Outside Boston, Massachusetts

The truck stop...

~~~~~~~

Stanley

~~~~~~~

The truck rocked slightly as the snap-hiss of the brakes setting heralded the end of a long day. "We did it, Caff!" Stanley tried to convey his enthusiasm, but he was just so tired. That had been a long day, not in terms of distance but in a sheer display of power. "I am getting stronger." Though it may have been a mistake to push so hard, his head was pounding like a jackhammer now, but he'd pushed himself before and knew the headache was temporary. "I need to eat too..." He looked at the pug standing on the passenger seat, his head pointing back and forth between the door and Stanley. Caffeine looked worried and sad, but then that was his usual look. "You hungry? Wanna go outside?" The perking up and head tilting brought a smile to his face. "Let's go then." Stanley opened his door, and Caffeine was on the floor in a heartbeat, his feet perched precariously at the edge, as always.

Stanley looked at the steps to the ground and weighed his physical fatigue against his mental fatigue. "No long walk today, sorry, Caff." He pulled up a few dregs of power and levitated Caffeine to the grass outside his door. "Do your thing." Stanley breathed his headache now just very slightly worse. Caffeine seemed to understand the urgency, or maybe he just really wanted dinner. Either way, he did his business without fuss, and Stanley lifted him back inside without getting out of his seat. "Ow..."

Stanley managed to get himself out of the seat and to his bed in the back. He opened the fridge, much to Caffeine's excitement, and it was empty. "Shit. I could have sworn I had a few more meals left..." He looked out through the windshield, into the fading light of evening and at the truck stop in the distance. It looked so far away... Stanley poured out some dog food into Caffeine's bowl and debated on just how hungry he was. "I could walk over..." He spotted an almost empty bag of potato chips. "Forget it. I'll eat in the morning." Caffeine scarfed down his food and then jumped on the bed, eagerly awaiting any crumb or morsel that might fall and be claimed by him. Stanley ate his chips almost as fast as the dog and fell into bed, asleep before his head touched the pillow.

~~~~~~~

Caffeine

~~~~~~~

Caffeine was awake when it happened. He had felt something coming and crawled out from the warm blankets to stand guard. Dearest Human was very tired when he stopped, and Caffeine wanted to let him rest. After all, Dearest Human was grouchy when tired.

There was a loud noise. Then a Voice said some things that he didn’t understand. Then the Voice offered him power. Caffeine accepted. Dearest Human needed lots of help and protection. Many scary things were out there in the dark. You can never be too sure that a large rock or a tree stump won’t suddenly attack. The Voice said some more things, but Caffeine ignored them. Dearest Human made some tired noises when the voice was talking but didn't wake up. That was good.

Then it was very quiet for a very long time.

Then a very big dog with some big pointy things on its head walked into his view. Caffeine let out a very small yip by accident. He looked toward the warm bed and listened. Dearest Human was still asleep. His tail wagged once. “I am a good boy.” He looked back at the big pointy dog. “You are a bad pointy dog,” he thought at it. “You almost woke up Dearest Human!” The pointy dog was staring at him and not moving. Caffeine bared his teeth to show the big dog that it was bad. It turned and ran away very fast. He managed to catch the bark before it escaped. Instead, he just thought at it. “Good, bad dog go away.”

He sat and watched for a very long, long, long time. He saw many Not Dearest Humans running in different directions. Some Not Dogs that flew and looked a bit too big came close, but all flew away after he showed them his teeth. Something Sick passed over and made the air smell bad. Lights went on and off until they stayed off.

Some Not Dearest Humans ran past but then came back and went inside the food building. A group of big dogs showed up, all running together. He almost barked at them to come play but managed to only yip. The bigger dog in front stopped and looked at Caffeine. Its nose twitched, and it took a step toward him.

Caffeine stood up with his feet on the dash. “I want to play too!” Caffeine thought at it. “But Dearest Human is asleep. No play! Only go! Only Shush!” He let out a very quiet growl so they would understand that he really couldn’t play with them. The big dog in front stopped walking. Its tail tucked down tight, and it backed up a step, then turned and ran away.

