Novels2Search
Planetary Update
Chapter 1: Dean

Chapter 1: Dean

[We are live in 5….4….3….2….1]

“Hello viewers, and an even greater and bigger hello to all of my adoring fans out in the verse, welcome to this season’s first on air recap with an Emperor Class Candidate from the planet Earth… Yayyy! Alright normally there’d be a bunch of crap that we’d need to go through before we introduce our guest, buuuuttttt since it’s not every day you get to speak with an ECC let’s skip all that and get right down to business, OK! So I’d like everyone to stand with me and welcome with raucous applause our special guest for the evening… Mr. Dean Ramsie!! Come onto the stage handsome”

“Hello Dean and welcome to your first recap as an Emperor’s Candidate with me your incredibly talented host CEPHI.  Hooray!”

“Uhh, thanks I guess, and uhmm…it’s good to be here”

“Hahaha you don’t have to be so nervous Dean this is just a simple recap for your fans and the audience of your adventures so far -- in order for us get to know you even just a wee bit better ok?”

“Ok”

 “Alright, Dean, now that a little time has passed us at IGA felt that this is the perfect time to get some initial personal background information on you, as well as, to update the folks at home with your progress in the game. We also want to reveal some of the early details on how your world’s start has gone so far and hope to use you as one of the Main Characters from now on, now aren’t you just super dooper lucky!

However, since I know that being an Emperor Class Candidate is still such a new and wonderful thing for you that you might not be quite used to how everything works we won’t be expecting any kind of perfection alright. But we do hope you can give us as many details as possible and that you’ll have put on a good show. So Dean let’s get along and hopefully you won’t be too nervous going live to all of your adoring fans, KAY!”

 “Alright, I’ll do my best”

“YAYYYY!!! Alright folks you heard it from the man himself, so let’s get this ship MOVING!!!”

CHAPTER 1: DEAN

If you were to ask anyone many years from now where they’d start trying to explain about all the sudden events that took place in the world, most people would start their explanation with the Video. It was with the appearance of the Video when everything began falling apart and it was the Video that caused the first millions to die.

Although, while most people would agree that even though the contents were incredibly shocking and the implications extremely disturbing what truly resulted in the deaths of millions was its size. 

When the Video was sent out it filled a person’s entire field of view and regardless of where a person looked or even if they closed their eyes, the video remained right there in front of them. Anyone that had been driving, landing planes, working precariously, or in any number of countless situations was now instantly and without warning rendered sightless. A global disaster occurring in only a matter of seconds.

No one would’ve been able to react quickly enough and no one would’ve been able to think clearly enough to stop such a tragedy. Yet even though it is there at that moment in time what most people would agree was when the world changed it would be different for one Mr. Dean Ramsie 

 Life for Dean had been pretty much normal up until the moment his world changed. Nothing overly strange or weird had ever really occurred to him and he liked to think his way in the world had always been pretty stable. Of course his life had its fair share of events and complications, so it wasn’t ever completely perfect, like when his parents got divorced, when he was involved in a car accident and broke his arm, or when he was nearly run over by a train after a drunken bet with some of his friends.

He even experienced wonderful life events such as losing his virginity at the age of 23 to his girlfriend Felicity in the back seat of his father’s old mustang. In fact, he even got to experience his first heartbreak that night when she told him she was pregnant with another man’s child.

Dean also could never complain he ever felt unloved or unsupported by his family despite his parents’ separation. His father always took time to talk with him and bond although he worked his construction job most days, while his mother supported him and his sister, working as a lawyer for a major law firm yet still took time for her family.

Indeed, even his kid sister Kalie wasn’t too big a hassle and the two of them got along readily enough whenever they weren’t at each other’s throats. Suffice to say his life was normal. His friends were normal, his high school had been normal, everything had been perfectly and completely normal. Which was what led to him to his most current problem and the thing that changed his world and eventually saved his life.

