《Korosuna Dream Journal》


 WORLD;HACK - Chapter 1

    ¡°...And there it is,¡± I whispered to myself, looking out the back window of my bedroom, as I see my mom¡¯s car roll down the street, making it¡¯s way into our driveway. Finally, I can get started on dinner.


    I jumped up from my bed, which was situated right underneath the open window, and trample my way through my somewhat messy room. Our place wasn¡¯t the largest, just some small house on an average street.


    As I make my way down the stairs to the first floor, I see the front door next to the base of the stairs open, and my mom come in with a handful of some grocery bags. One thing I couldn¡¯t help but notice too was the addition of what looks to be some kind of old cell phone. The kind you¡¯d see people use in maybe the mid 2000s, with all those buttons on the front.


    ¡°Hey, mom!¡± I greet her, happy to get started on cooking something up for the family. She didn¡¯t respond, which is a little odd, but I figured maybe she just didn¡¯t hear me.


    I knew dad would be home in a couple hours, so unfortunately he¡¯ll have to do with the leftovers from dinner.


    I stepped into the kitchen, which wasn¡¯t all too far from the front door and the stairs--again, a small house. I took out a large metal pot, and opened up some cupboards to look for a box of noodles as I filled the pot with water.


    For a brief moment, I felt a little something odd, however. My brain felt kind of... Fuzzy, like when an old TV is nothing but static. I looked closer into the cupboards and realized that for just a brief moment, it was almost as if I was unable to read, well, anything. All of the words on every box and can in there was just jumbled, made to look like some kind of chicken scratch, at least until the sensation of hot tap water pouring over my hands snapped me out of this odd trance. I looked down and saw the pot overflowing with water. Kind of weird, since I swore I just started filling it up not two seconds ago.


    I dumped some of the water out, and set the pot onto the stove, ready to make up some classic spaghetti and meatballs. Things went pretty normally for the rest of the night. At least, until a few hours later.


    <hr>


    I sat on the living room couch, flipping through the few channels we get on TV. Something nice about living in the modern age is being able to just find channels on the internet to watch right from the living room TV. Nothing really seemed to catch my attention, however.


    I noticed a bit of a weird sound coming from the dining room, and looked back to see something a little odd. My mom, scrubbing the floor, with a sponge and a bucket of soapy water. She wore rubber gloves and had her hair up in a weird way. Actually, her entire outfit was all flowery and strange. This is especially weird considering the fact that my mom¡¯s the kind of person to wear something black and spiky, and her arms absolutely covered with tattoos of various things.


    I cautiously got up from the couch, wondering if maybe this was like some kind of weird joke or something. Mom, hand scrubbing the floor? We¡¯ve got a perfectly fine mop in the closet for that.


    ¡°Mom?¡± I call out. No response. I call her name again.


    Just then, mom looks straight at me and smiles a strangely warm smile. ¡°Hey, honey!¡±


    Honey? Really? She¡¯s never called anyone that in her entire life. And she doesn¡¯t smile over cleaning, she hates cleaning.


    Suddenly, the strange brain fuzziness came back to me. It wasn¡¯t just that, either, I noticed the lights in the room become more dim. Not really flickering or anything, just lowering in brightness. Anything that wasn¡¯t a light seemed to just shut down completely, finding this out when I noticed the sound of the TV suddenly cut out behind me.


    Yeah, something¡¯s not right. I need to see if my brother¡¯s okay.


    Through the fuzzy strange feeling, I was still coherent enough to swiftly walk past ¡°mom¡±, and jog up the stairs, up to my brother¡¯s room. Spencer and I have a pretty good sibling relationship, though we still usually tend to stick to our own rooms and might often send memes over texts to one another.


    This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.I opened Spencer¡¯s bedroom door and noticed him slumped down on his bed. He was awake, but not moving. I went over to him and grabbed his shoulders.


    ¡°Hey, hey, you awake?¡±


    He looked up at me, and muttered a noise. He seems to be fine, thankfully.


    He got up from the bed and coughed a little. ¡°Hey,¡± he started, ¡°do you feel all weird and stuff too?¡±


    I nodded my head. ¡°Mom¡¯s acting weird, come on.¡±


    We both went down the stairs and noticed the pristine white floors. We¡¯ve never seen these floors so clean in our entire lives, and it was all done by this weird version of mom.


    Suddenly, as we stood in front of mom in the dining room, we hear a noise behind us. Looking back, we see the front door open up, and from the other side was Dad... But much like Mom, dad wore things that just isn¡¯t normal for him.


