“Midnight, I think we’ve been isekai’ed.”
“Yea, I know.” Leaning against a counter, I sigh and look at him. “Tell me how you woke up.”
Ghost told me in extreme detail what happened from the moment he woke up. He told me he found himself on the floor, head in a puddle of blood with the Desert Eagle next to him. What happens after is very similar to my experience, including the message he received once he stepped out of the room he had woken up from. He even had a headache which had faded.
“It’s like a goddamn anime, isn’t it, Midnight? Sort of exciting and terrifying. Say, wha-”
“Before you go on as usual Ghost, we need to find the others. How far from me were you?”
“A street up, I crossed the road when I saw movement and slowly made my way towards you.”
“Okay. We’ll move as a pair, you take point and I’ll follow behind. Give me your Deagle, you have the revolver.”
“Deal, I hate long range weapons.” I hand Ghost the Colt Diamondback while he hands me the Desert Eagle. The image at the bottom right changes to a Desert Eagle, showing its bullet count, 6/0. Unloading it and pulling the magazine out, I found the .357 Magnum bullets within. Pulling the slide back, I grabbed the bullet and sniffed the chamber. I could smell gunpowder, as if recently fired.
“Have you fired this recently, Ghost?” If the magazine had been full, there should have been eight bullets, not six.
“Negative. It had only six when I spawned, or woke up.” Watching Ghost reload his revolver, I did the same with my Deagle and loaded it.
Nodding to each other, Ghost led the way out and turned right, opposite of where we had found each other and we moved quietly up the street. I noticed more details as we walked along the street, damage to the road, pathways overgrown with flora and weeds, blunt force marks on doors, scratches carved into windows and cars that lay in ruins. The houses were all aged, with flora slowly reclaiming what had once been theirs.
We reached the end of the street and Ghost led us across the street. A dozen cars on either side were broken down, no longer functioning and sat there, motionless. We checked the closest cars with our weapons ready, but nothing lurked in or in between the vehicles. While there was an assortment of items in there, we decided to focus on finding the others first. Upon crossing the road, we came to a large open park, long grass had grown and in the centre an old playground set sat, most of it had fallen apart, a scarily beautiful scene of a world that once was.
“Say, Midnight?”
“What’s up?”
“This feels very similar to our own world, doesn’t it? Is this our world, or is it another?”
“Mm, you’re not wrong. This silence is unsettling thou-”
As if waiting for me to mention the silence, it broke with the sound of a gunshot. Ghost and I looked at each other and nodded, moving towards the sound which came from the other side of the park. Moving through the kneehigh grass, we took cover between two trees, one at each one. Looking at Ghost, I nodded as we peeked. Narrowing my eyes, I saw three figures running through the park, looking behind them as they seemingly ran from something.
One female, two male. They weren’t heading towards us but slightly to the right of us instead, looking behind them I made out two humanoids. Squinting a bit, I made them out and they looked like…
“Zombies?” Ghost whispered as I focused on the figures. They moved quickly but were clumsy in their movement. Their skin slightly rotted, pale white and their eyes…they were dead. They nearly matched the description for zombies, except for their blood, which is a bright purple. Their veins were deep purple instead of green or blue, either they weren’t human zombies or they weren’t zombies. The blood in the room I had woken up in had been red…
Watching the three, there is a high chance they were Winter, Sheep and Lemon. Making up my mind, I took in a breath before yelling.
“Friendlies at your eleven!”
With no hesitation, the three quickly changed direction and ran towards us. Giving Ghost a glance, who nodded with a determined look, we waited for the trio to pass our hiding spot and turned our guns towards the zombie-like figures. Breathing in and focusing my aim, I fired at the zombie on my side while Ghost fired at the one on his side. Both shots land, blowing the heads of the zombies up in a mess of purple blood and the remains of brains.
You have killed a Husk!
+1 Class Point.
This is your first kill on an enemy of this type!
+1 Class Point.
Class Points? Experience or is it another type of reward? Lowering my gun, I looked around to see if anything had been creeping up on us before slowly stepping forward with Ghost. I noticed the trio covering our rear, and leaving it to them for now, I approached these ‘Husks’ and looked at them.
The foul smell of rot, blood and gunpowder is heavy in the air, causing my stomach to churn whatever might be in there. Looking closely, I knew this wasn’t human, its skin had been long dead and there were puncture wounds all around its body, as if it had been stabbed repeatedly.
