Chapter 15: Dear Diary. (Patreon)

Chapter 15: Dear Diary.

“You know Buddy, I don’t think I show you enough gratitude. Thank you for being here to feed and clothe me. I really do think I would’ve died by now if it wasn’t for you.”

‘Aww. Thank Sully! I appreciate you too! You’re the bestest best friend a Symbiote could ask for!’’

I smiled, caressing the slightly thicker section of Buddy that had positioned itself over my heart. He didn’t have a central nervous system per se, but I’d noticed that he felt a rush of comfort and other feelings of safety and affirmation whenever I stroked certain parts of him.

It was like a petting a puppy or scratching behind its ears.

Someone looking at me from the lenses of a hidden camera might believe that I’d lost it if they saw my actions. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Buddy’s presence might very well be the only thing keeping me even remotely sane right now.

Having someone to talk to had improved my stress levels tremendously. So much so that I’d gone from having mini-panic attacks every time I used [Precognition] to find any surrounding traps, to merely having horrible recurring nightmares.

I mean, yeah, going to bed still wasn’t fun, but at least I could catch some sleep without having to worry about uninvited guests gnawing off my privates while I lay helpless.

Buddy could and would wake me up in any such scenario, making him almost as good as a human companion would have been.

‘Actually, isn’t Buddy better than a human companion? I mean, he does all the cooking, he helps to regulate my temperature, he shifts around his form to make pillows for me at night, he gets rid of my body odour, he helps me remember things, he always has compliments at the ready, he gives good advice without being judgemental, he helped me shave the other night and… yeah, you know what? I’m calling it right now. Buddy is much better than a human companion. Especially one like Randall.’

I shivered, recalling the nightmares I’d had over the past few nights.

I had envisioned the blond man overlooking a fancy hotel, their glass windows reflecting his floating form as he hovered over a crowd of protesters.

They were shouting at him. Calling for his blood.

Some called him murderer.

Some called him abuser.

Some called him insane.

In the dream, their faces were always hazy, yet their voices were clear. They demanded answers. They demanded justice.

Randall only served them fire.

He spread his arms and six blazing wings erupted from his back. Luminesce to rival the Midwest sun, trapped by walls of force.

Those walls fell and the people below him melted like ice cubes in high summer.

Sizzling as the water inside of them evaporated.

Sometimes he did the same thing, only over a mountain of scrambling monsters instead of people. Howling in rage at no one in particular, and sporting a missing arm.

His voice made the monsters squeal. Their own mortal shells crackling and splintering like overcooked bacon until they were naught but blackened ashes scattered in a pit.

In the dream, there was a voice. One sickeningly familiar, yet faded and obscured. Like that of the tall man from my memories. The voice ordered his fall and fall he did.

Brilliant wings sputtering out like candles in the wind.

The following scenes differed from night to night.

He would be pacing in front of a pale woman, whose eyes could pierce through souls. Her haunted expression would tighten more and more the more he spoke. As if she was actively killing the human part of her that told her to denounce him.

“Its not my fault! They came after me when I was resting! After putting down a monster horde no less! Can you imagine!? The bloody ingratitude!?”

“Sir, the last town you were deployed to burned down.”

“Duh! The monsters were in the town!”

She inhaled.

Almost mechanically.

Fully controlling her expression into a mask of indifference.

“Sir, Colonel Newman had instructed you to wait until the evacuation was complete before utilizing your powers above the second threshold. Colonel Newman specifically instructed you to fight the monster while holding back and minimizing civilian casualties”

“Evacuation schmacuation! No one was coming in any direction! I would have sensed them! I can sense energy, remember? There wasn’t a chopper to be found for hundreds of kilometres or maybe more. I had to act so that the monsters didn’t disperse!”

The woman blinked slowly. Reminding me of someone in charge of babysitting a rowdy toddler. A rowdy toddler who’d gotten their hands on a blowtorch.

“Sir, the Colonel was very clear that you were to avoid wide-area attacks. The reason why you were contracted to work for… the fee you requested, was that you demonstrated the necessary control over your powers during training exercises. You were supposed to use small, yet lethal single-target shots to diminish the enemy numbers.”

“And put my own life at risk? I’ll remind you again that there were tens of thousands, some of whom could fly!”

