That night, while the world slept and nocturnal predators prowled the concrete jungle. There was a group of people, on the outskirts of London, who joined the nocturnal predators in their prowling.
Since they knew exactly what it was they shared a house with, it was difficult to continue staying there. Corpses are notoriously bad roommates after all.
London is a sprawling metropolis of a city with no clear end or beginning. It's hard to say exactly when you have left it, and at the moment, we were arguing about whether or not we should leave it.
"But how do we know there aren't more monsters outside the city?" August asked.
He had been arguing with Kyle about this and that for the last couple of hours, doing his best to distract the poor guy from his recent trauma. Not that it would heal him or anything, still, it was better than nothing.
"I vote to leave," Kashyap said, making his call.
"Any particular reasons?" August asked.
"Have you checked your status lately?" Kashyap asked him.
In response, we all pulled up our statuses to see what he meant.
[Name: Robert Melior
Race: Human
Level: 9
Experience: 200/1000
Strength: 21
Agility: 22
Intelligence: 17
Mana: 10
Skills: (Martial arts LVL 40) (Basic Survival LVL 15) (Gaming LVL 1)
Distance from the Edge of the world: 29890 miles
Messages: (7)]
I ignored the messages because I could already tell that they were all just kill notifications.
What caught my eye was the distance from the edge of the world. If what it was saying here was correct, then it had already gotten 110 miles closer to us in half a day.
If it kept travelling at that speed, we would be killed in half a year. and that was if it stayed at the same speed, if it sped up then, who's to say what would happen.
This was bad, very bad. First of all, the earth itself is only 8000 miles in diameter. Even if we ran to the very edge of the earth, it wouldn't take long for us to get caught.
Everyone had realised this and the room grew very quiet. Each of us had our own problems and something to lose.
Finally, I spoke up. "I think we should spend tonight figuring out which way we need to go to move away from the edge of the world. For example, each of us could travel in a cardinal direction (N/S/E/W) for a couple of miles, and then we can meet up again after finding out which way to go."
"But does it even matter if we find the right way? Won't the earth be destroyed anyway," Kyle asked sullenly,
"No need to be so pessimistic," August grumbled.
"I'm not trying to be pessimistic, I just don't see any way out," Said Kyle, he couldn't even find the energy to argue anymore, just sounding defeated.
"I think there should be a way out," Kashyap said thoughtfully
"What?" All three of us asked eagerly.
"Do you remember that first message we got?"
"Vaguely," I said.
"Well, it said that the worlds were colliding and that it was a race to the centre. Perhaps, the centre isn't a place on earth, but a place somewhere else." Kashyap said triumphantly.
I mulled this over in my head, sure, it was all theoretical, but it wasn't impossible. The only problem was... "How do we get to this 'centre'," I asked the room.
Kashyap shrugged helplessly. He hadn't thought that far ahead. But, it was better than nothing.
"Well, I don't know about you lot, but I would rather believe that there is a way off the earth and try to find it before time runs out than give up and wait here," I said.
Kashyap nodded in agreement with me and even August seemed convinced. Kyle just shrugged helplessly. "I'll do whatever you guys are doing," He said, although he didn't sound too hopeful.
Thus, we spent the night walking out in different directions for an hour and then walking back to where we started.
I chose the direction where I had seen the cat earlier because I didn't think any of the other 3 would be able to handle it if they ran into it. Not that I could kill it by myself, but I'm pretty sure I could run away if I had to.
I passed the pickup truck and it was still lying there, sleeping quietly. Its massive chest rose and fell slowly with the steady breathing you only experience when asleep.
A small part of me wanted to sneak up on it and kill it while it slept. But the rational part of my brain told me that the only reason it was sleeping out in the open. was that it was confident that nothing could sneak up on it.
After carefully walking past that street, I continued on my way, walking in a vaguely eastern direction.
I tread on the balls of my feet as I travelled through the streets, careful not to make a sound. There wasn't anything I wanted less than being attacked in the dark by a bunch of monsters.
My journey took me out of the city limits and up a steep hill. I decided that when I reached the top of the hill, I would check whether or not my distance to the edge of the world had increased. If it had, then that meant I was going the right way.