Having never really had any clear idea of what he wanted to do in life, or what he wanted to gain from it, he had been struggling to find out his desires for some time. Yet because everything had always come so completely simple for him he ended up lacking any real motivation to truly try and find out exactly what it was he desired. More pointedly he almost seemed to expect the world to decide for him since that’s exactly what it had always done before.

Basically, he had ended up suffering from an almost incurable and highly infectious disease spreading throughout his generation: a terrible pathogen known as apathy. Desiring more out of life yet without any idea or concept of what to do about it he fell straight into the clutch of apathy. Therefore, by the time he turned 25, he had gone nowhere and was still living at his mother’s house playing video games.

It was at this time when he had still been stuck in his mother’s home that he discovered a possible means of solving his problems, a way to get the adventure he wanted, and the motivation he needed. An effective means of getting out of the house without him ever really having to decide it all for himself: Dean had witnessed an advertisement for the Canadian Armed Forces. He’d seen the ads before and had never really thought much about them, since what military could Canada really have.

Yet that time, for some strange reason he couldn’t explain, the message had ended up stuck in his head. The seed had been planted in his mind that this was his solution, his method of finding some meaning for his life. For Dean Ramsie this would be the day later on he would claim had changed everything.

Thirteen months later Dean was officially a private in the Canadian Armed Forces and he was elated to have achieved something even a year prior he never would’ve imagined possible. After enduring a grueling five months of self-training, three months of boot, and another six of battle school Dean could walk proudly with his head held high. With the knowledge he gained along with his newfound confidence, Dean was no longer the apathetic youth he used to be but had transformed into a man he believed worthy of respect.

His medium 5’9” stature had filled out and was now covered with lean muscle and barely an ounce of fat remaining. His once babyish face from over indulgence now conformed to the sharp angular bone structure beneath giving him a rather more serious yet refined look. Pale green eyes beneath short brown hair held a fierce gaze that bespoke of the sharp-mind within honed to a razors edge.

A handsome young man had been built through tough work, dedication, and resilience. In his heart Dean knew that he’d been right and that he truly he had found his element and would live the rest of his life rejoicing in the decision he had made.

His first deployment was to be with a newly formed battalion under the expanding Royal Canadian Regiment and he was excited to finally get settled in somewhere. He was also looking forward to the fact that many of the new brothers and sisters he’d made during his time at boot were apparently going to be stationed nearby as well. But for today he has was spending his last free weekend in the town nearby picking up some souvenirs for his family for when he finally got to see them again.

He’d been in town for a few hours looking around the shops on the main strip and had managed to buy just about everything he’d been looking for. However, he’d realized in order to get his sister something truly special the small town he was currently in wouldn’t provide what he desired. With a dejected heart at having been unable to so far find anything he wanted for her he decided to try looking in at least one more shop before heading back to base.

Spotting a small crystal shop across the street he had yet to visit and from where he stood it looked like it might hold some potential. Dean decided to give it try and maybe it would have something good enough for his sister. Looking down the street the only thing currently of note on the main road was a highway bus parked that was busy loading the next group of passengers preparing to leave town.

He decided to just cross where he was instead of bothering with the cross walk further up and stepped out onto the road. Dean’s foot hit the pavement and immediately he felt the world tilt and turn around him. The ground began to expand and then suddenly contract as if under some strange tension. Ripples spread outward from where his foot landed and the ground around him distorted just like he’d dropped a stone into a pond. His head felt three times heavier than normal and he couldn’t walk in a straight line.

Falling over, he placed his hands upon the hood of a car parked beside him and the hood bent and twisted seemingly repelled by some strange force. He stared at the scene unable to comprehend what was going on and his stomach seemed to roil in turmoil and he could no longer keep himself steady.

Collapsing onto his hands and knees the contents of his stomach burst forth as the queasiness and sense of wrongness reached its peak. The burn of acid clung tightly to his throat causing him to heave even more.  Dean dry heaved for a few moments more and with his stomach empty his head began to clear and just as quickly as the nausea and hallucinations had begun it all vanished as if nothing had occurred.

