New World Day 1

Wobbling over to the table, I took a long hard look at the goblin that lay splayed across it. Red blood was pooling around and starting to drip off the table onto the gray carpet. Drip! Drip! Drip! It took a moment, but the realization that I had taken the life of another intelligent being began to set in. My skin paled, and my body began to shake uncontrollably while bile that started to rise up my throat threatened to choke me. The terrible stench emanating from the creature, a foul mix of blood, body odor, and goblin shit, was the final straw. Throwing the shotgun on the ground, I turned away from the awful vision before me, ran to the toilet, and promptly vomited my guts out over and over again. I don’t know how long I lay there in the bathroom hugging the toilet with tears from my light brown eyes running down my cheeks to mix with the vomit pouring from my mouth as I tried to come to grips with the reality of what I had done. The big beast was one thing. It was just a wild animal, but the goblin! The goblin had intelligence! It used tools and its form was similar enough to a human that I couldn’t escape from the reality of what I had done. I had killed it without even trying to talk or reason with it! Everyone had even been warned that not all of the creatures from the other universe were evil. A corner of my mind kept trying to remind me, to tell me that I had only done what I had to do. That if I hadn’t killed it then it would have killed me or worse, but my conscience could not seem to get over what I had done no matter if it was justified or not.

The entirety of my situation, not just death of the goblin, began to truly imprint itself on my mind causing my depression to spiral more and more out of control. The clouds that hung heavy over my mind were only blown away when a terrifyingly familiar sound rang in my ears. Ru-ru-ru-awooooooo! The sound of the type of beast that had chased me all through the forest was echoing through the house. It was still faint, but there was no telling if or when it might arrive. Pulling myself to my feet, I wiped the bile and tears from my face with a nearby towel and got to work fortifying for home.

The first thing I did was head into the kitchen. I still needed to get the clothes from upstairs, but for now there was no time to waste. Unplugging the refrigerator, I began tipping it from side to side and gradually slid it across the kitchen floor until it sat heavily against the door leading to the basement. If anything wanted to get at me from upstairs, they would need to knock it out of the way before they could get through the door. I wasn’t sure how much time it might buy me, but it was certainly better than nothing.

Turning around, I jogged into the great room. I had to do something about the body of the damn goblin. Ignoring my feelings of guilt as best I could, I quickly approached the table only for a glint of light to strike the corner of my eye. My mind still not working the quickest, it took me a moment to track down the source of the glint. The odd stone the goblin had been holding was sitting there motionless on the edge of the table reflecting the light of the now setting sun. It had a rough surface with slight jagged edges in some places, but when I looked closely at its center I could see a faint white light burning within it. I wasn’t sure what the stone represented, but I had a feeling it might be useful. So, I grabbed the stone and shoved it roughly into the right pocket of my jeans before turning my attention back to the body.

Grabbing the goblin’s legs, I dragged it over to the broken window, leaving a trail of blood behind it, and heaved it out onto the deck. Before I joined it on the deck, I moved back to the table to grab the shotgun from the ground, and the pickaxe from the nearby chair where the goblin dropped it. I pumped the shotgun once to reload it before I carefully stepped over the broken glass and window sill onto the deck. Immediately, I began to curse under my breath as I realized I had yet to learn my lesson. I should have checked if anything was around before I ran impulsively into the great room, and I certainly should have checked before I just jumped outside. Hoping it wasn’t too late, I looked down both sides of the deck and scanned the nearby clusters of trees. Being early spring, I had a pretty clear view of the forest since the tree leaves were just budding and the various flowers, grasses, weeds, and bushes that formed the forest’s undergrowth hadn’t yet risen high enough to hide anything larger than a squirrel. Nothing alive entered my vision, but when I looked over the edge of the deck to where the great beast lay dead, I saw something odd. It hadn't been chewed on or eaten at all, but its chest had been torn open by something. Remembering how bloody the goblin’s hand had been, I glanced down at the bulge in my jeans. Did the stone come from the beast? Did the goblin gouge it from the beast’s chest? If so what was so important about the stone that the goblin would take it but ignore the meat, fur, and bones? Or was the goblin planning to take some of that as well only to hear me moving in the house? I desperately hoped that the goblin was the one who had mutilated the corpse because otherwise some other dangerous entity was already in the area.

