I walked into the apartment building with a groan. 6 flights of stairs every single time. 108 stairs going up and 108 stairs coming back down. Twice a day, every day since the elevator was broken, I had to make this trek. The only good news was that I could feel the muscles in my calves getting huge. If I kept this up, I was going to look like a mountain climber. Reynold already looked like one, but he looked like that before the stair issue.
The elevator was just one in a long string of early tech failures. For one of the most technologically advanced cities in the world, we sure were having a massive amount of problems. A lot of the electric-powered trams would just die on a moments notice. They had to do whatever system reboot they had to do every time. People stopped taking the public services due to their unreliability. Additionally, cell phones and computers started dying randomly all over the city. Hell, if you believe the fear mongers on the news, then this was happening all over the country and caused by the CIA or Russia or some shit like that.
I carried my bags of groceries that I had to pay cash for, due to their credit card machine being down, up that Mt. Everest of stairs before reaching my front door. With both arms full, I managed to carefully lower my hand to the door knob and twist it. Damn it…it was locked. I sighed and put down the bags on one arm to grab my keys. No sooner had I retrieved the keys from the jacket and placed the tip to the lock when the door swung open.
Reynold stood there with a smirk. “Why’s the food on the floor, Ty?”
I rolled my eyes. “Screw you, dude. Let me in.”
He held his hands up in mock surrender and let me in. “News is going crazy. Apparently the pentagon network shut down today. The whole building lost power. Senators are voting for a full investigation.”
I laughed. “They’ve been voting for a full investigation all month.”
Reynold shrugged and took out the eggs and coffee creamer to put in the fridge. “The gas station give you any trouble?”
“Not really. I’m out of cash though.”
Reynold nodded. “Not sure where we’re going to get more. The bank ATMs are closed until further notice. Apparently some people had pressed the withdraw button, power went out, they lost money. Something like that.”
I rubbed the back of my head. “Wasn’t there a TV show about all the electricity going out or something?”
“Yeah, but it got canceled after a season or two.”
“What do you think we’ll do if the power goes out?”
Reynold then proceeded to debrief me on his 100,000 word pre-planned dossier on exactly what our plan was that he held since he was 3 months old. Jokes aside, the guy had it pretty well thought out.
I looked at the clock. It was 4 am. I had work in about 14 hours. Reynold was leaving for his job now. “Did you sleep?”
Reynold made a joking glance back to the array of coffee cups spread out over the table and the TV News Channel that was incredibly loud. “Yep. I sure did.”
I loved my brother, but he was a dick sometimes. “Sleep when you get home.”
“Who’s going to make sure that you get up for work then?”
I laughed and strolled off to bed. By bed, of course, I mean the pull out couch I slept on. We had made a deal that whoever paid most of the $3,200 rent got the single bedroom. The other one got the pull out couch. I worked at a Jack in the Box while Reynold work as a low-level finance consultant. Hell, he was the main reason I was still out here.
A few years ago, when I was 18, I left home after a pretty big fight with my dad. I didn’t know where to go, but I knew Reynold lived in San Diego. I headed here and I’ve been crashing with him ever since. He makes off-handed jokes about me being a burden, but I’m pretty sure he’s glad for the company. Reynold was going a little crazy the last few years with the stress of his job. He hadn’t slept well since he got it.
I sat on the bed, hearing the creaks of the broken springs before turning my attention to the TV. “I’m Katherine Hope and this my cohost…”
The bald man on the right smiled. “…Doug Walters.”
“And we are here to bring you your news for October 1st, 2049. Let’s start with the investigation into recent power outages across the United States. Government sources, along with social media, have determined that this is a world wide problem. Across the globe, cities are facing increasing amounts of random power shortages. As those issues become present in self-contained electric systems, like cell phones, scientists are hard at work to determine the cause.”
“Dr. Armando Dalton, a scientist from Texas Tech University with a doctorate in Advanced Energy Systems, has described the phenomenon as possibly an unknown side effect of Helium Batteries. When questioned on why these issues are present in systems that were built before 2038, Dr. Dalton stated that the interaction could have created a form of electric virus. In response to critics who said the idea was ridiculous and ‘not at all how electricity works’, Dr. Dalton stated: ‘I don’t see you coming up with any better ideas.’”
This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
I laid back on my pillow and tried to fall asleep. If I didn’t go to sleep soon, the sun would come up and I’d then be struggling with bright lights filling my living room. The worst part about living with an insomniac is that they have a tendency to convert you to their hours as well. I checked over both of my alarm clocks once again. The odds of me sleeping for more than 14 hours in a sitting were astronomically low, but it had happened before. Maybe the odds weren’t as low as I thought. I set another few five minute interval alarms on my phone and rolled over.
———————————————————————
I opened my eyes with a yawn. As I did, a blue text box floated in front of my face.