“Sir, we were under the impression that you could envelop yourself in energy barriers.”

“For a limited time! How was I supposed to last out there while being attacked from every corner! I had to do something! I had to act decisively! And I did! LA is safe because of me! As well as San Francisco and San Diego! I’m the one who saved those cities! You people should be putting up posters with my face on them all over the country and getting down on your knees whenever you see me!”

He would huff then. Like a cornered animal.

The woman never so much as flinched.

“Sir, you burned down Bakersfield and later Pasadena, when the protesters came. The death toll is…”

“Those people had it coming! I’m telling you, I can’t be held responsible for stupid hicks who throw their lives away! I was tired and recuperating after saving their sorry hides from a monster outbreak while the military ran with their tails between their legs! What do you think would have happened if I hadn’t defended myself huh? I’m not an Enhancer. My skin’s no thicker or more durable than yours. But I guess you know that already, don’t you? I bet you wanted this to happen.”

The woman stared into his eyes, not moving an inch.

“Sir, I’m sure I don’t know what you mean by those accusations.”

“Yeah right! I know what’s going on you alien cow! You’re against me! All of you are! You’ve been sabotaging me from the very beginning! Putting me in the toughest situations so that I could embarrass myself and lose credibility while you sell the earth to your alien masters!”

The woman raised one eyebrow and the dream changed as the gesture incited Randall into another explosive burst of heat. 

The rest of the scenes changed from night to night, but they all one thing in common. Randall being an irresponsible (Centipede)face and getting other people killed. Either through sheer, unimaginable incompetence, or just flat-out murderous rage.

And naturally, I would feel the aftereffects of said fury whenever I was close to waking up.

On the one hand, it was a horrible experience that kept repeating itself at nauseum. Burning alive wasn’t fun and the phantom pain lasted for hours after the nightmares ended; Despite a vestige of my psyche constantly reminding me that it wasn’t real.

On the other hand, the visions, if true, confirmed three very important facts.

First and foremost, Randall wasn’t from my world.

If he was, there’s no way in (Centipede) that those massacres wouldn’t have made international news.

Everyone and their mother would know to watch out for the (Centipede)ing lunatic burning towns across the western seaboard of the US. Not to mention the fact that heroes like Thunder Fist would be up his (Centipede) faster than he could blink if he was ever sighted anywhere near civilization.

Secondly, I learned that ability names were a little bit disingenuous.

[Precognition] was a simple descriptive word for a simple effect. It lets you see the future. How then, did my future sight turn into a (Centipede)ing possessive spectre taking over my mouth? Was this normal? Was my specific variant broken in some way? Or was it due to the high level?

[Share Memory] and [Review Memory] were both their own, separate abilities on the board, but it would seem the golden strings had no problem emulating them.

As far as I could tell, there had to be factors at play that I wasn’t aware of. At the very least, there had to be some hidden inter-connectiveness between them.

Thirdly, I learned that I did, indeed make the right choice back there. Randall was obviously extremely powerful while also being completely unhinged. I might have beaten him if I ambushed him when his back was turned, but it was more likely that he’d shrug off a [Mental Bolt] and turn me into barbecue.

Better to get as far away as possible and try to make it to the surface. If I was still in my own world, I’d have plenty of opportunities to snitch on him when I got out. After that, he’d be the United Militaries’ problem.

Thankfully, he seemed just sane enough that he wouldn’t be going around killing survivors indiscriminately so he might even make himself useful while he waited around.

Who knows? He might even find a way out of here before I do and clear a path to the surface for anyone coming in behind him.

I closed my eyes for a moment. Reveling in the fantasy.

I knew it probably wasn’t going to happen, since he could have escaped already if he still had all his powers. Yet the idea was comforting.

“Yeah. Now that I think about it, there’s no reason to lose hope. There might be someone else out there that’s even stronger than Randall. Someone who isn’t murderous and delusional.”

‘Yeah! Whatever you say Sully!’

I smiled at Buddy’s comment and patted him some more.

We continued up the slope, with him transforming the glove over my right hand into a climbing pick and me using it and my other limbs to slowly make our way over the debris.

Grunting with every meter we cleared in our ascent.

