Beep. Beep. Beep.

My name is Jacob Billards. I am 34 and single, which other the age I am fine with. Seeing the lives of others and their relationships and how many of them just lead to pointless complications, I decided early to play life solo forever. Romantically that is as I am completely fine with friends even if I don't really go outside much except to work and the store for food and the like.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Seeing how all my friends either have debt from being involved with another person, are in prison because their S.O. lied to the police about them so they could steal their shit, paying child support or whatever other support that a dude can be forced to pay after letting a woman stay over multiple time for the rest of their lives, or just not being able to get a moment just relax without being nagged to death. I decided that was an absolutely stupid thing to get caught on and have never looked back. granted that's not to say that I am not attracted by pretty females.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

You know waking up every day just to go to work for ten to eleven hours a day making about fifteen bucks per hour really does suck. Don't get me wrong, I like cooking but shit. Really cuts into my gaming time. And YouTube time. And my fanfiction time. Also, the fact that Uncle Sam likes to take about twenty percent of my money from each paycheck just for having a job so I can afford to stay alive in this day and age means that what I can spend on myself after bills and necessary expenses isn't very much.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

Oh, right alarm. Time to go to work. Fuck. Scooting to the bottom of my bed since the side has my tv stand pressed against it to get up I rub the side of my cat's head as she moves down my bed with me wanting pets and scritches. Which I give while picking her up and standing and moving to turn the alarm off.

Beep. Beep. Click.

Pressing the top of the alarm to hit the snooze, I pop my cat up on the dresser holding the cat bowl next to the table holding my alarm and move the switch on the alarm to off. I then leave my room and head down the hall and grab some clothes for the day and go back to my room and head into the bathroom and take a shower. Before I leave for work, I check my cat's food and water and top up the water and give her the last scritches for till I get home.

Driving to work I listen to my playlist and get the same two songs I have heard on the way to work for the last 3 months that I added to the downloads then. Pulling into my workplaces parking lot I pick an empty spot amongst all the other empty spots, put the car in park, turn the radio off, kill the engine and get out and head into work. Like every day for the last sixteen years, since I turned fifteen. Yeh amazing how depressing being an adult is when you realize that all life has only one thing in common and nothing else matters. DEATH.

Well at least working at a restaurant isn't boring considering turnover and all the highschoolers we get as job applicants. Most of them are dumbasses and either get fired or quit. The rest are just relationships and sometimes school drama. They all spend way too much time on social media apps though considering only three to four of the serving staff out of 11 get good tips.

"Hi Terry." My boss, Joanne, greets me. She has a fairly small frame with brunette hair, a light skin color, and dark brown or black eyes. I never could tell. I also want to say she is about one-hundred and nine pounds give or take a few.

I give a small wave. "Sup. They fix the ice machine or is Trevor going to get it replaced again?" Was my eloquent reply.

"Trevor is getting it replaced. The control panel fried while it could be fixed, they already have one in storage just collecting dust." Joanne stated while looking over last night's closing reports. "By the way you know where a box of six-ounce patties went? We are short about 24."

"Yep. Was cleaning the walk-in and while moving the beef to clean the shelves found one of the boxes wasn't rotated out last Friday. So, I let Lee know about it and he tossed it." Was my response as I walked into the kitchen and flipped the hood vents on with a load screech.

Lee was the owner's son and while you might think that would make him act like an entitled little shit. He just wants to chill at home, play games, and date his girl. Really chill dude who likes most video games and even tabletop games.

As I go through the motions of lighting the grill, setting water to boil and pull out reheat able foods from the walk-in, the servers arrive.

The first one in is Christie. Blonde, about five foot eight, around one hundred and two pounds last I heard and lightly tanned but smooth skin, she is cute and not too stupid. Still has her moments but at least she can admit it. Very much not datable. Kind of a thing when ninety percent of your coworkers are still in high school.

After her comes our only male server. Chad. No not really. His name is Kyle, and he is taller than me by 3 inches at six two. Aesthetically speaking he isn't bad looking. Slightly rough cheeks and light brown hair with natural blond highlights on tan skin. around one hundred and forty pounds from guessing. And while not the gender I like is also not datable for above reasons.

