Brian exited his apartment and instantly noted that the world outside felt completely different to what it had been for his whole life. There were no cars on the street, no planes in the sky, and no people on the sidewalk. It was eerie like walking through a ghost town that was supposed to be full of people. It was not a pleasant feeling.
Brian tried starting his car, but nothing happened. Looks like I am walking. This is going to take forever. It was a little less than 4 miles from Brian’s apartment to Mr. Mcmullen’s house, with all of the stop lights a fifteen or so minute drive. Trivial. But now walking, likely fighting monsters, and worse people scared and a little crazed with all that had happened. This trip had become a whole lot more dangerous. The weight of the rifle in his hand alleviated some of his fear. He could handle whatever was thrown at him, and very little was going to survive a .308 Winchester bullet to the chest.
The weather in Portland, Oregon that day was perfect. The sun was out. There were big puffy clouds out keeping the sun from fully beating down on you. It was a balmy 65 degrees Fahrenheit. All in all a perfect day for all cars everywhere to be useless and now have to walk to get anywhere.
He set off down the road heading towards Mr. Mcmullen’s house. His first name was Lou, but most people referred to him as Mr. Mcmullen or to some Mcmullen. Brian had been friends with a boy named Nathan when they were little kids. Mr. Mcmullen had become Nathan’s stepfather when the boy was twelve. It had once been Brian’s dream to join the 75th Ranger Regiment and when he was a teenager Mr. Mcmullen had been helping him train his body. Then came the fibro diagnosis and Brian’s dreams went up in smoke. Mr. Mcmullen would definitely be someone to hook up with in whatever crazy situation Earth faced. Was this an apocalypse? It seems like the power grid has failed. Cars aren’t working. We have crazy powers, and supposedly there are monsters. I'd say this qualifies as an apocalypse.
About ten minutes or so after Brian started his journey he heard voices. Brian was in a typical housing neighborhood. Houses lined up in rows with a street running down the middle. Brian quickly ran over towards one of the houses and ducked behind some shrubs. Right now he wasn’t taking any chances. A person can be calm and reasonable, but people are dumb and dangerous. You scare them, really scare them and there is no way to predict how they will behave. For now it is best to avoid all interactions with people.
Out of one of the houses several small humanoids walked out into the sun. If it wasn’t for their green skins, large eyes and pig-like noses they might have passed for children wearing animal skins carrying stone age weaponry. Brian would have been content to let them pass him by and not deal with them until he noticed that there were thick red liquid stains on the weaponry.
Blood. They killed someone, likely the family of that house. And now they walk around like it’s nothing. Nuh uh. Not on my watch. Perfect time to test out some of my new abilities. Brian set down his rifle and focused on the purple gem thinking fire as the elemental type. A red SMG with white and orange accents materialized in his hand. Wasting no time Brian popped out from behind the shrubs, lined up his shot and pulled the trigger. The first thing Brian noticed was that unlike every other gun he had ever fired there was no recoil. As such the gun stayed perfectly on target and several bullets struck the leader instantly killing him. There were brief flashes of fire when the bullets struck, but none caught fire as lethal damage was instantaneous.
The little creatures froze at hearing the unknown sound before noticing that their leader fell over dead. Brian raked the gun on full auto up and down spraying lead into the column of little creatures.
The creatures tried to scatter but the damage was done, only a few managed to move but they were quickly engulfed in flames from the bullets. It was over before it had even really started. Before the ten second timer on the summoned gun was up all of the creatures' dead bodies were littering the front of the house.
Curiously for all of the bodies that caught on fire; it seemed that the fires went out quickly and the fire didn’t spread to the grass. Sweet, no collateral damage. That’s useful.
The gun disappeared and silence was all that was left after the brief violent encounter. Brian took a closer look at the creatures making sure none were still alive. As he checked over the bodies he noticed the damage his bullets had caused. Some were just ashes, but some of the bodies remained and the sight before him was gruesome. Movies and tv either cut away from the body or just showed a small hole. Rarely do you see the true effect of a bullet riddled body. The sight made Brian heave over and lose his stomach contents. After several moments Brian managed to collect himself, wipe his lips, take a drink from a water bottle, and spit it out cleaning his mouth.