“What the fuck are they…” Ghost muttered as I glanced around us once again. Nothing had appeared, meaning we were safe, at least for now. The gunshots hadn’t been soft, no doubt they had rang out loudly.
“Let’s solve this later. You three, follow us. We’ll talk once we have shelter.”
Without question, the trio who I believed to be my team and fiance nodded and followed. Only one person had a gun out of the trio, a Glock G19 in poor condition just like our weapons. We made our way slowly towards the house that I had woken up from and entering it, we crept into the living room before closing one of the doors and leaving one open. Ghost moved to the window and kept a look out as I turned to the trio.
“Winter, Sheep and Lemon?” The three nod. Looking at the woman, who I believed to be Winter, I gulped as I took in her appearance. Beautiful was an understatement, she is jaw dropping. With gorgeous blue hair that had purple highlights, teal eyes and a rather large chest that might’ve been about a D cup, she had a slender figure and is about my height.
“Winter?” The woman nodded.
“Midnight?” Winter asked me, I had forgotten to introduce myself and I gave her a nod. “Fact?”
“Publicly, our anniversary is the 14th of April, but it is actually the 25th of February. Fact?”
“You proposed to me during Christmas, in Japan at the Himeji Castle. To the public, you proposed to me during our anniversary, a lie made up by management.” Winter answered me in a calm voice. My eyes lingered on her before I nodded and tore my gaze from her and looked at the one I suspected to be Sheep. A large, bulky man with dark skin, a bushy beard, black hair and blue eyes. Tall, about 180 cm or so in height.
“Sheep?”
“L-Lemon.”
That surprised me. “Fact?” I asked him as he nervously looked around. Being the newest member, he wasn’t used to our procedures. This procedure of asking for a fact is used for situations where we are meeting up for the first time in a game, or if there is a meta-build that allows one to disguise as another. We knew personal details about each other no one else would know, unless they looked into us way too much.
“Y-you’re our captain?”
“Too public, another.” I usually would be patient with Lemon, but now wasn’t the time.
“U-uh…” Lemon nervously looked around before gulping. “Y-you’ve walked in on me h-hugging a…” He mutters silently.
“Lemon, louder, I can’t hear you.”
“H-hugging a body p-pillow of L-Lina-san!”
“Good, but you’re meant to ask me for a fact next, which is that while we publicly tell the world you’re nineteen, you’re actually seventeen.”
Lemon nodded nervously as I felt a bit troubled. He’s a good kid, but he is too nervous and shy in high pressure situations, making it difficult for us to work with him effectively. He’s my responsibility now though, I wouldn’t abandon him. Turning to the last man, he had short blonde hair, deep green eyes and a slim figure, standing at about 170 cm. He held the glock in one hand, eyes looking at the door.
Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.
“Lastly, Sheep. Fact?”
“Anytime you have to attend a management meeting you listen to podcasts with a wireless earbud in one ear that you hide with your hair. Fact?”
“You pick your nose and eat it. Good, we’re all here, good…” Relaxing a bit, I walked over to the table and leaned against it. “What conclusion have you three reached? Oh, and that’s Ghost.” I stuck my thumb towards Ghost who glanced back, waved and then turned back to the street. “I’ve verified him.”
“Isekai’ed.”
“Isekai’ed”
Sheep and Winter answered at the same time as Lemon shook his head. “N-no, that isn’t possible!”
“Why is that, Lemon?”
“B-because…this is just a dream, isn’t it?” I could hear some fear in his voice and I knew he wasn’t thinking logically.
“Lemon, I know this isn’t the conclusion you want to hear, but you need to accept the likelihood that this is a case of being isekai’ed into some shitty world.”
“B-but our home…”
“Lemon, logically remember? Put your emotions aside when you’re dealing with unexpected situations and think logically. Being isekai’ed is only a working theory, and I know you may be scared that this is our reality, but we don’t have the luxury to hunt around for clues. Take a breath, collect yourself and just remember, we’re all here to support each other.” Crossing my arms while looking at Lemon, I gave him a stern look. The sight of a small red haired girl lecturing a tall dark muscular man must’ve been amusing as I saw both Ghost and Sheep exchanging a humoured look.