He stared blankly for a moment at the pile of bile and vomit beneath him trying to gather himself back up and steady his broken nerves. Wondering, “What the hell just happened, what was all that”.   His mind raced to understand the strangeness of what had just occurred. Looking up at the road in front of him the pavement no longer rippled about him and the hood of the car was completely unblemished; with not even a scratch or dent to be seen.

Dean had never before experienced such intense or strange hallucinations and he would swear to anyone what he had seen felt terribly real. The area around him however showed no signs of the strange happenings and his thoughts turned to the possibility of something being incredibly wrong with him.

In his head he quickly ran through a short mental method of calming his running wild brain and attempted to stave off the shock at the oddity of it all. Collecting his thoughts he ran through a short checklist to see if he could determine what was wrong with his body. He couldn’t think of any problems with himself but that still didn’t mean something wasn’t wrong. The oddity of his experience clearly proved to him that something most certainly was, he just didn’t know what.

“Hey Kid, you doing alright? You just keeled over and vomited everywhere. Did you have to much to drink or something?” A concerned voice said from behind him.

Snapping back to reality Dean realized he’d been crouching on his hands and knees for sometime now surrounded by a pool of his own vomit and staring blankly at the world around him. With the strangeness of the situation he had completely lost awareness of where he was. To the shoppers around him he must really look like he was drunk even though it was only mid afternoon.

Heating up with embarrassment at how he must look his faced turned a bright scarlet. Taking a quick moment to gather the packages spilt around him gave him the second he needed to gather his wits and as reply back to the concerned civilian.

“I’m good now and no I’m not drunk. Just suddenly felt ill is all, but as I said I’m good now. Thanks for the concern though,” he lied, putting on his best smile as he thanked the Good Samaritan.

“Ok well if you’re sure you’re fine now then you might be, but you should probably go and get checked out anyways. That didn’t seem like some normal sickness to me”.  The older man said as he stared at Dean clearly seeing through his lie. Yet he chose to accept Dean’s excuses and with a shrug of his shoulders he said, “Oh well, though I’m sure if you say you’re fine, you’re fine and you can still take care of yourself since you’re young. But just don’t let that go to your head and take care of yourself ok, you’re not immortal.” With his final words as, Dean rejected his assistance, the man turned and walked away.

“Yeah I will get checked up at the base once I’m there.” Dean agreed. Thinking to himself that first thing he’d do when he got back would definitely be sure to book an appointment with the bases’ doctors.

Looking around him Dean could feel the stares from the curious local shoppers and he tried to hide his continued embarrassment for the odd situation. Most stares, however, were just curious and after having seen the way he held himself they primarily lost interest judging him to have been just another military boy who got a little too rowdy on his time off.  In this town it happened more often than not.

Thinking it might be best to quickly get off the street he decided to finish his shopping and get back to base as soon as possible. He knew he really should head straight back but he desperately wanted to try and find something nice for his sister. Checking back down the road the only thing on the move was the bus pulling out and heading in his direction on its way through town and back to the highway.

Thinking he still had time before the bus reached him he stepped off the sidewalk and back onto the road. With his bags in hand Dean started jogging across the street in order to beat the oncoming bus. But as he had reached the middle of the road without warning his world suddenly went black. Everything disappeared as his sight vanished. In shock, he stopped short and tried to rub his eyes clear of the sudden blindness thinking he must’ve got something in them. Rubbing his eyes furiously he stopped as he became aware he could also no longer hear the sounds of the bustling pedestrian traffic of Main Street or any other sounds at all.

Dean could still feel the wind upon his face and the hot pavement beneath his feet but the images of the quaint little town along with the sounds around him were all gone. He could neither hear nor see anything and truly started to panic when he realized he couldn’t get rid of the strange phenomenon. To be suddenly deprived of two of his most basic senses caused his mind to run wild with primal fear.

