《Apocalyptic Survival- How to survive the Apocalypse -》 Prologue - How did it come to this? October 2019: Hikers in the Andean Mountain range find a disturbing phenomenon. It seems to be a portal into another world, displaying a frozen picture of an endless landscape of a deep and dense jungle. Multiple sightings of other, by the general population called, shards are reported all over the world in the following days. These "shards" seem to be a breakpoint in space and time, connecting our world with a multitude of others. Each shard seems to show a two-dimensional view into other worlds. They appear to be paper-thin but are at the same time harder than any material known to mankind. It seems that every shard shows different places, all frozen in time, from a bustling city street to volcanoes and endless plains with gigantic creatures roaming them. The governments all over the world begin to collaborate, cataloguing all known shards and ranking them based on size and apparent difficulty. Certain private groups begin to search for small shards, hiding them from the governments and under the hope of selling materials from these other planets to rich private collectors. November 15th, 2019: Earthquakes all over the planet cause massive tsunamis and storms, which ravage the coastal regions of every nation, destroying most of the Pacific region, all of northern and southern America, western and northern Africa and India. The total death toll is estimated to range in the billions. November 30th, 2019: Japan sinks into the sea, only 15% of the inhabitants manage to evacuate. The only thing remaining is the top of Mt. Fuji. December 2019: Another wave of earthquakes causes further massive damage to the remaining countries. The president of the U.S.A declares martial law, which most of the remaining nations follow. Populations all over the world are getting evacuated into inland territories. Scientists seem to believe that our world is slowly but surely growing, as if the earth''s core and crust was somehow growing in mass, which in turn leads to the rearrangement of the tectonic plates. New islands begin to emerge in the Pacific, Doggerland emerges from the waters for the first time after 9000 years. The North Sea is now classified as an inland sea. All over the Earth, new landmasses begin to emerge, while new mountain ranges seem to be created overnight. January 2020: The emergence of shards begins to pick up, with new ones forming faster and faster all over the world and old ones not disappearing. Military forces all over the world are hard pressed to uphold any kind of containment around the known shards. February 2020: A new virus seems to have emerged form one of the oldest Shards in Europe, infecting over 1 billion people in 15 days, and spreading all over the globe. The virus seems to attack the immune system of the victim, while at the same time mutating the genetic information of cells. Symptoms are: heavy vomiting, diarrhoea, high fever, muscle pain, lung collapse, heart stutters, spontaneous bone fractures, hypothermia. Early predictions are that whatever this virus is, it seems to possess some kind of hive-mind like mentality. People of the age over 50 die within days, while young children and adults seem to survive, while still suffering from the symptoms. February 28th 2020: The Earth''s magnetic field begins to change, and all electronic devices cease to function.
Booting [ARGUS]
Booting Initialisation Protocol v.3597.565
Hello, [Planetinhabitant-Earth-Bipedal-Human]! This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report itYour planet [Earth-ThirdPlanet-SolarsystemNr.XTL5784] has been sadly discovered by an entity called [The-Crawling-Chaos], this extradimensional being seeks to consume, corrupt or subjugate all lifeforms in our dimension. It has already consumed 0.00000158% of our dimension, and to protect us, 5 of the most advanced civilisations have sacrificed themselves to create me, an Autonomous Overseeing Interactive Interface. You may call me [Argus]! I apologize for the rough last few months and all the lost lifes, but I had to act fast to combat the appearance of further developing [Shards/(Invasionpoints)]. If I had been even one [1] minute later, then they would have activated and you would have most likely been overrun in the first few hours, rendering your whole civilisation ripe for the taking! Your planet [Earth] is in an unique position right now. You might not have known, but most, if not all, surrounding solarsystems have already been consumed or subjugated by [The-Crawling-Chaos] in an earlier growth stage, leaving your planet as the sole remaining uncorrupted system in the whole starcluster! We, the [Dimensional-Peace-Force], would like to use your planet as a staging ground for the liberation of this before mentioned starcluster. The main problem was, that your planet is severely lacking in a specific resource, which is needed to sustain such a large scale operation, you may or may not call this specific resource [Mana]. I had to merge your planet, [Earth], with several other planets that were going to be consumed by [The-Crawling-Chaos] to raise your ranking from F-rank to E-rank. The also lead to an increase of your planets overall mass by around 859.65487521%. I apologize again for the lost lives