Chapter 2-Surviving

After having read it the screen seemed to collapsed into itself and disappearing as if it never was there.

‘So just to be clear. Mana entered our world, which caused probably everyone to have a bad day due to the headache, then it made all our technology and thus weapons and defenses unusable, as seen with the train that stopped.’

‘Further allowing creatures, such as most likely those wolves outside, to enter our world and kill all of humanity, while not us having any access to mana, which most likely would allow us to fight back. And to top it of telling us to have a nice day and to try not to die.’

'I really hope I'm not going crazy.'

Eric had no real idea how to process that. He figured mana would be an energy similar to what the video games depicted as he had no other reference point. Furthermore, he did read a few LitRPG stories so the whole idea wasn’t too crazy to digest. He simply never expected for something like that to become reality, or not in the case he is going crazy.

He wonder who sent the message. It could have been a god, or some group that wrote it. Eric wondered if they are responsible for mana entering this world or if they simply send the message afterwards to help the locals.

The growling and tearing of flesh heard outside reminded Eric that those thoughts are completely irrelevant at the moment,and all that matters is surviving the next few hoursso that he can use mana (and presumably magic) to then be able to survive the following days.

Staying in the bathroom with a pack of wolves (or some other creatures) outside does not sound like the way forward. So Eric gathered all his courage and quietly opened the bathroom door. The moment the door was a fraction open the smell hit him like a boulder to the face. The smell of blood was so intense that Eric thought he was going to throw up, it seemed to burn the insides of his nostrels. With pure willpower and the will to live did Eric not throw up, as emptying the contents of his stomach would surely alert the wolves outside that there is still one alive.

Opening the door centimeter by centimeter Eric was relieved to see that there were no creatures inside the wagon. There were also no bodies, human or otherwise which while odd he was certainly thankful for. Nearly all the windows on right side of the wagon where smashed, while on the other side only two windows were. Looking out the right-side Eric saw the pack of wolves eating what he can only guess where the remains of the other passengers. These wolves though were clearly larger, while some were normal wolf size, most where the size of horses. And the sheer size of this pack was ridiculous, there seemed to be at least 15 large wolves and about 5 normal ones tearing into the dead bodies.

On the left side of the wagon Eric only saw one horse sized wolf. Figuring it was best to escape the area while the wolves were distracted with eating the other passengers Eric moved to a broken window on the left side and look out.

Eric figured the two meter drop wouldn’t be too dangerous considering his other options, he slowly climbed over the windowsill, trying to not get cut by the broken glass still attack to the window.

Surprisingly Eric managed to drop to the floor without breaking a leg, but he did land on a lot of glass that subsequently broke. Looking over to the wolf still eating, it seemed as if the wolf either didn’t hear the glass breaking or simply didn’t care. Thinking that waiting for the wolf to turn around was not the smartest thing to do Eric moved away from the train and into the forest as quietly and quickly he could.

After about 15 minutes of carefully moving away Eric realized that as far as he knew wolves live in forests, and that as soon as those wolves are full they will likely move into a comfortable territory and considering that on the other side of the train is open plains, they will likely enter the forest and find him if he is too close to the edge. Throwing caution to the wind Eric moved as quickly as he could away from the train, and deeper into the forest.

After about 2 hours of moving away from the wolves, Eric had to rest for a bit. His adrenaline long having worn off, Eric felt like collapsing but knowing that doing that was akin to simply dying. He did not know what creatures lived in the forest normally, not to say anything about what lives here now. Luckily, he had the feeling that the trees were a little more spaced apart than earlier, hopefully meaning that he would be outside of this forest. At his point the sun had long since set and the moon was out. To his luck it was a full moon so he could see somewhat well.

Resting for a bit Eric let his mind wander over what happened the last few hours. ‘Humanity is screwed.’ Is the only thing that he could think. He suspected that the spike in pain of his headache and subsequent passing happened to most people if not all, while probably at the same time bloodthirsty monsters entered Earth. Anyone who was close to these monsters as they came probably died because the were unconscious. Hell, even he would have been dead if he hadn’t been in the bathroom as it happened, so in some way that grumpy old man saved his life by pushing ahead of him.

Anyone that did survive most likely could not be defend themselves with any guns or other modern weaponry as mana changed everything. The lights on the train didn’t maybe because the wires made of copper don’t transmit electricity anymore or something. Maybe batteries didn’t work anymore, or some other reason why the electricity didn’t work. Maybe gunpowder doesn’t explode anymore when in contact with a spark, but rather produces a liter of water or something. Who know what mana did to things.

Realized that he left his backpack with his things on the train did not bother Eric much. His computer probably didn’t work, nor did he need any of his other things in there, though he would have liked the water bottle and sandwich in there.

Deciding that he has rested enough for now Eric got up and continued heading in the direction he hoped would lead him out of this forest.