An apocalypse to me is, the arcade, the fictional first person shooters I go and play, and when I get home, I’ll play another. An apocalypse to me is Call Of Duty zombie mode. Nothing more. No real monsters, no real zombies. That’s it. That’s an apocalypse.

  Until today, this version of an apocalypse had been perfect, my fake games, with zombies being mowed down by me, who in the game was a good shot, but in real life? Not so much. Which is why, the fake, game apocalypses were perfect for me.

  But today? That all changed. My perfect apocalypse, everything I valued, and everything I cherished.

  The sky, it ripped. Some rips? Were in the ground, streets, people’s homes. the first one I encountered? In my ROOM. My tiny room, there was a rip, and a monster, something only out of a storybook, no, no, a nightmare, clawed out, pulling at the seams of the universe itself. It pulled its arm out and it SHOT into my wall, and I heard the screams of my neighbor, Hunter, who had been applying for an Ivy League college just this morning.

  the monster, which size had to be incomprehensible from the arm, the other arm shot out, hitting the head of my bedframe, shattering it instantly and sending me flying, not into a wall, but straight through a window. The window SHATTERED loudly across my back, some sticking into my back and narrowly missing my spine, but I was lucky, and the air from the punch and wood splinters hurt much more than the glass, so I accepted my death, I spun around, looking at my inevitable demise, just 8 stories away.

  And.. there was a rift, one of those universal cracks under me, 7 stories away now. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. It’s the end. 1, 0, but, Instead of crashing and stopping, I continued falling, straight through the crack, and into the black abyss.

  Just a second later, I was on the a forest floor, black murky air and a group of people around me. Women, men, children, and even a dog. These portals took anyone, and anything.

  Another second passed, everyone was disoriented and the dogs barking was making it worse. Then a large being, larger than the monster I had seen appeared, the large god like being with a jester costume, and long, greasy, black hair. The man smiled sinisterly, sending chills down my spine, and said, “this game, is a game of your lives! HAHAHAHAHAHAH!” The man cackled and cackled, until a women walked behind him and yanked him back, her voice echoed as she said, “I’m sorry about him guys, I’m sure your confused, but you’ll understand soon, just try to survive in the mean time.” The jester suited man stood behind the lady with a frilly purple dress and make up dotted under her eyes, with a sad face, as if he wanted to torment us more.

  We all stood, bewildered, but then, a tremor, and the pair were gone, as if they had never been here to begin with.

  I could tell everyone’s head swelled, the questions almost making their brains explode.

  What was the goal? Why? Why were we here? Who where those people? Are those monsters here too? And, I can tell you with all the confidence in the world on that last question,

  YES.

  And as I said that, a monster, comparable to the monster that had killed Hunter, as if it was common place, LEAPED out onto someone who I just noticed, Alexsander, my best friend of 5 years I had lost contact with years ago.

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  I didn’t want him to die. So many good memories. But, there weren’t nearly enough memories to die with him.

  A scrawny man, yelled at the top of his lungs, screaming and running with his fist raised at the monster, and as he came up to him, the monster, in one quick jab, crushed in the mans skull, splattering him across a nearby tree. The monster splattered Alexsanders skull in that moment too, and a women screamed, causing chaos in our small group of twenty.

  And I saw nothing, nothing but black, nothing but one word, splayed across every inch of my being.

  RUN. And, so I did. I ran, ran away from the high school girl next to me, my dead best friend, and all the others in that group. I ran.

  I ran with tunnel vision, my peripherals tinted black. Past monster after monster, some smaller than me, some bigger than trees. Until, I hit a barrier? It was invisible but definitely there, in front of my hands was a barrier, a massive wall that stopped me from moving forward.

  Ok, there is DEFINITELY an objective, either to kill a boss or find an exit. Im exhausted, my brain is hurting, and I want some sleep, but if I do sleep, what will happen to me? Will a behemoth monster crush me, or will I be eaten alive?

  And before I can answer my own question, as if I was knocked out, I flopped to the ground, and fell fast asleep.

  I woke up with a blood ridden, stinky jacket on top of me, laid right next to a tree. I’m glad whoever did that didn’t kill me but, I smell of grime and sweat already, why add blood? anyways, whether or not they meant to use me as monster bait, the smell of blood had un doubtably been attracting monsters, and come they did. Around me was a herd of monsters, slowly closing in, the smell of blood not nearly strong enough to attract them to me outright, but subconsciously bring them towards me? Yes.

  So I got up, my legs aching, well actually, no, I take that back. If everything is aching, nothing is aching, so I felt perfect. I needed to find an exit, whether through slaying a boss (cause this really does seem like a game! Or, an exit, normal some ruins, or a monolith, or a combination of both the boss and exit. So, I ran, as an normal person would do. Running under the trees, faster than the small monsters and slow zombies, but too small for the big monsters to easily notice.

  But apparently, my plan is fundamentally flawed because I looked up at a nearby massive monster, hoping it’s size would impair its ability to find me, but it didn’t. It’s massive foot was LIFTED, heaved almost high into the sky, and SLAMMED, coming at me incredibly fast. I try sprinting faster but my legs give under the pressure. Remember how I said my legs aches earlier? Yeah. Well. This sucks.

  I close my eyes and reside to my fate, hoping someone either destroys this monster or I awaken so epic power and survive. It starts to rain. Water is pouring heavily over me. I’m soaked. How fitting for right before I die.

  Wait.

  Raining?

  I’m under a foot?

  How can I get soaked?

  I look up to find the shower I was get soaked with was a shower of greenish blood, disgusting enough to puke at. I waited out the blood shower, which surprisingly cleared up fast. I’m still covered In blood though.

  “Ah, your the one!”

  I opened my eyes and spun around looking for the person talking to me. He was nowhere?

  “Up here, you truly are a strange one. How can’t you tell im up here?”

  “Up here?” I said.

  “Ugh, Noah, my child, im the guy from yesterday, the one with the jester suit and all?”

  “Jester suit? OH that guy?” I looked up to find a jester suited man, exactly as he was yesterday, just smaller.. much much smaller.

  “Anyway, I slayed this monster and you, Noah rider, have the honor of being sponsored by me! By the way, since I saved you, you can’t say no!”

  I looked up to the god, his smile was so sinister he might as well have screamed his plans at me, his disturbing smile reached from ear to ear and his faces contorted in a strange joy, he reeked of trickery.

  “What are the perks of this sponsorship?” I asked him.

  “HAHAHAH,” The god cackled, as horridly as the first time “You entertain me, I tell you how to escape this hell hole a little sooner!” His disgusting smile was already back on his face

  “Oh, and I’ll occasionally give you advice or lend you my power.” He mumbled crassly and plainly, a little too loud to be considered under his breath.

  “So how do I get out of here?” I asked him, already tried of his smiling, the drying blood all over me, and being forced into a sponsorship with this guy.

  His smile was the same, but seemed so much more sinister. “All you have to do, is answer one simple question.” He reeked and oozed, his faces screamed of blood and death, and he felt like a slimy loan shark.

  “Ask away.” I said weakly

  “Who am ??.”