Caffeine sighed and sat back down. “Guarding Dearest Human is hard work.” He thought. “But I am a good boy, and it will be worth it when the wonderful “Breakfast” time starts.” He sat guard for a very long time through the flashes of light both near and far through loud bangs nearby and quieter bangs far away with only the quietest of huffs and woofs and those only to kindly ask them to be quiet.

The bad smell in the air got worse and worse, and the new Not Dearest Humans that walked slowly nearer did not respect his polite growls asking them to please go away. He decided that Dearest Human would have to wake up. But he would wake him kindly before he had to angry bark at the Not Dearest Humans.

~~~~~~

Stanley

~~~~~~

Stanley woke up to a dog licking his face. “Gah! Caffeine quit it. I’m up!” he spluttered, and the dog whined at him. His eyes felt gritty as he forced them open and tapped on his phone. The screen stayed dark. "Must have forgot to plug it in..." Stanley rubbed at his eyes, causing colors to flash behind his eyelids. “Damn it, Caffeine! It’s gotta still be too early.” The colors behind his eyes were blinking far too much... And he was still so tired...

The dog whined again, and he sighed. “Ok, ok. I’ll let you out, and maybe we can get a hot breakfast. This place should have a twenty-four-hour diner.” Once dressed, he pulled open the curtain between the heated sleeper berth and the front cab and looked out through the windshield. Lights blinked in his vision as Stanley tried to see what it looked like outside. He tried to focus on one of the lights, and something new happened...

[World Quest Failed!]

"What..." The words that had suddenly appeared in his vision faded and were replaced by even more.

[The (Human) species has failed the Quest: A Civilized World.]

[Failure Conditions]

[Mana Capacitors at Maximum Capacity]

[Achieve >90% Unity] [Failed]

[Achieve >90% World Peace] [Failed]

[Failure Penalty]

[Application to United System Civilizations] [Denied]

[The Sentient Species (Human) Designation as [Civilized(Sentient)] [Denied]

[The Sentient Species (Human) Designation] [Monster(Sentient)]

[The World (Earth) Designation] [Dungeon(F Rank)]

[Mana Saturation of (Earth) has begun]

[Due to [Monster(Sentient)] lifeforms on (Earth) initializing [Dungeon System]

“Humans are monsters? Huh. Seems fair.” Stan thought. "I never really cared for them. Dogs are the best..." He was too tired to deal with whatever this was, though there was something familiar...

[New Quest Issued]

[Quest: Defend The Dungeon]

[Portals will bring invaders to your Dungeon. Protect the Dungeon. Defeat the invaders. Grow strong. Become undefeatable. Conquer the Universe.]

"I've got a bad feeling..."

[Dungeon System Initialized]

[As a (Sentient) you may choose your own Class]

[As a (Human) your Racial Trait: (Adaptable) unlocks all Class and Skill restrictions.]

[If a Class is not chosen before the Dungeon opens you will be assigned the Class with the highest Affinity]

[00:00]

The Dungeon is open!

Since you did not choose a Class in the allotted time, you have been retroactively assigned the Class with the highest Affinity.

Congratulations! You have gained a Class [Psionic(Initiate)](Rare)

You have Gained the Class Skill [Telekinesis(Initiate)](Common)

"You dicks... I was asleep!" He felt no change from whatever this 'Class' was supposed to be. Stanley rubbed at his still tired and burning eyes, but the messages didn't stop.

Welcome To The System! May Your Name Echo To The Heavens and Resound Throughout The Hells!

Alert! You have been conscripted into the Raid Dungeon [Greater Boston Raid Dungeon]

Invaders are coming! Join with your allies and prepare your defenses! Fight!

Rewards will be granted based on Contributions to the Defense or the Assault once the Invaders have been Defeated or Driven Out or when all Defenders are Defeated.

"Great... all that, and you gave me a Skill I already have." Stanley looked outside again. “So dark…” He sighed and climbed into the driver's seat. Turning the keys did nothing. The light switches also yielded no response. "And you killed my truck... I hate you." Caffeine growled at something through the windshield, but Stanley still couldn't see past the hood of his truck. "Invaders... you better not be growling at a rock again, Caff."

