Peter hid behind the cabinet as the noises from across the hall got louder and louder. Sweat drips down his forehead and his pants are soaked with urine but he holds both hands over his mouth, refusing to let out a whimper that might get him killed. That monster had killed Ryan, ripping them apart with its claws, and he would do whatever he could to get back at the bastard.

It had only been a little under three days since Genesis appeared and yet, since then, everything had gone to absolute shit. Peter had been playing his favorite game when the notifications began, confused but strangely excited at their appearance. He’d quickly run to Becky and Ryan’s room and burst through the front door as the world shook around them, the two of them clinging to each other in an obvious display of emotion. Ignoring their cries and shock, he’d grabbed their hands as the timer reached zero and the world around them lurched. The sound of tearing and ripping filled their ears for a few moments and then a strange silence set in.

Their building had been ripped apart, obvious from the fact that the hallway seemed to open out into open air, and moved to god knows where. Luckily for them, the stairs were still structurally sound and the three of them ventured out into the strange new world, barely believing their eyes.

Within seconds it became clear to them that, although it bore similarities to their quaint little town, things had drastically changed. All the cars that had been on the road, even those bought just weeks before, were rusted and ripped apart, covered in dirt, plants, and vines that seemed to have erupted out of the ground. Most of the buildings were in a similar state to theirs, ripped apart, broken down, or just altogether destroyed into a pile of rubble. There even appeared to be entirely new buildings that had never been there before.

It didn’t take long before the first screams appeared as people they knew and others who they had never seen before began to exit out and confront the enormity of the situation in front of them. Peter felt like a spectator in his own body as they began to notice the bodies in the collapsed buildings, individuals who had been crushed and killed due to bad luck. He’d always intellectually known that death was inevitable but he had never been confronted by its almost callous nature before.

The rest of the day was saved by a few individuals in the town, well respected members, who managed to gather people together and get them organized. With about 200 people gathered, they formed a small camp in the local park, not trusting any of the buildings and wanting to stay close to each other as they figured things out.

The next morning, they awoke to screams and cries as the early risers discovered that the eastern quarter of the camp had all been brutally killed, their throats ripped out. One of the local vets realized that the wounds looked incredibly similar to that of a cat’s claws, albeit significantly larger. The three leaders then conscripted every adult into a Watch and arranged for regular patrols during the day, giving all their members a gun taken from the town’s gun range.

It didn’t take them long to figure out that the guns no longer worked. One of the groups had spotted what appeared to be a giant mountain lion while on their patrol and attempted to shoot at it. To their dismay, nothing happened. One of the members also swore that he saw large words above the creatures head but the rest of the town dismissed it as a hallucination brought upon by stress.

Gunpowder weapons no longer viable, the patrols equipped themselves with anything that they could find around the town. Most had taken axes from the sporting goods store and the fire station, a few managing to find swords in the ruins of what appeared to have been a foreign museum.

This all led to Peter hiding behind a set of cabinets as an animal that slightly resembled an otter, if an otter were 10 feet in length with savage fangs and talons that could rip apart a man, rooted its way through his squad. He had never thought of himself as particularly brave, preferring to avoid conflict with honeyed words and careful planning, which made his following actions a surprise even to him. Leaping over the edge of the cabinet with a growl, Peter raised his axe and brought it down on the head of the otter beast with all of his strength.

The beast was caught completely unaware, having thought that it eliminated all the tasty two legs, and was unable to do anything but watch as a large woodman’s axe descended to his neck and ripped open arteries. Blood and strength pouring out of it, the creature made a slow swipe at Peter, talons catching him right in the face and ripping three horizontal lines across his face, one above his eyes and two below. It tried to raise the other paw but found that its vision was faded away and it no longer possessed the strength to move its oversized body. I wish I’d been able to eat more of those two legs, it manages to think before dying.

Bleeding profusely from his face, Peter let out a roar as the beast died, his friend avenged. Then he heard a computerized ping and, through the blood dripping into his eyes, managed to see words appear.

You have killed [Earth OtterBear] [Lvl 12]! For killing a creature 10 levels above you, experience is doubled.

You have reached Lvl 4! Attributes Points Available: 3

“What the fuck is this!?”