The System Apocalypse Short Story Anthology Volume 1: A LitRPG post-apocalyptic fantasy and science fiction anthology

by Tao Wong

  15

  Agility

  13

  Constitution

  15

  Perception

  12

  Intelligence

  15 (14)

  Willpower

  19

  Charisma

  13 (12)

  Luck

  10

  Skills

  Wilderness Survival

  3

  Tracking

  4

  Athletics

  3

  First Aid

  3

  Observe

  3

  Class Skills

  Echoes of Past Lives

  1

  Rebirth

  1

  Spells

  None

  Unspent Primary Class Attribute points: 4

  Unspent Subclass Skill points: 2

  Another ‘+’ sign appeared next to the attributes, a way to increase them with the unspent points. He perused the status screen, remembering his time playing tabletop RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons. This reminded him very much of a character sheet, although more advanced. He stopped when he got to the ‘status’ section, reading the two conditions affecting him. Alzheimer's and Dementia. Somehow, he knew these conditions to be true, albeit alarming. He kicked at the dirt. All these Skills and he gets landed with mental demise? Was this System just a product of a broken brain? What was he forgetting that he didn’t even remember he forgot? That would certainly explain the old lady version of his mom and everything else that was so strange today.

  The Skill; ‘Echoes of Past Lives’, caught his attention, and he focused on it to reveal more text.

  Though others may not believe in your power of rebirth, you will never doubt it. You have memories which may reveal themselves as skills from past lives. The higher this skill, the more you will remember from past lives. Knowledge of system operations will always be preserved.

  That made sense why he didn’t freak out about the boxes or the voice in his head. The woman stirred next to him, snapping him to attention, and pushing away all thoughts of character sheets. He cradled her head in his hands, astonished that all her wounds had healed completely. Without the threat of danger and with a chance to further study her, Danny really saw the familiarity. He brushed his hand along her cheek and patted her shoulder. “M…. Mom? Is that really you?”

  She groaned as her eyes opened. They opened and closed a few times, either adjusting to the light or perhaps to her new surroundings. Her physical wounds may have healed but the memory of being eaten alive would last awhile. She turned her head toward Danny and her eyes stayed open, big as saucers.

  “No, no… no! Am I dead? Did we die?!” Tears formed in her eyes and she reached up to touch Danny’s face. “Dan... Danny? Why… what… how are you so young again?” She grabbed him and pulled him close squeezing hard, and he knew for sure it was his mom.

  “What happened to you? What is going on?” Danny asked, face smooshed in his mother’s embrace, his own eyes filling with tears. “I was on my Eagle hike and woke up here, and everything is different, and you’re old, and -” he stopped when his mom started laughing.

  “Old?! I’m old!?” She laughed, breaking the somber tone, and soon Danny smiled as well. “Danny, I don't know what's going on any more than you,” his mother said. “Except that a few hours ago we both started seeing these boxes filled with text, offering us weird stuff like Classes and Skills. Before I was grabbed by that… thing… you were forty-eight. Now you don't look any older than eighteen, and I am just as confused about everything as you are!”

  Danny stood up and offered his hand, which she took and got to her feet. “This is a really weird day. You can see these boxes too?”

  She nodded. “Yes, though we haven't really had much time to talk about it. I guess aliens are taking over or something.” She looked around. “I thought I was going crazy at first, but then those plant things… well, I don't know what to think any more.” Susan frowned and rubbed her eyes, a gesture Danny recognized as frustration, having seen it enough growing up.

  “Well, whatever is happening, we’re in this together, and we need to find safety somehow. Where is your car?” Danny said.

  “Should be right at the road, but the car doesn't work, Danny. Nothing works anymore,” she said, looking at him. The sight of him amazed her, looking just as he had all those years ago. “I just wish I knew what was going on.” She touched his hand. “Especially with you, how are you so young? Do you remember anything else? When did this happen?”

  Danny shook his head violently and Susan recognized the sudden movement as one he had adopted as the dementia had gotten worse.