It wasn’t a vertical rise. I never would have tried that, even with Buddy here to keep me together. No, this was a pile of boulders stacked against each other in a large rectangular chamber. One that looked far more treacherous than it actually was and would allow us to bypass the….

Man, I don’t even know what that was. A robot that could use telekinesis? No. I don’t have the ability to interface with machines. I would have had to be some kind of lifeform that wasn’t carbon-based and had cells made of metal. Either that or some kind of mollusc or crab or shelled animal that hid inside the metal sphere.

What made it dangerous was its ability to more or less negate my fog, as Randall had. I could still sense some parts of it. Faint whispering coming from the upper and lower sections.

Normally that wouldn’t have stopped me from experimenting a little. After all, I could always try to [Hide] and book it, as I had with the boxing apple tree.

I changed my mind when the nearby ponds started vibrating whilst changing colour.

New spheres were rising from their depths, despite them being free of any detritus or pollutants when I’d first marched through.

That meant some kind of water-based teleportation. Quite the conundrum, as the entire section I was currently moving through was filled with puddles, ponds, and streams. Not to mention the fact that humans were practically made of water.

Granted, I didn’t know if it could teleport inside of me and rip itself out of my body, but I knew enough about horror movies and the Labyrinth to know that I didn’t want to risk it. Some monsters just aren’t worth the experience points.

Therefore, I was out of there and I wasn’t going back.

I heaved my way up another boulder. Gripping the ledge as hard as I could before pulling myself towards the next one.

It was slow going and tiring. Enough that most of my muscles burned with the strain by now.

Each boulder was uneven as well, having their own individual jagged edges and pointy shards of loose debris atop them.

An experienced climber might have made it through here in thirty minutes or so. As it was, I was getting close to the one-hour mark and still had some ways to go.

‘Are you going to take a break Sully?’

“No. I’m afraid that I’ll want to rest up for longer than necessary if I take a break now. Better to keep going in case that metal ball shows up.”

‘I think you could have beaten it.’

“Thank you for the vote of confidence Buddy. I appreciate it.”

The distraction caused my left hand to slip. I cursed, planting my feet back on the flat portions of the stone I’d been standing on moment prior while catching myself with Buddy’s makeshift pick.

It worked.

I sighed with relief, feeling the tension in my arms. The way they shook from all this exertion.

“You know Buddy. I think you’re right. A little break would do us good.”

‘Would you like me to pump some more nutrients into your bloodstream?’

“Yes please. That would be wonderful.”

I chuckled to myself as the words left my mouth. It sure didn’t sound wonderful. Anyone looking this way who didn’t know what Buddy was would have thought I was a weirdo for relishing such an… intrusive method of getting calories.

Those people could all go suck on a salty sausage. Whatever Buddy did, it didn’t hurt and I was very much done with starvation by now.

I took a seat in order to rest properly. Leaning my back against the smooth surface of the boulder I’d just tried to scale. That was when a particular colour caught my eye.

It was hard to see, since the bioluminescent mushrooms were all located on the high ceiling. I squinted and noted that it was, indeed, pink.

I clicked my tongue, recalling the fronds that had poisoned me after arriving and that tormented me to no end when I was climbing out of the crevice, on my way to the apple tree.

I was about to move away, when I took note of its shape. It was, a right angle. Not like the fronds at all, but rather like the cover of a book.

I inched closer, trying to ascertain whether or not I was seeing things.

My eyes widened in surprise.

“Holy cow! Jackpot!”

‘Why’s that Sully?’

“Because I don’t know who left it here! It might be a clue! Maybe one of the builders left it here and forgot about it!”

My hand was already gripping the thing, flipping it over to check the cover for more information. Barely making out the cover, despite the size of the letter due to the poor lighting.

“Diary. Do not touch. P.R.”

My heart was beating faster, threatening to explode out of my chest.

Nothing in the surroundings seemed to matter anymore. To me, they all faded out of existence. Like half-forgotten songs.

This was my world right now. My only focus. I had to read it. I had to know.

I flipped it open, cursing when I realized that the letters were so small that they’d be impossible to make out without more light.

“Buddy, can you take this thing inside of you?”

‘Is it food?’

“No. It is not food.”

‘It smells like food.’

“Well, yeah. The cover’s made of leather and the pages are technically plant fibre, but you can’t have it. I really need it, Buddy. Please.”

