The Manaverse

Slatewell Casino Grounds

Granite City

Lane Fallows stood at attention at the mouth of the Slatewell Bunker's Northeast entrance. The streets surrounding the casino concealed four of the massive doors. The pavement split down the middle and opened upward on heavy machinery that was strong enough to lift the huge, stone slabs. Her group was assigned to guard this particular entrance so civilians could claim safety within.

The flood of bodies had stopped a few minutes before. Until this whole System mess started, Lane had never seen so many people in one place before, let alone running in mass hysteria.

Lane knew it had to be almost that time. Time to close the doors and lock out the blood thirsty monsters. She tried her best to not feel relief because her group was assigned to the inside the bunker's doors, but she failed. She had no desire to be outside just then.

Lane had never expected to be a part of a guard unit responsible for protecting peoples' lives when she was first hired at the Slatewell Casino eight years ago. All she had wanted was a decent salary and a good pension. Yet, here she was, wearing a suit and carrying a nightstick, watching others run to safety instead of her.

"Gordon. In position. The call will come soon." Lane's group leader, Winston, commanded.

Lane had only met this group a few hours ago. That's how the casino did things, even before the integration. They kept the groups of their employees constantly changing to avoid favoritism. This was the fifth group she'd worked with since the System crashed down on her life.

Lane did know Winston from before, though. She considered him a cruel, horrible man who had been a bouncer at the Casino's night club, the Nightshade. His hard stares and jeering looks always gave her the creeps.

A blonde man with curly hair, who Jane didn't recognize, stepped over to a panel on the right wall of the tunnel. It had two red lights above a large button encased in protective plastic. According to their orders from Mr. Adams, that button, and a matching one outside by the fountain, opened and closed the giant doors. They had to be pressed at the same time to work properly. Apparently, it was a safety measure.

However, Jane knew these buttons were a last resort, or at least, they should have been. According to the corporate rumor mill, the paranoid CEO, Slatewell senior, had spent vast amounts of the company's resources to install the facility right under their feet in secret. It was supposedly big enough to hold half of Granite City's population. The project had nearly bankrupted the Slatewell Casino. That was when Adam took over by getting his dad ousted with the support of the board of directors. She was sure they were regretting that decision now.

Jane knew all of the rumors were true because of her fling with a night guard a few years back who had spilled the beans. So, she also knew that because Adam had shut down the project, the controls to the doors were never linked to the main control room. Thus, her and nine other people had been sent to open the doors, escort civilians inside, then close the doors once more. Once closed, they wouldn't be able to open them again until the next morning.

Because the electronics kept frying, they were lucky to even get the doors open to begin with. Adam had employees who could fix the doors thanks to their smithing Skills and personal knowledge of machinery. Jane could only image what would happen if they hadn't.

Loud growling, howling, and screams came from the street ahead of them. Her whole group stepped forward nervously with their weapons at the ready.

"Open the covering and be ready." Winston said sharply.

"Not yet," another member of the group, Padro said. "There's people. Look." He pointed, and sure enough, Lane could see a small group of people running towards them.

It was what was behind the fleeing people that scared Lane and made her tense up. There was a horde of Monsters on their heels, picking off the slower people one by one.

"Fuck that. I'm not waiting for orders." Winston said. Into the radio he held and to Gordon at the same time, he barked. "Push the damn buttons."

Lane looked over and watched as Gordon pushed his button and one of the lights turned green. He held the button in but the the second light never turned away from red. He then yelled frantically.

"They aren't pushing their button!" Gordon clicked the button multiple times to no avail.

A static noise escaped the radio before a voice followed. "We can't push the button. We were attacked..." The voice was one of the male members on the other team.

Lane stared at the radio as Winston began yelling into it. "Attacked? By who?"

There was no answer.

Winston pointed to Berry, their fourth member. "Go check it out. We will hold back the monsters."

Berry awkwardly saluted Winston before taking off at full speed, disappearing around the mouth of the doors.

Gordon, who had been pushing the button appeared behind Winston.

"I guess the gig is up." He said before pulling out a dagger and stabbing Winston. As Winston had turned to look at Gordon when he had spoken, the dagger plunged into his chest.

Gordon pulled another sword from nowhere before turning on Lane, Padro, and Cindy. Horror and shock made the three freeze in place. Gordon looked over his shoulder at the approaching people and monsters before speaking again.

"Just another moment and you can try to push that button again." The blonde man gave an eerie laugh before nodding and turning on his heel. Just before he vanished, he spoke a final time. "Good luck."

Padro was the one to react first, snapping out of his shock. He poked Lane and Cindy before turning back to the main opening, his club raised.

"Ladies, not to be a bother but now is not the time. We have incoming Monsters to stop. Somebody hit that button."

Cindy, without a word went over to the button and pushed it.

Lane stammered. "W-what d-do we don't they don't hit the other button."

Padro's response did not help her gather any hope or courage. "We pray."

