Chapter 3

Fuck. It hurt. I screamed I think, but I don’t remember exactly. The pain was too much and passed the breaking point. Tears of pain, and mourning for Zyke dripped down my face. He didn’t live. You can’t survive that shit. I felt something long, sharp, metallic and definitely in a bone get yanked out of me. I screamed this time for sure. Then I was out.

White. That was all I saw, which I found really damn weird. First of all, why can I see. I clearly remember somewhere in that pain that my eyes popped. Their fluids dripped down my face and everything. Second, I didn’t think they did that shit as a precursor to the afterlife, which is currently my best guess about where I am. Also where the hell did the pain go. I’m not complaining or anything. So I better get some candy for being such a tough boy. I’d laugh but I think my body is to broken. Wait… this is the start of important scenes in movies and books. Hell yeah, I’m gonna be a hero! Ooooooohhh, another thought. This is my conscious. What about… Nah. I’ll just sit here and wait for someone to do something.

This is boring.

It’s been a minute for sure now. Wait how does time work here.

I sat up suddenly, and looked around.

“O.K. looks like a legitimately empty realm of bullshit.” I said, freaking the hell out. Only thing I saw was white with the ground I was sitting on a slightly darker white. Then I looked behind me.

“Fuck. You’re definitely an alien. Look at you.” There was a strange 10 ft tall creature standing in front of me. It had strange purple scales covering its body, with them fading to blue and then green as it got farther from what I assumed was it’s chest. It also had strange tentacle-like appendages coming from the very back of it’s head and the thing’s neck that were at least 5 ft long each. If that wasn’t creepy enough it seemed to be able to move them around at will, and I counted at least 12. The remaining top and crown of it’s head was covered in strange columns of ridges. It had a folded up pair of wings behind it, that were 6 ft tall, folded. It had 2 arms, each with 4 fingers. It also had another pair of tiny arms that had 3 fingers, with spiky protrusions on the knuckles. It also had long chitinous cricket-like legs, with wicked sharp talons on the end of each it’s 5 toed feet. And those looked like they could kick. Then a tail, whipped out from behind it, that for the moment I saw it seemed to have an eye on it, with spike coming out where the iris of the eye should be. But it’s face was the stuff of nightmares. With a small beak where it’s mouth and nose should be that looked like it could break bone. There were weird gill looking things on it’s very sunken cheeks. It had eight eyes like a spider, each one focused on me. Then suddenly it’s gill looking things vibrated as it let out in a deep voice:

“Human, you’re eyes are abnormal. What is their reason?” I got questions like that, and even though this one was slightly incorrect, I think I’d skip on correcting him.

“I survived through a disease that killed the rest of my family, now I have a strange immunity to it. My doctor said that it was probably because I have an amazing immune system that adapted to quickly for the virus,kind of, and that my eyes were side effects of that. They are cool though.”

“Ah, just curious.”

“What are you, where the hell am I, and why?” He knew what happened to me, for sure. I just had that gut feeling.

“My name is Vas’To’Filuuri, and I am a welcomer.Many more of my kind are speaking with others of your kind now. We are currently out of time so, ask as many questions as you want. As for where we are, all we know is that we are on a ship, one that us welcomers have never found an end to. We have no clue of who our species is, why we understand and can speak any language we come across, and why we were put here. And as for why, I don’t know. I assume for the building of Infinity. And I will tell you all I know about Infinity, worry not.” The alien said in his deep, almost sad voice.

“Oh my name’s Rade, nice to meetcha.”

“Likewise.”

“What was it then. That blast. And the pain I felt, what was that? AND WHAT ABOUT ZYKE!?!? WHO IS RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS DEATH AND OTHERS!?!?” I screamed finding myself pissed off. I was going to kill somebody if I had my way. He had been one of my best friends, and someone who I had entrusted many of my secrets with. He had helped me, and I helped me. So yeah, I had a right to be pissed. He couldn’t have been the only one. Looking back on this now, I was a skinny weakling that probably looked ridiculous at the moment. Just screaming, that I would kill someone, heh.

“I know your pain, believe me. You never numb to the sight of so many pained and dead. Me and my people do our best to revive and heal the wounded. Your friend was most likely long dead. Many die in The Transition, our name for what happens to you in the blast, and the burst of extreme pain that has been described to me. I oversaw your recovery myself, and requested you personally. Your eyes had popped open, and your internal organs had been superfreezed, then heated, essentially making them nearly useless, you had been rendered deaf from extreme sound. You also had been paralyzed from your hip down, and to top it all off, you had a 5ft spike of stainless steel inside your body. It had splintered off of something and stuck itself into your bottom right rib bone, entering through your hip. It had sliced through some of your intestines, and lung. Not to mention the countless blood vessels. Many thought you would die. However, you lived. And made a full recovery in the standard recovery time. Your immune system must be stronger than the highest recorded power by a factor of over 10. It hurts to be mended that fast.”