during the transitioning, and grant all [Planetinhabitant-Earth-Bipedal-Human] two [2] additional randomly generated [Talents] at the beginning of their innitialization at the age offourteen [14], from now into perpetuity! Rejoice! This does not happen regularly, and if other species would learn of this fact, then I would have to face several small scale rebellions in other systems! Sadly, even with these additional [Talents], a defense against hostile [Shard] incursions will most likely be impossible at your races current stat average of 8. I urgently recommend to avoid any national, geographical and historical landmarks or points of interest, for they will undergo dangerous changes during the next one and a half [1 1/2] month. Remaining there will most likely lead to your inevitable death. Warning: [Shards] will begin to open in around fifteen [15] [Earth] days. [Shards] are not only Invasionpoints, but also so called [Manadrains], which will slowly suck the energy from your planet. Beware: [Shards] can be closed upon activation, which I highly recommend you to do, for each [Shard] will begin to grow in strength and size with each following week after its activation. I recommend you to at least close eleven [11] out of fifteen [15] [Shards] that are currently existing on your planet in the next two [2] years. Closing procedures are simple: 1. Eliminate all targets surrounding the [Shard] 2. Walk up to the [Shard] 3. Touch the [Shard] 4. After the window opened, choose the [Close] option. I will do the rest for you. Additionally, I have given you access to so called [Paths], there are a multitude of [Paths], some are stronger and some are weaker, but each will enhance and alter you recieved daily missions, achievements as well as physiological and psychological evolutions and enhancements. You may follow a multitude of [Paths] at the same time, but you will only be able to choose new ones every ten [10] levels. Beware: Some [Paths] may look weak at first, but may give some special rewards and [Talents] at the end! Even further than that, I have begun to awaken your genetic potential. You may have forgotten it, but you did infact rule over your planet with strength of weapons, as well as intelligence after all! You may find, that some of you have inherited specific [Talents] and [Constitutions] from your genetic ancestors or heritage. Many have already succumbed to the changes that were introduced by the Virus thatwas used tokickstart those changes. Believe me when I say that you will thank me at the end. This is all for now, your planet [Earth-ThirdPlanet-SolarsystemNr.XTL5784] has now been officially renamed to [Earth-Inclusionpoint-0254]. Every inhabitant of your planet, at or above the age of fourteen [14] or higher, will now be innitiated into a rudimentary version of the system, please hold still. 5 4 3 2 1 0 ...
[Messaging], [Group], [Menu], [Constitution] and rudimentary [Talents] are now available!
Chapter 1 - How it all began February 14th, 2020: Darius Walkers was not in a good mood, as he climbed the last few miles to his grandfathers house. It was a nice day, the forecast said that it would remain sunny for the rest of it and he wanted to at least try and get some peace and quiet before his grandfather got his claws into him and force him most likely to shoot them some dinner or something. ''Who even gets the idea to build their estate so high up in the fucking mountains?'' he thinks to himself, while trying to get some more air into his lungs. He takes a quick break half way up the way and enjoys the view of the surrounding forrest and bordering smaller towns, bustling with activity, even though the region had the highest concentration of shards in Germany, which was most likely the reason for all the activit down there. He could also see the piles burning outside of the city, where they burned their dead infected together with all of their possessions. Maybe he did begin to see why people got the idea to build their home so far up the mountains. It was isolated and truly tranquill up here, he could see everything around him, hear the birds sing in the tree crowns and breathe the fresh air. Darius knew that his gramps would make a joke about him, how life in the city made his daughter and her sons weak, the old hunting obsessed bastards that he is. Dozens of memories started to replay in his mind, of how his grampa taught him how to hold a bow for the first time, or how his grandmother would give him some extra cookies whenever he showed up at their home. He had to make sure that his grandparents were okay, even if no one else seemed to be interested in their wellbeing. His mother broke of their contact, after her father decided to not invest any more money into her husbands failing business and he had no aunts or uncles on his mothers side. His grandfather was so antisocial that most of the people down the mountain did not even know that someone lived up here. And also, what better time to do that, then right after his god damn girlfriend cheated on him with his own, unknowing but willing, brother? And no matter what everyone else said, Darius did love his younger brother. Even if their parents clearly favoured Arthur over Darius, and even if he had to duke out his fights for him in the dark back-alleys of Phoenix, Arizona. He would do a ton of things to keep his little brother clear of that part of life. But even he had a limit, and seeing his little brother fuck the shit out of his girlfriend, well that pretty much hit that limit on the head. It was not his fault that Arthur did never inherit the good old H¨¹ber constitution, how should he have known that one hit would force him into a hospital bed? Everyone was always going on about ''How awesome'' Arthur is, how he ''is such a talented fighter! Did you know that he won the national fencing tournament?''