With a jolt I sat up, then sighed as I found myself in the strange dream plane.

I must have dozed off..

Looking around, I thoughfully gazed at the maelstrom. I had an inkling that this place was some kind of insight into my health and overall state, with the symbols, well, symbolizing, my skills or attributes. For reference and my own sanity, I’d need to come up with a name for this place.

I liked naming things.

The Stats Plane?..The Core? Ascension Dreamscape?..Hmm, might have to work on that one. Scratching my head, I took a quick note of what I could see in the maelstrom that was silently swirling and shifting in front of me.

STRY.KYR - MAGN.2.044

HP [==20/20HP==]

MP [==2/20MP==]

EP [==90%EP==]++

Sword 3

Shield 3

Feather 2

Glyph 2

Sooo going by typical gaming, or even common logic…sword is probably offense or attack, shield is defense or endurance? Feather is…agility? weight? And Circle Glyph could be…skills?...Fuck sake who designed this UX, it fucking sucks!!!! At the very least, I see a bunch of 2’s thrown around so I COULD go on a hunch and say I’m level 2…But two of them are at 3 and my MAGN is at 2.044, I mean what does MAGN stand for anyway?? IMAGINATION?!

...

I sighed...a dream sigh.

Other systems in RPGs or games seemed to be so much more intuitive….whilst I’m stuck here trying to decipher pissing Egyptian hieroglyphics alongside playing some kind of wanky game of pictorial charades!..I'm SURE I’ll figure it out before I make some fatal mistake and get myself killed…YEaH I'm sURe..But I swear I’m going to lose my shit if HP doesn’t at the very least translate to health points….

I stared at the maelstrom with an accusational frown and pondered on the absence of the giant map of constellations which I'd been presented with on our first date. Initially I had presumed it was some kind of skill or perk tree, but this time, at the side of the bars and text, I was presented with two square tiles containing animated symbols. The first square had the familiar chip’n’potatoe with things floating towards it, but this time it had two lines at the top right of the tile that were glowing.

II

Ah, this seems a bit more intuitive..Perhaps a level up or mutation of the potato skill?..Which, all things considered..must be a regeneration skill. Right?

Standing there like a dickhead, I half expected some message of praise or victory chime to materialise, appluading me for my discovery.

But nothing happened.

...

Who am I kidding, I have no fucking idea.

For all I knew I was knee deep in a psychosis, shitting and pissing myself freely on Tuesdays, then filling up my weekend with running away from doctors in white coats trying to get me to take my meds.

I cackled bitterly.

To be honest, even if it was all as it appeared, and it WAS the regeneration skill mentioned in the first dream, I have no way of knowing how much I could regenerate or even what that entails..Maybe it can only heal a nosebleed once a day? Or maybe..Hmm, maybe it was the reason I regenerated so quickly after fighting that Janky fucking thing..I can’t deny that event either way. I experienced inhuman levels of tissue regeneration firsthand..There is no technology I know of that could achieve that.

I shrugged off my thoughts before they spiralled further, it was annoying how often I needed to remind myself to stop obsessing over every small detail.

Accept it at face value and move on man.

The second tile was a fist that moved with an afterimage phase effect. I felt a very strong desire to hit it, so I did. I punched the tablet and everything dissolved away and reformed into text, and, in a somewhat out of character behaviour, I hopped on my feet with excitement as I read.

New Skill evolved:

Null Aspect Physical Combat - Rank I

Okay well, this shit sounds cool! Ha! How old am I? Who cares! This is the happy dream land where powers are distributed and regenerative potatoes roam free!

In a small corner of my mind, there was a small voice telling me that it was not normal to be this excited, or mask ones mental fragility with poor humour, but all my positive reinforcement neurons were firing left right and centre, and I'd spent the past few days fighting for my life, so that voice could fuarck-off.

Null Aspect Physical Combat - Rank I

!eRROr! pathways, !eRROr! system and !eRROr! will be tuned to allow optimum, auto-reflexive physical combat responses.

Additionally, S.M.A.R.T adaptive !eRROr eRROr! will be introduced over time.

Seeing the words Physical and Combat, made it clear this would help me fight, but the error words were a bit concerning to say the least.