‘No problem Sully. Its small enough that I can hold it for you.’

I pressed it to my chest and Buddy absorbed it. Holding it place between my stomach and his own layer of muscle.

So, I waited for another half-hour. Getting my strength back while eagerly awaiting the next time I got inside a watering hole.

Time flew by as I finished the climb. Motivated by the prospect of finding out why I was here and how I could escape.

While I didn’t find a watering hole nearby, I did get my chance two hours later. After setting a horde of vicious were-rats on the biggest puma I’d seen thus far.

The challengers were busy minding their own damn business, chewing on some cave mushrooms and chittering away in the dank corners of an intersection.

The boss was sitting around in a triangular chamber. Surrounded on all sides by glowing blue crystals that lit up the room. It was lazily licking its diamond tipped claws free of blood from its previous kill, thinking about napping and the kills that would follow.

Taking them both down, was child’s play.

Simply a matter of making illusory smells near the packs of giant rodents leading back to the puma’s big throne room.

The puma was, understandably, a little miffed that the were-rats would dare to interrupt its meal. The were-rats were miffed that said meal was one of their missing cousins.

Both sides fought with tooth and claw. Ripping into each other with wild abandon.

It took the puma some 10 odd seconds to tear them to pieces, but not before it took a cut to its face and another to its chest. I growled at the corpses, seething that its prey had dared to fight back. Swearing to kill more of them in the future.

It got its wish sooner than it had anticipated, when the second hunting party I lured over arrived.

They didn’t fare much better than the first one. Barely holding on for a dozen seconds before being wiped out.

Thankfully the third group got there just in time to flank the big cat. This time, they had some help.

[Mental Bolt] ravaged the puma’s brain. Not managing to kill it outright. Its claws started missing the were-rats by inches, then by metres.

The little ones for their part, kept slashing at it. Parting patches of fur and creating crimson ribbons out of what was there before.

All while I readied a super charged [Fever] from a hidden corner three rooms away.

“Buddy, do you think I’m evil?”

‘No? Why do you ask?’

“Its… I mean. I just hit me that I’m sending creatures to fight my battles for me while planning to kill them too.”

‘So?’

“So, that doesn’t seem a little evil to you?”

‘Meh. They’re stupid. They don’t know how great you are and would have tried to kill you if you went up to them. You’re way more valuable than they are.’

“Okay? Thank you.”

I would have pointed out that the logic was shaky. However, I shrugged it off as them being monsters and Buddy being here to help me. It was cruel to kill like this and I knew I had to keep doing it if I wanted to make it out.

Having decided that, I released [Fever] on the fighters.

The impact was immediate. The last three remaining were-rats crumbled to the floor. Screeching in agony as their bodies overheated in mere seconds. The puma managed to hold on better than them. Enough that it crushed all three before collapsing.

I writhed feebly afterwards. Making an effort to get away, despite not being able to stand or even drag itself across the room.

My next bolt put it out of its misery and I made my way over to find an abattoir. Mangled body parts strew around so that the floor was dyed red.

I stepped gingerly over them, to a spot that got plenty of light without needing to sit on a stary limb. For his part, Buddy grew thin tentacles out of its sides and pierced the monsters with them in order to convert their calories into fat stores we could use later.

I let him get on with it and flipped open the first few pages.

December 7th, 2011.

‘This is so stupid.’

‘The stupid government shrink says I should write down my stupid feelings down on this stupid book so that I could go over them later and process what I’d gone through.’

‘Honestly, as if my case was anything special.’

‘So, mom and dad got torn apart by terror-tigers. So what? This is Florida. There isn’t a single family that hasn’t lost people.’

‘Heroes are few and ammo is scarce. The larger caliber ones anyway.’

‘Which is so stupid because they’re the only ones that do anything. Who’d even pull out one of those punny purse guns against a monster? At best you’re distracting it for a few seconds before it eats you. At worst you’re making it angry enough that it starts to eat you before killing you.’