As they do the whole meet and greet with more cheer than I can muster after only being awake for less than an hour I pull my phone out. Yeh, I ragged on the server staff for being on their phones but until the water and other foods heat up to temp, I got nothing to do. So, I browse fanfiction sites.

I am not too picky about what sites either. I have accounts on Ao3, FF net, Fimfiction (yes, a mlp site oh no), Wattpad, etc. You have a site that has at least fifty fandoms and ten-thousand stories and I have an account. Recently seen on both FF and Fimfiction "gamer stories" that are isekais with game abilities baked into the protagonist's side of things.

Got hooked onto them since honestly life sucks and living life as a game would be great. While I know it won't happen to me, I still wish it would. Fandoms I would like to visit would be Harry Potter, Pokémon, maybe the One Punch Man universe. That last one would probably be a bit much. Same with Dragon Ball Z and My Hero. Shield hero one would be great since it already has a gamer system in place. Hope I don't get stuck with the shield though. Starting out could be bad. Then again meta knowledge helps would help a bit in that regard.

Oh well, time to mix the gravy up and make the instant mash. As I get to doing just that and put my phone away, I find my food handler walking in. "What's up Josh? Danny said you got diamond camos for your assault rifles now."

Josh who is older than me by a few years and just as much as a gamer as I am spent most of last night grinding out the diamond camo on cod black ops three. As such, he looks kind of out of it now.

"Yep. Managed to get them on Combine and now I need to get the other guns. You?" He replies as he walks over to the fryers and starts them up.

"Just playing around in stellaris while waiting for Lee and Evelyn to find time to host another DnD game. Got burnt out on Monster Hunter again and I can't play Skyrim even with mods. I think I fully burnt myself on that." I tell him while heading to the back for the bags of potatoes, gravy, a measuring pitcher, and whisk to beat them into pans of soon to be boiling water.

Grabbing what I need and passing Kyle who is slicing up tomatoes and Christie making a batch of slaw. I grab I knife from this dish pit and go back to the kitchen.

I grab the bucket of seasoning that we keep above the ticket printer and scoop about 2 tablespoons into the pitcher before putting the bucket back and walking over to the coffee machine with just the pitcher and fill it with one quart of hot water from the spigot.

Walking back over to the "In Kitchen" zone which is really only separated by counter tops with the bread toasting machine and a broken warmer I start making the gravy slurry and check to see if the water is boiling in the two water pans and if the other stuff is ready to move.

As I do my phone chirps with a notification before screaming with an emergency alert just before I hear everyone else's phone do the same. Grabbing it curiously of what happened this time I see the following message.

-BOOM-

But I don't even get the chance to look at it before a massive explosion happens nearby and rocks the building and causes the power to just die out. "Alright who started World War 3," Josh jokes before heading to the front of the store where light is coming in through the windows.

I move to follow and see that Christie and Kyle have come up as well with Kyle holding a bleeding hand where it looks like he lost his grip on the knife during the explosion. "Hey Joanne, do we still have Band-Aids? Kyle is going to need a few from the cut he's got." Christie asked looking a bit unsure.

Joanne was over by the doors looking out with her phone in hand. At Christie's question she looked over and shook her head, mouth slightly open and eyes a little wider than normal.

-BOOM-

Before she can say something another even larger explosion knocks Christie down and causes Kyle to stumble into Josh who is holding the back of a booth for balance. I am leaning against a wall near the kitchen entrance looking towards the nearby busy intersection. Or what used to be busy.

Several of the cars have been flipped and one is currently on fire that's getting even worse by the second. Probably a Tesla. Another is finishing what appears to be its final roll and the intersection itself is now a crater with the backend of a car sticking out of it.

In addition to the now cratered street, the nearby phone shop is on fire itself and the canopy it has from its former days as a gas station has partially collapsed on top of it and the ground.

"Holy shit Josh, I think you might be on to something." Was all I could find to say. Stepping further into the dining room as the ground trembles even more.

