborhood, cars driving, the small kids from two houses down the block playing in their garden as usual, just normal everyday sounds. Nothing sounds out of place.

Must have been a false alarm I think to myself, but I can’t shake the feeling that something is wrong, every time I had a feeling like this in the past something bad was about to happen. If I don’t figure out why I’m feeling like this someone might get hurt.

I realized I had left my phone in the bedroom and decided to get it should I need to call someone if something does happen. As I disengage the brakes on the wheelchair, I get hit by a feeling of lethargy. This has never happened to me before, none of the medication that I must take can cause something like this.

This must be what my feeling was about. Is it a stroke or something else? I have to contact someone. Realizing this I try to move faster but my body feels weak and heave. The trip from the living room to the bedroom usually takes a few seconds, now it feels like hours.

I finally reached my room and grabbed my phone, I’m so weak I fumble just to hold it and activate the screen. I can feel myself losing consciousness. Finally, I the phone working but now I realize I won’t have time to call. I press the panic app installed on the phone.

Then everything faded to black……

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When I came to it is sudden, this happens sometimes where I wake up but still appear to be asleep to anyone observing me, and I keep breathing at the same rythim as when I’m asleep. Carefully I analize my situation.

I can immediately tell I’m no longer in my home, the smells and sounds are completely foreign to those of my place. The smell reminds me of my old school gym, that smell of sweat and people that always lingers. The sounds are that of a lot of people in a large space, I can hear a lot of confused people speaking a lot of different languages.

I’m also no longer in my wheelchair but lying on a cold hard surface, my body cold and aching. Estimating by how much my body aches I must have been lying there for quite a while only wearing the shorts I had on.

Slowly I get into a sitting position trying to figure out what happened and where I am.

“Do you speak English? Are you American?”

Suddenly a man that sounds in his early 30’s with a British accent speaks to me. The way he asks makes me think he is in some kind of law enforcement. In my line of business, I have delt with a lot of police officers, I will recognize that tone of authority anywhere.

“Yes, I can speak English, and no I’m South African. What is going on Officer?” I respond to the man.

“Wha… How did you…? Never mind, that’s what we are trying to figure out.”

He answers and gestures something. He must have gestured for others to join because soon after we were joined by a small group of people.

According to what the officer and members of this small group relayed to me is that we are in a large hall with the floor, ceiling and walls made of black/grey metal and there are roughly 300 people present. I am one of the last to wake up.

Everyone they have talked to, those they could understand, tells the same story of suddenly feeling weak, passing out and then waking up here. It sounds like some kind of gas might have been used to knock all of us out.

There are people from different countries all over the map. Some people are just standing around in a daze, some get into scuffles accusing those of different countries or ethnicities of being involved in kidnapping them. Some like the officer intervene and deescalate those fights.

I have informed the little group of my bad eyesight, so they have been telling me what is happening around me. The group then split up to try and gather more information, leaving a scared 12-year-old girl to keep each other company. The girl who told me her name is Lulu tries very hard to be brave, but I can hear the fear in her voice.

I tried to comfort her by squeezing her hand, and since she is so close to me, I can make out her face, she is a cute blond hair, blue eyed kid trying very hard not to cry. Instead, she is very concerned for me, a big ugly old man.

“Don’t worry. I might not be able to do much, but I will do everything I can to keep you safe, ok sweety.”

I say to her in a gentle voice while wiping a tear that is running down her face with my thumb. Before I can say anything else the officer and his little group rejoins us with news.

“There is an opening that just appeared in the wall over on the far side.” The officer informs me.

“Something just came through! It’s some kind of robot!” A teenage boy came running up and exclaimed.

“Calm down, can you describe it?” The officer asks.

“Yes, it looks like a large metal egg with tentacle like legs coming out of the lower half. It grabbed some of the people that was close to the opening and forced them through to the other side.” The teenager described what he saw.

“More came through, they are herding everyone through that opening” Another man joins and tells everyone.

Just then I felt a strange vibration coming from the floor.

“Officer!” I loudly yell over the other people trying to talk all at the same time.

“Yes, what is it.” The officer asks curtly.

“Something is happening.”

“Yes, we know, those machines are taking people.” He answers angerly.

“Not that, you fucking condescending asshole! The floor, feel the floor.” I yelled back angered by his attitude.

Shocked by my yelling, up to now I have been calm and respectful, he bends down and touches the floor with his hand.

“Oh! You are right, my apologies.” Feeling the vibrations, he apologizes.

Everyone looks around to see what could be causing this.

“Look, The wall its moving.” A voice calls out.

Everyone exclaims in shock; all the walls are moving inwards, and the hall is slowly getting smaller. Just when we get to grips with this one of those robots can be seen moving in our direction. Everyone scatters, the girl grabbed and pulled away by someone protesting about leaving me.

Alone again I can do nothing but wait for whatever is going to happen. A large shape appears infront of me and a metallic tentacle wraps around my body and picks me up. Carrying me and someone els the robot moves around and herds people towards the exit.

Those people who try to escape are treated to a shock from the tip of a tentacle, I can clearly hear the crackle of electricity. It sounds exactly like the stun batons that I have used in the past followed by the scream of pain from a person.

During this time, I learned that the other person is a boy of about 8 or 9 years old, I can hear him crying and calling for his mother. This makes me angry that there is someone that could do this to children. Hurting children is one of the few things that makes me mad quickly.

Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem with a parent that punishes a naughty child by giving them a hiding. Believe me I received plenty myself. No, what I hate is cruelty and excessive violence towards those smaller and weaker than you. In other words, I hate bullies of any kind.

Pretty soon everyone else was forced through the opening, we who was being carried was the last to leave. One of the other robots have picked up a woman that was lying on the ground. I have gotten the boy to describe to me what is happening, partly to distract him and partly to get information. The way he described her it was clear that she was dead.

If I knew what was waiting for us on the other side, I would have thought that in a way she was the lucky one.