I got to get a grip. This is the world now. Monsters can apparently invade homes and kill families in broad daylight. I can’t be losing it every time I have to fight for my life. Steeling himself Brian picked up his rifle and continued on his way. He noticed the blinking light from early this morning. He stopped and like this morning he focused on it and the blue box from earlier popped up in the forefront of his vision. “Congratulations Summon elemental gun has risen in level. It is now Iron level 2. Damage very slightly increased.” Got a level up. Nice. I wonder if that was because I used the ability, because I killed several monsters, or a combination of the two? Have to test that out when the cooldown is over.
Satisfied that he had done all he could do with regards to leveling up Brian started walking again. He moved a little slower and was now constantly scanning for threats. Can’t access the menu or whatever the blue box is in the middle of the road again. Something could have easily snuck up on me while my attention was elsewhere. Boy would that have sucked.
As he walked down the road he felt eyes on him, as he looked around he noticed blinds opened slightly as people very cautiously checked out the disturbance on their street. Probably too scared to come out and check it out themselves. I hope they have some way of taking care of themselves. I can’t really knock on every door and help out everyone. Hopefully Mr. Mcmullen knows some way we can help the average person or a lot of people are going to die. But there is not much I can do. Occasionally as he walked he saw signs of the monster group having passed this way. Doors were ajar, stuff had been thrown out on the lawn, and in some cases bodies were on the street. It looked like some people had tried to run when they saw the goblin-like monsters. Maybe some had escaped, but not everyone had been so lucky.
Brian didn’t know what he would encounter when he exited the housing development and got on a main road. Business of all types dotted the landscape. The signs of anarchy were easy to see, busted windows, graffiti, and looting was everywhere. It only took a few minutes of walking before he ran into the first people he had seen in this new world. They had obviously looted an electronics store. They had carts full of various electronics with one giant tv dominating a cart. Idiots. Who worries about securing a bigger tv when monsters are showing up, people have superpowers, and most importantly of all everything that runs on electricity is disabled.
The looters passed Brian by. They might have had thoughts of attacking Brian, one look at Brian’s rifle and they wisely decided to take on easier prey.
It was sometime in the afternoon, probably after 1 o’clock when Brian finally arrived at Mr. Mcmullen’s house. Brian had run into more people on his trip. Many of them were looting. The smart ones looting water and food from grocery stores, the dumb ones taking anything they wanted. Brian didn’t engage with any of them, just kept walking. His rifle saving him from trouble or questions. It seemed no one wanted to mess with the guy carrying multiple guns and a knife strapped to his belt. The only people that even acknowledged him were others who were carrying a gun. They looked him in the eye and gave him a nod. They would survive to see another day.
He hadn’t seen any more humanoid monsters as he walked, but he had seen monstrous versions of animals a few times. Curiously all of these creatures were purple. Completely purple. What’s up with the purple?
Most seemed to be scavenging whatever they could find, in more than one instance eating human bodies. Brian wished he could have saved them, but they were already dead so he stealthily moved on not killing the monsters.
The house was still the same as he remembered it. Nothing about it had changed.. The flag still flew from the window. There was no visible damage anywhere to be seen. Here’s hoping he’s still home.
If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.
Brian knocked on the door. “Mr. Mcmullen, Mrs. Mcmullen it’s Brian Davis. I used to be friends with Nathan. Are you home?
Brian didn’t notice the curtains move slightly from the gun barrel pressing against them. A few seconds later the door opened and an older gentleman still with a Marine haircut answered the door. He had a Beretta 92FS in one hand with a flashlight in his other hand in a reverse grip. A strong voice hissed, “Stop making so much racket. Don’t you know any better? Now what are you doing here?”