We all move outside to see what is happening and can see that the shops across the street to our right also have people coming outside and the people who were using the laundry mat are already outside and looking around.

Now common sense would be to look at the alert that pinged our phones now and not go outside but well. Whoever said common sense was common had no idea what they were talking about. Granted I stayed under the roof overhang from our store and that saved my life.

As everyone else moved over to talk with the people from the mat a pitch black sphere formed just above them, growing rapidly. "GUYS. RUN," I scream at them while pointing up. Of course, instead of running they either look at me funny or look up.

Josh was one of the ones who looked up as well as Kyle. They both started running. The others who looked up stayed looking up mouths open and the ones who gave me the funnily also looked up and gasped. The sphere had already grown to about 10 meters in diameter and then shrunk rapidly.

Having a gut feeling I jumped behind one of the support pillars that hold up the overhang hoping that despite it being on the more decorative side it would let me survive the possible explosion about to occur.

It took about four seconds for the sphere to form and one for it to shrink to a baseball size orb before turning white. No. Everything turned white. And loud. You ever look into a bright light and close your eyes and can make out the veins in your eyelids? I couldn't even see that. It was just white light

Opening my eyes that shut from the light I find myself looking at a wall that was very different before the explosion. Before it was a brownish rock face wall. Now it's separated by about a foot of what it looked like before and everything else is blackened.

Peeking around the pillar I see that it barely survived whatever that was plus the fact that everyone that was out there died. Shit. Well Kyle won't be getting that band-aid now. Well, I am fairly certain my job is over and done now to say the least of my concerns. Pulling out my phone I see the alert message is still up.

Presidential Emergency Alert

Unexplainable explosions have been reported

throughout the country!

The Nation is now under Martial Law!

Please comply with your local armed forces!

Ah. That's bad. Glancing around to see if there are any of those spheres forming and seeing one off in the east I move towards a flipped car and duck behind it before looking up to confirm I won't be going out like my friends and coworkers.

After seeing the sky is clear I open up chrome and find the fox news channel. Say what you want about them pandering to whatever political side they currently are on; they at least do keep up on recent happenings and I don't know what could be more recent than this.

While waiting for the site to load which would make sense as a lot of other people would be doing the same, I hear that sphere detonate. Taking a risk, I look around the turned over car I am hiding behind and see an even bigger explosion than the two that happened here.

It's large enough that despite appearing several miles it still creates a blast wave that would knock me over if I wasn't kneeling behind a car. Looking back at my phone I see the first story is about the current explosions with the title "Black Hole Explosions Rocking the Nation." Well, they still have their sensationalistic outlook.

Clicking on the video I see it's a live report from what looks like New York and the scene is telling. The iconic large skyscrapers were reduced to rubble filling the streets with crushing debris. People trying to climb out of damaged sections bleeding from numerous wounds and some not moving at all from their positions, partially buried inside buildings or crushed by segments of large concrete walls that came crashing down upon them.

While the camera is panning around, and the reporter is speaking of the destruction and horrors that are even now plaguing the former great city you can see two black spheres forming in the distance growing even bigger than the ones that appeared here.

"Oh my God." You could hear the reporter say just before the two orbs shrunk down and detonated with a wall of white and rushing at the camera. Just before it meets them the scene switches to the in-studio camera looking at the anchorman looking pasty. "Uh guys, can I get our manager here. Now. Also tell our other teams to seek cover now."

Just as he finishes saying that an orb begins to form in front of him. Just as that happens you hear someone in the back scream and people begin running off the set with the anchorman just staring his death in the face. It swells up and swallowing him and most of the set before shrinking and turning white. The video starts to do that loading circle as the connection to the servers was cut.

'Welp double fuck. Fox is right out then. If that is occuring everywhere than I guess the states might just be fucked.' I think to myself while turning and leaning against the car. 'I wonder if this is happening worldwide though.'

Tapping the search bar at the top of the browser I just put in "explosions" and get treated to the fact that yes, the world is ending for unknown reasons. Getting up and wondering why mom hasn't called I start calling her while walking home.