Moonlight suddenly bloomed as a cloud above moved out of the way, and Stanley saw some people in the parking lot. Caffeine growled louder. “Relax, Caff. People are allowed to be…” Stanley trailed off as he noticed the staggering gait of the 'people' coming towards them. It was hard to see details in the moonlight, but the leading figure looked to be wearing stained and shredded rags that fluttered in a breeze. “He’s got to be freezing in…” Stanley froze as the shambling figure lifted its head, and he saw half of its face was missing.

Stanley took his hand off the door handle and looked at the pug, who was growling slightly louder now, then back at the slowly approaching 'thing' outside. “What the hell…” He rubbed his eyes till he saw flashing lights again, then pinched his cheek hard. “Ow…” It was still there and reaching a bloody and mangled arm towards the hood. "Invaders." That word...

“Oookay… ” Stanley lifted his hand and made a grasping motion, and the 'Zombie' floated into the air. “No touchy!” He held it there in the dim light of the moon, turning it this way and that while he studied it. The zombie pawed at the air with one arm, the other one seemed to be missing at the shoulder, and one of its legs was just fleshless bone from the thigh down to the ankle.

“It shouldn’t be able to walk without those muscles.” The thought floated into his mind as he watched it trying to walk in the air. “Magic zombies?” He thought about how he was holding it in midair with his mind. “That’s fair, I guess…” Caffeine’s growl increased slightly in volume, and Stanley flinched as he saw another two shambling figures approaching. “Of course. Where there is one zombie, there are probably a lot more... but how long ago was that message, and how did I sleep through a zombie apocalypse?”

He looked at the pug, still growling in the seat next to him. "Good thing he woke me up..." Stanley could feel the hunger gnawing at his belly, and while the headache had subsided, he shouldn't be wasting his strength. His eyes narrowed in concentration as he clenched his outstretched hand into a fist. "Always go for the head with zombies, right?" The zombie's head collapsed violently in a spray of gore, and Stanley felt his stomach lurch slightly at the sight. "Shit!" The rest of the now unmoving zombie flopped to the ground. "Damnit, focus!" He swallowed back the bile and gestured at the corpse. It rose back into the air and shot towards the two still approaching. "Zombie bowling!" And completely missed both, disappearing into the dark beyond the headlight's glow!

"Damn, maybe I should have practiced more than just pushing a truck down the road… but I didn't know there was a zombie apocalypse coming!" Stanley paused as a half-remembered memory tickled at his mind. "Or did I?" He shook his head. "Doesn't matter." Stanley waved his hand, and the two zombies flattened briefly as if hit by a fast-moving wall before vanishing into the dark.

He sat still, straining to see anything moving out in the moonlight and struggling to hear anything over the pounding in his ears. Pain shot through his hands, and he looked down to find them gripping the steering wheel in a death grip. “Am I scared?” His heart pounded in his chest, and he could feel sweat coating his palms. “I shouldn’t be scared. I have power. Zombies are just a minor annoyance.”

A spike of terror shot through him, followed rapidly by elation, and then settled back into the heart-pounding thrum of fear. “What the hell is…” His own fear settled onto him as he realized what was happening. “Lee!”

“This… Whatever is happening here must be happening there too. I need to get home!” He took a deep breath as he tried to calm his racing heart and focus on what he needed to do. “It’s over three thousand miles away… I’ll ditch the truck, and I can fly in a straight line… but… even if I fly three hundred miles per hour, that's still over ten hours… I don’t even know how fast I can fly.” He punched the steering wheel. “Damn it!” He focused on what he was feeling. “There’s fear for sure but also excitement… he probably got a Class too.” His stomach growled. “Right, I’m out of food…”

He glanced towards the dark building. "I'll raid the truck stop for food first then get out of here," he decided. Stanley pulled the black pug onto his lap. “You’re coming with me.” Seeing nothing in the immediate vicinity he quietly opened the door and stepped out into the cold with the small dog in his arms. With a thought and a small effort of will, he and the dog floated silently into the air. Stanley mentally guided them over to a patch of grass not buried under snow and settled gently onto the ground. He set the dog down, “Do your thing.” He whispered.

