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How to Survive a Bunch of Calamities

🇰🇷Haetae
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chs / week
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Synopsis
[Passion project, might be finished or might not. The cover is not mine, if you recognize and want me to remove your art, please notify me by comment.] Shion, our protagonist, is just your everyday 15 year old. She likes drawing, facts and is sort of blunt when it comes to certain things. but when news breaks out that alien monsters are invading each of the continents, her relaxed and (somewhat) lazy lifestyle is suddenly cut short. What will happen when Shion finds herself in the middle of a bunch of calamities? And on top of that, will she be able to retain her humanity, and learn more about herself and the people surrounding her along the way? Note: I’m trying something new, and I will post chapters when I feel like it.
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Chapter 1 - Prologue

Rinse and repeat. If you could describe my life in one small sentence, that would've been it.

That is, before the whole bunch of calamities came in and destroyed that supposed, never ending loop of boredom and laziness that was my lifestyle.

Never, in my 15 years of life would I have expected to be born in the generation that the world decided to end. But of course, this damn universe just had to prove me wrong.

Thanks, universe.

I live in a (compared to the rest of the world) rather underdeveloped city, now don't get me wrong, it's a pretty normal and a nice looking place.

It's just that you tend to get bored of everything here, ehm, to put it into perspective, I got bored of this place when I was about 6.

But, not everything about this place is boring. The trees are really unique for one, but maybe that's just because there are real, authentic and living organisms.

Uhm. Never mind that. The houses are also easy on the eyes, they look nice but they aren't nearly as fancy as the other cities.

I live in a rather strange house, especially if you compared it to the rest of the neighborhood.

It's a three story, (counting the basement) yellow brick house, with its special feature being how awkward the shape of the house is.

The house I live in is a long rectangle, with a rather generous amount of space considering how cramped it looks and, to be completely honest, my house always kinda seemed like a waste of space. Like, why didn't the architect who designed my house make it just a regular house? Isn't it kind of just wasting more space? Than properly using the space it was given? Urgghh whatever, this sudden rant has given me a headache.

The bedrooms, along with a washroom are up on the 2nd floor. The living room, kitchen and dining room are on the ground floor. And the basement is basically just used as storage and an office for my work-at-home parents.

My day started off like any other day, or in other words, quite literally a rinse and repeat of yesterday.

It was the usual, wake up at exactly 7:01, get dressed in 9 minutes, brush my teeth, eat breakfast in another 10 minutes, and chill for about 30 minutes before I walked a simple 15 minute walk to the bus stop.

What I did in my 30 minutes of free time consisted of a schedule in itself, and I usually ended up watching the bland news and weather forecasts just because I was that bored.

Today was no different so eventually, I ended up watching the weather forecast.

"Today is a sunny day along with the rest of week!" The weatherman said as he gestured to a sun icon. "I hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend because the next week is supposed to be-" the TV screen went black.

Huh? Strange. The tv suddenly turned off and started back up with an emergency alert on it.

I was a little surprised, so all that I ended up doing, was simply calling for my parents,

"Hey mom? Dad? You might wanna see this," I said as I was leaning over the couch in an unhealthy fashion.

My parents soon after came downstairs in a daze, they then stared at the screen and I could visibly see them internally wake up completely. Partially because my mom dropped her phone and my dad his empty mug, but that's besides the point.

Soon after my dad completely cleaned up the shattered mug, the emergency alert transitioned to a live video of the Council.

"People of the nation, do not send your children to school, do not go away from your house, and make sure to stay and move with the people you live with."

"Today, We're here to announce that a calamity is coming towards us, from outer space."

"But please do not panic. In the past 24 hours, all of the other continents have communicated with each other, and we've come to the conclusion that one alien monster from outer space has invaded each of their continents."

"We are the last continent to be invaded, and my scientists have stated that the monster coming to invade us will without a doubt, arrive in exactly 5 hours."