If there are errors..it must have been programmed….and if it was programmed…who programmed it?

On those thoughts, a flood of painful sensations stormed through me, making me curl up into a ball and growl in pain. It didn't last too long-

Argh the fuck was that!

-but I stayed motionless in the prone position, mostly because it was very comfortable and the cool ground was soothing.

Oh sweet comfy void floor, thanks for being you.

Laying in utter stillness, an unexpected rush of pleasant comfort flowed through. I felt rather, happy. So much so that I now had a strong desire, daresay an imperative to experience the same procedure again.

Sign me up! GOT ANY MORE OF THEM SKILLS? HMM?

Jumping up, I eagerly scanned the portal..But alas, there were no more options.

What a pity... maybe I just need to kill some more monsters… maybe even some animals?.. I wonder if other peo-

I stopped those thoughts dead in their tracks.

Wait. What am I thinking..What the fuck?..Am I losing my mind?

Or was I just being realistic.

My mind felt weird..thoughts sparked around like fireworks as my brain started going ham, flipping bi-polar switches at a thousand miles and hour, flitting from passive emotion to aggressive emotion or normal thought to strange, violent thought. A wildly new urge abruptly came, sweeping aside everything, compelling me to begin practising a series of combat actions or strikes. I had no choice but to oblige, and I repeated them over and over, getting faster and faster each time until they felt as familiar as typing on a keyboard without looking. It wasn't uncomfortable, and in fact it felt good. So, I took the time to contemplate my most recent thoughts and current state of mind, and willingly engagd in practicing the series of attacks.

This movement combined with putting my foot here increases the force in my striking arm by seven-fold..How did I not see this before?

Information about my new attacks simply made more and more sense with every cycle of practice.

The thought of actively killing to feel the rush... it could be just a coping mechanism to deal with everything, gamifying the horrors to reduce their corrosive effect on what little sanity I have left. I need to be careful it doesn't consume me..Man this is so weird..

This was all extremely raw and fresh territory for me, I was concerned that if left unchecked..maybe I could become addicted to killing. Especially if there was the potential to become stronger for it. My own natural tendency to analyse and pay close attention to my mental state would hopefully help keep me on the straight and narrow but..

But is there now a chance of me becoming a killer?...Although on that note, I wonder if there are serial killers or murderers out there making an absolute 'killing' in this situation... Bloody hell..I should be killed for that pun..But if this is happening in places like Mexico or Brazil, lovely places but they have some of the most dark and scary areas too, well I’m not totally sure if the monsters would last even five seconds there. And, what kind of insanely powerful and objectively bad people would rise out of it all?

I shuddered at the thought of a serial killer being the #1 most powerful human on the planet.

I'm sure there's anime based on that..But then again, perhaps the world needs those kinds of mindsets right now? If this is it, for humanity..Perhaps the heroes and adventurers in games, books and movies are just simply psychotic killers, that can satiate their needs on the fauna. Slaughtering in the wilds, slaying in the countryside, murdering the local wildlife AND getting rewarded for it.

My mind started going down rabbit holes as I picked apart pointless topics and thoughts.

Rewards, heroes, adventure.

Monsters, nightmares, death.

Powers, killers, evil.

The morality of all it... where do we draw the lines? What rules are there for these things? Are there enough 'monster sympathizers' to glue themselves to roads in protest of the killing? Are we back to the dark age rulesets of survival at all costs?

It was unknown when I had drifted off to a deeper sleep but suddenly, I snapped my eyes open as Marri jostled me awake, giving me a soft kiss and whispering that it was time to get ready.

Time for us to finally try and escape.

...

..

.

Stretching with a groaning sigh, I peeked outside and witnessd the sunrise creeping out of the crystal-clear blue sky, such a picturesque scene, ruined by the same old plumes of smoke that rose up and tainted the horizon.

But there were considerable less than yesterday.

“Looks like it’s going to be nice weather this morning!” I chirped, nobbishly.

Marri just glanced up and raised an eyebrow at me before snorting, shaking her head, then returning back to double checking our supply bag had everything we needed. I held Lone whilst observing the horizon, and did the typical swaying thing that everyone does when holding a baby for extended periods of time.