    He stepped into the house with a big grin, wearing some kind of old fashioned suit and a fedora, and dropping a suitcase next to him. ¡°Honey, I¡¯m home!¡±


    Spencer tapped me on the arm. ¡°Hey, I kinda like, feel something,¡± he casually mentions.


    ¡°What do you mean?¡± I ask, concerned.


    He points over somewhere. I follow his finger to see the dining room table, and on top of it is one tiny little strange object, a thing that wasn¡¯t here before all this nonsense started. That old cell phone mom brought home earlier. I slowly approached it, and started to know what Spencer meant by ¡°feeling something¡±. As I approached, the weird fuzziness in my head got more and more intense. I tried to reach out to it, but was stopped by a startling shout from across the room, ¡°STOP!¡±


    Quickly looking over, I notice mom staring at me with a very serious face.


    ¡°Listen to me, son,¡± she commanded in a stern tone, ¡°don¡¯t you dare touch that object.¡±


    Object? Just call it a cell phone.


    So clearly, this cell phone must be tied to whatever in the world is going on here. I look at my brother for a moment, before attempting to reach for the phone again. This time, mom immediately took action, sprinting full force across our small dining room in an attempt to grab the phone away from me, but luckily, I snatched it quick enough and got out of the way.


    Dad joins in on the action, picking up his suitcase and chucking it straight at me, but misses. My brother jumps around the parents and follows me out the back door, just as a hammer came flying through the glass of the door, just missing my head by mere inches. I look at the phone for a moment, and realize the only thing I can do at this moment.


    I raise my hand up and then proceed to throw the phone down onto the concrete below my feet, absolutely shattering the case, and revealing the inside. It was here that I understood something was truly wrong here.


    I motioned for my brother to grab the hammer nearby just in case, as I was given a moment to really squat down and inspect what I was seeing.


    On the inside of this phone was some kind of ¡°technology¡± I¡¯ve never seen before. Connected directly to the phone¡¯s battery was a small black device, wired into the phone¡¯s internal structure with these weird, vein-like black, rubbery wires of it¡¯s own.


    The device itself was around an inch and a half in length and width, and looked like some kind of square with tube-like bumps attached to it, almost like tiny pipes. I could feel the full blast of whatever is coming off of this thing, as sitting so close to it made my mind feel unbearably fuzzy.


    Spencer passed me the hammer, and, just as my parents came out through the back door to attack us, I struck the black device with all my might. It exploded in a sort of flash of blinding white energy, and from the inside of it, a bunch of weird, gray glittery sand plumed out and fell around like dust.


    I could feel the fuzziness in my head subside, and I saw the lights inside return to their normal brightness. Mom and dad seemed to have fainted as well. What the hell just happened?

 WORLD;HACK - Chapter 2

    It¡¯s the next morning, and Spencer, Dad, Mom, and I, are all gathered around the dining room table, surrounded by knocked over furniture and destroyed items from the strange event that took place the day before. I showed everyone the destroyed remains of the phone, including the ruined black device inside of it.


    ¡°So, mom,¡± I began, ¡°where in the world did you get this thing?¡±


    Mom inspected the phone from her seat.


    ¡°If I can remember correctly, a couple of kids gave me the phone, and then I just kind of blanked out.¡±


    We all discussed what was going on for a little bit. One thing of interest as well, was the fact that the internet didn¡¯t seem to work anymore, and none of the channels on TV seem to exist. One thing seemed obvious to Spencer and I. We seem to be immune to the weird ¡°controlling¡± effects of this device, the same effects that caused our parents to become violent. If we want to get to the bottom of this, there¡¯s no better people than us two in case we might run into another one of these weird devices.


    It was settled. After an hour or two of discussing and preparing, Spencer and I are to set out to find out exactly where mom got this phone. Apparently, those kids that handed it to her were also acting a little strange themselves, and that they were no more than a 15 minute walk down the street from us.


    Spencer and I had on some hiking boots and some relatively defensive clothing. We carried backpacks with us filled with various supplies, including some first-aid kits just in case, and in the event we need to defend ourselves or destroy another weird device, we carried large hunting knives on our side.


    We opened the front door, waving goodbye to our worried, but unfortunately helpless parents, and stepped out.


    We already knew things were different. We live on some suburban street, the kind of place you¡¯d always see a neighbor grilling food or someone else mowing the lawn. Maybe you¡¯d see a dog being walked or kids playing outside as well, but what we saw was... Nothing. No one was outside. No lights were on in any houses either--although it¡¯s the middle of the afternoon, so that part¡¯s not a huge surprise. We carried on walking to our destination.


