“What the fuck?...”
Mary’s soft grunt as she sat up rubbing her head caused Mare to refocus and push the icons aside for a moment so she could check on her.
“Are you okay Mary?”
“How many times have I told you, call me mom. You are my daughter now… ” Mary grumbled. “And I think so. Whatever that was hurt like the dickens. Did that happen to you as well? Are you ok?” Mary spoke with a look of worry in her eyes.
“I don’t have any clue what that was, though I feel fine now. I saw that wave hit us and then I was down and in the worst pain I have ever felt. When It was over I saw you on the ground and came running over. I don’t know what happened but I am just glad you are ok Mar…. mom.” Mare felt herself over as she spoke, still not finding residual pain.
The slight glare Mary had given her when she had almost said her name turned to a bright smile once she adjusted and said mom. Mare hadn’t gotten used to calling her mom yet, even though she had long thought of her as her mother. She had lost her parents in a car accident when she was three and had been raised in foster care the rest of her adolescent life. Having gone so long without saying the word mom had caused it to feel unnatural.
“So umm… Am I crazy or are you also seeing... symbols in your vision?” Mary’s hesitant voice broke Mare from her thoughts.
“So you see them too? What do you see? In mine I see what looks like a blinking exclamation mark on the bottom ri...” Mare stopped speaking midway through as a big blue screen popped up in front of here like she was in a video game.
New Quest available:
Survival of the Fittest
Marriage of the Souls
“Quest… Th….there's no way…”
“WHAT THE FUCK‽” Mary’s yell pulled Mare from her screen as she unconsciously dismissed it and grabbed hold of Mary in worry.
“What’s wrong m-mom? Are you hurting again?”
She was worried because Mary almost never cussed. The only time she had heard her cuss was when she was really pissed at George for something. Mary was about to snap something out, but took a deep breath and calmed herself down before she started speaking again.
“What do you mean what’s wrong? Are you telling me that you don’t see this floating blue screen in front of my face?” Mary’s annoyance clearly came through.
“I don’t but I had one a moment ago as well. When you screamed I somehow dismissed it. Try focusing on it and willing it to go away.” Mare calmly spoke.
She focused on Mary and could see a slight distant look in her overly round eyes. Her face scrunched in concentration. If not for the weirdness of the situation and the knot that seemed to be getting bigger in her stomach, the look on Mary’s face would have been hilarious.
“Ok it’s gone, now tell me what the hell is going on? Also how is it that you sound so calm right now?” Mary said, looking consternated.
“To be honest, I don’t know and... I don’t know,” quietly spoke Mare as she focused again on the no longer blinking exclamation mark. Once again the screen appeared in her view.
“It seems that whatever this is it is controlled by thinking. This reminds me way too much of a video game and some stories that I have read.” As Mare spoke, a spark of excitement could be seen in her eyes. This had been something her and Jake had always talked about. They thought it would be so cool to have something like this, this type of game-like system. Even the knot in her stomach couldn’t suppress the thrill at the thought of this.
Mare and Mary both had the same icons showing. A blocked out XP in the top right and an exclamation mark in the bottom right. They opened up the quests screen again and this is where they found some differences. Mary only had one quest: Survival of the Fittest. Whereas Mare had that and also had Marriage of the Souls. They decided to go over the quest they both had. This quest put words to the knot in her stomach.
Stolen novel; please report.
Survival of the Fittest
Congratulations on surviving the first wave of mana. This will have far reaching consequences. Prepare to fight for survival and try to thrive.
Difficulty - Hard
Success conditions - Survive for the next 6 months.
Optional - Thrive.
Variable rewards.
This quest can not be refused.
They both closed their screen and stood up abruptly. A look of worry and fear passed between them.
“This can’t be real right? Right? I mean, I have to be dreaming” The faint look of hope in Mary’s eyes as she spoke nearly broke Mare.
“I’m sorry, I don’t think this is a dream, I might have thought that if we weren’t both here. Either way, though, we need to go inside. Something's not right and I don’t think it's safe out here.”