It's all in the hips, it's all in the hips..Fascinating really that our instincts make us do that with infants. It's not even a concious thing! My body just does it by itself.

Staring out at the deserted buildings, I struggled not to be disturbed by the fact that we truly hadn’t seen anyone for around 6 days at this point.

Anyone human at least..That's fucking depressing..I hope we’re not the only ones left. The good ones, that is.

We'd also not heard a single car or vehicle either. Not even an aeroplane from what I could recall, but then again I hadn’t really been listening or looking out for them. There was still an occasional echo of a shout or scream but I couldn’t tell anymore if it came from a human, animal or some kind of monster.

Marri did say she heard sounds like large crowds while I was unconscious. Maybe there was an evacuation and we got left behind? What a shit storm that must have been..

“Oki koki' then! We should be good to go, here’s your luggage babe. And I shalllllll, take this liddle widdle burrito bundle-” Marri came over and I exchanged said burrito into her arms as she did what all awesome mothers did. Be resilient, tough, awesome, and, make cute noises to their babies.

I’ll never get over how well she is coping with all this, just casually give birth, break some nightmare necks, look after a comotose husband AND a newborn, solo...Wow, truly such an amazing woman.

I grinned like an idiot, and thanked the universe for having her and Lone in my life, even considering the circumstances..But in the same conversation, I also mentally asked the universe to, please, please, please, keep them safe, as I picked up the duffle bag we had packed with essentials; Nappies, food, water, scrounged medicals and a bunch of clothes and blankets for Lone.

The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

Just..give us a chance at least? Please?..Just a chance..

We had changed into the best travel clothes we had, hoodies, joggers and T-shirts and discarded everything else; thankfully we had overprepared before coming to the hospital, so we had ample fresh clothes as well as our warm jackets. It wasn’t freezing outside, even though it was mid winter, but it was still cold enough to warrant having an extra layer.

Thanks, global warming.

“Alright." I took a deep nervous breath and blew it out slowly. “Listen Marri, I know I’ve already mentioned what horrible things I’ve seen..but I just want to remind you that, there are dead bodies out there…women, men..possibly kids..and that fucked up Janky creature in the corridor...there could be more.”

Nodding at me with absolute resolution in her eyes, she responded in a serious tone.

“Yes Hun - but that ship has long sailed where we have the luxury to be scared or disturbed...I’m sure we’ll probably need therapy one day…heck, I’m positive we need it now.” She sighed, pausing before narrowing her eyes. “But from now on, we’re not going to let anything touch our Lone. We’ll frickin' not hesitate for a second to rip apart anything that comes near us or him! Right?”

I nodded. She softened her face and smiled at me and I couldn’t help but feel emboldened by her words as she touched my arm.

“This is all so crazy and I’m scared witless too Hun, but I love this little burrito too much to give in. I’m sure there is someplace safe for us out there. We’ll manage somehow, we always do.” She gave me a wide grin, which I returned.

She always knew how to prop me up. She was the best thing that ever happened to me.

“Yeah, you're 100% right..” I nodded. “It’s just I wonder if we would be safer here…” I trailed off.

“Hun..” She sympathetically smiled and shook her head.

I looked around our shelter slash comfy but hellish prison, and then outside. The path forward was obvious. I just needed to commit.

“Fuck it, let’s do this.” I stretched my back and breathed out heavily, trying to expel my worries, and steeled my nerves.

“Let’s go home.”

I moved over to the door and listened to the other side, holding my breath. And waited for a few seconds before unlocking the door.

We can do this. We can do this.

Just as I went to turn the handle, there was a sudden hiccup babble from Lone that shat me right up.

Damn it Boy! Again??

I released the air I’d been holding and squinted accusingly at him in a joking manner. Marri just looked at me with a sly smile and nodded towards the door, so, not wasting any more time, I adjusted the bag on my shoulder and swiftly opened the door-

My instincts had been telling me there wasn't anything malicious nearby, but it would be impossible to know that for certain, so I scanned both sides several times before finally moving out with Marri delicately closing the door behind us. We left the key on the inside, in case we had to come back or in case someone else needed a 'safe' place, and happened upon it in a pinch; logic would dictate that they would most likely be very keen to lock the door in such an event. My eyes had black spots as they adjusted to the hallways gloom, but it wasn’t a major problem and we were already on our way to the double doors on our right as they finally settled.

