"Beep, beep, beep"
Alex's alarm woke him, and he fumbled with his phone, desperately trying to turn it off,
'Class is in an hour, can I take a longer nap?'
He had a nasty tendency to skip classes, and was considering adding today to his long list of missed classes. Just as he was about to go back to sleep, he remembered that they were supposed to form groups today, for some midterm project, and he did not want to get assigned to a random group.
Groaning and rubbing his tired eyes, he rolled out of bed. He'd been up late gaming, and was rather sleep deprived as a result. Grabbing his towel off the back of his door, he walked to the bathroom, examining his appearance briefly.
'Damn I'm starting to get fat.'
Feeling his waist, he noted that he could grab his folds around the sides of his stomach.
'The start of love handles, just perfect.'
'Maybe I should get back into swimming.'
Alex was, by all accounts, physically average, his height clocked in at 5'11 (180cm), his jet black hair was kept short, and his eyes were a cold blue. He had some muscle, but most of it was covered up by his recent weight gain.
Sighing, he undressed and turned on the shower, before getting in, feeling the hot water roll down his back. Enjoying himself, Alex lost himself in the pleasure of the shower, briefly shutting his eyes, and letting the water run down him. Getting lost in the moment, he shut his eyes and leaned against the corner of the shower, feeling himself drift off to sleep again.
Just as he passed out, he was greeted with a falling sensation, as he started slipping down the wall. Snapping awake, he cursed quietly in his head.
'I need coffee before this day turns into a complete catastrophe.'
Struggling to maintain consciousness, he managed to soap himself down before climbing out of the shower and toweling himself off. After getting dressed, he made his way down the flight of stairs to the main floor, where the kitchen was.
His eyes darted to an object on the counter, before the corners of his mouth turned up into a devious grin.
'Target identified.'
'A lone french press sits by the watering hole, entirely unaware of the lurking predators.'
'It seems to have been forgotten or abandoned. Such a shame.'
'I guess I'll just have to keep it company.'
Having assessed that the coast was clear, he poured himself his roommates morning cup of coffee - it had cooled off enough that he could drink it. Throwing down a piece of bread in the toaster, he sat in his chair and slowly sipped his coffee.
'This is excessively strong.'
'Who needs coffee when you have jet fuel?'
About three minutes after he'd poured himself his cup of coffee, his roommate - Daniel, came running down the stairs. It seemed he'd remembered his morning coffee.
He walked into the kitchen, taking a minute to absorb the scene. His empty french press on the counter, Alex slowly spreading peanut butter on his toast, cup of coffee in hand.
"Motherfucker!!"
Alex stared at Daniel innocently and batted his eyes, the face of innocence.
"Not recently, isn't your mom in Florida?"
Daniel ignored the retort, and continued on his tirade. That was specialty coffee, he'd hand ground it this morning, don't you know, blah, blah, blah.
Alex ignored his roommate and proceeded to slurp his coffee loudly, whilst maintaining eye contact - gotta assert dominance when you can.
"Look, your coffee was going to go cold, I had to rescue it from its loneliness, and besides, this stuff would melt your bones, Mr Sensitive constitution."
"More importantly, you are three weeks behind on your internet payment, and I'm taking out my interest."
Daniel just threw his hands in the air in response, letting out a sigh. He then proceeded to start making himself more coffee. Alex quietly grinned to himself.
'Roommates are the best, especially when they procrastinate.'
Alex may have been something of a hypocrite.
Having finished his coffee, Alex threw on his shoes, his piece of toast still in his mouth, and then stepped out of the front door, heading for class. Just as he did so, he heard a strange androgynous voice in his head.
- Initiating world assimilation -
Alex then felt a tugging sensation on his body, followed by a flash and sharp ringing in his ears. Blinking, he opened his eyes to look at his surroundings.
There in front of him were several trees, and around their bases was a thick mess of ferns. He could see maybe 2 meters in front of him in this underbrush, and the ferns extended above his head.
'I'm in a forest all of a sudden?'
Alex thought back to his morning coffee - had his roommate drugged him? It wasn't the first time he'd stolen his coffee, and Daniel could be very petty at times, he very well could have drugged the coffee out of spite.
'I'm awfully lucid though.'
Taking a large inhale, he wasn't greeted by the smells of the forest, but instead that of peanut butter - his toast was still in his mouth, and he'd forgotten about it in this morning's excitement.
Still hungry, Alex glanced around the forest floor and found himself a rock to sit on - one should avoid eating while standing where possible, especially during a drug trip. He walked over to a stone he found sticking out of the forest floor and sat, beginning to munch on his toast, while he took in the sights and sounds.
