《Plague Born》Chapter 7
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The base is tense. It wouldn't take a fully sober man to feel it. Air is thick and heavy, as if an electric storm is on its way. There's a strange silence too, no birds or nothing like that, and it's odd 'cause we're less than a mile outside of thick woodland. Whole area used to be a national park and it should be brimming with life.
"Come on," says Elena. "This way."
I don't resist. Don't see the point now. I ain't getting out of here unless they let me. I'm led down a path made from fresh wood-chippings. US marines are stationed outside two of the bubble-like tents, Cali-Corps soldiers are outside the others. This should be solely a California matter, but they don't have the resources to manage something this big -- so, as usual, they've invited the good old US of A along for the ride. A forest fire? Well maybe Cali could cover that, if it wasn't too big. If the flames weren't too hot for them. Maybe. But an airborne contagion of unknown origin rapidly spreading through their country? A little beyond their abilities.
Everyone had known this kind of shit -- Cali not being able to sort out their own problems -- would be an issue, back when they had seceded. Or at least, we'd all guessed it would be an issue. California had wealth, no doubt about it. Its president as rich and decadent as any middle-eastern sultan.
And they had land, too. But what they were missing out on were balls. They'd traded them in to have a country of their own. They had been born on the motto of peace: no A-bombs, no H-bombs, a standing army that could fit in a warehouse -- how was a country like that going to deal with a real threat?
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They weren't.
They'd just hoped the uneasy global peace that the Storm Guards had helped to force into place was going to last. And if it didn't: Ring ring; hello, is that America?
Their motto was peace, but like any rich country, their wealth was covered in blood.
The plastic make-shift building I'm being led to is the biggest of the tents. Reminds me of a tacky looking observatory, the way its roof is high and domed. It's the only tent with one american solider and one cali solider posted outside of it. A show of unity, of equal power. Strangely magnanimous of America.
"Inside," Elena says from over my shoulder.
I turn back to look at her. Carlos is gone. "Where's your boyfriend?"
"Colleague."
Do I sense an edge of bitterness in her answer?
"He's got his own work to get on with. Inside."
The light is white; even though the sun is pouring in through the clear plastic ceiling, it's getting filtered and turned into what you'd expect in a hospital. We're in a corridor and the ground is little more than a dirty canvas covered in boot prints.
"Last door on the left," says Elena. "Good luck."
"Will I need it?"
She shrugs. "I think we all need it. Nothing we've been able to do has stopped this... this death zone from expanding."
"Maybe your boss doesn't want it stopped."
"What's that meant to mean?" she snaps.
I raise my arms. "I don't know. Just seems a bit strange that America and the Storm Guards have been defeated by a fog."
Her face is red. Not fury, not remorse, but something in between. Embarrassment, "It's not like we haven't tried! We've lost dozens of soldiers! -- not to mention four of our most valuable assets. We even..." Her voice trails off as she realises what she's about to say.
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"Kidnapped me," I finish for her. "Is that why you joined the bureau? Kidnap. Murder. To just feel powerful? I know that's what makes a lot of cocks hard around here -- like your boyfriend's. I saw that grin when he froze my legs. Does he smile like that when he freezes your wrists together in the bedroom?"
I almost regret saying it. It wasn't Ellena that tricked me, after all, not really. That was Carlos. She just came to pick us up, following orders. Paid for the beers, too. Although for that, maybe I shouldn't thank her.
Still, she was in on it all. There are none alive without some guilt to carry.
"It's not like that," she says. "Not with him. Not with me. Look, I don't have gifts like your kind, but I knew from very early on that I was special; that I could make a difference to the world, even if my contribution was small. I was a smart kid. High IQ. Didn't take me long to realize that the best thing to do with my brain was to use it to save lives."
She should have become a doctor, I think. "Well I hope you start saving some soon. Cause right now, looks like you guys are doing jack-shit."
I begin to walk on, alone, when Elena says, "I am sorry."
"Yeah. I'm sure."
"We wanted to get you here without... Without any force, you understand. We wanted you to want to come -- and you for a while you did want to. What I mean is: I'm sorry about the lying and the ice and the handcuffs."
"Oh, you don't need to apologize about the handcuffs, Elle," I say, with a wink, using the name I'd heard Carlos give.
She flinches. "I just wanted to say sorry. And that we're on the same team."