"Please use this time to get to the center of the continent and help us with an emergency project that could save us all."

All five of the council members smiled a 'reassuring' smile, but I could tell they were just as stressed as the citizens.

And with that, the broadcast ended.

After it ended, my dad ran up the stairs to start packing items and my mom started ringing my older brother and sister's phone.

I also ran up to my room and started packing all sorts of items. I tossed in what little valuable things I had. This included my old fashioned phone and iPad, my sketchbook and a bunch of other things I tossed in without much thought.

The last few things I grabbed were my only good pillow and blanket along with some earbuds.

Running downstairs with my dad, we ran towards the car and put all out stuff there.

At this point, mom was off the phone and packing non perishable food.

As I was helping dad to pack a bunch of stuff I managed to glance at the time, 9:00, dammit! An hour had already passed.

After I finished helping dad and mom pack everything they though the family would need, I sat down and checked online to see if I could gain some information on the alien monsters.

As I checked online I found a promising article but sadly, I couldn't read the language.

Knowing any amount of time I had was valuable, I put it through google translate and, It was a total crap translation. But I'd have to deal with it.

I began reading the badly translated article and eventually concluded a few things:

1.) the alien monsters seem to be deaf or at least has bad hearing

2.) the alien monsters seem like they have strange/bad eyesight

3.) the alien monsters have a less than average sense of smell

So basically, all of it's (what us humans would consider) main senses were pretty nullified.

There will hopefully be more information later, but this was all that I could currently find online. And, if I'm being honest, that whole article only listed 3 points which is kind of a waste. Like, what if someone was running from one of these alien monster things and wanted information on how to literally live. But then the article starts with a long ass paragraph on how life is precious, and you should take these points on how to survive! Ehem.

By the time I finished surfing the internet for more information on the alien monsters, an hour had already passed.

And, almost as if it was staged, my dad walked up from the basement with a bunch of things I had never seen before.

At first I thought it was just a bunch of random stuff, but upon closer inspection, all the items turned out to be homemade weapons.

"I taught myself how to make these back in my teenage year." My dad smiled a smile meant only for nostalgia.

"Your father was quite the troublemaker back then."

My dad did a very dramatic gasp and simply said

"I was not!"

As my parents continued to bicker, (while being productive) I took out a homemade crossbow and messed a bit with the functions.

I was messing with the functions of the crossbow when the TV came on again, but this time, we read some good information.

「 Citizens of the nation, We have just received more information regarding the alien monster and apparently, it eats Florroina.

Florroina is the power source of a lot of our tech, and it's in all electronics that are from the year B-7942 and up. So please check the date on all of your electronics. This year is B-9158. 」

(Note: B-7942 would be the year 2,007,942 because B basically represents the second generation, of the "new future".)

After the broadcast turned off, I felt a slight wave of relief. It might sound a little messed up, but I was glad we found out what the monsters apparently consumed, considering most of our family's gadgets didn't contain any Florroina. Like I said before, underdeveloped city.

But that didn't mean no one in our city had Florroina.

Besides a few families and people like us, who didn't have the money to afford anything containing a lot of Florroina, most of the people around the entire world had at least something containing 20% Florroina. So it wasn't exactly welcomed news to most.

Although, unluckily for my parents, their phones both contained Florroina so they would have to leave them elsewhere one we evacuated.

After my family finished packing all the weapons, suddenly, we all got a notification on every device we owned.

It was a simple message, but that simple message marked the end of our nation.

「 Evacuate now! The unknown entity has arrived early! 」

And under that message was a picture of a giant black and blue-glowing meteor right above our city.

We were all silent with shock, so it wasn't exactly a surprise when all we could muster to say was

"Shit."

We all said it at the same time, but we couldn't even collect ourselves enough to chuckle at the comedic timing, in an otherwise serious situation.

However, the silence after that didn't last very long because almost immediately after, almost as if we were running a marathon, something seemed to snap in the background and we all started to rush.