After not getting an answer, I pick up my speed and move to a brisk pace. The reason I am not taking my car is while it might get me there faster there is also already a lot of road carnage as I see people speeding by ignoring the probably now irrelevant laws regarding road safety. I see coming up to be what looks like a crash from someone not stopping to check if the coast was clear before gunning it out of the neighborhood.

Walking up to the car I see the driver of the one who should have had right of way running down the street. Shrugging and already guessing at what happened I peek into the now crumpled sedan and see the driver, a young woman, leaning over the center console and not moving.

Holding my hand close to her mouth and nose for a few moments I don't feel anything exiting and her chest isn't expanding or contracting. Looking into the back of the vehicle I didn't see anything I could use so I reached in and grabbed the keys from the ignition and go open the trunk. Nope, nada. Shutting the trunk, I move to check out the truck that hit her and actually find a handgun case. Grabbing it since I can open it at my house with my lockpicks I check to see if there is anything else that I might be able to use for the days ahead.

I keep moving and hold the case on my left that way if the guy comes back, he probably won't see my appropriation of his property. I don't mind theft if it benefits me. For the same reason I don't mind looting. My days of playing the Elder Scrolls games and other games with survival mechanics taught me that the dead don't need things more than the living do. As well as to keep your shit locked up tight and secure.

Moving onwards I pass by a few stores and restaurants-BOOM!-just to see one of the restaurants exploding throwing what looked to be a body through a window and tumbling across the pavement. I keep look away and keep moving while watching for crazed drivers or people who might be trying to take advantage of this situation.

Not sure how they could though. Not many places are going to be able to buy stolen shit without power and any useful materials like medicine will be rounded up and kept under guard. I mean they could exploit the needy who will want food and water but that is a bad thing to start doing as someone is going to want what you have if you have a lot of it. That could lead to fighting and killing over supplies.

Coming up to the stop light that looks a bit better than the one near my job, I still see cars that hit each other and-BOOM!-others that ran into the stoplights to try and avoid each other just to still create carnage.

People are milling about and visibly even at a distance flinching with each explosion. A few starts to panic and point in the direction behind me, and I don't even look before I start running full tilt. Now I am not exactly the fittest person on earth. Indeed, I am overweight at two-hundred and twenty-four pounds but that doesn't mean my ass can't haul when it needs to.

And haul it does, sprinting past the intersection and moving left down into another parking lot. This one is a few feet lower than the street level and has always been a bitch to get out of. Now I am glad it's the way it is. Where there would be a grassy hill is a concrete wall pressed against the soil with only half a foot of wall "above" ground and another three below that in which I take refuge behind.

Holding my probably-illicit-but-not-going-to-be-much-longer gun case above my head for what little protection it can provide from falling rocks I wait only a little bit before -BOOM!- another tooth rattling explosion rocked my rather narrow world. All I could see after all was a parking lot with a few cars in it. One that was now being littered with bodies of those who just stared at their end and didn't move. Hopefully, they keep their fluids where they need to be rather than spilling outwards and turning this safe-ish spot into a blazing inferno.

After letting everything sound like it settled down, I pull my phone out, turn the video recording on, poke it out of cover and rotate it around to see if any more crap is coming this way. After a few moments I pull my arm down and watched the video seeing everything past the intersection was leveled.

Other than what I was expecting, which was lots of damage and bodies and cars and chunks of buildings not where they were supposed to be I didn't' see anything else and put my phone in my pocket and stood up making sure to grab my gun case. It is fairly certain the previous owner is now dead considering he came this way and was talking to people about getting help. If not, then oh well. I need to keep moving and see if my house and mom survived this. Probably should switch that around but if one didn't then I doubt the other did either as morbid as that is. She leaves the house even less than I do.

Switching to light jog I keep moving north along the main road that cuts through the town I called home for the last twenty-two years and taking in the destruction that has and from the sounds in the distance is still happening. I also see smoke coming from looks like my neighborhood. Hopefully, it's nowhere near my house. That would be a bit more of a shit show for me than what is happening now is.