As soon as Mare stopped speaking the sound of screams and gunfire started suddenly in the distance. It wasn’t until this moment that they had noticed how eerily quiet it had been before. There had been no animal sounds, people, or traffic; there had been nothing. They couldn’t even remember there being any sound of wind. They had been so focused that they hadn’t paid any attention to their surroundings. Looking up finally, they noticed the sky covered in smoke. It was way more than there should have been if it had just started. Their faces paled instantly and they rushed into the house. Neither spoke or hesitated as they ran around and locked all the doors and windows, pulled closed the curtains and pushed furniture against the lower floor windows before finally sitting down on the ground in the kitchen facing each other, the cabinets to their backs.
In the twenty minutes it took to barricade the house, the screams and gunshots hadn’t stopped. Worse, even, they could hear what sounded like roaring and inhuman screams. It sounded like a warzone out there. If they happened to be at war with hell.
“What the hell is going on? What should we do?” Mary whispered harshly.
“I don’t know… But either way it’s not good and I don’t think it is safe to stay in the city. And I am worried about Jake.” Mare was biting her thumbnail in worry as she whispered.
Once Jake’s name came up, Mary’s once frightened face hardened. The thought of her son out there by himself terrified her. She had already lost her husband and she would not lose him too.
“You’re right, hun. We need to find him. We should grab what we can, load up the car and get out of here as soon as possible.” Mary spoke with conviction as she quietly got up.
“I agree, but once we load the car we’ll l have to wait to leave. I’m worried about Jake, but we’re no good to him if we're dead. It is getting dark and I don’t think it is safe to travel at night. I don’t know what’s out there but I would prefer to be able to see it coming.” The look of conviction Mare had showed that it was not fear that made this decision.
Mare and Mary went to the garage to grab some duffle bags to pack some necessities. They hadn’t turned on any lights in the house in fear that the light would attract attention, but the garage didn’t have any windows and the door led to the windowless mudroom.
Flick
Nothing happened. It seemed that the power had been knocked out, either by what Mare assumed to be the wave of mana, or by the fighting. Grumbling, Mary went back inside to grab a candle or two so they could see easier while Mare opened the unlocked car to grab the duffle bags that Mary had said were in the back. She hadn’t noticed that when the car door was opened the door lights hadn’t turned on. Her vehicle’s door lights had been broken for years so this didn’t seem strange to her at all.
She grabbed the pair of duffle bags and headed to the kitchen to load them with food that they could bring with them. Leaving anything that needed to be refrigerated or special storage, she started to load the duffle bag with cans of food, fruit, and other items that they could eat first before they went bad. After the first duffle was filled she headed to the garage to place it in the car. She stepped into the garage to see Mary struggling to pull on a rope tied to some drop-down stairs that led up to an open attic. Walking over, she helped Mary pull down the stairs.
“What’s up there?”
“We mostly store gardening supplies such as fertilizer and the like but all of our outdoors and camping gear is up there as well. There’s als…” Before Mary could finish, the sound of a glass cracking behind them stopped her. As one, both turned to see a dark crack appear out of thin air in the doorway to the garage from the house. The crack that dozens of small splintering fissures came off of slowly opened up larger and larger. A large feline-like paw started to step through. Mare thought feline-like because even though it looked feline it was huge. The thing could probably cover her entire chest. In the candle light it looked pitch black and had some dangerous-looking claws. Thick muscles made up the leg that was attached to the paw coming through.
With a quick look at each other, they dashed up the stairs into the attic and pulled the stairs and rope up. Just as the stairs locked back in place, the head of the monstrosity started to appear through the large fissure. Peering over the rafters, the pair of terrified women watched as this mammoth of a creature stepped out of the tear in space. Once it was all the way through, the tear disappeared without a trace and in its place stood a demonic looking cat.
The beast was at least as tall as a full grown man. Its body was carried by six legs that were wound in large,tight muscles. It looked like it had been using steroids that were on steroids. It was hard to see much more detail on the large beast in the dim candle light. The girls slowly pulled their heads back from the edge and sat there holding their breath hoping that the cat wouldn’t notice them. The large beast lifted its head into the air and sniffed.