Chapter 1: Cyclone Gabrielle

If you didn't read the summary this is a part of Sleepysaurus Rex's Riftiverse, I'd suggest you read his story before reading this, it'll make things all the more understandable, Just search up Trial by Lightning, it features Ghidorah on the Cover, and it was written by Sleepysaurus Rex.

Thunder rumbled, the wind howled and the rain slammed against the windows, droplets raced down the sleek glass, like strands of silk in a storm, which they basically were. Yesterday a warning was given about an incoming Cyclone headed straight for Auckland, and for once in a lifetime the weatherman was right! I watched as the cyclone ravaged the streets, the wind threw debris around the roads like ragdolls and the rain poured endlessly.

I sat upon an old wooden chair with a cup of coffee in hand, it had cooled over the time I spent gazing at the chaos outside. Most if not every channel on the TV was completely dead or unavailable to me so the next plausible option is to watch the rainfall, right? I pondered on the thought, and my eyes darted from the miniature rivers that raged through the drains, to the trees that seemed like they'd fly off at any moment, to some unfortunate man who'd decided to go on a walk just before the cyclone hit.

My parents constantly called me over and over again once they got the message, I appreciated them worrying about me, but I assured them many times I'd be perfectly fine, though I knew deep down I'd have many issues after it was over. My fiancé also called many times, she's always been protective over me after all, she even said she'd come over immediately. As much as I'd like her to, I also worried for her safety, she did live miles away and the roads would be horrendous. I hate myself if she'd gotten hurt on the way here. But she'll be fine, knowing her, she could probably scare the storm away with her attitude. I laughed a little at the thought.

Now, what could I do? Maybe I could read a book? Nah, I've already read them all, Perhaps I could play a card game? Elijah, you live alone. Then, an idea popped up in my mind. I had an old Xbox from a while back, I barely use it nowadays but way back when I couldn't keep away from the thing. I've got single-player games on that thing, it should work just fine.

I got up from my seat, it creaked and groaned as my weight was lifted. I sipped my coffee as I made my way through the house, through the hallway from the living room to the bedroom, I'd pushed open the door and headed inside, there wasn't much aside from a wooden bedframe with an old mattress atop it, an old picture frame, an outlet where I had my phone on charge, and a drawer where I kept my clothes. I set my coffee atop the drawer before laying down on the carpeted floor. I reached out underneath the bed and felt about.

Alright, there's a bed leg, a fold-up chair, and a bundle of yarn that still had what felt like a doll attached, why was that even there? Old mug, dead insect eugh. Until finally I felt the dulled-down plastic of my old Xbox. I reached out for it before grabbing hold of it and pulling it out into the light. It was dirty as hell like not a single spot wasn't covered entirely by a thin layer of dust.

I picked up the ancient tech and placed it softly on my bed, before reaching over and grabbing my coffee mug. I downed what was left in it before some random fly would appear from nowhere and die in it. I gently placed the mug back on the drawer before hauling the Xbox out of the room.

I carried the ancient artifact throughout the house, before eventually making it back to the living room. My chair hadn't moved an inch and the cyclone hadn't calmed any farther. So I gently placed the device on the ground in front of the TV. The TV itself wasn't all that big, I didn't really live much of a lavish life after all, but it worked and it didn't glitch out all the time so it was good enough for me.

I made my way to a large Tupperware box beside the TV shelf and I popped off the lid, it was filled almost to the brim with a varying array of random plugs and cables. I sifted through the varying items till I got my hands on an HDMI cable and an Xbox power cable, as well as a black Xbox controller with a pair of half-dead double-A batteries. I chucked all the random cables I'd haphazardly thrown from the box back into their container before making my way to the nigh prehistoric Xbox.

I brushed off as much dust as I could with the cables and controller still in hand. When the Xbox looked clean enough I sorted through the various slots before finding the correct spots for each cable. I pulled the plug for an old box fan and plugged in the Xbox, I then hooked the Xbox up to the television via the HDMI cable. I turned on the tv and swapped to HDMI 2, that being the Xbox's network.