Finally coming to the last stop light, I look I watch as someone crossing the road gets slammed into by an SUV that doesn't even slow down. Seeing that bit of horror show happen in front of me I move on and after making sure I won't meet the same fate as the bit of crimson splatter would suggest, I make my way across and keep jogging.

Jogging further I start to hear horns blaring, I realize what I have been missing. All the panicking people that should be panicking.

To be honest I was wondering where all the people were at. Other than my coworkers, the people from the laundry mat, and that crowd back two lights, the only people I have seen are drivers and with what's going on you would expect more on the streets panicking. They are on the freeway trying to get out of the city.

Considering my job has a highway north and south of it and there is another about seven or eight miles west I guess everyone that could hopped on those and are in the process of getting out of dodge. Pity for them that everyone else thought the same from the sound of it.

As I finally get to a street that will take me home without any detours but there is a hitch in my plan. A few cars are in the street and on the sidewalk with people screaming at each other. Seeing this I decided to skirt off to my right and try to avoid being seen. It wouldn't mean much if I was, but I rather not get dragged into whatever argument they are having with who hit who and who is at fault.

Also, I get my answer to why there is smoke. One of the houses is gone and the house to its south is on fire. If the wind keeps blowing the way it is I shouldn't have to worry about my house burning but when I get there I need to check if there still is running water. Moving on and past the bickering crowd of people who think yelling at each other when there is a crisis happening around them is a good idea, I make it hope in just a few minutes.

As I stand in front of my house, I see why my mom didn't call. The front of the house is gone, and her truck's windows are blown out. As I take in the devastation another explosion happens in the distance followed by another. They seem to be getting spaced out but having multiple orbs go off each time. Walking around and climbing the fence I see that the back half of the house is fine. At least one thing is partially right. I go up to my window and push up on it before climbing in and leaving the window open. My cat might get out but at this point that is not important.

Looking around my trashed room I see that my DIY pc table has collapsed from the resulting quakes of the explosions. I also see MY gun on the ground from where it fell off the table. I go and pick it up before looking for the spare mags I had preloaded and ready for when shit happens. I guess shit has happened and now I have it. I open my bedroom door to see that the hallway has collapsed and can't be used so I re-shut the door to give it some measure of structural stability and hopefully keep the ceiling from falling on me.

Turning I see my cat sitting on my bed near the window looking at me with her eyes as wide as they can go. "Sorry Dusty but I don't think living here is gonna be much of a thing anymore." I say to her while moving over to what's left of pc setup. The table collapsed on the far side, and everything slid into the actual pc and other than looking like crap it might be functional but as my non-working alarm clock indicates there isn't any power to pull from.

Finding my lock picks poking out of the pile of pc parts I sit down on my bed and turn my phone on before turning battery saver on the screen brightness to about thirty percent to try and save what is left of the juice. With that done I check to see if any social site is still running, to which I am surprised that Twitter X is still going despite losing several server locations. Reddit someone how is still up and has people posting about the 'End of Days' and how we need to 'Repent Our Wickedness' crap.

Checking Facebook, I see that there are community groups forming to access the damage and see where it is safe. Joining a few and setting it so that I get notifications I turn the screen off and drop the phone next to me before grabbing the gun case and my picks and get to work on it.

Spending the next few minutes setting picking pins and listening to my phone ping from updates I feel my eyes warm as they try to tear up as I stare at my door. Pushing back the rising emotions from realizing that I am now fully alone in this as I always had my mom before. My dad tried and he did help when it came to my mom smothering me like not letting me go on rollercoasters by myself when I was able to do so alone but he also always tried to get me to go outside even though I burn like a lobster in the pot from the sun.

My mom on the other hand didn't mind my staying at home over going out as it meant I was safe in her eyes. She supported my gaming habits even as she pushed me to do better in school. Granted when I was old enough to understand money and bills, I realized that my parents were struggling with mortgage payments and other bills. When I was old enough to work a job, I did and as to school, I kept going until I turned eighteen and started working as a fulltime cook. While my parents weren't happy with my dropping out like I did, they could not complain about the increase in money as it allowed us to have nice things. Granted it was not much nicer until I got better pay and my dad finally started to spend smartly but it worked out.