With that cheerful thought bouncing around in my head, my breath began to quicken, and I crouched down next to the deck railing. I quickly gave my nearby surroundings another visual pat down. As I swung my head side to side looking for any threats, a laugh bubbled up my throat at the memory of where the phrase visual pat down originated. It was a funny show and even in these circumstances thinking about it caused my lips to curve upwards a bit. Shaking my head to eliminate the distracting thoughts, I brought my breath back under control and straightened back up. There still wasn’t anything nearby, but I could hear the barking howls of more than one beast in the distance. I needed to move quickly in case the blood of the two corpses attracted them to the house. Putting the shotgun and pickaxe down and grunting from the exertion, I pulled the goblin's body up onto the railing and then shoved it off. The corpse dropped into the driveway next to the beast with a thud and sent pieces of gravel bouncing into the air.

With that done, I grabbed my weapons and ran down the deck to the front of the house. When I got to the edge of the house, I put my back to the house, squeezed the shotgun hard for good luck, and peered around the corner. I observed the screened in front porch and the small grassy field that stretched out in front of it. Nothing was out of order! Once I confirmed that everything was clear, I headed down to my left through a small cluster of nearby trees that split the gravel driveway into a V shape to where the corpses and ATV sat. Thinking quickly, I decided that I needed to set up some kind of barricade in case something battered its way into the garage and then the basement.

Opening the garage door once more, I looked at what I had to work with. Aside from the ATV still in the driveway and the myriad of farm tools along the right wall, there was a second ATV sitting in the garage as well as a much larger version that the manufacturer called a Ranger. I hoped they would be enough. Afraid of making too much noise, I slung the shotgun over my shoulder and carefully leaned the pickaxe against the grey concrete wall of the garage before I went to the ATV in the driveway, shifted it into neutral, and slowly pushed it into the garage. I maneuvered it so that it was sitting sideways and backed it up to the door to the workshop. The door opened inwards so I could still get through it, but it would make it a little more difficult for anything without hands to get into the workshop. Finally, I put it in park and flipped the emergency brake on. With that one set, I ran to the other ATV, pushed it forward perpendicular to the original, and then yanked hard to the left on the back of it until the two formed one nice barricade across the garage. Next, I turned to the farm tools to see if there was anything that might be of immediate use, and I quickly spotted something better to have on hand than the bloody pickaxe. There was a big sharp splitting axe sitting against the wall which I quickly grabbed and put next to the door to the bedroom at the back of the garage. The Ranger was the last thing to move, and I had to be quick about it. Ru-ru-ru-awooooooo! Ru-ru-ru-awooooooo! The barks and howls were getting closer and closer. There was no doubt that they were heading in this direction. They were likely attracted by the loud gunfire and pungent smell of blood. Since they were already on their way here, I decided not to try and move the ranger by hand. It was a heavy bastard and I was running out of time. Hopping into it, I turned the key and started it up. Looking backwards, I shifted it in reverse, twisted the wheel, and backed the sucker up diagonally to form a second barricade just behind the first.

It was quick and dirty, but the barricades were finished! I sprinted to the front of the garage, the shotgun bouncing uncomfortably on my shoulder, to close the door, but before I could get there movement caught my eye. Four beasts swaggered out from the edge of the tree line that hid the house from the view of the nearby road. Even after the goblin debacle, I still hadn’t learned my lesson! I should have closed the god forsaken door once I had the first ATV inside instead of leaving it open like a damned fool, but now it was too late. The beasts looked tired, but they were here, they had seen me, and most importantly they looked hungry.

*Ding*

Title awarded! Fool (B) *

Name: Jason Silver

Job Name: N/A

LVL: 1 15%

Job LVL: N/A 0%

Job Points:

N/A

N/A

Titles:

Survivor (B) LVL 1 5%

Fool (B) LVL 1 0%

Title Points:

*

*

2

Stats:

HP:

Endurance:

Strength:

Speed:

Bonus Points:

80/100

6

5

7

3

Status Effects:

N/A

Skills:

Basic Axe Mastery (B) LVL 1 0%

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