While the pug looked for a good spot Stanley kept his eyes and ears open as he scanned the dark parking lot. It was too quiet. No trucks idling, no traffic noise from the nearby interstate. The only thing he could hear was the intermittent wind rustling through the trees. There were lumps and odd shapes that he couldn’t quite make out here and there across the parking lot. He shivered and not just from the wind.

Caffeine finished his duty and stepped up next to Stanley, his head on a swivel. The small body leaned into his leg and Stanley felt trembling that was either the cold or a growl. He picked up the dog and cradled him against his chest with the forelegs and head looking over his shoulder. “Watch my back.” He murmured at the dog.

Stanley doubted Caffeine actually understood but hoped that he would at least growl if something came up behind him. Once again he floated into the air not wanting to risk the noise of crunching snow or ice underfoot. He glided to a stop in front of the truck stop entrance and stared through the glass doors into the pitch black interior.

“Shit.” He muttered.

“This is how people get a surprise zombie bite in movies…” He thought about using his zippo as a torch, assuming that lighter fluid would still burn, of course. Stanley dropped his right hand to his pocket while awkwardly holding the dog against his chest with the other. The jingling of keys and loose change in his pocket sounded deafeningly loud in the still night. It was making him sweat while he fumbled the lighter out. He flipped the top and Caffeine growled in his ear. Stanley spun as his heart rate jumped and the lighter flew out of his hand and into the dark.

He panted for breath and scanned the dark parking lot until he saw a slowly shambling figure come towards him. He could feel Caffeine trying to turn and keep it in view. “It’s okay.” He murmured at the dog and raised a hand intending to punt the zombie away. Stanley felt Caffeine settle down and face back behind him, followed by a loud bark and scrambling claws digging into his chest and shoulder and finally a surprisingly strong kick into his back that sent Stanley flying forward.

As he flew off his feet and face first towards the pavement there was a loud crack behind him. Stanley caught himself midair and spun around to see a growling Caffeine facing off with a zombie. "What the hell?" He paused for a second when he saw what looked like blades where the zombie’s hands should have been. It lunged towards the dog and Stanley pushed intending to send it flying. The zombie only stumbled sideways slightly but Caffeine hopped backwards and the bladed arms struck the pavement.

Stanley was stunned. The creature should have left a zombie shaped hole all the way through the truck stop with the effort he put into that blow but instead it felt like his attack had mostly slid off and around the thing. "What the hell!" Caffeine growled as the bone blades lifted out of worryingly deep gouges in the cement and the zombie took a step forward, blade like arms rising to strike. Stanley’s heart leapt into his throat as his eyes tracked from the holes in the ground up to the instruments that made them. Rage boiled up in him as he watched those blades heading towards the small, helpless and adorable pug. Before he could consciously act the monster disappeared and left a zombie shaped hole in the building behind it. Stanley staggered as the overexertion of his power left him feeling drained. “Need food and more rest...”

Skill Level Up. [Telekinesis]

"That's..." As the sounds of shattering glass and collapsing masonry reached his ears, Caffeine was already charging past and behind him. Stanley heard a very loud bark followed by a more distant crashing sound as he spun to track the dog. He saw the pug standing still, his head tracking back and forth as he snarled at the shapes advancing out of the dark.

Stanley's mind was racing as he took in the numbers he could make out in the dark. “We have to go up!” He thought. His feet lifted from the ground as he reached mentally for Caffeine. The dog spun towards him at the same time he heard a heavy thudding crash coming from his left. He spun as Caffeine let out another loud bark. A flash of light accompanied the bark and Stanley didn’t have time to think about that phenomenon because in that flash he saw what was charging towards him and wished he hadn’t.

It must have been twenty feet tall at least and was vaguely humanoid in shape. Vaguely in that it appeared to have a head and two arms and legs. Humanoid in that it seemed to be made out of humans. And also other things. Stanley’s brain gave up a name. “Abomination.” Even as it noted a human face on the side of the massive arm swinging down towards him. Next to the face he saw what looked like a single deer antler and next to that was a human hand far too small to belong to an adult. “So much worse in reality than it is in the stories,” he thought, as he saw a ripple in the air that pushed against the descending arm and sent it just to the side of him where it landed with a disgustingly wet sounding thud. Stanley thought he felt something wet sprinkle across his face and then the abomination’s other arm came down, straight at his face.