The air was warm and humid, positively sticky. Sounds slowly started filtering in as the ringing died down in his ears, leaving the sound of birds and wind rustling through the trees, not to be outdone by the munching of his toast. Wherever he was was positively overflowing with wildlife.
Unlike the forests he was used to, there didn't seem to be many insects for some reason, not that he was complaining .
Pulling his phone out of his pocket, he tried to see if he could get a signal and figure out where he was. Unfortunately, his phone remained unresponsive.
"Typical", he muttered. No luck to be had.
He glanced up, trying to see if he could get a glimpse of the sun, or the sky, but thick branches and canopy obstructed most of his view. After finishing his toast, he continued sitting on his rock for 15 or so, coming to a new conclusion.
'I don't think I got drugged.'
'Considering the situation, that would have been much more comforting.'
Alex tried to remember the voice he'd heard in his head.
'World assimilation? So Earth? The Universe? Assimilated with what?'
Standing on one foot, he tried his balance, finding it fine. He then pinched himself, noting the slight stinging sensation. He jumped up and down, noting nothing out of place. His toast tasted like peanut butter, as it should. He even did a little mental math, and found everything to be coherent, and as he remembered.
'So I'm definitely not drugged.'
'Then this is either real, or an incredibly lucid dream. I guess I could also be in a coma.'
'Well then, I guess I'll treat this as real, even if it's a dream, starving to death still seems like it would suck really bad.'
Alex tried to remember what he should do in this situation - well, not this exact situation.
'I need to find civilization, and barring that, water.'
'Should try to find a decent vantage point, I can't see anything through these trees.'
Alex picked a direction and started walking, pushing aside the underbrush. Most of the underbrush was populated with large ferns he didn't recognize, which he'd occasionally stop and examine. As he walked along his path, his eyes flicked from tree to tree, sometimes glancing upwards to the treetops. After walking for around 5 minutes, he stopped walking, after choosing a tall tree with a substantial number of low hanging branches - tall and climbable.
Stopping before it Alex groaned.
'I don't think I've climbed a tree in 10 years.'
He glanced down at his slight gut.
'I was definitely a good 70 pounds lighter.'
Approaching the tree, he examined the tree trunk. The bark (if it was that) was unrecognizable to Alex, it was white, and deeply riveted like oak bark, yet remained somewhat soft and pliable to the touch. Turning his attention from the bark, he looked to the branch where he'd start his climb, grabbing it he jumped off the ground slightly, and pulled himself onto it.
Huffing to himself ever so slightly, he once again regretted how far he'd let himself go. Standing up, he continued on his way upwards, his climb was slow but achievable, having chosen this tree for its numerous branches.
As he moved up the branches, he was visited by several small squirrel-like creatures which chattered at him from opposite branches.
"Relax, I'm not moving in."
Alex muttered to the little cretins.
Continuing his climb, he saw what he guessed was a bird's nest above him, and had to change his path, as the owner of the nest was giving him a full death stare. Upon reaching the upper branches, he sat, hugging the tree, completely out of breath, his face red. Climbing a tree this tall was no easy feat, even if he was 40 pounds lighter.
After catching his breath, he looked upwards, noting one of the branches above him, where he examined one of the leaves. Again, while very similar to the leaves of Earth, there remained some oddities. He plucked a leaf and ran it through his fingers, and noted a tiny amount of stickiness.
'Is that pine sap?'
He tasted a small amount and found it to be rather bittersweet. The shape of the leaves was also weird, splitting into a group of 5 longer leaves, which were connected by a thin membrane, completing the leaf shape.
'I'm no botanist, but I don't think anything like this grows in North America.'
As he finished examining the leaf he dropped it from his fingers, watching it twist in the wind briefly. He then noted with horror, exactly how high he'd climbed. He'd been avoiding it after he reached a certain height, and was greeted by a sense of vertigo, he was probably a good 40m about the forest floor! Picturing his body bouncing around the branches as it tumbled towards the forest floor, he shivered, hugging the trunk tightly, and doing his best to ignore the light breeze.
'I thought I was fine with heights, but this might be outright stupid.'
Steeling himself, he did his best to stop worrying about how high he was, and shaded his eyes to take a look at his surroundings, twisting his body.
'Sun is high, not sure if we're past midday or not, not like I know which way is North.'
'The sun rises in the east and sets in the west, right? Should have paid more attention in boy scouts.'
'Damn, all I can see are trees, nothing but green, the only thing breaking up the green are some mountains.'
