I would kill for another night of sleep; I hadn’t been able to since the end of the world. But the dead do not rest.
End of the world might have been too dramatic. Whenever I hear that, I think of those movies where the world truly ends. Continental shift or the surface scoured with fire. I could call it the end of my world; but even that might be stretching it. My college survived the apocalypse in one piece, even if it now rested a hundred feet into a cavernous den of monsters.
That day started just like any other. It was 12 AM, and I was making Ramen in a microwave I appropriated from the staff. I wasn’t, strictly speaking, supposed to be in that section of the building and all; especially not this late at night. But like I said, I have become fast friends with the staff.
It wasn’t hard.
I didn’t even have to resort to bribery. Just using the trashcan correctly was enough to earn the appreciation of many members of the custodial staff. College students were messy. The bar is low.
It helped that practically all I did was study.
I set the timer and started the microwave. The door to the staff room swung open practically the minute the microwave buzzed to life. Russo glared out of the entryway. Russo almost always worked the late shift, the custodian left to clean up overnight.
“You better not be microwaving fish in here.” Russo said, fingers gripping the door frame as he leaned into the room.
“Why the hell would we be cooking fish?” Steve asked. He didn’t look up from the textbook on the table. Steve was only here because of me. He didn’t want me to leave him behind on my class schedule; most of our class opted out of summer quarter. Which meant college was even more empty than usual.
Russo scowled.
“I said the same thing. But someone blew up the microwave. So we got a new one. Don’t ruin it.” Russo said, half closing the door between us.
“It doesn’t look new.” I said.
The microwave was covered in oily fingerprints and scratches.
“You don’t know how to appreciate the finer things in life, Eli.” Russo said, strolling over to slap a hand on top of the microwave. “This mean machine is 1200 Watts.”
“Doesn’t that just make it easier to blow stuff up in it?” Steve said, finally looking up from his study.
Russo raised a finger, as if to make a counterpoint, then stopped.
The room smelled like spices now.
“What is that?” Russo asked.
“Ramen?” I ventured.
“No. That.” Russo said, gesturing toward the other side of the room.
I turned and looked. That half of the study hall was dark. Like half of the rooms on this campus, they had re this one-purposed once or twice or maybe a half-dozen times, the original intent of the room long lost. Marks on the ceiling showed where there was once a wall separating this room from another, but that wall had long been torn down. The other side of the room just had desks, chairs, and shadows.
“Are you fucking with us Russ?” Steve asked.
I drove my eyes and looked into the dark corner of the room. I thought I might’ve seen something there, but it could just as easily have been the light playing tricks on me.
That whole side of the room looked like it was in a heat haze.
I still wasn’t convinced it wasn’t just sleep deprived brain. I’d missed sleep. A lot of sleep. Summer quarters were shorter, which meant the same amount of work in less time. It also meant that finals were just around the corner.
“I think you need to get more sleep, Russo.”
Steve combed his fingers through his hair. Then he groaned and leaned back.
“I’m gonna drop out of college.”
“You say that every time finals come up.”
“Guys.” Russo said, tossing a severe look in our direction. “I’m serious.”
“So am I. This time.” Steve said. “Did you bring me ramen too?”
“You’re supposed to bring your own — “
I didn’t finish my sentence. A blue box appeared in midair, hovering directly in front of me.
[Congratulations resident of EARTH. After 227 years, your species has finally been determined as sufficiently advanced and civilized for magi-technological uplift!]
[We are sure you have many questions! Don’t worry. Our political delegates have already been in contact with the heads of your state, including (INSERT local residents governmental leader here) and they have already agreed to integration!]
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
[After much experience uplifting worlds with foreign cultures and races, the Catalog has implemented a strict set of safety features for new worlds — ERROR — including unlimited health, lowered magical beast aggression, ERROR]
I tried to look away. I failed. It was as if the text from the box was directly streaming into my brain. It felt like the building shuddered around me. The text continued.
[We’re sorry. We’re sorry. We’re sorry.]
[Please contact an administrator at your earliest convenience. Last administrator login: –137 Earth years. ERROR.]
[Uplift instructions are incomplete. We’re sorry. DEATH TO THE EMPEROR. System failure.]
“What the fuck?” I asked.