He had time to think “Wall! Big impenetrable, impermeable, unbreakable wall!” before he blinked and found himself flat on the ground. His whole body hurt and he couldn’t catch his breath. His head spun as he watched another disgusting impersonation of a giant fist begin its descent towards him. A deafening snarl sounded and a massive black shape appeared above him. Stanley caught a flash of huge white teeth as they sank into the raised arm of the abomination.

The clouds above backlit by the moon gave Stanley enough light to see the black growling quadruped take a step back, dragging the abomination with it and away from him. The abomination staggered and missed a step as it was hauled sideways. It raised its free hand to strike at the black shape but was interrupted by a violent shaking as its attacker worried at the arm locked in its jaws with a low focused growl. “That growling almost sounds like…” The abomination’s arm ripped free of its body with a wet tearing sound and dropped to the ground with a heavy, dull, splat. The moon came out from behind the clouds and illuminated Stanley’s savior.

“Caffeine…” he whispered with the little breath he had managed to gather. The fifteen foot tall black pug glanced at him then tensed and barked at the abomination that was bringing its remaining arm around to attack. Stanley heard the bark and then his ears were ringing and the abomination was gone. He stared dumbfounded. “What… how… when?” he thought. The giant pug stood panting for a moment then his head turned and he started moving. Caffeine stepped up to Stanley and stopped to give him a lick across the face, which sent Stanley flat onto his back again, then the pug was out of sight behind him.

Stanley’s ears were still ringing and he couldn’t hear anything but could feel thudding footsteps from the ground with the occasional heavier boom that must have been more barking. He rolled over onto his hands and knees and finally managed to draw a lungful of air and immediately gagged at the rotten stench. “Damn Caff, that’s disgusting!” He staggered to his feet as he coughed and tried very hard to not throw up.

Stanley could hear faint barking as the ringing in his ears diminished. His eyes searched the darkness until they found a large black shape bounding around among a swarm of blade armed zombies, only pausing long enough to bark and then jump away as the zombies chasing got too close. Each time he barked a zombie went flying into the dark. “Have to help him.” Stanley thought. His legs were shaking as he took a step forward, whether it was from terror or fatigue he couldn’t tell.

Caffeine’s barking seemed to be drawing all the attention because none of the zombies were coming his way at the moment but Stanley noticed that after every bark the pug’s massive form shrank down a bit. The pug sprinted towards him then quickly skidded to a halt and spun around to bark at the crowd of zombies chasing him. "I never thought you had it in you..." His cowardly pug that was scared of tree stumps, was now giant and fighting off a zombie horde.

As the bark boomed out Stanley saw a zombie flying through the air from the side heading right for Caffeine. Stanley lashed out with his mind to throw it away and once again his push seemed to slide off the zombie only changing its trajectory slightly. His push did send it tumbling in the air and the bladed appendage only glanced off of Caffeine’s side as the zombie hit the ground. The pug yelped and jumped spinning in the air to face the unseen attacker. Another loud bark and the zombie now scrambling to its feet was shattered and splattered along with the pavement beneath it. Caffeine shrank a little more as another zombie appeared behind him and swung both bladed arms at his rear leg.

Stanley didn’t hold back this time. He smashed down on it with all his strength, the strength that let him push a forty ton semi down the highway. The zombie was flattened into the ground with a boom and Stanley staggered as a wave of fatigue washed over him. “Too tired.” He could see dozens of shapes charging out of the darkness and he thought he could feel more thumping footsteps approaching. “Caff! Come!” He yelled and held his arms out as if for a hug. The dog only paused for an instant before turning and jumping through the air towards Stanley’s waiting embrace.

Stanley’s eyes widened in alarm as the massive dog came flying at him, but the pug shrank down as he approached and was his normal size as Stanley’s arms wrapped around him and they both flew up into the night sky.