He noted he was in something of a valley, surrounded by distant mountains. There was a long snaking clearing in the trees that traced its way through the valley, cutting through the mountains and leading who knows where.
'Either a river or a weirdly shaped road.'
'I don't even think I'm on the right continent. The temperature should be around 30 degrees, and I don't recognize any of these trees.'
Panic had begun to set in - he had no idea where he was, nor did he have any clear indicators of civilization in any direction. He continued clutching the tree trunk as his breath quickened, almost hyperventilating.
'Where the fuck am I?'
'What am I going to do?'
'I don't want to die.'
This final thought was the only thing that Alex had to cling onto, and he'd use it as a liferaft. He focused on not dying, that was the new goal, and panic would do him no good. Beginning some breathing exercises, he thought only about his breathing, doing his best to manually control the tempo, trying to bring his emotions under control.
Finally getting a hold of himself, he carefully shifted to a different tree branch on the opposite side of the tree.
Shifting to a different tree branch on the opposite side of the tree, he spotted what looked like a large clearing, right by the snaking road, river thing.
'A clearing should indicate water or civilization.'
The small flame of hope lit in his chest, civilization was by far his best chance for survival, and he set his new goal. Having decided on his target he slowly began carefully descending the tree. After returning to the forest floor, he started jogging through the underbrush towards the clearing.
His pace was slow and arduous, the thick underbrush heavily impeding his pace - push a fern aside, find another one in its place, backtrack a little, rinse and repeat. After jogging for about an hour Alex slowed down and stopped, panting. He opted to take a break, leaning up against a tree.
'This semester has absolutely destroyed my cardio, I haven't run in months. Guess this is what I get.'
After resting for around 15 minutes, Alex continued his trek, noting that the underbrush kept thinning as he approached the clearing. Finally, he reached the clearing after another half hour.
Greeting him within the clearing was what looked like a small village next to a slow moving river. No fencing or protection was visible, just a collection of relatively primitive looking stone huts grouped by the riverside.
"Hello, anyone here?"
Alex's question was greeted with silence.
'Hopefully someone speaks English, or I'm in deep shit.'
Approaching one of the huts, Alex took note of the structure.
'Walls are made of roughly square rocks, with the gaps filled with some clay like mud. Door appears to have actually been made with tools, the edges look relatively square.'
After observing for another minute, and listening for signs of life, Alex knocked on the door of the house. Hearing no response, Alex slowly opened the door, revealing a small 3 x 3 meter room, with a bed of what looked like animal skin in the corner to his left. The floor looked to be rather similar to the walls, made mostly of square stones. Up against the wall opposite to the entrance was a small fireplace, connected to a chimney.
In another corner, several tools haphazardly left in a pile, Alex noted a wooden spear, metal bucket, and some flint.
Noting the empty room, Alex quickly felt what little hope he had start to fade once again.
'Maybe they're out hunting?'
Denial was also a good short term coping mechanism for stress. Alex left the first house and visited all of the other houses, finding nobody.
'Guess I'll explore more while I wait for the people here to come back then?'
Wandering around the houses he found what looked like some gardens, with plants growing in neatly placed rows.
'Garden looks rather overgrown, I guess they've given up on gardening.'
Alex was growing increasingly concerned with each passing moment.
'How am I going to get back? Where am I?'
Rapid thoughts passed through Alex's head as he paced back and forth by the garden. After 15 minutes, his hope of encountering civilization had died completely, the overgrown garden was a good indicator this place had been abandoned for some time.
Before the panic set in again, he turned his mind to his immediate needs, doing something would take his mind off the panic.
'Guess I'll try and secure some water and food, that should be my number one priority, in case these people really are gone.'
'Priority one is water. I'll need to boil river water, seeing as I don't see a well anywhere. I'll need wood for the fire.'
Alex walked to one of the houses and grabbed a hatchet he found lying around.
'Don't mind me if I borrow this.'
He then took out his now useless phone and placed it on a wooden table, and gave it a salute before leaving the house. Departing for the woods, Alex started collecting any loose sticks and pieces of potential firewood he could find. Fortunately, there were plenty of loose vines growing on surrounding trees, which he could use as makeshift ropes to tie his firewood together, creating a makeshift satchel on his back.
Completing his first trip, Alex decided to continue collecting firewood while it was still light out. The sun was beginning to set in the direction that Alex now guessed was the West, he estimated there was another hour of daylight left.
He was planning to venture upstream along the river.
'I guess this is North?'
The path along the riverside was largely made of rocks, and slightly sandy soil. It looked like the river flooded every so often, creating a stone filled bank without any real vegetation. He continued walking along the edge of the forest, at the edge of the river bank, collecting more loose sticks and firewood.