  “No,” Danny said. “I don't know…I… remember a voice… in my head… I somehow just know things that I feel like I remember. But I just don't…” He shook his head again. “I don't remember…”

  Susan embraced him again, recognizing the signs of a breakdown. She rubbed his back, talking in a slow, sure, voice. “Shh it’s okay, it’s okay, you don't have to remember.” She took a deep breath and squared her shoulders, ending them embrace. “Come on, let's get to the car and see if we can find help.” She grasped her son’s hand, set her jaw and started walking.

  Chapter 7

  They traveled much faster now that they were both able to walk. During their travel they talked: Susan filling him in on his current life, and Danny filling her with nostalgia. Danny experienced that feeling of déjà vu he recognized as the ‘Echoes of Past Lives’ Skill. He knew his mom's words to be accurate, although he had a hard time believing he had a wife and child. Despite not actually knowing them, he knew he would have to save them. He turned to his mom to ask her what their next step should be, only to stop as he caught her staring at him.

  Susan blushed, averting her eyes. “I’m sorry. It’s just so… uncanny… you really are so young. It’s like I jumped back in time thirty years.”

  Danny shrugged. “I don’t know what’s going on. I think it’s this Rebirth Skill I have. It says it changes me when I use it or something.”

  “How do you know that?” Susan asked.

  “It came up on one of those boxes when I woke up on the ground. It also says it on my status screen.”

  “Your what?” She looked at him confused. “That’s the second time you’ve mentioned that, what is it?”

  “My status screen? It’s like a character sheet from the RPGs I used to play.”

  “That game with the dice?”

  Danny chuckled, his mom had never got ‘that game with the dice’ but had still been nice enough to provide snacks and a place to host it for those weekends when he and his friends played. “Yeah, Mom, that one. Think about looking at your info and say ‘Status’.

  Susan’s mouth popped open in shock as she began to read her status information. “What!? How? How does it know all this?” Something she saw on her screen made her face screw up, and her eyes began to water again. “Danny… how accurate is this?”

  Danny shrugged. “I don't know. I mean it told me about my Alzheimer’s and dementia that I didn't even know myself… or well, I did but didn't know that I knew. You know what I mean?” He shook his head as if trying to make his words make sense. “Why? What does yours say?”

  Susan’s face turned lit up and her happy demeanor seemed to radiate out of her. The woman Danny saw before him looked broken and tired. But she had a resolution that was contagious. Susan took a deep breath, a tear rolling down her face, as a huge genuine smile erupted.

  Danny stopped walking and reached out to touch her arm. “Mom? What did it say?” he asked again.

  She looked at him, her smile wide as she met his eyes. “It’s nothing… just…”

  “Just what?”

  She held her hand out to him, and he observed as she flexed her fingers, the knuckles that had been bulging and swollen with arthritis now smooth. “Nothing, my… arthritis is just gone now, I guess. You live with something for so lo
ng and it starts to become a piece of you, then when it’s gone, even if you feel better, you kind of miss it...” She turned away, and he felt like there might have been something more but decided not to press the issue further. “We need to move faster,” Susan said. “We have to find Monica and Jason.”

  They finally exited the thick line of trees and in another ten yards over sparse grass and random litter, the freeway stretched across the landscape.

  “Which way do we go?” Dan asked.

  Susan pointed north up I-5. “We only made it a few miles out of Lakehead, it’s a bit of a walk but at least we know we won't get run over...” She gave a nervous chuckle at her dark joke.

  “Should we get going then?” Danny planted his feet toward the sun and held his hand out toward the horizon. He moved his hand slowly towards the sun, stopping when his pointer finger met it. “Looks like we've got plenty of daylight, let’s not waste any of it.”

  Susan smiled, “Okay, let’s go!”

  As they made their way north Danny asked; “What class did you pick, anyway? Is it anything that could help us get there faster?”