“Well sir, I don’t know what’s going on, the power seems to be off everywhere, there are monsters roaming the streets. If this is an apocalypse you would be one of the best people to meet up with and strategize about what to do next.”
“Monsters? What do you mean monsters? Come in and tell me about them. Me, Nathan, and the missus were just talking about what to do next, but none of us have seen any monsters.”
Mr. Mcmullen led Brian through the living room into the kitchen where his wife and his son were sitting. Mrs. Mcmullen was a short Polyneisan woman with grey in her hair, but don’t let that fool you into thinking she was some sweet old lady. She had fire in her system and was every bit as capable as her ex military husband. Her son Nathan was over 6’ tall and had his mother’s skin. He had joined the Marines out of high school, but you couldn’t tell by looking at him. He had reasserted the civilian look unlike his stepfather. They greeted Brian and he sat down across from them.
“I ran into several on my way here. A few giant versions of animals. But by far the worst was a group I ran into early on. There were about 10 of them. They were exiting a house. They were short, had green skin, pig noses, and large eyes. They were mostly naked except for some animal skins. They also were carrying stone knives and spears. …” Brian choked up, “The weapons had blood on them from the family they had just killed.”
Everyone took a moment to silently absorb the news that monsters were killing people in their homes.
Brian continued, “I used one of my new abilities and summoned a gun and was able to kill the monsters. I was able to take them down without a fight from them so they are at least no more difficult to kill than anything else.”
“This is troubling. Monsters going around and killing civilians. Phones and vehicles not working. Flashlights work so it stands to reason that things like the Multiband Inter/Intra Team Radio works. Communication will be slow. The National Guard will mobilize, but without vehicles and hampered communications their response will be limited. Definitely not enough to protect Portland, let alone Oregon.
“The tutorial I got mentioned capturing zones to have a chance at safety. Do you think the military will stick to protocol, or try and capture zones?”
“Martial law will likely be declared, although communication between the Governor, military commanders, and the federal government will be difficult. I don’t know how the local military leaders will react. This is unprecedented. There might be a protocol that exists, but I don’t know it.”
Silence once again fell on the room as each struggled to formulate how they would proceed in wake of this unprecedented event.
Finally Brian spoke up, “What about doing it ourselves?”
“You think it will be easy to secure Portland or Oregon? You don’t even have any military or even police training. This isn’t like when we were kids Brian. We aren’t super heroes.”
“I know I am not a superhero. But I can’t do nothing. Those monsters killed people. Right now people are dying. And a lot of people are scared and stuck in their homes. People were looking out their windows after I took out the monsters. I knew they were scared. Scared and helpless. They wanted someone to come save them. I didn’t know what to do so I left them, but you two are military trained, and you have to have friends that have training. If we could organize them we could make a difference. It’s like the quote says, “The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing.”
“And who is going to lead them? You? You don’t know the first thing about leading soldiers.”
“No, but you have some idea about it. You and Mr. Mcmullen have either led men or been led by men in combat. I am not saying I am going to save the world or anything. But maybe together we can save people.”
“He’s right Nathan. As easy as it would be for us to stay safe here and protect your mother. What about all the people out there who don’t have someone like us? Normally we would just trust in the police and the military. But these aren’t normal circumstances. We have to help.”
They shared a look and Nathan sighed, “Ok. How are we going to help? Where are we going to put people? They can’t all stay here?”
“That’s probably why you need to capture zones. So you can make places for people where they can be safe. Like in ancient times where cities had walls built around them.”
“Do you have any idea how long something like that took? You can’t just build a wall in a day.”
“Of course not. But that must be at least one of the reasons for the grey slot gems. Building walls, defenses, houses. Let alone all the stuff that would need to be built for people to survive.”
“Where are we going to find them? First you want ex-soldiers. Now you want builders. What are you going to do, call up the local carpenters and ask if they happened to take grey slots instead of the other ones?”