    <hr>


    After about 18 minutes or so of mostly silent walking, Spencer and I approach a street we know well. It¡¯s a corner we always drive through whenever we go out grocery shopping, so we¡¯ve seen the houses here a million times. We saw that out of all the empty streets around us, there was one house in particular that had some activity about it.


    A man dressed in some kind of checkered shirt and having a pipe hang out of his mouth, is cooking something at a grill. His wife was dressed in a long dress and some kind of large round sunglasses, sunbathing near their family pool using one of those handheld mirror things. Two children were playing some weird form of hop-scotch on the sidewalk near their house.


    The man saw us two traveling in the street and waved us over. They wouldn¡¯t seem dangerous in any other setting, but considering how things are now, they¡¯re acting extremely suspicious.


    With caution, Spencer and I approach the man, as he starts to greet us.


    ¡°Howdy! What¡¯s a couple o¡¯ hipsters like yourself doing out here alone? We¡¯re having something of a bash here, why dontcha come on and join?¡±


    We silently approach their house. Before we could really get a good look at anything in particular, we felt something very familiar. My brain started to get just a little fuzzier with each step I took towards their house. Looking over to my side, I could see Spencer visibly reacting to this as well. These people are just like our parents; they must be being controlled by some kind of weird device.


    I smiled and approached the man.


    ¡°Hi! Thanks for inviting us over, we¡¯d love to hang out!¡±


    I knew our mission was to find whatever weird black device exists in this household. I figured I¡¯d ask the obvious thing.


    ¡°Say, do you have a phone at all, we should check in on our parents real quick.¡±


    The man raised his eyebrow for a moment, before digging into his side pocket and pulling out a flip-phone of some sort, pulling out it¡¯s antenna and handing it to us.


    We smiled and took it. Well, considering how easily we were just given this phone, that black device is probably not here. When our parents were being controlled, they did try to defend their phone after all.


    Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings.I sneakily checked the phone battery real quick just in case, and sure enough, it was nothing more than a regular phone. Kind of an old one, at that.


    Spencer looked at me and shook his head.


    ¡°I don¡¯t feel anything coming from that, I think it¡¯s inside the house,¡± he whispered.


    I handed the phone back to the man.


    ¡°Where can I find the restroom?¡±


    ¡°Oh just head inside the house, it¡¯s through a door to the left inside of the living room.¡±


    We quickly headed inside to look, before the family would catch onto what we¡¯re actually doing here. I looked at Spencer and nodded, for him to try and see if he can pick up exactly where he feels that the black device might be.


    He closed his eyes and held out his hand, as if to physically feel for any kind of invisible energy that would be emitted from this strange otherworldly device, before ultimately pointing towards a wall on the East side of the house.


    We walked further in, and after passing through a relatively short hall, we found the living room. Inside was a strange sight to see, with 8 children all seated silently in some kind of organized fashion, watching nothing but blank static on the TV. We followed the direction Spencer pointed out, which would take us across the living room to a door at the end. Sneaking behind the children as to not disturb them, we tiptoed across the large, clean room.


    As we started to get closer to the door however, having gotten past the assembly of hypnotized children, we heard a noise from behind us. Looking back, all 8 of the kids were staring at us with completely flat, expressionless faces. We took a single step closer to that door, and suddenly, entirely in organized unison, all of the children stood up the same exact way and faced us, before slowly marching towards our location.


    I grabbed Spencer¡¯s arm, ¡°We have to move, now.¡±


    We quickly dashed the rest of the few feet to the door and swung it open, revealing a garage from the other side. Just then, the children started running at us as well, so we got inside and slammed the door shut quickly.


    I felt as the door started getting mauled by the children on the other side screaming and kicking at the door. Spencer found some kind of heavy cabinet of some sort and shoved it over so we could block the door so we can quickly scan the area for the black device. I could really feel the brain fuzz now.


    Spencer and I quickly looked around for anything electronic in the garage that the device might attach itself to, all while Spencer tried to use his sensitivity to the energy to help pinpoint it. We found various power tools and other such things, but none of them had the device, so we searched harder, hearing the banging on the door get louder.


    Suddenly, we hear a loud machine sound, and look over to see the garage door open right up, with the grilling man standing behind it, holding a large steak knife.


