War! The one thing that brings out the worst in life and demands the best in you. It is 2036 and war on a massive scale has finally happened. The name's Henry Yuriy Markov-Lysenko; 3rd gen Ukrainian immigrant to the US. In the 50+ years I've been on God's not so green Earth, war has been on the lips of the rulers of the world. Until it finally happened.
At first it started with Russia invading my homeland Ukraine back in 2022; their invasion lasting for years. Then in Fall of 2030, the Russians retreated without rhyme or reason to the border. Everyone’s thoughts were geared towards the end of the fighting and went back to their lives while Ukrainians rebuilt their homes, cities, and lifestyle. However, such actions would prove to be foolhardy. On March 14th, 2036, war descended upon the world like a famished pilgrim finding an oasis.
America had now begun facing many enemies all at once. Europe plummeted into World War II conditions only the German led European Union transformed into a dystopian empire. The German run EU decided to wage war against every European nation who was not a part of the union or sided with any Arab nation labeled as “hostile” throughout the world.
China began attacking Taiwan and Japan with strategic air strikes followed by sea and land invasion. North Korea also began attacking both South Korea and Japan. Turkey as a response to the EU, began invading the Middle East nation after nation to “create a Turkish led Ottoman Empire”.
All the while, the Israeli-Palestinian war became even bloodier. The war took a turn for the worse when UAE had decided to support Palestine with funds, weapons, and armaments. Then isolated ISIS cells also joined with splinter cell terrorist attacks hitting airports, fuel depots, and other strategic locations. Lastly, the now ruling party turned hostilely anti-America and anti-Israel Hezbollah of Lebanon provided Palestine with political support and reinforcements from the Saudi ruled United Arab Union.
From the outside Africa seemed to be at peace, but this was far from the truth. Many African nations became safe havens for refugees and those fleeing war torn society, bringing with them their strife, bigotry, and distasteful habits. In no time many nations like Kenya, Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Uganda, Sudan, Morocco, Angola and Nigeria had to fight armed “refugee” forces. These insurgences were driven by madness and began killing people in hopes to “thin the herd.”
Even Australia and New Zealand were not spared as armed “refugee” assaulted their borders. Lastly, the not so secretive Central to South American Drug Cartel now controlled by MS-13 somehow positioned over the years enough political goons in control to force Chile, El Salvador, Ecuador, Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico. With enough blood money, these countries were forced to commence their own bloodletting war with intent on spreading death to the US. As a result, Texas and Arizona became No man’s lands bathed in blood and death; California not that far behind.
As the leader of the free world, the US had spread their military forces all over the world. The government also turned a blind eye to civilian militias appearing left and right bringing war to the streets. Congress keeps saying it’s all happening with the hope of keeping us safe and restoring a “lasting peace.” Any smart person would know that was a lie.
With the international guard-dog split between other conflict zones, no one was prepared for Russia’s ramped up invasive return to Ukraine. Like a never-ending rain, Russian forces laid waste to everything they touched. Yet the worst was yet to come. No one knows who fired first; however, everyone across the world could see the rain of nukes flying high in the sky. Many prayed, others wept. What seemed like forever had almost ended when an unexpected wave of solar wind destroyed the nukes in mid-flight! It was a miracle! Many people who did not believe in God did then.
And yet, reality tends to return favor with malice when we are over joyous. A second more viscous arch of solar wind came, splitting the planet in half as radiation tore through the atmosphere killing all life. It all happened in a matter of 45 minutes; and yet, when that second wind came, I knew the party's over. From my top floor loft in Salem Massachusetts, I could see the night sky aluminate as though it were day. Scientists on the news for the past three months mentioned the sun was acting strangely, as if it was growing. But that’s not supposed to happen for billions of years after all humanity on Earth is dead!
Now, the clock’s run out!? I never told my parents how much I love them often enough. I never got to spoil my niece and nephew enough (although they are 30 and 35). I’ll never get to tell my baby girl how proud I am of her success, or my hardheaded son to hurry up and marry that girl and give me grandkids!
I’ll never get to reminisce with my future grandchildren about sitting under grand-uncle Yuriy’s rustic oak tree while listening to his stories of yester years. Nor will I get to eat grand-aunt Katya's cooking. Most importantly, I’ll never get to see true fully immersive VR technology!!! With many regrets, a bright flash wiped out all life and everything turned black.
