05 May: 12 days to Earth’s destruction

Sir. There have been 10,214 confirmed Overworld gate sightings worldwide. Of the gates identified, the orcs control approximately forty percent, the elves roughly thirty percent, and the gnomes less than five percent.

While the gnomes seem the least threatening of the alien species, judging by gate numbers, they also appear to be weaker than the elves. Our analysts are of the opinion that they will make for poor allies.

It is my department’s recommendation that an alliance be sought with the elves instead. —Classified intelligence report.

Firing up my laptop and setting a jug of coffee to boil, I set up shop in the kitchen and got to work. It did not take me long to find what I was looking for in the Infopedia.

The wiki was admirably well-indexed and sorted. However, the answer was disappointing. It seemed that all players in Overworld had a Technique called analyse that revealed another’s Potential to them. This, of course, was no help to me or any other human still on Earth. We would have to enter Overworld and undergo the Trials Initiation before we obtained the same Technique, and by then, presumably, we would already know our own Potentials.

Closing down the wiki page, I turned my efforts to my next most important task: figuring out how to get to a gnomish gate safely. This proved a more arduous endeavour than I expected.

The world, it seemed, had devolved into chaos.

After the attacks by the orcs, fiends, and svartalfar, Earth’s nations had declared war. All over the world, militaries had launched strikes against the Overworld gates. They had thrown everything they could at the artefacts, from small artillery fire to air strikes, and even a nuke in the case of one Chinese gate. All to no avail. The gates were impervious to humanity’s weaponry.

The militaries’ failures did not go unnoticed by Earth’s civilian populous.

When people realised their governments had no effective means of protecting them, mass hysteria and panic ensued. Airplanes were grounded, shopping malls were closed, highways were blocked off, shops were looted, and millions began to stampede away from the orcish, fiend, and svartalfar gates to the benign-by-comparison elvish and gnomish ones.

Given the state of anarchy reigning in the world at large, I concluded that travelling cross country was out of the question. Passage by air was impossible, and according to news reports traffic on the highways had come to a grinding halt. For me and Mum to hike a few hundred miles was also not an option.

I was left with no other choice but to search for an alternative gate to use.

Thankfully, digital communications had been left untouched by the chaos overturning the world, and I was able to pull up the location of all the overworlder gates in the vicinity.

I groaned in despair as I studied the information that came up. Mum and I had no luck, it seemed. Other than the orc gate in our town itself, there were no other gates within a day’s walking distance.

The next nearest gate—an elven one fortunately—was twenty miles away. At the rate Mum and I could walk that would take us at least two days, if not more. But there was no help for it. If we wanted to survive, we would make the journey.

Heaving a sigh, I walked over to the window and looked out. Everything was still relatively peaceful outside. Our rural town, isolated by distance, remained largely untouched by the anarchy afflicting the world. But I knew it wouldn’t last. In a few hours, or days, the panic running rampant everywhere else would come here too.

And before it did, I had to get ready.

I hadn’t left the house in the last few days, and it was finally time I did. I walked over to my room and popped my head in. Mum was deeply engrossed in the Trials Infopedia. “Ma, I’m going to go the mall.”

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She turned to face me. “What? Why? We don’t need anything.”

I briefly contemplated lying, but I realised the sooner she knew the truth the better. “The closest Overworld gate we can use is twenty miles away. We’re going to have to walk to get there. I have to go out and get the supplies we need.”

Before there is nothing left to buy, I thought, but left the words unsaid. Some truths were better left unspoken.

“Alright,” she said, though she seemed uncertain. “If you think it’s necessary.”

“I do,” I said. “Don’t worry, I won’t be long.”

✽✽✽

The town was quiet and subdued as I walked into it.

Remarkably, other than the local militia, no one else appeared disturbed by the happenings in the rest of the world. The militia captain, an aging veteran who had seen more than his fair share of warfare in his day, had set up a round-the-clock watch on the gate.

