Epoch of Desolation

The darkness surrounding him like a blanket was slowly dispelled by the sudden arrival of a soft, golden glow—the first light of morning which spelled the end of a day past and the beginning of a new one.

Rain was nudged awake by this, his being stirred to the serenity of dawn as his eyelids gently separated from each other, bringing before his sight a blurry scenery that was almost distant and alien until after a second had passed.

I fell asleep? He had been put to bed without his consent so it was only natural that as his eyes adjusted to the pale hues of blue and gray painting the hospital room those were his first thoughts.

His stomach growled then, and with it came a sharp pang that sent a rather painful shock to his brain, forcing him to grit his teeth and close his eyes with a lowered head. He was instantly reminded of what had driven him to sleep.

I guess I can only go on for so long; I really need to find something to eat… or drink, even. Rain sighed, his eyes opening along with a huff of air. And it was at that moment that a rather fascinating view he had missed appeared before him.

At a reachable distance from where he was on the bed was paws-for-brains curled up into a ball. It had its paws tucked beneath its body and its head rested on its front legs, while its amber eyes were nowhere to be seen as they were closed in a rather peaceful slumber.

What is this? Rain’s face slackened, his expression one of obfuscation. But his look was not thrown at the Jaguar’s act of sleeping, it was instead because of what the golden furred beast did with its tail. Why is it wrapped around my ankle?

That thought of his was put on hold almost immediately as a high pitched screech wandered into his ears, seeming as though it could shake the whole hospital building and shatter all its glasses.

Well, it couldn’t even shake paws-for-brains awake, so that was most likely an exaggeration.

On the other hand, though, it did well to startle Rain and spark a whole new realm of curiosity in him as his attention was instantly drawn to the window beside him and the world beyond it.

He had been wanting to view what existed outside this hospital, but he had barely had the chance with all that had been happening. Now he had both the chance, the brightness, and even a little bit of strength to work with. The only problem was…

Rain put his gaze on the Jaguar.

How do I get its tail off me without disturbing its sleep? He placed his fingers on his chin, caressing them as he peered at the Jaguar’s tail while thinking of a way.

On the outside a person would see it as a form of affection, but Rain was not leaning that way. He just wanted a little peace of mind; the Jaguar being awake would disrupt that as he would subconsciously be on guard.

Because it did not eat me while I was asleep does not mean it won’t change its mind later on. Maybe it was just saving me for its morning snack. Rain heaved out an exhale and slapped his forehead. Why did I even go through all the trouble of bringing it a meal if I am not going to trust that it’ll keep to its own end of the bargain?

That aside, he was not planning on sitting on the bed until the Jaguar woke up on its own.

Rain scrutinized the tail wrapped around his ankle, different methods he could use to free himself from it wandering through his head but none without the Jaguar snapping awake.

After a minute or two he found out that his task was a rather impossible one.

The thing about predators, large cats most especially, was that they were always alert. Even a slight contact would snap them to life. At the end of the day, there was no way to free himself while avoiding that outcome.

Accepting the possibility of something not turning out in an expected way was the first step to growth.

Rain scratched his hair in exasperation, took a glance at the window in longing, then returned his gaze back to the scenery of the enclosure he was in.

If he couldn’t place his eyes on the outside world at the moment, then he would do it for the inside. After all, the darkness of night had obviously hidden from him a lot of important details concerning his environment, but now, with the availability of the light of day, that would change.

His gaze fell upon the spot paws-for-brains had fed first, but surprisingly, there was not a single shed of flesh on the floor, only blood.

Rain raised an eyebrow as his body leaned forward instinctively.

Did it really gobble up that rat completely? He wondered; and a second later that wonder turned into amazement, his eyes anchored on the sleeping Jaguar in return.

Although…

Heh, that’s impossible…

…Rain didn’t believe it. He waved his hand in denial, and further swept his gaze about the room, noting the things about it he had missed while seeking out the particular spot where the Jaguar had hidden the meal.

There wasn’t much, in all honesty, the things he had missed.

The room was as spacious as he had predicted—maybe it really was a VIP room—and the walls were just how he had seen them the night past: grimy and cracked. On the other hand, though, the bed, monitor, and IV-stand he’d felt were his hadn’t been the only ones in the room. There was another exact set just a few steps beside his.

