Prologue
PROLOGUE
It was such a small thing that he almost missed it. The forest had been alive when he had entered it. Cicadas screamed from the trees. Something small and furry had been moving through the brush beside him for the better part of an hour. He’d even heard what sounded like a deer somewhere deeper in the woods. Now there was nothing. No insects, wind, birds, nothing. Daniel slowed down and his pistol felt heavier in his hand.
[LEVEL 2]
The notification was still sitting in the corner of his vision, and he had mostly gotten used to it. Two days ago, seeing glowing text floating in front of his face would have sent him running to the nearest hospital. Now he’d killed eleven things with his bare hands, shot three more, and spent the last six hours walking through a forest that hadn’t existed when he’d gone to sleep. He wasn’t sure which part bothered him more.
A branch snapped somewhere behind him and Daniel spun but there was nothing. He raised the pistol anyway.
“Come on.” His voice sounded too loud and he waited.
Nothing moved.
He lowered the gun and only then was it when something hit the tree behind him. Daniel hadn’t seen it, but he heard the impact. It was a wet crack followed by splinters exploding across the back of his neck as something screamed overhead. Daniel rolled onto his back and fired twice, the muzzle flash lighting the trees. For half a second, he saw it. It was long, gray, and had too many legs. Then it disappeared between the trunks.
[Damage: 7%]
Daniel stared at the notification. “Only seven? Fuck.”
The thing had hit him hard enough to knock him off his feet. He scrambled backward, his breathing shallow.
“Okay, that’s fine.”
It wasn’t fine. A growl rolled through the forest. Not loud, not even particularly threatening, it sounded almost bored. Daniel’s hand shook as he pulled another magazine from his pocket. He’d learned something about the System during the last two days. It didn’t care if you were scared. It didn’t care if you were tired. It really didn’t care if you were ready and clearly, neither did whatever was hunting him.
The brush moved and Daniel fired.
Once.
Twice.
Three times.
The shots tore through the leaves as something shrieked. He didn’t wait to see what he’d hit. He tore through the trees, branches whipping across his face, pistol clenched in one hand while the other grabbed at anything that might keep him upright. Behind him, something crashed through the forest. Far too fast. Daniel glanced over his shoulder, which could have been a terrible idea. His eyes widened as a shape moved between the trees. Then another. Then three more and his stomach dropped.
He fired blindly behind him and a scream answered.
[Critical Hit.]
Daniel almost laughed. “Yeah!” He didn’t know why he shouted it.
Maybe because he needed something to go right. The trees opened ahead as Daniel burst into a clearing and nearly fell over. There was a building in the center that wasn’t there yesterday. It was old but not abandoned. Stone walls climbed several stories into the air, covered in moss and vines. Narrow windows stared down at him like empty eyes.
[UNKNOWN STRUCTURE]
He stared at it. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”
Daniel looked back. Then at the building. Then back to the forest. The decision lasted less than a second. He ran for the door. The first creature hit him just before he reached it and Daniel went airborne. He landed hard enough that the world went white.
[HP: 61%]
He rolled onto his stomach as something heavy landed beside him. The ground cracked under the weight and Daniel crawled. The door was three feet away. His fingers could touch the stone he was so close. He pulled himself forward as a claw came down where his head had been and he scrambled through the doorway.
The beast stopped.
Daniel stared.
But it stood outside.
Huge, lumbering. Its head nearly touched the top of the entrance.
For several seconds neither of them moved.
Then the creature stepped backward and Daniel let out a breath.
“Oh, thank God. It’s an odd safe room but I’ll take it.”
The System chimed.
[Hostile Entity Detected.]
Daniel frowned and looked up at the text. The creature outside wasn’t moving, it was retreating.
Then something behind him breathed.
Daniel glanced down at his map and slowly turned, realizing the large red dot right behind him. The first thing he saw was the teeth. They filled the darkness from floor to ceiling, row upon row of uneven, yellowed points packed into a mouth far too large for the skull that held it. Saliva hung between them in thick strings, stretching and snapping as the thing opened its jaws. Daniel was frozen with fear, he couldn’t move, couldn’t breathe. The creature tilted its head, its face, almost human. Its skin stretched tightly over a narrow skull, gray and translucent enough that Daniel could see dark veins pulsing beneath it. Four black eyes blinked independently, focusing on him one after another.
Then it smiled.
The first round struck it somewhere around the shoulder. The second disappeared into its mouth. The third never came as the creature moved in. Daniel felt something wrap around his wrist, and his pistol hit the floor as he screamed while the thing twisted. Bone snapped beneath his skin. Not just one clean break. Several. His forearm bent sideways, his hand hanging uselessly from what remained of the joint. He barely had time to register the pain before the creature pulled and Daniel went flying across the room. His back struck the stone wall hard enough to knock the air from his lungs. Something cracked inside his chest. He slid down the wall, leaving a wet smear behind him.
[HP: 23%]
He tried to stand but his legs wouldn’t work. The creature slowly approached. Carefully, like a predator stalking its quarry. The way a snake moves in on a cornered mouse in its aquarium, this house was its aquarium and Daniel was the mouse. Daniel dragged himself backward with one good arm.
“No.” he said as the thing crouched. “Please, no.”
Its face came level with his cold, unfeeling, no sympathy for food. Daniel could smell it now. The stink of rot, blood, and something sweet underneath. He swung and his fist connected with its jaw. The creature didn’t even flinch, and Daniel could only stare at his hand. Then the creature bit down. His scream was sharp, jagged, and fell off just as it got to its peak, like Daniel had hit an octave too high for the human ear. Its jaws closed around his forearm and crushed through skin, muscle, and bone with a wet crunch. Blood sprayed across the stone behind him as the creature shook its head violently, tearing the arm free at the elbow. Daniel stared at the ragged stump, eyes wide, mouth agape in horror. For one strange second, there was no pain. Then it hit him and his scream found itself echoing through the stone structure until his throat tore. Daniel tried to crawl with his broken and missing arms, but the beast grabbed his ankle, blood still oozing from his stump of an arm. He tried desperately to claw at the stone as it dragged him backward, but his only intact hand was as useless as a wet napkin in an ice storm.
“No, no, no!”
The creature pulled once. His knee bent in the wrong direction.
Again.
The femur punched through the skin of his thigh.
Again.
His body folded with a sound that was wet and hollow.
Blood sprayed across the floor as he tried desperately, uselessly, to reach his pistol. It was only a few feet away, but his fingers could barely move let alone squeeze the trigger. Blood flowed from his nose and mouth, one eye completely red, the other missing somewhere in the fray. Bones cracked beneath the weight as the creature slowly, sadistically stepped on his arm. Daniel looked up and the four black eyes stared down at him. Then the jaws opened wide.
Wider.
Far wider than anything with a human-shaped skull should have been capable of. Daniel had just enough time to understand that the mouth was going to swallow his head whole. Then the world went black with a sound that seemed like laughter.
[RUNNER DECEASED.]
[CAUSE OF DEATH: ORRYX, THE CARRION KING.]
[THIS RUNNER’S FEED IS NOW OFFLINE. THANK YOU FOR YOUR PATRONAGE.]
