The World's End

Most of us remember where we were when the multiverse decided to "allow" our planet to enter. I don't, I was still battling my inner demons, trying to overcome the bullshit. I grew up a fighter never backing down from anyone, a real disrespect for authority type. Problem was when I became an adult, I had a list of enemies, and was always looking over my shoulder. Which had started to give me panic attacks. Nothing seemed to help so I drowned myself in drink. Blacking out and coming to sometimes with more bruises and busted knuckles then memories. Somehow, I just couldn't escape my urges to fight even if I couldn't remember them. It wasn't until the multiverse came that I truly understood why I was the way I am. From what I was told by the other humans, "the integration" or the world's end was spectacular! They say it happened in an instant. 6:00AM Eastern standard time.

:Warning citizens of earth 30 minutes until multiverse integration:

Dave screamed! "What the hell does that mean?"

Jumping up from his chair in front of the television, looking to where Rob had been asleep on the couch.

Rob sitting up and looking around bewildered. "I don't know, but it woke me out of a sound sleep!"

"You saw it to right, the message, like a videogame popped into your head?" demanded Dave. "Right?"

"Yea weirdest shit ever. You think it's real? Maybe we shouldn't have stayed out with D all night drinking."

"At least he didn't lose it again and smash someone at the bar." Chuckled Dave.

"Where is D anyway?" Questioned Rob. "He didn't come back to The Spot last night, we did."

"For real though, what the hell is going on? I'm gonna run outside and smoke. We definitely drank too much last night" Dave said, while walking toward the front door of their apartment shaking his head.

"The Spot" as they liked to called it, was a decent size three bed room apartment on the 1st floor of a two story home. The Crew, as the group of friends liked to think of themselves as, chilled at The Spot as often as they went out.

Dave walked out on the front porch to smoke, looking around, he realized they definitely didn't drink too much last night. If anything they should have drank way way more. The sky appeared to be on fire, a fire every color of the rainbow. He looked across the street to the brick apartment building, the same shit building he looked at almost every morning. On their side of town no one could buy a house. The area they all grew up in was a mix of apartment style buildings. Old Victorian houses that had been converted into 2 or 3 family homes, with the occasional single family home that was decent sprinkled in. They didn't live on the rich side of town that was for sure. They lived between two housing projects, and fighting was the normal in school and on the streets for most everyone around. Look out at the buildings, he noticed most of the people were all scrambling to their cars, some yelling at each other to hurry up other franticly running. A few people stood as still as statues staring at the sky slack jawed.

"Yo, you better come check this out!" He yelled over his shoulder. "I got a bad feeling that message isn't bullshit and we're not the only ones who saw it"

Scrambling through the door Rob's eyes opened wide "We gotta grab some gear and get the crew together NOW!"

:System announcement- 20 minutes remaining before integration:

They both ran back inside and grabbed their phones. Rob ran over grabbed a backpack. Rob always had one of those laptop backpacks that could hold his 17" Alienware laptop. He customized the shit out of it. It was better then most people's gaming PCs. He just started throwing anything he thought useful inside the backpack, franticly running through the apartment looking for anything else that may be useful.

Dave yelled, "My phones got no service."

"Neither does mine. This isn't good. We at least have to find D before anything happens. Who knows what craziness this means!" Rob yelled back, stuffing more items in the bag.

Meeting back up in the living room, Dave and Rob's eyes met. "You good?" Rob asked. Dave just nodded and they headed back out the front door.

Dave and Rob ran out the apartment, down the side of their apartment building. People were coming out of there homes in droves. Probably thinking it was safer anywhere but where they were. On the first floor but other side of a building was Dan's place. Dan and Rob were The Crews tech guys. Dan could build anything electronic and Rob could hack and crack anything on the web. They both made their money off the dark web. Dan built dark web sites such as auctions and charged a fee, and Rob made his coin hacking for no small fee.