"What team's that, exactly?"
"We're both trying to stop people dying."
I smother a laugh -- if they put me in that gas cloud, they've no idea what'll happen to me. "You mean, people other than me, right?"
Her eyebrows furrow and I can almost see the guilt spill out of her. Good.
I turn and march down the corridor.
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A Cosmic Weight
Decades ago, strange gateways to other worlds opened across Earth. With these came alien races, strange magic, and danger unlike any other. Reed is what most would call an everyday citizen, but when thrust into a broader universe filled with ancient civilizations, eldritch horrors, and godlike powers, it's only natural one must adapt in order to survive.
8 137In Another World with my Daughter
Everyone is summoned to another world sometime between the ages of 13 and 17, where they learn martial arts, magic, and eventually fight hoards of evil creatures on their way to destroy the Demon King. Everyone, that is, except Samuel Carter.Sam was somehow overlooked. All of his friends, his family, everyone in the whole world had been summoned to another world, fought the Demon King, and returned with incredible stories of magic and heroism. Now Sam is on the wrong side of 40, raising a teenage daughter as a single father, and dealing with bureaucracy as a member of the Other World Research Division -- until a summoning circle opens and transports them to another world.* * * * *Author's Note: You should expect In Another World with my Daughter to read as a first draft, unpolished, with some typos and occasional grammatical errors. I write rather methodically, so my first drafts are pretty solid. Time permitting, you may receive second draft quality.This is an Isekai style epic fantasy adventure, where the MC is summoned into another world full of swords, magic, and things with sharp teeth. Lip service will be paid to appropriate tropes. A personal goal of at least 1,000,000 words has been set.Readers should expect a total of 20-40k words per month.Input for story direction will be considered as appropriate.Royalty free image credit: Stefan Keller @ Pixabay
8 172In Danmachi with Plasmids
One chap every Sunday and Tuesday with the possibility of a bonus one on Thursday. Ignore the cover as I am updating this. A man who lost his family due to an accident dies from overwork trying to prove himself to society. He gains a second chance in a parallel world studying and researching for decades in order to find a way to travel to other worlds, only to once again die alone, overworked, alone and bored, achieving nothing.In the end, he achieved power, respect, and fame, but he still wasn't satisfied.Yet destiny has something reserved for this hardworking man. Will he now achieve his dreams in a world of magic and Gods, with a power from another world? Or will he be shunned for being different? If you have a Webnovel account, you can go there and take a look at the chapters.As of right now, there are currently 2 full volumes in there!https://www.webnovel.com/book/in-danmachi-with-plasmids_21297534606119905 I have a Patr30n go take a look! You can access advanced chapters there! And the Discord Server of coursehttps://discord.gg/M8jYGkTjCH The first chap will be more about exposing the world of Bioshock and how Plasmids works and setting up the storyline for the future. The first volume is about world-building, it might seem slow, but it only takes around 15 chapters, the good stuff starts soon after. I am not a writer, I do this for fun and you are reading this for free. The minimum you can do is to just leave a reasonable opinion, please don't hate mail me. Work in progress.Tags:R18- In the medium to far futureSlow romanceSlightly dark protagonistMagicAdventureGore- In some fighting scenesActionGeniusReincarnationFastpaced- At the startAnd more to come if I feel like adding them. I don't own the cover image, the world of Danmachi and Bioshock, or the characters apart from the Ocs. Thank you for reading!
8 282The Aggresive Cheater
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8 158Empress of the Lost Realm
A lonely girl without expectations of the future and just the shadow of her past died with many regrets and has a chance to be reborn as someone anew with many chances to have what she longs and did not have in her past life. Will she be able to protect what she has with her powers transcending what is known or will she drown herself with her powers that even she herself doesn't have the full control of and is not fully aware of the consequences about those things. ------------------------------------------------------------ Note: Synopsis will be temporal, will keep adding tags as the novel continues. Disclaimer: I found the picture on google. If the creator wants me to delete it, please PM me.
8 160Writing Prompts
The title is self-explanatory, but this book will contain writing prompts like 'Getting stuck on a ferris wheel' and 'Cooking while drunk.' The inspiration for this was to have a place to write down a bunch of prompts for fanfictions... but like, they could work for all books.Hopefully these will help you guys out!
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