Apocalypse respawn

Truckdriver picked up a class upgrade token with a sweaty hand and put it in one of his many pockets. He joined his group, all wearing the same uniform—light outfits and a huge military bag containing tents and winter clothes. They laughed, their foreheads burning under the sun, which looked like a blazing ball trying to dry them out. Truckdriver's vision blurred momentarily, and the sun was masked by sharp storm clouds.

"Hide!" someone shouted, running into a broken-down apartment. Truckdriver grimaced and struggled to follow him.

Once the door was closed, the wind howled, pieces of wood flew, and gusts of wind and snow penetrated the first room, savagely striking the second door. They trembled, huddled together, blocking the door with their bodies.

"I can't do it," Truckdriver said, panting furiously. "Everything hurts... I can't feel... anything. The energy doesn't work! Nothing works anymore... I want to go back home... where I feel good."

He shook and looked at his comrades, whose actions encouraged him to hold on, but he heard nothing. His face was filled with fear; he grabbed his head with his arms and shook with the faint echoes. The sound of the wind whipping the room occupied all his hearing. "No, not that! I want to live! I survived all those massacres!" His fingers scratched his face until it bled. His comrades jumped on him and stopped him from hurting himself.

"Stop! Stop!" The growls of demonic creatures replaced the sound of the wind. "No! They are coming!"

***

Rargnes woke up with a start, his heart pounding. He sat on his bed for a few minutes before his breathing resumed.

"Do demonic creatures attack even these worlds?" he murmured to himself so he would never hear his own voice again. His watch flashed and showed 03:07. He took a lamp and a notebook and wrote down everything that came to mind before lying down an hour later and falling asleep thinking: 'After all, there are worse than me.'

"Get up!" a deep voice penetrated the dormitory and woke Rargnes from his sleep. He endured the fatigue and headed toward Sengrar.

Three groups formed before the eyes of goblins, doctors, and a few rare soldiers left to guard the military base. They went up the road in military convoys to the teleportation center and arrived in a hidden area of a city where they had stolen the portal.

They exchanged their uniforms for medieval clothing, and the groups split into subgroups that went in different directions, some led by goblin mobsters, others by human mobsters or under their dominion. Rargnes stayed with Sengrar, accompanied by his guard, Heze, Jean, and half a dozen more or less known figures who crowded onto the wooden benches as the carriage departed.

"The journey will take a few days," Sengrar announced, "and although we are normally mercenary allies helping a family alliance to gain power over another, always be wary. These people only believe in blood alliances, and by the way, if you have any desire... it would be beneficial to the cause."

Sengrar announced his upcoming marriage during the conversation. Rargnes, with heavy bags under his eyes, thought while looking through the slits at the pieces of vegetation. Behind them were a few other carriages to avoid any bandit attacks. Apparently, they would be presented as Sengrar's family, passing through a gate controlled by members of the alliance who would pay them in military equipment, attend the wedding, and attack at the first opportunity with their payment.

Some soldiers had already vouched for marriages following Sengrar's.

"With this," said Sengrar cheerfully, "we can rival the other two factions."

He didn't consider the goblins a faction in their own right. God knows how he could be wrong about the passivity of these things, but anyway, he would learn with pain.

Passing through several villages, Rargnes noticed notable similarities in the games the children seemed to play. Hide-and-seek was by far the most popular.

'A game to teach them to hide, to defend themselves and find their enemies,' whispered the voice. 'You don't have to hesitate. They are worse than you.'

The crowd's arrival went smoothly; they were welcomed as relatives. Seeing the post-wedding celebrations and under the influence of alcohol, Rargnes also sealed a marriage with a person whose name he discovered after the wedding: Ava.

'It will keep me from thinking,' he said, shrugging once sober after regretting his passion for drinks. 'We'll see if interest can create friendships and love, as the goblin mage says.'

At worst, it would help him get power and sustain him in his old age.