Captain Hicks didn’t have the men to cordon the gate off completely—not that I thought the mayor would have allowed it—but he did make sure the area was kept under guard.

The good captain had even managed to haul a battered armoured tank out of whatever junkheap it had been consigned to and return it to some semblance of service. Gods, I thought as I limped passed the ancient relic on the way to the mall, where did Captain Hicks get that thing? And does it even work?

Despite the militia’s vigilance though, everyone else in town seemed to believe what had happened elsewhere in the world could not happen here. I shook my head at their blind faith, and quietly went about my own business.

Even though the orc gate was within the mall parking lot itself and I itched to explore it, I stayed well away. Now was not the time to take foolish risks or tempt fate. If an orc party unexpectedly exited the gate, I had no doubt they would execute anyone they found standing nearby.

Entering the mall, I bought everything I could think of, and quite possibly far more than Mum and I needed: camping gear, batteries, guns, and enough food for two weeks. We wouldn’t set off for the gate immediately—there was still lots of research I needed to do—and in the interim, I didn’t want us to run out of supplies.

I hoped I wouldn’t need to use the guns. The last thing Earth needed was more humans killing humans, but human nature being what it was, I did not doubt there would be those seeking to prey on the weak and unprepared. I was determined that would not be me and Mum.

When I returned home that night, I called Eric again. “Hi, mate,” I said. “I got bad news.”

“I know,” Eric replied. “I’ve been following the media reports. The world’s gone to shit. There is no way you gonna make your way cross-country to get here.” He fell silent for a moment. “What are you going to do?”

“There is an elvish gate twenty miles from here,” I said. “Mum and I will make for it.”

“That’s great,” said Eric, his voice beaming with happiness. “Better the elves than the fiends or orcs, or God forbid the svartalfar.”

“Yes,” I agreed.

“Did you manage to get rations and supplies? The shops here are gutted. Emma and I barely found enough food to get us through the week.”

“People in town are still in denial. I’ve managed to stock up. The store will deliver everything tomorrow. What news from the rest of the crew?”

“Not good, man,” replied Eric, the unhappiness in his voice clear. “Half of them can’t make it. They’re either too far away from a gate, or they have their own families to take care of.”

“Oh,” I said, sharing his disappointment. “And the other half?”

“I couldn’t reach most of them. The two that I did reach, Doug and Michael, will both join us with whatever friends and family they can rustle together.”

“That’s great,” I said, pleased Eric and Emma wouldn’t be alone. Not like Mum and me. After a moment’s silence, I asked, “When do you plan on leaving for the gate?”

“Not for a few days at least. I want to learn as much as I can from the wiki before we set out. Too bad the gates won’t let us transport anything but ourselves through, otherwise I would carry a stack of notes with me.”

“Yeah,” I said. According to the wiki, new players couldn’t take anything with them on their journey into the Trials. We would lose even the clothes on our back when we entered Overworld. I couldn’t help wondering though, how the overworlders were making the same trip with all their gear. It bore looking into.

“What about you?” asked Eric, interrupting my musing.

“Me? I’ve been thinking along the same lines as you. We’ll give it about a week and learn everything we can from the wiki before we set out. Who knows, maybe the world will return to some semblance of order before then.” Though I doubted it.

“I hope so too,” replied Eric before falling silent again. We both felt that in one sense this was goodbye. We might never see each other again. Our paths seemed to be diverging, and who knew how far apart we would find ourselves in Overworld once we entered our respective gates. “We need to find a way to communicate with each other, once we get there,” I said at last.

“Definitely,” said Eric. “I’ll make that a priority in my search of the wiki.”

“Me too,” I said. “Alright, then… good night, Eric. Take care of yourself.”

“You too, man,” he replied. “And Jamie… If I never see you again, just know—”

“I know, Eric,” I replied gently, hearing his choked-off sobs on the other end. “Thanks for everything. I will never forget everything you’ve done for me.”

“Me neither, my friend. Stay safe.”

“Bye, Eric.”

“Bye, Jamie.”