“I don't know. Hopefully we run into some people out there that can help us. We have to try. The tutorial said that this was a training ground. That the universe was facing some sort of invasion and Earth was needed to join the war effort. I don’t know much about fighting a war, but I do know that you need a lot more than just soldiers to fight. You need people making stuff, growing food, and doing all of the things that need to be done in the background so soldiers can fight on the front lines.” Somewhere during his speech Brian had stood up. He looked at Nathan pleading. “I can’t do it alone. You have a set of skills I don’t have. If you don’t want to do it, that’s fine I will find someone else. But I have to try. And I would rather do it with someone I know than a total stranger.” Brian extended his hand.
Nathan stared hard at Brian judging him. Then stood and shook his hand. “Fine, but we do this my way. I am the leader, what I say goes, understood?”
Brian smiled and nodded his head, “Absolutely. When do we leave?”
“First we aren’t going anywhere. You stay here. I’ll go get some buddies and we will capture one of these zones, and we will start there.”
“No way.”
“You just said I was in charge and you would do what I say.”
“Yeah that was when I thought I was coming with you. I am not staying here.”
“You’re a civilian. Leave this kind of thing to the professionals.”
“The only reason I am not a professional myself is because I had fibro, and that made me unqualified for military service. Besides I have had gun training as well as hand-to-hand combat training. And bonus, my fibro has been cured so I won’t be a physical burden anymore.”
“I said you’re not going and that’s final.”
“I am going, whether I go with you or I go on my own.”
Both men stared at each other daring the other to back down. Mrs. Mcmullen spoke for the first time since Brian had arrived. “Boys don’t fight. Nathan it’s dangerous out there you need someone to watch your back until you meet up with your friends. And Brian you can’t go out there on your own. You are just asking to get yourself killed out there. You already had one encounter with monsters and managed to not get hurt. Next time you might not be so lucky.”
Brian and Nathan looked away and mumbled, “Yes mom.” Yes ma’am.”
“Good. That settles that. While you are out you should stop at the store and get food and water. If we are going to be saving a bunch of people we will need all that you can get. Fill some carts at the store and bring them here.”
Both men nodded. Nathan walked over and gave his mom a hug and then his stepdad a firm handshake. “You guys hold down the fort until we get back. It might take us a day or two since none of the cars work.”
“We’ll be fine. You are the ones going out into danger.”
“We’ll be careful Mrs. Mcmullen.”
“Now that you aren’t a kid anymore you can call me Carmen.”
“Ok Mrs. - Carmen.”
Both men walked out the door and started walking down the road in silence.
“You know I’m not trying to be a jerk, but you really should stay here. It will be safer. Just cause you took a few lessons doesn’t mean you know how to use that thing” pointing at Brian’s rifle.
“I get it man. But that’s not going to happen. You weren’t there when those things walked out of that house with blood on their weapons. It was like I failed them. Like because I hadn’t been there, they were dead. I know it’s stupid and irrational. There was no way I could have saved them. But that’s not what I feel. I have to help save others.”
They continued walking. “And it wasn’t just a couple of lessons. I trained for a while. I don’t know why I did. Maybe I just wanted to prove I could. That fibro wasn’t stronger than me. That I could have been a soldier. That I could hack it. It wasn’t until I started really training in Krav Maga that I noticed it. That I couldn’t go as long as the other students. That I hurt more, that no matter how much training and conditioning I had they were better, faster, stronger. But that’s not the case anymore. Now I am better. Not just because I don’t have fibro, but also because I took the whole body improvement as my bonus. What did you take?”
“I took speed. I can run like greased lightning. I tested myself on the way to my mom’s Even in full gear I am faster than anyone from my whole unit. I bet I can run the 40 in four seconds.”
“Wow, that’s quite an improvement. I didn't test myself on the way. But I do know I am more capable. I had to relearn how to move. I kept tripping using too much muscle power.”
“We were pretty similar speeds as kids, we will have to have a race to see how much the difference is.”
“Yeah we should do that.”