. Well, now that talented fighter is sitting in his hospital bed and has to drink through a straw. It did not matter what happened before Darius hit his brother, what mattered was that their fathers precious baby boy was hurt. So, there he was. No familial support and grandparents that did not respond to any kind of communication after the second wave of earthquakes hit the Earth. Tough luck. "Dumb path... Stupid Shards.... Seriously, who got the idea to just throw one right in the middle of a railroad? I had to find another way to get here, and the first thing that I see is another of those fucking things blocking the easiest route into the mountain...", he grumbled under his breath. Darius was lucky and thankfull, that he did have access to his grandfathers bankaccount for emergencies, and that some airplanes still flew between America and Europe, even though he had to take five overlays to get to Berlin, and then take 8 different trains to reach his grandparents home in the Hartz mountain range. ''Everything turned to shit, after those guys in Peru found the first shard up in the Andes. Suddenly they were everywhere and everyone wanted to get a piece of the cake.'' , and with everyone he meant mostly the governments around the world. Postcards with the different sceneries became new merchandies over night, and collectors started paying through the nose after the first mutated plants and animals started to crop up around them. ''Lets be serious... Who would be proud to have a little squirrel with horns on its back?'', he thought with a chuckle. All that though did not really turn out so well for them, after the killer virus started spreading. They were normally the first cases to get infected after all. ''Damn, I really hope that Gramps or Granny did not get infected, that shit is supposed to either kill you in the first few days, or slowly in the next month. People can be healthy one day, and turn up sick the morning after.'' He continued his march up the mountain, while starting to contemplate, what he would say to his grandparents when he finally got there. ''"Heres Johnny!", nonono did that one already the last time... "Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father, prepare to die.", thats it!'' And then he saw it, the ancestral H¨¹ber estate, built to withstand sieges from invading roaming clans and attacking enemy lords, this thing should be called a fortress instead. It is surrounded by cliffs and thick forrests on all sides, the defenders can draw water from an underground river and the walls encompas around 3 hectars of land. ''Well, we like to call it ''ancestral'' at least, gramps won it after all in a pokerturnament.'', thought Darius, which caused him to chuckle slightly. After the first wave of earthquakes wrecked everything, his grampa began to hoard rations and other conserved foods, while his grandmother started making jams and pickling all kinds of stuff in jars. He knew that they could live a few years out here, and his grandfather had equipped a room with hunting equipment. Darius took the last few steps, until he came to the grand entrance gate, took out his keychain and began the complicated procedure of opening all the different locking mechanisms. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.''Why did grampa have to install 14 different locks in this god damn gate? It would be easier to just jump over the fence at this point...''. He was mostly exaggerating, the enclosing fence is at least 3 meter high, consists of stainless blackened steel and has sharp spikes on the top. Darius entered the estate and the first thing he saw was a four meter tall and six meter wide shard depicting some kind of predator hunting down a herbivore. The predator looked as if someone tried to breed a mixture of tiger, bear and warthog. It was as tall as a jeep, packed with muscles, possessed quills going down its spine and had giant tusks. Thankfully, the herbivore did not seem to be another hellbeast, it looked kind of similar to a gazelle, if you colored it green and gave it another pair of frontlegs. His first reaction was what everyone would have done, scream like a little girl and ram the gate shut. Darius began to calm down shortly after that and opened the gate again, after he realised that there was no sound of any carnage, which should have been hearable even dozens of meters away and through that thick gate. He did not think of himself to be a fearfull person, after all those years fighting streetfights regularly that was something like an anathema to him and he could show his scars for proof, but that... thing looks to be one of the meanest things on its planet, that was at least what he hoped, because something that dangerous had no right to be anywhere in the bottom