  His mom smirked at him. “Oh, I don't think so. There were a few options that were so weird sounding, Anything-Goes Okonomiyaki Master or Magical Chef. I was looking at one called Gastromancer when I was grabbed, and I accidentally selected it. I think it’s some kind of food wizard. But I have to tell you, Danny. I don’t get all this weird computer stuff. You know me and technology- I can’t even figure out the DVR box.”

  Danny stopped walking. “Your what? What’s a DVR box?”

  “I don’t really even know,” she said.

  They laughed and started walking, following along the shoulder of the large road.

  “Where did you get that outfit, anyway?” Susan asked. Danny told her about his perks, and they continued to share what little they knew about the System while they walked. At some point Danny opened his sheet and wondered where to assign his free Attribute points. After careful consideration he put half into Strength and half into Constitution. He could tell his class was designed to focus on Willpower and Intelligence, but his last experience attempting to carry his Mom showed him he needed to increase his physical stats to maximize how much help he could be. He left his Skill points alone, not wanting to make a rash decision, he just hoped he wasn't making a mistake.

  Danny and his mom had figured out a walking pace that kept them moving quickly while keeping their Stamina at equilibrium. Susan seemed to have a never-ending supply of snacks, candies and treats in her bag which she kept offering to Danny. He smirked as he munched on the things she gently forced on him.

  Their jovial mood soured eventually when they came across a car that had driven off the road and crashed headlong into a tree. They rushed over to check the driver but found him dead several yards in front of the car, having been propelled through the windshield. Susan cried at the sight of the poor broken man, and Danny put his arm around his mom in a comforting hug and pulled her away so they could continue their trek. He briefly considered the fact that gruesome death would probably be a much common event in this new world, but shook his head, not wanting to borrow worry. They passed other cars, abandoned on the side of the road like theirs, the occupants nowhere to be seen. With only about a mile to go, they came to the section of road that went over the waters of the Sacramento River arm of Lake Shasta.

  Ahead of them was a pile-up of several cars, smashed hunks of metal and broken glass. A large fuel truck looked to have lost control and tipped over, blocking part of the southbound lanes and half the northbound. Thankfully the massive multi-thousand-gallon fuel tank had not ruptured. The southbound lanes had a couple vehicles that looked like they had played bumper cars and lost control, crashing into the guardrail. Behind the semi was another car, a sedan that had rear-ended the truck, crumpling like an aluminum can.

  Without hesitation, they ran up to the vehicles to look for survivors. Danny pulled up short when he detected no movement, then noticed trails of blood leading toward the edge of the bridge. He followed a trail to find blood splatters over the guardrail. With a tremor in his voice he shouted out to his mom. “It looks like there might have been survivors here, but something dragged them into the water!”

  “Stay away from the water then!” she shouted back. He jumped back from the edge taking her advice. “Let’s get around this, the southern edge of town is close, hopefully it’ll be safer there.”

  They moved toward the wreckage and threaded their way through the vehicles. A Subaru laying on its side caught Danny’s attention. “Mom, come give me a hand here, I found a couple bikes on the rack of this car!”

  “It’s been years since I’ve ridden a bike,” Susan said, helping unfasten them.

  “No worries Mom, I hear it’s just like riding a bike!”

  She paused at his lame attempt at humor and gave him a raised eyebrow. She opened her mouth to retort but her words changed into a scream as her eyes widened at something behind Danny.

  Chapter 8

  Danny whirled to see what his mom was screaming at. A shiver went down his spine at what he saw. Climbing over the guardrail was a humanoid with giant, unblinking eyes. Its skin was a tough looking scaly, black, its mouth full of needle-sharp teeth and its hands and feet ended in webbed claws. A strap wrapped around its chest held a spear.

  Fear spurred Danny’s actions, and he worked faster to detach the bikes. He considered running but knew the bikes would be much faster. Susan was frozen, unable to tear her eyes away from the creature.

  “It’s real… there really are aliens…” she whispered as her face paled.