‘Ugh. I don’t need to write anything down. Its mind numbing and the teachers here at my new school keep badgering me about it. What I need is a gun. A big gun. So that I can stand a chance the next time something crawls out of the sewers looking for a snack. But noooooo. Guns are for adults and not for snot nosed twerps with anger issues. No problem teach. I’ll tell that to the fifty-foot snake that ate Malcolm last week. You know? The one that fled back into the swamps after munching off his torso? I bet it’ll be real understanding.’

Okay. Promising so far. Nice villain backstory. More or less explains why they want to make new Espers.

I flipped through some pages, trying to skip past the early childhood portions to arrive at something more recent.

September 23rd, 2015.

‘I cannot wait to get out of this dump. Things have been so much worse since aunt Marge lost her new husband. She’s been sleepwalking around the apartment more often. Banging on the doors. I don’t know how that woman manages to sleep through it all. I would’ve said she was possessed but she gets better when I pester her to actually take her meds.’

‘Kyle came back from his special school today. Acting like he was the king of Florida cause he got a C-Rank power and studied with a bunch of retired old farts. He keeps giving these big fancy speeches all the time, like he was better than the rest of us for being an Enhancer.’

‘It wouldn’t be bothering me that much if that was all he did, but nooooo. Kyle is a big fancy name around the county now. He’s going to be the one taking care of us when monsters come, just like his daddy. Whoever that is. No, really. Old man never so much as showed up before junior got powers his powers and now they’re acting like they’ve always been there for each other. It would’ve been funny if it wasn’t so sad. They seem happy though so good for them I guess.’

‘Problem is, Kyle senior is a big eugenics believer and he’s been telling his new son that he needs to get lots of women and lots of kids to make sure we all get more snot-nosed C-Ranks going around acting like peacocks. Like, what? I thought we were over this fad 100 years ago? Didn’t we establish that this way of thinking led to many problems? Why are so many people acting like it’s the right way of doing things all of the sudden?’

‘Aunt Marge was actually happy when I told her about him leering at me. She said it was great! That I could live a nice comfortable life with him as long as I became a proper lady. She actually said that. A proper lady. I just hope this whole thing blows over. Its not like there aren’t other girls that would be happy with the arrangement. He just needs to leave me alone so I can get back to my own life.’

October 10th, 2015. 

‘We had an assembly today to celebrate Kyle. Yes. That is right. Little man brought down a scorcher all by his lonesome. It was impressive, I guess. Didn’t really care one way or the other. What I did care about was what he said.’

‘This drooling, unbathed, perpetually hung-over mess got up on stage and told the entire school that he did it for me, the prettiest girl here. That he hoped this would get me to soften up and party with him. Of course, those weren’t his exact words. He didn’t call me pretty so much as describing how much he liked certain parts of me. But I’m not going to write that here.’

‘I was like, what? What is actually wrong with you? Are you high? Have you been taking your mom’s prescriptions? What could have possibly made you think this was a good idea?’

‘Actually, you know what. Screw that guy. I’m pressing charges for harassment.’

October 12th, 2015. 

‘The police were really great. They walked me through the process and helped me file the paperwork. It would have been comforting if it weren’t for the prosecutor’s refusal to do anything.’

‘Kyle didn’t even get a warning. In fact, I got told off for making life difficult for the town hero. Like, what? Lady! Did you not see the video of the assembly? That clip went viral! But nooooo. Apparently, there’s a literal government push to try and get more Espers in the future. Something about escalating monster attacks. I was told that this behaviour would not be prosecuted as she didn’t believe it constituted a crime.’

‘To make matters worse, people in the video’s comments are saying whatever they want about me! Like I’m making things too hard for Kyle by telling to keep his unwashed grubby hands off me! The other girls are harassing me too. People I thought were my friends. They’re ripping on me every chance they get like I’m a stuck-up brat that should be thankful for the attention. Like I wanted this to happen.’

‘The teachers don’t care either. They keep telling me to get over it. To move on. To focus on homework. Mrs. Ursula actually had the gall to say that I should be grateful. Grateful! She actually said that! Am I crazy! I’m starting to think I’m crazy! How does nobody else see Kyle for the lazy waste of skin that he is? How does no one else see that he got kicked out of the special super-school for being a waste of a C-Rank? How does nobody else see that he’s coasting after winning the genetic lottery? Is that all someone is these days? A power? Does nothing else matter so long as they can kill monsters?’

November 1st, 2015. 

