Walter Harmon was sweating balls.
The air-conditioner in his Amazon delivery van crapped out earlier in the week and the company was taking their sweet-ass time getting it fixed. He worked for one of the richest people in the world yet they didn’t have a backup vehicle for him to use.
He was on his lunch break, parked behind the old skate park. Since he only had a half hour break, he always made his lunch at home and brought it with him. It could take almost the whole thirty minutes waiting in line at a drive-thru during this time of day.
He even avoided the parking lots at the Chick-fil-A and Taco Bell. Too crowded. He needed some peace and quiet on his short breaks, and that meant avoiding crowds and traffic. Nothing irritated him more than traffic.
To add to the day’s irritation, he was also annoyed he would be working during the total solar eclipse that was due in a couple of hours. If he was lucky, maybe he’d be outside when it happened so he could witness the event. His employer had cameras in the van and the company was strict about monitoring their delivery drivers. Anything perceived as an action that wasted time could get him in trouble.
Today, he was hate-watching a Twitch stream on his phone while he ate his pimento cheese sandwich. He always had an affinity for the stuff since he was a child of the South. In fact, his family had always referred to pimento cheese as the caviar of the South.
He had all the windows open and one of his arms was dangling out of the van. The Georgia sun was relentless. But the humidity was worse. Sweat had soaked through his uniform and a sheen covered his skin.
On his phone, a streamer named Kippler was playing the digital card game, Blightheart. It was the preferred flavor of the month for all the virtual card game enthusiasts, recently becoming popular.
“This guy has no idea how fucked he is,” Kippler said. He had a face for television which made him an easy Twitch star. Especially in the realm of digital card games.
In Walt’s opinion, he also had a very punchable face. Walt wanted to smack the smirk off his mouth. “And you’re still a cocky cheesedick.”
Kippler was in the middle of a ranked ladder game. And of course he was at the top of the leader boards. This stream was all about defending his top spot. He had set up a board of Vicarious Oozes and he was holding the Grand Dame Slime card that would activate the devastating combo he had masterfully set up.
His opponent played a Rot Knight card. It had a taunt effect. A pathetic attempt at a defensive play. Kippler let out a high-pitched laugh that was worse than nails on a chalkboard. “That’s, sadly, not gonna be enough my friend!”
He played the Grand Dame Slime and all the cards turned green, activating the combo. The mass of slimes disintegrated through the shield of the Rot Knight before dissolving the armored minion. The splatter melted the lower minions, a couple of Noxious Squires, next to it as well.
Then all the oozes and the Grand Dame Slime on Kippler’s cards started dancing while attacking the opponent’s hero, chipping down his life.
A phone call interrupted the stream. It was Janice, Walt’s sister. He answered.
“You’re interrupting my break,” Walt said.
“You mean you’re self-loathing wank session?” Janice said.
“It’s a personal rule of mine to never talk about my wank sessions with my sister,” he said.
“Listen, mom wanted me to call you to make sure you were gonna be in town for her birthday,” she said.
Shit.
“You didn’t forget, did you?” she said.
“Forget? C’mon. That would make me a horrible son,” he said.
He had forgotten his mother’s birthday.
It was next week in Nashville. He hadn’t requested the time off, yet. And it was probably too late to do so.
“Okay, well, make sure to get her a card. You know she appreciates a hand-written note in a card more than a gift. I don’t understand it, that’s just the way she is. We have dinner planned at Josephine’s, so make sure to be clean and dress nice.”
Walt scoffed. “You don’t think I’m going to be clean? I shower, you know.”
“Showering once every three days is not showering. Wearing a t-shirt with wing sauce stains and biscuit crumbs stuck to it is not dressing nice.”
“I only wear the finest and tastiest wing sauce, though. Mango habanero, baby.”
“How are you anyways?”
“I’ve been just peachy. Life is grand.”
“Have you thought any more about what we talked about last time? Rick says Rand is interested. He thinks they would hire you on the spot. All you have to do is show up for the interview and meet them.“
“Yeah, I’m kind of still thinking about it.”
“What is there to think about? Get a six-figure salary crunching numbers for a Think Tank or slinging packages for Amazon as a wage slave?”
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“Yeah, it’s just…the Rand Corporation? How do I know I’m not going to be working on algorithms for them that make it easier for them to destabilize small countries?”
“Walt. You work for Amazon.”
“You’re right. Fine. I’ll meet them. I’m tired of this job anyways.”
“I honestly don’t understand you. You have a gift. It’s time for you to use it and prosper.”
“I told you I’d meet with them.”
“You promise?”
She was right.
After the incident at the Mythic Championships all those years ago, he had crashed and burned. He had flown too close to the sun. The descent back to earth had been of his own design.
If he hadn’t of graduated college at fifteen, he would have dropped out of school like he had dropped out of everything else. All the employers who had been courting him, Think Tanks who were willing to pay top dollar for a math whiz, had suddenly disappeared. He spent a year in rehab recovering. When he got out, he was too afraid to pursue work in his field because he was afraid of relapsing.