I wasn’t the only person in this room?

Rain’s pulse hastened slightly at that realization, but not for long. He instantly settled himself down and came up with a notion on why, even though he had apparently had a patient-neighbor, he was the only person present. And the catalyst for that was the initial messages he had received from the Plexus, precisely the one detailing his awakening time.

Whoever that person was, they were probably released from their pod before me, Rain reasoned. With this assumption I have to consider that all of humanity, maybe even the animals as well, were all put into those pod thingys, and the time each person was released differed. In other words, some people are still stuck in their pods.

His eyes brightened a tad. He did not see a pod in this hospital room, but…

Now I’m sure I’ll come across one. Still… He rubbed his chin. Do the pods evaporate or something after releasing the person they held? Or…

Rain had another hypothesis, one he didn’t like but had to consider regardless…

…Is there a possibility that they don’t actually exist on this plane?

He really hoped that it was the former, because if it wasn’t he would never be able to see what the pods looked like. Something not existing on the same plane as he would be invisible to his naked eyes.

Rain sighed and put that thought to bed; that was his limit on the topic.

He had forced himself to learn when to stop seeking out answers his brain couldn’t attain on its own. If there was someone to share his thoughts with that would be a different case entirely; but, oh well… there was no one like that.

At that moment Rain caught sight of something that sparked his eyebrows to fly up. It was a fridge. Though… His brows narrowed again… There was blood all around the mechanism.

The blood was not dried yet—despite the distance between the fridge and him, Rain could see that much—so he knew that it was fresh. And that brought him to a realization which made his face squeeze erratically, his nose wrung up to boot.

He turned his head rather toyishly to look at the Jaguar sleeping at an arm’s reach from him, and a bitter taste welled up in his tongue.

You… Did you hide the rest of the body in the fridge? Isn’t that like a serial killer tendency? Then his eyebrows raised again. A fridge? Doesn’t that mean food and water?

Rain looked at the fridge in longing, and instantly he forgot all about not wanting to wake the Jaguar up since he shot up from the bed and bolted towards the fridge. However, when he pulled it open all he was met with was a putrid smell emanating from the gorily dismembered wharf rat.

His hands went limp as he huffed out a low, long sigh. He turned and looked at the Jaguar, and, surprisingly, it was still asleep.

Rain clicked his tongue with a scoff while shaking his head. What a predator. Your parents won’t be proud, you know.

Suddenly recalling that he had missed out on something important because he had fallen asleep, tacked on with his newfound lack of energy, Rain closed the fridge, sat on it, and called upon the Plexus and whatever messages it had for him.

[Bestowed Reward(s)]

+2 Experience Points (Assignable).

A Companion.

[Proceed to assign?]…

A Companion? It only took a second for Rain to recall the last message he had received from the Plexus just before he’d given in to hunger and tiredness. Oh my goodness, is that why…? He looked at the Jaguar and folded his lips together. Is paws-for-brains going to be following me around or something now? Rain was not sure how exactly to feel about it.

Sure, having a Jaguar as a companion was something that should benefit him greatly. For one it could scare off other weaker beasts that might want to mess with him.

But that was where his problem arose.

Paws-for-brains was as dehydrated as he was; it was a large cat that couldn’t even successfully hunt a weakened human, and worse, its senses seemed dull. It had not even noticed that Rain had gotten off the bed despite it wrapping its tail around his ankle.

Wouldn’t it be more of a burden than help?

Rain heaved out an exhale. That’s your reward for choosing to keep it alive; live with it. And besides, it’s not like you were given an option to accept or reject.

He refocused his attention on the other reward he had been offered, which he recalled to have come from his battle with the wharf rat.

Experience points, huh…? Alright, let’s see what this is about. Proceed.

With his reply the words shimmered and shifted, blue mixing with purple in an ethereal embrace. And at the end of their breathtaking dance emerged a section of texts Rain had obviously never seen before. But instead of his usual frustration of having to engage in the daring task of reading, his eyes widened and his mouth slackened as he fell into astonishment.

[Attributes]

Strength: 006.

Speed: 014 (Boosted).

Agility: 007.

Perception: 005.