Sighing, I go back to picking the lock on the case and get it to pop open in another minute. Oh, hey got a g3 Taurus to go with my g2c. Spare magazine to go with it as well. That is good as I now have two functional handguns. Leaning over my bed I reach in between the wall and box frame for my spare holster that I saw here a few days ago and pull it up before putting my new gun in it and grabbing a belt off the floor before standing up and threading the two together and onto my pants.

Grabbing my jug of cash that I was going to use for the next Tokyo Oklahoma, I pull out all the bills and put them into my wallet before grabbing the three pocket knives nearby and placing them with one in my front pants pocket, another in the back of my pants so the handle is tucked inside my pants, and the last I think for a bit before going over to my dirty laundry tote and grabbing another sock and sitting.

Pulling my left boot off I pull the new old sock on over the previous one and slip the knife in between the two before pulling my boot back on and standing up to get a feel if it will work. Finding it to be at the least workable I grab my g2c which is in its concealed holster and slip it in on my right side then make my way over to the closet and rummage through it for that backpack I saw a while back that I tossed in here.

Finding it I grabbed it and went back to the window snatching my phone and looked out before realizing I hadn't heard an explosion in a while. Pulling up my phone I check the Facebook group but can't connect and then realize I don't have a connection to any towers. Alright this now very much bad. Moving to go out the window I see Dusty is already outside exploring. Hope she has a better chance out here if she doesn't follow me around. Actually, on that thought I turn back around and go over to where I keep her food and unzip the pack up and grab about 20 cans of wet cat food. Even if she doesn't come with me, I can at least choke this down for food. I also fill her bowl with new food and allow it to spill over since there is a chance I won't be back. With that sobering thought I moved back to and through the window for the last time.

But I don't leave fully just yet as I step into the yard to check if there are any spheres forming where I might be able to see them. Rotating in place and not seeing any I go ahead and move to the house's backdoor before shoulder checking it and breaking it open. Upon entering I check and move to the dining room and from there the kitchen and start grab two bottles of water and put them in the pack before opening the pantry and pulling out cans of tuna, beans and other non-perishable foods. Opening the fridge, I find its still cold and grab a gallon of milk and some cold food before eating what I can and when I am done, I grab the bread and put it into my bag as well as finding a thermal pack in the pantry. Why is there a thermal pack in the pantry? I don't know nor do I care. I put as much of the sandwich meat that I can fit as well as two of those frozen gel bricks for keeping food cold that your parents put into your school lunches to keep them cold.

That done place the cold pack under the bread and go and get the lighter fluid from above the mantle in the living room. That is there because we never used the living room all that much and it turned into a random storage spot. So, we had the grilling stuff in the living room near the back door. Speaking of grilling I grab the rack off the small smoker and bring it with the fluid before placing it on the counter and opening one of the cabinets and grabbing an eight-inch skillet and lid to cook and place it with the other stuff I am taking. I also am going to need a knife for cutting and one of the stones to sharpen it.

Searching the drawers, I pulled my nine-inch knife and sheath that I bought a few months prior, and the rarely used sharpening stone out. I used it mostly to keep my pocketknives sharpened but I guess it is going to see quite a bit more use nowadays. I place them on the counter with the grill rack, lighter fluid, and my pack before seeing if I can if there is anything I take from the garage on this side since its roof collapsed in front.

Turning the handle and pulling the door open I see... a lot of damaged space with some light filtering through the gaps that the roof collapsing caused. I fish my phone out to get some extra light and pan it around to see if it looks stable enough to be worth it.

Deciding it was I step down into the destroyed room and make my way left over to the shelves and start looking for the lengths of nylon rope we kept buying because we couldn't find the last bundle and ended up with several hundred meters of the crap. Well, I guess it's not crap now considering it will be finding itself well used soon.