Perhaps it was due to my newly improved strength and agility, which were nearly double what they had been this morning, but, even though I was walking up a hill, I didn't break a sweat despite the fact that I was walking at a speed that a normal person might consider running.
In no time at all, I reached the top of the hill and checked my status. Luckily enough, I had gone the right way and my distance from the edge of the world had increased by 5 miles to 29895.
Now that I knew that we needed to travel East, I could relax. I let out a sigh and looked back down the hill at the way I had come.
It was still deep into the night, and the morning sun wouldn't come for a few hours yet. So, the cityscape that greeted me was still illuminated by the pale blue light of the moon.
The silhouette of London looked strange. With missing buildings and iconic landmarks turned to rubble, it was almost unrecognisable. And, even from here, I could still see clouds of smoke billowing up from different areas of the city.
And, in all of the ruin and mayhem, the fire and smoke. I could see lights. They were few and far between, but they were definitely there.
They twinkled beautifully. It was a different twinkle to that of the stars in the sky. The stars glittered with majesty and the unknown, in their heavenly glow I could see the endless possibilities of an infinite universe. It was daunting, humbling, but beautiful.
The lights that twinkled in London were faint and they flickered precariously on the brink of going out. But they persevered nonetheless. And in them, I could feel warmth. The warmth came from the knowledge that my little group of survivors weren't the only ones left.
Each little light that twinkled in the city was a glowing beacon of life and it filled with an indescribably feeling of relief and melancholy.
I don't know how long I sat on that hill, caught between the glorious vista of stars, and the faint twinkling lights of humans that fought against the cold darkness of the world. But when I finally did make up my mind to go back down, my eyes were wet.
...
Back at the house, we all revealed our findings, and I told them that we needed to travel eastwards.
Kyle had managed to find a bag for himself and had filled it with clothes he had found in another house.
Kashyap had collected a few weapons from god knows where. I don't use weapons myself, but I could tell that Kyle was greatly relieved whenever Kashyap handed him the steel baseball bat. At least he didn't have to walk around with a tyre iron that was bent into a rectangle anymore
Kashyap himself had fashioned a long piece of steel rebar into a spear by sharpening the end.
And August wouldn't stop bragging about how he had managed to reach level 9. "I'm going to catch up to you," He said goadingly.
I ignored him while solemnly swearing to myself that he would never catch up with me if it was the last thing I did.
Finally, after everyone had calmed down, Kashyap raised an issue. "We can't just travel east," He said.
"Why not?" August asked.
"There's an ocean in the way idiot! England is an Island." Kyle laughed mockingly.
August didn't reply and I had to stop him from taking out the knife he had strapped to his leg.
"He is right though," I said.
"About what?" August asked me suspiciously.
I wanted to say he was right about everything, but in the end, I didn't reply, there was an ocean in the way if we tried to travel east, and August was indeed an idiot. But, the way he had just tried to go for his knife made me think better of replying,
"Might I make a suggestion," Kashyap said, cutting off the possible conflict. His timing seemed to be really good when it came to these sorts of things.
"I'm all ears," I said eagerly.
"Since I doubt there will be any boats running, what with most people being dead and all, why don't we take the tunnel," Kashyap said smugly, he looked very pleased that he had suggested that.
"What's the tunnel?" I asked.
"There is an underwater tunnel that connects England and France. We can use that to get to mainland Europe and from there it should be smooth sailing." Kashyap said triumphantly.
"As long as it hasn't collapsed," Kyle said ominously, bringing down the mood a notch.
"Do we really need to bring this pessimist?" August asked.
Ignoring them, Kashyap continued, "With that sorted, we just need to find a car. Has anyone seen a suitable one around? Preferably something like the pickup truck we had earlier." He asked hopefully.
Kyle and August shook their heads. They had spent their travels looking for clothes and enemies to level up with.
Begrudgingly, I raised my hand. "I saw the perfect car," I said weakly.
"Was it far away?" Kashyap asked eagerly.
"Just a few streets," I said, even more weakly than before. I could already tell where this was going.
"Perfect, let's get some rest and go in the morning," Kashyap said.
I didn't want to be the bearer of bad news and tell him that the truck was guarded by a cat the size of an elephant. 'I'll wait till morning,' I thought.