After the setup was complete I got up and walked over to my chair, before pulling it in front of the TV, I set my controller down on one of the armrests, then I made my way over to the Xbox. Alright now for the moment of truth, fingers crossed. I reached down and pressed the Xbox's power button and surprisingly it came to life, the logo glowed a brilliant white and the console played a familiar jingle, one that I'd remembered from my teenage years.

The screen lit up with the consoles booting up screen. Nice. I made my way over to my chair before taking a seat and grabbing the controller. Now let's see what games we have to play... I had some old gems like the original Halo and Doom 3 but two games stood out most, and they just so happened to be the games I'd played most as a teen. Ark Survival Evolved and Titanfall 2.

Now which one to pick? Eh, I'll go with Ark, it was the most recently played game after all. I booted it up and it went through its loading screen, earrape intro, and all before it went to the menu screen. I scrolled to the single-player world and loaded up my main world, said world being on Extinction. I waited for a solid 3 minutes till the game decided it finally thought it'd be a good idea to load.

The game panned out to my character in the middle of the wastelands, standing beside a massive lumbering giant robot. Ah, I remember that old thing, it had to be my favorite thing in the entire game, no matter what people said, running around in a giant mech was literally the best feeling known to man. That's the entire reason I got Titanfall 2 in the first place.

I got into the mek I'd appropriately named 'The Iron Giant' and surveyed my environment, it was miles and miles of wasteland with decayed trees and Edmundium-infected dinosaurs. I was near the Sunken Forest's entrance, therefore I was near some high-level corrupted creatures. As I gazed upon the landscape I noticed the sheer number of corrupted creatures, multiple Rex's roamed in the distance and Stegos and Trikes ran freely, attacking anything that wasn't part of the hivemind.

Yet I was snapped out of my trance as a mighty roar sounded out from behind me, it was a Giganotosaurus. It ran wildly toward me looking forward to tearing my Mek to pieces, yet I wasn't gonna have any of that. I fired my pistol at the behemoth, many hitting for home but those bolts didn't slow the beast down. I ignited the Mek's underfoot thrusters and hovered away to high ground.

Like the dumb AI, it was it slammed against the hill that I stood upon, clipping into the terrain and wildly twisting and turning. Perfect. My Mek kneeled and its siege cannon started up. I aimed and fired for home, and the shell flew and collided straight with the Giganotosaurus, killing it instantly. Though the moment the notification appeared on the screen the music stopped and the game froze up.

"Oh come on!" I complained. I sighed and put my controller gently on the ground. I'd completely forgotten about Ark's reputation for being the buggiest game on planet Earth. The game crashed and sent me back to the home screen, but the game locked me out as I tried to reenter it due to an update. I sighed and switched to Titanfall, though just as the menu screen appeared lightning struck outside. Shutting off the power grid to my home.

I sighed and put away the controller, the lights had gone out and the TV died. Well, what to do now...

I'll go watch the rain I guess. Instead of watching through the window, I walked through the house and to the front door. I opened it up to be met by a sudden gust of wind, it was to be expected though. I walked outside and closed the door behind me and I sat against the wall, letting the rain fall upon me.

I sat in the cyclone, the wind howling in my ears and the rain pattering against my skin.

I don't know the chances of what happened next but it was probably something like 1 in a million. As I sat, I heard the snapping of wood. I brushed it off as just some faraway tree or maybe the neighbor's kids playing in the cyclone, but little did I know of the Peril I was in. Then suddenly, boom, tree branch, straight into the stomach. The wind was knocked right out of me as the dug deep into my flesh and into my organs.