Lane felt her hands trembling as she watched the shapes of monsters and people approach. It took ever once of willpower she had to not turn and run down the decline and hid further in the bunker.

Berry ran as fast as he could around the giant, stone doors and over to the fountain where the other switch was hidden. It was placed within the controls for the water pump for the fountain so it was disguised. The fountain was multi-layered with a dolphin spraying water out of it's nose that cascaded down into the top most bowl before spilling down into the bottom.

Berry expected to see all of the other group dead and being fed on by monsters. What he discovered is far worse. Four of the other group's party were down on the ground, blood seeping from deep cuts. The man in charge of hitting their button had his neck slashed. Although he isn't an expert in forensics, even Berry could tell this was done by the missing, fifth member and not a monster.

Berry lifted his club, looking around for the culprit. The fifth member was nowhere to be found. What Berry did see was Monsters closing in on his location. This caused Berry to step faster until he made it to the control panel. The big red button and two red lights were glowing softly. Berry reached for the button to push it just as weight hit him from his left. The next thing Berry knew he was being mauled by a giant dog monster.

Berry had always loved dogs. In fact, he was an avid "dog person". That was going to change if he survived this mess. Pain shot through his arm as the monster's teeth latched onto his shoulder. Nearly pinned under the beast, Berry had no way of getting it off of him. It was all he could do to keep the jaws from clenching harder around his flesh.

That's when Berry remembered the gift his wife gave him just before he left the bunker below to stand guard, as he was ordered. Berry managed to reach into his pocket and pull out the bottle of mace she had given him. Her words echoed as he began spraying the monster in the face.

"I wont need this down here, honey. You just come home safely, okay?" The memory of her warm breath on his neck as she hugged him gave him the courage to fight.

The Dog monster let him go and began to whimper in pain. This allowed Berry to stand and with a few swings with his good hand, Berry managed to get the Dog monster to turn around and flee. Berry expected to be ran over by more monsters. Yet, none came at him.

The sight he did see was far worse than the one around his feet.

The flood of Monsters that had been going towards them was flowing into the giant, open doors.

Berry's thoughts went into overdrive and turned to the device. He pushed the red button hard. One of the lights turned green and he waited. The other light never changed. Instead, Berry could make out the squeal of a radio by his feet.

"Close the doors. I repeat, close the doors. the front line of hunters has fallen and the Monsters are coming."

Those words repeated over and over. Berry wanted to reach down and yell into the radio that it was too late, but he didn't dare leave the console or allow pressure off of the button.

Just as the flow of Monsters that were disappearing into the bunker began to slow and Berry thought all he did was for naught, there was a beep and the second green light flashed green. Both lights turned red again just as the two stone doors began to move. They slowly shut, cutting off the flood of Monsters.

Berry felt relief. That was until he noticed the five Minotaur Monsters staring at him. They began to slowly move in his direction, each hefting a giant club of their own.

Slatewell Casino's CEO Office

Granite City

Adam Slatewell had gone into seclusion just after the beginning of the Hunter's Rally. He paced around his office, constantly watching his quest timer tick down. Just a little while longer and all he would need to do is relax.

He had been so sure removing his father had been the best choice. Now, he was definitely sure of it. There was no way his weak willed father would have been able to make it through the initiation of the System. Part of Adam was glad his father had passed away peacefully a few years before. Just because he knew Slatewell senior couldn't have handled it, didn't mean he hated the man.

That's when the population counter on the Safe Zone's status page began to shrink. Adam had expected it to do so, but the change was alarming. He immediately went over to his hand held radio and picked it up. Time and time again he cursed the cellular network going down.

"Todd. What the HELL is going on?"

The radio fuzzed but no response was forth coming.

"Matthew! What the Hell is going on down there? Answer me, damn it!" Adam shouted into the radio.

Still, nothing happened. Adam paced around his office frantically, looking out the window. He hoped he could see what was going on. Yet, they had not had time to repair the camera systems. It was all his crafters could do to get the P.A. system and bunker systems operational again. They just didn't have enough of the new magical metals yet, nor people with the required smithing Skill to do more.

Just as Adam was about to storm out of his office and fire, or kill, any employee he came across until he got the answers he wanted, the radio in his hand flared to life with Matthew Todd's voice.

"We need your permission to seal off the Casino's entrance to the Bunkers, sir." Todd sounded as he usually did, with no emotion.

"What the fuck? Why?" Was all Adam could ask.

"The North Eastern entrance was compromised. The Monsters got in, sir."

Adam went pale and sat back down in his office chair. On auto-pilot, he gave Todd his approval to lock down the bunkers. "Do it."

All Adam could do now was watch as his Safe Zone's population dropped faster and faster. The number dipped below two million in less than three minutes and kept falling. He didn't even register the following report he received.

"Sir. Not to add more to your plate, but the Hunters are not in the Bunker and will not be able to kill the Monsters within. They all went out to fight the Monster's outside."