    I pulled out my hunting knife just as the man sprinted towards me, attempting to slash at me. I managed to duck out of the way quickly. I figured I would see if I can hold him off and buy time for Spencer to find the device and smash it himself.


    The man clenched his other fist and punched me in the gut, knocking the wind out of me, but I still tried to keep my composure. As he tried to strike at me with the knife, I batted his arm out of the way, only leaving me with a relatively small cut on my arm.


    Meanwhile, Spencer looks frantically, until ultimately realizing the elephant in the room. He looks at the center of the garage and sees an entire car. How could we not have known?


    He went and pried the hood open, and sure enough. Right on top of the car¡¯s battery, rested a familiar, small black device, with it¡¯s black vein wires wrapped and entangled all over the battery.


    Spencer took out his own hunting knife and plunged it right into the device, causing it to pop with a bright flash, and explode into glittery sand like the one before.


    I watched as the attacking man instantly lose consciousness, and the banging and howling behind the garage door come to a silent stop.


    Spencer and I stood there for a moment in silence. All of this is a big problem. How many of these devices exist in the world? How many do we have to hunt down and smash, lest these people be changed into weird mind-controlled beings?


    Our thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a phone ringing. I looked at the unconscious man, and reached down into his pocket, pulling out the same flip phone he had previously lent me.


    I opened it up and answered the call, and put it on speaker so Spencer can hear whatever is on the other side too. The other side of the line was the voice of my... Uncle?


    ¡°You there?¡± He called, with an uneasy and worried tone to his voice.


    ¡°Yeah.¡±


    ¡°Listen, my family¡¯s acting really strange all of a sudden. I keep feeling this kind of static in my head, I don¡¯t know what¡¯s going on. Could you please come on down here?¡±


    ¡°Of course.¡±


    I closed the phone, and looked at Spencer. We looked at the car we had just opened to destroy the device with. Looks like we should pay our uncle a nice visit.

 WORLD;HACK - Chapter 3

    Spencer looked out the window of the passenger seat, watching the empty roads go by, with the occasional strange, lively household in view. I focused on driving the car we ¡°borrowed¡± from that kindly family. We drove all the way to our uncle¡¯s house, all things considered, since I didn¡¯t actually know how to drive, but rather just used info I kind of picked up from watching others.


    We pulled up into the driveway of a medium sized home out in the middle of nowhere, with my uncle sitting outside on the front porch.


    Stepping out of the car, he quickly approaches us.


    ¡°Where¡¯s your parents?¡± He asks, concerned as to how it¡¯s just us two.


    ¡°It¡¯s a long story,¡± I remark.


    ¡°I see, well, come inside, I need to show you something.¡±


    We follow our uncle to the front door, and we could immediately tell something was wrong. The fuzzy brain feeling. So it¡¯s another case of the black devices unsurprisingly. What was surprising however, was the fact that our uncle seemed to be immune to this effect much like Spencer and I.


    He opened the door and let us in, bringing us into the living room. We saw quite the scene, with the lights all dim, and several familiar family members all sat around strangely.


    Our grandpa and grandma sat on a couch next to our aunt, all three of them staring down at our young cousins ¡°playing¡± with some toys. When I say ¡°playing¡±, I mean more like that they too are sitting around blankly, just waving around a couple of action figures and other items.


    Our uncle walked over to his wife and waved his hand in front of her face, to no response.


    ¡°They just suddenly became like this a couple of hours ago,¡± he described. ¡°And since then, I¡¯ve been feeling all fuzzy too.¡±


    I look at our uncle, ready to explain everything that I think has been going on. I have him sit down at a table with Spencer and I.


    ¡°So, where do I begin?¡± I mutter to myself.


    <hr>


    After roughly a half an hour of explaining later, our uncle seemed to finally be in the loop. He now knows about the black devices, the apparent mind control capabilities they hold, and the fact that Spencer and I are immune (and that he seems to be too), as well as Spencer¡¯s ability to sense the direction in which the devices come from.


    We also casually mentioned the aggression the mind controlled victims express when we get close to the source of their controlling.


    ¡°So now, we need to actually find the black device,¡± I explain to our uncle.


    Spencer closes his eyes and tries to feel around for where the device might be. This time however, something is different. He looks around for a moment, then faces me.


    ¡°I don¡¯t know where this one is...¡±


    I raise my eyebrow, and we get up from the table and start walking around. Our uncle joins in, looking for any kind of machine or device that has a battery of some kind. We checked TV remotes. Nothing. We checked phones, laptops, tables, nothing. This time around was a lot more difficult. To top it all off, none of the mind controlled family members even batted an eye at us, making it seem like the device isn¡¯t even in this house or something.