of the foodchain! What did worry Darius, was that he could not hear anything beside his own footsteps on the gravel walkway up to the house. He could normally already hear his grandmother sing some kind of song, while she cooked or cleaned the estate. He came upon the door and saw something that worried him even more, the door was unlocked and open. His grandfathers never leaves the door open. Never. ''That can only mean one thing'', he thought as he enters the house and the first thing he smells is the reek of death and sickness. If you wonder how that smells, then imagine a sickly sweet smell, like a rotting apple, and at the same time the smell of rotting flesh and still water. He only smelled that particular smell only one time, and that was when he found the cadaver of a giant bear that died through poison. He rushed through the house, noticed the stains on the carpet, the rotting flowers in their vases and dust on the paintings, until he came upon the sleeping quarters of his grandparents and he heard the one sound he never wanted to hear from there. The sickly, deep, rattling cough of the infected. He knew that he had most likely already contracted the virus, when he entered the house, but his grandfathers training won out in the end. He ripped some cloth from his jacket, took out a bottle of high quality vodka, that he wanted to drink with his grandparents when he saw them, poured it over the strip of cloth and then wound it around his mouth and nose. Then he pulled out his cellphone and sent his brother a message ''Dont come, all infected, too l8 4 me'', and then entered the room. The first thing he saw was his grandfather on the bed, resembling more a skelleton than the bear of a man that he remembered, but what shocked him the most was the corpse of his grandmother. He would never again see her sweet smile and smell the odor of apple pie and cinnamon that always naturally followed her. The only thing that remained was a bloated corpse in the middle of the room, it seems as if she tried to get up and died a few steps outside of their bed. "Darius? Did you come or am I dead already? Hah! I knew I could trust you at least to come find us! Could you look after Elise? I cant hear her breath anymore...", crowed the underused and delirious voice of his grandfather. He had to shake himself out of his stupor and began the compartmentalization of the situation. His grandmother was dead but he could save her husband. "Grandma is dead gramps, I am sorry. Let me get you out of there and put you in another room.", said Darius while he picked him up. His grandfather managed to throw a last desperate look at the love of his life and then he closed his eyes. "Do that my boy, do that." He could not comprehend how his grandfather could stay so strong. his grandparents knew each other for over 60 years and lived together as man and wife for 52. And then he remembered, he remembered who taught him to compartmentalize things so that he could part them from his emotions, until he could cry or laugh in the safety of his home. "I pray for you Darius...", said his grandfather with a stony face. "What?" "I pray for you that you will never have to see the love of your life go before you breath your last breath.", and with that a heavy silence enveloped them, until Darius could finally reach the next best guestroom, where he immediately tossed the old covers of the two beds to the floor, deposited his grandfather in one of the beds, and began the standard procedure for infected patients. He stripped him down until he was nacked, threw the old clothes through the window and got him new ones, ran into the adjacent restroom where he got him a cup of water and began to slowly feed it to him. That had to happen slowly, because he could see that his stomach had nearly collapsed and he would not be able to take large amounts of anything. Darius then began the most grueling task that awaited him, right after his grandfather began to sleep. He only had around twelve hours until the infection would incapacitate him. He got one of their biggest rugs, wore some rubber gloves and returned to his grandparents sleeping quarters. Darius then rolled the corpse on the rug, rolled it into a cigar and then carried it outside of the estate. He deposited it on the road opposing side of the house, away from the shard and the downward rolling mountainside. Placing her in the middle of her favourite flowers, he prayed to who ever watched over the deceased and whished that she went fast, he then threw the gloves on the pile and poured gasoline over it all, bourning it all as much as possible. Darius then returned into the house and prepared as many meals as he could for himself and his grandfather, which took him around 8 hours. The were mostly light soups, bread and gruel, which they could easily digest. Darius could feel his body literally burning up all the while, his bones started to feel as if they could break at any moment, while his muscles started wiggling around under his skin, as if they were worms or maggots. He managed to carry enough food and water for his grandfather and himself into the room and deposited it all on a table in the middle of the room. Then he shoved the table right next to his grandfathers bed, and used the rest of his strength to push the second bed