‘Yeah. He slipped something in my drink during the Halloween party. Yeah, I called the cops without drinking it. Yeah, they tried to arrest him. I have got to give them the credit they’re due. They actually tried. Kyle bounced of course. Literally. Dude can long jump over houses like he’s in a platformer. A report was filed, the drink was tested.’

‘The prosecutor refused to do anything. Again. She pulled me and aunt Marge into a meeting to talk about necessary people and how her own kids died from monster attacks. Like that should be reason enough for the rest of us to put up with Kyle freaking felonious actions! Like, lady! How do you have this job!? How has no one fired you!?’

‘At least my classmates started to take my side. Finally. I guess harassment, bullying and stalking are okay but drugging someone at a party is where they draw the line. I guess I should be thankful for that much at least.’

‘Mrs. Ursula did apologize too. She let me know Phoebe took a video of the whole thing and said I could use it to appeal.’

February, 2016. 

‘The appeal went nowhere.’

‘Oh, Kyle was crucified in the court of public opinion and he was found guilty by a different prosecutor. Only the judge gave him a year of community service and docked his pay rates for monster hunting during that time. Yep. That was it. No jail time at all. He filmed himself apologizing later that day and said all he wanted to do was help. To do his part in making Florida a safer place. Like, whoa. Dude. How can you say that with a straight face after what you did? Have you no shame? Forget monster hunting, he should be an actor.’

‘Also, people in the comments were defending him. I cannot make this up. There were actually people discussing the morality of polygamy and eugenics in an apology video made by a convicted felon.’

‘Geez. I mean. I get folks are desperate. I know the economy’s whacked and getting a hold of food can be tricky. I know I’m lucky to have two meals a day most days of the week. But, like. Are we really at the point where we’re talking about this? Is this not inhumane?’

‘Honestly, it was my bad for even trying. At this rate I should do homeschooling until graduation and then join the army or something. It wouldn’t be my first choice, but I’d have a gun. A proper gun and I could leave. I could just leave and go wherever I wanted. The more I think about it, the nicer it sounds.’

January 22nd, 2017. 

‘The funeral was nothing short of dismal. There were hundreds of people there, but hardly any of them were there for Phoebe. Understandable, since she was only one of a couple hundred students being buried. Of the surviving students, most seemed more concerned over their own missing limbs than with the friends that hadn’t made it. All of them were angry.’

‘Angry at the Hydra, angry at the response teams that hung back till it was safe, angry at Kyle who’d gotten killed seconds into the fight. That last one irked me the most too. The Acid Hydra had been a juvenile. Barely C-Rank. Kyle should have stomped it out of existence and he probably would have if he hadn’t been on his third bottle for the day.’

‘Kyle senior was there. Which surprised me. I didn’t think he would’ve cared if his spawn lived or died. Kyle himself wasn’t in his casket. None of them were. The Acid Hydra hadn’t left enough to bury. Looking around, I could see some of the first responders there too. Some blamed themselves. As if they could have done anything. Others were actively seething about the orders they’d been given.’

‘It was standard procedure to wait for mind rankers or heavy ordinance once a monster of that size was confirmed. Which meant the EMTs weren’t allowed to go near the school until cleared by the brass. A lot of students had bled to death while trying to run away and videos of the incident had circulated online.’

‘They were all I had to go of off, since I’d been sick that day.’

‘I feel like all the people I know see me as a stranger. Like I couldn’t imagine what they’d gone through. I get angry at them whenever we talk. Of course, I know what they’re going through. I survived the collapse of Miami. I know what its like to feel helpless. I know what its like to run because you can’t think of anything else. I know what its like to realize people you left behind got trampled to death before they got eaten. That you might’ve killed them because you were trying to save yourself.’

‘I don’t even know why I’m still writing this. What’s the point? No one cares. No one wants to hear about other people’s problems. They want to be left all alone to wallow in their own misery.’

‘Fine. I’ll give them some space to figure things out while they fix up the school.’

May 3rd, 2017.

‘The school isn’t getting fixed up. Turns out this kind of thing had happened in other areas too, but not to this scale so it was only a blip on the news. They’re making all of us stay home and study. We’ll be taking GED tests later this year.’