Instincts surged to the forefront and Dean was breathing in short panicky breaths as he tried desperately to get a grip on himself. Thoughts raced around his head and as his panic grew it prevented Dean from being able to exert control over himself and get his mind functioning once again.

But even as his mind blanked under the sudden instinctual fear a nagging sensation at the back of his mind sent a chill that crept along the back of his shoulder blades and down his spine. The creeping feeling kept getting stronger and stronger and somehow managed to break its way through the chaos in his brain.

“What is this feeling that could be so important” he wondered as it became clear the sensation wouldn’t go away and was only getting stronger even though his situation was dire. He concentrated on the strange feeling and he began to discern its meaning.

“The BUS!” 

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

He couldn’t for the life of him wonder why his mind was telling him to beware of a bus. Didn’t it have better sense than that right now to not remind him of uselessly needless information? But even as he tried to push the feeling away in order to get a hold on his runaway panic the feeling grew once again even stronger.

“THE BUS YOU IDIOT” His brain screamed at him.

That’s when Dean remembered the highway bus he’d seen stopped earlier getting ready to leave. “Why is the bus so important?” he asked himself. But then and image of a bus driving up the road appeared before him. A bus that he had rushed out into the middle of the road to beat across the street; a bus headed directly for him. Without even thinking his training suddenly took control and his panic was banished to the back of his mind.

Dean began running for his life knowing the bus had been only moments away. In his blindness and deafness he could only rely on his sense of touch as he ran towards the opposite side of the street. All of a sudden he ran into a large object that knocked the air out of him with its appearance. He scrambled to jump over the car he’d run into, clawing at the hood to try get some momentum and away from almost certain death.

Dean had just about made it when his world turned into a nightmare. A massive impact sent him flying as the bus he’d ran to avoid drove straight into the back of the car he had climbed upon. His body flew and slammed hard into the concrete wall of a nearby building. Bits of glass and metal sprayed him as he slid to the ground with a horrifying crunch and his limp body laid where it had fallen.

His world was pain as he landed having broken numerous bones from the impact. As he lay dying, he could feel the bits of metal and glass slicing into his broken body. An eternity went by as the mayhem and pain silently and sightlessly played out about him. While it took only seconds for everything to go to hell, Dean felt as if a lifetime had gone by while his body burned with pain. Unable to see or hear, and in a world of suffering, Dean could only cower as he lay where he’d been thrown fighting for the life he knew was likely to end.

Suddenly without warning a black and grey countdown began to play in his head cutting through his endless suffering. Even with his world on fire he couldn’t help but note that the countdown looked like one a person might see in old movies. He also realized he could hear what seemed to be some strange background music playing as well. With the videos appearance his pain began to subside almost as if someone had put a dampener on his nervous system and dulled his physical senses.

Then as the countdown finally reached zero the image of a large circular white room with a small stage set in the middle and a wall of windows looking out upon some stars came into focus. A small woman wearing a business suit blouse and a mini skirt that revealed more leg than would normally seem appropriate appeared and walked up onto the stage.

With his physical senses dulled Deans mind was just clear enough for him to be able to notice her strange appearance. She had hair that reached her waist and seemed to flow around her as if she was standing with a wind at her back. Her hair shone with strange colors and many different shades were revealed as it flowed about her, creating a beautiful scene that could capture anyone’s attention. Her eyes were a bright shining pink and bore lines around the edges that spoke of her being someone who loved to laugh.

She had a bright smile upon her face and her perky little nose was scrunched up as she radiated a sense of being extraordinarily happy.  All together she was adorable, and had the air of one who didn’t take much of anything seriously in life.

“Hello All you people of the planet Earth and Welcome to your new future!!” The women shouted with her bright smile and an exaggerated wave of her hands. Her voice was light and clear as a bell. Suiting the child like figure standing upon the stage.