Ehm. I, personally rushed while internally screaming to myself how the scientists were damn good liars, and how I would never trust the council or the scientists words ever again, and only their work. If you were curious.

But, the faster we seemed to rush, the faster the meteor seemed to come towards our city.

And by the time we got in our car, the meteor crashed onto our street. As well as almost every other street in our measly city.

My parents didn't even seem to hesitate or look back, because all that happened after the meteor crashed, was soon left behind as my dad hit the gas pedal; both my parents having thrown their phones away in the packing rush as well.

But I didn't have the luxury to stare away from the horrid sight.

And, as my curiosity got the better of me, I looked back, only to see something that could be described to the best of my abilities as a slightly spiky, pitch-black, seemingly four-legged, calamity.

As I saw it, I felt like I couldn't rip my eyes away from it, and what's worse is, as it's head and neck seemed to move as one, it seemed to stare back.

After that, my mind kind of just went blank, with the monster's look still stuck in my mind.

After a while, the car went over a bump in the road (more like a chunk of the road that was torn up) which jolted me out of that strange trance.

When I snapped out of my trance, I was in the same position as I was when the alien monster stared back at me, which did wonders for my now very sore shoulders and butt.

But, that's besides the point. I noticed we were really close to a super technologically advanced city.

It was my first time seeing such an advanced city, so I immediately took out my sketchbook and started drawing.

As the car got closer to the city I saw that it looked really empty, I felt like something was missing, and resulted in my drawing looking awfully blank.

By the time we stopped by a car charging station on the outskirts of the city, I realized what was missing- people!

People were missing from my sketch, that's why it looked so empty!

"I wonder if the people living in this high tech city evacuated already," I spoke these words out loud without much thought.

"Nope! The people residing here are just more in the center of the city, they're just too stingy to leave all their precious items here."

I jumped upon hearing an unknown voice, and turned around to see a stranger who looked to be a little bit older than me.

"Uhh who are you?" I made an unpleasant expression.

"The names Zeekeit H. Maxwell. But you can just call me Zeek if that's too much of a mouthful."

"Nice to meet you, Keith. My names Shion, and last names aren't really necessary."

"Ohh okay smartass," Keith said sarcastically.

I had never really introduced myself to many people, so after I introduced myself to Keith I had no idea what to do. So instead, I just walked away from Keith and towards my family.

"Uhhh your just going to walk away?"

"Yep. I'm too awkward to know what to do, so bye."

"Bye. I guess?"

As I walked towards my parents I saw that the car was already charged, and I was the one they were waiting on.

"Who's your new friend, Shion?"

Mom seemed to emphasize on the word "friend" but I wouldnt exactly call Keith a friend, at most he's an acquaintance, which is what I told mom. But for some reason she seemed to become even more obnoxious and began smirking and wiggling her eyebrows at me.

I looked to dad to help me but all he did was turn away!

"You motherfu-"

I was about to swear at my dad when my phone gave off an alert, I stopped and checked, only to see a notification that came from an unknown app.

「 To stop the alien monster coming after you, you must dispose of any Florroina on your person. That can be done by burning, masking the electronic waves it gives off, or diverting the monster's attention to a larger source of Florroina. The latter solution is only temporary. 」

I looked around to see if anyone else got this notification but, strangely enough, it seemed as if nobody else had gotten this strange notification.

Well actually that makes sense, with the whole 0% Florroina plan everyone in the world has moved to.

I unlocked my phone and looked for the mysterious app that sent me the notification.

After a bit, I found that the app was already in a folder labeled 'Navigation', strange that it was put there, but I guess I didn't exactly name any folder "How to survive in an alien invasion".

I walked up to my parents, but not to tell them about the strange notification that the app sent me, I instead told them about the people of this city apparently gathering in the center.

"Hm? People in the city center? Is that really true?"

"Well we won't know unless we head there."