The sound of a window exploding answered me. Something crashed into the school on the floor above me, scraping across the floor. It sounded like there was demolition work on the floor above us.
Outside of the wall spanning window had captured all of Russo’s attention, the scene shifted. One by one the streetlights that decorated the campuses sprawling landscaping went dark.
“Fuck.” I said. Then I grabbed the desk as the world started shaking.
Our window exploded.
A shape of jagged edges and black fur shot into the room, its voice the scream of a man of being tortured, black ichor dripping from too human, too wide lips, staining the worn tile floor. It was almost a man, teeth sharp and mouth filled with rows of needles.
Then it bit me.
There was a moment of shock, of the world tumbling from edge to edge, upside down, as sound assaulted my ears without meaning. A dozen pricks of cold cut into the flesh of my arm. I heard a pop as my arm left its socket.
It took me a second to realize I was screaming.
Russo hadn’t hesitated. He beat the shit out of the monster with a chair. He was heaving and panting, slamming the chair into the monster again and again even though it was already limp. My throat was raspy from screaming.
My arm popped back into place.
Another unavoidable notification seized my mind, shoving words into my eyes.
[Congratulations on your first Triumph! The system has many Triumphs — from saving the lowest among men, to cooking food for a loved one, to the occasional and necessary act of purging the corrupted monsters that seep through the cracks of the Empire’s defenses. You have slain one Feral Blood Thrall. You have reached level one.]
[Eli Gray][Human][Level 1]
[Unlock class at level 5]
[Health: 3/10] [Mana: 0]
[STR 7][CON 10]
[INT 10][WIL 10]
[AGI 4][PER 5]
[Skills: None!]
[Skill point available!]
[Status: Poisoned. Seek immediate help. Affliction: Hemophagoviridae Strigis (Feral Blood Thrall, Lesser) Three hours remaining until death.]
I vomited on the floor. The microwave buzzed as the ramen finished cooking.
With a thunk, the lights shut off.
“Fuck.” Russo said. He dropped the chair. It clattered noisily to the ground. Russo flinched at the noise, staring up.
I felt vomit and spit covering my face. I tried to push myself to my feet, gasping with pain as I tried to lean on my arm.
“Don’t move.” Russo said. He fumbled with his keys, finding a flashlight on a key chain and shining it on me. He stared backwards out the window for movement as he did. Confident nothing else was coming, he pulled my sleeve up to examine me.
I reeled backwards for a moment.
“Don’t move. Holy shit.” He said.
I gasped as well, staring at the wound on my arm. The monster had pierced me in a dozen places, and blood had pooled out from the wound, then stopped just as quickly.
“It shouldn’t have healed like this. Fuck.” Russo said, turning my arm over. “Does it hurt?”
I stopped and breathed.
It didn’t hurt. Not anymore.
“It hurt like a bitch.” I said, rubbing my arm. The blood was still wet and warm, cooling in the air. “And the — the prompt said I’m infected?”
“It’s like a fucking video game.” Steve said, shining the flashlight from his phone. “I can’t see my status.”
“Call nine-one-one.” Russo said.
“Can’t. No service.” Steve replied. He spun around, shining the flashlight toward the window.
The world fell away in darkness. In the black, something howled.
“Shit.” Steve said, aiming the flashlight toward the ground. “We need — we need shelter. And a gun.”
“They make me leave my gun in the car.” Russo said.
“You bring a fucking gun with you?” I asked. My eyes didn’t leave the shadowy figure of the corpse on the ground.
We were all whisper shouting, breaths hissing. Cold wind assaulted me from outside the window.
“And a first aid kit. We can disinfect that.” Russo replied.
“Let’s go get the fucking gun. It’s better than sitting here.” Steve hissed. “Can you walk, Eli?”
I pushed myself to my feet. It was shaky. My body still ached. I wasn’t sure how much of the pain was real and how much was imaginary.
“Yes.” I replied.
Russo’s own flashlight turned on. My heart raced, pounding in my ears as Steve opened the door into a quiet hall.
“Okay.” Steve said, sucking in a breath before stepping into the dark.
We walked as fast as we could short of jogging. Russo took the lead, heading us through the building’s halls and down. The noises of tearing and crashing above didn’t stop. With the lights off, the building took on an eerie air, walls pressing tight in on us.