SMASH, SMASH

"What the hell is going on?" Dan said slamming the door open for them.

"Grab some shit, we gotta move now!" Rob replied.

"Have you guys seen and heard some strange messages this morning?" Asked Dan.

"No dumbass we just sprinted here and banged on your door because there's a sale on ugly t-shirts you need to see. Of course we've seen and heard the messages! Now get your shit we gotta go!" Dave yelled.

"Where's D? How come it's just you two? And how are we gonna get to the other side of the city in 20 minutes?"

"Shut the hell up Dan we're wasting time. We gotta move." Rob said.

:System announcement- 15 minutes until integration:

"You guys seen and heard that to right?" Dan asked, half scared and half confused.

"Like we already said YES! Now grab your gear we gotta get to D's now! Unless your sitting on a bunch of weapons in there we didn't know about?" Rob said ready to pick Dan up and run with him.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

As they made there way to the front, where Rob's black RAM 1500 was parked, Rob knew they weren't going to make it to D's before this so called integration. People where running and driving everywhere. Cars were jumping the curb to pass each other. Families were running for their lives. That's when they heard the first gun shots. They all knew right then and there this truly was The World's End.

The ten minutes they spent were trying to get over to D's apartment, had basically been playing demolition derby. Rob's, what use to be sweet RAM, was now a total piece of crap. Dan was relaying to Rob any info he could get on from the Net, which was basically nothing. Dave was yelling out the window trying to fight anyone that got in the way, as if they had time for that. 5 minutes to go before the integration happened. The question was is the whole Crew going to be together, or if D was going to be the odd man out.

They were almost out of there shit hole area. There were more houses and less apartments now, you could even go a few blocks without seeing a liquor store. It wasn't the rich side of town but it was better then were they lived.

"You think D is on his way to us or you think he's holding down the fort hoping we get to him?" Rob asked them both.,

"D's not in the right head space, ever sense he got out of the hospital. He has said he feels something coming. Something that will challenge us all. He's your brother Rob, you know more then anyone those aren't panic attacks! D never gave a shit about anything. Suddenly two weeks ago not only is he having panic attacks, he's saying he's getting a strange feelings of being watched." Dan replied.

"Did he tell you guys about blacking out? Waking up, barely remembering his strange dreams? I ran out to my truck yesterday, I wasn't outside but 3 minutes! When I came back inside, somehow his knuckles were all busted and his lip was bleeding. I asked him what happened and he said nothing. I said "Bro your bleeding and look at your hands." Rob explained as he swerved around two cars that had stopped and were beeping at each other. The benefits of not giving a fuck. If he tapped a bumper or smashed a car, no one was going to complain. It was the end of the world as far as he knew. They could still her the occasional gunshot or scream. But, it was much less now, either ammo was running low, or people just accepted the fate that awaited them.

Finally, D's place came into view. Slamming the breaks, and throwing open the doors, the three men ran toward D's backdoor.

Beating on the door, resulted in no answer from D. Finally, Rob used his spare to let them in. They split up to look around, soon they realized D wasn't home, but he had been. Meeting back up in the kitchen which was right off the back door. Dave looked to Rob, who was holding a bloody shirt in his hands.

"What did he beat his own ass?" Dave asked confused

"No, there was blood all over this shirt but none on the floor, I went into every room it didn't make sense. This amount couldn't have come from him, but he's not here."

Back outside and in the truck again, Rob looked around there was still no clear roads and demolition derby was taking a toll. His truck wouldn't make it any place in the 5 minutes they had left, because his truck would probably not be running anymore in 5 minutes.

"Shit we're not gonna make it. Anyone have any ideas? You think we should stay in the truck when this happens or get out? Maybe we should get inside somewhere?" Rob asked

"Who the hell knows, this isn't your average Saturday. It's to early for this shit show anyway, I didn't even get to finish smoking this morning, and we're basically dead in a few minutes. I should have just stayed my ass on the couch and waited for the world to end! But noooo, I'm running around with you two smashing into everything. Our damn phones don't work, the internet is magically dead, and assholes are everywhere!" Dave was starting to yell, slightly losing his shit.