“WHAT ABOUT ZYKE!?!? I WANT JUSTICE FOR THE DEATH OF THE CITIZENS OF EARTH!!” Did I mention that humans had also become incredibly loyal to our people, not our factions, and that treason was virtually unheard of? Along with backstabbing, and MURDER.

“I would gladly kill those responsible for this, whoever they are, but alas, me and my species are only here to help and get newcomers up to speed.”

At this point I was pissed out of my mind. I wanted justice. I wanted blood. But then the things he had said sunk in. I thought through my head and realized what he was hinting at. “There are others that have come before Humanity?” I wasn’t ruling out them collecting some humans previously, who knows what these guys have access to?

“Yes there have been others. Those that you might call aliens. None of them ever get to far into the space age, always coming here shortly after the launch of technology into space or the colonization of a moon, except for the first few to ever come here.”

“The first was an empire by the name of the Hash’Yoth, and powerful rulers over many solar systems, a very powerful species that had beaten many before it. With extremely advanced technology they ruled largely uncontested. The second to get collected was the Jŭncathari, less powerful, but only in numbers. They had far superior technology to the first, but were unable to reach space. They had more powerful biology as well, and are still at war with the Hash’Yoth.”

“And the other few species to get farther than the others?”

“It matters not.

“Why?”

“Because the Hash’Yoth killed them, almost to extinction, but some remain, small in numbers however. They got here first and dominated the landscape, however weren’t able to kill the Jŭncathari. The other ones however were less strong and killed off immediately, and the Hash’Yoth remain dominant over around 60% of the mapped surface, while the Jŭncathari control around 8%. The remaining is ruled by the junglers, hazardous environments, or The Alliance, which rules less than 1%. ”

“Shit. The Alliance sounds like a good guy name. What are they about?”

“They don’t care what anyone else does, and have an neutral treaty with the Hash’Yoth and Jŭncathari. However, it is made up of a few species of carnivores that farm the other species that come here. They would eat you guys. Literally. They farm some species that come here.”

“Fuck. What about the junglers?”

“They are a multitude of species that live in the jungles to avoid The Big Three. They are quite welcoming, but the jungles are not. They fight frequently, however, bigger alliances are forming, and the jungles may become one faction soon. (Hey reality check, this is foreshadowing)However it honestly depends where you are Reborn.”

“Reborn?”

“When you are… well I don’t know a better word but you’ll understand.”

“However they are slowly dying, due to the fact that the jungles only increase in ferocity and danger over time.”

“Well then what the fuck do you reccomend.”

He pulled up a massive map. I was shocked at the sheer size. It did NOT need to be that big.

“This is a map of Infinity if it were to scale with your Earth maps. And that’s only the mapped portions. You can see where it gets its name. If you want me to give you a recommendation, it really matters where you are Reborn. However, I would say that you should try to gather as many people as possible, and not join any alliances, or if you are Reborn near the jungles,” And then his map glowed neon blue where the jungles are, “go with the junglers.”

“Can I get one of those maps?”

“You will when you are Reborn.”

Then a huge announcement went out over the comms. And a strange female voice said in a calm voice:

“Welcomers, please inform your person of the techbox, towers, Keys, and fabricators. Thank you. We will be dropping off shortly”

Vas’To’Filuuri turned to me quickly. “Before we drop you off you need to know some things. First is that there is no sicknesses, and without being impaled or something, you will not die naturally. You cannot die of age. Also, when you are Reborn you will be in a pod. What you have to do is press the red button, and you will be released from it. Then, go around the to the back of the pod, and you will find a compartment we call the techbox containing weapons that you have chosen, a few knives, a fire-starting kit, water, food, and a backpack. You always get podded with at least 10 others, usually people who you were close to, or were close to you. Everyone else sounds like they are speaking your language, and to them it sounds like you are speaking theirs. You are going to see extremely tall towers in the distance. Those hold materials, information, weapons, and Keys. There is also a large amount of farmland surrounding the area. Keys are powerful books that allow you to access… you know what you guys have a good name for it, magic. There are also fabricators that can craft technology and help you research tech. They are hidden in many places-”

“MAGIC!?”

“Yes but you have to figure it out on your own.”

“Fuck that, tell me.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

“No.”

“Yes.”

Our fun little conversation was cut off by the same female voice announcing: “Drop off commencing.”

Vas’To’Filuuri turned to me, almost disappointed. “Time for you to leave, Rade, and one more thing,” He said melodramatically. “Welcome to Infinity.”