“O-ok.” Lemon nodded nervously as I pursed my lips. Lemon is an unknown variable at the moment, there is a chance he will be emotionally charged in a decision later. I planned to keep a close eye on him and seeing Sheep side glance at Lemon I knew he had made a similar decision. Looking at Winter who had walked over to me, I smiled.
“Are you okay?” Holding back on embracing her, as she didn’t like public affection, I saw her nod.
“I’ll be fine. What’s the plan?”
“Give me five minutes. There are too many variables.”
Closing my eyes, I fell deeply into my thoughts as I went through everything. Organising my thoughts and planning our next steps, I considered our situation carefully and came up with a plan. Opening my eyes, I saw Winter in front of me, Lemon leaning against a wall while Sheep and Ghost kept watch.
“First, food, water and shelter. We’re in an unknown environment, we need resources. Second, figure out our location, plan out escape routes, choke points and danger areas. Third, figure out the System we have, it’s different from Apocalyptic World’s System and it may play a vital function to our lives here. Fourth, find weapons, ammo and renewable sources of food. Lastly, look for any signs of other living people and leave messages of our own.”
“Should we use this place? It seems safe.” Turning to Sheep, I shake my head.
“No, it’s too old, I fear combat movement will have too many variables, such as the wood under our feet breaking, walls being broken easily and etc. We need a place with an escape route, solid flooring, intact roof and storage.”
“Shall we clear out this house at least? Could be some food and water here.”
“Yes, but we move as a team. Other than the room I woke up in and the living room, I have not explored the rest of the house. What weapons does everyone have?”
Checking with everyone, we only had three guns with the inclusion of Sheep’s Glock G19 with twelve rounds left.
“Give the Colt Diamondback to Winter, the Glock G19 to Ghost and I’ll hold the Deagle. Sheep, you’re with me, Lemon, stay with Winter and do not engage in anything. Ghost, you’re scouting as usual, you know the rules.”
“Roger.” All of them spoke in unison as Ghost crept through the house slowly. With him scouting and Winter watching his back, we went through each room carefully, checking every possible hiding spot. Finishing with the basement, we found nothing, not even any food or water. A bit frustrated, we decided to change plans slightly.
“Alright, you guys all have this quest, correct?” They nod. “Good, let’s do the quest while we move through the town slowly. We’ll search for a building that is sturdy and stable to use as our base. I want to find a place before nightfall, in case things get bad.”
As we exit the house and decide on a direction, we move as a group with Ghost leading, Winter and Lemon in the middle and Sheep and I tailing behind, watching the group. We moved slowly, checking each car, house and any blind spots before moving forward. While we walked, I scoped up a rock and saw that the System updated the quest to show 1/5 collected for stones, but I realised a problem.
“I can’t just carry five stones with me…” I had no pockets, bags or any way to carry them.
“We need to find a bag or sack. Perhaps we should leave the quest till we find a suitable place?”
Dropping the stone, I look around and respond to Sheep. “Agreed. I don’t like this, it’s way too quiet, looks like our world and there is too much we don’t know.”
“There are signs that are completely different from our world, like the layout of that house we were in.” He was right, the arrangement of rooms had been odd, with the stairs to the basement in the living room, the kitchen had been in the dining room and the only bedroom had been the one I had woken up from. “And those cars, I don’t recognise the badges or brands. They seem like basic cars, but I’d be very interested in what is under the hood.”
I didn’t know much about cars. I had a rather simple sedan to drive around and didn’t really invest in a better car, I had been building a smart home from the ground up after all. That took all of my money and I had been excited to finish it, a home that an AI would run by itself and do all of the chores. Knowing that it’s likely I’ll never see it come to fruition, I looked ahead and saw Ghost suddenly stop, raise a hand and tilt it to the right. Right away, we all took cover and peeked over the car, we were at an intersection with cars abandoned on the road. I saw two husks stumbling down the road from the right, not running but just stumbling along.
Scooping up another stone, my thoughts turn to testing to see what got a response from them, if they could see or if they relied on sound. Shaking my head, I decided against it, we were not prepared for the scenario where more Husks emerged and keeping an eye on the Husks, I watched as they disappeared out of my sight. After about five minutes of waiting, I sighed in relief as Ghost once more led us across the road.
We continued like this for an hour, stopping and letting Husks pass by while slowly making our way deeper into the town. More Husks started to appear, with groups of three to four becoming the norm. They seemed spaced out with their appearance, though I stayed ready for the likelihood that there might be a swarm of them eventually.