She continued to speak in that melodious childlike voice and as she did her words spoke of great changes to come. They made no sense to Dean, as he lay forced to listen with his mind already on the verge of collapse. But her voice as she spoke kept him captivated and he fought against his fading consciousness. “Wait did she just mention something about rules? Who are these emperors she’s talking about?” These thoughts seemed to fill his head as he slowly lost the fight for consciousness and finally let go, falling into darkness.

He awoke some minutes later with a sudden jolt as if electricity had been shot throughout his body setting his nerves on fire. He screamed out as the pain of his Injuries rushed back to him and his body convulsed from shock, but then as the jolt of electricity faded he began to notice the pain wasn’t quite as bad as it had seemed earlier. In fact it wasn’t there at all anymore; the pain was gone.

“What the? I could have sworn I was just in some kind of major accident, so where’s the pain?” He felt around his body for any sign of injury but he couldn’t feel any. “Was it all just a dream?” he thought as he lay upon the concrete. “Hadn’t I hit a wall or something and fallen down?” Yet not finding anything wrong with his body and still resting in darkness he realized he could hear the sounds of a horn blaring nearby, and the crackle of what was unmistakably a fire. Finally confirming he was in fact awake and able to hear he opened his eyes, he could once again see.

His eyes opened wide at the carnage surrounding him that was unmistakably from the remains of a major accident. Surrounding his body on the ground the area was littered in glass and small bits of metal. Some pieces he noted had hit with such force they even pierced the concrete of the building behind him, and shattered the window of a nearby shop.

His eyes grew even wider at seeing this and he quickly re-checked his body once again for any injuries. He found none, yet his body was instead covered head to toe in some kind of odd dust that glittered brightly in the midday sun. He silently contemplated his luck and wondered at the miracle of having escaped the fate of being skewered alive.

Looking in the direction the carnage had come from sat the mangled remains of an old Chevy pickup. With its windshield shattered a small fire burning somewhere in the engine compartment most of the front end was sandwiched around a light post that was tilted at an odd angle.

Standing up he scrambled to get away from the wreckage and looking around he noticed  that the bus he had dodged was lodged into a building roughly 20 metres down the road. It’s front-end hidden inside the building it had careened into. The back of the bus was broken apart and the windows he could see had been shattered in the impact.

Skid marks from where the bus seemingly went out of control extend out to where the truck he’d been running towards had originally been parked. He stared back and forth at the broken rear of the bus and the truck a few times once more wondering at how lucky he had been.

He stood there for a few moments thinking, before he remembered that the bus had been full of people. Looking closely through the broken windows he could see the figures of slumped over bodies sitting limply in their seats. Thinking that here may be people who might need his help he took off at a run towards the crashed bus. Running towards the broken rear he left the truck behind forgetting his previous pain and only hoping that someone had made it out alright, and that he’d make it in time to help them.

What he couldn’t see from his position on his side of the bus was the small pool of liquid that was flowing from a hole in the buses carriage. The fluid was making its way towards an exposed electrical outlet that had been opened when the bus crashed through the store front. Dean was no more then 15 metres away when the liquid finally reached the circuit.

A spark formed and flames raced back up the liquids path with a wild intent and reached the fuel tank of the bus. There was a momentary sense of hesitation before the entire bus and the structure it was within erupted in flames. The shockwave from the explosion rammed into Dean and blew him clear off his feet tossing him away. He landed in a heap six feet back, tossed aside as if he were nothing more than a rag doll. The windows of several nearby buildings shattered from the overpressure of the shockwave as it spread throughout the area and eventually dissipated.

As Dean lay sprawled out in the wake of the explosion he could feel blood flowing from one of his ears, his eardrum must have burst from the shockwave when it hit him. His left side stung greatly but he could tell nothing was obviously broken and he was able to move all his joints, though some major bruises were a definite. Agonizingly picking himself up as he slowly came back to his senses he stared stupefied at the burning bus and the devastation it caused.