"Dave! Use your head for once, we're all scared but if we don't make it to D when this goes down, it's all going to be much worse than if we were all together." Rob said giving Dave a look that told him to calm the hell down.

Dan was just staring out the window, by now people we basically in a panic, not that they weren't acting like maniacs themselves, but at least they weren't running on foot like half the people outside. Where the hell could they make it in just a few minutes on foot? The nearest train or plane was miles away. Hell the reason rent was so cheap on their side of the city was because it wasn't near anything important.

"I'm about to lose my shit.." Dan mumbled to himself.

"How much time do we have?" Dave asked.

"Probably around 3 mins." Rob said as he said as he finally gassed it and smashed threw two cars in the way to start going.

"Dude that car you just rammed, just hit that guy!" Dan yelled.

"Well he shouldn't have been standing there." Dave said laughing at his own joke.

Glancing at the clock, Rob thought to himself, well if it's all going to hell in a hand basket at least I get to go with these guys. If anyone is gonna be able to find us I'm sure it's my brother. He would fight God himself to get the three of us out of trouble. I'm sure if the phones still worked he would have already called us by now.

:Outer Space:

1 minute before integration on an interplanetary ship just outside the solar system stood The Ten. Known as The Ten and feared across the multiverse, these were the first ten beings who made it to level 1000. The multiverse gifted them the right to rule. They all had they're own factions to rule, millions sometimes trillions of cultivators to rule over. All of them a power in there own right. Each was allowed to pick a champion on a newly integrated world. Each allowed to pull there champion into a time dilation chamber and train them a bit before the integration happened. If the champion they choose was the first to level 100 there faction was allowed control over the planet. Torok was the first being to reach level 1000, however he had the smallest faction. Sometimes he wouldn't pick a champion. He said only those with the spark would he pick, and the other 9 never truly knew what he meant. Of The Ten, Torok was the most feared because the others could feel his power. It wasn't like any of other beings, it felt different, strange, foreign even. Only 5 times during previous integrations had he chose a champion and each time, the chosen was the first to reach level100. This being the 6th time he choose a champion had them all paying attention. Unlike the last times though, he wouldn't let them see his champion. The others knew nothing about the champion, except he was pulling him in for time dilation training but wiping his memory after.

"Torok, we have but a moment before the integration you must return your champion." Zellia stated.

"I just wiped his memory again, he will be returned at the final moment. Worry about your own champion, she knows what's coming but she still doesn't stand a chance." Torok said with a hint of a smile.

Zellia was confused, Torok never had acted this way before. Sure his champions were always the strongest but he always took a direct approach. Norbak was already betting against Torok for the first time. Telling them Torok had lost his touch. That they would finally witness one of his champions fall. Zellia knew him best and that was to say barely at all. Torok seemed never to want for anything he had immense power but the last few thousand years had seemed bored. What game was he playing? Why was he taking this approach?

Torok looked out over the world and almost smiled. For the first time not only had he found a champion, but finally he found someone who may be able to actually challenge him one day. Someone whose spark burned brighter then even his did on the day the multiverse came to him. He also knew that to truly become a power house in the multiverse you needed to be challenged. With no memory of his help his champion would rise truly rise to be a powerhouse, or so we're his hopes.

:Back on Earth:

God damnit D thought I blacked out again. These god damn panic attacks were turning into a shit show. This was the third one this week. He knew something was off soon as he came to. He had blood all over him again, and every time he blacked out from the panic when he came too he could think clearly again. It was like he knew deep down inside he was stronger, faster somehow. He felt different he thought he was losing his mind. Then the count down started.

5,4,3. That's when he knew he finally lost his mind not only was he hearing things he was seeing things too. When the countdown hit 1 a strange pulse flew through him and he saw all white.