The former General opened up to the first page of the book and was shocked to find a strange glowing surface that had some text written on it.
[Would the host like to gain the knowledge in this book? (Yes) (No)]
Out of curiosity the General pressed the yes option, and suddenly a load of information appeared in his brain making him flinch in pain. After the flow stopped he took a minute to catch his breath and then looked down at the book. Even though he hadn't read the material he knew all of it by heart. This bothered him since it seemed extremely unnatural to have all of the information in this way without actually reading anything, so he flipped to the next page of the book and began to read from chapter one.
[So you have woken up in a different body?]
The chapter mainly went over how his soul had been transferred into that of a school teacher who had a class of five children who had been considered defective and were taught in a building which was set aside from the main school building. The school seemed to be a type of boarding school where those who had awakened certain 'gifts' were trained to protect their country's welfare. While he knew this from it being absorbed into his head, reading it made him wonder, if he was in the body of the teacher then that would mean that he should have his memories as well. And sure enough when he focused on his memories he found new ones mixed in as well, the information that he gained from them confused him greatly since the person whose memories he was seeing didn't seem to understand them either.
[Warning!!! Due to host's curious behavior an error has been detected in the system and the host will no longer be able to inhabit the body that the host is currently in. Due to failure in the part of the system, the host will be sent back into a more suitable body]
The General had no idea what it was that he was reading but he suddenly felt a pain in his head and he got out of the bed rushing for the door. He had the distinct feeling that he was going to lose consciousness again and wake up in a totally different place as someone else, so he was curious to see what his appearance was at the moment. When he reached the door he flung it open and saw sanding before him his own reflection, only now he looked much younger and had a slightly plump figure. This brought a frown to the General's face and as he fell to the ground again he wondered were he would end up next.
He was starting to get annoyed with moving from place to place in such a bizarre fashion. When he opened his eyes again he began to cough violently, the air around him was thick with smoke, and the air was getting hard to breath. He emedeatly was aware of two things, first he was able to remember the memories of the other person whose body he had been inhabiting before, and second he was in the body of a suffocating child.
[Congratulations!!! The host has been successfully sent back in time so that the host can experience the events personally.]
[Time until suffocation: three minutes. good luck!!!]
The General quickly tried to pull himself off of the ground but his legs were trapped under a dresser, so he looked around to see if there was anything that he could use to free himself. He grabbed onto a small metal pipe which was burning hot, and shoved it under the dresser using some piled rubble to pry the dresser up enough for him to move his legs out from under it. The feeling of suffocation was starting to make his head feel light but he forced himself to crawl across the floor with his fingers aching from holding the hot pipe. When he reached a door way he pulled himself to his feet, he could see that the handle was burning hot, but he needed to get out and the door was the only opening. Smoke was billowing from under the door and he geared up his nerves before placing his hand on the door and quickly turning it. He screamed in pain and quickly let go of the door after pushing it open with his shoulder. His hand was twitching and sizzling a bit, but he gritted his teeth and began to move forward.
The smoke hit his face with full force as soon as the door had fully opened. Using his good hand the General pulled his shirt over his mouth and rushed forward blindly for any way out of the burning building. The flames, which hadn't reached his room yet, were consuming everything in his path and causing his vision to become distorted. He suddenly saw something infront of him, it was a window which had been shattered by the fire. Unfortunately the window was surrounded by thick flames, and it was becoming harder to breath by the moment.
"There is no way I will die in such a way."
With his hand still clutching his shirt over his mouth he rushed tward the window and jumped through grazing his arm on a shard of glass. Unfortunately the window was on the second floor so he fell to the ground which was thankfully rather soft and lay there panting in an attempt to get back his breath. He lay there until he was able to get air back into his lungs and then he pulled himself up to his knees, but they were still injured from both the fall and being stuck under the dresser so he was unable to get to his feet. His entire body was shaking like a leaf but he managed to pull himself away from the window and toward a safe location, but a sudden notice changed his direction.
"Help!!! If anyone can hear me, please help!! I don't want to die!"