…
Dark silence overcame me. They always said there would be a light after death, but there’s nothing. This sense of death overshadowed all things, leaving not even a memory behind. This darkness felt like an eternity as my sense of self slipped, or maybe it was but an instant, I don’t know. One got lost in it. I was losing my sense of self rapidly since I could not see, hear, touch, smell or talk; floating(?) in the eternal abyss which is death. This lifelessness continued until without warning I could hear someone’s voice echoing in the distance,
“Hey! Wake up you Maggot!” (Whose yelling! What's going on? Didn’t I die?)
“Get up you fool, we’re under attack!!”
My eyes slowly craned open with the sounds of the battlefield outside filled with death and fighters shooting some kind of pew thing at each other from one side to the other. In no time at all, I had sprung to my feet and started moving after catching a whiff of blood and something burning. Even the shaking ground made me wake up. (What the… how can this be? Where am I? Is this the afterlife?) Question after question assailed me when that voice sounded again,
“Alright you Maggots! It’s time to prove your worth. Our great interstellar society has called for you lot to put down the disturbers of the peace. This rebellion began here on this traitorous planet and shall also end here. Now move out and kill any rebel that moves, for the Galactic Society!!”
Just like that, I marched out into the field of combat and in a matter of 15 seconds, the whole battlefield was within my sights. (No this can’t be! Those were fictional stories and propaganda. No army has weaponized lasers on Earth!) Gripping the rifle in my hands harder, I started to realize This is not Earth, but everything looks like it. Bombs booming nonstop, men and women fighting like frenzied sharks over a giant whale carcass. And yet, other things looked as if I’m on a movie set. (Flying jet bikes, soldiers with rocket boots, laser guns and wait… is that guy running around with a beam sword!?)
If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
“Don’t just stand there, use your rifle and fire back! Do you want to die at the hand of those rebellious curs?”
As the voice issued its cry I, and everyone else, started fighting. But in a brief moment, my group was decimated. One guy was shot so many times he looked like Swiss cheese, another ran up to beam sword guy and was sliced in half from top to bottom. I on the other hand was caught up in an explosion leaving me face up at death’s door. As I lay down on the ground near death I could hear the commotion,
“Hurry! Get up and fight, fool! Get.... My... My Lord!?”
I was still in a fog when a shadow came over me. Slowly, I looked up with disbelief in my eyes. A being accompanied by labored breathing cloaked in lightless black darkness from head to toe, wearing a helmet that aided their breathing. And in their left hand, what looked to be a beam sword bathed in wrathful fiery crimson light. The being with heavy breath gazed down at me while remaining silent besides the labored breathing. This brief moment felt like an eternity. Until the being broke the silence saying,
“Leave the weak behind.”
They then plunged their blade into my chest. Again, death embraced me. (But how!? They were not supposed to exist! ****g* L**** movies are just that, movies! I must be in hell or something for this to happen.) While I ruminated in confusion, I slowly began to wake up again, but this time to the sounds of horse and carriage movement. I again was in a stupor. (Didn’t I just die again!? And to V**** no less!)
“Hey you! So, you’re awake?” (Huh!? No! No! No, no, no, no, no!)
“You were trying to immigrate along the border and like us and that guy were arrested by the Republic!?”
“Fucking traitors! The Republic was drunk off of their Elven master’s piss before you fools came along. If it wasn’t for you, I would already be in Eldenbaar fucking lusty scaly women and smoking shrooma! Hey, we’re not who they want it’s these guys!”
“Shut the hell up back there, or I will kill you!!”
(Curse this gamer/Okaku hell!! Am I to live in this world now, or die like trash again?) While swearing to the heavens I didn’t notice the carriage stop, until I heard,
“Face your death with some courage, scum!”
“Step up one at a time”
“Fuck you and your list”
“Swine humper! State you name or die!”
“Fuck you, elven man-whore!! You’re not gonna kill me”
“Archer, kill that fool!”
“AAaahh!!” (Death throes)
(This can’t be happening!? No way this exists. This is hell for otaku, isn’t it? The punishment for killing so many pixels!!)
“Hey! Yes you, flea bag! Who are you”
(Flea bag! They only call beastmen that. But that can’t be right.) I looked down at myself(?), and besides the voluptuous breasts, I’m covered in black, white, and grey spotted fur. (Shii, I’m a beastwoman now!? Please Lord above, let this foolish mortal live. I’m not prepare for my death. Not again, please! Unless I am Scaleborne, then I’m the chosen one and can’t die, right!?)
“Hey, are you deaf or just dumb? Who are you?”
“Sorry, I am Shrahva from the Desert land of Maarinvale.”
“Let me guess. You got separated from your caravan? You performin’ beastmen have a habit of doing that. My lord, she’s not listed here. What do we do?”
“Fuck that! They all are seeing the Maker today. Line ‘em up with the rest.”