    We expanded our search. Going around the outside of the house, inside of sheds, the garage, anything nearby. We checked lawn mowers, power tools, vehicles, anything. We even considered looking up at the power lines to see if maybe one of those weird things attached themselves to one, but nope, not even that.


    As I stood outside of a shed near the house, Spencer approached from behind to get my attention. He leaned in closely to whisper in my ear.


    ¡°I think I know where it might be,¡± he began. ¡°The toys.¡±


    That¡¯s right! The one place we didn¡¯t check, the toys that our cousins were ¡°playing¡± with. As far as I could remember, at least one of them was a light-up toy, and it never even crossed my mind to check it.


    It¡¯s great that Spencer figured that out, but one question nagged at my mind; why didn¡¯t our uncle even consider checking there either? Surely he knows exactly what kinds of toys his children play with.


    We decided it¡¯d be best if we check those toys on our own, while our uncle is out checking around other places, just in case.


    We sneaked around the back of the house and slowly made our way to the sliding glass back door. Opening it slowly, we checked around for anyone that might be able to see us, and after confirming our hiding, continued.


    Sliding through the halls, we make it back to the living room and see... Our uncle, right in the center, inspecting one of the battery-powered toys. He spots us and waves for us to come over.


    ¡°So, this is what we¡¯re looking for, huh?¡± He remarks, as we approach and look.


    Surely enough, the toy in his hand is opened up, and on the inside, another one of the strange black devices is stuck right onto the two batteries on the inside, it¡¯s black thin tendrils wrapped around the inner construct of the children¡¯s toy.


    I smiled and nodded, reaching for the toy. But, our kindly uncle pulled it away a little. I looked up at him, and he seemed unbothered, inspecting the device closer, seeming to really make sure it¡¯s the right thing.


    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    ¡°I¡¯ll have that now, thanks,¡± I chuckled nervously.


    Uncle moved his vision right over to me and stared me right in the eyes. No, he stared past my eyes, but then broke the intense silence with a grin, handing over the toy to me.


    I took the toy and took out my hunting knife. Looking at my grandparents, aunt, and cousins all staring off without a movement, I set the toy down on the ground in a sense of unease, preparing to stab the device and free them from control.


    I slowly squat down next to the toy, and raised my knife in preparation to stab. This is turning out to be a little too easy, I realized. None of the controlled family members are doing anything to stop me, unlike the last few times I tried to destroy these devices.


    I glanced at my knife. I looked over at the family members, over at my nervous brother, and up at my impatient uncle. With a breath of preparation, I closed my eyes and struck down at the device.


    KASHUNK!


    ...That didn¡¯t sound right.


    I opened my eyes and saw what made such a noise. Before my very eyes, rested my uncle¡¯s arm, covering the device, and the hunting knife of mine stabbed all the way through, protecting the thing below.


    Blood ran everywhere all over the floor and toy underneath. I looked up in horror to see my uncle¡¯s completely indifferent face.


    ¡°Well, are you going to destroy it?¡± He asked in such a calm, yet eerie manner.


    I pulled my knife out and stumbled backwards. What just happened? Why did my uncle do that? Did I really just stab him in the arm?


    ¡°Destroy the core. Come on. Do it.¡± My uncle stood up, arm pouring blood, demanding me to try and destroy the black device.


    ¡°Destroy the core, now. DO IT!¡± He shouted, lunging at me, and tackling me flat to the ground.


    Suddenly, my grandparents, aunt, and cousins all got up in unison and started slowly approaching. My uncle held me down to the ground.


    ¡°Why won¡¯t you listen? Obey!¡± He shouted in an unhinged voice.


    My brother managed to shove my uncle off of me and get me free just as the others came at us. This makes sense to me now. My uncle was controlled from the beginning. How in the world did he even know to call me on that one grilling man¡¯s phone out of anything?


    Spencer and I sprinted through the house and ran outside, unfortunately unable to smash this black device before leaving. When we swung open the front door, the outside world was different than even 5 minutes ago.


    It was no longer the early evening with the sun hanging low in the horizon, but rather a murky dark sky, with bizarre black clouds moving and pulsing high in the air as if they¡¯re breathing the same air as ourselves.


    Surrounding the house for as far as the eye can see, are dozens, hundreds, no, thousands of them. Mind-controlled people, all facing us.