Durability: 005.

Stamina: 005.

Experience Points: 02.

Oho. What is this? Rain knew what it was; his memories of games were well active in his head now. He just hadn’t thought that his likening of his situation to a game was going to be this accurate. Crazy. This can’t be real. He read through the words and chuckled. Well, there’s no point in trying to make sense of it. Let’s just go with the flow as usual.

Firstly, he wondered why his Speed had been boosted, but knowing that the answer wasn’t going to be attainable he went ahead to form an understanding on what the experience points he had been offered were for. And that was nothing more than to increase his Attributes.

The problem now is: What Attribute do I increase? Rain thought to himself. The base value is five, and with the number of zeroes before it, it seems like the maximum threshold for the increase of the Attributes are in the hundreds. So to have a decent holding on an Attribute I should have at least double the base value in it, right?

Well, it’s not like I know the exact maximum threshold for the abilities, but what I do know is that having one integer value in the zeroes is better than having two.

He fell silent for a moment. Mmm… Maybe? But what if the maximum threshold’s in the five hundreds range? The double digits nonsense won’t make any difference in that regard. Ugh! This is why thinking too deep about things isn’t favorable all the time; now I’m no longer certain.

I’ll go with that for now, either way; it’s better to have something to look forward to than nothing at all.

Moving on, Perception, Durability, and Stamina are my weakest. It should be normal for me to want to increase one of them, no? My Speed is already boosted, whatever that is, so that’s good. As for my Agility and Strength… if I’m to select between them both I’d lean towards Agility, even though Strength is a point lower. I recall I was classified as a Lightweight, I should probably increase the Attributes favorable to me in battle first.

Really?

Nah; it would make for good unpredictability when a Lightweight has a good value for Strength; it would also increase my diversity in battle, and I won’t turn out to be a one trick pony like that wharf rat. But, unlike my Skill, I should probably focus on the present for my Attributes. And if that’s the case, then Strength is not what I need currently, maybe even for a while.

Any tussle I wander into from now on I definitely won’t get as lucky as I did with the wharf rat, I’m most likely going to be damaged a lot, and so… He looked at the ‘Durability’ Attribute… This is what I need the most for now.

[Assign 02 Experience Points to Durability?]...

As though at his beck and call while reading his mind, the Plexus instantly brought new words before Rain’s eyes.

Quite handy. A smile appeared on his face. Assign.

The same tingling sensation as that which he had been graced with after his Skill selection whooshed over his body, and with it subsiding returned his Attributes' interface.

[Attributes]

Strength: 006.

Speed: 014 (Boosted).

Agility: 007.

Perception: 005.

Durability: 007.

Stamina: 005.

Experience Points: 00.

Great. Rain was satisfied. But he was not done with the Plexus yet. There were some things in the Plexus’s Interface he was yet to touch upon. Although, a similar screech to the one he had heard earlier changed the focus of his attention.

He put his business with the Plexus on hold and rushed to the window.

Grabbing hold of the blue curtains, which were a slit apart, he pulled them aside, allowing the light of day to pour into the room with a great intensity. It blinded him for a moment, but his eyes quickly adjusted. And as they did Rain’s heartbeat went from a trod to a gallop.

What… What is all this?

He was flabbergasted, left speechless at what he saw, his mind nearly blank while his hands shook.

The sky was filled with things everyone would term abnormal, things the wharf rat’s mutation could not compete against.

In fact…

This is more than just Physical Mutation!

What seemed to have been the tiny little birds of the sky were no longer just birds, they were now beasts—beasts that would tower over a bungalow if they ever landed close to one—beasts that had grown to have irritating, distinguishing features from each other; features the words of Rain’s mouth could not define, or rather, do justice to at the moment. And these beasts were definitely not of a number considered low. They were a flock.

Howbeit, that wasn’t the worst of it all.

His room was apparently on a high floor, and because of that he could vividly view a wide enough span of the world below—the world beyond the hospital—and it was not something he would term fascinating or normal; the latter his brain against to a high degree.

Rain couldn’t believe it. He had been having his suspicions, but he had not been expecting the world to have turned out the way he was seeing it now.

It was all in ruins. Everything. Every single thing.

This… The world has ended.