Alex leaned down beneath a tree and picked up another potential piece of firewood, sticking it under his arm. As he turned his gaze from the ground and looked up, he made eye contact with a creature that had appeared from the bushes about two meters ahead of him.
The creature stood about a foot and a half off the ground, with a body about a meter long. Its head ended with a long beak, while its two front paws ended in long claws, similarly its two hind paws were clawed, and it had a long whip-like tail. Its whole body was covered in small brown green feathers matching the forest, while its yellow eyes were slit vertically - predator vision.
Alex froze for about a second.
'Is that a fucking dinosaur?'
'WHY!'
'Who said you could show up.'
He slowly backed away, maintaining eye contact, slowly reaching behind him to grab the hatchet he'd tied to his belt. The creature tilted its head to the side, seeming to assess whether or not he was tasty enough to warrant dealing with. Opening its jaw and revealing rows of sharp serrated jaws, the creature let out something of a mix between a gurgle and a growl, issuing its challenge to Alex.
Clearly he looked like dinner.
The creature then proceeded to leap at him, claws on both limbs extended. Alex panicked, swinging his hatchet at the creature, smashing into one of its shoulders. Unfortunately for Alex, his hatchet was pretty light, and the momentum of the creature carried it forward, slamming into his chest claws first.
Alex proceeded to shove the creature off him before it could get a hold of him and do some major damage.
The creature landed back on the ground, and gave an irritated squawk. Beginning to circle Alex, the creature limped, avoiding its wounded shoulder. Alex barely noticed the wounds and punctures on his chest, as adrenaline flooded his system. Watching the creature attentively, he waited for its next attack, hatchet at the ready again.
This time, the creature opted to attack his legs, snaking along the ground. Alex quickly jumped back, trying to pull his leg out of reach, however before he got out of range, the creature clamped its jaws on his pant leg, tripping him. Landing on his back, Alex dropped the hatchet, only to have the creature jump on his chest, where it began slicing into his belly with its back claws, simultaneously lunging at his throat with its jaws. Alex managed to reach up and grab the creature's neck, pushing it out of range of his throat, before it started clawing at his arm with its front claws.
He managed to get one of his legs between him and the creature, and proceeded to give it his best kick, throwing it onto a rocky section of the riverside. Quickly standing up, Alex stared at the creature.
Alex's eyes glanced at the small hatchet in his hand, thus far it had been little more than a hindrance, this creature was low to the ground, and his hatchet was simply ineffective against it. Quickly coming to a decision, he dropped his weapon.
Alex formed a half assed plan in his head, he'd use the one advantage he had over the creature - his bodyweight. Watching as the creature again began to circle him, he rushed towards the creature, which tried again to chomp at his shins.
This time however, the creature hadn't expected his sudden jump backwards, allowing Alex to get his legs out of range. This time, instead of falling backwards, he intentionally fell forwards onto the overextended creature's neck, trying to catch it off balance. Fortunately, his plan worked, and he landed on the creature's upper back at the edge of its neck, basically flattening it.
As the creature collapsed beneath his weight its legs spread out to the side - Alex thought he felt something break. Next he twisted on the ground, doing his best to kneel on the creature's neck while it was still stunned. Grabbing one of the surrounding stones from the river, he then proceeded to smash the creature's head with the rock.
Once, twice, three times he brought the rock down, until he heard the creature's skull crack, and felt its body beginning to seize beneath him. Terror coursing through his veins, he panted heavily, trying to calm his breathing. It was then that he noticed the hoarseness of his breath.
'When did I start yelling?'
Thinking for a second, Alex realized something about himself.
'I guess I'm a fighter then.'
Quickly standing up, he looked down at his body, absolutely covered in wounds.
His chest, forearms and stomach were all covered with lacerations, none of which were terribly deep, but they were plentiful enough that he was suffering from substantial blood loss.
-Ding -
Congratulations on your first kill!
Rewards:
- System unlock
- Recovery
A screen suddenly flashed before Alex, further startling him. As he blinked, he felt the wounds on his body begin to close, as the pain quickly faded.
------ Author's Note -------
I just finished re-writing this first chapter, as the first time I wrote it, I made Alex into something of a robot. I've also improved the flow and writing quality, but this has bumped it up to 3700 words as opposed to 2400, making this quite a long chapter.
Either way, don't expect this chapter length from the rest of the story.
Also, if you're reading this, then I've not yet finished re-editing all of chapters 1-5, expect quality around this level once I'm done.