“NOOOOOOOO!” He screamed uselessly at the tragic loss of life. Ignoring his injuries he began to run blindly towards the destroyed vehicle still hoping there was something he might be able to do to turn the situation around. However, the bus and building were burning too brightly and the heat from the fire was too intense for him to even comprehend approaching any closer.

With the blaze now burning out of control it began to spread to the stores beside it growing at a fierce pace. Recognizing his helplessness he reached into his pocket and brought out his cellphone. He thought to call the fire department for help but as he attempted to dial his cellphone disintegrated in his hands.

“What the hell!” He shouted as the phone literally turned into dust within the palm of his hand. “Crap, it must have been damaged in the crash or explosion.”  He thought thinking of the only rational explanations he could imagine.

He looked up to find if anyone else was nearby, remembering the crowded Main Street he had been on. and tried to find anyone who might have a phone to call for help. But as he looked around him there was nothing but chaos.

In his shock at the sudden events that happened to him, the desire to help the people on the bus, and with the rush of adrenaline after the accident his situation had resulted in a form of tunnel vision. Now however the rest of the world came glaringly back into focus.

The screams of people as they ran blindly down the street in terror met his ears and he watched as abnormally large plants seemed to instantaneously grow and spread at an insane speed after them. The strange plants were growing their way down the street from a nearby florist shop that had its front enveloped in a veritable jungle of greenery. The shops front was completely missing and for several meters around it there was only a massive cluster of the new and strangely mutating plants.

Dean watched as the man who had offered help to him earlier was running away but the man tripped as he ran off the curb of a sidewalk. A vine from what appeared to be a mutated Venus Fly Trap that was over three meters in diameter reached out and wrapped around the mans legs. The poor mans eyes full of terror met Deans and he screamed for help as he was dragged clawing in desperation at the ground. The mans fingers turned bloody from his struggles and he fought desperately to get away.

It was futile in the end as he was dragged with relentless force into the massive plants jaw like leaves and they closed mercilessly around the man silencing his screams. Fear and horror had kept Dean routed to the spot as he witnessed the death of the man who had tried to help him.

An old butcher shop down the street that Dean used to visit burst into pieces with an incredible shriek of tearing lumber and shattering concrete as a massive boulder seemingly erupted from beneath it. Shrapnel was thrown off with deadly force as the huge rock torn the building to shreds and several parked cars nearby were ripped apart and riddled with holes. Luckily no one had been nearby but the collateral damage done to the surroundings was massive.

A loud screeching as of tearing metal sounded from off in the distance piercing the noise around Dean and a car was suddenly flung high overhead. Passing above, people could be seen screaming within while uselessly trying to hold on for dear life. The car arched above Main Street and fell somewhere on another road. A distant explosion could be heard and the billowing of smoke could be seen.

All over the town chaos reined as all semblance of civilization came apart. They midday sky was dyed red as buildings burned and smoke filled the air. Strange and vicious plant life spread wildly throughout the city consuming any thing living that it came across. New fissures in the ground suddenly formed when the earth beneath people’s feet vanished and they fell into a black abyss.

Massive boulders sprung up randomly throughout the town and their instantaneous appearances destroyed everything nearby as they physically pushed the matter in their space away at frightening speeds. In the presence of so much death and destruction people were no longer acting like people and became no more than animals. Everyone ran or fought for himself or herself, selfishly ignoring the cries for help from the people around them. All together only a few minutes had gone by since the video played its terrible announcement, yet within that short period the world had come completely undone.

A new rumbling could be felt from the ground and a deep sound as that of a huge amount of moving water could be heard all across the small town. Then in the distance as the rumbling seemed to reach its peak with a horrific groan the tallest apartments in the town suddenly broke apart.