‘It sounded like an excuse to avoid paying for the rebuilding costs. Like they were washing their hands of us and telling us to work it out ourselves. Apparently, its being done all over the state. The feds actually stepped in and they’re going to try doing an online-only program. Telling kids to study from the safety of their own bunkers. Those who couldn’t afford to dig one out, well, too bad.’ 

I remember this. I’d seen it on the news.

Florida hadn’t been the first to try this out. Almost all the countries in Asia had implemented an online regiment during the beginning of the decade.

However, they had been the first example of mass implementation in the west at that time.

In all fairness, it worked wonders, despite the social isolation. Other states had followed their footsteps the following year. Just as European

Canada hadn’t had as much trouble with sudden spawns due to how densely distributed our population was after the original rifts opened up, so it had taken longer to put those measures in place.

Universities like mine were exempt because we were already fortified; since the biology departments performed vivisections on new monster variants on the regular.

I shook my head to dispel a wave of nausea. This… made too much sense. Reading this diary was putting too many facts into perspective. Making me empathise with my captors.

I could see how someone that grew up in this environment might think this experiment was justified. Worse, I was beginning to get an idea of who might be funding it. There had been some fringe groups in the news, prior to my kidnapping. Interest groups arguing that fertility clinics should be working towards making new Espers. Their arguments being that we had to make sure humanity was replenishing fighters faster than we were losing them.

It sounded ridiculous, until you realized they were the moderates. The extremists were actually pushing polygamy laws and government sanction pairings for the populace. Trying to turn modern society into one big eugenics lab.

I shivered at the thought. Feeling a chill creeping through me and refocusing my attention towards my fog for a reprieve.

I shot out a charged [Fever] towards a group of were-rats that had made it through the borders of my fog and waited until they were mostly done for before going back to the book.

July 30th, 2017.

‘I graduated. Went down to a testing site and got my GED. No hassle involved. Yay me.’

‘Preppers aren’t ridiculed anymore. Instead, they were being actively emulated. All the neighbours had bunkers already, but now they needed to have deeper sub-basements inside the bunkers, with extra rooms to store supplies.’

‘Food prices had skyrocketed too. You’d be hard-pressed to find canned good anywhere these days. Too much demand and not enough supply.’

‘I was thinking about all of that during the end. Wondering what exactly I was supposed to do now? Construction companies were hiring, but with the caveat that you might be sent outside the city limits for emergency repairs and that refusal was illegal, once you signed the contract. Yeah, that didn’t appeal to me.’

‘I guess I could join the force. There were some officers who’d gone way beyond their duty to help me back when Kyle had been making noise. Still, that would mean going up against superpowered criminals with an underfunded and outdated arsenal. No thanks. If I was going to be out there, I wanted to make sure I had the equipment to put threats down. Were there even jobs outside the military that could offer that?’

‘I don’t know. I’m so confused. I don’t know what to do. Every single option feels like it sucks in one way or the other and everyone around me is telling me to get hitched using my looks. I don’t want that. I don’t want to be helpless. I know what that feels like and it isn’t for me.’

April 22nd, 2022. 

‘Its official. I am the smartest person in my family. Aunt Marge was always going on about how pretty I was and about how I could have a great life if I said yes to Kyle. About how much of a waste it was that I wanted to join the army. About how it would ruin my looks and my marriage prospects.’

‘Ha! Look at me now aunty! I got kidnapped and thrown into some kind of video-game and I still came out on top! And I got powers! Ha! Just wait until I come back you old hag! I’ll show you! I’m going to be a pro-hero with commercials and movie-tie-ins and toys served with burgers! Kyle can go take a long walk off a short pier for all I care! I have got it made!’

Huh.

So, she wasn’t one of my kidnappers.

She was a victim.

Same as me.

I looked at the book, searching for a name.

I found it, behind the cover.

‘Property of Prudence Kettler. KEEP OUT!’

Prudence. Her name had been Prudence.

And she had left her diary there.

Something of great emotional value to her.

My gaze went back to the total tally of remaining survivors.

I inhaled sharply, putting two and two together in my head.

The conclusion made me tear up. So much so that I called upon [Meditation].

Pushing out the negative feelings by breathing in and out. Pushing away the crystals and the corpses.

Until there was only Buddy and me. Comforting each other.