And he’d been drifting for the last two years.
“I promise.”
“You better fucking promise. It’s time for my brother to come out of his self-imposed exile and start thriving. And you know, you can always use Rand as a stepping stone to another place if you’re not happy with them. Maybe somewhere that’s interested in saving the world. ”
#
Walt decided he was going to quit his job at the end of his shift. He considered just turning in the hot-ass van and bouncing, but he was already out on the streets, might as well finish out the remaining deliveries.
He knew he could have fallen back on his child prodigy laurels at any time to get a better gig, but the last couple of years had been a self-imposed punishment. He always thought he needed the pills, or to have at least have a good buzz going, to truly utilize his gift.
Combined with the pressure, his addiction had caused him to lose in the finals of the Mythic Championship and it had almost destroyed the rest of his life. He was rehabilitated, but that part of his life was so interconnected with his former addiction he was afraid what might happen if he used his skills again.
But he was willing to try.
As he drove, a radio DJ prattled about the incoming eclipse, “You know, everyone has been freaking out and concerned about the weather today. People are worried if the clouds are going to clear. But you know what? When totality happens, we’ll all be able to fear the darkness. Sure, if the skies aren’t clear we may not get to experience the other cool totality effects, but…
Walt flipped through the stations and it was all shifting sound bites about the eclipse, “Distortions in the atmosphere…total solar eclipse won’t happen again for years…will we be able to see the elusive shadow bands…experts say not to stare directly into the eclipse…”
He turned off the radio and settled for a podcast instead.
#
When he reached Terminus Place, a high-rise building full of condominiums, the sky was already starting to turn dark and he could see the moon edging toward the sun.
This drop-off required entering the parking garage and unloading the packages at one of the staff offices for the condo.
He eyed the camera in the van watching him and he debated lingering outside long enough to experience the eclipse before entering the garage.
“Fuck it,” he said. He was quitting later and there wouldn’t be another full solar eclipse in his lifetime.
There were people out on their balconies, sitting in lawn chairs and day drinking beers. Most of them had the cardboard glasses all the stores had been selling to make a profit off the lunar event. The glasses allowed observing the eclipse without worry of damaging one’s eyes.
The sky darkening in the middle of the day was an uncanny feeling. Walt covered his eyes and peaked through his fingers as the black moon started to cross into the sun’s path. The intersection of the two celestial bodies commenced.
It was like watching a giant disc slide over the sun, occluding its light. The earth was cast in darkness. The only light in the sky was the white rim of the sun’s rays peaking from behind the moon.
It looked like the giant black pupil of some monster gazing at the inhabitants of earth. There were flares of red light, wisps that emerged and then disappeared. There was a burning sensation in Walt’s eyes and then a sudden stab of pain. A wave of dizziness washed over him, as if he was struck by some random vertigo.
He grimaced and looked away from the eclipse. He rubbed his eyes and the imprint of the eclipse’s image seemed like it was burned onto the inside of his eyelids. Visual static, like the orbs he sometimes saw when he rubbed his eyes too hard.
Then neon blue words scrolled by in his vision, startling him. They blinked at the center of his line of sight.
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Slaynami System Installed
v 9.032
Slaynami Group Corporation ™
Veritas-Event Crossover Commencing…
Please Stand By…
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He blinked and the words were gone. He rubbed his eyes again, this time with the palm of his hands. He opened them and looked at the ground where the eclipse was casting an odd light show on the concrete. He shook his head.
That’s when he noticed them falling out of the sky.
It looked like debris, as if a satellite had fallen out of space and separated in the atmosphere, streaking across the sky. A hemorrhage of comets. Except this must have been a large satellite. Because the sky was full of these comet trails.
There was a succession of booms, startling him. The ground shook like there was an earthquake.
Then more words appeared for him.
Psycho Slingers Have Successfully Arrived in This Reality
Be Alarmed.
He crouched against his van and stared at the blinking words in his vision. “Huh?”
Aside from the impact booms, echoing in the distance, an eerie silence filled the Atlanta street. Then the voices of the people on the balconies all seemed to rise at once as people started talking.
Walt thought he heard someone crying. Someone else was moaning in pain. Car alarms were going off all over the city. Then more text.
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Battleboard Initializing
Battleboard Zone Secured
[Psychoslinger 00023]
versus
[Occupants & Visitors of Terminus Place, Zone 0937.21, Earth #x2.9]
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Walt walked to the closest exit that led out of the parking garage. There was a shimmering matrix of blue light that rose from the ground. It ascended all the way up to the height of the high-rise. It seemed to be some kind of force field.
As he looked at it, glowing text appeared in his vision. There was a line pointing to the matrix of blue light and an explanation.
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Battleboard Barrier
Cannot Pass Barrier Until Duel Has Finished
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Walt stared at the wall of light that was basically a fence trapping everyone inside. “What the hell?”
Above, a bird flew into the blue matrix and exploded in flames. It fell out of the sky and hit the concrete in front of Walt, on the other side of the barrier.
The blackened and shriveled corpse twitched, smoke rising off it.
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