One side of their faces burst outwards, showering the surrounding area in concrete blocks the size of cars. From within an immeasurable amount of water started to pour forth in a massive wave, crashing into the ground below and flooding the surrounding area in moments. The water from the apartments began to flow downhill towards the small river running through the center of town, sweeping up everything in its wake. Cars, people, and even several old building were caught up in the sudden flash flood and sent careening through the town adding to the devastation.

Dean stared stupefied once more as the apartment building collapsed and the water began to pour forth. He stood watching as it started to flow in his direction. Everything about this strange situation had overloaded his senses and his mind couldn’t keep up with all that was going on. Unable to comprehend the suddenness of the events occurring he was rooted to the spot with his mind feebly attempting to come to grips with reality.

In that moment of hesitation he realized just how little his training had truly prepared him for such terrifying events. He may be fitter and more confident, and he may be trained in combat. But the reality of when things breakdown and go to hell he lacked the most important factor military personnel required and that was experience. For someone who was still so used to peace even if they were trained otherwise, he really was nothing more than a rookie in the end. However the military hadn’t really failed him as from hours and hours of intense training his body was able to react to sudden changes even before his mind could catch up.

Once again his training managed to save his life. As he watched the water flow and the dust of distant buildings collapsing come towards him his body was already on the move. Running towards the nearest high ground he knew about he headed towards a back alley that led off from Main Street.

He ran as fast as his legs could carry him and the sound of destruction from the oncoming wave could be heard growing ever closer. His arms pumped and his blood boiled, never before had he ran so fast as of this moment. Terror and training pushed him to move his body like never before. He could hear the screams and cries of others echoing through the streets and then with a horrific suddenness the voices were cut off as they were suddenly wiped away.

The ground shook and rumbled as the thunder became louder and louder, yet his body never stopped moving and he kept running. Finally he reached an area of higher ground and turning a corner in the alley he spotted possible salvation. Managing to jump off a nearby garbage bin he reached out for a ladder hanging down from the side of a nearby building and managed to grab onto the lowest rung. Dean scrambled up the ladder as quickly as he could.

With a roaring sound, like that of some terrible beast that beat at his mind and forced him into submission, the water flowed past and down Main Street. The flood destroyed every thing in its wake and annihilated the place where the accident had occurred, carrying the buses burnt and crippled remains onwards and wiping away the remains of the old Chevy truck that had nearly killed him.

Water poured up into the long alley Dean had run down. Its height increased moment by moment and almost threatened to take him in its wake as a portion of the massive surge passed beneath him. But he had reached safety in time and he clung to the ladder staring at the water passing just beneath him.

Climbing the ladder onto the roof of the building Dean Looked back towards the street he’d had just escaped from. Instead of people and cars, a bus on fire or a new man eating jungle, a new river had formed with an apartment complex acting as a waterfall. Its murky water an unstoppable torrent headed downstream towards the river, trailing along all that had been swept up in its wake.

He sighed a breath of relief for having escaped from death for the third time that day. He couldn’t help but lay down as all his energy seemed to evaporate and his mind became unbelievably fatigued under the stress of the days events. As he lay there breathing deeply being thankful for his survival he slowly fell asleep. His body and mind too overwhelmed by the sudden events and the momentary safety he had found pushed him into a dreamless sleep for a time.

With his last passing thoughts he realized the partial video he’d seen had been real and had been warning him of the events to come. He then noticed that a silver blue light was blinking down in the corner of his vision begging him to reach out and touch it but he had already lost his ability to stay awake and fell asleep. Whatever that light was would just have to wait.

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Thanks for reading and sorry it took so long to release. However I hope you enjoy it and find it interesting. I went through this several more times with editing but I am sure I missed several mistakes and for that please forgive me. But hopefully as time goes on I'll get better at editing and can bring you all a higher quality of story that can keep you in the moment instead of fighting to  understand grammatical errors. 

Also I know his chapters quite fast paced but hopefully its not too bad and once the story gets flushed out a bit more I think it'll settle into a more stable flow and not be quite so rushed. But once again i hope you like it and thanks for reading!