Locating and taking a few bundles I move back to the kitchen putting my phone back into its pocket and put two of the three lengths of rope that I retrieved inside the pack the last I partially undo and feed through underneath the straps and around to the front before placing the grill rack on the pack and tying it down to it. Once it's secure I knot it and cut the remainder of the rope off and tie the knife onto one of the shoulder straps so that it would be in front down on my right side and place the rest of the rope into the pack along with the skillet and lid.

With all that done I can start making my way back outside, which is a lot easier than I am making it out to be and leave what has been home for over twenty years. Moving to the backdoor step out into the light of day as it was only noon when this whole shebang started, I start moving towards a Walmart Supercenter as it carries solar packs for phones. I need my music.

-BOOM- The explosions came back. The reason I noticed was the loud window rattling explosion that happened near my old primary school. Nice school but from the sound and dust cloud that I can now see rising up into the air now just open space I expect.

-BOOM-

Another explosion happens a little closer and this time on the opposite side of the neighborhood. Looking up I can see more of those orbs of death forming, and faster now. As I was passing through a park there isn't much that near me that could provide the protection I would like forcing me to settle for a large oak tree that might be able to take the blast I move behind it and lay face down hoping my backpack with a pan and grill tied to it will at least provide some protection for my back.

Watching them expand, shrink, and explode seems to happen in seconds but when you can't see them it takes seemingly forever for the explosion to occur. Yet when it does, I wish it didn't. The sound is overwhelmingly loud and painful. A faint sound of wood cracking followed by the sensation of my leg exploding into white hot pain. Then it all goes black.

Extreme pain isn't something that I am unused to waking up to. Leg cramps have haunted my existence since I could reasonably remember. This is something different. I try to curl up to grab my leg that is screaming its agony into my mind. While I am able to hunch over towards my leg, said leg would not move closer to me.

Looking down at it I see a thick branch of the tree I hoped would provide some sort of refuge only partially did so. One of the larger limbs came crashing down on the lower part of my legs. Apparently one of them was slightly higher than the other and took the brunt of the fall leaving the right bruised and the other possibly broken.

Trying to not move the damaged appendage too much, I check to see if I could at least roll the branch off me. Keeping the arch of the foot on the now bum leg flat against the ground I move into a kneeling form. Kinda like seiza but with a tree branch making itself at home on my legs.

Reaching backwards I take hold of the branch finding that my grip covers less than half the diameter of it. Pushing it backwards I find that it won't budge so I try to lift it up and barely get it to move. Getting an idea, I take my pack off and remove the skillet and try leverage the branch off of me. Finding that it lifted it I scoot my pack under it and slide my legs out.

Rolling over I run my hands over my left leg I don't feel the bone is misaligned, but it's definitely bruised to hell and back at the very least. Moving to stand up and attempt to see if I can at least limp to Walmart I brace myself on the tree and actually move to stand before turning and taking a few steps away. Finding that I can in fact walk on it, I grab the skillet and place it back where I grabbed it, shouldering the pack and start limping towards solar power.

As I move, I look around noticing the most recent round of explosive doom orbs leveled a decent amount of housing. I stop and stare at a particular section rubble before moving on. Even if they were alive, I got myself to look out for and I don't need to be taking risks beyond what I need to get my goals done. And that is making sure that I can play games and music on my phone. At least for the next month. I don't think I will be able to make my payments to Youtube anymore.

"Finally," I say after arriving at the local supercenter. Looks like people haven't really tried looting this place. Well, that or my nap took a lot longer than I thought and it's bone dry now. That or the fact that it is missing chunks, and the parking lot has several flipped cars in it might have put people off. Or the fact that the front entrance has fallen in on itself.

Moving to the back door near automotive since the garage doors might be open letting me in easier than digging through the rubble would. Finding that the giant doors are in fact open I scoot on through just to find the door to the inside locked when the power cut. Staring at the big window and wondering if this is really going to be this easy; I grab a hammer and throw it through the glass and nodding to myself before grabbing a wrench and sliding it along the bottom of the now open window to remove any shards of glass that could slice into my hands before clambering through. I guess it is that easy.