    Like a horde of mindless monsters, they all started coming at us from all around. My brother and I had to swing and dash through the crowds to try and get through. While all of this was happening, the black clouds above began to move and pulse, pouring down, revealing that they were never in fact clouds at all, but rather a collection of millions of tiny black devices floating through the air.


    It started raining these devices, and they started to move and attach to anything with electricity as if magnetized. The power lines were covered in every inch by these devices, as thin black tendrils would sprout out of them like the roots of a plant, and whip around until they can get a good hold of the electric devices.


    While all of this was happening, the feeling in my head was like nothing I¡¯ve ever felt before. It sounded as though the voices of a thousand robotic machines screamed right into my brain, my vision was distorted and fuzzy, and my entire body was blasted with pain, as if the very nerves in my body were hyper-charged with electricity and energy. By the looks of it, Spencer wasn¡¯t having the greatest time either.


    After essentially swimming through mindless puppets en masse, we made it out of one end, finding ourselves in a large open field of tall grass. We ran, the crowd behind us following distantly. We ran until we made it to a nearby forest.


    <hr>


    It¡¯s been several hours. Spencer and I were huddled up in a quickly assembled tent of branches and leaves, next to a small, dimly lit fire. The skies were dark, and we weren¡¯t able to hear anything too worrying for a little while.


    We were beat. Covered in bandages from the aggressive crowds, and exhausted from the effects of being near so many of those black devices. I wondered how so many people could be remotely controlled by those things, but decided I should just stop thinking and get some sleep if I could.


    I laid my head down on my backpack, set up like a pillow, and closed my eyes in an attempt to get something that resembles a rest. Surprisingly, it wasn¡¯t too long until I could feel myself slowly drifting off to sleep. Spencer was beside me, already sound asleep himself.


    I laid there for a moment, but then, heard some kind of sound outside. I got up and poked my head out of the tent for a moment to look around. Nothing seemed to be out there, so I laid back down and stayed vigilant for a moment.


    About 10 minutes later, I turned over to sleep again, looking at the empty corner of the tent, and closing my eyes.


    Until, I realized, the empty corner of the tent was in fact, not empty. I opened my eyes and shot up, knife prepared, and saw there, a small black device on it¡¯s lonesome. Before I could shout to get Spencer up, the device made some kind of loud sound, which caused me to blank out.


    I was suddenly in this weird, dark world of some sort. A voice was echoing through my mind; my own voice, but being used by something else. It spoke in words I couldn¡¯t really hear, but somehow understood. This is the black device speaking to me, and what it said had opened my mind to everything.


    These black devices are ¡°cores¡± of some kind. From the vast unknown reaches of the cosmos, they had traveled alone by the billions, looking for electricity. They had found our world, and began to feed on our machines and devices. Something even they didn¡¯t know, was the ability to be able to control the minds of humans, and select other animals, and so they used this strange ability for self defense, attempting to keep the humans and animals acting as they normally would.


    It seemed like some creatures were made immune to their abilities, like Spencer and myself, and so they had struggled against those like us who were destroying their cores. In reality, they did not want violence, but clearly they did not understand that controlling the minds of people isn¡¯t the right thing to do. Unfortunately, it¡¯s them versus us, so they took action. I sat in awe, listening to the many stories this voice had for me, understanding everything now.


    <hr>


    After what felt like a week or so of listening to these strange and wonderful stories, I woke up. I looked around with blurry eyes, and found myself inside of some kind of dimly lit room. Looking at a few figures around me, I spot a woman and a few men, all in their mid-20s to late 30s. They were all equipped with strange homemade armor and weapons, and the room itself was a little bit messy.


    I saw up, feeling a pain in my back, and also noticing that it seems my right foot is entirely missing.


    Suddenly, one of the men in his 20s lunged over and gave me a huge hug, eyes full of tears.


    ¡°I¡¯m so glad you¡¯re back!¡± He exclaims in a voice of relief.


    He pulls away and I manage to get a good look at him.


    ¡°It¡¯s me, Spencer,¡± he states.


    That right there told me everything.


    ¡°We saved the world!¡± He exclaims. I look around as my vision finally adjusts, and see a large group of people, including my own parents who were now considerably older.


    I was taken under the control of the black device all those years ago, and Spencer had been fighting all this time to stop their attack. He, and all these other people, they stopped the devices, and saved the world. I smiled. teary eyed, and hugged Spencer back.¡°Sorry I was out for so long, guys, I¡¯m glad to be back,¡± I spoke.