We found a building that I knew would be perfect for us after an hour and a half. With about two hours of daylight left, I knew we would have to check the large building quickly.
“It looks like a fire station?”
“Police, surely, right?”
“It’s made of brick and mortar with steel reinforcement, it’s what we want. Let’s focus on breaching, clearing and securing escape routes before the sun goes down. I pray to fuck there better be food and water in there.” Looking at the building, I felt my stomach churn with hunger.
“Don’t forget the rules of survival. Boil the shit out of everything.” Looking at Ghost, I shrug my shoulders and organise the group. Once again, we would be going in and sweeping each room individually, with Ghost leading the way. Sweeping through the building, we found many offices, meeting rooms and in the basement jail cells. In the very middle was an interrogation room with sound proofing which would be perfect for talking.
We found no Husks, but found signs of fighting, with blood stains, blunt damage and scratch marks at choke points throughout the building. The blood we found had been a mix of purple, red and green in colour.
“So where the hell are the bodies?” Ghost pointed at a stack of trash. “A body should be here, yet it’s not. Do they turn into those Husks when they die?”
“Likely, we have no other way of knowing. Secure escape routes, we’ll worry about everything else later. Thankfully we found a nice haul.” We found a small storage room with canned food, bottled water and another handgun. Unfortunately the handgun was busted, but the magazine had four .357 Magnum bullets, giving my Deagle a refill.
The problems however were numerous. We didn’t have anything to ignite a fire, the wood we had collected from around the building was wet, meaning trying to ignite it is extremely difficult. We didn’t have the knowledge on how to start a fire without a lighter or matches, and though we had the idea to use gasoline we simply didn’t have any. Next is the canned food, we had no idea what the hell it was. The written language isn’t one we knew of, we didn’t know if it had expired and opening one had released a foul smell that forced us to close the door and abandon that room.
The water looked fine, clear and pristine, but we were not willing to risk drinking it as the bottles were not sealed. It’s not that the seal had been broken off, but that there had never been a seal on the bottles. We would be willing to drink it if we could boil it, but without fire we couldn’t do that. We had no medical supplies either, and while we had been careful, we knew that a simple untreated scratch could lead to infection. We needed antibiotics, bandages and antiseptic cream, though we had no idea where to obtain such supplies.
The building we were in wasn’t perfect, but would mean we have a layer of defence against the elements, we had two planned escape routes with a third being possible with minimal risk and we could see without obstruction when viewing out of a window. Several choke points had been marked and we planned our escape routes within the building itself and were confident we could survive a firefight if it came down to it.
The sun had set moments ago, and without water or food that we were willing to eat, we decided to take turns on keeping watch. We had agreed to remain absolutely silent, no talking or shooting unless it is needed. Winter and I would keep watch first, followed by Sheep and Ghost. We decided to leave Lemon out for the time being as he hadn’t exactly had training for this sort of role, though plans to train him will happen, it’s just a matter of surviving the first night.
Currently, I sat on an office chair, peering out of a window while making sure I couldn’t be seen, I watched the streets. There was no power, no lights, no fire to see but I could make out silhouettes, slowly walking down the streets as the sun set. Sitting in the chair as I leaned back, thoughts upon thoughts ran through my mind. I still didn’t know what to do, truthfully. This situation had been thrust upon us with no warning, who in the world could prepare to be isekai’ed into an unknown world, especially with so little?
As the nighttime came, I started to feel the chill of the night bite into me as I hugged my knees. I’m scared, terrified, of what is happening right now, I wanted this to all be a really bad dream and that I’d wake up in hospital from a coma. I knew it wasn’t likely to happen, at this point it’s all but confirmed that this is indeed another world, and I’m terrified. But I had to hold that back, I needed to lead the others and keep them safe. If I’m crumbling into tears and crying out then I can’t keep them safe. I have to show them that we’ll make it through this, it’s my duty as a leader.
I heard footsteps and looking up, I saw Winter. Pulling a chair over, she sat next to me and embraced me. Leaning against her, we sat there in silence, watching the street, enjoying each other's warmth.
As we watched, the silhouettes increased, barely making them out, I saw a sight that caused my stomach to drop. They emerged from everywhere, the ground, houses and underneath cars. The streets were filled with hundreds of Husks and the only sounds we could hear were gurgling and growling. Gripping Winter’s hands firmly as she returned it, my fear of our situation only grew.