right next to the table. He hoped that it would last them for the next few weeks and slipped under the covers. The last thing he remembers is him,falling into the darkness of unconsciousness, and the voice of his grandmother that thanked him for the last time. Chapter 2 - Changes Darius would later tell everyone who asked, that the only thing he remembered from his time with the sickness was the feeling of aching, cracking and splintering bones. Of his tendons that started to feel as if someone fried them regularly and his screaming muscles, that should never move in such ways. He felt how his body burned to ashes and then rebuilt itself from the ground up. A cicle of death and rebirth. Eternal in its excruciating slowness. If someone had actually seen what happened to him, then they would believe it instantly. His once strong body was reduced to a near skelletal facsimile in the first few days. His body seemed to shrink, while his muscles shriveled until they looked like unassuming bumps on his bones. The once 1.9m tall young man was reduced to a 1.4m husk, with his slow heartbeat as the only visible remaining proof of his continued existence. It seemed as if his body used up all reserves, that it had amassed over his life, to prepare for... something. A black, tar-like substance started to leak from his pores, as if his body had to cleanse itself from some kind of damaging influence. He began to choke, as the substance began to be excreted through his lungs. It is only thanks to his grandfather, who recovered faster then him, that he survived this ordeal. And then began the build up phase, his bones started to break again and again, stretching and growing until he was over 2.5m tall. His muscles began to bulge until they formed small mountains on his frame, and they then began to wriggle around like worms, while they shrank as if they were cannibalizing themselves. They condensed into slightly smaller hills, and his tendons now looked like small cords of metal that ran through his body. February 27th, 2020: Everything was shrouded in darkness, he was surrounded by an eternal nightsky without stars. That was at least until he saw the light, and no it was not any of that ''Light at the end of the Tunnel'' bullshit either. It was as if he had some kind of heavy blanket on top of him, whichwas thensuddenly pulled away and behind that metaphorical blanket, was the sun. And not just the kind of sun, that warms you on a fresh spring day with its smooth heat. Oh no, it was the sun of a merciless summer day in arizona, beating down on him from every side, with seemingly sadistic pleasure. He could feel the heat burn his skin and hair, everything was seemingly a sea of fire, he could not make out where the sun ended and his skin started. But Darius was never one to just surrender, he yelled his challenge into the sun, half delirious from the heat. And the sun answered. As if the heat from before was just a warm up, suddenly came the real deal. Heat that he never imagined to even exist started to brutalize his body, and he still hung on. No one, not even some metaphorical sun, would stop him. He would survive this. He would survive and then fight the sickness so that he can get better and then care for his god damn grandfather! He screamed and yelled until his voice was hoarse and he could feel his voicebox nearly rip apart, but he still hung on, challenging who ever that was to give it his all. And then it stopped, from one moment to the next one. At least until that asshole started to throw him into a literal bath of molten metal. ''Is this how a corndog feels? God damn I miss corndogs...'' ,thought Darius while his body most likely fried in the metal bath,which his benevolent host granted him. ''Fuck the benevolent though, sadistic cocksucker fits better'', and he ripped his arm up, felt around a bit until he found some kind of ledge and pulled himself up from the liquid metal bath. Nothing can really faze you anymore after you get grilled/liquified by the sun, and he was most likely already a bit crazy either way from that whole ordeal before this. He was also pretty shure that he had no actual body anymore to pull himself up with..., but who was he to argue with his own delirious mind. The sun seemed to stare at him a bit bewildered... "Never seen a human just piss on your challenge this way, eh? Well, tell you what buttercup, you should have thrown me in here first and then immolated me. There is nothing worse, then feeling your eyeballs pop from overwhelming heat, and then cook in their own sauce!" Yes, he was most defenitely crazy. It felt as if someone started laughing, while he was inside their belly. Everything shook around him, even though there was no actual matter that could shake. And then... he woke up. Darius sat up in a start, not realizing for a few moments where he was, or, for how much that actually mattered in that situation, who he was. And then everyhing came back to him. Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!Him traveling to Germany, smelling the stale, sickly air in the house, finding his dead grandmother, him caring for his grandfather and burning her in the backyard, how the sickness... ''The sickness!'', he suddenly sat up and started to look around for his grandfather, but he saw only an empty bed next to his own and the table with some food on top of it. He immediately felt one thing that would probably never change for him, his stomach started growling. He began to gorge himself on the food, ignoring the slightly off taste and bad smell, he was too hungry to care for things like sanitation. At least until his body had enough and he had to vomit. Darius barely managed to crawl into the adjacent restroom, and began hugging his porcelain god. After he managed to get everything out again, he pulled himself up on the sink and started to notice things... ''Was the mirror always so low?'' he thought to himself, while he began to look around. Everything seemed to be smaller suddenly, as if the world had shrunk around him. At least until he realized that the world did not in fact shrink, it was rather that he grew abnormally large. His hands, which were a bit bigger then normal at the beginning, where now as big as small boulders. His shoulders wide enough to put every professional swimmer to shame. He lost the little pouch of fat on his belly, leaving only abs of steel. He could not believe it and started feeling them. ''What. The. Hell. Happened to me?!? Did I go crazy? I am going crazy arent I? The virus fried my brain did it not?'' His skin, which was only lightly browned before, was now resembling bronze rather then light caramel, and it seemed as if any unnecessary fat reserves got burned away. He crouched down to see his face and was a bit disappointed. He was still looking like a barbarian. Why could the damn virus not fix his face too? It was all only hard ridges and edges, with small scars littering his features. A hard mouth, harsh eyes with natural eye bags. As if he never got enough sleep, and he would take that fact out on the next person that crossed him. These eyes have always made him look at people, as if they had taken the last bite of pie from his plate, even though he was actually just having a natural passive look. If he had to compare his whole body to something then it was a roman gladiator. Bulky, strong, and fierce. And if what his grandfather said about his ancestors, then he was most likely not that far off. They always said that the ancestors in his mothers family were coming from the legions of ancient rome, that settled in the borders of Germania, and from the gladiator arenas in the ancient roman province of Asia. He and his grandfather at least did look the part, with smaller scars covering his torso, thighs, arms, neck and face. His mother was rather fair, with Arthur sharing that trait with both their parents. It must have come from his grandmothers family or something. Darius did not hear the door open, while he marveled at his new appearance, until he suddenly heard someone clear their throat, "Ehem... I never thought to see the day, where you cared for your appearance Darius." He jumped up a few centimeters into the air and turned around fast enough to give himself a bit of whiplash. The person that stood before him did resemble himself, but was smaller and stockier. They had salt and pepper hair, with more pepper then salt though, and had a look on their face, as if they had bitten on a lemon. Darius immediately got into a rather clumsy battle stance, as he was not too familiar with his new body and the added hight threw of his form. "You look like a new born deer Darius, put down those arms. You are in no condition to be out of bed! What did you think you were doing eating that spoiled food? Oh, let me answere that, You did not think. Thats always the problem with you young people, you jump from one situation to the next one without thinking!" "Gramps?" "Yes, you dumb fuck! Now go back into bed and let me make some food for you, it will not be as good as your grandmothers, but I learned a bit from her over the years." Dariusl could not believe it, that hunk of a man was supposed to be his 70 year old grandfather? If he thought about it, it did make sense. If the virus did somehow change his own body, then there was no reason why it should not have done the same for his grandfather. But the change was just too much. Daniel H¨¹ber was only 1.8m tall and weighed around 150kg the last time that he actually saw him before the virus infected him, and now he stood at 2.3m and weighted at least 200kg of pure muscle. He was forced into the bed, and his grandfather brought him a deep plate filled with scrambled aggs, bacons pieces, scallions and browned onions. "Food of the champions my boy, eat up! We have to get you on your feet as fast as possible. Something is not right, I noticed that the shard in the fontyard changed. The last time i saw it, there was no gushing blood, I think that they wont stay still for long." "Oh god, if that thing finds a way to come through!" "Yes, exactly. We will need to prepare for it, dig a trench, fill that with spikes and then make some simple defensive structures. I still have some wooden pillars, from our julefestival. I''m gonna sharpen them, while you dig the trench. We will begin our work tomorrow, it is already night time and you will need your sleep." After that they both ate as much of their food as possible and then went to bed. The last thing Darius heard was his grandfather whispering to himself "I will watch over him Eli, I will watch over him as long as he needs me..."