I looked down at my abdomen and there was a massive branch sticking out of my stomach, it was about the size of a log that thing. I stared in shock at it, till the adrenaline finally wore off, and that's when I felt the most excruciating pain of my entire life. I screamed out in pain and shock as the rain tore at my face and the blood seeped from the wound. After screaming and panting for a good minute I'd finally mustered up the strength to grab hold of the branch lodged in my stomach. I then pulled as hard as I could, and it felt horrible.

Blood gushed and chunks of flesh were torn out as I ripped the branch out, I covered the wound with my hands and shakily stood, I reached for the doorknob with a bloodied hand and pushed it open. I nearly collapsed as I stumbled through the doorway but I somehow managed to keep myself upright. I trudged towards my bedroom, fighting through the excruciating pain that came with being impaled.

Luckily for me, I'd left the door open, so I stumbled into the room and collapsed on the carpeted floor from the pain. I groaned as I crawled toward my phone, still covering my wound with my left hand. My vision started to go blurry as I grabbed the phone from its charger. I opened it, and I was met with the background of my old dog, he was a Newfoundland and one of my greatest friends, sadly he passed, but I won't let myself pass, not when I have another 50 years left until I can retire!

I dialed 111 as I propped myself against the wall, my hearing went fuzzy and static and my vision started darkening. My head lulled backward and my eyes grew cloudy while the phone rang. I could make out the faint chatter of people on the other end of the line, as my vision blacked out, I could only hear and feel, yet very faintly, excluding the feeling, it still hurt like a muthafucker. I could make out two words 'emergency?' and 'prank?'. Well, those two didn't collide very well, I think I might die here... "ah... my girlfriends gonna kill me..." I managed, I chuckled as I let out my final breath.

Finally, everything went silent. I couldn't feel anything and I couldn't hear anything, neither could I see anything at all. It was complete and total darkness. Just dark and dark, for miles and miles, to infinity. To be honest, I was expecting something more like the pearly white gates of heaven, well, it seems like I've been banished to limbo.

Well, this is hell. My thoughts echoed for eternity same with the complete and total darkness.

I can't believe I died like that, I mean seriously? by a tree branch? I would've expected something more like a car crash, or maybe the virus that shall not be named. Perhaps a workplace accident, but definitely not this!

To be honest, this is just depressing... Well, better get used to it Elijah, it's your new home for all eternity

A deep fog grew in the distance, rolling in from all sides. I was scared I admit but this fog didn't quite hurt me or take me to hell, instead, it gathered in front of me, and flickered through some 'memories'. It started with my fiancé pulling into my driveway, obviously worried about me. Then it cut to a graveyard, my parents, friends, and soon-to-be wife were gathered around my coffin, sobbing uncontrollably. Then as my coffin was lowered into its grave the fog dissipated into nothingness.

I floated through in the endless darkness, lost in thought, after all, it was basically all I could do, I felt unbelievably guilty after what was just shown to me. I'd completely betrayed everyone. But not all hope was lost, in the distance, a very extraordinarily small light glowed, it grew closer and closer, and after a few minutes, it was right in front of me, bouncing around like a ballerina. It was a glowing orange ball of light, like a star of sorts. It kind of looked gelatinous at the same time. As I looked down at it I noticed my body had fully reformed, as if it had just grown back at that very moment.

It twinkled and shone and bounced about lulling me closer. I reached my hand out you won't mind if I touch you, would you? It jumped up and down as if it was agreeing with my thought. I shrugged it off and I lightly grazed the palm of my hand over it, My hand slightly sunk into the gelatinous exterior of it and it suddenly blew up in a flash of light, like a flashbang. Then I felt an excruciating pain worse than literally anything I'd ever felt in my life.

It was like I'd fallen on a live wire whilst covered with fire ants, it was like I was in a meat grinder or like I was being stretched out in a brazen bull. Though after just a few seconds of horrible burning pain, it suddenly stopped, right then and there. The blinding light disappeared being replaced by a soft darkness.

But my awareness grew weary as it felt like I was drifting to sleep, slowly but surely losing all function in my ethereal body before I completely blacked out.