The words cut deeply into his soul, he couldn't help but remember what it felt like suffocating from the heat of the fire, infact he still found it slightly hard to breath. The feeling forced his to crawl towards the front of the house where he had heard the voice coming from. When he came into full veiw of the door he saw that a person had been trapped under a beam at the entrance of the building, he quickly looked around and was again blessed to find a long smoking piece of wood which he could use as a lever. Using his already damaged hand he grabbed the stick and used it to pull himself to his feet, his hand began to smoke once more, but he could feel his nerves being to die, in this situation there really wasn't another option at the moment, so he gritted his teeth and pushed forward.
[Warning!!! The host's hand will retain permanent damage if not treated properly.]
[Waning!!! New quest: Savior to the Survivors]
The pop ups were really starting to annoy the General becouse they would pop up in his head so he could see it but he could also not see it clearly. He shook his head and struggled to keep his legs from giving out. The person saw him and began crying in relief.
"If you can't get me out, then at least, please save my child, I beg you."
The General smiled weakly and drove the wood under the beam, he saw the small child in the women's arms and the thought of preventing another orphan to come into existence drove him to work faster.
"I'll do the best I can mis. Just try to drag yourself out from under there when I push this down. Okay?"
The woman nodded and the General put all of his weight onto the wood, but unlike the deaser the wooden beam was much heavier and he had to apply more pressure making the wood dig into his stomach, he could feel the wood start to splinter under him, but he kept on pushing. Finally the beam was raised up enough for the woman to crawl out from under, and as soon as she had the wood lever snapped clean down the center allowing the beam to fall back down again with a thud. He fell back down to his knees again and began crawling away from the raging fire as fast as he could, with the woman and her child right behind him, she seemed able to walk to a degree, but she had a noticeable limp. Once they were far enough away both of them fell back on the ground and began to breath heavily.
"Thank you for saving me... May I ask who you are?"
The woman had turned toward the General after checking the safety of her child.
"I don't really know actually... Do you know what this place is?"
The woman was taken back, she looked at him with slight speculation but then let out a small sigh, and coughed up more smoke.
"This is, or more appropriately was a hospital. But after that, I doubt that it will ever serve as one again."
The General nodded his head wondering why he had been at a hospital. The three of them sat there watching the fire burn down the long two story building.
"So were we the only ones in there or were there others who died?"
The woman shook her head and let out a sigh.
"As far as I know they evacuated as soon as the fire had started. I don't know about the others but they were trying to get rid of me, I don't know why you were left in the building."
The General looked at the woman with an odd expression.
"Why would anyone try to kill you?"
The woman shook her head and had a sorrowful look on her face.
"Well it has to do with my husband. Anyway, you said you didn't remember who you were. Do you really not remember anything?"
The General shook his head and looked down at the ground, in truth he knew nothing about the body he was currently inhabiting. He decided to go with the next best choice.
"I do remember a name, but other than that, I don't remember anything from when I woke up in the burning room."
The woman looked at him with intrest.
"Oh, and what name is that?"
The General held out his hand and smiled.
"Atlas. I assume that was what my name is, so let me just go with that. Pleased to meet you mis. sorry I wasn't able to help you out sooner, then you wouldn't have been injured like that."
The General indicated the burns on the womans lower legs which were becoming more pronounced. and frowned slightly. The woman smiled alittle and excepted the handshake heartily. Now that things had settled down The General got a good look at person infront of him. She looked to be about thirty or so with dark brown hair and pretty features. She was wearing a short sleeved shirt and pants that stopped at her knees. The General still hadn't gotten used to the attire of this new place, but the clothes were much more comfortable than the ones that he was used to.
"My name is Julie and this little one is Dirk. You have quite the interesting name there don't you?"
The General needed to remember to refer to himself a Atlas from now on. It would be quite strange since he had been referred to as General for such a long time it would be rather odd.
[Warning!!! Host has changed name to: Atlas]
[Warning!!! Host needs to hide, hostiles have entered the area from the left of the host.]
Atlas emidiatly perked up his head and looked for any place that would be suitable to them to hide. Luck seemed to be with him that day since there was a pile of packed dirt next to a clump of thorny bushes.
"We need to hide please trust me."
The woman nodded and fallowed Atlas as he crawled behind the pile of dirt. As soon as he got behind it he began to dig into the dirt as fast as he could.