So far so good. Ooookay.

I peeked through the window and it was clear, so we went through the doors and walked past the kitchen, pausing for a few seconds as I pointed wordlessly at the red corridor and then the Janky corpse lying a few steps away from it.

Marri's eyes flicked between the doors and the corpse as she audibly swallowed nervously-

Shit! what was that!

Abruptly, I froze, as a distant muffled scream echoed out that sounded like it was in the same building. After several seconds, Marri nudged me to keep moving, so we did, pressing on past the Janky corpse, resisting the temptation to give it a kick. It made me feel somewhat reassured it was still there, dead.

Not dealing with zombies or undead fuckers then? That's a relief..

Blissfully ignorant of the red flag I just set up, we came up to the end of the hallway, where the double security doors led out onto the north part of the square ward, which held all the corpses, and our exit. Peeking through the window and scanning what I could see, the bodies were still there, so I turned around to Marri and nodded, whilst pulling up my improvised face mask and she did the same. We had pre-planned to coverover Lone with a make-shift muslin tent, to hopefully provide some resistance against the inevitable stench, and, once we were ready, I carefully started putting pressure on the door. It didn’t budge at first, but, with a 'shluck' and a scrape, it unstuck from the airtight seal and swung open, and…

The SMELL, bloody fucking hell…it was pure death. Worse than I had expected.

It hit like a train and then farted rot into your nostrils. Fortunately our masks must have been doing something because I hadn’t chucked my guts up, but still, it was grim. Lone stirred a bit and babbled in annoyance, so we quickly moved straight ahead towards the stairs, trying not to look at the rotten, hellish scene to our left as we took as little air in as possible.

It's so dark. There could be anything lurking anywhere. Fuck this is so fucked up.

This was the farthest we’d been and I was starting to wonder if I’d made a mistake not going further in my previous exploration, worried about any potential ambushes.

Can't turn back now. Press on. Go.

We got to the stairs and took a few steps down trying to ignore the overwhelming fear rising up. I silently cursed myself as I looked down the next stairwell.

The stairs were extremely dark, almost pitch black, a perfect hiding place, we had nothing to light it up and we'd be completely vulnerable if we continued.

Do we have a safer alternative?

I stopped as I contemplated if I should go first or if we should go together, but then, my body stiffened up and I held a hand up as a noise caught my attention.

Shit. Footsteps. Fast ones. Something is running!

Looking at Marri, both of our glinting, fearful eyes were wide open.

Fuck fuck fuck FUCK! No choice!

“We’re going to have to rush, but carefully ok?” I whispered, my breathing becoming rapid as cold fear started to creep in.

“I’m not sure where the noise is coming from, but I think it is from up-”

A child's terror filled scream interrupted me, followed by a woman's voice screeching out.

“NO! FUCKING GET AWAY FROM HER! LEAVE HER ALONE! PLEASE! PLEASE! NO!”

People are alive!? There are others!

I briefly felt the twang of joy at hearing another person. But as always, reality enjoys taking an atmospherically sourced, colossal shit on anyones happiness, and the greater the altitude the better...And my heart sank as the sounds of a creature snarling came from the same direction. I felt pure shame as my mind conflicted between going to help or continuing, but I just couldn’t leave my family and I was no hero, I couldn't take the risk of bringing them.

“ARGH NO! NNNNNO! STAY BACK! SOMEBODY!!! ANYBODY!!! HELP US!"

I winced with emotional pain and took a step forward, but stopped as the child cried out again.

“MOMMY! HELP! MOMMY! WHERE ARE YOU! PLEASE I’M SCARED!”

The child is crying out for her Mom, fucking hell that hurts my soul.

“...We have to keep moving.” I whispered sharply.

I defrosted slightly and turned to take some more steps but felt a sharp tug on my jumper. I turned around to see glinting tears in Marri’s eyes and her shoulders were quivering.