  “Mom! Snap out of it! We’ve got to go!” Danny pushed on her shoulder while he untangled one bike and set it to the side. The creature, now on the bridge, yelled something at them and leveled its spear. Danny ignored it, ripping the other bike free from the rack. The creature made another terrifying noise and stalked toward them.

  Danny grabbed his mom and shoved the handlebar of a bike in her hand. “Go, Mom! Get to the town! I’ll distract it!”

  She grabbed the handlebar more out of reflex than a desire to obey. “Danny, no-” she gasped as the creature raised its spear to throw.

  “Don't argue with me, dammit!” he shouted at her. He could use his new powers, and she was way more likely to get hurt than he was. Why wouldn't she just listen? Danny grimaced, his features contorting in an angry look. His mother's face snapped around to look at his. In that instant he saw something within her, something that said she understood or at least had experienced that anger before. She got on the bike and shoved off, wobbly at first, but picking up speed.

  The creature shouted more words in its garbled language and pointed at Susan as she pedaled away.

  “Hey, fish face! Ignore her!” Danny shouted. He had no idea if the thing could understand him. He searched, grabbing and throwing the first thing he could find, a bike pump, hitting the thing in its chest. The creature turned to him; its spear still raised. Why hadn’t the thing hadn't thrown it? Was it just an intimidation tactic?

  He must have guessed right as the creature put the spear back into its strap and pulled something out of a belt pouch around its waist. A tangle of braided rope attached to a few spheres. A weighted net. It had put away it’s weapon and brought out something to capture with. Danny didn't know what was worse, knowing that this thing was what had taken the people from the car crash, or that it wanted them, and him, alive. He looked down the road to see his mother riding into the distance and prayed that she would make it.

  Danny wished he had run. The creature wound up and threw the net with unerring accuracy: he tried to dodge but was too slow. His stomach sank as the net wrapped around him, the weights wrapping tightly like bolas, and he was dragged to the ground. The smell of dead fish assaulted his nose as he struggled to free himself. As the creature approached, it was obvious it wasn’t made to walk on land. Its webbed feet were long and floppy like scuba fins, causing it to
move with a strange, slow gait.

  Danny waited, biding his time for the creature to come closer. He sought the solar energy contained within him and pulled it close to the surface of his skin. It felt easier this time, like a natural reflex to his spiked adrenaline. As the creature reached him, it warbled in its strange language, and grabbed an end of the net, dragging it and Danny along the pavement towards the guardrail of the bridge. He dug his fingers into the ground, grasping at anything to stop him, his breath coming in shortened gasps. With bloodied nails, panic was setting in. He couldn’t focus, and he felt the solar heat retreating from his skin. He had to do something. This couldn’t end now; it wasn’t his time. He refocused, channeling his fear into his Solar Affinity.

  With its back turned to him, Danny forced the solar energy up towards his mouth again and spat at his captor’s back in a blazing inferno. He couldn’t tell if it would hurt the thing or not, and was pleasantly surprised when it hit, burning through the creature’s clothes and the harness holding its spear. The scream it made when the flames touched its skin was unearthly and Danny watched as its flesh burned and flaked off as if it was sandblasted away.

  The creature fell to the ground, rolling and screaming in agony. Danny used the remainder of his blue energy bar to blast the solar power out of his skin through his pores, incinerating the net holding him. As the ashes blew away in the wind, he got up to run when the creature’s hand closed on his foot. Danny could do nothing to get free from its vise-like grip. His blue energy bar had not recovered enough to use his solar power again, and he desperately searched for anything to help him.

  The creature was still howling in pain, its flesh flaking off in huge chunks, like unsecured newspaper in a campfire. Danny noticed its spear then, laying on the ground next to him where it had fallen when the harness burned off. He snatched it up and with as much skill as someone who had never held a spear before and stabbed it down on the creature’s wrist. It screamed again and reflexively released Danny and fumbled at its belt. Danny wasted no time and with the spear in hand, ran and mounted the bike he had freed. He pedaled for all he was worth, holding the spear across the handlebars.