Dad was still a bit skeptical, but in the end he gave in. We started to drive towards the center, and as we got closer, we could hear screams.

As we got even more close to the source of the screams, I received another notification.

「 Vehicles will be very valuable later on, you should probably hide your car. 」

I was a little unsettled by the timing of this notification, but I decided to say something.

"Hey dad?"

"Yes Shion?"

"Park the car somewhere hidden, where it will be hard to spot, find and break into."

"Okay...?"

Luckily, it seemed dad caught onto what I was saying and followed my advice.

He doesn't always follow well-intentioned advice, considering how stubborn he usually is. But this time, I think he felt that you could never be too cautious and due to that, he heeded my advice.

As we silently sneaked out of alleyway dad hid the car in, I noticed that Keith was in the city center as well.

I found myself about to call out to Keith when I saw him talking to a girl, and for some reason, I felt a strange sense of familiarity with her. Huh, strange.

It might've been fate, or it might've been because my mom 'gently' pushed me towards Keith, but I ended up bumping into both the girl and Keith, taking the girl down with me.

"Oh shit!"-I fell on top of the girl just barely catching myself before I squished her- "I'm so sorry about knocking you down. It seems someone shoved me from behind," I glared at mom as I emphasized the word someone.

"Nah it's fine, I was kinda in your way anyways," the girl's face was neutral as she spoke, but her ears were really red.

"Hey, uhm are you mad? I'm sorry if you're upset."

"No. I'm not mad, I just have a bit of a fever." As she spoke her forehead and cheeks started to grow red as well.

I just nodded at her reply, before realizing I was still on the ground with her. I quickly got up and apologized before awkwardly waving goodbye at Keith and walking away.

As I walked away, I glanced back at the girl and Keith and saw that the girl's face had grown even redder. It seemed like she was really mad at me, as she was also hopping around and very vividly pointing at me.

To be honest, I really don't like people who seem like they don't have a problem with you when they're with you, but behind your back they're the biggest asshole. But, I wasn't getting a bad feeling about the girl for some strange reason.

The girl kind of reminded me of someone, funny enough. But I couldn't remember who she reminded me of for the life of me.

Oh well, I can't think of anyone currently.

As I approached my parents, I saw them talking with a guy who looked to be around 18.

By the time I got to the area where my parents were, all I heard from their conversation was

As the guy spoke, he shook his head grimly. "Sorry, I don't know anyone in the Psychology or Engineering Majors. I wasn't in any of those buildings for more than one or two classes."

Mom sighed and thanked the person anyways.

"Were you asking them if they had seen either Luryu or Mukaru?"

Luryu and Mukaru are my two twin siblings. Luryu, is my older sister and Mukaru, my brother.

Mom just nodded sullenly, I gently glanced at dad and he walked over to comfort her.

As I walked away from my parents, I got another notification from my phone.

「 Good morale is a necessary step for surviving. 」

I didn't know who or what was sending me these tips, but for the time being, I decided to trust the notifications.

Come to think of it, Im basically entrusting my life to an app.

So...

Shouldn't I know more about it?

Or, should I just remain blissfully oblivious?

Ah, screw it.

I unlocked my phone and opened the folder it was in.

As I clicked the app, it's title being "Guide to Survival" , my phone screen changed to the Home Screen of the app.

The app was a lot more boring than I originally imagined, it looked rather basic and boring.

The background was white with some fancy green borderlines, and the text was rather modest for an app that had a bloody skull as it's app icon.

As I was exploring all the app's functions, a new thing was suddenly added, but it wasn't anything too interesting.

All it was, was a log for all of the information that I had started receiving since the alien invasion.

I was still looking for new functions when I heard my name called,

"Yeah?"

I answered without much thought and when I turned around, I saw Keith and the girl I bumped into.

"I just wanted to introduce you to my friend! Don't be shy, come over here and introduce yourself!"

After Keith said this, the girl who seemed to be hiding behind Keith's back stepped forward.