Lone was starting to babble nervously and stir.

“AGHHHHHHH! YOU BASTARD! STAY BACK! Y-YOU STAY BACK FROM HER!”

“I-I….I can’t Godu.” She whispered.

I shook my head vehemently.

She let go and started to run back up the stairs.

“Woa woa woa Marri!! What the fuck are you doing??” I hissed at her.

“I wouldn’t be able to live with myself! What if it was me or you up there?! We have to go and see if we can help! We can outnumber whatever is up there! What if those people are all that's left!? IT IS JUST A CHILD." Her voice cracked, but there was a fury lurking in her words.

I rubbed my face in frustration. She's right. She's always bloody right.

“Agh! FINE. YES. OK! But I’ll be the one going first, you stay right behind me and fucking run back to the room if I say, OK?” My stress levels naturally skyrocketed and I felt my brain order a shot of cortisol and adrenaline into my veins.

We rushed back up the steps and quickly ascended to the floor above us, which, at the very least was far better lit than the way down. The stairwell came out to a 3 way fork of corridors and down the one directly ahead of us, twitching about 24 metres away, was the source of the snarling noises.

Another one of those janky pieces of shit.

There was a singular Janky stalking a young woman and a small girl, pushing them further back down the corridor, away from us; it looked like they had been making a run for the exit stairs at the same time as us, but had the misfortune of bumping into this leathery prick. The corridor had windows lining the sides, streaming in sunlight and it looked like it was a sky bridge to another building. I could see the woman had a plank or some kind of blunt weapon, and was striking out at the monster who was trying to bash her out of the way, seemingly not interested in her, but prioritising getting to where the girl was.

The Janky managed to get a hit on the woman's weapon, knocking it to the side and it lunged for the little girl-

Shit!-

But the woman stepped in front and wailed out in pain as instead, the Janky slammed into her shoulder with a loud, thudding smack, sending her sprawling onto the ground. Deeply rooted instincts were triggered upon seeing this monster attempting to hurt the child. My breathing elevated and I felt a wave of cold shivers as adrenaline flooded my system, my body shaking from the flight or fight response. I briefly scanned my sides and didn’t see anything.

Fight response it fucking is then.

I snarled and took off towards them. My movement felt noticeably faster, way faster than I was expecting. And that was evident as my surroundings blurred past and it only took me several seconds to thunder across the distance.

WoAHH-

I couldn’t slow myself down as I steam rolled shoulder first, transferring the full force into the monster's torso, hurtling into it just as it reared up for another attack on the woman. Howevr, upon contact, I did not lose balance, and, in fact, my feet felt a force gripping them, like they were magnets that kept me glued to the floor. The thing had shockingly managed to snap its head around towards me as it heard my rapidly approaching footsteps, but it didn’t have a single chance to react as its top half quite literally folded over and made a sickening smack as it impacted the floor, with the rest of it crumpling after.

YOU WANT TO HURT CHILDREN SHITHEAD?

It was completely dazed and was making raspy breathing noises as I dragged it away by its slimy leathery legs. Once it was a couple metres away from the pair, I barked out at them as they were just standing there in utter shock.

“MOVE! TO THE STAIRS! MY WIFES THERE, GO!”

They didn’t need telling twice as they darted off towards Marri.

Seeing their backs to me, I glared at the piece of shit starting to recover-

YOU WANT TO HURT LITTLE GIRLS?

-And I proceeded to brutally kick the Janky's head in. Repeatedly.

I WILL SHOW YOU HURT.

“Why! Couldn't! You! Just! Leave! Them! ALONE!” I roared with each kick, and the thing dared to growl in response as if I was in the wrong, as if its actions were somehow justitfied?! I was too slow to stop it from whipping an arm round which smacked me hard in the face, and it hurt, but more in a 'that was a BIG fucking mistake' way. My mindset changed from, incapacitate and leave, to, curb stomp the cunt and kill it.