Moving to the bicycle area I grab a 3-speed bike that's around my size before grabbing a good size wagon that can hookup to it. Once that's done, I move over to the camping supplies and grab a bunch of the green propane tanks, a propane torch nozzle and a flint and steel that I saw, and put them and a single person tent in the wagon and moving it all back to the automotive before moving to the electronics and scouring the cables for phone chargers and adaptors to turn on into another.

I also hit the game section since I was there and helped myself to a free Switch and a few games. Gotta have something to do while I wait for the world to burn am I right?

Going back, I grab the door key off the wall and open it up before moving everything outside and hooking the wagon up to the bike. Next stop Lowes. They carry portable solar panels last I saw. They should be in stock since I rarely had to down stock them when I last worked there for extra holiday pay.

As I was leaving, however, I hit a snag. Or rather a snag hit me. A rather big snag. A big, black, and round snag that quickly turned my world white. Ah. Fuck.

You know when you go to sleep in your bed regardless of how comfortable or uncomfortable it may be, you tend to wake up in the same bed. Well, the good news is I am in a bed. The bad news is I am certain I died before I ever made it to a bed. The confusing news is the blue box hanging in the air in front of me just slightly blurring the off-white ceiling.

{Ping} [Welcome to the Game!]

{Ping} [Press OK to start the tutorial!]

[Ok]

A/N - Alright authors note time. This is my first real attempt at fanfiction using two mediums that I understand well. The main character is technically a SI but also not? He has more problems with expressing emotion than I will. There is also the fact that he seems a little to stubborn to die. I rolled dice on each encounter of if he would die and he just wouldn't. One time I want to kill something, and fate says "Nah brah dis man is mah homie."

Finally rolled a death and yeh I kinda was burnt out on waiting. Like I could have killed him right at the beginning, but dice said no. Hell, I was hoping for a bug on the windshield later but nope. Either way I had the end already written up and was just trying to get to it in a manner that wasn't too much cringe even though I was cringing the entire time. Anyway, I will try to get Chapter Actual written as soon as possible. Please note this is technically a slice of life fic so there will be lots of pointless things happening. Maybe. I can't rule them out as fluff is as much part of a story as action is. See you around. Also, yeh that alert is a touch unrealistic, but I have no idea what one would look like beyond popping up on my phone saying this is a test.

P.s. without this A/N the word count is 7,382. 13 pages too. Crazy, am I right? Also, I am writing the item list and drop rate from all the enemies in the instant dungeon, so I at least have a way to keep track of everything. The first dungeon floor is pretty much done and part of the zombie one is done. The weapon lists are also coming along but I need to do some more research on the magical properties of wood. Yew wood might have an affinity for death, but it doesn't mean it is the only affinity. If anyone has a website that has info like this drop it in with a comment if you don't mind.

P.p.s. Also I am gonna be rolling dice on whether to add DxD into this as well. I like the world it is set in but dear god I would murder Issei without hesitation. Something about him just screaming that tits are the end all be all in the beginning made me just read the damn wiki about everything in it. If I do add dxd I will need to watch some of the anime to get the vocal tones down in a way that I feel I can somewhat express. Also this should be the last note aside from the very last one that I almost forgot.

P.p.p.s. This story is fanfiction. No claim whatsoever beyond my OC/SI character, which is based off myself, is being made on the works of others. The Harry Potter books and works therein of as far as I am aware, are hers. For that matter Any Works of Others that may be featured or depicted in any way within this fanfiction and continuations therein of shall be considered the property of their rightful owners until a time that they themselves (The Owners) say otherwise. In which the new owners will then take the place as the rightful owners.

I hope this clarifies that No Claim is being made on properties already owned and this is a work in which explores the possibility of someone with the gamer system being added to a world(s) they already are aware of. As such I am fairly certain this story will qualify for fair use. However, with the way the world is right now I Feel the Need that this must be explained to avoid unnecessary legal issues on my behalf and hopefully foster healthy dialogue if it becomes necessary.