Russo pushed the door open, letting it swing. The hinges whined. We all cringed, staring out into the parking lot.
It was still here.
But only a few feet beyond its edge rose a wall of rough-hewn stone. Massive veins of red, glowing in the dark, scoured the walls like fresh wounds. They pulsed with light like they were breathing.
“What the fuck?” Steve whispered. In a crouch, he stepped forward out the door, scanning all around him.
A monstrous cave had swallowed the college. Or at least the building we were in — there should’ve been more college campus further beyond the wall. Maybe they had all sunken into caves of their own.
“My car is right there.” Russo said.
We lingered in the doorway.
“We could run to it in a few seconds.” I said.
“We don’t know if there’s more of those… those things out here.” Steve said.
“Fucking monsters.” I said.
The other two were hesitating.
I took the first step forward toward the parking lot. I needed to. I needed antiseptic — to get the poison out.
Nothing charged at me. We crossed the few dozen feet of empty concrete in relative silence; the cave illuminated only by the glowing red that crisscrossed it. It felt like we were in a den of monsters. Of Blood Thralls. I didn’t know what the fuck those were or what they infected me with.
“Here.” Russo said, stopping in front of his car — a tiny, compact prius. I rubbed my arm. It didn’t even hurt anymore — but the blood was drying and flecking.
Russo popped the trunk, grabbing a locked case and fumbling with the codelock before it popped open.
Inside was a small, short-barreled shotgun with wooden furniture.
“Why the hell do you bring this to work?” I asked.
Russo was looking over the shotgun, shining a flashlight inside before loading shells into it.
“I don’t. It just doesn’t leave my car.” He replied. “Steve, first aid kits in the back there?”
Steve threw his hands in, pulling out a first aid bag. He rifled through it, pulling out antiseptic and bandages, and then he grabbed another locked safe inside the car. Then he turned to me.
“Show me your arm.” Steve said.
“I got it.” I replied, grabbing the antiseptic wipe from him and wiping my arm down.
There was no wound left. Just red, irritated skin and dried flecks of blood. Not even a scar remained to designate where the monster had torn into my arm. But the memory of the pain was too real.
“What’s the code?” Steve asked, turning back to the second locked case in the trunk.
Russo looked over, rolled a single number, and popped the top of the locked case. Inside was a large caliber revolver. Steve turned back and looked between me and Russo.
“I don’t think we’re gonna drive out of here.” I said, my eyes tracking the stone wall that rose into the distance. The red, bloody veins stretched out above us, seeming to meet in the ceiling over another building.
The school’s nursing building was four stories tall and state-of-the art. It seemed to be jammed into the ceiling of a sprawling cave now. They had night classes there — some of those would’ve still been going. I could see shattered windows near the top floor, but not much else from the outside.
Russo grabbed the radio at his hip, spinning the little knob on it. It popped on with a beep. We all tensed at the high-pitched noise. Something creaked in the parking lot — a cooling car.
“Russ here.” Russo said, lifting the radio to his mouth. “Jean, are you alright?”
“—elp! We’re at the top of the nursing building! They’re outside the door. What the hell are these things? Russo, help!” Jean shouted through the line. She was already talking before Russo even let go of the button, the first words lost.
“Guess we’re not going for shelter.” Russo said, clipping the radio back to his belt after turning it off.
“Are you sure?” Steve asked. “Maybe we should bunker down and wait this out.”
“The nursing students don’t have a gun.” I said.
“Neither do you, Eli.” Steve said, still shuffling around the bags in the back of Russo’s car.
“I’ll come with you guys. I’m not staying out here.” I didn’t hesitate.
A horde of monster with friends sounded better than an empty cave alone.. But Steve was right. I didn’t have a gun.
“Did you guys get a skill point too?” I asked.
They both stopped, turning to look at me.
“I — you saw those?” Russo asked.
“No.” Steve said. “I only saw the messed up prompt. No levels.”
“Yeah.” I said, feeling assured that the prompts had really appeared and I wasn’t just in total shock. “System? Character sheet?” I said aloud.
“Menu! Remote control!” Russo said.
I closed my eyes for a moment and focused, willing the system to pop up.
[Skill point available! Would you like to see your options now?]