“This is enough. I’m done playing.”Dustin said as he collected his money. This statement shocked the dealer greatly.

At this point, Dustin had already made about $2400, an amount that could not be compared to what he brought in. As Dustin was about to stand up, after putting his money in his small side bag, the dealer held his hand out of nowhere.

“Why don’t you play another game mister? This one is a special from the house. A five multiplier.” The dealer said as a little sinister smile escaped the corner of his mouth. This time, Dustin noticed the smile, and he knew it all too well.

This was an underground gambling house. Unlike the normal gambling houses like casinos and the rest, underground houses were not registered, therefore illegal. This particular one Dustin was in right now was illegal even within the underground houses, and whatever was illegal times two, was never was a good thing. This meant that the boss of that area hadn’t approved of it, no wonder there were geckos and cracks on the wall, the building must really be caving in on itself.

It was law in these kinds of underground gambling houses that when a gambler won, they would continue playing until they had spent more than they first placed, from their pockets, so for Dustin to say he wanted to leave, that was going to be impossible.

Dustin knew the routine all too well, having experienced it countless times. All was not lost though, he had a plan.

He had already planned for this to happen, so he actually ordered the mouse he brought to go gather some friends before hand, and at that moment, both rats and mice had crawled out from their homes and were lingering at different entry spots, ready for the order. Luckily for him even, he found another pawn in his plan, the gecko from before.

As the dealer pulled Dustin’s arm gently, he coded, and sat back down slowly and calmly. Some men in the room had already began standing up in suspicious manners, while some that had been walking around aimlessly started staring, it was obvious that these were the house’s thugs.

At the moment where Dustin’s was about to seat, the gecko from before fell from the ceiling unto the dealer’s face, and bite a portion of it.

Without even realising it, the dealer let go of Dustin’s arm, and using that window of opportunity, he bolted out of the room and through the entrance. The thugs that followed could do nothing but get slowed down by mice and rats that swarmed their path.

Thanks to the dead state of the building, Dustin was able to break out through a window, the door was metal, so trying to break it down was only stupid.

The thugs chasing him finally found their way out, and once they did, they could only see the trail of dust left by Dusting as they sited him a distance away running like a troubled turkey through the tight streets. The dealer was still inside the building with the gecko stuck to his face as he had only managed to pulled off it’s tail.

Dustin kept running forward while stealing a few peeks behind to see the people chasing him.

After taking several turns and finding his way through the narrow maze-like streets, he was close to the main road, or so he thought.

*Scrrrr!

The sound of a car suddenly using it’s breaks entered Dustin’s ears together with a loud car horn. The next thing he saw was the ground, then the sky.

Because he was intently focused on escaping his pursuers, Dusting didn’t realize that he had gotten to the road already. The last glance he took behind him completely put the in coming car out of sight, and before he knew it, the car had hit him.

Wasting no time, the driver drove away as fast as he could, and nobody went after him, as there were not even many vehicles around, and the place was at the edges of the town where people don’t care much.

As Dustin laid there, his life slowly flashed before his eyes. He tried to stand up, but all he could see was his broken legs and hands, after trying a bit, his body went numb andhe could no longer move it, probably a spinal injury.

‘Is this the end? Will I die here? Like this?’ Dustin thought as a single tear rolled down the corner of his face.

It was at this exact moment that Dustin heard something ring loudly in his ears as if someone was speaking to him loudly, close to him.

-Hello World!

-This is a general announcement, listen carefully, as this will decide the fate of humanity.

-Earth has been placed on the Elimination List by the Gods, due to various reasons.

-You humans have no use in this world, and so your long prolonged extinction has been brought forward. Even with this, certain Gods have shown piety towards the human race, and have decided to give you a chance.

-In 48 hours, a selected number of humans will be chosen as representatives to fight for human’s existence.

-Until then, I wish you a good day.

Dustin couldn’t make sense of the words he had been hearing, he had lost too much blood, and was slowly losing consciousness as he laid on the street, very much helpless.

.

This announcement wasn’t only for Dustin. The entire world heard this same announcement, as if someone spoke right in front of them. People that were making calls at the moment quickly removed their phones from their ears, but the voice continued nonetheless. It felt like the voice was sent right into their brains, like some kind of transmission.

Immediately after that, the world turned upside down, and many people were thrown into a state of severe panic. Some discredited the warnings and words the voice said, saying it was some kind of elaborate prank by some rich person or the government, while others said it was the Aliens that had come to destroy the earth.

Many people had different views about this happenings, but somewhere someplace, there was a man and woman who seem to differ.

.

.

Standing in front of a big window that was the size of the door, a tall man who looked rather old, or at least in his later ages stood there holding a glass of wine in his left hand, with his right hand behind his back. He had a stern face and a bulky build for his age, but his appearance showed strength.

“It has begun, finally. Hannah.” He called out.

“Yes dear. The long awaited time has come, our generation will be the one to regain the long lost glory of the Gennan Order.” The woman who looked only slightly younger said from the seat she occupied.

From their speech, they seemed to have been waiting for this day, and so naturally something was off.

The man called for someone, and a young man entered the room immediately, “Sir, you called.” The young man said in a respectable tone.

“Go, take two men and go get my two sons. Find them, wherever they are, I want them back home before noon tomorrow.” The man ordered.

The one who had just entered the room left with haste, and went to carry out his task.

“This world, the change has finally come, destruction is approaching. Only in this coming chaos will the best and most talented rise. This is our time.” The man said, as he continued to look outside the window while sipping his wine, as if he was looking beyond the horizon.

.

.

Across the world, while countless people raised an alarm and bit the government for answers, it seemed like the old man wasn’t the only one who has been waiting for this day. In different places around the world, similar scenes happened, and it was clear that the wise and knowledgeable had already started preparing for what was to come.

.

Apart from the various households that had been preparing before that day, countless others had also started preparing for the inevitable. A large percentage of people believed that it was going to be a zombie apocalypse, so before the 48hrs was up, they had already started building safe houses and purchasing resources, but of course, these were the people who thought it would be a zombie invasion. Different groups of people thought differently, so everyone prepared differently, by the end of the day, many supermarkets were already sold out and many businesses shut down. All these happened between the time of the announcement and mid-night that very day.

While all these was happening, Dustin still laid unconscious on the street. Because his accident happened at the same time as the announcement, nobody even paid attention to him, what was the need if the world was about to end? That coupled with the fact that this part of town didn’t have that many people living in it, or walking about. The few people that were around at the moment of the accident were simply too busy dealing with the strange voice to even remember whether an accident had even happened.

“Ah, shit. Is this the afterlife?”