Welcome to the System, Tyler G.
You are currently located in:
San Diego City, South (HOSTILE).
1. For fairness purposes, all zones will be capped at Level 30 until the first Zone Shift.
2. Please be advised that your zone is currently a Level 111-125 zone.
3. You will face enemies ranging from Level 22-25.
4. It is advised that you exit this zone as soon as possible.
5. Please see your Map for nearest adjacent zones.
6. Please see your Profile to select your first 3 stat points.
7. Please see your Leaderboard to determine how you rank against other players.
8. Please see your Crafting Menu to see the various types of items you can make.
9. Please see the Market to purchase and sell items from and to other players.
10. Good luck and have fun, Tyler G!
“What the hell?” Confused was not saying much. I checked my phone for the time. It wouldn’t turn on. I checked my digital alarm clock on the coffee table. It wouldn’t turn on. I checked the TV for the news. It wouldn’t turn on. I jogged into the kitchen to see if the useless clock on the coffee pot that Reynold never set correctly was working. It wouldn’t turn on.
The text box was gone and I silently wished I could have read it again. I didn’t catch any of it the first time around. As if by magic, it appeared back again. I reread it carefully. It ran like the opening message of one of those old video games when you first logged in. Me and Reynold couldn’t afford a good computer besides his work one, and it’s not like it would have worked well anyways with all the power outages.
As I was reading, I got to point 5. “How the hell do I open a map?”
Again, as if reading my mind, a map of the area popped up. I could zoom out, but anything beyond the highlighted boxes that were adjacent to my own was grayed out. The only exception was the major cities in the US. Atlanta, Chicago, New York, Seattle, Miami, and Houston were all visible. Why wasn’t Los Angeles on there?
I zoomed back in and looked at the surrounding zones. Chula Vista, West was the lowest adjacent zone. “91-100. Capped at 18-20.” If my knowledge of the area was anything to go by, The eastern part of Chula Vista was less populated. I assumed from the map that population equated to level. I wasn’t sure what the hell was going on, but if there was an advisory note to get the hell out…that’s what I was going to do.
I walked to Reynold’s room and slammed my fist on the door. Reynold and I had an unspoken promise to never wake him up unless the apartment was on fire. He never got enough sleep as it was. The apartment wasn’t technically on fire, but I figured this counted. No answer.
I slammed my fist again, the entire door frame shaking. No answer.
“Damn. Please have some clothes on this time.” I opened the door and, to my surprise, he wasn’t there. Was he still at work?
I paced the tiny hallway for a second before getting an idea. “Time.”
The time is… 4:05 P.M. PST on October 1st, 2049
Okay. He definitely should be home by now. He usually worked 6:30-3:00. Most finance jobs were 9-5, but the ones for his construction company stuck to shop hours for all the employees.
I opened the door to the apartment and looked in the hallway. I saw several people jogging down the stairs with their loved ones and important possessions. One of the neighbors was carrying a whole desktop computer down the stairwell. I raised my eyebrows in surprise. I had struggled with a few bags of groceries and this mad man was carrying a several thousand dollar computer.
I decided to follow the crowd, watching as people filed in behind me. When we got to the second floor, a crowd of people was trying to push their way back up. I could hear explosions and screaming. Hell, I thought I heard something roar. The shoving renters fought their way up the stair well, causing the guy with the computer to trip. As I turned around to head back up, I heard the sound of electronics crunching under several pairs of feet.
I went up a floor, following a smaller group of people through the third floor hallway. We went to the other stairwell, finding it slightly less crowded. It didn’t take long to get down to the ground floor by the gym. I could see out the large gym windows and the violence almost looked like the pictures of the 2028 riots. Fires were burning and consuming cars and buildings alike. The streets were littered with stalled cars and trash. There were also faint silhouettes on the ground. Were those…bodies?
I shook it off and ran outside. The group of about 7 of us made it to the parking lot. None of us were exactly in our physical prime, but adrenaline makes a group do crazy things. Several men sprinted for their cars. Reynold had our only car, so I had to sprint for…well I wasn’t sure what. I knew there was a Police Station a mile or so down the street. I started moving down the road. It was odd to have the constant sound of vehicles and car horns replaced by human sounds, it was even odder how terrified all those humans sounded. I couldn’t see much. The massive crowd of people in the street blocked my view of most angles except for the high rises. I looked through the crowd and was surprised when I saw some furry had been forced to go out in full costume. It was funny, but it wouldn’t be San Diego without at least one person in a fur suit.
When the person in the goat suit swung his axe around, I wondered if there was some form of cosplay convention. When the person in the goat suit gave a scream, I got a little worried. When the person in the goat suit struck his axe into a nearby woman, I got panicked. “What the fuck is that?”
A new text box appeared to answer my inquiry.
Goatman Executioner - Level 115 (Stats Capped at Level 23)