“As you command. I’m sorry fellow, we’ll make sure your corpse is at least buried with yarn, star rock, and catnip. Follow the others”
(Wah!? Aren’t you supposed to say you’ll send my corpse back home!?!? Shii, I can’t believe I’m about to die AGAIN!!)
“As we send your souls to the Aether, may the Maker guide you …”
“Bitch, shut the hell up and…”
“Fine! The Maker spit on you! Behead this heathen!”
“Ai! Die now, traitor scum!”
“AAHH!!” (More death throes)
“ooOOAAaahh!!” (a sound off in the distance)
“Next, the flea bag”
“But my lord what was that noise?”
“I said behead the flea bag!!”
“You heard my lord. Walk up to the block, flea bag.”
Shaking, I approached. As I was forced to my knees, my head placed on a stump, I saw winged death fly by. The beast landed on the tower and loomed over all with great disdain. As it gazed, the temperature of the area rose sharply.
Yet, just before the headsmen could claim my life, the beast breathed volcanic spume over the entire encampment which left no one alive. Or so I thought. Somehow, I survived the initial attack. Not waiting for anything, I ran like hell. Watching the dragon rip through the encampment, I dodged like my life depended on it, because it did! Eventually, I made it to the watchtower. With my bonds already loose, I neared the tower when... FFfeww an arrow flew right to my left knee.
“You thought you could escape, you flea bag bitch!! Die now for your crimes!”
(A wild bloodied archer appeared and pre-emptively used “an arrow to the...” anyway I am fucked!) As archer man slowed me down, the dragon had made its way to the tower and released another fire breath. (SHIII! Curse you, annoying archer NPCCC!!!)
And so, I died again, and again, and again until my 49th death. The last few deaths were just as pitiful. One time, I slipped out of the doctor’s hands and fell on the floor, snapping my neck.
Another time, I woke up as some big headed, giant eyed caricatured alien creature and in no time flat was sentence to death for probing an alien lifeform during a recon mission of a foreign planet. In my defense, according to this alien’s memories (or maybe perverse desires) I thought that’s what aliens do, you know; Take us to your leader, whip out the anal probe, and watch eggs hatch through people’s stomachs, you know... alien stuff.
But no, these guys are not that type of alien. They were more of the take us to your females… kind of alien, so we can… study their amazing abilities… wink! This was a mission to find suitable female mates to keep the species alive. Even male sentient lifeforms and non-sentient animals were fair game for potential procreation partners to these aliens, but female sentient lifeforms were the cream of the crop. Apparently, I had committed a crime which is punishable by on-the-spot execution. Thus, I was vaporized right after the probing was finished.
It doesn’t end there. In another of my short lives, I once again took residence in an adult female body which wasn’t an issue since I was hot! Anyway, it appeared I was being imprisoned and used as a lab rat. Despite the situation, I was overjoyed by what they were making me do; play video games in a fully immersive VR capsule!
Sadly, right when the machine was turned on, my brain hemorrhaged before I could even start playing whatever game they had in store. This was followed up by my head exploding once the machine was turned off. OOH… the tragedy! To finally get to play VR games (although violently coerced) only to die before the game even starts!!
Another one of my most memorable deaths was at the hands of my “parents” no less. After waking up into this life, I turned out to be a 10-year-old boy who was bed ridden with a seriously deadly disease most of my life. Apparently, the original owner of the body was poisoned by his father for being a sickly child, then I took up residence. Not even 5 minutes later, the mother came, and seeing I was still alive she raced over to me screaming,
“We had already killed you, demon spawn, Now I must kill you again!!!”
She then proceeded to stab me to death with the sharp end of a fire poker. Oh well, it would appear I am living in the most suitable hell for gamers and shut-ins. Killed in the very game-like worlds I used to play or killed by family members or burglars while in my home. While floating(?) in the dark, silent void I hear a familiar sound.
“Congratulations!! (You suck!!!) You have unlocked the achievement; Mournful soul!! In which you must die forty-nine times within less than 10 minutes of each life! Notice: Your designated administrator Uriel would like to speak with you. Connection in progress... You are connected!”
“My goodness, in all the eons I have been tasked with ensuring the continuity of all life, you are the most miserable being I have ever seen. How? How did you manage to die 49 TIMES!? The first two times were my fault, but afterwards? I could have sworn I even made you a baby with great health, but to slip out of the doctor’s hand and snap your neck when you fell... sigh. Look, I’m gonna give you one more chance. I’m also gonna give you something special, so don’t die for another one hundred years! Got it!!”
-End of Chapter