So I raised my foot and put everything I had into stomping its face down, making the head bounce off the floor, stunning it again, forcing it to let out a raspy gasp. I felt mildly disgusted, when I realised I would be killing something, again, even though it was a deformed nightmare creature it felt uncomfortable taking a life..But then I remembered hearing the blood curdling screams of the poor little girl and this monster's disregard for pleas of mercy..and my own initial cowardice...had Marri not convinced me, they were possibly moments away from being beaten to death or perhaps something even worse... this isn't a life I'm about to take, it's just the removal of a monster.

My hearing started ringing, everything became muffled and in a flurry of pure violence and aggression, I violenty assaulted it, stomping and punching the creature in the face and neck, anywhere I could find. I didn’t think much as I felt cartilage and tissue giving way to the savagery of my attacks, just that it was completely justified and that, if, given the chance, it would more than likely have been doing all this to that little girl and probably many other little kids or even Lone if it had half a chance, and that made me even more mad. The monster didn’t even have a mathematicians chance to fight back or recover, and it didn’t take long for it to become still and lifeless..

As I heard some crisp, sickening cracks, I stopped and stood over it shaking and breathing heavily.

I dare you to fucking move. GO ON. GET UP. BAT A FUCKING EYELID!

It didn’t.

I moved back away and leant against the wall with my hands on my knees to catch my breath. I looked over to check on Marri and Lone.

Marri was looking over in mild shock, closely to the two strangers. The woman was embracing the little girl, shielding her from my violence as she sobbed quietly. I gulped some air and pushed off the wall to move towards them. I made it 3 steps when Marri thrust a hand up and shrieked “WATCH OUT BEHIND YOU!”

Shit!-

Fearing the worst, I snapped around and saw a large shimmering cloud and instinctively put my right hand out to push it away..But instead, it wrapped around my hand and my forearm and began writhing around. Frantially I tried to brush it off with my left hand, only for it to split off and start swarming around that hand!

What the hell is this?!-Oh it's that shimmering shit!

Forcing myself to try and stay calm, I looked up at the horrified looks of Marri and the others, somewhat pleading with my eyes for some kind of assistance, plan or encouraging words, but, looking back at my hands however, I started to realize that… nothing actually hurt.

In fact it kinda, tickled me, a bit.

Uh okay. This feels like being licked by a cat's tongue.

"Godu!!" Marri cried out again, the poor look of sheer panic on her face made me feel guilty for worrying her.

“It's okay! I’m Okay! It's..okay...” I half whispered, half shouted in response. "Just give it a second.." I started to calm down and just kept my hands far away from my body whilst I thought about what to do next, until, gradually, the swarm settled down and started to evaporate.

Phew, it's coming off-Oh wait. WHAT-

But to my absolute astonishment, it left behind some kind of fingerless black gauntlets that covered my forearm with a black metal plate, and the knuckles each had a cap of metal. It looked like no material I'd ever seen, 3D printed, metallic, but impossible smooth and precise. I turned my hands over, staring at them in shock, as if I'd been playing with a pile of shit like it was play dough and had only just realised.

Carefully, I closed my hands and could feel the material that lined underneath the metal parts.

It felt as smooth as silk and allowed freedom of movement as I flexed my fingers and wiggled them.

This is…undeniable. I’m at a loss for words.

Monsters, super healing and crazy dreams were one thing.

But seeing actual sorcerer-gear-drop-fuckery was something else.

Marri was just staring at me with her mouth open as I moved towards them shrugging.

“Wha-” she started to say.

A chorus of distant inhuman screeches interrupted her.

“I'm fine don't worry. Let's get the hell out of here first.” I shook my head and pointed. “I think I know what just happened but we need to get out first, are you two coming with us?” I directed towards the woman and her child.

“Y-y-yes! Thank you! Thank you ever so much! Y-Yes, please help us get out!” She spoke awfully well and looked familiar for some reason..

“Alright I’ll go ahead, let’s go. Listen, we should keep as silent as possible until we’re somewhere safe then we can make pleasantries and also share.. information." I pointed at my newly acquired attire on the word information. "Sound good?”

We really didn’t have time to agree, disagree, or chat about the wizardry that just occurred, or talk about our feelings around the violence I’d just committed. The noise I had made must have stirred something up.

She nodded and I returned one in kind. We moved on towards the stairs and we descended once again.

With 2 more added to the party.

...

..

.